Events of Interest: Week of September 17-21, 2012–UPDATE
The following events may be of interest in the coming week. The House and Senate will meet for legislative business beginning on Wednesday; they are in recess early in the week in observance of Rosh Hashanah. This article was updated Sunday afternoon to add expected House consideration of H.R. 4158 on Wednesday.
During the Week
The first event of interest actually is today (Sunday, September 16) Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), but it will be Monday local time in Kazakhstan. Three International Space Station crew members are scheduled to land in Kazakhstan at 8:53 am local time, which is 10:53 pm tonight EDT. Undocking is scheduled for 7:09 pm EDT today. NASA TV will cover the undocking beginning at 6:45 pm EDT and of the landing beginning at 9:30 pm EDT.
Later in the week, the Senate is expected to pass the FY2013 Continuing Resolution (CR) that will fund the government through March 27, 2013. The House passed it last week.
The House is scheduled to meet Wednesday-Friday and then will adjourn until after the elections, returning on November 13. For all the angst over the catastrophic consequences if Congress does not act to avoid the sequestration that will otherwise go into effect on January 2, 2013, it obviously does not want to deal with the issue until knowing which party will be in control after November 6. The Office of Management and Budget report released on Friday details just how bad things will be if the sequester takes effect.
One bill the House is expected to take up on Wednesday under suspension of the rules is H.R. 4158 (Hall). The legislation would confirm full ownership rights to certain astronauts to artifacts from their missions such as personal logs, checklists, or flight manuals, but not lunar rocks or other lunar materials.
Tuesday, September 18
- FAA COMSTAC Systems Working Group, telecon, 1:00 pm ET
- NASA Advisory Council Commercial Space Committee, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 11:30 am – 5:00 pm PT (2:30 – 8:00 pm ET)
Thursday, September 20
- Secure World Foundation-Young Professional in Foreign Policy Roundtable on “Race to the Moon and Back,” Brussels, Belgium, 19:00 local time
Friday, September 21
- House Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearing on “The LightSquared Network: An Investigation of the FCC’s Role,” 2123 Rayburn, 9:30 am ET
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