Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for November 22, 2021: GWU Space Policy Institute seeks Assistant Professor; Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson to retire; a great view of Ingenuity on Mars. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next TWO weeks, November 21-December 4, 2021, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this coming week except for pro forma sessions. The Senate returns for legislative business on November 29; the House on November 30.
The top two House Republicans who oversee commercial space activities are challenging a new action by the National Transportation Safety Board to exert more authority in investigating commercial space accidents. In a letter to the NTSB they asked for more information and Rep. Brian Babin introduced a resolution stating that commercial space launch is a developmental activity, not a mode of transportation.
The House finally passed the second bill to address President Biden’s infrastructure agenda. This “human infrastructure” bill has $1.115 billion for NASA, far less than what NASA Administrator Bill Nelson once hoped for, but would be a significant boost for the agency on top of its regular appropriations nonetheless. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.
The U.S. Court of Federal Claims released the redacted report detailing why it ruled against Blue Origin in its lawsuit against NASA over the Human Landing System (HLS) contract award today. It adds details to the brief statement from Judge Richard Hertling earlier this month that confirmed NASA’s selection of SpaceX for the first HLS system.
SpaceX’s Elon Musk said today he is planning at least a dozen Starship launches in 2022, starting in January if the FAA gives approval by the end of the year as expected. Renowned for his view that humanity must become a multi-planet species to survive and begin sending millions of people to Mars this decade, his timetable for that was more reserved this time though his conviction remains fervent.
Russia confirmed today that it conducted an antisatellite test against one of its own satellites yesterday, but denied resulting debris will pose harm to other satellites or space stations. Bragging about the accuracy of the system, Russian officials insisted they violated no international agreements and did nothing that other countries have not done in the past. Meanwhile, the heads of the U.S. and Russian civil space agencies spoke via telephone and agreed on the need to protect the safety of the crews on the International Space Station.
NASA’s Inspector General does not agree the next American astronauts will arrive on the Moon in 2025, the date announced by NASA last week, which is a year later than earlier planned. A new audit released today concludes it will be 2026 at the earliest and estimates the cost of the Artemis program at $93 billion through 2025.
The U.S. Government said today that Russia conducted an antisatellite test that generated 1,500 pieces of trackable debris and thousands that are untrackable. Calling it reckless and irresponsible, officials pointed out the debris threatens not only satellites, but the astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. ISS operations are being affected. The head of Russia’s space agency will meet with NASA officials in Moscow tomorrow at a previously scheduled meeting where this topic is certain to be discussed.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 14-20, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.