Rocket Lab is getting ready to launch the Electron rocket for the first time from the United States. The launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the coast of Virginia is scheduled for 6:00 pm ET tonight. The launch is important not only because it gives Rocket Lab a foothold in the U.S. in addition to its home in New Zealand, but is the first use of a new NASA-developed Autonomous Flight Termination System expected to significantly reduce the cost of launch operations and increase launch cadence. [NEW UPDATE: The December 18 launch was scrubbed due to upper level winds. Initially Rocket Lab was going to try again on December 19, but they’ve concluded winds will still be a problem. They are assessing when the next launch attempt will be made.]

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Vice President Kamala Harris has announced the members of the external advisory group for the White House National Space Council. The 30-person list is heavy on industry representation — both traditional and novel space companies — as well as individuals from the Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics (STEAM) fields and from the climate community.

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NASA said this afternoon that it will delay a planned International Space Station spacewalk on Monday as it works with its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, to investigate the cause of a dramatic coolant leak on Russia’s Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. Instead, on Sunday, NASA will use the robotic Canadarm2 to take a look at the Soyuz to assess the spacecraft’s status and try to determine what caused the leak. Three ISS crewmembers — two Russians and one American — need that spacecraft to bring them back to Earth.

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The Senate passed the FY2023 National Defense Authorization Act tonight. Although it seemed in peril just a week ago, the bipartisan leadership of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees once again demonstrated their determination and influence to maintain a perfect record for getting the NDAA through Congress 62 years in a row. The Senate also passed and sent to the President a one-week extension to the Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded through December 23.

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Two Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station were suited up and ready to begin a spacewalk when it was called off because of a leak in the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft docked outside. The stream of particles from the leak was clearly visible in NASA TV’s live coverage. Russia is trying to determine the source of the leak and implications for the integrity of the spacecraft. Soyuz MS-22 delivered the two comonauts and NASA’s Frank Rubio to the ISS and is intended to bring them back to Earth.

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Nigeria and Rwanda today became the first African countries to sign the Artemis Accords, bringing the total number of signatories to 23. The Accords lay out principles for countries to work together effectively on the Moon and are open to all countries to sign. Originally the United States intended to require any country wanting to participate in the U.S.-led Artemis program to sign them, but they’ve evolved into a more general commitment to peaceful cooperation in civil space activities in cislunar space.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of December 11-17, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean today after a 1.4 million mile journey to, around, and back from the Moon. No people were aboard this flight, but next time there will be. This was a full-up test of the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion crew capsule as the Artemis program gears up to return astronauts to the lunar surface three years from now.

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Three small spacecraft are headed to the Moon today — a U.S. orbiter, a Japanese lander, and a UAE rover. They are more examples of what companies and countries are trying to accomplish with lower cost but higher risk small satellites travelling far from Earth. The track record so far is mixed, but they open opportunities for more participants in space exploration.

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NASA is getting ready for the return of the Orion spacecraft from its trip around the Moon. Splashdown in the Pacific will take place at 12:39 pm ET tomorrow, December 11. The mission has been going almost perfectly since launch early on November 16, but the “priority one objective” is testing the spacecraft’s heatshield and that won’t happen until the last minutes of the flight.

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