Category: Military

What’s Happening in Space Policy July 10-14, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy July 10-14, 2017

By Marcia Smith | Posted: July 9, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: July 27, 2017 6:50 am ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of July 10-14, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

Congress and the space policy community overall are back to work in full force this week after a bit (but only a bit) of a break for July 4.

The House plans to take up the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) towards the end of the week. The House Rules Committee meets on Wednesday to consider which amendments will be allowed to be considered during floor debate.  As shown on the committee’s website, 394 have been filed as of today.  Five are related to space activities.

One is proposed by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH).  It would strike a provision in the bill that requires DOD to establish a Space Corps within the Air Force, analogous to the Marine Corps, which is part of the Department of the Navy, and a U.S. Space Command as a subunit of U.S. Strategic Command.  The provision is very controversial.   It was written by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chairman of the House Armed
Services Committee’s (HASC’s) Strategic Forces subcommittee, and Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), the subcommittee’s top Democrat.  However, it is opposed by the Secretary of the Air Force and the Air Force Chief of Staff and is not included in the Senate version of the bill.

Turner first tried to remove the provision during full committee markup by HASC on June 28.  His amendment instead would require DOD to study the need for such a reorganization and report to Congress next year. Turner is a former chairman of the Strategic Forces subcommittee and remains a member.  He argued that Congress has insufficient information to make such a major move.  Rogers, Cooper and HASC Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) insisted the idea has been discussed for years and it is time to do it.  The amendment was rejected and the provision remains in the bill.  Turner wants the full House to have a chance to weigh in.  Will be interesting to see if the Rules Committee permits it.  Floor debate on the bill could begin late Wednesday or Thursday.

The House Appropriations Transportation-HUD subcommittee (T-HUD) will mark up its FY2018 funding bill on Tuesday, which includes the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST).  FAA/AST got $19.8 million in FY2017, a $2 million increase over the $17.8 million it received for FY2016.  Unfortunately, the Trump Administration formulated much of its FY2018 budget request before Congress finalized the FY2017 budget.  At that time, FAA/AST was funded at the $17.8 million level through a Continuing Resolution that held agencies to their FY2016 limits.  The Trump Administration may have thought it was proposing level funding for the office by requesting $17.8 million for FY2018, but Congress ultimately did give FAA/AST the $2 million boost it requested.  Now, if Congress funds the requested level for FY2018, it will mean a $2 million cut.  Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA), a member of the full Appropriations Committee (though not the T-HUD subcommittee) and Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) fought hard on FAA/AST’s behalf last year to get the $19.8 million.  We’ll see if they can convince appropriators to keep at least the $19.8 million this time.  (Bridenstine testified before the subcommittee in March in favor of another boost — to $23 million — for FY2018.)

The Senate Commerce Committee’s space subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), has rescheduled its hearing on commercial space partnerships for Thursday morning.  The hearing was scheduled for June 21, but on June 20 it was postponed without explanation.  The witness list is the same as before except that SpaceX SVP for Global Business and Government Affairs Tim Hughes will substitute for President and COO Gwynne Shotwell.  The other witnesses are NASA KSC Director Bob Cabana, fresh from hosting Vice President Pence last week; Tim Ellis from Relativity; Moriba Jah from the University of Texas at Austin; and Jeff Manber from Nanoracks.

Off the Hill, but still in D.C., there are a slew of really interesting events, including the Secure World Foundation’s panel discussion tomorrow (Monday) with industry perspectives on the space debris problem; the Satellite Industry Association’s release of its annual State of the Satellite Industry report on Tuesday morning; an ISU-DC space cafe Tuesday evening with experts from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center talking about how we benefit every single day from data acquired by earth science satellites; the Future Space Leaders Foundation annual Future Space conference on Thursday; and a seminar sponsored by GWU’s Space Policy Institute and the Aerospace Corporation on Friday morning on “Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Space.”

In other parts of the country, AIAA will holds its annual propulsion and energy forum in Atlanta and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, VA will hold a three-day symposium celebrating the center’s 100th birthday.  The National Academies committee that is performing the mid-term review of the 2011 planetary science Decadal Survey “Vision and Voyages” will meet at CalTech in Pasadena, CA from Tuesday to Thursday.  Open sessions of the meeting are available remotely via WebEx/telecon.   NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) will meet via teleconference on Monday to review with the Mars science community the input it plans to provide to the Academies committee later in the week.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Monday, July 10

Monday-Wednesday, July 10-12

Tuesday, July 11

Tuesday-Thursday, July 11-13

Wednesday, July 12

Wednesday-Friday, July 12-14

Thursday, July 13

Friday, July 14

 

Note:  This was updated to add the Defense One Tech Summit on Thursday.

Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 6:50 am ET
What’s Happening in Space Policy July 2-7, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy July 2-7, 2017

By Marcia Smith | Posted: July 2, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: September 26, 2017 5:41 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of July 2-7, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess this week.

During the Week

The week got off to a disappointing start for the Chinese space program today with the failure of its Long March 5 rocket.  This was the second launch for the rocket, China’s largest.  Not only was it intended to place a new type of communications satellite into orbit, it was also a final test before China launches a lunar sample return mission, Chang’e-5, in November. That launch now seems likely to be delayed.  An investigation is underway. We will keep you updated this week as more information becomes available.

