Wally Funk got her astronaut pin today, six decades after she first expected to be chosen to fly into space. The 82-year-old member of the Mercury 13 soared above 100 kilometers in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket along with Jeff Bezos, his brother, Mark, and Dutch teenager Oliver Daemen.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 18-24, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
The House Appropriations Committee approved the FY2022 funding bill for NASA today. No changes were made to the recommended funding levels, but a few modifications to language in the accompanying report were adopted. It still does not explicitly endorse the goal of putting astronauts back on the Moon by 2024, but now at least contains a nod in that direction.
The person who paid $28 million for the first seat on a passenger flight of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket will not be making the trip after all. Instead, 18-year old Oliver Daemen will fill the fourth seat. He will join Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother, Mark, and 82-year old Wally Funk, who has been waiting six decades for her chance to become an astronaut. Daemen will be the youngest person, and Funk the oldest, to fly to space.
The House Appropriations Committee released its report on the Commerce-Justice-Science bill today explaining in more detail what it wants to give NASA for FY2022 and why. The question on everyone’s mind is whether Congress will provide enough money for NASA to pay for two contractors, not one, to build systems to land astronauts on the Moon. It did not last year. This year the House committee is proposing some, but not enough to meet a 2024 deadline.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for July 13, 2021: defense appropriations bill clears House committee; NASA seeks Commercial LEO Development proposals; three companies win NASA/DOE nuclear thermal propulsion concept contracts. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
The House Appropriations Committee continued to make progress today in approving the FY2022 appropriations bills that fund space activities. Subcommittees approved the bills that fund NASA, NOAA and the FAA space office, while the full committee released the detailed report on the defense appropriations bill that will be considered tomorrow.
Billionaire businessman Richard Branson got his wish today, flying to space and winning astronaut wings from his company, Virgin Galactic. The airplane-launched Virgin Space Ship (VSS) Unity took Branson, two pilots, and three other company employees above the 50-mile threshold that the FAA uses as the line of demarcation between air and space. Clearly thrilled with the experience, the 70-year-old Branson nonetheless indicated this may be his last adventure.
The House Appropriations Committee released the draft of its FY2022 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill this afternoon. It proposes $25.04 billion for NASA, $1.77 billion more than FY2021 and about $240 million more than President Biden’s request of $24.80 billion. How much of that increase, if any, is for the Artemis Human Landing System remains unclear, though. Subcommittee markup tomorrow and full committee markup on Thursday may provide some answers.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 11-17, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is having a “committee work week” where committees are meeting, but the House meets only in pro forma sessions.