What's Happening in Space Policy August 24-September 4, 2015

Summer will be over before we know it, but for now, our list of upcoming space policy events still spans the next couple of weeks while “business” is slow.   Congress returns on September 8, the day after Labor Day.

During the Week

This week starts off with the docking of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA’s) HTV5 (Kounotori5) cargo spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS).   The spacecraft was successfully launched on Wednesday and has been catching up with ISS ever since.   JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui is aboard ISS and will be at the controls of Canada’s robotic Canadarn2 tomorrow morning (Monday) to capture it.   That event is expected about 6:55 am Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).  NASA TV coverage begins at 5:15 am EDT.  JAXA’s coverage begins at 6:05 am EDT.  Installation of HTV5 onto the Harmony node will follow at about 9:45 am EDT.  The crew surely will be happy to get those 9,500 pounds of supplies, equipment and science experiments following the three cargo mission failures (one U.S. Orbital Sciences Antares/Cygnus, one Russian Soyuz/Progress, and one U.S. SpaceX Falcon/Dragon) since last October.   It should be noted, of course, that there also have been five successful cargo missions (three Russian Progresses and two U.S. SpaceX Dragons) during that time, which, if anything, demonstrates just how much resupply from Earth is needed to sustain the crew and their work.

Tomorrow also is the first day of the three-day Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting at the Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.  These “AGs” — assessment groups or analysis groups but NOT “advisory” groups — apparently no longer are officially part of NASA’s advisory process, but are still an opportunity for members of the relevant science community to get together and interact with each other and NASA officials.   The meeting is available virtually via WebEx and telecon.  Among the many interesting sessions, Bob Pappalardo will talk about plans for the Europa mission on Monday at 3:15 pm ET and Alan Stern is scheduled to talk about the New Horizons Pluto mission on Tuesday at 1:30 pm ET.

Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) is scheduled to speak at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable (MSBR) luncheon on Tuesday.  (The event is listed on MSBR’s website, but the link to the flyer is inactive.  We assume that’s a glitch and the event is going on as planned, but you might want to check with MSBR to be sure).  Edwards is the top Democrat (“ranking member”) on the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and a strong NASA supporter, especially of projects at Goddard Space Flight Center near her district.  Her interest in space goes much further, though.  Never mind just trying to convince her colleagues to fund NASA’s “Journey to Mars,” she has said publicly that she wants to go there herself.   Right now, though, she is focused on her current job representing Maryland’s 4th congressional district and running for the Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

On Friday, the Earth Science subcommittee of the NASA Advisory Council will meet telephonically.  An agenda is not yet posted on the subcommittee’s website, but the Federal Register notice says it is an annual performance review of the Earth Science program as required under the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act.  The public is welcome to listen in.

Those events and others coming up the first week of September that we know about as of today, August 23, are listed below.

Monday, August 24

• HTV5 arrival at ISS, grapple 6:55 am ET, installation 9:45 am ET (times are approximate)   Watch on NASA TV (5:15 am ET) and JAXA’s YouTube site (6:05 am ET)

Monday-Wednesday, August 24-26

• OPAG, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD (available via WebEx and telecon)

Tuesday, August 25

• MSBR Luncheon Featuring Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET

Friday, August 28

• NAC Earth Science Subcommittee, virtual, 2:00-4:30 pm ET (available via telecon)

Monday-Wednesday, August 31-September 2

• AIAA Space 2015, Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, CA

Tuesday, September 1

• NASA International Space Station Advisory Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 2:00-3:00 pm ET

Wednesday, September 2

• Soyuz TMA-18M Launch and Docking: Launch, 12:34 am EDT; docking, approx six hours later

Wednesday-Friday, September 2-4

• National Academies Committee on Achieving Science Goals with Cubesats, Meeting and Symposium, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA