Here is our list of space policy events for the week of November 7-11, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess until November 14.

During the Week

Welcome back to Standard Time in the United States.  Daylight Saving Time ended overnight.  Adjust your clocks accordingly!  We lost an hour of sleep in the process, but can catch up on Friday, which is a Federal Holiday (Veterans Day).

One hardly needs to say what the big news is this week.  Election Day is Tuesday, November 8. Who will control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate are all at stake and the results are completely up in the air.  Voter turnout will be, as always, a critical factor.  Get out and exercise your right – and your responsibility – to choose our nation’s leaders. 

For the space program, especially NASA and NOAA, which are part of the non-defense discretionary part of the budget, the congressional races may be more important than the White House.   The Clinton and Trump campaigns haven’t said much about their positions on civil and commercial space, but what they have said is very similar — they want the United States to be a leader in space with a bold exploration program that incorporates international and commercial partners.  One area of difference, not surprisingly, is NASA’s role in earth science research.  The Clinton campaign is enthusiastically supportive of NASA’s earth science program and its role in understanding climate change; the Trump campaign thinks NASA should focus on space exploration while other agencies study the Earth.

Congress, however, is still battling over how to rein in the deficit.   The draconian sequestration rules have been held in abeyance since FY2013 by two-year agreements negotiated in 2014 by the Republican House and Democratic Senate (the Ryan-Murray deal), which relaxed budget caps for FY2014 and FY2015, and in 2016 by outgoing House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and President Obama for FY2016 and FY2017.  Sequestration is still the law of the land (the 2011 Budget Control Act — BCA), however, and whether it is strictly followed, loosely followed, or ignored (perhaps repealed) in the future depends in large measure on what parties control which parts of the government.  NASA has fared extremely well in recent years (Congress is poised to give NASA about $1 billion more than President Obama requested in appropriated funds for FY2017) in part because the BCA caps have not been rigorously enforced.  The two parties have been battling for years on how to cut the deficit.  Republicans want to do it entirely through spending cuts.  Democrats want a combination of spending cuts and tax increases.  Both parties want to protect the defense budget, though there are many differences on the details.  That leaves mandatory spending programs (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) and non-defense discretionary agencies (e.g. NASA and NOAA) as the go-to places to look for whatever cuts are to be made.  Generally speaking, Democrats are more protective of those activities than Republicans, hence the inclusion of tax increases in their deficit-reduction strategy to ensure they are not eviscerated in the process, but tax increases aren’t very popular. 

This election has been … draining … and many look forward to its end, but the nation’s problems will still be there on November 9 or whenever the outcome is known (it may not be on November 9 after all, there are many close races). The new leaders, whoever they are, will have a lot to do.  Every vote matters.  GET OUT AND VOTE.

In addition to voting, there are number of interesting things to do this week.  NASA has two media events, tomorrow (Monday) and Thursday, on small satellites for earth science.  Tomorrow’s virtual briefing (listen at www.nasa.gov/live) will discuss the agency’s overall program of utilizing cubesats and microsatellites for earth science research, including technology developments, and a preview of three upcoming small satellite missions.  Thursday’s briefing at NASA HQ (watch on NASA TV) is specifically about one of them — a constellation of eight small satellites to be launched next month that will gather data on the formation and intensity of tropical cyclones and hurricanes (CYGNSS). 

Meanwhile, out at the National Academies’ Beckman Center in Irvine, CA, the steering committee of the Earth Science and Applications from Space (ESAS) Decadal Survey will meet tomorrow through Thursday.  On Wednesday, it will hold a webinar for members of the earth science community to get an update on the status of the Survey and ask questions of the co-chairs, Waleed Abdalati and Bill Gail. 

In Paris, European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jan Woerner will hold a press conference tomorrow morning about the ESA Ministerial Meeting coming up next month.  It will not be webcast, unfortunately, but ESA says a video recording will be posted to the ESA website within 24 hours.

Lastly, the Atlantic Council will hold the next in its “Captains of Industry” series on Wednesday featuring representatives of four leading U.S. and European defense and aerospace companies (Airbus, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Thales USA) and the National Venture Capital Association on “Corporate-Venture Investing in Aerospace and Defense.”  It will be webcast.

