What’s Happening in Space Policy December 29, 2024-January 11, 2025

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next two weeks, December 29, 2024-January 11, 2025, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate will formally end the 118th Congress and convene the 119th Congress on Friday, January 3. Both chambers will be in session the week of January 6.

During the Weeks

We say goodbye to 2024 at midnight Tuesday. Two events that were projected to happen by the end of the year are still pending. We’ll see if they get done or, more likely, slip into 2025.

First is Blue Origin’s inaugural launch of the New Glenn rocket. They made progress two days ago with a successful static fire test and getting their FAA license, so they can launch whenever they’re ready. It seems unlikely (though not impossible) they’ll meet their goal of launching by the end of the year, but they could go later in the week. As Jeff Bezos tweeted, “Next stop launch.”  [We note, however, that the FAA’s operations plan advisory shows this launch as potentially taking place on January 6 at 0430 GMT (which would be January 5 11:30 pm EST) with a backup opportunity 24 hours later.]

Next stop launch pic.twitter.com/GQFz4XxEt5

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 28, 2024

The other is NASA announcing the results of their independent review of Mars Sample Return options. When they appointed the team — briefly led by Jim Bridenstine and then by Maria Zuber — in October, the plan was to finish “by the end of 2024.” It’s not unusual for NASA to schedule media briefings with less than a day’s notice, so it still could happen by Tuesday, but we’re not banking on it. Stay tuned.

One sure bet this week is that the 118th Congress officially ends and the 119th Congress begins at noon on Friday, January 3, 2025. Republicans will control both the House and Senate at that point, though by slim margins.

Republicans won control of the Senate, adding four more seats. They will have 53, with 47 Democrats (including two Independents who caucus with the Democrats — Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine). That’s a better margin than Democrats have at the moment (51 Democrats including 4 Independents who caucus with them, and 49 Republicans), but still less than the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. Senate Republicans chose John Thune (R-SD) to be the new Majority Leader (Mitch McConnell is still a powerful Senator, but decided months ago to step aside as the top Republican). Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will transition to Minority Leader.

In the House, it was Democrats who gained seats, but only two. Not enough to capture the majority. The split will be 220 Republicans and 115 Democrats, although there will be three Republican vacancies early on: Matt Gaetz (R-FL) resigned, and Mike Waltz (R-FL) and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) are moving to the administration as National Security Advisor and U.N. Ambassador respectively. Stefanik’s position requires Senate confirmation. All three seats are expected to be filled by other Republicans, but until the elections are held, the Republican bench won’t be full.

That could make a difference especially at the opening of the Congress. The first task for the House on Friday is choosing a Speaker. Current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is opposed by some of his own Republicans in part because of the messy handling of the Continuing Resolution (CR) two weeks ago. A long fight over the Speakership, as there was when Kevin McCarthy was ousted, would complicate getting the work of Congress done — like certifying the electoral college results from November’s presidential election on January 6.  It would take only one or two Republicans to prevent Johnson or any other candidate from being elected Speaker and it’s the Speaker who swears in the other House members so they’re pretty well stuck in limbo until someone gets the gavel. One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), already made it clear he won’t vote for Johnson.

I will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson. I’m not persuaded by the “hurry up and elect him so we can certify the election on J6” argument. A weak legislative branch, beholden to the swamp, will not be able to achieve the mandate voters gave Trump and Congress in November. pic.twitter.com/vrD3l45XDX

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 27, 2024

The Congressional Research Service’s report “Electing the Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frequently Asked Questions” may come in handy. And Roll Call has a useful story about the options experts on congressional procedure are looking at if the House isn’t able to organize before 1:00 pm ET on January 6 when the House and Senate are supposed to meet in Joint Session to certify the results.