Tomorrow (Monday), SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to return to Earth, ending the SpX-11 cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS).  It was delayed one day because of inclement weather in the Pacific landing zone.   NASA TV will provide coverage of Dragon’s release from ISS at 2:28 am ET, but not of the splashdown.

Tuesday, July 4, is Independence Day in the United States.  The Federal government is closed for the holiday, along with many state and local governments and businesses.

Congress is taking this entire week off after a hectic pace last week.  The July 4 recess is one of those milestones on the congressional calendar by which they hope to get certain things done.  That may not be working out in some areas (like health care), but House appropriators made good progress on FY2018 appropriations bills, including defense (which cleared full committee) and Commerce-Justice-Science (approved at the subcommittee level).  The annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is also considered must-pass legislation and both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees approved their versions of the bill.  All that legislation still has a long way to go — especially the appropriations bills since there is no agreement yet on the total amount of money Congress will make available for defense and non-defense activities — but it’s a start.  We’ll see what happens when they return next week.  FY2018 begins on October 1.  There is little, if any, expectation that the appropriations process will be done by then.

The big space policy event this week will be Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on Thursday.  President Trump signed the Executive Order reestablishing the White House National Space Council, with Pence as its chairman, on Friday.  Expectations are high that Pence will have something significant to say about the direction of the U.S. space program while he’s at KSC and perhaps announce who will be the Council’s Executive Director.  NASA TV will provide live coverage of the visit.

Rumors about who will be NASA Administrator and when the announcement will be made have gone quiet.  Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) is an oft-mentioned contender, so it was a bit of a surprise that he was not at the White House signing ceremony on Friday, but neither was Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot.  Speculation is rampant about who was on the invitation list but couldn’t make it on a Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend when many people and their families were already beginning their July 4 vacations, versus those who weren’t on the list at all, and how to read those tea leaves.

Overall, it’s a light week for space policy aficionados. A much needed break.

All the events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Monday, July 3

Wednesday, July 5

Thursday, July 6

Last Updated: Sep 26, 2017 5:41 pm ET
Trump Reestablishes National Space Council

Trump Reestablishes National Space Council

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 30, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: July 27, 2017 6:51 am ET

President Trump signed an Executive Order today reestablishing the White House National Space Council.  Created by law in 1988 and operational under the George H.W. Bush Administration, the Council has not been funded or staffed since the end of his administration in January 1993.  It was chaired during his Administration by Vice President Dan Quayle,  Now it will be chaired by Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence and Trump spoke at the White House during a signing ceremony for the Executive Order (EO) that sets out the Space Council’s membership and purpose.  It also creates a Users’ Advisory Group to obtain input from the private sector and other non-government interests.

The EO establishes the membership as follows (in the order listed in the document):

  • Vice President, who shall be Chairman
  • Secretary of State
  • Secretary of Defense
  • Secretary of Commerce
  • Secretary of Transportation
  • Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget
  • Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs
  • Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
  • Director of National Intelligence
  • Secretary of Homeland Security
  • Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
  • Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  • Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • heads of other executive departments and agencies and other senior officials within the Executive Office of the President as determined by the Chairman

The Space Council’s purpose is to advise and assist the President on national space policy and strategy including to review U.S. government space policy and develop a strategy for national space activities; develop recommendations for the president on space policy and space-related issues; and monitor and coordinate implementation of the President’s national space policy.


President Trump signs Executive Order reestablishing National Space Council, White House, June 30, 2017.  Photo credit:  tweet from Mark Knoller, CBS News White House Corresponent.  (Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is on Trump’s left.)

Pence stated in March during the signing ceremony for the NASA Transition Authorization Act and again in June when NASA announced the new class of astronauts that the Space Council would be reestablished and he would lead it. In that sense. the announcement today was no surprise, but the White House kept the news to itself.  Rumors began circulating earlier this week that the announcement would take place today at 3:00 pm ET, but even this morning it was not listed on the President’s schedule.  The White House press office asserted that it had no knowledge of the event as late as 1:30 pm, although Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders mentioned it at the end of the daily White House press briefing that began at 2:00 pm ET (which was off-camera).

No live coverage was provided by the White House, NASA, or television networks, although a video was later posted on the White House YouTube channel.


President Trump enters the room (far right) during signing ceremony for National Space Council Executive Order, June 30, 2017.  Screengrab from White House YouTube video.  Vice President Mike Pence is in center, behind podium.

Most members of the House and Senate left Washington last night for the July 4 holiday, but based on the video, six Republican House members stayed in town for the event today:  Rep. John Culberson (R-TX), chairman of the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, which funds NASA;  Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee, which authorizes NASA activities and sets policy; Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), chairman of the House SS&T Space Subcommittee; Rep. Steve Palazzo (R-MS), member of the House CJS subcommittee; and two other members of House SS&T – Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL).

