What’s Happening in Space Policy December 1-7, 2024

What’s Happening in Space Policy December 1-7, 2024

By Marcia Smith | Posted: December 1, 2024 4:45 pm ET | Last Updated: December 1, 2024 4:45 pm ET

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of December 1-7, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The countdown to the end of the 118th Congress continues with no sign of action on FY2025 appropriations. Once again no appropriations bills are on the House schedule. The Continuing Resolution (CR) that’s keeping the government operating right now expires on December 20. It’s looking increasingly likely they will simply pass another CR into next year when Republicans will control the House, Senate and White House, despite the well known negatives associated with doing that — funding uncertainty for all the agencies like DOD and NASA in the discretionary part of the federal budget, inability to cancel old programs or begin new ones, and starting the 119th Congress with funding fights.

The House is currently scheduled to adjourn on December 19 and the Senate on December 20. Those dates are subject to change, of course. As we often say, it’s difficult to forecast what Congress will do, so stay tuned. What we do know is that this Congress will end no later than January 3, 2025 at noon when the 119th Congress begins.

Liftoff of the first Vega-C, July 13, 2022. Credit: ESA

Elsewhere this week, Europe’s launch of Sentinel-1C on Wednesday from Europe’s launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, should capture a lot of attention. The launch, VV25, is the return-to-flight of Vega-C, an upgraded version of the small Vega rocket.

Vega-C’s first flight on July 13, 2022 was a success, but it failed the second time on December 20, 2022. It’s taken almost two years to be ready to fly again. Europe is recovering from a launch vehicle drought across all three classes of rockets — small, medium and large — brought on by the Vega-C failure, loss of access to Russia’s Soyuz medium-class rocket after Russia invaded Ukraine, and delays in building the large Ariane 6. Europe had to purchase several launches from SpaceX for spacecraft that couldn’t wait. But Ariane 6 had it first flight this summer and hopefully Vega-C will be back in business soon. Last week the launch was delayed from Tuesday to Wednesday for final checks, but as of today it is on for 4:20 pm EST (18:20 local time in Kourou). ESA will livestream the launch. Sentinel-1C is part of the European Union’s Copernicus earth observation satellite program.

Earlier that day, half-way around the world, ESA’s Proba-C mission will launch on India’s PSLV rocket from Sriharikota. ESA will livestream that launch, too, beginning at 11:00 CET (5:00 am EST). Proba-3 is a pair of precision flying spacecraft that will create artificial solar eclipses to study the Sun’s corona. One will cast a shadow on the other within 1 millimeter accuracy, allowing eclipses for up to six hours at a time.

Studies of the Sun are part of the scientific discipline of solar and space physics, or heliophysics. On Thursday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will release their new Decadal Survey for solar and space physics. As we explained last week, the Academies perform Decadal Surveys every 10 years — a decade — for each of NASA’s scientific disciplines (astrophysics, biological and physical sciences, earth science, heliophysics, and planetary science) to provide guidance from the scientific community on the top questions that need to be addressed in the next decade and recommend missions to answer them.

The National Academies will release their new Decadal Survey for solar and space physics on Thursday. Studying the sun includes its effects on Earth like the stunning auroras seen much further south than usual this year, like this one posted by the National Academies.

The head of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Nicky Fox, is herself a heliophysicist and has said several times that she is eager to see the results of this study, especially what it says about the Geospace Dynamics Constellation (GDC). GDC responds to recommendations in the last Decadal Survey, but she had to recommend cancelling it because of budget cuts. She told the Academies’ Space Studies Board two weeks ago that she’s looking forward to seeing how the science that GDC would produce is prioritized this time and if there are “maybe creative ways” to do some of that science even if they can’t do the full mission. The report will be released at an in-person meeting at the Academies’ Keck Center in Washington, D.C. and will be webcast.

Space News will hold its annual Icon Awards luncheon in D.C. on Friday, with awards in 10 categories including individual achievement, lifetime achievement, innovative technology, and international collaboration. After the awards are announced, there will be a “VIP keynote speaker” and a panel discussion with Space News editorial staff and Icon awardees. Always a lot of fun with very well-deserving winners.

Lots and lots of other interesting meetings and conferences in the U.S. and around the world. Among them are the IAA Space Debris and Sustainability Conference in Hong Kong Monday-Wednesday; the U.N. World Space Forum in Bonn, Germany Tuesday-Thursday; the American Society for Gravitational and Space Biology (ASGSR) in Puerto Rico Tuesday-Saturday; and Luxembourg Space Week in Luxembourg Monday-Thursday, which combines four events on various days — the 8th Moon Village Workshop & Symposium, the 1st European Interstellar Symposium, the NewSpace Europe 2024 conference, and ESA’s Space for Inspiration Conference on Commercial Space Exploration.

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 and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Monday, December 2

Monday-Wednesday, December 2-4

Monday-Thursday, December 2-5

Tuesday, December 3

Tuesday-Thursday, December 3-5

Tuesday-Saturday, December 3-7

Wednesday, December 4

Wednesday-Thursday, December 4-5

Wednesday-Friday, December 4-6

Thursday, December 5

Friday, December 6

Last Updated: Dec 01, 2024 4:45 pm ET

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