Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of March 27-April 3, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week. …
April 3 is set to be a big day at Kennedy Space Center, but it remains to be seen whether it’s a big day for a long-awaited Artemis I test or the launch of the first U.S. private astronaut crew to the International Space Station. Sitting on adjacent launch pads, only one can actually take place that day. NASA is eager to get the Artemis I test done, but launching the Axiom-1 crew has to fit into the crowded schedule of missions to the ISS. NASA’s head of space operations calls the scheduling challenge a “good problem to have.”
NASA continues to work its way through how to procure Human Landing Systems to take astronauts from lunar orbit down to and back from the surface as part of the Artemis program. SpaceX won a contract to build one for the first Artemis landing, but NASA plans several more and wants a second provider to ensure competition and redundancy. Today the agency said it will solicit proposals through a Sustaining Lunar Development contract that modifies previously announced plans. The lunar landings are a step towards sending people to Mars. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said he expects that to happen in the late 2030s or 2040s.
Len Fisk, president of COSPAR, reaffirmed today that all space scientists, including from Russia, are welcome at the organization’s meeting in Athens this summer despite the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine. Some international organizations are limiting or suspending participation by Russians, but COSPAR argues that “science is platform for dialogue even in times of profound geopolitical conflict.” It’s not business as usual, though. Joint projects with Russia will not be encouraged as they would have been in the past.
NASA revealed significant changes to two of its flagship planetary science missions at today’s Space Science Week meeting at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. The cost for Europa Clipper, which will gather data as it makes multiple swingbys of Jupiter’s moon Europa, has grown from $4.25 billion to $5 billion. Separately, NASA and ESA are replanning the Mars Sample Return mission. Two landers are needed instead of one to retrieve samples from the surface of Mars and boost them into orbit for their trip back to Earth. The launches will be in 2028 instead of 2026.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 20-26, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions.
As scheduled long before Russia invaded Ukraine, three Russian cosmonauts launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome today and arrived at the International Space Station to begin a normal tour of duty. With the exception of the individual who heads Russia’s space program, NASA and its ISS partners, including the Russians who work with their NASA counterparts on a daily basis, have maintained a sense of calm professionalism as the international crew aboard the ISS circles Earth every 90 minutes despite the geopolitical turmoil below.
The European Space Agency’s governing council made the “agonizing” decision today to suspend the European-Russian ExoMars mission scheduled for launch in September. ESA earlier said the launch was unlikely after European countries imposed sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but made clear today it is “impossible.” ESA officials said they are beginning to assess options, but the earliest it could launch is 2026.
NASA’s Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center this evening on the way to its launch pad for the first time. About two weeks from now, the agency will conduct a Wet Dress Rehearsal — a practice countdown while the rocket is fueled. If all goes well, the first launch, Artemis I, could take place in June.
The James Webb Space Telescope has marked another milestone as it proceeds through several months of commissioning before it is ready for scientific operations. Today NASA released the first crisp image of a star demonstrating that the 18 segments of the telescope’s primary mirror are now correctly aligned. Scientific-quality images are still a few months away, but this one whets the appetite of what’s to come.