Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are proceeding with preparations to take office on January 20 even though President Trump has not conceded.  They named members of their Agency Review Teams, or “landing parties” today to interact with current agency officials to help ensure a seamless transition on Inauguration Day. NASA’s team will be led by Ellen Stofan, a former NASA Chief Scientist, and the Department of Commerce team includes former astronaut Kathy Sullivan.

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Chief of Space Operations (CSO) Gen. Jay Raymond issued planning guidance for the U.S. Space Force this morning as the newest military service closes in on its first anniversary. The news was somewhat overshadowed this afternoon by President Trump’s firing of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, but Esper’s departure should not have any impact on Raymond’s plans for moving forward. Boldness is his watchword.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 8-14, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House chamber will meet only in pro forma sessions, but at least one hearing is scheduled.

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Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) expressed enthusiasm for the Artemis program today, but with the caveat that an “accurate” timeframe needs to be set.  Getting back to the Moon by 2024 would have an “enormous” cost. She sees passage of a NASA authorization bill as important for setting NASA’s priorities and while she could not promise it would happen by the end of this year, she is confident it will no later than early 2021.

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Two days after polls closed in the 2020 U.S. elections, ballots are still being counted in a number of states and the results are too close to call for President and some congressional races.  Patience is the watchword as everyone sits on tenterhooks to see if January 20, 2021 will be inauguration day for a new President Biden or a second term for President Trump. The congressional landscape turned out much better for Republicans than almost anyone imagined and control of the Senate may not be determined until January.

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Rocket Lab announced today that it will try to recover the first stage of its Electron rocket on the very next launch, number 16, later this month, rather than waiting for the 17th as planned. This launch already has garnered special interest not only because it will place 30 small satellites and a 3-D printed gnome into orbit, but because 1 dollar will be donated to a children’s hospital in New Zealand for every person who views it on Rocket Lab’s website.

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A former NASA astronaut will join the ranks of the Senate in January, while two other notable space supporters, one in the Senate and one in the House, will be leaving according to election results called by the Associated Press (AP).  Votes are still being counted, but two have already conceded.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 1-7, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate will meet only in pro forma sessions this election week.

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Samples of the asteroid Bennu collected by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft are safely secure in their return canister for the more than 200 million mile trip back to Earth. So much material was obtained last week that it overfilled the container and some start drifting off into space. The government-academia-industry team quickly changed plans, skipping some steps and hastening others to make sure the bulk of it was stowed for the return trip home to scientists eagerly awaiting its arrival in 2023.

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NASA and SpaceX held a teleconference today to explain the Falcon 9 engine problem that led to a delay for the Crew-1 flight to the International Space Station.  SpaceX has determined and fixed the cause of the anomaly that scrubbed the launch of a DOD GPS III satellite on a Falcon 9 earlier this month, but some changes were required and NASA wants to see the GPS III launch take place before finally committing to launching Crew-1 on November 14.

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