Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket is back in business today, more than 15 months after a failure grounded all launches. The company markets New Shepard both to take passengers and experiments into space for a few minutes of weightlessness. Only experiments, not people, were aboard the failed flight in September 2022. The same was true today, but they hope to resume passenger flights soon.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com last week, December 11-17, 2023, 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 next two weeks, December 17-31, 2023, and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate will be in session at least part of the week of December 18. Otherwise both chambers are scheduled to meet only in pro forma sessions during this period.
U.S. Space Command reached Full Operational Capability (FOC) today, almost four-and-a-half years after it was reestablished by then-President Trump. Still undecided, however, is where USSPACECOM’s permanent home will be located. The ongoing battle between Colorado and Alabama continues in the just-passed FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
The Artemis II crew made an unannounced visit to the White House today, meeting with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The President’s and Vice President’s schedules released last night made no mention of the impending meeting of the country’s two top elected officials with the four people who will be the first to circle the Moon since the Apollo era. [This article was updated after NASA released more information on December 19.]
The United Launch Alliance was hoping to close out 2023 with the inaugural launch of the new Vulcan rocket, but it is not to be. The company confirmed today it now is targeting January 8, 2024 to literally “shoot for the Moon” with the launch of Astrobotic’s Peregrine lunar lander, just one of several headed to the Moon in 2024.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and other Senators expressed reservations about the White House’s new mission authorization proposal at a Senate hearing today. Released last month by the National Space Council, the proposal calls for splitting responsibilities for regulating new types of space activities between the Department of Commerce and the Department of Transportation instead of creating a “one-stop shop” as many expected. At an unrelated event earlier in the day, the Space Council’s Director of Commercial Space Policy acknowledged they have a lot of work to do to explain their reasoning.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com last week, December 4-10, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.
Tory Bruno, President and CEO of the United Launch Alliance, posted on X today that the first launch of ULA’s new Vulcan rocket “likely” will not take place on Christmas Eve as planned. The primary payload is a commercial lunar lander and it can only be launched on certain days when the Earth and Moon are properly aligned. Bruno mentioned that the next launch window is in January, suggesting a delay until then, though it was not a definitive statement.
House and Senate conferees on the FY2024 National Defense Authorization Act agreed that no funds may be spent on new headquarters for U. S. Space Command until June 30, 2024 when reports are due from the Government Accountability Office and the Air Force Inspector General on how President Biden made his July 2023 decision to keep it in Colorado. The bitterly contested issue has split the Alabama and Colorado congressional delegations for almost three years since then-President Trump decided to move it from Colorado to Alabama in the final days of his presidency.