What’s Happening in Space Policy August 18-31, 2024

What’s Happening in Space Policy August 18-31, 2024

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 18, 2024 5:29 pm ET | Last Updated: August 18, 2024 5:37 pm ET

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the two weeks of August 18-31, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until September 9 except for pro forma sessions.

During the Weeks

The big event in politics this week is the Democratic party convention in Chicago that begins tomorrow. We’re not really expecting space to be a hot topic there, but it’s possible Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris might mention it, at least in passing, since she chairs the White House National Space Council. We’ll be listening when she makes her speech on Thursday and report on what, if anything, she says.

The space policy scene remains quiet overall so we’re combining the next two weeks in this edition of What’s Happening.

This is another period of uncertainty as we await news from NASA about their plan for returning the two NASA astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station on June 6 aboard the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test.

The agency said last week they expect to have all the data they’ve been collecting about the thrusters analyzed by this week and a Flight Readiness Review could take place at the end of this week or early next. They said they definitely want to finalize decision-making by the end of August — either bring Starliner back with the crew or bring it back empty and have the crew remain there until next February so they can return on a SpaceX Crew Dragon.

Starliner Crew Flight Test astronauts Suni Williams and Butch WIlmore aboard the International Space Station, July 10, 2024. 

When Starliner was launched, NASA and Boeing said the batteries in the Crew Module were good for 45 days after it docked with ISS. As those days passed, they said the batteries were still fine and certified them for another 45 days. That second period ends on September 2. Presumably they could extend it again, but if they want the crew to come back on Starliner they may want to keep that as the last day to undock. We’ll be keeping an eye out for an announcement. Whatever we learn we will, of course, post on our Calendar as well as our feeds on X (@SpcPlcyOnline), Facebook (/spacepolicyonline), and Blue Sky (@SpacePolicyOnline.bsky.social).

Completely separately, SpaceX is getting ready to launch a Crew Dragon for one of its private astronaut missions, Polaris Dawn. This is one of three SpaceX flights purchased by billionaire Jared Isaacman after his and SpaceX’s first private astronaut mission, Inspiration4.  This time he and three different companions will spend “up to” five days in orbit (it was three days last time) and fly to an altitude higher than any earth-orbiting humans have flown before. Isaacman and Anna Menon will make the first private spacewalk. There’s no airlock on Crew Dragon so the entire spacecraft must be depressurized like back in the days of Gemini and Apollo. All four crew members — Isaacman, Menon, Scott Poteet and Sarah Gillis — will don their SpaceX spacesuits, but only Isaacman and Menon will venture outside. The launch was originally planned for July 31, but was delayed because of the Falcon 9 failure that month. Now they’re shooting for August 26.

That starts off a week that begins to resume a busier cadence as summer vacations draw to a close. We’ll have more to say next week about it all, but will point out right now three that look really especially interesting.

On the national security space side of things, on Wednesday, August 28, the Mitchell Institute will celebrate the 5th anniversary of the reestablishment of U.S. Space Command. The actual anniversary is the next day, August 29, when then-President Trump held a Rose Garden ceremony to make USSPACECOM the 11th Unified Combatant Command.The original USSPACECOM was abolished in 2002 after the 2001 terrorist attacks focused attention on threats against the homeland and the space domain was less of a worry.  A lot changed after that and Trump reestablished USSPACECOM and a few months later signed into law the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act that created the U.S. Space Force. Five years later, USSPACECOM finally has a permanent home at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado after intense debate (and that could change if Trump becomes President again) and the Mitchell Institute will be there to hold discussions with top-level USSPACECOM leaders. The event will be livestreamed.

On August 29, 2019, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper signed documents re-establishing U. S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) in the White House Rose Garden while USSPACECOM Commander Gen. John Raymond, President Trump, and Vice President Pence looked on. Photo credit: Marcia Smith

USSPACECOM is a geographic command (as opposed to functional) and its Area of Responsibility (AOR) begins at 100 kilometers altitude and extends to the end of the universe. Seriously! That of course includes cislunar space — the area between the Earth and Moon — which is of growing interest. On USSPACECOM’s actual anniversary, August 29, the Aerospace Corporation and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute will hold a “lively debate” on “High Ground/High Fantasy — Defense Utility of Cislunar Space.”  Sounds intriguing.

The same day, NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Committee, NAC-HEO, will meet to discuss NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and the Moon to Mars Strategy and Architecture.  According to the NAC-HEO website they still haven’t appointed a successor to Wayne Hale to chair NAC-HEO. Hale stepped down at the end of last year. We’re told Lynn Cline will chair this meeting as she did in April. Public participation is virtual only. It’s very rare that NASA advisory committees allow the public to sit in the room with them anymore.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning (August 18) are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Tuesday, August 20

Saturday, August 24-Saturday, August 31

Monday, August 26

Monday-Wednesday, August 26-28

Tuesday-Wednesday, August 27-28

Wednesday, August 28

Thursday, August 29

Last Updated: Aug 18, 2024 5:37 pm ET

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