President Trump has nominated Matt Anderson, a retired Air Force pilot who now works for CACI International, to be NASA Deputy Administrator.  Anderson would replace Pam Melroy, another retired Air Force Colonel though Melroy also was a NASA astronaut who piloted and commanded space shuttle missions. Anderson may not have NASA experience, but he has connections to the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, and the Space Force Association.

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Laurie Leshin is stepping down as the Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on June 1.  Dave Gallagher, JPL’s Associate Director for Strategic Integration, will be her successor. Leshin’s three-year tenure has been marked by great successes like the launch of Europa Clipper, but also challenges that range from protecting JPL from the fires that engulfed the Los Angeles area earlier this year to trying to find a way forward for the troubled Mars Sample Return mission.

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The head of the European Space Agency responded to the Trump Administration’s proposed deep cuts to NASA programs today by saying ESA still wants to cooperate with NASA, but will be assessing alternative scenarios. The two space agencies have a long, extensive history of cooperation in human and robotic spaceflight that today includes the International Space Station, the Artemis program, and scientific missions like Mars Sample Return. All of those would be upended if the proposed cuts are enacted.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 4-10, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

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President Trump released a “skinny” version of his FY2026 budget request today with top-line numbers for NASA and other parts of the government funded by annual appropriations.  The detailed budget request will be released later this month.  Deep cuts to NASA were expected and are born out in the proposal, which reduces NASA’s budget by 24 percent. Human spaceflight gets a boost, including $1 billion in investments for human Mars exploration, but everything else is down. Reaction from Congress and the aerospace community is a combination of shock and a reminder that this is just one step in a lengthy process, not a final result.

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China’s Shenzhou-19 space station crew landed in Inner Mongolia early this morning Eastern Daylight Time, about a day later than planned because of bad weather at the landing site.  Their replacements on Shenzhou-20 arrived at Tiangong-3 last week, continuing permanent occupancy of China’s space station. Two of the Shenzhou-19 taikonauts set a new world record of 9 hours and 6 minutes for a single spacewalk.

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President Trump’s nomination of Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA Administrator was approved by committee this morning by a vote of 19-9.  All Republicans and four Democrats voted in favor of the nomination. Nine Democrats voted no.  The next step will be a vote by the full Senate, but the timing is unclear.

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The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) approved the reconciliation package it crafted with the Senate Armed Services Committee to spend an additional $150 billion on defense through FY2034. It is the first step in a process to enact President Trump’s agenda to cut government spending, but at the same time make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, provide additional tax cuts, and add spending for defense, energy and border security. The bill includes about $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile shield that envisions space-based interceptors.

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Weather cooperated tonight and the United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket sent the first 27 operational Project Kuiper satellites into orbit for Amazon.  Similar to SpaceX’s Starlink system, Project Kuiper will grow into a constellation of more than 3,000 satellites to provide Internet broadband services via satellite around the globe.

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After just coming back from seven months on the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Don Pettit insists there is no reason to “dump” it into the ocean in 2030.  It has a lot of life left and with proper maintenance could last as long as the Air Force’s legendary B-52 airplanes.  He also hopes for one or two more trips to space. At 70, he’s seven years younger than the current record-holder for orbital flight — John Glenn, who made his second spaceflight at the age of 77.

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