NASA’s Artemis II crewed test flight is just over a year away.  That April 2026 mission appears to be on track, but questions remain about whether the next flight, Artemis III, will be ready to put a crew on the lunar surface and return them to Earth in mid-2027. SpaceX’s Starship Human Landing System is a critical element that still has to demonstrate a number of technical milestones, including a precursor uncrewed landing — and liftoff — from the Moon.

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The U.S. Space Force certified the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) Vulcan rocket today, making it eligible to launch national security satellites. Two successful test flights are needed to win certification. The first went perfectly in January 2024, but a hiccup with the second in October delayed the process until now.

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As NASA’s space science program faces an uncertain funding future, the director of one of the country’s top space science laboratories cites lower launch costs, higher risk tolerance for robotic missions, and technological advancements as factors that could help the balance sheet. But keeping a steady cadence of competed missions in the Discovery and New Frontiers series is critical for the planetary science ecosystem.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 23-29, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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Firefly Aerospace’s first mission to the Moon was a complete success according to the company and its customer, NASA.  The Blue Ghost Mission-1 (BGM-1) lander operated for the entire 14-days of its expected lifetime, operating all 10 NASA experiments and transmitting amazing images of the lunar surface, a Sun-Earth eclipse, and lunar sundown.  BGM-1’s lifetime on the Moon may have come to an end, but analysis of the 51 gigabytes of science data it sent back is just beginning.

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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams and their Crew-9 crewmates Nick Hague and Aleksandr (“Alex”) Gorbunov splashed down near Florida this afternoon. Butch and Suni’s extended stay on the ISS captured a great deal of attention although at 286 days they are well short of the 371-day record set by Frank Rubio for the longest U.S. space mission.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 16-22, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions.

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Crew-10 arrived at the International Space Station just after midnight March 16.  Commander Anne McClain (NASA), pilot Nichole Ayers (NASA), and mission specialists Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and Kirill Peskov (Roscosmos) soon entered the ISS and began their multi-month mission on the ISS. They are replacing Crew-9, which will come home in a few days.

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The Senate passed a bill tonight to keep the government operating through the end of the fiscal year. Ordinarily that would be good news, but many Democrats strongly oppose the bill. They blame Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for allowing it to pass and giving President Trump and Elon Musk free reign to cut government programs that support working Americans.

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Space’s Crew Dragon Endurance lifted off from Kennedy Space Center this evening carrying Crew-10 to the International Space Station, two days later than planned. When they arrive at the ISS late tomorrow, they will be greeted by the seven astronauts currently living and working there. Among them are Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the NASA astronauts who have become famous because their 8-day test flight on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft last summer turned into a 9-month mission first because of problems with Starliner and then delays with a new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. …

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