What’s Happening in Space Policy December 8-14, 2024

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of December 8-14, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

Just two more weeks to go in the 118th Congress if the House and Senate adjourn on December 19 and 20 as planned.

This week’s House schedule again shows nothing about FY2025 appropriations. The current Continuing Resolution expires on December 20 and it looks almost certain they will just pass another CR that extends into March.

The House does plan to take up the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), however. No specific date is listed, but it says “Legislation related to the National Defense Authorization Act is expected.”  The NDAA is one of the few “must pass” bills each year and Congress has indeed passed it every year since the first in 1961.  The House passed their version back in June. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) approved their version about the same time, but it never made it to the Senate floor for debate. Instead they used SASC’s version plus a list of 93 proposed amendments agreed to on a bipartisan basis as the Senate’s negotiating position.

Last night, HASC and SASC released the results of those negotiations: the text of the bill, the report, and a summary. The bill’s full title is “Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement Act and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025.”  It retains provisions that originated in the Senate version to extend two FAA commercial space regulations that otherwise would expire on January 1, 2025 (the “learning period” prohibition on new commercial human spaceflight regulations) and September 30, 2025 (third party indemnification) for three years each (Sec. 5702).

Update, December 8, 10:15 pm ET: The top Democrat on HASC, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), is asking House Speaker Johnson to “abandon” consideration of the bill as is because it contains a provision prohibiting medical treatment for military dependents under the age of 18 who are diagnosed with gender dysphobia.

Both chambers have released their calendars for next year.  The 119th Congress convenes at noon on January 3, 2025 and they both will be off and running that day. The Senate will be especially busy early in the year considering nominations for the second Trump term. The House also expects to be quite busy.

Off the Hill, there are a number of really interesting meetings. We’ll highlight just three.

The annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference  (Monday-Friday) is always full of new fascinating discoveries in earth and space sciences. Looking at the list of keynote and plenary speakers, it has a strong climate focus this year.  NASA’s Planetary Science Division will hold a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday. The conference is here in Washington, DC. A paid virtual option is available, but “only plenary and keynote sessions will be live-streamed; named lectures, Union sessions, oral sessions and town halls will be available for on-demand viewing only.”

Mid-week (Tuesday-Thursday), the Space Force Association will hold its 2nd Spacepower Conference in Orlando, FL — Spacepower 2024.  Keynotes by Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, head of U.S. Space Force, and Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, will certainly garner a lot of attention and so will Jared Isaacman especially now that President-elect Trump plans to nominate him to lead NASA. Isaacman is there to participate in a fireside chat about Polaris Dawn on Wednesday, but the topic of his soon-to-be new job almost certainly will come up.  Other key speakers include ULA President and CEO Tory Bruno and Space Launch Delta 45 Commander Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen and there are some great panel discussions including one on “Industry Launch Technologies” with the FAA’s Kelvin Coleman, Blue Origin’s Lars Hoffman, and SpaceX’s Nick Cummings. We don’t seen any mention of a virtual option, unfortunately.

 

On Friday, the 19th Eilene M. Galloway Symposium on Critical Issues in Space Law takes place here in D.C. It has five really interesting panel sessions — Space and National Security; Artemis Accords: International Engagement & Legal Significance; Developing and Improving National Space Law & Regulations; Emerging Issues in Spectrum Management; and Commercial Industry Around the Globe. All that will be followed by a closing keynote by Mike Gold of Redwire, often credited as the “father” of the Artemis Accords when he was at NASA.  Looks like a really terrific event and there is a virtual option for this one.

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.

 

Sunday-Thursday, December 8-12

• Galaxy Forum China, Hainan, China

Monday-Friday, December 9-13

• American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2024, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC

Tuesday, December 10

• 2024 NewSpace Showspace Summit, NewSpace Launchpad, 2420 Alamo Ave, SE, Albuquerque, NM
• Strategic Shifts: Insights from the Commission on National Defense Strategy (Atlantic Council), 1400 L St., NW, Washington, DC/online
• MSBR Luncheon with NASA Goddard’s Jim Garvin, Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am-1:00 pm ET

Tuesday-Wednesday, December 10-11

• Abu Dhabi Space Debate, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Tuesday-Thursday, December 10-12

• Spacepower 2024 (Space Force Association), Hilton Orlando Resort, Orlando, FL

Wednesday, December 11 

• WSBR Luncheon with Maj. Gen. Steven Whitney, U.S. Space Force, Hogan Lovells, 555 13th St., NW, Washington, DC, 12:00 – 1:30 pm ET

Thursday, December 12

• SpX-31 Cargo Spacecraft Undocks from ISS, 11:05 am ET (NASA+ coverage begins 10:50 am ET)

Friday, December 13

• Galloway Space Law Symposium, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, 2001 K St., NW, Washington, DC, 8:00 am-5:00 pm ET (virtual option available)

 

This article has been updated.