Whatever’s going on in the House, the Senate plans to be plenty busy right off the bat. President-elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate people for many positions in his Administration that require Senate confirmation. He cannot officially nominate them until he takes office on January 20, but Senate rules allow them to begin confirmation hearings earlier than that so key positions like Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense can be filled as soon as possible after a new President is sworn in. The Senate Armed Services Committee reportedly plans to hold a hearing on Pete Hegseth’s nomination to be SecDef on January 14, for example.  We’ll be keeping an eye out for others important for space policy including Secretary of Commerce (Howard Lutnick), Secretary of Transportation (Sean Duffy), and, of course, NASA (Jared Isaacman).

Off the Hill, space policy resumes its busy course next week. The Transportation Research Board’s annual meeting in D.C. starts a week from today, January 5. The vast majority of sessions are not about space, but we spotted one on Monday on “Complementary Roles and Responsibilities the Air and Space Transportation Industries Will Face While Using Shared Airspace in the Next 5 Years.” There may be others amidst the jam-packed schedule.

AIAA’s week-long SciTech conference in Orlando, FL begins Monday, January 6.  JPL Director Laurie Leshin kicks it off with a keynote that morning. Other plenary sessions on subsequent days feature Kristen Baldwin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Science, Technology and Engineering; Bronson Messer II, Director of Science at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Lab; a panel on AI and Autonomy with representatives from Lockheed Martin, MIT, and Stanford; and a panel on Future of Innovation with representatives from Honeywell, Astroscale US, and Electra.

NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free speaks on Tuesday on “NASA’s Strategy to Define the Next Era of Continuous Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit.”  NASA recently released its new LEO Microgravity Strategy confirming “continuous human presence” means “continuous heartbeat” not “continuous capability.”

Also next week (January 9), ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher will hold the ESA DG Annual Press Briefing with a look at what’s coming up in 2025 not only with launches, but the ESA Ministerial Meeting in November when ESA’s 22 member states make decisions on ESA’s future programs.  It’s at 10:00 Central European Time, which is pretty early here in the States, but ESA does a good job of posting a replay within a few hours. It will be livestreamed on ESA TV.

Two major conferences — the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Winter Meeting and the American Meteorological Society (AMS) annual meeting — begin two weeks from today on Sunday, January 12. NASA’s three astrophysics Program Analysis Groups (PAGs) meet in conjunction with the AAS meeting, one of which (ExoPAG) starts the day before. We’ll have more on these in the next edition.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning, December 29, 2024, are shown below. Check back throughout the weeks for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Date/Time TBD, but were supposed to happen by the end of 2024

• NASA Releases Results of Independent Review of Mars Sample Return Options
• Blue Origin Inaugural Launch of New Glenn, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL [however, the FAA’s website shows this launch as potentially taking place on January 6 at 0430 GMT (which would be January 5 11:30 pm EST) with a backup opportunity 24 hours later.]

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

• Federal Holiday (New Year’s Day)

Friday, January 3

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

Sunday-Thursday, January 5-9

• Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC

Monday-Friday, January 6-10

• AIAA SciTech Forum, Hyatt Regency Orlando, Orlando, FL

Tuesday-Thursday, January 7-9

• NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL/virtual

Thursday, January 9

• ESA Director General’s Annual Press Briefing, ESA HQ, Paris, FR, 10:00 CET (4:00 am EST), watch on ESA TV

Saturday-Sunday, January 11-12

• NASA Exoplanets Exploration Program Analysis Group (ExoPAG), National Harbor, MD/virtual (in conjunction with the AAS Winter Meeting, part of the meeting is joint with other PAGs)

Sunday, January 12

• NASA Physics of the Cosmos Program Analysis Group (PhysPAG), National Harbor, MD (in conjunction with the AAS Winter Meeting), 9:00 am-6:00 pm ET (part of the meeting is joint with other PAGs)
• NASA Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group (COPAG), National Harbor, MD (in conjunction with the AAS Winter Meeting), 9:00 am-4:00 pm ET (part of the meeting is joint with other PAGs)
• American Astronomical Society (AAS) Winter Meeting, National Harbor, MD (continues through January 16)
• American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (continues through January 16)

This article has been updated.