Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is suing NASA in federal court over its award of a lunar lander contract only to SpaceX instead of two companies as originally planned. Bezos continues to insist the acquisition process was flawed even after losing an appeal to the Government Accountabilty Office.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson revealed earlier this year that he was seeking $11.5 billion as part of the infrastructure/jobs bill to pay for a second Human Landing System for the Artemis program, repairing and upgrading NASA facilities, and other needs that were not included in the agency’s FY2022 budget request. That now has grown to $15.7 billion. The likelihood of getting any or all of it is anyone’s guess.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next TWO weeks, August 15-28, 2021, and any insight we can offer about them. The House will be in session for legislative business on August 23-24, a change from its prior schedule. The Senate is in recess, except for pro forma sessions, until September 13.
Launch of Boeing’s second flight test of its Starliner commercial crew spacecraft has been delayed indefinitely. The company and NASA announced today that Starliner will have to go back to the factory for further troubleshooting after 13 valves in its propulsion system failed to open hours before a scheduled launch on August 3. The root cause of the failure still is not understood.
NASA’s Inspector General added another obstacle to NASA achieving its goal of returning astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024 — lunar spacesuits. In a report released today, the IG concluded that a human lunar landing in 2024 is “not feasible” if for no other reason than that the spacesuits, or Extravehicular Mobility Units, will not be ready at least until April 2025.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 8-14, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session for at least part of this week. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions for the rest of the month.
NASA’s Perseverance rover came up empty this week in its first attempt to collect a sample of Mars, but its companion, the Ingenuity helicopter, continues to fly high, making its 11th trip. Mars is a busy place these days. Two more rovers, NASA’s Curiosity and China’s Zhurong, are exploring other parts of the planet while NASA’s InSight lander gathers data about Mars’ inner depths.
SpaceX mated the first and second stages of its massive Starship rocket today for the first time. The 120-meter rocket is the tallest ever built and completely reusable. While not quite ready for launch, that day is getting closer as company founder and CEO Elon Musk pursues his vision of making humanity a multi-planet species.
Boeing is still trying to figure out what went wrong with the propulsion system for its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft hours before it was set to launch on its second uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT-2). The spacecraft and its rocket were rolled back to a protective shelter today for more intensive detective work to discover why valve indications show the wrong position.
The highly anticipated launch of Boeing’s Orbital Flight Test-2 (OFT-2) of its CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft was scrubbed today for technical reasons. A new launch date has not been set, but it will not be tomorrow.