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, November 7

• ESA Press Briefing on Upcoming Ministerial Meeting, ESA Headquarters, Paris, FR, 08:30 Central European Time (no webcast, but video to be posted to ESA website within 24 hours)
• NASA Media Telecon on Earth Science Small Satellites, virtual, 2:30 pm ET (listen at www.nasa.gov/live)

Monday-Thursday, November 7-10

• National Academies ESAS Decadal Survey Steering Committee, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA
  • Webinar for members of the earth science community, November 9, 1:00-3:00 pm PT (4:00-6:00 pm ET)  (WebEx)

Tuesday, November 8

• ELECTION DAY IN THE UNITED STATES

Tuesday-Thursday, November 8-10

• Global MilSatCom, Riverbank Plaza Hotel, London, UK

Wednesday, November 9

• Corporate-Venture Investing in Aerospace and Defense (Atlantic Council), 1030 15th St, NW, Washington, DC, 4:30-6:00 pm ET (webcast)

Thursday, November 10

• NASA Media Bfg on CYGNSS Earth Satellite Constellation, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 1:00 pm ET (NASA TV)

 

Exclaiming “this is our Sputnik moment,” Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) told an audience of lunar scientists and entrepreneurs tonight that the Moon is the pathway to American preeminence in space.  He also addressed comments made several weeks ago by his colleague, Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), that seemed to contradict his approach to government oversight of commercial space activities, saying that the two views are closer than they appear.

Bridenstine, a former Navy pilot elected to Congress in 2012 who has term-limited himself to three terms (he is in his second term now), has become a leading advocate in Congress for passing laws that create a stable legal and regulatory environment for new types of commercial space activities.  A member of both the House Science, Space and Technology Committee and the House Armed Services Committee, he has a broad outlook on U.S.civil, commercial and national security space issues.  He introduced the American Space Renaissance Act (ASRA) earlier this year as a compendium of legislative provisions that can be incorporated into various pieces of legislation, including authorization and appropriations bills.  Commercial space is one of the themes in ASRA.

He spoke at a meeting of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) being held at the Universities Space Research Association’s headquarters in Columbia, MD.  The three-day meeting, which concludes tomorrow, has sessions ranging from deeply scientific to highly commercial.

Bridenstine took the theme of lunar science and resource utilization and ran with it.  His closing sentences summed it up:  “This is our Sputnik moment.  America must forever be the preeminent spacefaring nation and the Moon is our path to being so.”

The discovery of water ice at the lunar poles by DOD’s Clementine mission, which originated with DOD’s Brilliant Pebbles concept as part of the Reagan-era Strategic Defense Initiative, should have “transformed” the U.S. space program, he asserted, because of the significance of finding water there.  He foresees a cis-lunar industry based on servicing and maintaining Earth-orbiting satellites that includes refueling those satellites using liquid oxygen and hydrogen produced from the Moon’s water ice.  If existing satellites can be refueled and otherwise maintained, fewer new spacecraft can be launched, reducing costs and the space debris population.  He views the government’s role as risk reduction to “empower” commercial companies to establish such industries.

Creating a U.S. legal framework to encourage investment in such businesses is key, he stressed.  Bridenstine is a leading advocate of expanding the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation’s (AST’s) regulatory authority to include “enhanced payload reviews” for new types of commercial space activities to ensure they comply with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.  He has worked closely with industry, especially through FAA/AST’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), to advance that idea. 

COMSTAC adopted an OFR (Observations, Findings, and Recommendations) at its meeting last week recommending that the government take “expeditious action to enable a safe, predictable, and conducive environment for the growth of commercial space operations and activities…”

Babin expressed an opposite point of view in September, insisting that no legislation is needed.  Instead, he argued, the private sector should be able to do whatever it wishes in space and the burden should be on the government to demonstrate why government intervention is needed, not on the private sector to follow regulations.

Though the two philosophies seem at odds, Bridenstine said tonight that, in fact, they are not as far apart as they may seem.  Both he and Babin want minimal regulation and a free market in space for a broad range of commercial activities. 

Bridenstine, however, strongly believes that legislation is needed.  The Department of State already has said it does not have the tools to say “yes” to new commercial activities to ensure U.S. compliance with the Outer Space Treaty, he said.  That means there is a risk that a U.S. company could proceed with an activity only to have the State Department stop it at the last minute because of a protest by another country.  Such a risk could dampen investor confidence.   Also, Congress should be involved in setting the legal regime, rather than the Executive Branch alone, so that it can endure through successive administrations. 

A “rock solid … airtight” regime is needed so “that when you get your authorization, you know, not with absolute certainty, but you’re pretty darn certain, that you’re going to be able to launch.”  That means Congress passing a law that includes an enhanced payload review process that provides “maximum regulatory certainty with the minimum regulatory burden” implemented by FAA/AST.  “Enhanced space situational awareness [SSA] and reporting” also is needed.  The Air Force does not have the necessary resources to provide SSA for non-DOD entities and is not a regulatory agency, so FAA/AST should take on that responsibility as well, he said, repeating comments he has made in the past.

