What’s Happening in Space Policy April 12-18, 2026

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of April 12-18, 2026 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

April is turning out to be quite the month for historic space events!  We just had the amazing Artemis II mission April 1-10 — the first flight around the Moon in 53 years with the first woman, the first person of color, and the first Canadian/non-American to make the trip, traveling further from Earth than ever before. And today, April 12, is the anniversary of the first human flying into space — the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin in 1961 — and coincidentally the first flight of the U.S. space shuttle in 1981 (it was delayed from April 10).  So it’s the 65th anniversary of Gagarin’s flight, and the 45th of the shuttle’s inaugural launch with John Young and Bob Crippen. Tonight is “Yuri’s Night” with celebrations around the globe and there’s a lot to cheer.

Let’s run that back. One more time… Or two?
Our crew is now safely back on Earth. Relive the historic mission, and keep an eye on our website as more images and videos keep rolling in. https://t.co/FoYXKVvve5 pic.twitter.com/svDaL8ZXpc

— NASA (@NASA) April 11, 2026

Tough to top all that, but there are some interesting events coming up this week.

The Space Foundation’s annual Space Symposium (Monday-Thursday) in Colorado Springs, CO is always fascinating.  Key government and industry officials often use the event to make major announcements. Among the government speakers this year are Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink; Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command; Gen. Chance Saltzman, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations and other top USSF officials; NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and other top NASA officials including Amit Kshatriya, Lori Glaze and Nicky Fox; several members of Congress; and international space agency leaders including ESA DG Josef Aschbacher and JAXA President Hiroshi Yamakawa. On the industry side to name just a few: Jason Kim, Firely Aerospace; Jonathan Cirtain, Axiom Space; Tim Crain, Intuitive Machines; Jacqueline Cortese, Blue Origin; Nick Cummings, SpaceX; John Elbon, United Launch Alliance; Robert Fleming, Northrop Grumman Space Systems; Matthew Kuta, Voyager Technologies; Mike Gold, Redwire Space; Max Haot, Vast; Daniel Jablonsky, Sierra Space; Marshall Smith, Starlab; and so many more!

On Capitol Hill, President Trump submitted his FY2027 budget request on April 3 (when Congress was in recess) and budget season kicks off in earnest this week. White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought appears before both the House and Senate Budget Committees (Wednesday and Thursday, respectively) to lay out the President’s priorities. Details of the $1.5 trillion defense request — last year’s $1 trillion request was the most in history and this is 50  percent higher — won’t be available until next week, but what’s released so far paints a rosy picture for the U.S. Space Force. If Congress agrees, it will get a boost from $31.8 billion to $59.1 billion in the regular (“discretionary”) budget request. That doesn’t include money the Space Force got in last year’s reconciliation bill (“mandatory” spending), which pushes their FY2026 total to about $40 billion. The White House is planning another reconciliation bill for FY2027 with $12 billion for the Space Force, bringing the FY2027 total to $71 billion.The defense budget surely will be a topic at the Budget Committee hearings.

The House Armed Services Committee has six hearings, three of which address parts of the Space Force request. Two are on Wednesday. First the Strategic Forces subcommittee discussing Missile Defense and Missile Defeat with Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy Mark Berkowitz and USSF’s Gen. Michael Guetlein, who’s in charge of Golden Dome, among others. Separately, the Military Readiness subcommittee with Gen. Shawn Bratton, USSF Vice Chief of Space Operations among the witnesses meets later that day.

Then on Thursday, the Military Personnel subcommittee will hear from Katherine Kelley, USSF Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Personnel and others. The House Intelligence Committee has a hearing on Thursday, too, with NRO Director Chris Scolese, NGA Director Lt. Gen. Michelle Bredenkamp, and USSF’s Director of Program Integration Brian Shannon, but it’s closed.

As for NASA, there are no dedicated hearings this week, but with all the excitement about Artemis II and Trump’s determination to put astronauts on the surface of the Moon by 2028, it might come up at the Budget Committee hearings.  The White House once again is proposing deep cuts. It’s basically the same as last year, with human exploration doing very well and science, technology, aeronautics and the ISS bearing the brunt of the $6 billion (~24 percent) proposed cut. Congress rejected it last year. Time will tell if they can come up $6 billion again. As we’ve said many times, NASA’s activities across the board have strong, bipartisan congressional support. On the other hand, Isaacman insists the budget request is everything NASA needs. His job, like all his predecessors, is to support the President’s request. As in past situations like this, it will be up to NASA’s supporters in industry, the scientific community and, importantly, the public, to make the case for the agency if the cuts are to be avoided.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below. Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later or changes to these.

Sunday, April 12

• Yuri’s Night, global

Monday, April 13

• Northrop Grumman Cygnus-24 Arrives at the ISS, 12:50 pm ET (NASA coverage begins 12:00 pm ET)

Monday-Thursday, April 13-16

• 41st Space Symposium (Space Foundation), Colorado Springs, CO
• ASCE Earth and Space 2026 Conference, College Station, TX

Monday-Friday, April 13-17 (continues next week)

• Legal Subcommittee of the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Vienna, Austria (portions webcast)

Tuesday, April 14

• Senate Commerce Committee’s Rescheduled Markup of Several Bills Including Two Satellite-Related, 253 Russell Senate Office Building, 10:00 am ET (webcast)

Wednesday, April 15

• House Budget Committee Hrg on FY2027 Budget Request, 210 Cannon House Office Building, 10:15 am ET (webcast)
• HASC Subcommittee Hrg on Missile Defense & Missile Defeat, 2118 Rayburn House Office Building, 3:00 pm ET (webcast)
• HASC Subcommittee Hrg on Military Readiness, 2212 Rayburn House Office Building, 3:30 pm ET (webcast)

Thursday, April 16

• House Intelligence Subcommittee Hrg on NRO, NGA and U.S. Space Force, HVC-304 Capitol, 10:00 am ET (CLOSED)
• Senate Budget Committee Hrg on FY2027 Budget Request, 608 Dirksen Senate Office Building, 10:00 am ET (webcast)
• HASC Subcommittee Hrg on Military Personnel, 2118 Rayburn House Office Building, 3:00 pm ET (webcast)