What's Happening in Space Policy January 25-29, 2016 – UPDATE 4

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of January 25-29, 2016.  The House and Senate are scheduled to be in session, but with the blizzard that’s coming, all events in the DC area should be considered tentative. [UPDATE JANUARY 24: The House has decided not to meet this week because of the aftereffects of the blizzard.  So far, the Senate’s schedule is unchanged.  The immediate Washington DC area got between 17 and 30 inches of snow and roads remain impassable in many places.  Also, Federal Government offices in the DC area will be closed on Monday.  UPDATE JANUARY 25:  The January 26 SASC defense acquisition hearing has been postponed.  Federal Government offices in the DC area will be closed on Tuesday, too.]

During the Week

The first flakes of the Blizzard of 2016, also known as Snowmageddon II, Snowzilla, or Jonas (that’s what The Weather Channel calls it), are falling.   The forecast is so grim that we worry whether the electricity will be on this weekend, so decided to post this today (Friday).   The Washington DC area does not do well with snow and even if it did, this storm is expected to break records in snowfall totals (18-30 inches is forecast for right here) and winds (30-40 miles per hour in this area, higher elsewhere), so any city would have a problem keeping up with it.   If you have plans to travel to the DC area, or the mid-Atlantic generally, check to be sure your meeting or whatever is still taking place before you start your trip. [UPDATED JANUARY 25:  The House will not meet this week.  The SASC hearing on defense acquisition on Tuesday has been postponed (not the RD-180 hearing on Wednesday, at least not yet).  Federal government offices in the DC area are closed Monday and Tuesday.]

Among the highlights of events that are SCHEDULED as of this moment is NASA’s annual remembrance of the astronauts who lost their lives in the 1967 Apollo fire and 1986 space shuttle Challenger and 2003 Columbia tragedies.   This year is the 30th anniversary of the January 28, 1986 Challenger accident that killed NASA astronauts Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Judy Resnik, Ellison Onizuka and Ron McNair; Hughes Aircraft payload specialist Greg Jarvis; and Teacher in Space Christa McAuliffe.  NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and other NASA officials will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on January 28 (Thursday), followed by activities at other NASA centers throughout the day.  NASA TV will televise a wreath-laying ceremony at the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Center at 10:00 am ET.

On a completely different note, the debate over United Launch Alliance’s (ULA’s) use of Russian RD-180 rocket engines and efforts to build a U.S. alternative to them resumes on Wednesday with a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).  SASC Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) is livid that Senate appropriators pulled the rug out from under his feet, essentially allowing the use of an indeterminate number of RD-180s instead of capping the number at nine as required by the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) reportedly at the urging of the Air Force and ULA.   Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James and DOD Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall will be at the witness table to explain their position.  The argument is not over the need to end reliance on Russian engines for national security launches or to build a U.S. alternative, but the timing.  ULA and the Air Force do not think a new U.S.-built engine will be ready for service by 2019; McCain thinks that is a reasonable goal.  McCain also is an advocate for SpaceX and other “new entrants” who could compete against ULA and bring launch costs down.  

Note that there is a more general hearing on defense acquisition the day before.  [UPDATE:  THIS HEARING HAS BEEN POSTPONED] At that one, the service chiefs will testify about the role they play in the
acquisition process.  Impossible to know if anything will come up about
space, but it wouldn’t be surprising.  SASC’s House counterpart, HASC,
held its own defense acquisition hearing on January 7.  HASC Strategic
Forces Subcommittee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) used it as a opportunity to
slam DOD on the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP).  DOD
bought 20 DMSP weather satellites almost two decades ago.  The first 19
have been launched, but the fate of the last one, DMSP-20, is in limbo. 
In 2014, DOD said it no longer was needed, but changed its mind last year.  Congress reacted
skeptically and required DOD to certify whether it is needed or not.  Meanwhile,
millions of dollars have been spent keeping it in storage.   Rogers used
$518 million as the total amount of money spent on that one satellite and said
a lot of aggravation could have been saved if 18 years ago the Air Force and
Congress “put a half billion dollars in a parking lot in a pile and just
burned it.”  He said now the satellite will be trashed and “I
presume … be made into razor blades.”  We’ll see if the SASC
hearing has any of its own fireworks.

Those and other events that are scheduled for next week are listed below.  Check back throughout the week for additional events that we learn about and add to our Events of Interest list.   And to all of our readers in the mid-Atlantic area about to endure this storm, pay heed to the experts on how to stay safe.

Tuesday, January 26

• SASC Hearing on Defense Acquisition, G-50 Dirksen Senate Office Building, 9:30 am ET  (POSTPONED)

Wednesday, January 27

• SASC Hearing on Russian RD-180 Rocket Engines, 216 Hart Senate Office Building, 9:30 am ET
• COMSTAC Telecon re Indian Launch Vehicles, virtual, 3:00-4:00 pm ET

Wednesday-Friday, January 27-29

• NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), Monrovia, CA

Thursday, January 28

• NASA Commemoration of its “Fallen Heroes” – 30th Anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy, various locations and times
• NOAA Science Advisory Board, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD, 1:00-4:00 pm ET

Thursday-Friday, January 28-29

• NASA-NSF-DOE Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee (AAAC), National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA

Friday, January 29

• Space Power to the Warfighter: Space Policy and Strategy (Mitchell Institute), Capitol Hill Club, Washington, DC, 8:00 am ET