The Senate confirmed Army Lt. Gen. James Dickinson as a General and the new Commander of U.S. Space Command today, along with four nominations for high level positions in the U.S. Space Force. Space Command was reestablished almost exactly one year ago after a 17-year hiatus. Space Force was created anew as a sixth military service in December. The confirmations mark new milestones for both as they stand up their organizations.
Mike Freilich, who led NASA’s earth science program for more than a decade, has lost his battle with cancer. Highly respected and admired not only in the United States but internationally, Europe named one of its satellites in his honor earlier this year. His legacy is not only the earth science satellite programs he nurtured at NASA, but his passionate advocacy for interagency and international cooperation to obtain and analyze the scientific data needed to understand and protect our changing planet.
Just two days after ushering in an era of commercial human orbital spaceflight with the splashdown of Crew Dragon, SpaceX scored another success. A brief “hop” of a prototype of its Starship vehicle — following aborts yesterday and earlier today — is one more step towards Elon Musk’s goal of building a huge rocket to take people to the Moon and Mars.
The Senate passed the PROSWIFT space weather bill on July 27, another step along what has been a long path for the legislation. It is a compromise with a version adopted by the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in January that includes a provision calling for NOAA to create a commercial space weather data pilot program akin to its commercial weather data program. All that is needed now is passage by the House and a signature from the President, which would mark the end of a five-year effort.
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are back on Earth, completing a successful crewed flight test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. It is the last test towards certifying the system for routine operational missions to and from the International Space Station, which are expected to begin in September.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 2-8, 2020 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House schedule is uncertain.
The crew of SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission is on their way home after two months in space. The crewed test flight of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is the last step towards certification of the vehicle for operational flights. As NASA and SpaceX officials often say, the test is not over until “Bob and Doug” — NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley — are back on terra firma.
The House passed the FY2021 funding bill that includes NASA, NOAA and the FAA today. Overall, there were only minor changes to the recommendations of the House Appropriations Committee. Efforts to add $2.6 billion to NASA’s budget and to elevate the Office of Space Commerce to the Secretary of Commerce’s office failed. The next step is action by the Senate, which has not marked up any of its FY2021 appropriations bills yet.
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover, carrying the Ingenuity helicopter, began its journey to Mars this morning. It is the third Mars probe to launch from Earth in the past two weeks, joining spacecraft from the United Arab Emirates and China as the Red Planet continues to entice scientists to unveil its past, especially whether life existed there in ancient times.
A tropical storm expected to form and head towards Florida is not deterring NASA and SpaceX from preparing to bring the Demo-2 crew back to Earth on Sunday. It will splash down on either the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of the state. The track of the storm, to be named Isaias, could threaten all seven potential Demo-2 splashdown sites. The storm will not affect the launch of NASA’s Mars Perseverance mission tomorrow morning.