Officials from NASA and Roscosmos projected an air of camaraderie today as the first Russian cosmonaut prepares to fly on the next Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station. Russians routinely flew on the U.S. space shuttle, but this is the first time on the newest U.S. crew space transportation system and comes amidst a tense geopolitical climate because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine plus new leadership at Russia’s space agency.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 31-August 6, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House has begun its summer recess and is not scheduled to return for legislative business until mid-September, but that could change.

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China’s Long March-5B rocket made an uncontrolled reentry this afternoon EDT over the Indian Ocean near Borneo and the Philippines. Videos posted to Twitter by residents in the area are widely accepted, though not confirmed, as showing it breaking apart as it plummets through the atmosphere. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson criticized China for not sharing trajectory data during the reentry.

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The new head of Russia’s space agency, Yuri Borisov, clarified Russia’s space station plans today in an interview with Russian television. Russia is not planning to suddenly leave the International Space Station partnership in 2024 as some media reports said earlier this week, but is assessing how much longer the Russian modules can last and preparing for what comes next. He reiterated that Russia will fulfill its commitment to the other ISS partners and provide the required one-year’s notice when the time comes.

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The Senate Appropriations Committee released the “chairman’s mark” for all 12 FY2023 appropriations bills today. The committee approved NASA’s full request, $25.974 billion, although it made some changes to how that funding is allocated. Negotiations can now commence with the House Appropriations Committee, which approved half a billion dollars less than the request.

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The House passed the first NASA authorization bill in five years today. It is part of a bill that has strong support by President Biden, the CHIPS and Science Act, and he could sign it by the end of the week. A policy bill, it does not provide any funding for NASA or even recommendations for funding, but lays out bipartisan and bicameral support for NASA’s human spaceflight, science, technology, and aeronautics programs. Among the highlights are extending the U.S. commitment to the International Space Station through 2030, enthusiasm for returning astronauts to the Moon and going on to Mars, and launching a space telescope dedicated to finding asteroids that might threaten Earth.

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NASA and ESA announced a major change of plans today for the Mars Sample Return campaign. The two agencies will still work together to return the samples now being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover, but Perseverance itself will transport the samples to their departure point for the trip back to Earth instead of an ESA rover. Not only that, but NASA will send two more helicopters to Mars to provide a backup method for retrieving the samples in case something goes awry with Perseverance. ESA still is providing the spacecraft to make the trip back to Earth and a robotic transfer arm. …

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Boeing revealed today that it is taking another charge against earnings for its Starliner commercial crew program for taking NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Starliner is a Public-Private Partnership with NASA through a fixed price contract, so Boeing must absorb any cost increases due to technical problems and resulting delays. Starliner’s Orbital Flight Test-2 succeeded in May, but it was far behind schedule. …

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A very large Chinese rocket is about to make an uncontrolled reentry, posing a threat to large portions of the globe. The Long March-5B launched China’s Wentian space station module into orbit on July 24. Like two predecessors, this rocket does not have onboard systems to direct its reentry into an unpopulated area. The U.S. Aerospace Corporation is closely monitoring it and periodically publishing updated estimates using available data. At the moment the prediction is sometime between Saturday and Sunday morning EDT.

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The new head of Russia’s space agency reiterated today what his predecessor said in the past that Russia plans to leave the International Space Station and build its own space station. The new director, Yuri Borisov, said the decision has been made to leave the ISS “after 2024,” but was not specific about when. The United States and Russia just signed an agreement to fly each other’s crew members to and from the ISS through June 2025. The White House and NASA stressed they have received no official notification of Russian plans to withdraw.

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