Joining them were NASA astronaut Benjamin Alvin Drew and former astronaut David Wolf (in blue flight suits to Pence’s right), former Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin (to Pence’s left, with white beard), and former space shuttle astronaut Sandy Magnus (first woman to Aldrin’s left).  Magnus currently is Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Others who were present include United Launch Alliance President Tory Bruno; Boeing CEO Dennis Mulinberg; Lockheed Martin CEO Marilyn Hewson; Orbital ATK Director of Business Development, Launch Vehicle Division, John Steinmeyer; AMRO Fabricating Corporation CEO Mike Riley and President John Hammond; Futuramic Tool & Engineering Company Vice President John Couch; Cain Tubular Products Owner Mike Cain; Coalition for Deep Space Exploration (CDSE) President and CEO Mary Lynne Dittmar; former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz; and former Congressman and lobbyist Bob Walker.  (Notable by their absence were representatives of entrepreneurial “New Space” companies.)

The only member of the Council other than Pence who was there was Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.  Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot was not present.  NASA said he was out of town and unable to attend.  In a press release issued after the event, Lightfoot called the reestablishment of the Council “another demonstration of the Trump Administration’s deep interest in our work, and a testament to the importance of space exploration to our economy, our nation, and the planet as a whole.”

Pence said he was “honored and frankly enthusiastic” about taking on this role, adding that President Trump was recommitting the nation to “do what Americans have always done — to lead, to push the boundaries of human knowledge, to blaze new trails into the unknown and astonish the world with the courage and leadership of the United States.”

Trump himself said the announcement “sends a clear signal to the world that we are restoring America’s proud legacy of leadership in space,” and “space exploration is not only essential to our character as a nation, but also our economy and our great nation’s security.”

Pence will travel to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on July 6 to tour facilities and speak to the center’s workforce.  NASA TV will cover the event beginning at 12:00 pm ET. Pence’s speech is scheduled for 12:50 pm ET.

The value of having a National Space Council in the White House has been debated at length over the decades.  Congress created a National Aeronautics and Space Council in the 1958 National Aeronautics and Space Act that established NASA for civil space activities and assigned military space activities to DOD.  That Council’s task was to coordinate between civil and national security space.  President Richard Nixon abolished the Council in 1973.  A new National Space Council, without the aeronautics component, was created by Congress in the FY1989 NASA Authorization Act and implemented through an Executive Order signed by President George H.W. Bush on April 20, 1989.  Today’s Executive Order supersedes the one from the Bush Administration.

The Bush-era Space Council had a broader task since commercial space activities had emerged by then, adding a third sector.  That period of time (April 1989-January 1993) was marked by sharp disagreements between the Council, chaired by Vice President Quayle with Mark Albrecht serving as Executive Director for most of those years, and NASA Administrator Dick Truly.  Albrecht wrote a memoir about his perception of the relationship between the Space Council and NASA and why President Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative to return astronauts to the Moon and someday go to Mars never materialized, placing most of the blame on Truly. That is only one view of what transpired during those years, but the relevant point is that the clash between the Space Council and NASA created friction that hindered more than it helped.

Many veterans of that era have mixed views about whether a new Space Council will be effective.

Scott Pace, Director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a long-time participant in space policy development and implementation, wrote in a March 14, 2017 op-ed for The Hill that the “White House does not, and never has, needed a space council to supervise NASA, but it does need a way to combine the separate strands of national security space programs, diplomatic engagement, commercial competition and civil space cooperation with a unity of national purpose and effort.”

One key to the success or failure of the Space Council will be the relationships that evolve among its Executive Director and the leaders of the various government agencies, including NASA, and private sector companies involved in space. Pence did not announce who will serve as Executive Director of the Council and no announcement has yet been made as to who will be nominated to serve as NASA Administrator.

Another will be the extent to which the President listens to the Council’s advice and backs it up during almost inevitable battles with other parts of the Executive Office of the President, such as the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

For now, however, optimism is the watchword.

House SS&T Chairman Smith said in a statement to SpacePolicyOnline.com that the “reinstatement of the Space Council demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to unlocking the great economic and scientific potential” of outer space.  He added that he looks forward to working with Pence and the Council “as Congress moves forward on important legislation for civil, commercial and national security space priorities.”

Eric Stallmer, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), told SpacePolicyOnline.com that CSF “looks forward to working with the Space Council to showcase the innovation and value the commercial space marketplace brings to the space community.”

In a press release, CDSE’s Dittmar called reestablishment of the Council “another important step in solidifying our nation’s continued commitment to NASA’s deep space exploration program.”  That press release identified many of the industry representatives who were at the event and are CDSE members, including suppliers like AMRO Fabricating Corp., Futuramic Tool & Engineering Co., and Cain Tubular Products.

AIAA also issued a press release wherein Magnus said the Institute views the Space Council as “an opportunity to create an integrated strategic approach to U.S. space endeavors” and “stands ready to support any and all efforts to facilitate discussions between our community and executive branch officials.”

Correction:  The word “commercial” was inadvertently omitted from Eric Stallmer’s quote and has been corrected.
Update:  Comments from NASA Acting Administrator Lightfoot from a June 30, 2017 NASA press release were added.

