Key Democrats on the House and Senate authorizing committees that oversee space activities are questioning the Department of Transportation and NASA about the roles Elon Musk is playing at those agencies and whether they present potential conflicts of interest.
NASA is pausing the activities and meetings of community-based groups that provide input to NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. The plan is to lift the suspensions after NASA ensures the groups’ activities comply with directives being issued by the White House, including those that terminate government diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Boeing said it experienced a total of $523 million in losses in the Starliner Commercial Crew Program in 2024. That brings to $2 billion the amount Boeing has had to pay for overruns on the fixed-price contract with NASA to build a space transportation system to ferry crews to and from the International Space Station. Boeing is still trying to figure out exactly what went wrong with the propulsion system on the Crew Flight Test mission last year and how to get Starliner ready for operational flights.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 2-8, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Two separate news stories out of NASA have a common theme — asteroids. One set of scientists released findings from analysis of samples from the asteroid Bennu returned by the OSIRIS-REx mission, while another detected an asteroid, 2024 YR4, that has a tiny chance of colliding with Earth eight years from now.
Posts on social media this evening by President Trump and Elon Musk are raising questions about whether changes are in the works for returning Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to Earth — and presumably the other two members of Crew-9. The situation is unclear and this article will be updated as more information becomes available. [See update below.]
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 26-February 1, 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.
NASA awarded study contracts to nine companies today for lunar surface mobility and logistics concepts to support the Artemis program. Three days into the second Trump Administration, questions are swirling about the future of Artemis and other NASA programs. The surprise decision to appoint Janet Petro instead of Jim Free as Acting Administrator and yesterday’s directive to immediately eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) jobs and offices at NASA and throughout the government are adding to the atmosphere of uncertainty.
In a move that surprised even NASA officials, the Trump Administration has named Kennedy Space Center Director Janet Petro to be Acting Administrator. Ordinarily the job goes to the top civil servant in the agency, Associate Administrator, currently held by Jim Free. Petro is the first woman to serve as Acting Administrator.
In his inaugural address today, President Donald Trump fully endorsed the goal of putting American astronauts on Mars. His interest in human Mars exploration is not new and he did not mention a timetable or whether the Moon will be a steppingstone, but incorporating it in his remarks today suggests it may have a high priority during the next four years.