What's Happening in Space Policy April 18-22, 2016
Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of April 18-22, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
During the Week
As expected, Congress did not meet the April 15 deadline to pass a FY2017 budget and there is no indication that it will succeed in doing so any time soon. Nonetheless, the appropriations process must proceed. This week, the Senate Appropriations Committee will markup the bills that fund the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (Transportation-HUD) and NASA and NOAA (Commerce-Justice-Science). Subcommittee markups are on Tuesday; full committee on Thursday. That’s just a first step — there’s a long way to go — but will give an indication of how the Senate, at least, is looking at funding those programs.
One of NASA’s most stalwart supporters in the Senate, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), is retiring this year. Tomorrow (Monday) she will give her annual speech to the Maryland Space Business Roundtable, which may offer a preview of what to expect at the CJS markup. Mikulski is a very powerful advocate for NASA because of her seniority on the appropriations committee (she chaired the full committee and the CJS subcommittee when Democrats controlled the Senate and is the top Democrat on both panels now). It will be interesting to see if any senior Democratic appropriator steps up to the plate for NASA next year. CJS also appropriates money to NOAA and Mikulski supports NOAA, too, but she is more publicly critical of NOAA’s management of the weather satellite programs.
The House Armed Services Committee will begin marking up the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week. (Not sure of the difference between an authorization and an appropriation? Or, for that matter, what a markup is? Read our “What’s a Markup?” fact sheet.) Subcommittee markups are on Wednesday and Thursday. The Strategic Forces subcommittee oversees most defense space issues. Its markup is on Thursday at noon. Full committee markup is next week.
On Tuesday, the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on small satellites and the commercial space launch industry. Witnesses are Elliott Pulham of the Space Foundation, Eric Stallmer of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and Jason Andrews from Spaceflight Industries, a Seattle-based company that matches customers who need to put small payloads into orbit with launch service providers and offers associated services (like payload integration).
NASA is having one of its “Destination Station” events here in Washington on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but we haven’t heard much about it other than a media advisory from Johnson Space Center. It reveals that the non-profit organization that manages research aboard the U.S. segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), is having an “industry day” on Thursday. Oddly, we could find no mention of it on the CASIS website so we don’t have any details other than what is in the media advisory. The most recent “event” on the CASIS website was for something that took place in February. Perhaps CASIS will update its website soon. NASA’s Destination Station website could use an update as well. We confess that we were not aware that NASA had a Destination Station series of events until now. Apparently they have been held in various places across the country since 2011. NASA has a dedicated website for it that features a list of “where we’ve been, where we’re going,” but it ends in July 2015. According to the website, Destination Station is an ISS “national awareness campaign.” It would be hard to find anyone who disagrees that more effort is needed to make the nation aware of ISS. The Internet is a great way to do that, but out-of-date content doesn’t help the cause.
Friday is Earth Day 2016. Go out and do something nice for our planet!
Monday, April 18
- MSBR Luncheon Featuring Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), University of Maryland Conference Center, Hyattsville, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET
Tuesday April 19
- House SS&T Space Subcommittee Hearing on Small Satellites and Commercial Space Launch Industry, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET (webcast)
- Senate Appropriations T-HUD Subcommittee markup (incl FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation), 192 Dirksen, 10:30 am ET (audio webcast)
- Senate Appropriations CJS Subcommittee markup (incl NASA and NOAA), 192 Dirksen, 2:30pm ET (audio webcast)
Wednesday-Thursday, April 20-21
- HASC Subcommittee Markups FY2017 NDAA, various times and locations (Strategic Forces Subcommittee is at 12:00 pm ET on April 21)
Thursday, April 21
- CASIS/NASA Industry Day, General Assembly, 12th Floor, 1133 15th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 9:30 am – 1:00 pm ET
- Senate Appropriations Full Committee Markup T-HUD and CJS bills, 106 Dirksen, 10:30 am ET (audio webcast)
Friday, April 22
- Earth Day, everywhere
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