Axiom Space and the United Arab Emirates announced today that a UAE astronaut will spend six months aboard the International Space Station next year. Their arrangement fulfills a deal NASA made with Axiom last year that allowed NASA’s Mark Vande Hei to fly to the ISS on a Soyuz spacecraft even though NASA’s contract with Russia’s space agency had expired. Whoever flies this mission will be the second UAE astronaut to visit the ISS, but the first on a long-duration mission.

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Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced today that Richard DalBello will be the new Director of NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce. OSC has been without a permanent director since the change of administrations 15 months ago. She also said the office will be elevated to a higher level within NOAA, a step recommended by the Senate Appropriations Committee among others.

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Four astronauts lifted off from Kennedy Space Center this morning at 3:52:55 am ET headed to the International Space Station. The launch took place less than two days after a private astronaut crew returned from ISS. The dizzying pace of activities at ISS will continue with the crew docking later tonight and a Russian spacewalk starting tomorrow morning. [UPDATE: they docked at 7:37 pm ET.]

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The new National Academies Decadal Survey for planetary science weighs in on NASA’s planetary defense program for the first time, fully endorsing it. In particular, it strongly supports the NEO Surveyor mission to accelerate the search for potentially hazardous Near Earth Objects to comply with congressional direction to locate and catalog NEOs 140-meters or more in diameter. However, NASA’s FY2023 budget request proposes a two-year delay.

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The first U.S.-sponsored private astronaut mission to the International Space Station is back on Earth today a week late because of weather delays. The four-man Axiom-1 crew was supposed to spend 10 days in space, eight of them on the ISS, but high winds around Florida gave them bonus days, almost doubling their space station visit.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of April 24-30, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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The much-anticipated Decadal Survey for Planetary Science and Astrobiology hit the streets today. Experts spent two years deliberating over the key planetary science questions to be addressed over the next 10 years — a decade — and agreed that the top priorities are finishing two flagship programs recommended in the last Decadal Survey: Europa Clipper and Mars Sample Return. For this round, they identified Uranus as next in line, pointing out that the Ice Giant may be the most common type of planet in the universe, but one we have investigated the least.

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Vice President Kamala Harris announced today that the United States will not conduct debris-generating direct-ascent antisatellite tests, leading by example to establish international norms of responsible behavior in space. The U.S. is one of four countries that have launched missiles to impact their own satellites to demonstrate they have the ability to destroy others. Russia conducted the most recent such test in November, imperiling the astronauts and cosmonauts in the International Space Station.

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NASA is still deciding how and when to proceed with the Wet Dress Rehearsal test for the Artemis I mission. The test was scrubbed three times. Now the agency has decided to bring the Space Launch System rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building while a contractor upgrades equipment to supply gaseous nitrogen needed to purge propellant lines. NASA conceded today that launching Artemis I in early June is no longer in the cards and is looking at the June 29-July 12 window instead.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of April 17-24, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess, except for pro forma sessions.

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