Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of March 6-13, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session for part of this week.
The 15-nation International Space Station partnership has survived cost overruns, schedule delays, a space shuttle tragedy, space debris near misses, and terrestrial geopolitical challenges for almost three decades, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is different. Other space science and commercial space cooperation has fallen apart in the past week and the once-unthinkable prospect of trying to operate ISS without Russia isn’t so unthinkable anymore.
OneWeb announced today it is suspending all launches of its satellites from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome. The next had been scheduled for tomorrow. The decison is in response to unacceptable demands by Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency, after sanctions were imposed by Western governments following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Separately, Rogozin continued his retaliation against U.S. sanctions by ending sales of and support services for Russian RD-180 and RD-181 rocket engines for U.S. launch vehicles, saying the companies could use “broomsticks” instead.
The head of Russia’s space agency took aim at cooperation with the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe today both in words and actions. Not only did he threaten to prevent Friday’s launch of 36 OneWeb communications satellites unless the UK government divests itself as a OneWeb shareholder, but hinted that Russia may reconsider cooperating on the International Space Station unless the Americans “cool down.”
NASA Inspector General Paul Martin told a congressional subcommittee today that each of the first four Artemis missions will cost $4.1 billion and projected the agency will spend $53 billion on Artemis from FY2021-2025. Even at that, he predicts the first astronauts will not return to the Moon until at least 2026. Other witnesses at the House hearing forecast dates between 2025 and 2027, but the hearing overall was strongly supportive of Artemis and its ultimate goal of putting people on Mars.
NASA’s head of space operations, Kathy Lueders, expressed confidence today that the ISS partnership will transcend the current geopolitical crisis. She spoke at a press conference in advance of the launch of the first private astronaut crew, Axiom-1, to the ISS, scheduled for March 30. No changes are anticipated for that mission or the return of three ISS crewmembers from the ISS the same day.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to rattle space cooperation. The European Space Agency said today the September launch of its Mars rover as part of the Russian-European ExoMars 2022 mission is “very unlikely.” But a top NASA official reinforced earlier U.S. statements that operations of the International Space Station, a partnership among the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, remain unaffected. Meanwhile the head of Russia’s space agency changed his Twitter profile photo to show himself in uniform and made more incendiary remarks.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 27-March 5, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine were expected to impact Russia’s space program, but Russia is pushing back today by suspending launches of its Soyuz rocket from Europe’s launch base in French Guiana and stopping cooperation with NASA on a planetary science mission. But the two major cooperative programs, the International Space Station and ExoMars, appear to still be on track. Whether that will remain true in the days and weeks ahead is difficult to forecast.
President Biden and U.S. allies announced new sanctions today against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Among them are further export controls, but NASA says they will not affect U.S.-Russian civil space cooperation. That includes operations of the International Space Station.