What’s Happening in Space Policy December 15-31, 2024

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the remainder of this year, December 15-31, 2024, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week and plan to adjourn thereafter.

During the Week

It’s still busy, busy, busy in the space policy world this week before Christmas, but fortunately we get a break for the rest of the year so we’re covering the remainder of 2024 in this edition of What’s Happening.

EXCEPT that Blue Origin’s Lars Hoffman told the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2024 conference on Thursday they still plan to launch New Glenn on its inaugural flight before the end of the year. He didn’t give a date, but said “maybe for Christmas.” Hopefully not Christmas Day itself, but we’ll be keeping our eye out for further announcements.

Another good morning at the Cape. GS2 tanking test is done and nominal across the board. pic.twitter.com/g72FWUBvYx

— Dave Limp (@davill) December 10, 2024

As for this week, if the current schedule holds this is the final working week of the 118th Congress and they still have a lot of work to do. That includes doing something about FY2025 appropriations. The existing Continuing Resolution (CR) expires on Friday, December 20. They’re expected to extend that, probably to March (though there are a lot of Republicans and Democrats who don’t want to push it that far). There were indications a couple days ago that the text would be released today (Sunday) to start the clock for when it can be taken up by the House where members are supposed to get three days to read a bill before it reaches the floor. The bill could contain a number of “anomalies” — exceptions — allowing some departments/agencies to deviate from restrictions in a CR, which holds them to their current spending levels and prohibits canceling old programs or starting new ones. We’ll post an update here if the CR comes out today. [UPDATE, Sunday, 3:30 pm ET: Politico reports that a snag over economic aid for farmers has developed and the text likely won’t come out until tomorrow.]

Also, the Senate needs to pass the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contains a social policy provision added at the last minute that prohibits medical treatment for transgender military dependents under 18 that many Democrats strongly oppose. The House managed to pass the bill anyway, though with a closer margin than usual for the NDAA. The Senate also is expected to pass it and President Biden to sign it because the rest of the bill is so important, but as Yogi Berra said, “it ain’t over til it’s over.” As a matter of interest, Donald Trump is the only president to veto an NDAA and the House and Senate overrode his veto.

Speaking of NDAAs, this week is the 5th anniversary of the creation of the U.S. Space Force (USSF) in the FY2020 NDAA. The idea of organizationally separating space activities from the Air Force’s other responsibilities originated in 2017 with the bipartisan leadership of the House Armed Services Committee’s (HASC’s) Strategic Forces subcommittee — Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Jim Cooper (D-TN). They called it a Space Corps, but the Air Force opposed it and the proposal didn’t get very far until Trump became enthusiastic about a Space Force and got it across the finish line by directing DOD to support it. Trump wanted an entirely separate department, but the NDAA kept it as a part of the Department of the Air Force. Trump signed the bill at a big event at Joint Base Andrews on December 20, 2019.

Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations (the USSF’s top job), started celebrating the Space Force’s 5th birthday last week at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower 2024 conference, expounding on how far they’ve come and a look towards the future.

This week (Tuesday) he’ll be at CSIS with a star-studded group that includes both Rogers and Cooper as well as the Space Force’s first CSO, Gen. Jay  Raymond (Ret.), for a deeper dive. Rogers now chairs HASC, while Cooper is retired.

Saltzman, Rogers, and Raymond are keynote speakers along with SpaceX’s Gwynne Shotwell and Lockheed Martin’s Robert Lightfoot. Cooper is on one of the panels, which have very impressive lists of participants as well. This all-day event really is “can’t miss” for anyone interested in national security space. Fortunately, it will be webcast.

(Separately, the Mitchell Institute will chat with outgoing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall on Thursday. The Department of the Air Force comprises both the Air Force and the Space Force. Kendall has led the Department since July 2021, most of the Space Force’s formative years.)

CSIS has another interesting event on Wednesday. DOD’s 2024 report on China’s military power hasn’t been released yet, but Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs and Michael Chase, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, will share its findings with Bonny Lin, CSIS’s director of the China Power Project. DOD prepares these annual reports in accordance with direction in the FY2000 NDAA. The last version came out in October 2023. It’s not clear when the 2024 edition will be released, but one might assume it will be by Wednesday. The discussion will be webcast.

Lots of other interesting events this week as well.  To highlight just a few: NASA will hold a briefing on Tuesday about the science and technology payloads it’s launching on Firefly’s first Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) mission, Blue Ghost Mission One — the launch is expected in mid-January; the National Academies’ committee on Science Strategy for the Human Exploration on Mars meets for three days, though only two brief sessions are open to the public (one each on Tuesday and Wednesday); Space News has a webinar on Integrating Commercial Space into National Security on Wednesday; and two Russian cosmonauts will conduct a spacewalk on Thursday.

After that we get a break until after the New Year, except perhaps for the New Glenn launch. The new Congress begins on January 3, so enjoy the downtime while you can!

Monday, December 16

• Future of European Space Law: A New Model of Development? (IFRI), Paris, FR/online, 3:30-6:30 am ET (9:30-12:30 CET)
• IRIS2 Contract Signing Ceremony (EU/ESA/SpaceRISE), Brussels, Belgium, 5:00 am ET (11:00 CET), webcast on ESA TV
• SpX-31 Cargo Spacecraft Undocks from ISS, Earth orbit, 11:05 am ET (NASA+ begins 10:50 am ET) Note: this undocking has been postponed multiple times due to bad weather in FL; check NASA’s ISS blog for updates.

Monday-Wednesday, December 16-18

• DOD Commercial Satcom Workshop (SIA), Hyatt Regency Crystal City, Arlington, VA

Tuesday, December 17

• Celebrating the U.S. Space Force and Charting its Future (CSIS), 1616 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00 am-5:00 pm ET (webcast)
• NASA Media Telecon re Firefly’s First CLPS Mission, virtual, 1:00 pm ET

Tuesday-Thursday, December 17-19

• Committee on Science Strategy for the Human Exploration of Mars (National Academies), Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (some sessions are open, some are closed; open sessions will be livestreamed)

Wednesday, December 18

• ESA Media Information Session for 330th ESA Council Meeting, 8:30 am ET (14:30 CET), webcast on ESA TV
• Integrating Commecial Space Into National Security (Space News), virtual, 1:00 pm ET
• Discussion on DOD’s China Military Power Report (CSIS), 1616 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 1:00-2:00 pm ET (webcast)

Thursday, December 19

• Russian Spacewalk at ISS, 10:10 am ET (NASA+ coverage begins 9:45 am ET)
• Aerospace Nation: Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall (Mitchell Institute), virtual, 10:00 am ET

Wednesday, December 25

• Christmas Day (federal holiday)