What's Happening in Space Policy January 26-30, 2015

What's Happening in Space Policy January 26-30, 2015

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 25, 2015 12:00 am ET | Last Updated: January 25, 2015 2:42 pm ET

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of January 26-30, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

On the off chance you haven’t been watching the weather forecasts, the week starts off with a major winter storm for the Northeast, so if you’re headed in this direction for meetings, be prepared for delays.  The Washington, DC area is not expected to get much snow (a few inches) but it may as well be the two feet they’re forecasting for New England when it comes to impact. This area just does not do well in snow.

Tomorrow in warmer climes — Houston — NASA and its Commercial
Crew Transportation Program (CCtCAP) partners, Boeing and SpaceX, will
hold a news briefing
at Johnson Space Center to provide an update on their progress in
developing crew transportation systems to service the International
Space Station (ISS) by 2017.  The 11:00 am Central Time (12:00 noon
Eastern) briefing will be broadcast on NASA TV. 

Or head to Cocoa Beach, FL for the three-day (Tuesday-Thursday) NASA Advanced Innovative Concepts (NIAC) 2015 symposium.  If you can’t make it in person, it will be webcast.  

Back here in DC, on Tuesday, when it may still feel like the Arctic, the Secure World Foundation will hold a really interesting seminar on “Space and the Arctic: Why Space Capabilities are Important for Sustainable Arctic Development” from 12:00-2:00 pm ET.  Please RSVP in advance if you plan to attend.

An hour before that, the House Science, Space and Technology Committee will hold its 114th Congress organizational meeting, postponed from last week.  The House Appropriations Committee holds its organizational meeting on Wednesday.  The House and Senate Armed Services Committees (HASC and SASC) have interesting hearings on broad topics this week.  It is not clear whether national security space issues will come up at all, but they may, and the hearings seem interesting nonetheless.   One SASC hearing  is on the impact of sequestration on national security with the military service chiefs (the sequester comes back into effect in FY2016 unless the law is changed) and the other is on global challenges with three former Secretaries of State (Kissinger, Shultz and Albright).  The HASC hearing is on how to improve DOD’s ability to respond to technological change.

If you’re interested in a career in space policy and in the D.C. area on Tuesday, don’t miss the panel discussion on that topic Tuesday evening at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute.  Five young professionals who are climbing that ladder of success right now will be there to offer their perspectives and advice.

We also want to note that this week begins the anniversaries of the three fatal spaceflight accidents:  Apollo 1 (or Apollo 204) on January 27, 1967; Challenger, January 28, 1986; and Columbia, February 1, 2003.   NASA usually holds a remembrance event around this time, but we have not heard when/where/what it will be this year.

The meetings that we do know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

Monday, January 26

Tuesday, January 27

Tuesday-Thursday, January 27-29

Wednesday, January 28

Wednesday-Thursday, January 28-29

Thursday, January 29

Last Updated: Jan 25, 2015 2:42 pm ET

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