What’s Happening in Space Policy January 8-14, 2023

What’s Happening in Space Policy January 8-14, 2023

By Marcia Smith | Posted: January 8, 2023 5:22 pm ET | Last Updated: January 9, 2023 10:49 am ET

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of January 8-14, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House is in session this week. The Senate is in recess until January 23 except for pro forma sessions.

During the Week

After a tumultuous start, the House finally elected a Speaker, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), early Saturday morning. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) is the House Majority Leader. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) is the House Minority Leader.

Tomorrow (Monday) the House will vote on a rules package to begin the process of organizing for the 118th Congress, like formally setting up committees.  Votes are planned on a number of bills this week, but none are space-related.

For space policy, it’s a toss-up as to what’s the big event this week.

Tomorrow, Virgin Orbit is scheduled to have its first launch from the United Kingdom, dubbed “Start Me Up” after a 1981 hit by the Rolling Stones. The Boeing 747 aircraft Cosmic Girl will take off from a runway at Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay during a one-hour launch window that opens at 22:16 UTC (5:16 pm EST). About 40 minutes later over the Atlantic Ocean south of Ireland, the LauncherOne rocket will drop away, fire its engines, and deliver payloads for seven customers to orbit.

At a press conference this morning, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart said everything’s on track for tomorrow, but mission success is the priority and technical or weather issues could cause a delay. A reporter on-site in Newquay said it was “blowing a hoolie” there at the moment. There are backup launch opportunities into mid-to-late January.

The launch service was purchased by the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), but the payloads are for customers ranging from U.S./U.K./European government agencies and commercial organizations to the Sultanate of Oman. Virgin Orbit will webcast the launch on its YouTube channel.

All of Virgin Orbit’s launches so far have been from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California. This is its first international launch, but it plans to expand around the globe. It’s also the first orbital launch ever from U.K./European soil (not counting the portion of Russia that’s on the European continent). The U.K. launched its Prospero satellite on the U.K. Black Arrow rocket from Woomera, Australia in 1971. France’s first orbital launches of the Diamant rocket were from Hammaguir, Algeria in 1965-1967. France moved its Diamant launch operations to Kourou, French Guiana. After the formation of ESA in 1975, Kourou became home to Europe’s Ariane and Vega rockets. (Italy operated the San Marco launch platform off the coast of Kenya from 1967-1988, but it was for launches of a U.S. rocket, Scout.)

Two other big events this week are the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and American Meteorological Society (AMS) conferences taking place in Seattle and Denver, respectively. Both also have virtual options. They are chock full of really interesting sessions on astrophysics and earth science/climate change research far too numerous to summarize here. Check out their programs to choose what you wish.

Somewhat ironically as earth scientists are talking about the value of satellites for understanding the Earth system, a 5,000 pound (2,300 kg) NASA earth science satellite will reenter the atmosphere today or tomorrow — the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS). NASA said “some components are expected to survive reentry” but the “risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is very low — approximately 1 in 9,400.”

Aerospace Corporation reentry prediction for NASA’s Earth Radiation Budget Satellite. Credit: Aerospace Corporation

NASA only revealed on Friday that DOD was calculating a reentry time of 6:40 pm ET today ± 17 hours. The Aerospace Corporation’s prediction is 10:49 pm ET tonight ± 13 hours. Launched in 1984, ERBS is in a 57° orbit so the debris could fall anywhere on Earth between 57° north and 57° south latitude. The Earth’s surface is 70 percent water, so hopefully that’s where the surviving pieces come down. As far as we know, it hasn’t reentered as of the time of this writing. [UPDATE, Monday, January 9: NASA reports this morning that DOD confirmed ERBS reentered at 11:04 pm ET last night over the Bering Sea.]

Another event we’ll highlight is on Tuesday afternoon. Washington Post space reporter Christian Davenport will chat with NASA Johnson Space Center Director Vanessa Wyche about “The New Space Age” on Washington Post Live. Perhaps he’ll be able to extract when NASA plans to announce the names of the Artemis II crew (smile).

Also, Anatoly Zak of RussianSpaceWeb.com tweeted this morning that Roscosmos will announce its decision on what to do about the Soyuz MS-22 situation on Wednesday. Stay tuned.


Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar or changes to these.

Sunday, January 8

Sunday-Monday, January 8-9 (time, place TBD)

Sunday-Thursday, January 8-12

Monday, January 9

Monday-Wednesday, January 9-11

Tuesday, January 10

Wednesday, January 11

Wednesday-Friday, January 11-13

Thursday, January 12

Last Updated: Jan 09, 2023 10:49 am ET

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