Three new International Space Station (ISS) crew members lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:45 am EDT. NASA’s Kate Rubins and her two Russian colleagues are the first to take a super-fast trajectory to the ISS and will dock just three hours after launch. This is the last Soyuz seat NASA has purchased from Russia now that the SpaceX Crew Dragon is about to begin operations, but NASA officials expect U.S. astronauts to continue riding on Soyuz, and Russians on U.S. systems, in the future. [UPDATE: The crew docked at 4:48 am EDT.]

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Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for October 13, 2020: latest SLS Green Run and launch dates, Blue Origin scores another success, Arecibo update. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.

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In what NASA officials insist is “just the beginning,” the first tranche of countries have agreed to the Artemis Accords setting forth principles of behavior for partners in the U.S.-led Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon. Joining the United States are Australia, Canada, Japan, Italy, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. More are expected to sign later this year with additional countries joining in the years ahead.

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Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency, wants an agreement to extend the lifetime of the International Space Station (ISS) to 2028 or 2030. The ISS partners are discussing it, but whatever the outcome, Russia is committed to keeping cosmonauts in low Earth orbit indefinitely. As for the Moon, Russia is unlikely to participate in the Artemis lunar-orbiting Gateway because it is too “U.S.-centric,” but he wants to ensure a standardization of interfaces so Russian spacecraft can dock there as well.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 11-17, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate chambers will meet only in pro forma sessions, but some committees will hold hearings.

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SpaceX’s first operational Crew Dragon mission to the International Space Station (ISS), Crew-1, has been delayed from October 31 to early-to-mid November. Crew Dragon is launched by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. NASA said this afternoon that SpaceX is investigating an anomaly in the Falcon 9’s first stage engines during a recent non-NASA launch attempt. Two other NASA missions awaiting launch by Falcon 9 rockets could also be affected.

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Boeing astronaut Chris Ferguson is stepping aside as commander of the Starliner Crew Flight Test (CFT) scheduled for next summer. In a tweet, he said he has family commitments he does not want to miss. The flight was originally scheduled for this year, but Boeing is still working to fix problems with the spacecraft discovered during an uncrewed flight test in December. Ferguson will be replaced by NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore.

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Rep. Kendra Horn said today she is hopeful that a NASA authorization bill will pass this year. A bipartisan bill cleared her space subcommittee in January, but further action was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The House bill has many differences from a Senate version that also is awaiting action as the clock ticks down on the 116th Congress.

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The Space Development Agency (SDA) made two awards today for another layer of its Tranche 0 National Defense Space Architecture (NDSA). SpaceX and L3Harris will build satellites for the tracking layer of the space-based portion of the missile defense system. It is SpaceX’s first contract to build national security satellites rather than launching them.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 4-10, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate schedules are uncertain.

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