Bridenstine’s remarks tonight went further, branching out into threats posed by China, a country that understands “the geopolitical value of space operations.” The possibility that the “highly valuable platinum group of metals are much more available on the moon from astroblemes than they are on earth” could explain China’s interest in the Moon, he said.  “Such a discovery with cis-lunar transportation capabilities … could profoundly alter the economic and geopolitical balance of power on Earth.”  

To “enable freedom of action, the United States must have cis-lunar situational awareness, a cis-lunar presence, and eventually must be able to enforce the law through cis-lunar power projection.  Cis-lunar development will either take the form of American values with the rule of law and private property rights, or it will take the form of totalitarian state control.  The United States can decide who leads.”

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 31-November 5, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them. Congress is in recess until November 14.

During the Week

As usual, there is a full plate of interesting space policy events coming up this week.  

To highlight just two, NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG) will meet in Columbia, MD at the headquarters of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA).  It will spend part of the first day (Tuesday) discussing ESA Director General Jan Woerner’s concept for a Moon Village (or Lunar Village).  Wednesday features an evening reception where Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) will provide an update on his American Space Renaissance Act and policies needed to ensure free enterprise can occur on the Moon and in cislunar space.  Bridenstine is a leading voice in Congress for determining what is needed to enable the United States government to fulfill its obligations under the Outer Space Treaty in a manner that facilitates new types of private sector activities in Earth orbit and beyond.   We’ve inquired as to whether any of the meeting will be webcast and will add that information to our calendar entry if/when we get an answer. [UPDATE:  It will be available by WebEx.  See our calendar entry for details.]

On Friday and Saturday, the New Worlds Institute will hold the New Worlds 2016 Conference and Space Settlement Symposium at the Renaissance Austin Hotel at the Arboretum in North Austin, TX.  It features a star-studded line-up of speakers separately making “the case for” the Moon, for Mars, and for free-space, plus sessions on space elevators, space solar power, protecting the planets, who owns space, and a broad range of other topics.  Co-chaired by Mary Lynne Dittmar (Coalition for Deep Space Exploration), Pete Worden (Breakthrough Prize) and Phil Metzger (founder of Kennedy Space Center Swamp Works), speakers include Bob Richards (Moon Express), Bob Zubrin (Mars Society), Bill Gerstenmaier (NASA), Margaret Race (SETI Institute), John Lewis (University of Arizona), and Rick Tumlinson (New Worlds Institute).  The website does not indicate whether any of it will be webcast.  We’ve inquired and will post the information on our calendar if/when we find out. [UPDATE: we’ve been informed that it will NOT be webcast, although a few videos may be posted later.]

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, October 31

• NASA International Space Station Advisory Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 2:00-3:00 pm ET

Monday-Tuesday, October 31 – November 1

• National Academies Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (WebEx) (some sessions are closed)

Tuesday, November 1

• NASA Innovation Mission Day, NASA HQ and all NASA centers, various times and locations [keynote address by Deputy Administrator Dava Newman at 12:00 pm ET will be broadcast on NASA TV)

Tuesday-Thursday, November 1-3

• NASA Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG), USRA Headquarters, 7178 Gateway Drive, Columbia, MD

Wednesday, November 2

• James Webb Space Telescope Update with NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and others, NASA Goddard Visitor Center, Greenbelt, MD [speech by Bolden from 9:00-9:30 am ET will be broadcast on NASA TV)
• Role of Space in Maritime Operations (CSIS/USNI), CSIS, 1616 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00-10:00 am ET (webcast)

Wednesday-Thursday, November 2-3

• NASA Advisory Council Institutional Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC (WebEx/telecon)

Wednesday-Friday, November 2-4

• National Academies Space Studies Board, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (some sessions are closed)
• World Space Risk Forum, Dubai

Thursday-Saturday, November 3-5

• SpaceVision 2016 (annual SEDS conference), Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN

Friday-Saturday, November 4-5

• New Worlds 2016 Conference/Space Settlement Symposium, Renaissance Austin Hotel at the Arboretum, North Austin, TX

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 24-29, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess until November 14.

During the Week

Commercial space policy is at the top of the list this week. The FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) and its working groups meet on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday.  Those will be preceded by two associated meetings of interest — one tomorrow (Monday) afternoon to discuss voluntary industry standards and another Tuesday morning on a Civil Space Traffic Management system. 

