NRC Set To Release Study on Future of Human Spaceflight on June 4

The National Research Council’s (NRC’s) eagerly awaited report on the future of the human spaceflight program, required by Congress in the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, will be released on June 4.  Pathways to Exploration:  Rationales and Approaches for a U.S. Program of Human Space Exploration will be released at a press conference in Washington, D.C. that day.

The briefing is at 11:00 am EDT at the National Academy of Sciences building, 2101 Constitution Ave, NW (not at the Keck Center on 5th Street) and will feature members of the committee that wrote the report.   The committee was co-chaired by Cornell space scientist Jonathan Lunine and Purdue University President (and former Indiana Governor) Mitch Daniels.

The report describes the rationales for human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit and offers recommendations to guide the future U.S, human spaceflight program in a sustainable manner.

Congress required NASA to contract with the NRC for this study in Sec. 204 of the 2010 Act (P.L. 111-267).  That bill was signed into law in October 2010 (FY2011), but directed NASA to contract for the study in FY2012, not at the time the bill became law.  NASA waited until late in FY2012 to finalize the agreement with the NRC.  The first committee meeting was in December 2012.  (At that time, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry was a co-chair, but he withdrew in February 2013 and was replaced by Daniels.)

Free pre-registration to attend the press conference is strongly recommended to ease entering the building.  The event also will be webcast.  For more information, visit the committee’s website.