What’s Happening in Space Policy December 22, 2024-January 4, 2025

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next two weeks, December 22, 2024-January 4, 2025, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate have completed their work for the 118th Congress and will convene for the 119th Congress on January 3, 2025.

During the Weeks

This edition of What’s Happening is thankfully brief. After a tumultuous week, Congress (barely) avoided a government shutdown and completed their work for the 118th Congress. Officially it doesn’t end until noon on January 3 and pro forma sessions are scheduled between now and then, but no further legislative activity is expected.

The only major space-related event we know about for the next two weeks is the possible inaugural launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn. They’ve been conducting tests on the pad over the past several days and have a goal of launching before the end of the year, but as with all new rockets, it may slip a bit more. Stay tuned for updates.  Blue Origin isn’t providing much public information, but the commercial website NASASpaceflight.com (not affiliated with NASA) is doing a great job of monitoring developments.

Looks like we won’t get a Static Fire today, but they sure got a lot of data out of the testing. New rocket patience required. https://t.co/ZSdQ68uxZM

— NSF – NASASpaceflight.com (@NASASpaceflight) December 22, 2024

Despite the dearth of events, we decided to go ahead and post a “What’s Happening” this week to point out that the 119th Congress begins less than two weeks from now. We’re amazed ourselves that it’s coming up so rapidly, but January 3 is just 12 days away. We posted the House and Senate schedules in a previous edition, but here they are again. It’s going to get really busy really fast.

As a quick recap of where everything stands (we’ll have a more detailed wrap-up soon), the CR that finally was approved early Saturday morning funds all the agencies in the discretionary part of the budget — including DOD, NASA, NOAA, and the FAA — through March 14, 2025.  They cannot start new programs or end old ones and are held at their FY2024 funding levels unless they got an “anomaly” — exception — in the CR. The only anomaly related to space activities we know about is that NOAA may spend funds to maintain the acquisition schedule for the Geostationary Earth Orbit weather satellite program.

As for authorization bills, which set policy and may recommend funding levels but do not actually provide any money, Congress did pass the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  It was just sent to the President’s desk on Friday so hasn’t been signed yet, but is expected to be soon.  In addition to setting policy for national defense space activities, it has two FAA space-related provisions:  extending the “learning period” that prohibits new FAA commercial human spaceflight regulations and authority to provide third-party indemnification for commercial space launches and reentries. Each is extended for three years, to January 1, 2028 and September 30, 2028 respectively.

That’s it. Although the leaders of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee said for all two years of the 118th Congress that passing a new NASA Authorization bill was a top priority, it didn’t happen. The House passed a bill in September, but the Senate Commerce Committee didn’t introduce their bill (S. 5600) until this past Friday, the day the Senate was getting ready to head home for the holidays. Too late for any action in this Congress, but perhaps a harbinger of what they want to do in the next.

Both chambers also wanted a commercial space bill. House SS&T cleared a bill on a partisan basis in November 2023, but it stopped there.

House SS&T Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) also had a NOAA authorization bill making NOAA an independent agency high on his agenda at the beginning of the Congress, but there was no action on that.

One bill that did get through as a stand-alone measure was the Launch Communications Act (S. 1648, P.L. 118-85). It requires the FCC to facilitate access to spectrum needed by commercial space launch service providers to communicate with their rockets.

The bottom line is there’s a lot of work to do in the new Congress and it starts in just 12 days.

President Biden gave federal workers an extra day off for Christmas, Tuesday, December 24, so the government will be closed December 24, December 25 and January 1, giving everyone a bit of down time.  Enjoy!

 

All the events we know about as of Sunday morning, December 22, are shown below.  Check  back througout the weeks for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Date/Time to Be Announced

• Possible Inaugural Launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rocket, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL

Tuesday, December 24

• Federal Holiday (extra day for Christmas)

Wednesday, December 25

• Federal Holiday (Christmas)

Wednesday, January 1

• Federal Holiday (New Year’s Day)

Friday, January 3

• 119th Congress Convenes, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC, 12:00 pm ET