 

Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 6:51 am ET
What’s Happening in Space Policy June 26-30, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 26-30, 2017

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 25, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: July 27, 2017 6:51 am ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 26-30, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

Congress is racing to complete action on a number of things before the July 4 recess.  Among them is making progress on legislation at the top of congressional priorities — appropriations bills for FY2018 (which begins on October 1) and the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

By the end of the week, both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees will have completed their markups of the NDAA, positioning them for floor action once Congress returns — one more step along the legislative path.  As we reported last week, the HASC Strategic Forces subcommittee wants to create a Space Corps within the Air Force and a U.S. Space Command within U.S. Strategic Command.  Its Senate counterpart will markup its version of the bill tomorrow (Monday), but it is closed so we may not know whether it takes a position on that issue until the end of the SASC process later this week. The full HASC will mark up the bill, H.R. 2810, on Wednesday.   HASC markups are usually marathon sessions that last into the wee hours of the night.  They are open and webcast.

SASC, by contrast, does everything behind closed doors.  All of the subcommittee and full committee markups begin tomorrow and hopefully finish by Thursday, but they have Friday in reserve if needed.  The markups all take place in the same room and the first three subcommittees, including Strategic Forces, are scheduled just 30 minutes apart, suggesting that they already have decided what they are going to do and the markups are pro forma. Full committee markup, on the other hand, is a multi-day event.

The NDAA is an authorization bill, of course, that sets policy and recommends funding levels, but money only comes from appropriations committees.  The House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee will mark up the defense appropriations bill this week as well.  The overall budget battle over how much to add to defense and what cuts will be made to non-defense programs is far from over, but the committee is determined to move forward anyway. It already has approved the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs (MilCon-VA) bill.

Traditionally (but not necessarily) the House acts first on appropriations bills and, indeed, the Senate Appropriations Committee is still in the hearing phase.  The Commerce-Justice-Science subcommittee will hold its hearing on the FY2018 NASA budget request on Thursday morning.  Acting NASA Administrator Robert Lightfoot is the only witness.  At exactly the same time, the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on in-space propulsion.   NASA Associate Administrators for Human Exploration and Operations (Bill Gerstenmaier) and Space Technology (Steve Jurczyk) will be joined at the witness table by former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz (of VASIMR engine fame), Mitchell Walker representing the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Joe Cassady from Aerojet Rocketdyne, and Anthony Pancotti of MSNW LLC, which is developing the NASA-funded Electrodeless Lorentz Force (ELF-250) thruster and the ElectroMagnetic Plasmoid Thruster (EMPT).

Lots and lots of other really interesting events going on, including the Space Weather Enterprise Forum in DC; the NewSpace 2017 conference in San Francisco; the IAA’s Future of Space Exploration — Towards Moon Village and Beyond in Torino, Italy; and Asteroid Day on Friday, June 30, with events worldwide and a 24-hour broadcast from Luxembourg beginning at 01:00 GMT (which is 9:00 pm ET June 29).

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Monday, June 26

Tuesday, June 27

Tuesday-Thursday, June 27-29

Tuesday-Friday, June 27-30

Wednesday, June 28

Wednesday-Thursday, June 28-29

Thursday, June 29

Friday, June 30

Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 6:51 am ET
Rogers Warns Air Force Not To Resist Space Corps Proposal

Rogers Warns Air Force Not To Resist Space Corps Proposal

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 22, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: July 27, 2017 6:51 am ET

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) warned top Air Force officials not to undermine his proposal to create a Space Corps within the service.  He characterized his blistering remarks about being “outraged” and “shocked” by their reaction as a “friendly warning,” but it sounded more threatening than that.  Rogers chairs the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC’s) subcommittee that oversees most military space programs. His remarks were made during today’s markup of that subcommittee’s portion of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

The proposal became public on Tuesday when HASC posted the draft bill text and report language that the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces took up today.  All the HASC subcommittees are in the process of marking up their segments of the bill.  The full committee will mark up the final bill next Wednesday (June 28).

The idea is to create a Space Corps within the Air Force by January 1, 2019.  It would be analogous to the Marine Corps, which is part of the Department of the Navy.  The Space Corps would be led by a Space Corps Chief of Staff who would report to the Secretary of the Air Force and be a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).  That would be similar to the Commandant of the Marine Corps who reports to the Secretary of the Navy and is a member of the JCS.  The Space Corps Chief of Staff would be co-equal to the Air Force Chief of Staff.  The proposal also would create a U.S. Space Command as a subordinate unit of U.S. Strategic Command.

Rogers and the top Democrat on the subcommittee, Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN), said in a joint statement on Tuesday that this reorganization is needed because “the strategic advantages we derive from our national security space systems are eroding.”  They blame not only advances being made by adversaries, but the “crippling organizational and management structure” imposed upon the U.S. national security space enterprise by the existing organization of the Air Force.  They chastised the Air Force for not being able to “even recognize the nature and scope of its problems.”

Rogers’ interest in creating a Space Corps has been rumored for some time and the two top Air Force officials — Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein — were asked about it during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 17.   Goldfein said this was not the right time to create a Space Corps because he and Wilson are seeking to integrate — not separate — space into the overall military framework as they shift from a paradigm where space was considered a benign environment to one where it is a warfighting domain.  He insisted that separating space would “slow us down.”

