NASA’s VIPER lunar rover completed acoustic testing today just a week after NASA announced its intent to terminate the mission because of cost growth. Congress will have the last word on VIPER’s fate and NASA is awaiting a response. In the meantime, testing continues to get the spacecraft ready for launch next year with many in the lunar science community hoping Congress tells NASA to change its mind.
The chair and ranking member of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA offered a glimpse today of what they are recommending for NASA in FY2025. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen said NASA will get an increase, but did not specify if that is above what NASA has for FY2024 or above the President’s request for FY2025. She and Sen. Jerry Moran are enthusiastic about NASA, however, especially the Artemis program. The bill will be marked up by the full committee this week.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from July 15-21, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 21-27, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
In marking today’s 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson expressed hope that the space program can unite the country again as it did decades ago. The fractious political climate of 2024 is not so different from the 1960s, he believes, and just as the Apollo program brought everyone together then, space exploration can do it now.
To the delight of planetary defense experts, ESA is beginning work on a probe to visit the asteroid Apophis before it reaches Earth in 2029. Apophis will not impact Earth, but its very close approach presents a unique opportunity for scientific analysis not only by ground-based instruments, but spacecraft that can obtain before and after data to assess how it changes as it passes by. NASA already has a probe that will study Apophis afterwards and ESA now is leading an international team to study the before phase.
NASA and SpaceX are providing more details about the spacecraft SpaceX will develop to safely send the International Space Station to a watery grave about 6 years from now. The U.S. Deorbit Vehicle is based on SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon, but will be much more powerful so it can control the 420 Metric Ton conglomeration as it breaks apart descending through the atmosphere. NASA is still working on getting Congress to approve the $1.5 billion needed to build and launch the USDV, but they have clearance to proceed and will take the money from elsewhere in their budget if necessary.
NASA announced today that it intends to cancel the highly-anticipated VIPER lunar rover that was to search for water ice at the Moon’s South Pole. Stressing that the VIPER team did outstanding work, NASA officials blamed the decision on cost growth at a time when NASA’s science budget is under severe constraints as Congress demands deep cuts to federal spending. …
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com over the past two weeks, July 1-14, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 14-20, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions.