The following events may be of interest in the coming week.  Click on the links below or on our right menu, or check our full calendar also on the right menu, for more details. 

The House and Senate are both in session this week.  Times, dates and witnesses for congressional hearings are subject to change.  Check the relevant committee’s website for up to date information.

During the Week

Release of President Obama’s budget request for FY2013 will dominate conversation in Washington this week, even though many politicians and pundits already have declared it “dead on arrival.”   Champions of defense spending, for example, are criticizing the depth of proposed Pentagon cuts even as Republicans insist that the deficit must be dramatically reduced by cutting federal spending and not raising taxes.  The President’s Budget Request (PBR) does not reflect “sequestration,” the poison pill Congress and the White House included in the Budget Control Act last summer that would impose even more stringent cuts on both defense and non-defense discretionary spending.   The failure of last year’s congressional supercommittee to reach agreement on other methods of cutting the deficit officially meant that sequestration should be in effect, but no one at either end of Pennsylvania Avenue wants to swallow that pill.  Ignoring it appears to be the game plan of the moment.  The shrill partisan debate that characterized Washington last year seems destined to be repeated this year, amplified by election year politics.   What will happen to space program funding is anyone’s guess.  Nonetheless, release of the budget tomorrow is the opening shot of the FY2013 budget debate.  Many departments and agencies are holding briefings tomorrow or later in the week.  Noted below are those most strongly related to space policy.

This is also the final week of the WRC-12 conference in Geneva, Switzerland.  The last week is usually the most interesting — where major deals are cut.  We’ll keep you posted of anything that might dramatically affect allocation of frequencies or orbital slots for satellites.

Monday, February 13

• President Obama speaks to students at Northern Virginia Community College about the FY2013 Budget Request, Annandale, VA, 11:00 am ET, officially kicking off this year’s debate
• White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Government Printing Office (GPO) release the FY2013 budget request at GPO, 11:15 am. 
• OMB and other White House officials hold press conference on FY2013 budget request,  White House Eisenhower Executive Office Building, 12:30 pm ET
• White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) briefing on R&D and STEM Education in the FY2013 budget request, AAAS auditorium, 1200 New York Avenue, N.W., 1:30-2:30 pm ET
• NASA FY2013 budget briefing, NASA Headquarters, 2:00 pm ET, followed by individual teleconference briefings by the mission directorates and the chief technologist, see this NASA press release for details but HEOMD is at 3:30, SMD at 4:30, OCT at 5:15, and ARMD at 6:00).  NASA budget information will be posted on the NASA budget website at 1:00 pm ET.
• DOD FY2013 budget briefing, the Pentagon, 2:00 pm ET, followed by individual briefings by the Army, Navy and Air Force (see this DOD press release for details but Air Force is at 4:45)
• Kennedy Space Center Director Cabana available at KSC press site to discuss FY2013 budget request, Kennedy Space Center , FL, 4:15 pm ET

Tuesday, February 14

• SpacePolicyOnline.com loves our readers and wishes you all a Happy Valentine’s Day!
• NASA Pre-Proposal Conference for Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) solicitation, Courtyard Marriott, Cocoa Beach, FL, starting at 8:30 am ET
• NASA “Industry and Academia Day” for Space Launch System Advanced Development, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, beginning at 9:30 am CT (10:30 am ET) 
• SASC Hearing on FY2013 DOD budget request, G-50 Dirksen, 9:30 am ET
• USGS budget briefing, USGS Headquarters, Reston, VA, 1:00 pm ET
• AIAA Commercial Space Update, Lockheed Martin Global Vision Center, Arlington, VA, 2:30-4:30 pm ET (you must have RSVP’d to AIAA by last Friday to attend — see the Feb. 14th entry on our full calendar for details)

Wednesday, February 15

• HASC hearing on FY2013 DOD budget request, 2118 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET
• Space Transportation Association (STA) meeting with Johnson Space Center Director Mike Coats, 253 Russell, 5:00 pm ET (you must RSVP)