Yesterday, Wilson and Goldfein repeated those sentiments to the media.  As reported by Breaking Defense, Wilson said “the Pentagon is complicated enough” and the proposal would only add to its complexity.  “I don’t need another chief of staff and another six deputy chiefs of staff,” she was quoted as saying, while Goldfein repeated his concerns that at this juncture space must be integrated into, not separated from, the other warfighting domains (land, sea, air and cyberspace).

Rogers reacted harshly to those comments today.  “Well, the Secretary should tell me where in this proposal it says she needs to add six more deputy chiefs of staff. If she can’t implement this proposal without creating six new deputy chiefs of staff, that’s on her.”


Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), left. chairman of the Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee during subcommittee markup of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act, June 22, 2017.  Screengrab.

He said he was “outraged” and “shocked” by the response from the Air Force leadership.  He later asserted:  “Maybe we need a Space Corps Secretary instead of leaving it to the Secretary of the Air Force.”

Rogers’ lengthy statement acknowledged that he expected the Air Force to resist change, but insisted that “this is the same Air Force that got us into the situation where the Russians and the Chinese are near-peers to us in space. We will not allow the status quo to continue.”

He left an opening for Wilson and Goldfein, saying that he is willing to work with them to find a solution, “but, at the end of the day, whether or not they’re in the room when decisions are made is their choice.  But they better shape up or they’ll figure out who is in charge here.  I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s the branch of our government that controls the purse strings.”

Under the Constitution, only Congress decides how much money the government will spend and on what.

The markup session went on from there.  Several amendments were adopted, but only one concerned space programs.  Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) offered an amendment that essentially urges the Air Force to think more positively about reusable launch vehicles.  It is not prescriptive, but requires the Secretary of Defense to brief HASC by March 1, 2018 on DOD’s “plan to evaluate the risks, benefits, costs, and potential cost-savings of the use of reusable launch vehicles” for national security missions.  During his remarks on the amendment, Franks pointed to recent successful launches by Blue Origin and SpaceX of reusable vehicles and reminded his colleagues that NASA’s space shuttle was reusable and it was utilized for national security launches.  Why then, he asked, would the Air Force pass up an opportunity to save money by using new reusable launch systems?

The amendment was adopted by voice vote.  The text is as follows:

 

Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 6:51 am ET
HASC Criticizes DOD Management of Space Programs, Wants Space Corps – UPDATE

HASC Criticizes DOD Management of Space Programs, Wants Space Corps – UPDATE

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 20, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: July 27, 2017 6:51 am ET

The Strategic Forces subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) plans to require the creation of a U.S. Space Corps as a separate military service within the Air Force, and a U.S. Space Command within U.S. Strategic Command.  It insists such steps are required to address an erosion of the strategic advantages the United States derives from national security space systems. [UPDATE:  HASC debated the proposal and defeated a Turner amendment to remove it.  The White House opposed it.  Nonetheless, the House passed the bill on July 14 with this provision intact.]

HASC’s subcommittees are marking up their portions of the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. The Strategic Forces subcommittee oversees most national security space programs and released a draft of its proposal today.  The markup is scheduled for Thursday morning and will be webcast.

In a joint press release, subcommittee chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and ranking member Jim Cooper (D-TN) said there “is bipartisan acknowledgement that the strategic advantages we derive from our national security space systems are eroding.  Not only are there developments by adversaries, but we are imposing upon the national security space enterprise a crippling organizational and management structure and an acquisition system that has led to delays and cost-overruns.”

Efforts to reform defense acquisition in general, and for space systems specifically, have been underway for many years.  Congress and DOD agree that a better system is needed, but not on how to solve the problem.

In October 2015, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work created a new position of Principal DOD Space Advisor (PDSA) to be filled by the Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) to strengthen the leadership of the space enterprise within the department.   SecAF Deborah Lee James was the first to hold that position, which is now held by the new SecAF Heather Wilson.

In April of this year, Acting Air Force Secretary Lisa Disbrow announced that the Air Force would reorganize its own space leadership team and create a new “A-11” deputy chief of staff position to be filled by a three-star general.  Wilson made it official on June 16.  The new position will be Deputy Chief of Staff for Space Operations and the new directorate will begin operating in August.

At several hearings this year, Air Force officials have repeated the refrain that space no longer is a benign environment, but a warfighting domain.  At a May 17 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein was asked if he thought it was time to create a Space Corps analogous to the Marine Corps to better focus attention and resources on what is needed for space.  He said no, that the timing is not right.  “Anything that leads to separating space instead of integrating it” into the overall military framework would “slow us down.”

That line of reasoning obviously did not hold sway with the HASC subcommittee.  Rogers and Cooper chastised DOD for “being unable to take the measures necessary to address these problems effectively and decisively, or even recognize the nature and scope of its problems.  Thus, Congress has to step in.”

