Space Policy Events for March 30 – April 4, 2014

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.  The House and Senate are in session.

During the Week

On Tuesday, the House will take up H.R. 2413, the Weather Forecasting Improvement Act. Its broad focus is on improved weather forecasting and telling NOAA to focus on weather rather than climate (though it does not preclude climate activities), but there are a couple of satellite-related provisions in it.  The bill is being brought up on the suspension calendar, which is usually reserved for bills that are not very controversial and are expected easily to garner a two-thirds vote in favor.  There were early concerns that the bill was too anti-climate, but those were largely resolved during full committee markup of the bill in December when a revised version (“amendment in the nature of the substitute”) was approved by the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.  It was adopted by voice vote, which indicates it was acceptable to both sides (or opponents would have insisted on a recorded vote).  There were no major changes to the satellite-related provisions.

Speaking of the weather, while we’d like to be able to report that the chance of wintry weather interfering with Washington, DC events is over for the year, it’s actually snowing right now.  Not to whine, but first they said there’d be a few “conversational” snowflakes and nothing would stick, then they promised it wouldn’t stick to the roads but would on the grass, but now there’s a winter weather advisory with a forecast of 1-3 inches across the area.  We definitely need improved weather forecasting!   Fortunately we don’t have any Washington, DC based space policy events on our list for tomorrow that might be disrupted.  (But seriously!  When will this winter be over?)

Just as the weather gets nice mid-week (they say), we’ll all be sitting in congressional hearings (or at our desks watching them on the Internet) or over at the Keck Center on Fifth Street attending meetings of the NRC’s Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB) and Space Studies Board (SSB).  ASEB meets on Wednesday, SSB on Friday, and in between they meet jointly on Thursday.  The meetings are free to attend, but advance online registration is HIGHLY recommended to ease passing through security to get to the meeting room.  Some sessions will be available by webcast; check the agendas for more information and instructions on how to listen in.

Several congressional hearings will be held on U.S. Strategic Command, the Air Force budget request, and national security space programs.  Issues concerning the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program and the use of Russian RD-180 engines for the Atlas 5 rocket have come up in similar hearings for the past several weeks and could well come up again this week.

The list below shows all the hearings and meetings we know about as of Sunday afternoon.

Tuesday-Thursday, April 1-3

• International Cometary Workshop, Toulouse, France

Wednesday, April 2

• NRC Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., NW, Washington, DC.  Open sessions 9:30 am – 5:00 pm ET
• HASC Hearing on U.S. Strategic Command (and two other commands), 2118 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET
• SAC-D Hearing on FY2015 Air Force Budget Request, 106 Dirksen, 10:00 am ET

Thursday, April 3

• Joint meeting of the NRC’s ASEB and Space Studies Board, Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., NW, Washington, DC.  Open sessions 10:00 am – 4:45 pm ET
• HASC Subcommittee Hearing on National Security Space Activities, 2212 Rayburn, 2:00 pm ET

Friday, April 4

• Mitchell Institute – Value of Space to the Warfighter: Command and Control (C2) and Space Situational Awareness (SSA), Capitol Hill Club, 300 First St., S.E., Washington, DC, 8:00 – 9:00 am ET
• NRC Space Studies Board, Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., N.W., Washington, DC.  Open sessions 8:30 am – 2:30 pm ET
• HAC-D Hearing with Statements from Members of Congress on matters within the subcommittee’s jurisdiction, H-140 Capitol, 9:00 am ET
• HASC Sbcmte Hearing on FY2015 Budget Request for Intelligence Activities, 2212 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:30 am ET