NASA so far has been spared the dramatic workforce cutbacks affecting other parts of the government. The agency said today they are validating the “hundreds” of employees who chose deferred resignation and those on probationary status will be gone by the end of the week, but anticipated dismissals of other probationary employees apparently are on hold. At the same time, NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free is one of the top NASA officials who have chosen to retire.

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

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Rep. Brian Babin, chair of the House committee that oversees NASA and the commercial space sector, said this week that maintaining a “vibrant, prosperous commercial space sector” will be a top priority for the committee. That includes asking the Government Accountability Office to review whether the FAA’s Part 450 regulations actually are making licensing more efficient and effective as intended. Another top priority is getting Americans back on the Moon before China gets there.

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Congressman Mike Haridopolos (R-FL), the new chair of the House space subcommittee, is fully behind the current plan to return astronauts to the Moon before going to Mars. President Trump’s inaugural declaration about sending people to Mars and his close association with Elon Musk has spurred a lot of chatter that the Administration might eschew the Moon and focus only on Mars, but Congress has long championed a return to the Moon first and that does not appear to be changing.

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NASA confirmed today they will use an existing SpaceX Crew Dragon for the next routine crew replacement at the International Space Station, Crew-10, instead of a new one. The swap allows Crew-9 to come home about two weeks sooner than the most recent plan. Two of the four members of Crew-9, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, have been on ISS longer than expected because of problems with the Boeing Starliner capsule that brought them there, but more recently their stay was extended because SpaceX’s new crew capsule is not ready.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 9-15, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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Boeing told employees working on the Space Launch System program yesterday that significant layoffs may take place by April because of anticipated changes by NASA. They added they would try to minimize job losses by redeploying personnel.

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During a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister ISHIBA Shigeru yesterday, President Trump reaffirmed U.S.-Japanese space cooperation on the Artemis program. Last year Japan committed to building a pressurized lunar rover and the United States agreed to send two Japanese astronauts to the lunar surface. The confirmation may alleviate some concerns that the Artemis program may be redirected to focus on Mars instead.  Japan also is participating in the Gateway lunar space station, but the joint statement mentioned only surface exploration.

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Senators Kevin Cramer and Dan Sullivan have introduced legislation to begin implementing President Trump’s Executive Order to create a missile-defense shield he calls an Iron Dome for America. The IRONDOME Act would authorize $19.5 billion in FY2026 for a variety of missile defense systems including space-based sensors and space-based missile defense.

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Yuri Borisov has been replaced as the head of Russia’s space state corporation Roscosmos, which oversees Russia’s participation in the International Space Station and other space activities.  His successor, Dmitry Bakanov, previously headed the Gonets satellite communications company and then was deputy transportation minister.

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