Space Policy Events for the Week of November 4-10, 2013

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead (plus a bit, this week’s list goes through Sunday, November 10).  The House is not in session this week; the Senate is in session.

During the Week

The Kepler Science Conference II takes place this week at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA.   The conference was always expected to produce fireworks in terms of its exoplanet discoveries, but this one also created quite a furor when Chinese scientists were not allowed to attend because of NASA/Ames’ interpretation of restrictions on Chinese visitors to NASA facilities.   It said no Chinese were allowed because of a law sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Wolf publicly rebuked the agency in the middle of the government shutdown saying it was not because of the law, NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden — one of the few NASA employees who was still allowed to work (because he’s a political appointee) said he’d review the situation when the government reopened, and subsequently the decision was made that the Chinese scientists could reapply to attend.   It will be interesting to see how many were able to get through the approval process and obtain visas in order to be there.

Another notable event this week is the launch of the Soyuz TMA-11M crew (Mastracchio, Wakata, Tyurin).  They will bring the Olympic torch with them to the International Space Station.  When they dock on Thursday morning, there will be three three-person crews aboard the ISS — a total of nine people instead of the usual six.   On Saturday, two Russian cosmonauts (Kotov, Ryazanskiy) will do a spacewalk and take the torch with them to the outside of the ISS and on Sunday the Soyuz TMA-09M crew (Nyberg, Parmitano, Yurchikhin) will return to Earth with the torch and it will continue its journey to the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

Those and the other events we know of as of Sunday afternoon (November 3) are listed below.

Monday, November 4

• NASA Media Briefing on Findings from Kepler Space Telescope, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, 10:15 am PST (1:15 pm EST)
• Secure World Foundation Panel on Satellite Servicing and Debris Removal, 1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 12:00-1:30 pm EST

Monday-Friday, November 4-8

• Kepler Science Conference II, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Monday-Tuesday, November 4-5

• National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA), Keck Center, 500 Fifth St., NW, Washington, DC

Tuesday, November 5

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Planetary Science Subcommittee, WebEx and telecon, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm EST

Tuesday-Wednesday, November 5-6

• Univ of Nebraska Space and Cyber Law Conference, Willard Hotel, Washington, DC (Space Law is on November 6, 3:00-5:30 pm EST)

Wednesday-Thursday, November 6-7

• Launch and Docking of Soyuz TMA-11M:  Launch, 11:15 pm EST November 6; Docking 5:31 am EST November 7

Thursday, November 7

• SASC Hearing on Impact of Sequestration on National Defense, G-50 Dirksen Senate Office Building, 9:30 am EST
• WSBR Luncheon Featuring Inmarsat’s David Helfgott, University Club, Washington, DC,  11:30 am – 1:30 pm EST

Thursday-Friday, November 7-8

• NRC Space Studies Board, National Academy of Sciences Building, 2101 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC

Thursday-Sunday, November 7-10

• SEDS SpaceVision2013 Conference, Tempe, AZ

Saturday, November 9

• ISS Spacewalk with Olympic Torch, 9:30 am EST

Sunday, November 10

• Soyuz TMA-09M Landing, 9:50 pm EST

 

Correction:  An earlier version of this article mistakenly stated that the Space Studies Board meeting November 7-8 was at the NRC’s Beckman Center in Irvine, CA.  It is in Washington, DC at the National Academy of Sciences building on Constitution Avenue.