What's Happening in Space Policy February 9-13, 2015 – UPDATE

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of February 9-13, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week. (Updated to show new launch date for DSCOVR)

During the Week

The launch of the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) (formerly Triana) was scrubbed on Sunday due to a problem with a radar on the Eastern Test Range needed to track the rocket.  The launch was TENTATIVELY rescheduled for Monday, BUT ON MONDAY MORNING NOAA ANNOUNCED THAT THE LAUNCH DATE WILL BE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, AT 6:05 PM ET BECAUSE THE WEATHER TODAY IS UNFAVORABLE.  Wednesday at 6:03 PM ET is a backup launch opportunity.  If it doesn’t go by then, DSCOVR will have to wait until February 20.

The House is poised to pass a new NASA authorization bill.  The bill has not yet been introduced, but the bipartisan leadership of the House Science, Space and Technology (SS&T) Committee announced agreement on Friday.  They said the bill would be introduced this coming week and not only is that still expected, but the bill is skipping over committee action entirely and going directly to the House floor for a vote on Tuesday under suspension of the rules.  From the information released by the committee so far, the bill is very similar to last year’s bill, which passed the House 401-2.  It was never considered by the Senate, however, and died at the end of the 113th Congress. 

That committee also will hold the first hearing of the 114th Congress dedicated to a space topic — weather satellites — on Thursday.  No space-specific hearings are scheduled in the Senate, but the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) tentatively plans to vote on the nomination of Ash Carter to be Secretary of Defense on Tuesday.

Three non-legislative events of particular interest this week are: (1) on Tuesday, the monthly ISU-DC Space Cafe will feature a panel of representatives of several European countries discussing the recent ESA ministerial meeting; (2) on Wednesday, the National Research Council’s Space Technology Industry, Government, University Roundtable will hold its second meeting, and (3), on Friday, GWU’s Space Policy Institute will hold a symposium on U.S.-Japan Relations and Space Cooperation in the Asia Pacific Region. 

NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel also is meeting this week, but their public meetings are usually pretty pro forma even though they have some very interesting observations that appear in their public reports, like this year’s recently released annual report.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday evening are listed below.

Tuesday, February 10

• SASC Vote on Nomination of Ash Carter to be SecDef (tentative), 216 Hart Senate Office Building, time TBD
• House Vote on NASA Authorization bill, The Capitol, time TBD
• RESCHEDULED LAUNCH OF DSCOVR, Cape Canaveral, FL, 6:05 pm ET
• ISU-DC Space Cafe with Panel on ESA Ministerial Meeting, The Science Club, Washington DC, 7:00 pm ET

Wednesday, February 11

• NRC Space Technology Roundtable, Keck Center, 500 5th Street, NW, Washington, DC, 8:30 am – 5:00 pm ET
• NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, Kennedy Space Center, FL, 1:00-2:30 pm ET

Thursday, February 12

• House SS&T Hearing on Weather Satellites, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET

Friday, February 13

• GWU Space Policy Institute Symposium on US-Japan Relations and Space Cooperation in the Asia Pacific Region, 1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC, 8:30 am – 5:30 pm ET