NASA and Roscosmos have agreed to temporarily move the custom-made seat liner for NASA astronaut Frank Rubio from Soyuz MS-22 to Crew Dragon Endurance. Soyuz MS-22’s thermal control system is compromised and cannot safely support the three crew members, including Rubio, it delivered to ISS, but might be able to handle two. In the unlikely event an emergency requires evacuating ISS between now and when a replacement Soyuz arrives, Rubio would come home with four other crew members in Endurance, while his two Russian colleagues use Soyuz MS-22.

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The United States and Japan are strengthening their ties in both the military and civilian space arenas this week while Japanese Prime Minister KISHIDA Fumio and top officials visit Washington. The two countries agreed that Article V of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty could be invoked for attacks to, from, or within space and signed a new Space Framework Agreement for cooperation between NASA and Japan. …

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Virgin Orbit announced formation of an investigation team today to discover why the second stage of its LauncherOne rocket failed Monday night, dooming nine satellites. After corrective actions are made, the next launch will be from its usual launch site in California, but the company plans to return to Spaceport Cornwall perhaps as soon as the end of this year. Also today, its sister company, Virgin Galactic, gave an update on when it expects commercial flights to begin.

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Russia’s space agency announced today that it will send up an empty Soyuz spacecraft to replace Soyuz MS-22 and bring home two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut later this year. They were supposed to come back on Soyuz MS-22 in March, but a coolant leak caused by a micrometeoroid strike left the spacecraft unsafe for human occupancy. Soyuz-23 will arrive in February. The crew will extend their stay on ISS, but for exactly how long is to be determined.

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Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) expressed optimism and enthusiasm about NASA’s future today as he takes the gavel as chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. A 20-year veteran of the committee, Lucas acknowledged the House’s new Republican majority is focused on cutting government spending, making it imperative to justify the resources that will be needed to keep the United States ahead of foreign competitors in space.

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The first orbital launch from the United Kingdom didn’t go as planned Monday evening. After initially tweeting that the satellites attained orbit, Virgin Orbit had to backtrack and concede “an anomaly prevented us from reaching orbit.” The company later amended that to say they did not reach the “final orbit” suggesting some type of orbit was achieved, but it is not clear that was the case. …

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 8-14, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House is in session this week. The Senate is in recess until January 23 except for pro forma sessions.

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In the early hours this morning, the House finally elected Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as Speaker, allowing the chamber to get down to business. Until now, members could not be sworn in and the House could not adopt rules to organize for the 118th Congress. The change from Democratic to Republican control marks a return to divided government, with Democrats retaining the Senate and White House. Cutting non-defense government spending is a top priority for the House Republican majority, which could have a significant impact on NASA’s aspirations, as would gridlock.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next two weeks, January 1-14, 2023, and any insight we can offer about them. The House will be in session most of that time. The Senate plans to be in session only on January 3 to swear in Senators and adopt housekeeping resolutions, with the expectation they will reach agreement that January 23 will be the first day for bill introductions.

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As NASA and Roscosmos determine what to do about the Soyuz MS-22 situation, one potential option is using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Endurance to bring all seven ISS crew members home. Crew Dragon actually is designed for seven people, but NASA needs only four seats so that is the number in Endurance right now. NASA is asking SpaceX what it would take to accommodate the three who arrived on Soyuz MS-22 as well.

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