What's Happening in Space Policy August 9-31, 2015

With the relatively lazy days of summer upon us, the August weekly editions of “What’s Happening” will cover multiple weeks.  The Senate has joined the House in recessing through Labor Day.  They return September 8.

During the Month

Some notable events have come to our attention since last week’s edition.  John Sloan from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) is the featured guest at the ISU-DC Space Cafe this Tuesday, August 11.  His topic is AST’s international outreach, interesting in and of itself, but questions about AST’s progress in responding to the NTSB’s report on the SpaceShipTwo accident may also come up (though the answer may simply be that we all have to wait for the official response, which is due 90 days from when the report was received).

Another event that may be especially interesting is Thursday night’s debate between Bas Lansdorp, President of Mars One, and two MIT graduate students (Sydney Do and Andrew Owens) who did a technical feasibility analysis of the plan that concluded it would have a “bleak outcome” as we wrote last fall.   The debate is part of the Mars Society’s annual convention, which will be held at Catholic University in Washington, DC from August 13-16.  The Lansdorp/MIT debate is August 13 from 8:00-9:30 pm ET and is open to the public.

Coming up a week from Sunday is Japan’s launch of HTV5, the next cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS).  We don’t list routine cargo missions to ISS unless there is something non-routine going on and considering the recent failures of ISS cargo missions, HTV5 definitely qualifies.  NASA officials told the NASA Advisory Council at the end of July that some ISS supplies will be down to a 45-day margin by the time HTV5 launches on August 16.  NASA likes to maintain a 6-month margin.  The situation will be much improved once HTV5 arrives.  Launch is at 9:01 am Eastern Daylight Time (10:01 pm local time at the launch site in Tanegashima, Japan).

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning, August 9, are listed below.

Saturday – Thursday, August 8-13

• Small Satellite Conference (AIAA/USU), Logan, UT

Monday, August 10

• Russian Spacewalk at ISS, 10:14 am ET (NASA TV coverage begins at 9:45 am ET)

Tuesday, August 11

• ISU-DC Space Cafe Featuring FAA’s John Sloan, The Science Club, Washington, DC, 7:00 pm ET

Thursday-Sunday, August 13-16

• 18th Annual International Mars Society Convention, Catholic University, Washington, DC
  • Mars One V MIT Debate, August 13, 8:00 – 9:30 pm ET

Sunday, August 16

• JAXA Launch of HTV5 Cargo Mission to ISS, Tanegashima, Japan, 22:01 Japan Standard Time (9:01 am ET)

Monday-Wednesday, August 24-26

• NASA Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG), Applied Physics Lab, Laurel, MD

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

• NASA Advisory Council Earth Science Subcommittee, virtual, 2:00-4:30 pm ET

Monday-Wednesday, August 31-September 2

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