What's Happening in Space Policy July 20-24, 2015

Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of July 20-24, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  Congress is in session this week.

During the Week

SpaceX will hold a telecon with media representatives tomorrow (Monday) at noon Pacific Time (3:00 pm ET) to discuss preliminary findings from its investigation of the June 28, 2015 SpaceX CRS-7 launch failure.  The emailed announcement says it is for media only and will last 30 minutes, which does not allow much time for Q&A, but undoubtedly will be of great interest.

Meanwhile, NASA and Rocosmos are getting ready to launch Soyuz TMA-17M with three new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday Eastern Daylight Time (where it already will be Thursday local time at the launch site in Kazakhstan).  NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko will join three colleagues (NASA’s Scott Kelly and Roscosmos’ Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka) already on board, restoring the crew complement to its usual six.  The TMA-17M launch was delayed following the Progress M-27M launch failure in April. 

NASA said on Friday that it would have another press briefing on the results from the New Horizons flyby of Pluto this coming Friday, but the time and other details have not been announced yet.

Those and other events coming up this week that we know about as of Sunday morning are listed below.

Monday, July 20

• Research Subcommittee of the NASA  Advisory Council (NAC) Human Exploration and Operations Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm ET
• SpaceX Media Telecon Re Preliminary Findings of SpX-7 Launch Failure, virtual, 3:00 pm ET (12:00 pm PT)

Tuesday, July 21

• MSBR Luncheon Featuring NASA’s Piers Sellers, Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET

Tuesday-Wednesday, July 21-22

• NAC Astrophysics Subcommittee, virtual, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm ET both days

Tuesday-Thursday, July 21-23

• 2nd NASA Exploration Science Forum (NESF), NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Wednesday, July 22

• Soyuz TMA-17M Launch and Docking:  Launch, 5:02 pm ET (July 23, 3:02 am local time at the launch site); docking, 10:46 pm ET

Thursday, July 23

• NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 10:00 – 11:30 am ET
• House Oversight Committee hearing on Export-Import Bank, 2154 Rayburn, 12:00 pm ET

Friday, July 24

•  NASA Briefing on Results from New Horizons Pluto flyby (tentative, details TBD)