Weekly Roundup for SpacePolicyOnline.com: October 28-November 3, 2024

Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from October 28-November 3, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.

What’s Happening in Space Policy November 3-9, 2024

November 3, 2024. Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 3-9, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until after the November 5 elections except for pro forma sessions.

Shenzhou-18 Crew Back on Earth

November 3, 2024. China has completed another crew rotation on its Tiangong-3 space station. The Shenzhou-18 crew landed in the Gobi Desert today after about six months in space. Their replacements on Shenzhou-19 arrived last week.

NASA Safety Panel Praises NASA’s Response to Starliner CFT Anomalies

October 31, 2024. NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is praising NASA for how it dealt with decision-making when Boeing’s Starliner Crew Flight Test experienced several anomalies this summer. Ultimately NASA decided to return Starliner to Earth empty instead of with the two crew members who were aboard when it launched. ASAP’s interest is particularly in NASA’s safety culture and found it to be an inclusive process in this case.

VIPER Passes All Its Tests, But Future Still Uncertain

October 29, 2024.  The project scientist for NASA’s VIPER lunar rover said today the spacecraft has successfully completed all of its pre-launch tests, but its future remains uncertain. NASA intends to terminate the mission even though it is completely built because of concerns about potential future cost overruns. NASA invited other organizations to submit proposals to take over the program as long as there is no further cost to the agency and is evaluating them to determine if there is a path forward.

New Chinese Space Station Crew on Its Way

October 29, 2024. China launched a new crew to the Tiangong-3 space station today. The three person — two men and a woman — Shenzhou-19 crew will replace the three taikonauts who have been aboard the space station since April.  Although China is years behind the United States and Russia in operating permanently occupied space stations, and Tiangong-3 is much smaller than the International Space Station, over the past two years they have settled into a similar crew-rotation regime allowing them to conduct scientific experiments and learn how humans adapt to long durations in weightlessness.

NASA Identifies Root Cause of Orion Heat Shield Char Loss

October 28, 2024.  NASA has identified the root cause of the unexpected char loss on Orion’s heat shield after it returned from the Artemis I uncrewed test flight to the Moon almost two years ago.  Solving the problem is required before the next mission, Artemis II, can launch with a crew of four. How to do that is still under discussion, with testing underway. The heat shield for Artemis II is already built so options are limited. A NASA official said today the NASA Administrator will make the final decision on how to proceed.

Weekly Roundup for SpacePolicyOnline.com: October 21-27, 2024

October 28, 2024. Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com from October 21-27, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.