Tomorrow’s meeting is of ASTM International, a standards setting body, that will discuss whether it should create a new technical committee to develop voluntary consensus standards for commercial spaceflight.  Last year’s Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA) called for the development of such standards and COMSTAC has had a working group on the topic for some time.  Tuesday morning, the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST), in conjunction with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the Satellite Industry Association, will hold an “industry day” (actually half a day) to discuss a Civil Space Traffic Management System.  The meeting is open to the public and has an interesting agenda that includes Doug Loverro, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy.   Space Traffic Management (STM) is a step beyond Space Situational Awareness (SSA).  While definitions vary, generally speaking SSA is knowing where everything is in orbit and where it’s going, thereby enabling “conjunction analyses” to warn satellite operators if a collision is likely.  STM – with an emphasis on “management” —  would empower some entity to require those operators to take action to avoid a collision.  Rep. Jim Bridenstine has proposed that FAA/AST be assigned that role.  CSLCA called for a study by an independent organization on alternative frameworks for STM.  To date, FAA/AST has focused on the SSA portion.  FAA/AST is part of the Department of Transportation, which sent a report to Congress last month concluding it is feasible for them to take over DOD’s role of providing SSA data to commercial and foreign entities (CFEs).  All of this likely will be discussed on Tuesday.

Separately, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is beginning a new Aerospace Security Project and its first meeting (tomorrow afternoon) is also looking at commercial space.  Loverro will be at that one, too, along with Scott Pace of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute and representatives of DigitalGlobe, Planet, and Boeing.  That discussion will focus on how the military can better leverage commercial space capabilities.

Elsewhere in the country, the American Astronautical Society (AAS) will hold its annual Von Braun Symposium in Huntsville, AL.  This year’s theme is “Exploring the Universe and Maintaining U.S. Leadership in Space.”   Among the sessions is one on Wednesday morning  where Scott Pace (GWU) and Ann Zulkosky (Lockheed Martin) will discuss “After the Election — What’s Next for Space?”  The symposium will be webcast.  Note that all times on the agenda are Central Daylight Time.

There are quite a few space science meetings, too.  The NASA Advisory Council’s Heliophysics Subcommittee meets via telecon on Tuesday from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm ET.  Heliophysics is the study of the Sun and its influence on Earth — space weather — and NASA and the National Air and Space Museum will have a panel discussion on the impact of space weather on human and robotic exploration missions at the same time (1:00-2:30 pm ET).  The full NAC Science Committee meets Wednesday and Thursday (also via telecon).  The NSF-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC) meets at NSF in Arlington, VA on Thursday and Friday. 

The American Society for Gravitational and Space Research meets in Cleveland from Tuesday-Saturday.  It will hold a pre-conference workshop Tuesday morning entitled “Nanoracks and Blue Origin.”   Some of the conference sessions will be webcast, including a luncheon talk on Wednesday by former Senate staffer Jeff Bingham on evolving U.S. civil space policy and the role of the International Space Station.  NASA’s Julie Robinson and Brian Motil have a session right after that on “15 Years of Microgravity Science on the ISS” that also will be webcast.  Lots of interesting sessions throughout the week.

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, October 24

• ASTM International Meeting on Commercial Spaceflight Standards, RTCA Inc, 1150 18th St,, NW Washington, DC, 1:00 pm ET
• CSIS Aerospace Security Project, 1616 Rhode Island Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 2:00-3:30 pm ET (webcast)

Monday-Thursday, October 24-27

• Reinventing Space 2016 (British Interplanetary Society), Royal Society, London, England

Tuesday, October 25

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Heliophysics Subcommittee, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm ET, virtual (WebEx/telecon)
• FAA/AST Industry Day on Civil Space Traffic Management System, NTSB Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm ET
• FAA COMSTAC Working Group Meetings, NTSB Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC, 1:00-5:30 pm ET
• Hazards of Space Weather for Human and Robotic Space Exploration (NASA/NASM), National Air and Space Museum (NASM), 600 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC, 1:00-2:30 pm ET (webcast and broadcast on NASA TV)

Tuesday-Thursday, October 25-27

• 2016 Von Braun Symposium (American Astronautical Society), University of Alabama-Huntsville, Huntsville, AL (webcast)

Wednesday, October 26

• FAA COMSTAC (full committee), NTSB Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm ET (webcast)

Wednesday-Thursday, October 26-27

• NASA Advisory Council Science Committee, virtual, 1:00 – 5:45 pm ET each day (WebEx/telecon)

Wednesday-Saturday, October 26-29

• American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, Hilton-Downtown Cleveland, Cleveland, OH (many sessions will be webcast)

Thursday-Friday, October 27-28

• NAS-NASA-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), NSF, 4201 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 16-22, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess until November 14. 

During the Week

At 7:30 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) tonight, China will launch a two-man crew aboard the Shenzhou-11 (SZ-11) spacecraft from the Jiuquan launch site in the Gobi desert (where it will be 7:30 am Monday),  They are headed to the new Tiangong-2 space station with docking expected in two days.  They will remain aboard for 30 days, doubling the duration of China’s longest human spaceflight mission to date. Tiangong-2 is small, 8.6 metric tons (MT), compared to the 400 MT International Space Station (ISS), but it is a precursor to a larger 60 MT space station the Chinese plan to have in place in the early 2020s.

