What's Happening in Space Policy January 12-16, 2015

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of January 12-16, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The week starts off with the berthing of the SpaceX CRS-5 (SpX-5) Dragon spacecraft with the International Space Station at about 6:00 am ET Monday morning.  It may seem anticlimatic compared with Saturday’s SpX-5 launch — or rather the attempted landing of the Falcon 9 first stage on an autonomous drone ship.   While that didn’t go as planned, as a test it certainly was a success as a step towards reusability.

Congressional committee activities for the 114th Congress get off to a start this week.  Many House committees, including the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), are holding their organizational meetings to adopt rules, lay out majority and minority agendas, and complete administrative tasks.   Rep. MacThornberry (R-TX) takes over the HASC gavel this Congress from Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), who retired.   Over in the Senate, SASC is holding an actual hearing with a single witness — Henry Kissinger — expounding on global challenges and U.S. national security.  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will chair SASC in this Congress.   Space topics do not usually arise in hearings like these on broad, top level national security issues, but U.S. dependence on Russia for rocket engines, the overall state of national security space assets, or perceived threats posed by China’s space activities might come up depending on where the conversation goes.

Down at Stennis Space Center, MS, the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) and two of its committees — Science  and Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) — will meet this week.  A joint session Monday afternoon between the Science and HEO committees might be particularly interesting.  Then, on Tuesday morning HEO Associate Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier will provide the HEO committee with an update on HEO activities overall and Michele Gates and Lindley Johnson will present an update on the Asteroid Redirect Mission.  Later in the day, Alan Lindenmoyer will offer NAC-HEO “lessons learned” from the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program.  The meetings are available virtually via WebEx and telecon (click on the links to those meetings below or on the right menu for instructions).

Those and other events of interest that we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

Monday, January 12

• SpaceX CRS-5 Arrives at International Space Station, approximately 6:00 am ET (NASA TV coverage begins at 4:30 am ET)

Monday-Tuesday, January 12-13

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Science Committee, Stennis Space Center, MS
• NAC Human Exploration and Operations Committee, Stennis Space Center, MS
  • The two committees will meet in joint session on January 12 from 1:00-5:30 pm Central Time (2:00-6:30 pm Eastern)

Tuesday, January 13

• HASC Organizational Meeting, 2118 Rayburn, 11:00 am ET
• SASC Hearing on Global Challenges and U.S. National Security, G-50 Dirksen, 2:30 pm ET

Wednesday-Thursday, January 14-15

• NASA Advisory Council, Stennis Space Center, MS

Thursday, January 15

• AIAA-NCS Luncheon Featuring NOAA Administrator Kathy Sullivan, Army Navy Country Club, Arlington, VA, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET
• WSBR Luncheon Featuring Panel on Upcoming Battle Over C-Band at WRC 2015, University Club, Washington, DC, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET

Friday, January 16

• European Space Agency Director General Dordain’s Annual Breakfast Press Briefing, Paris, FR, 9:00 am Central European Time (3:00 am Eastern)