What's Happening in Space Policy April 20-25, 2015

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of April 20-25, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

NASA and the astrophysics community celebrate the 25th anniversary of the iconic Hubble Space Telescope this week. There are a number of events at the Space Telescope Science Institute near Baltimore, which operates Hubble, and in Washington, DC to highlight the breathtaking images and science from Hubble that have captivated the scientific community and the public for two-and-a-half decades — with more to come.  Some of the events are by invitation only, but NASA TV will broadcast three (see below) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  The Saturday event at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport is an open family day.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittees will mark up their respective portions of the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week.  The Strategic Forces subcommittee, which handles most DOD space programs, holds its markup at noon on Thursday.  Many subcommittee markups have been rather pro forma in recent years, with agreements worked out ahead of time or deferred for debate at the full committee markup (scheduled for next week).   The text of the bill, H.R. 1735, is posted on congress.gov, but it says very little about space programs.   Most of those details are included in the report to accompany the bill.  The draft report is not public yet.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are listed below.

Monday-Friday, April 20-24

• U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space Legal Subcommittee (meeting continues from last week), Vienna, Austria

Tuesday-Wednesday, April 21-22

• NRC Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (ASEB), National Academy of Sciences building, 2101 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington DC (Wednesday is joint with the Space Studies Board).  Some sessions are closed.

Wednesday, April 22

• Earth Day, everywhere

Wednesday-Thursday, April 22-23

• NRC Space Studies Board (SSB), National Academy of Sciences building, 2101 Constitutive Ave,m Washington, DC ( Wednesday is joint with ASEB),  Some sessions are closed.

Thursday, April 23

• Hubble 25th Anniversary Event, Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00-9:45 am ET (watch on NASA TV)
• House Armed Services Committee Strategic Forces Subcommittee markup FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act, 2212 Rayburn House Office Building, 12:00 pm ET

Friday, April 24

• Hubble 25th Anniversary Event, National Air and Space Museum (NASM), 600 Independence Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 8:00-9:00 pm ET (by invitation only, but watch on NASA TV)

Saturday, April 25

• Hubble 25th Anniversary Event, NASM Udvar-Hazy Center, Chantilly, VA (near Dulles Airport), family day, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm ET (watch on NASA TV)