The subcommittee’s draft bill would create a U.S. Space Corps as a separate military service within the Air Force, analogous to the Marine Corps’ position within the Department of the Navy.  The Space Corps would be responsible for national security space programs currently overseen by the Air Force and would be under the civilian leadership of the SecAF.  The draft bill would also establish a U.S. Space Command as a subordinate unified command within U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), “elevating the space mission to a four-star command and improving the integration of space forces.”  USSTRATCOM itself is headed by a four-star general officer, currently Air Force Gen. John Hyten.  He previously was Commander of Air Force Space Command, also a four-star position, currently filled by Gen. John “Jay” Raymond.  Whether adding another four-star position as the subcommittee wants, and/or the three-star position the Air Force wants, will clarify responsibilities and streamline decision-making is an open question.

The HASC subcommittee’s draft would also:

  • prohibit the Secretary of Defense from entering into contracts for satellite services that pose a cybersecurity threat, or services provided by satellites launched from covered foreign countries, or launched by launch vehicles designed or manufactured by covered foreign countries (meaning countries described in section 1261(c)(2) of the FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act — China, North Korea or any state sponsor of terrorism — plus Russia);
  • require development and implementation of a plan to enhance the resilience of GPS capacity, including adding the capability to receive signals from Europe’s Galileo and Japan’s QZSS satellites;
  • establish an annual “Space Flag” training event for space professionals to develop and test doctrine, concepts of operations, and tactics, techniques, and procedures. coordinated among the Secretary of Defense, Commander, Air Force Space Command, Commander, Army Space and Missile Defense Command, and Commander, Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command;
  • extend the pilot program for commercial weather data for another year; and
  • express the sense of Congress on the importance of a space-based missile defense layer.
Last Updated: Jul 27, 2017 6:51 am ET
What’s Happening in Space Policy June 18-24, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 18-24, 2017

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 18, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: August 3, 2017 10:00 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 18-24, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the A1:T27

The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) will begin marking up the FY2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week.  Most military space programs are under the jurisdiction of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.  Its markup is on Thursday morning.  Across Capitol Hill, Senate defense appropriators will begin drilling down into the budget requests from the three services.  They heard from Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford last week about the broad scope of funding issues facing DOD.  This Wednesday they will hear from Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein specifically about Air Force needs.  Most military space programs are in the Air Force budget and Wilson is the Principal DOD Space Advisor.  Separately, Dunford will give a luncheon address at the National Press Club tomorrow (Monday) and Gen. John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, will talk about space, nuclear and missile defense modernization Tuesday morning as part of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute space breakfast series (one must register in advance to attend).

On the space science front, NASA will hold a briefing tomorrow (Monday) at NASA’s Ames Research Center on recent discoveries from the exoplanet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope.  The briefing is in conjunction with the fourth Kepler Science Conference taking place there all week.  

Back here in Washington, NASA is sponsoring back-to-back briefings on Wednesday about the upcoming solar eclipse.  On August 21, for the first time in 99 years, a total solar eclipse will pass over the United States.  The total eclipse will be visible in 14 states from Oregon to South Carolina.  The rest of North America and parts of South America, Africa and Europe will see a partial eclipse. It is such a rare event that huge traffic jams and other disruptions are expected and it is vitally important that people wear special “eclipse glasses” to look at the sun.  NOT sunglasses.  You need eclipse glasses.  They are inexpensive and readily available from many retailers as a quick look on Amazon.com will reveal.  NASA has arranged these briefings two months before the eclipse so people have plenty of time to get prepared.  The first Wednesday briefing is on logistics and the second is on the science of solar eclipses.  They will take place at the Newseum in Washington and broadcast on NASA TV.

The space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a third hearing on commercial space issues on Wednesday (unfortunately at the same time as the NASA eclipse briefings as well as a very interesting CSIS seminar on “Small Satellites, Big Missions”).  Subcommittee chairman Ted Cruz is holding a series of hearings under the rubric “Reopening the American Frontier.”  The first two were on April 26 and May 23.  This one is focusing on partnerships between the government and the private sector.  Bob Cabana, director of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), is the lone government witness.  He has been leading the conversion of KSC from a NASA center to a multi-user spaceport populated almost as much by other government agencies and private sector companies as by NASA itself.  Joining him at the witness table will be Gwynne Shotwell from SpaceX (which leases KSC’s iconic Launch Complex 39A from NASA), Jeff Manber from Nanoracks (which arranges to send cubesats to the International Space Station for deployment into orbit), Moriba Jah from the University of Texas at Austin (an expert on space situational awareness), and Tim Ellis from Relativity (a company whose website says it is “reimagining the way orbital rockets are built and flown”).

This is also Paris Air Show week with the venerable event taking place as usual at Le Bourget outside Paris, France.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Sunday, June 18

Monday, June 19

Monday-Friday, June 19-23

Monday-Sunday, June 19-25

Tuesday, June 20

Tuesday-Thursday, June 20-22

Wednesday, June 21

Thursday, June 22

Thursday-Friday, June 22-23

Last Updated: Aug 03, 2017 10:00 pm ET
What’s Happening in Space Policy June 11-16, 2017

What’s Happening in Space Policy June 11-16, 2017

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 11, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: June 15, 2017 12:39 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 11-16, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

This week it’s DOD’s turn to talk to authorizers and appropriators about the FY2018 budget request. Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are the witnesses at each of the four hearings on successive days beginning tomorrow (Monday).  It’s not clear whether military space programs will come up to any great extent, but the hearings should provide some sense of where space activities sit in DOD priorities. Mattis and Dunford testify to the House Armed Services Committee tomorrow, Senate Armed Services on Tuesday, Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Wednesday, and House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Thursday.