Wednesday-Thursday, February 15-16

• FAA 15th annual Commercial Space Transportation conference,  Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC 

Thursday, February 16

• House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing on FY2013 DOD budget request, 2359 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET
• NOAA budget briefing, Department of Commerce main building, 14th Street and Constitution Ave., NW, 1:00 pm ET

Friday, February 17

• House SS&T Hearing on FY2013 budget request for Federal R&D, 2318 Rayburn, 9:30 am ET

Friday-Saturday, February 17-18

• NASA Celebrates 50 Years of Americans in Orbit, NASA TV and Kennedy Space Center, FL

Potential interference between LightSquared’s satellite-terrestrial mobile broadband system and GPS was the subject of yet another congressional hearing today.  Numerous hearings were held last year in a variety of House committees, each warning of calamitous consequences if LightSquared is allowed to implement its system.   Today’s hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) committee was no different.

The hearing comes less than two weeks after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued its most recent directive about LIghtSquared.  Noting that the FY2012 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act  (part of the FY2012 Consolidated Appropriations Act) prohibits the FCC from allowing LightSquared to proceed until “concerns of potential widespread harmful interference” are resolved, the FCC declined to grant a request from LightSquared to make a declaratory ruling that GPS devices are not protected against harmful interference as long as LightSquared abides by the FCC’s technical parameters. 

The company launched a high powered satellite, SkyTerra, in 2010 to use in a mobile broadband system, but requested permission from the FCC to augment the satellite capacity with a network of 40,000 terrestrial cell towers — an Ancillary Technical Component (ATC) in FCC terminology.  In January 2011, the FCC gave LightSquared provisional permission to proceed with the ATC, but the provision was that it had to form a technical committee to perform tests to determine the extent to which interference with GPS would occur.  The radio frequency bands assigned to LightSquared are adjacent to some of the GPS bands.

The 2011 FCC decision prompted an outcry from GPS user communities.  Tests conducted by the FCC-required technical committee demonstrated that interference would indeed be a problem.  LightSquared modified its plans and also complained that it has complied with all of the FCC’s technical requirements.  It asserts that the interference is the fault of GPS receiver manufacturers who did not properly design the receivers.

Another round of tests was ordered last fall, but the results were similar.  On January 13, 2012, the government’s National Space-Based PNT (Positioning, Navigation and Timing) Advisory Board, which is playing a leading role in opposing LightSquared’s plans, sent a letter to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) stating its “unanimous conclusion … that both LightSquared’s original and modified plans … would cause harmful interference to many GPS receivers.”   NTIA, part of the Department of Commerce, oversees government use of radio frequencies, while the FCC governs their use by the private sector.

LightSquared complained that the tests were “rigged.”  It called on NTIA and the FCC to conduct another round of tests and for “fair and transparent oversight of the testing process….”

Aviation interests have been particularly vocal in opposing LightSquared because GPS is widely used in the aviation industry.  At today’s hearing before the aviation subcommittee of the House T&I committee, Deputy Secretary of Transportation John Porcari said no further testing was warranted at this time.   He added that the most recent tests were independently reviewed by Idaho National Lab and MIT Lincoln Lab.   Expanding broadband access to more Americans is a major goal of the Obama Administration, he said, but LightSquared is incompatible with “FAA requirements for low-altitude operations” near LightSquared transmitters.  Noting that the FAA had already spent over $2 million in testing and analyzing LightSquared’s proposal, he argued that further government investment “cannot be justified at this time.”

Other witnesses at the hearing represented the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a U.N. specialized agency that sets global standards and regulations for aviation safety; the Air Transport Association; the Air Line Pilots Association; the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association; Garmin AT, Inc.; and George Washington University. 

 

UPDATE:  NASA’s Commercial Crew Forum on Tuesday has been added.

The following events may be of interest in the coming week.   The House and Senate both will be in session this week.

