What’s Happening in Space Policy February 16-22, 2025

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of February 16-22, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions.

During the Week

The week begins tomorrow with a federal holiday officially called Washington’s Birthday, but alternatively known as Presidents’ Day.  George Washington’s birthday is February 22 and the holiday used to fall on that day, but years ago they decided to make it a Monday holiday and wrapped Abraham Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) into it. By whatever name, it’s a holiday.

The rest of the week is pretty quiet.

The Senate didn’t get around to voting on Howard Lutnick’s nomination to be Secretary of Commerce last week, but it’s on the agenda for Tuesday evening.

They also might vote on their version of the Budget Resolution. We explained the purpose of the Budget Resolution and its connection to the upcoming reconciliation bill in last week’s What’s Happening.  We won’t reiterate it here and much of it is unrelated to the space program, but the bottom line is that when the reconciliation bill or bills are enacted, the likely outcome will be a lot more money for defense and border security and a lot less for everything else including NASA and NOAA space activities.

So it’s important to pay attention to the state of play. The House and Senate have opposite approaches. House leadership wants “one big beautiful bill” because it will be tough enough for them to pass one bill with their slim majority (218 Republicans, 215 Democrats). Senate leadership wants to break it into two bills with the first focusing on getting more money for defense and border security and leaving the more controversial issues for later. The Senate has a wider margin (53 Republicans, 47 Democrats/Independents) and only a majority need to vote for a reconciliation bill, not the usual 60 to avoid a filibuster.

Traditionally the House would move first on this type of legislation, but the Senate wearied of waiting. The Senate Budget Committee approved their bill on Wednesday on party lines. That did motivate the House Budget Committee to approve their own bill the next day, also on party lines, after a marathon 12-hour session.  Opposition from Democrats was anticipated, but now that the details are coming out quite a few Republicans who aren’t on the Budget Committee are expressing concern especially because of the significant cuts to Medicaid, which many of their constituents rely upon.

The House really wants to act first, but they’re in recess this week during which time opposition could mount as people become aware of what’s in the package. The Senate might well decide to go ahead with theirs.

As for FY2025 appropriations, there’s been no real progress. The Continuing Resolution (CR) expires in four weeks on March 14. Talk of passing any of the 12 regular appropriations bills is fading, replaced by a potential full-year CR. That’s far from ideal, but better than a shutdown, which still would not be surprising.

There are rumors President Trump may send Congress a “skinny” FY2026 budget request with top-line numbers before his State of the Union Address on March 4, but we haven’t heard anything definitive. Budget requests are supposed to be submitted on the first Monday in February, but rarely are, especially in a new president’s first year.

Now, back to this week’s events.

The Miami Space Summit Thursday and Friday looks interesting.  Sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and the SmallSat Alliance, it has a nice mixture of industry and government speakers. There are far too many to list here, but as examples government speakers include Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, U.S. Space Force (USSF) Vice Chief of Space Operations;  Col. Richard Kniseley, USSF Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office; Jennifer Elzea, Space Development Agency; and Janice Starzyk, Acting Director of NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce. Industry speakers include Joanna Welsh, Citadel; Kirk Konert, AE Industrial Partners; and Chris Harris, UBS. Lots of good panels including “Partnering with Congress and the New Administration to Build the Space Industrial Base” with Kevin O’Connell, Space Economy Rising; Sarah Mineiro, Tanagra Enterprises; Mike Clementi, Icebreaker Strategies; John Plumb, K2 Space; and Steve Kitay, True Anomaly. The summit is in Miami, FL as its name implies. An opening dinner is on February 19 with Lt. Gen. John Shaw (Ret.).  There’s no mention of a virtual option for any of it.

 

Space News will hold a webinar on Wednesday with an update on “The State of Orbital Traffic Management.” Richard DalBello, who just finished his tour of duty as Director of NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce, is one of the speakers. OSC is developing the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) for civil and commercial space operators pursuant to Space Policy Directive-3 in the first Trump Administration. Joining him are Dan Oltrogge from COMSPOC, Carolyn Belle from Aurica Space Strategy Consulting, and Bruce McClintock from RAND. Space News’s David Ariosto is the moderator.

One other event we’ll mention that sounds intriguing is on Thursday at 6:00 pm Eastern.  AIAA’s Space Resources Technical Committee will hold a webinar to discuss Australia’s first lunar rover.  An Australian industry consortium, ELO_2, is building the “Roo-ver” rover. The name was chosen by the Australian public. “Roo” as in kangaroo. Joseph Kenrick from Lunar Outpost Oceania and ELO₂ will give an update on the program. One must register in advance to get the link.

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, February 17

• Washington’s Birthday/Presidents’ Day, Federal Holiday

Wednesday, February 19

• MSBR Luncheon with NASA IV&V Director Wes Deadrick, Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am-1:00 pm ET
• The State of Orbital Traffic Management (Space News), virtual, 1:00-2:00 pm ET
• Ensuring a Spacepower Advantage in a Prolonged Competition (Mitchell Institute), virtual, 1:00 pm ET

Thursday, February 20

• ELO₂ and Roo-ver: Australia’s First Lunar Rover (AIAA Space Resources TC), virtual, 6:00 pm ET

Thursday-Friday, February 20-21

• Miami Space Summit, Miami, FL