Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit scored a success today on its second try to reach orbit. The LauncherOne air-launched rocket delivered 10 NASA-sponsored cubesats on this second demonstration mission, Demo-2, after its first attempt failed last May.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 17-23, 2021 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate will be in session for part of the week. The House schedule has not been announced.
The much-anticipated hot fire test of the Space Launch System (SLS) core stage ended today after about one minute instead of the scheduled eight minutes. NASA is assessing the situation before deciding on next steps. What impact it will have on prospects to launch the first SLS this year, three years later than originally promised, is undetermined.
In these closing days of the Trump Administration, the White House National Space Council is still hard at work. Today it released a seventh Space Policy Directive, this one on positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) policy, and a final report recapping its accomplishments over the past four years. Perhaps the best known PNT system in the world is DOD’s Global Positioning System (GPS), an increasingly essential part of our everyday lives.
The Air Force announced today that Huntsville, AL is the preferred location for the headquarters of U.S. Space Command. The carefully worded statement indicated, however, that a final choice will not be made until 2023. USSPACECOM is temporarily located in Colorado Springs, CO and Republican Congressman Doug Lamborn already has written to President-elect Joe Biden asking him to reverse the decision.
Japan has formally agreed to participate in the lunar-orbiting Gateway space station that is part of NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon. A declaration of intent signed last year paved the way for this agreement. The European Space Agency and Canada also have signed on.
NASA is still aiming for the first launch of the Space Launch System (SLS) this year if Saturday’s “hot fire” test goes as planned. The first SLS core stage, fitted with its four RS-25 engines, is on a test stand in Mississippi waiting for that last of eight Green Run tests where all four engines will fire simultaneously for 485 seconds.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 10-16, 2021 (with January 17 as a bonus) and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is scheduled to meet only in pro forma sessions through January 19, although one committee hearing is scheduled for this week. The House schedule is in flux.
ESA Director General Jan Woerner announced today that he will step aside at the end of February instead of June as earlier planned. His successor, Josef Aschbacher, heads ESA’s earth observation programs, one of the reasons Woerner cited as enabling a shorter transition period.
NASA today set January 17 as the date for the long-awaited hot fire test of the core stage of the Space Launch System (SLS). It is the last of eight tests in the Green Run series in preparation for the first SLS launch, scheduled for November 2021, that will send an uncrewed Orion spacecraft around the Moon as a step towards returning astronauts to the lunar surface. [UPDATE: NASA HAS MOVED THIS TEST UP ONE DAY, TO JANUARY 16.]