ISS is a partnership among the United States, Russia, Canada, Japan and Europe.  It has been permanently occupied by multinational crews rotating on 4-6 month shifts since the year 2000 and is regularly resupplied via cargo missions launched by two U.S. companies (Orbital ATK and SpaceX) and the Japanese and Russian space agencies.  The next cargo mission, Orbital ATK’s OA-5,  was scheduled for launch tonight from Wallops Island, VA at 8:03 pm EDT.  At press time, however, Orbital ATK announced that the launch of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft is being postponed for 24 hours because of a bad ground support cable.  The new launch time is Monday at 7:40 pm EDT.   Cygnus OA-5 will deliver supplies, equipment and scientific experiments to the three crew members currently aboard (one each from NASA, JAXA and Roscosmos).  Cygnus is being launched with a new version of Orbital ATK’s Antares rocket.  This is the first flight of Antares since an October 28, 2014 failure.  If launched tonight, Cygnus was to arrive at ISS Wednesday morning, but with a Monday launch, arrival at ISS will be delayed a few days.  Three new ISS crew members are being launched to ISS on the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft early Wednesday morning EDT.  They are taking the 2-day route to ISS arriving on Friday.  NASA and Orbital ATK said at a press conference yesterday that if the OA-5 launch was delayed to Monday, as now has happened, they would have the Cygnus spacecraft loiter in orbit for a few days to allow the Soyuz MS-02 crew to dock first.  The Cygnus arrival is now scheduled for Sunday, October 23.  The Soyuz MS-02 crew (one American, two Russians) will restore the ISS to its usual crew complement of six.

The European Space Agency (ESA)-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission already had an important event today. The spacecraft is carrying a small lander, Schiaparelli, and they made the trip to Mars together.  They are three days away from Mars now and it was time for them to separate.  Separation occurred at approximately 10:30 am EDT, but was followed by a nail-biting period of time when ESA was not receiving telemetry from TGO.  That problem appears to be resolved now and the mission is proceeding as scheduled.  On Wednesday, Schiaparelli will land on Mars and TGO will enter orbit.  ESA will provide live coverage of those events and hold a press conference on Thursday.

To recap only these events (all EDT):

Today (Sunday)

• ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter/Schiaparelli lander separation
• Chinese launch of Shenzhou-11 with two crew members to Tiangong-2 space station at 7:30 pm EDT (usually broadcast on China’s CCTV, available in English on the Internet)

Monday

• New launch date for U.S. Orbital ATK launch of Cygnus OA-5 cargo mission to ISS, 7:40 pm EDT (broadcast on NASA TV)

Tuesday

• Chinese crew arrives at Tiangong-2 (time not announced)

Wednesday

• Russian Soyuz MS-02 launch to ISS from Kazakhstan with three crew members (one American, two Russian) at 4:05 am EDT (watch on NASA TV)
• ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter enters Martian orbit and Schiaparelli lands (watch on ESA’s website, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm EDT)

Thursday

• ESA press conference about ExoMars (watch on ESA’s website, 4:00-5:00 am EDT)

Friday

• Soyuz MS-02 docks at ISS (time not announced)

Sunday

• Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-5 arrival at ISS (if launch is on October 17), grapple at approximately 7:00 am EDT

Many other events are on tap this week in addition to those launches and arrivals.  Among them is the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division on Planetary Sciences (DPS) in Pasadena, CA.  This year it is combined with a meeting of the European Planetary Science Congress.  Exciting discoveries and other results from planetary exploration missions are the staple of this conference.  It starts today and runs through Friday.

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis (CSBA) is having an interesting discussion on Tuesday morning at the Newseum in Washington, DC.  CSBA challenged teams from four prominent Washington think tanks to develop alternative strategies and rebalance DOD’s major capabilities in light of today’s security challenges.  They could choose from over 1200 pre-costed options provided by CSBA to add to or cut from the projected defense program for the next 10 years.  They will present their conclusions at the meeting.  It will be interesting to see if they recommend any changes to the national security space portfolio.  The event will be webcast.

On Friday, the State Department and the Secure World Foundation will hold a day-long seminar at the State Department on International Best Practices for Space Sustainability. It features four panels of top experts from around the world (your SpacePolicyOnline.com editor is lucky enough to moderate the industry panel).  Hopefully you followed the instructions and registered by last Friday as required for this event (for security checks etc.).

And last but not least of our highlighted events for the week, the final 2016 presidential debates is Wednesday night from 9:00-10:30 pm EDT.  It will be nationally televised (check local listings).   The election is on November 8.

