NASA and DARPA announced today that Lockheed Martin and BWXT will build a nuclear thermal propulsion demonstration vehicle called DRACO. NASA and DARPA joined forces earlier this year to develop a prototype NTP system that both NASA and DOD expect to revolutionize space propulsion.
Boeing reported today that continued delays to the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program have cost the company another $257 million. Boeing is building Starliner under a fixed price contract so must absorb cost increases that had already reached almost $900 million and there is no clarity on when it might actually make its first launch with a crew aboard.
The House defeated legislation today that critics said would have given the Federal Communications Commission “unprecedented authority” over space safety and space debris in a jurisdictional dispute between two House committees. The underlying bill from the House Energy and Commerce Committee focused on streamlining the FCC’s satellite spectrum licensing process, but the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee persuasively argued the space safety and debris provision would harm the commercial space industry.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com in the last week, July 17-23, 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 week of July 23-29, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
The latest poll from the Pew Research Center once again found that by a wide margin Americans want the space program to focus more on the threat from asteroids and understanding Earth’s climate than sending humans to the Moon or Mars. The results are consistent with a 2018 poll that also placed monitoring asteroids and climate at the top of the priority list.
The U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command is modifying its procurement of future National Security Space Launch providers. Now three instead of two companies will be able to win contracts to launch the most expensive, most critical satellites. However, the third company will be limited to just seven launches over the 5-year procurement period.
Jody Singer, Director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, announced her retirement today. Appointed in 2018, she is the first woman to lead the Huntsville, AL-based center where NASA’s most capable space transportation systems — from Saturn to the Space Shuttle to the Space Launch System — were developed. NASA will conduct a nationwide search for her successor.
…
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from July 3-16, 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 week of July 16-22, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session.