What's Happening in Space Policy January 17-22, 2016
Here is our list of space policy related events for January 17-22, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session part of the week; the House is in recess.
During the Week
Tomorrow (Monday) is a Federal holiday — Martin Luther King’s birthday — and federal offices will be closed. The House is taking the entire week off, but the Senate will be in session beginning Tuesday.
The big news for this week has already happened: today’s successful launch of the NOAA-Eumetsat-NASA-CNES Jason-3 ocean altimetry spacecraft. Despite the fog, the launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA went off on time at 1:42 pm Eastern Time (10:42 am local time at the launch site) and as of this moment, the satellite is in the correct orbit and the solar arrays have deployed. The Falcon 9 launch was flawless, but SpaceX’s attempt to land the first stage on one of its autonomous drone ships about 200 miles off the California coast failed. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted that one of the landing legs did not lock into place so the rocket tipped over when landing on the drone ship.
The successful launch of Jason-3 will provide a nice backdrop for Wednesday’s NASA-NOAA media telecon on weather and climate, although the telecon’s focus is what happened last year. The telecon will be broadcast on NASA’s News Audio website at 11:00 am ET. An hour later, NOAA’s Chief Scientist, Rick Spinrad, will have a chance to tout the success at a Maryland Space Business Roundtable luncheon.
Those and other events we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below. Check back throughout the week to see any additional events we learn about later and post on our Events of Interest list.
Sunday-Wednesday, January 17-20
- Pacific Telecon Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii
Wednesday, January 20
- NASA-NOAA Telecon on climate and weather, virtual, 11:00 am ET (listen on NASA’s News Audio website)
- MSBR Luncheon Featuring NOAA Chief Scientist Rick Spinrad, Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET
Thursday, January 21
- Tale of Two (Cities) Planets: What Earth and Mars Are Teaching Us About the Evolution of Habitable Worlds (Carnegie Institution), 1530 P Street, NW, Washington, DC, 6:45 pm ET
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