NASA wants to make arrangements to use a seat on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft this spring in case anything goes awry with the U.S. commercial crew vehicles. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon delivered four astronauts to the International Space Station in the fall and another flight is scheduled for April 20, but the agency wants to ensure “dissimilar redundancy” by having the option to use Soyuz. It plans to acquire it on a no-exchange-of-funds basis.
The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) Hope probe, or Emirates Mars Mission, successfully entered orbit around Mars today after a seven month journey. The UAE turns 50 this year and the mission is intended to celebrate that anniversary and convey hope for the future. The UAE is now the fifth entity after the United States, Soviet Union/Russia, European Space Agency and India to place a spacecraft in orbit around Mars.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 7-13, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House has a committee work week.
The Biden Administration “certainly” supports the Artemis program to return American astronauts to the lunar surface according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. A day after punting on the question, she voiced strong support not only for the return to the Moon, but going on to Mars. Left unanswered, however, is what timeline they have in mind.
Eleven Democratic Senators wrote to President Biden today urging that his FY2022 budget request include robust funding for the Human Landing Systems (HLS) needed to return astronauts to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki punted on a question today about whether the White House supports Artemis, saying she had not spoken to her team about it yet.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki left no doubt today that President Biden fully supports the Space Force after a rather flippant answer yesterday raised some hackles.
SpaceX finally got approval from the FAA for another Starship test flight today, but like the one before, it ended in a spectacular explosion. The news today is less about the crash, however, which SpaceX seemed to take in stride, than the company’s compliance or lack thereof with FAA licenses.
SpaceX announced this afternoon that a wealthy entrepreneur has purchased a four-seat Crew Dragon mission that could launch as early as the end of this year. Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, is offering the other three seats to everyday people as part of his drive to make space accessible to everyone and benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. One will be chosen at random from among those who contribute to St. Jude through the mission’s website.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 31-February 6, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for January 30, 2021: Artemis Accords at UN, Bridenstine’s new job, Space Force ranks. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.