All of those events and others 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 or for schedule changes.

Sunday, October 16

• ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Mission, Separation of Orbiter and Lander Prior to Mars Arrival, approximately 10:30 am EDT
• Chinese launch of two-man Shenzhou-11 mission to Tiangong-1 space station, 7:30 pm EDT/7:30 am October 17 local time at launch site (possibly broadcast on China’s CCTV)

Sunday-Friday, October 16-21

• DPS/EPSC annual conference, Pasadena, CA

Monday, October 17

• Univ of Nebraska-Lincoln DC Space Law Conference, National Press Club, Washington, DC, 11:40 am – 6:20 pm EDT
• New Launch Date for Orbital ATK Cygnus OA-5 Cargo Mission to ISS, Wallops Island, VA, 7:40 pm EDT

Tuesday, October 18

• Developing Alternative Defense Strategies (CSBA et al), Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 8:30-11:30 am EDT (webcast)
• MSBR Luncheon Featuring NOAA’s Steve Volz, Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm EDT
• Expected Shenzhou-11 docking with Tiangong-2 space station, time TBA

Wednesday, October 19

• Soyuz MS-02 Crew Launch to ISS, Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 4:05 am EDT/11:05 am Moscow Time (watch on NASA TV)
• ESA Live Coverage of ExoMars TGO and Schiaparelli arrivals at Mars, 9:00 am-4:00 pm EDT/13:00-20:00 GMT/15:00-22:00 CEST (watch on ESA’s website)
• Should Congressional Office of Technology Assessment be Revived (New America, R Street Institute), SVC 203-02 Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC, 12:00 pm EDT
• Third Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Univ of Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV, 9:00 – 10:30 pm EDT (nationally televised, check local listings)

Thursday, October 20

• ESA Press Conference on ExoMars TGO/Schiaparelli, 4:00-5:00 am EDT/08:00-09:00 GMT/10:00-11:00 CEST (watch on ESA’s website)
• Hosted Payload and Smallsat Summit 2016, Grand Hyatt Washington, Washington, DC, 7:45 am – 5:00 pm EDT

Friday, October 21

• Soyuz MS-02 arrival at ISS, time TBA
• International Best Practices for Space Sustainability (State Dept./SWF), State Department, Washington, DC, 8:15 am – 4:30 pm ET (pre-registration by October 14 was required)

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 9-14, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess until November 14.

During the Week

The week starts tonight (Sunday) with the second presidential debate between Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R).  Don’t expect the space program to come up at all, but these debates are important elements of the presidential election, the foundation of our democracy.   Everyone should be paying attention!  This one is a town-hall format at Washington University in St. Louis from 9:00-10:30 pm ET (nationally televised, check local listings).

Tomorrow, October 10, is a Federal holiday (Columbus Day), so government workers, at least, will have a day off to recuperate. This is a holiday that many businesses do NOT observe, however, choosing instead to close on the day after Thanksgiving.  So whether you get to sleep in tomorrow or not depends on where you work.

For the space program, this week’s big event is the launch of Orbital ATK’s re-engined Antares rocket on a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).  Launch schedules are always subject to change, but at the moment it is planned for 9:13 pm ET on Thursday night (two pre-launch briefings will take place the day before).  Antares launches from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA.  It is a night launch.  Weather permitting, it should be viewable for a good-sized segment of the East Coast.  This is the first Antares flight since an October 28, 2014 failure that destroyed that rocket and a Cygnus spacecraft loaded with cargo for ISS.  This mission is designated OA-5, for Orbital ATK-5, although it is the sixth operational flight in this series.  Orbital ATK names its cargo spacecraft after deceased astronauts.  This one is named after Alan Poindexter who died in 2012 from injuries sustained in an accident.  He flew on two space shuttle missions (STS-122 as pilot, STS-131 as commander) that delivered modules to the ISS as part of its construction.

Also on Thursday night, Women in Aerospace (WIA) will hold its annual awards dinner in Arlington, VA.   Six distinguished women will receive awards — including a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award for Molly Macauley — and Patti Grace Smith, who passed away earlier this year, will also be recognized.

The annual International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS 2016) will be held in Las Cruces, New Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday, with pre- and post-events the prior and following days.  The website does not indicate if any of the symposium will be webcast.   If we find out that it will be, we’ll post the link in our calendar item about this event.   Looks really interesting, so hopefully it will be livestrearmed.

