A bipartisan NASA authorization bill was introduced today by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and will be marked up by the Senate Commerce Committee next week.  It would extend the authorized lifetime of the International Space Station (ISS) from 2024 to 2030.  Along with that, it would extend a waiver Congress granted NASA from a nonproliferation law to allow it to purchase ISS-related products and services from Russia also to 2030. That waiver, which permits NASA to pay Russia for crew transportation services to and from ISS, currently expires next year.  With all the uncertainty in the commercial crew schedule, NASA is eager to have it extended in case it must buy more seats on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft.

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Today was the deadline for proposals to NASA for building a Human Landing System (HLS) to take astronauts to and from the lunar surface by 2024. Blue Origin announced the outlines of its bid two weeks ago and Boeing revealed the basics of its proposal today. It relies on an upgraded version of its Space Launch System (SLS) to launch the HLS in one shot rather than the multi-launch architecture NASA envisioned. The company calls it the “Fewest Steps to the Moon” approach.

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Boeing conducted a test of its pad abort system for the CST-100 Starliner crew capsule today at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.  The abort system is designed to protect the crew if anything goes awry during launch.  The test went well today although the deployment of one of the three main parachutes failed.  Boeing says that the system has a lot of redundancy and two parachutes are sufficient to ensure the crew’s safety.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 3-9, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House is in recess this week except for pro forma sessions and will return on November 12 (after the Veterans Day holiday). The Senate is in session beginning Tuesday. …

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One of the instruments on NASA’s Insight Mars lander, called a mole, is behaving unexpectedly.  Scientists are still trying to understand why, but even if it ultimately cannot deliver on providing measurements of the planet’s heat flow, all is not lost.  In an interview, Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt pointed out that new data about the properties of Martian soil could be an unexpected bonus that will inform future exploration by robots and humans. …

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Today the Senate passed a package of appropriations bills including those that fund NASA, NOAA and the FAA’s space office.  While there is no guarantee they will be finalized before the Continuing Resolution (CR) expires on November 21, it is a positive development in the FY2020 funding saga.  On the other hand, the package that includes defense appropriations failed a procedural motion and remains in limbo.

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As promised, Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) introduced his “skinny” version of the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today.  The intent is to have a scaled-down version of the NDAA that is non-controversial and can pass easily if conference negotiations on the complete bill remain stalled. It is just that.  Skinny, lacking most of the policy and funding recommendations typical of the annual NDAA, including any mention of the Space Force that President Trump is eager to create.

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Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for October 28, 2019: X-37B back home after 780 days; AF wants input on future launch architecture; GWU Space Policy Institute job opening; Isakowitz Fellowship applications open.  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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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 27-November 2, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week. …

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NASA announced plans today to send a golf cart-sized rover to the South Pole of the Moon in 2022.  Called VIPER, it will move around the lunar surface not only to quantity how much water ice is present, but to sample it.  Earlier probes confirmed the existence of water ice, and scientists have offered estimates of how much is there, but NASA needs more data as it readies plans to return astronauts to the Moon.

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