What’s Happening in Space Policy August 4-10, 2024

What’s Happening in Space Policy August 4-10, 2024

By Marcia Smith | Posted: August 4, 2024 5:05 pm ET | Last Updated: August 5, 2024 11:09 am ET

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 4-10, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess through September 9 except for pro forma sessions.

During the Week

This is a rather unsettled week.  We know of some interesting events that are scheduled, but we’re waiting for word on two others: the status of Northrop Grumman’s NG-21 Cygnus cargo spacecraft, and the status of the Starliner Crew Flight Test.

First, Cygnus.

Good news — NG-21 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:02 am ET this morning (Sunday) despite a weather scrub yesterday and a very poor weather outlook today. Cygnus  is filled with 8,200 pounds of scientific experiments, equipment and supplies including fresh food and was successfully placed into orbit by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket.


Not so good news — After it separated from the Falcon 9 second stage, Cygnus was supposed to fire its own engines to continue the trip to ISS, but the first two burns didn’t happen.

As we go to press, Northrop Grumman and NASA are trying to figure out what happened. Neither has issued any statements, but reporters listening to live space-to-ground conversations between mission control and the ISS astronauts are piecing the story together. Stay tuned. We’ll update this article if we learn more today.

[UPDATE: NASA says the problem was a “late entry to burn sequencing” and the burn was rescheduled “but aborted shortly after the engine ignited due to a slightly low initial pressure state. There is no indication the engine itself has any problem at this time.” They still hope to arrive at the ISS on schedule.]

Second, Starliner.

Boeing completed on-orbit tests a week ago yesterday and posted that NASA and Boeing “were very happy with the results.” On July 31, they said return-to-Earth preparations were underway. But when NASA put out its own statement the next day, it said they were continuing data analysis, “taking their time,” and would continue into the next week (which is this coming week).

Following the completion of Starliner’s return planning, which is expected to continue into next week, more information will be shared about the agency’s return readiness review preparations and subsequent media briefing. As always, astronaut safety remains the top priority for both NASA and Boeing. — NASA statement, August 1, 2024

The day after that (Friday), Boeing put out another update asserting confidence in Starliner’s ability to bring the crew home safely. That suggested to some who are following the mission closely that Boeing and NASA may not agree on whether Starliner is safe enough to bring the two NASA astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, back to Earth.

Hopefully NASA and Boeing will have another media telecon this week to let the public know what’s going on even if they aren’t ready to say when Butch and Suni will come home and whether that’ll be on Starliner or, as some are speculating, a Crew Dragon.

All that is up in the air.

What we do know about what’s happening this week is that with Congress off for their summer break and lots of other people on vacation, space policy is comparatively quiet. But there are some very interesting events on tap including two major conferences: Smallsat in Logan, Utah, and the Space and Missile Defense Forum in Huntsville, Alabama.

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Director Chris Scolese will give a keynote talk at the Smallsat Conference in Logan, Utah this week.

The 38th annual Smallsat conference actually began yesterday and will be in full swing through Thursday. Some sessions are being livestreamed and the conference website says there will be an “important announcement” tomorrow (Monday) at 3:30 pm. The time zone isn’t mentioned, so we’ll assume that’s local time — Mountain Time — which would make it 5:30 pm ET.

The theme this year is “Automation: Enabling New Capabilities.” Steve Isakowtiz, President and CEO of the Aerospace Corporation is the keynote speaker tomorrow afternoon just before that “important announcement.” We have no idea if the two are related.  On Tuesday, Chris Scolese, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, will give a keynote. We don’t know if the keynote sessions will be livestreamed, so check the livestream link on the event’s website on those days.

The annual Space and Missile Defense Forum is Tuesday-Thursday. Their theme is “Space and IAMD: Keys to Victory in Contested/All Domain Environments.” IAMD is Integrated Air and Missile Defense. Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey, Commander of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, which is based in Huntsville, and Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, are the opening speakers on Tuesday. Looks like a great symposium. We don’t see any indication there’s a virtual option, unfortunately.

On the webinar front, Brazil’s Air Force University, UNIFA, is holding a very interesting event via YouTube on Tuesday. It’ll be in English with Portugese subtitles. Speakers from the Brazilian Air Force (Col. Carlos Eduardo Valle Rosa) , the Brazilian Space Agency (Michele Melo), the Secure World Foundation (Victoria Samson), and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute (Pete Hays and John Klein) will discuss “International Space Security: Building a Sustainable Future.”

On Wednesday, the Beyond Earth Institute (BEI) will have one on space debris. It’s a serious topic, but the webinar has a fun title: “The ISS Fell on My House: Addressing the Ever-Present Challenge of Space Debris.”  The title refers, of course, to the piece of an ISS battery pallet that fell on a house in Florida in March. No one was hurt, but the homeowner is suing NASA for damages.

Recovered stanchion from the NASA flight support equipment used to mount International Space Station batteries on a cargo pallet. The stanchion survived re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere on March 8, 2024, and impacted a home in Naples, Florida. Source: NASA

The BEI panel includes two space lawyers (Michelle Hanlon, University of Mississippi, and Chris Johnson, Secure World Foundation), a technical expert (Marlon Sorge from the Aerospace Corporation), and two officials who are trying to deal with space debris by removing it (Ian Thomas from Astroscale) or doing a better job of tracking it (Gabriel Swiney from NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce).

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 — especially NG-21 and Starliner — and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Sunday, August 4

Sunday-Thursday, August 4-8 (continued from August 3)

Tuesday, August 6

Tuesday-Thursday, August 6-8

Wednesday, August 7

Thursday, August 8

Thursday-Friday, August 8-9

 

Correction: the Rocket Lab telecon is on August 8, not August 9 as originally posted here.

Last Updated: Aug 05, 2024 11:09 am ET

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