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

Sunday, October 9

• Second Presidential Debate, St. Louis, MO, 9:00-10:30 pm ET (nationally televised, check local listings)

Monday, October 10

• U.S. Federal Holiday (Columbus Day), government offices will be closed

Tuesday, October 11

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) HEO Research Subcommittee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm ET (WebEx/telecon)

Wednesday, October 12

• NASA OA-5 Pre-Launch Briefings (watch on NASA TV)
  • 1:00 pm ET, science
  • 2:00 pm ET, mission status

Wednesday-Thursday

• ISPCS 2016, Las Cruces, NM

Wednesday-Friday

• NAS Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), Beckman Center, Irvine, CA

Thursday, October 13

• GVF Applied Innovation Conference (Global VSAT Forum and Via Satellite), Intelsat HQ, McLean, VA, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm ET
• White House Frontiers Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm ET (webcast)
• WIA Annual Awards Dinner, Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, Arlington, VA, 5:30 pm ET
• Orbital ATK Antares OA-5 Launch, Wallops Island, VA, 9:13 pm ET (NASA TV coverage begins 8:15 pm ET)

Friday, October 14

• Amer Soc of Intl Law (ASIL) Conversation with UNOOSA’s Niklas Hedman, ASIL, 2223 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00-10:00 am ET
• WSBR Luncheon Featuring Smallsat Launcher Panel, Hogan Lovells US LLP, 555 13th St. NW, Washington, DC, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET
• Last day to register for next Friday’s State Department/Secure World Foundation Event on International Practices for Space Sustainability (pre-registration is REQUIRED)

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 3-7, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until November 14.

During the Week

Happy World Space Week!   In 1999, the United Nations declared October 4-10 as World Space Week to commemorate the beginning of the Space Age — October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the world’s first satellite, Sputnik — and the entry into force of the 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty (October 10, 1967).  Space agencies and other organizations around the world hold events to celebrate the occasion.  A list is on the World Space Week website.

Among the various specific space policy events coming up this week, we know of only one that has officially declared itself a World Space Week event, however.  That is the International Space University-DC (ISU-DC) U.S. alumni chapter, which is holding its next Space Cafe on Wednesday, October 5, at the The Brixton in Washington, DC.  The speaker is Dennis Stone, who is the World Space Week Association President and Project Executive of NASA’s Commercial Space Capabilities Office at Johnson Space Center.

There are many other events that could be, though, including one on Tuesday, the 59th anniversary of Sputnik, that might create quite a bang.  Blue Origin will conduct a test of its in-flight escape system for the New Shepard reusable rocket, activating it 45 seconds after launch.  Blue Origin Founder Jeff Bezos said the rocket, which has flown four times already, was not designed to withstand the forces it will experience and is not expected to survive the test (though there is a small chance it might).  Assuming it does not, he said the impact with the desert floor of the still almost fully fueled rocket “will be most impressive.”  The test will be webcast beginning at 10:50 am ET.

Rice University’s Baker Institute will hold a panel discussion entitled “Lost in Space 2016” tomorrow night (Monday) with a panel of space policy analysts and practitioners.  It is a reprise of a panel four years ago at the time of the last presidential election.   The panel will be webcast (5:30-7:30 Central/6:30-8:30 pm Eastern) and includes Mark Albrecht, Leroy Chaio, Joan Johnson-Freese, Neal Lane, Michael Lembeck, Eugene Levy, and John Logsdon, with George Abbey as moderator.  An impressive line-up.

Speaking of the election, Tuesday night (almost certainly NOT in commemoration of Sputnik’s 59th anniversary) is the one and only Vice Presidential debate between Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Mike Pence.   Fireworks are not expected, but it should be interesting nonetheless.  It is from 9:00-10:30 pm ET and will be nationally telecast (check local listings).

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, October 3

• Lost in Space 2016 panel, Rice University’s Baker Institute, Houston, TX, 5:30-7:30 pm Central/6:30-8:30 pm Eastern, webcast

Monday-Tuesday, October 3-4

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Astrophysics Subcommittee, virtual, 11:00-5:00 pm ET both days (WebEx/telecon)

Tuesday, October 4

• Blue Origin In-Flight Escape Test,  Texas, 10:50 am ET (webcast)
• NOAA Media Briefing on upcoming GOES-R Launch, AAAS, 1200 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 11:00 am ET
• Vice Presidential Debate (Pence v. Kaine), Farmville, VA, 9:00-10:30 pm ET (nationally televised, check local listings)

Tuesday-Wednesday, October 4-5

• National Academies Space Studies Board (SSB) Earth Science and Applications from Space (ESAS) Committee, Keck Center, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington, DC (available by WexEx/telecon)

Tuesday, October 4 – Monday, October 10

• World Space Week, events globally

Wednesday, October 5

• ISU-DC Space Cafe Featuring Dennis Stone, NASA/JSC and World Space Week Association President, The Brixton, 901 U Street, NW, Washington, DC, 7:00 pm ET

Wednesday-Thursday, October 5-6

• National Academies Committee on Large Strategic NASA Science Missions, Keck Center, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington, DC

Wednesday-Friday, October 5-7

• National Academies SSB Committee on Solar and Space Physics (CSSP), Keck Center, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington, DC (WebEx/telecon)

Thursday, October 6

• MEPAG, virtual, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm Pacific/11:30 am – 3:30 pm Eastern (Adobe Connect)
• NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, 10:15-11:30 am Central/11:15 am-12:30 pm Eastern), audio available

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of September 26-30, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

It’s quite a week coming up!  