During the Week

These events may be of special interest.  The Senate is expected to pass the conference report on the FAA reauthorization bill (H.R. 658) on Monday.   The impact on the aerospace industry, especially the satellite industry, of current export laws will be highlighted at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Tuesday.   Issues about GPS will get another airing on Wednesday before the aviation subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.   The WRC-12 conference in Geneva continues.

Tuesday, February 7

• House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Export Controls (AIA and SIA testify), 2172 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET
• NASA Commercial Crew Program Forum, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm ET

Tuesday-Thursday, February 7-9

• National Research Council (NRC) study on Air Force Astrodynamics Standards, Keck Building, Washington, DC (some sessions are closed)

Wednesday, February 8

• House Transportation & Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee Hearing on GPS, 2167 Rayburn, 11:00 am ET

Thursday, February 9

• NASA International Space Station Advisory Committee, NASA HQ room 1Q39, Washington, DC, 12:00-1:00 pm ET

Friday-Saturday, February 10-11

• Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee, NSF HQ, Arlington, VA, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm ET
  • Friday, room 555 Stafford II Building, 2121 Wilson Blvd.
  • Saturday, room 1060 Stafford I Building, 4201 Wilson Blvd

 

The following events may be of interest in the coming week.

During the Week:   The House and Senate are in session this week.   The World Radiocommunications Conference continues in Geneva, Switzerland.   The conclusions of the Russian commission that investigated the Phobos-Grunt failure are supposed to be made public this week.

Tuesday, January 31

•    NASA media briefing on new discoveries about interstellar matter, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 1:00 pm EST

Wednesday, February 1

• Screening of film Article of Hope, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 10:00 am EST

Wednesday-Friday, February 1-3

• National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Implementation of a Sustained Land Imaging Program, NRC Keck Center, 500 5th St., NW, Washington, DC (some sessions of this meeting may be closed)

Friday, February 3

• Secure World Foundation “Trash in the Skies” meeting, 253 Russell Senate Office Building, 12:00 – 1:30 pm EST

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney added nothing new about his plans for the space program during a brief speech in Cape Canaveral, FL.

Romney repeated what he said during two primary debates on Monday and last night that he wants to hear advice from scientists, industrialists, defense experts and NASA before making any decisions.

Calling President Obama’s space program a failure, he asserted it was time to have a “vision for a space program for the people of the United States of America.”   If this was the politics of the past, he said, he would come to the Space Coast and promise billions of dollars and lay out what his mission is, “but I’m not going to do that.”  Referring to his experience in the private sector, he said that before making tough decisions, work has to be done in terms of defining objectives, getting data and hypotheses to determine the choices, and only then selecting an objective and finding a leader to deliver it.  His remark about promising billions of dollars appeared to be a swipe at his rival, Newt Gingrich, who make a speech on Wednesday doing just that.

He outlined what he sees as four objectives of the space program, calling each of them a “critical priority”:   the “existential” objective of understanding the universe and its effects on the Earth, such as climate or the possibility of a “catastrophic event”; commercial; the health and well-being of citizens; and defense.   Collectively, those objectives make the space program “an integral part of America’s exceptionalism.”

Romney paid tribute to those lost in the space shuttle Challenger tragedy, which occurred 26 years ago tomorrow.  Saying that we must not forget the sacrifices made for the space program, he told the story of visiting a Boy Scout troop in Massachusetts a couple of years ago and hearing a story about the American flag sitting in the room.    The flag had first flown above the U.S. Capitol and then the troop decided they wanted it to fly on the space shuttle.   They arranged to do that and it flew on Challenger and the scouts watched the shuttle “explode before their very eyes.”  Later, the Troop Leader contacted NASA to determine if any remnants of the flag survived.   After many months, the flag was returned “in perfect condition” although some medallions that had been in the container next to it were melted and fused together.  He said “it was like electricity” when he touched the flag, thinking of the sacrifices that made been made.

Most of the rest of the speech, which lasted only about 15 minutes, was standard campaign fare.

As reported here earlier today, a letter in support of Romney was posted on the candidate’s website today from a group of well known space policy veterans.  The group is led by Scott Pace, Director of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute, who is identified in the letter as head of Romney’s space policy advisory group.   Others who signed include former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin and former astronauts Gene Cernan and Bob Crippen.

UPDATE:  Florida Today says it will cover Romney’s visit to Astrotech live, and is already running video apparently from that location.

Mitt Romney’s website still has him scheduled to appear at the Astrotech facility in Cape Canaveral, FL this afternoon at 4:45 pm ET where he is expected to expand on his plans for the space program if he is elected.  Meanwhile, a letter posted on Romney’s website reveals that Scott Pace is heading his space policy advisory team.

Last night at the CNN Florida Republican presidential primary debate in Jacksonville, all four Republican presidential candidates, including Romney, were given an opportunity to expound about the space program.  Romney’s current chief opponent in the race, Newt Gingrich, presented his bold plan for space — including a lunar base by 2020 — at a speech on Wednesday.   Last night, a member of audience asked what the candidates’ plans were for “manned space flight and the future of NASA” and moderator Wolf Blitzer expanded the question to bring in views about Gingrich’s lunar base proposal.

Romney called it “an enormous expense.”   Saying he believes “in a very vibrant and strong space program” and wants to bring together experts to advise him about it, he cautioned that he is “not looking for a colony on the moon.  I think the cost of that would be in the hundreds of billions if not trillions.  I’d rather be rebuilding housing here in the U.S.”

This afternoon’s event is listed on his website as scheduled for 4:45-6:00 pm at Astrotech’s facility at 620 Magellan Road, Cape Canaveral.  Edward Ellegood of Florida Space Report tweeted that he expects Romney to introduce some of the experts he plans to consult. 

The Romney campaign may have tipped its hand already, posting a letter of support from some well known players in the space policy arena.  The authors of the letter assert that Romney will “restore America’s space program.”  The letter was signed by Scott Pace, Director of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute and who served as a NASA Associate Administrator under former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin.  Griffin also signed the letter.   Pace is identified as “chair of the Romney Space Policy Advisory Group” and interestingly does not mention his NASA service, but notes his earlier tenure at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.   Others who signed are Mark Albrecht, former Executive Director of the White House National Space Council under the first President Bush; former astronauts Gene Cernan and Bob Crippen; Peter Marquez, formerly on the staff of the White House National Security Council under the second President Bush and in the early years of the Obama Administration (he is credited with pulling together President Obama’s National Space Policy); Eric Anderson of Space Adventures; and William Martel from Tufts University.   

 

UPDATE (Jan. 26, 2012, 7:20 pm ET):    Edward Ellegood @FLspacereport tweets that the Romney visit to Astrotech will now be at 4:45 pm ET tomorrow instead of 3:00. 

ORIGINAL STORY:  Rick Santorum, one of Newt Gingrich’s rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, has canceled his scheduled appearance on Saturday at the Space Coast Tiger Bay luncheon according to Florida Today.  Another rival, Mitt Romney, still plans to visit Cape Canaveral tomorrow, however.

Gingrich visited the area yesterday and laid out his bold plans for the future of the space program.  He and Romney had previewed their visions for space activities during the Republican primary debate on Monday.  Santorum and Ron Paul, the fourth candidate remaining in the contest, were not asked about space during that debate, but Santorum had been expected to share his views at Saturday’s event.     Florida Today quotes a Santorum campaign volunteer as saying only that she was notifed Santorum would be out of town and unable to attend the luncheon.

Meanwhile, Romney will visit Astrotech in Cape Canaveral at 3:00 pm ET tomorrow, Florida Today reports.  The event is open to the public. 

Another Republican presidential primary debate is scheduled for tonight in Jacksonville, FL at 8:00 pm ET.  It will be carried on CNN.  The Florida Republican primary will be held on January 31.