On Monday, Orbital ATK and NASA will hold a briefing at Wallops Island, VA, home to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), the launch site for Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket.  The briefing will provide an update on the next Orbital ATK cargo mission on a Cygnus spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), which will launch on Antares from MARS at Wallops. The launch is currently expected in September.  Orbital ATK has launched Cygnus on both Antares from Wallops and United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral.  At first, Orbital ATK used ULA’s Atlas V while it was getting Antares back to flight after an October 2014 failure.  Antares returned to service in October 2016, but the company’s most recent Cygnus mission used the Atlas V again reportedly at NASA’s request.  Atlas V can lift more mass than Antares.

Orbital ATK officials have said they are happy to use either rocket depending on the customer’s requirements, but with this briefing, clearly are trying to highlight Antares and the MARS facility, which is located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, but owned and operated by the Virginia Commercial Space Flight  Authority (“Virginia Space”).  NASA Wallops Director Bill Wrobel and Virginia Space Executive Director Dale Nash will join Orbital ATK’s Frank Culbertson and Kurt Eberly for the briefing, which will be livestreamed.  The briefing will take place one day after the most recent Cygnus mission ended.  After about six weeks attached to ISS and one week in independent flight, the S.S. John Glenn fired its engines for a last time today and descended into the atmosphere and disintegrated, as intended. Only one of the ISS cargo resupply spacecraft is designed to survive reentry, SpaceX’s Dragon.

SpaceX’s most recent Dragon arrived at the ISS last Monday and Russia will launch its next Progress cargo resupply mission this Wednesday (with docking on Friday if all goes well).  All these cargo spacecraft comings and goings illustrate the challenges of sending people on lengthy trips beyond low Earth orbit.  Tough enough to provide all the needed supplies and equipment when they are close to home.  It’s going to take a lot of technology development for life support and other systems, and many logistics flights, to support such missions.

NASA’s Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) is meeting Monday-Wednesday at Goddard Space Flight Center.  Michele Gates is on the agenda on Tuesday for 15 minutes to talk about the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which consumed a lot of SBAG’s attention for the past couple of years.  Presumably her task at this point is just to inform SBAG that the Trump Administration has terminated ARM, but two aspects of it — high power solar electric propulsion development and asteroid hunting — will continue nonetheless.  NASA’s Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green and Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson are also on the agenda along with many other presentations that sound quite interesting, including two by representatives of asteroid mining companies.  The meeting is available remotely through Adobe Connect.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others that we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Monday, June 12

Monday-Wednesday, June 12-14

Monday-Friday, June 12-16 (continued from last week)

Tuesday, June 13

Wednesday, June 14

Thursday, June 15

Friday, June 16

Last Updated: Jun 15, 2017 12:39 pm ET
Wilson: AF Requesting 20 Percent Increase for Space, SpaceX to Launch Next X-37B

Wilson: AF Requesting 20 Percent Increase for Space, SpaceX to Launch Next X-37B

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 6, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: June 7, 2017 12:49 am ET

Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) Heather Wilson told a Senate committee today that the service is requesting a 20 percent increase for its space programs in FY2018.  She also revealed that SpaceX will launch the next X-37B mission in August, the first time one of the uncrewed spaceplanes will launch on a vehicle other than a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V.   She and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein further reinforced the Air Force paradigm that space no longer is a benign environment, but a warfighting domain.

Wilson was sworn in as SecAF on May 16 and testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) along with three other top Air Force officials (including Goldfein) the next day about military space programs.  

Today’s annual Air Force posture hearing was much broader and encompassed all Air Force activities. The preponderance of the hearing focused on aircraft and personnel.  In her opening statement, however, Wilson chose space as one of her three main themes.  The others were readiness and modernization.  Regarding the space portion of the service’s portfolio, she said the FY2018 budget request includes a 20 percent increase for space, but did not go into details.

During an exchange with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) over whether U.S. space capabilities are sufficiently resilient and responsive, both praised the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office and its rapid acquisition authorities.  ORS is headquartered at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, which Heinrich represents in the Senate and Wilson represented in the House from 1998-2009.  As the discussion continued, Heinrich also urged Wilson to consider using small launch vehicles from companies like Virgin Galactic, Vulcan Aerospace and Orbital ATK to ensure more distributed, responsive and flexible access to space.

In her reply, Wilson held up a model of the X-37B spaceplane and said it “will be going up again, it’s a reusable vehicle, and it will be going up again on top of a SpaceX launcher in August.”  


Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson shows model of X-37B spacecraft at Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, June 6, 2017.  Screengrab from committee webcast.

She added that Goldfein had a model of a cubesat with him and overall spacecraft are “getting smaller, able to be put on multiple different platforms, and there’s some very exciting things happening in commercial space that bring the opportunity for assured access to space at a very competitive price.”