For the country: the first of the three presidential debates is tomorrow (Monday) and Congress hopefully will pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government operating after Friday when fiscal year 2016 ends. The House and Senate are still working on the details of their separate versions of the CR, but they have five days left. Typically they leave appropriations deals to the last minute with the expectation that a hard deadline makes people more willing to compromise.  The alternative is a government shutdown, which is not an appealing prospect in an election year.  Word is the CR will keep the government open through December 9, by which time Congress must pass either another CR or, better yet, the actual FY2017 appropriations measures.  Typically Congress combines all 12 regular appropriations bills into a single “omnibus” measure, but House Speaker Paul Ryan reportedly would prefer several smaller “minibuses” dealing with two or three of them at a time.  The exception may be the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill, which the House wants to include in the CR this week.  We’ll see if the Senate is willing to go along with that. 

For the space policy community: the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico.  IAC is the BIG international conference that combines annual meetings of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), and the International Institute of Space Law (IISL).   IAC will webcast all the plenary sessions.  The one that has generated the most buzz is on Tuesday when Elon Musk will lay out his plans for making humanity a multiplanet species.  It’s at 1:30 pm local time in Guadalajara, which is on Central Daylight Time.  So that’s 2:30 pm Eastern.

Two congressional hearings of note are also scheduled for this week, both on Tuesday (most congressional hearings are webcast on the respective committee’s website).  In the morning, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Space Subcommittee asks “Are We Losing the Space Race to China?” and four witnesses will give their answers:  Dennis Shea, chairman of the U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission; Mark Stokes from the Project 2049 Institute; Dean Cheng from the Heritage Foundation; and Jim Lewis from CSIS.  

That afternoon, the House Armed Services Committee’s Strategic Forces Subcommittee will hear from three eminent experts on the topic of “National Security Space: 21st Century Challenges, 20th Century Organization.”  The witnesses are John Hamre, former Deputy Secretary of Defense; Adm. James Ellis, Jr. (Ret.), former commander of U.S. Strategic Command; and Marty Faga, former Director of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and former President and CEO of the MITRE Corporation.  The great advantage of being “former,” of course, is that one can speak freely.  Should be especially interesting.  

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

Monday, September 26

• WIA Presidential Transition Event, Harris Corp., 600 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC, 12:30-1:30 pm ET
• NASA Media Telecon on Hubble Observations of Jupiter’s Moon Europa, virtual, 2:00 pm ET (audio webcast)
• Presidential Debate Between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Hofstra University, Hempsted, NY, 9:00 – 10:30 pm ET (nationally televised, check local listings)

Monday-Friday, September 26-30

• International Astronautical Congress, Guadalajara, Mexico (plenary sessions will be webcast)

Tuesday, September 27

• House SS&T Sbcmt Hearing on Are We Losing the Space Race to China, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET (webcast)
• Elon Musk Session at IAC on Making Humans a Multiplanetary Species, Guadalajara, Mexico, 1:30 pm local time in Guadalajara/2:30 pm Eastern (webcast)
• HASC Sbcmt Hearing on National Security Space: 21st Century Challenges, 20th Century Organization, 2118 Rayburn, 3:30 pm ET (usually webcast)

Tuesday-Wednesday, September 27-28

• National Academies ESAS Decadal Survey Climate Panel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, MA
• National Academies Planning Cmte for Workshop on Searching for Life Across Space and Time, National Academies of Sciences Building, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW, Washington, DC

Wednesday-Friday, September 28-30

• National Academies ESAS Decadal Survey Ecosystems Panel, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA
• NASA Advisory Council Big Data Task Force, NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA

Thursday, September 29

• Public Lecture: A Space Weather Forecast: Preparing Space Explorers for Bad Weather Throughout the Solar System, by NASA’s Alex Young, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Thursday-Friday, September 29-30

• NASA Advisory Council Planetary Science Subcommittee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC

 

Correction:  An earlier edition of this article listed the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA as the location of the National Academies Workshop Planning Committee meeting on September 27-28.  It will be held in Washington, DC, not at Beckman.  The workshop itself, scheduled for December 5-6, will be held at Beckman.