Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 23-29, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in recess except for pro forma sessions. The House also has only pro forma sessions scheduled, but committee meetings will take place.
The Trump Administration’s plan to put the Department of Commerce in charge of non-military space traffic management just won the endorsement of a congressionally-requested independent review. The National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) also agreed that the Office of Space Commerce, now part of NOAA, should be elevated to the Secretary of Commerce’s office and urged Congress to pass authorizing legislation.
NASA is growing increasingly concerned about making a final decision on what launch vehicle will be used to send Europa Clipper to Jupiter’s moon in 2025. Congress insists NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) be used, but it is substantially more expensive than a commercial rocket and now compatibility issues are arising.
NASA just established a board to make an independent assessment of the agency’s plans to bring a sample of Mars back to Earth. The Mars Perseverance rover now on its way to the Red Planet is the first step of this international effort to achieve what has long been a top priority of the planetary science community. If everything falls into place, the first samples could be back here in 2031.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 16-22, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in recess, except for pro forma sessions, until September 8. The House schedule is uncertain.
The Wall Street Journal reports that federal prosecutors have opened a criminal probe into discussions between Doug Loverro, formerly at NASA, and Boeing’s Jim Chilton when Boeing was bidding for a contract to build a system to take astronauts to the lunar surface. Loverro abruptly resigned from NASA in May saying he had made a mistake and took full responsibility, but not disclosing any of the details.
NASA announced today that the targeted launch date for the first operational flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon is October 23, 2020. The “no earlier than” date is predicated on Crew Dragon completing the certification process following the successful Demo-2 flight that ended on August 2.
The U.S. Space Force released its first space doctrine today, the foundation upon which future doctrine will evolve and “serves as a key guidepost for the ethos and values of the nation’s newest armed service.” The “capstone” doctrine, Spacepower, envisions an expansive role for Space Force far beyond Earth orbit.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 9-15, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The congressional schedule is uncertain.
The U.S. Space Force Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) announced this afternoon that the United Launch Alliance (ULA) and SpaceX are the two winners of the Phase 2 contracts for National Security Space Launches (NSSL). They beat out Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin in the hard fought competition for launch service contracts beginning in 2022.