House Majority Leader Steve Scalise’s schedule for floor action next week includes consideration of the 2024 NASA Authorization Act.  The bipartisan bill cleared the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in July. Ensuring U.S. space leadership, facilitating the growth of the U.S. commercial space sector, and reaffirming support for NASA’s human spaceflight, science, aeronautics, and technology activities are the major themes.  [UPDATE: The House passed the bill on September 23, 2024.]

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The Senate Armed Services Committee released a collection of 93 amendments to the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act today. The NDAA is considered one of a very few “must pass” bills for Congress to complete before the 118th Congress ends, making it an attractive legislative vehicle for a wide range of issues. In this case, it extends the deadlines for FAA regulations that would expire in January and September 2025 including the “learning period” for commercial human spaceflight and third-party indemnification for commercial space launches.

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NASA is still expecting to launch the Europa Clipper probe on October 10 at the beginning of its multi-week launch window, but if necessary it could launch as late as November 6.  That’s several days beyond the original window thanks to SpaceX finding ways to get more performance out of the Falcon Heavy rocket and not needing to rely on ground stations to track the rocket’s trajectory.

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Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from September 2-15, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of September 15-21, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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The Polaris Dawn private astronaut mission came to an end this morning, splashing down in the Dry Tortugas near Key West, Florida.  The five-day flight achieved a number of firsts including flying higher than any previous earth-orbiting human spaceflight mission and the first commercial spacewalk. It was also the first Dragon landing in the Dry Tortugas, a new SpaceX splashdown site.

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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams told reporters today they are in their “happy place” aboard the International Space Station and have no regrets about staying longer than expected. The two arrived on Boeing’s Starliner Crew Flight Test capsule in June, but will wait until next February to come home on a SpaceX Crew Dragon because of concerns about Starliner’s propulsion system. Both have spent long duration missions on ISS previously and feel right at home. Suni will soon become the new ISS commander.

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A new report from the National Academies warns NASA that it needs to focus on the basics even if it means forgoing new missions. Chaired by Norm Augustine, the report “NASA At a Crossroads” tells a familiar tale of an agency in need of more money to accomplish all it is asked to do. The bottom line this time, however, is that fixing long-standing infrastructure decay, investing in new technology, and maintaining a skilled workforce is more important than new missions if additional money does not materialize.

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Two private astronauts stepped outside their space capsule this morning in another first for SpaceX and the commercial space sector. Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis only spent a few minutes each standing in a frame attached to their Crew Dragon Resilience on the world’s first commercial spacewalk, but it was a remarkable demonstration of how far the commercial space sector has come in achieving feats once the province only of governments. …

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SpaceX is complaining about FAA delays in approving the license for the next Starship test flight. Their statement coincided with a House committee hearing on the FAA’s implementation of updated regulatory requirements for licensing both launches and reentries issued three years ago. Industry is chafing at the so-called Part 450 regulations and the FAA agrees they need further refinement, but the clock is ticking towards a March 2026 deadline when they come into force for everyone.

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