The Air Force has two Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles (OTVs), each of which has been launched two times.  What they do in space is highly classified, but they remain on orbit for very long periods of time.  They look like miniature space shuttle orbiters.  The most recent flight ended last month after 718 days in space, landing at Kennedy Space Center for the first time.  KSC was the launch site for all of NASA’s space shuttle missions and almost all of them landed there as well.  The Air Force is now using some of the former shuttle facilities for the X-37B, including the runway and a processing facility. The previous X-37B launches were on Atlas V rockets from Cape Canaveral, FL with landings at Vandenberg AFB, CA.

The fact that the Air Force chose SpaceX instead of ULA for the next X-37B launch does not appear to have been publicly disclosed until now.

Goldfein referred to the close cooperation between the Air Force and NASA in space, thanking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) for his work on the “NASA strategic plan,” a probable reference to the NASA Transition Authorization Act recently signed into law.  Cruz chairs the space subcommittee of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that oversees NASA.

Cruz asked if the 20 percent increase in Air Force space funding, which he said would bring the total to $7.7 billion, is sufficient. 

Wilson said that some of the items on the Air Force’s “unfunded requirements list” that was sent to Congress are space-related, including $200 million for “space defense”.   She concluded that “I think there’s a lot of progress [with the requested increase] but there’s no question there’s much more to be done.”

Goldfein ended the hearing by reiterating the Air Force’s view that space is no longer a benign environment, but a “domain from which we have to be prepared to fight and win and … maintain space superiority, if war extends into space or starts in space.  … I align with General John Hyten [Commander of STRATCOM] who has said there’s no such thing as war in space, there’s just war.  But if it extends into space, we’ve got to be ready.”

Last Updated: Jun 07, 2017 12:49 am ET
What's Happening in Space Policy June 4-10, 2017

What's Happening in Space Policy June 4-10, 2017

By Marcia Smith | Posted: June 4, 2017 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: June 6, 2017 3:28 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of June 4-10, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate will be in session this week.

During the Week

Better late than never?  The Trump Administration finally sent its FY2018 budget proposal to Congress on May 23.  As they say, the President proposes and Congress disposes.  This week Congress gets about its job in earnest with many, many hearings on various aspects of the budget request.  It is just a request. Only Congress decides how to spend the nation’s money.   The reaction to the request in the halls of Congress is much like what was heard during the Obama Administration — dead on arrival.  Still, they had to wait until the request was in hand to get busy coming up with their own plan.  Describing how difficult that’s going to be would make this missive far too long, especially since the budget debate may well get entangled in the debate over increasing the debt limit.  Even though Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House, there are many intraparty divisions, never mind trying to reach a deal that at least some Democrats can support.

For this week, the focus is on information gathering for both appropriations and authorizations (not sure of the difference — see our What’s a Markup? Fact Sheet).   From a space policy perspective, the hearings to watch are NASA budget (two on Thursday — the House SS&T space subcommittee in the morning; House Appropriations CJS subcommittee in the afternoon), FAA reauthorization, including FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (Wednesday, Senate Commerce Committee; Thursday, House T&I Committee), Air Force posture hearing (Tuesday, Senate Armed Services); and Department of Commerce budget, which includes NOAA (Thursday, Senate Appropriations CJS subcommittee).

The House SS&T Committee also has scheduled a markup of the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act of 2017 on Thursday at 1:30 pm ET.  A draft bill has been circulating for several weeks. Although it has not been formally introduced yet, the committee posted the current draft text that the committee will consider that day.

Off the Hill this week, the annual GEOINT conference begins today in San Antonio and runs through Wednesday.  The theme this year is Advancing Capabilities to Meet Emerging Threats.

The American Bar Association is holding its annual space law symposium in Washington, DC (note the location changed and is now at the University Club) on Thursday.   It’s got a GREAT line up of speakers.  Most unfortunately, it turns out to be competing with four hearings and one markup.  Not to mention a Space Transportation Association luncheon with Bob Cabana, former astronaut and Director of Kennedy Space Center.

Speaking of astronauts, amidst all this NASA will announce the members of its new astronaut class at Johnson Space Center on Wednesday.  Vice President Mike Pence will be in attendance.  He said in March during the signing ceremony for the 2017 NASA Transition Authorization Act that President Trump will reestablish the National Space Council and he (Pence) will lead it.  Everyone has been waiting for further news since then – perhaps he’ll have more to say on Wednesday.

Lots of other really interesting things going on in D.C. and the rest of the world as well including Beijing (GLEX 2017); Vienna, Austria (UNCOPUOS); and Kerkrade, The Netherlands (Overview Symposium).

The list of everything we know about as of Sunday morning is shown below.  Check back throughout the week to see others that we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Sunday, June 4 (continued from June 3)

Sunday-Wednesday, June 4-7

Monday, June 5

Tuesday, June 6

Tuesday-Thursday, June 6-8

Wednesday, June 7

Wednesday, June 7 – Friday, June 16

Thursday, June 8

Friday, June 9

  • The Space Mission Force (AFA Mitchell Institute), Capitol Hill Club, 300 1st St., SE, Washington, DC, 8:00 am ET  pre-registration REQUIRED

Friday-Saturday, June 9-10

Last Updated: Jun 06, 2017 3:28 pm ET

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