What’s Happening in Space Policy June 17-23, 2018 – UPDATE

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of June 17-23, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in the session this week.

During the Week

Tomorrow (Monday), the White House National Space Council will hold its third public meeting.  This time it will be at the White House itself and according to multiple news reports President Trump himself will preside.  The agenda has not been publicly released yet, but we will post it as soon as it is.  One topic that’s expected to come up is a new Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3) assigning roles and responsibilities for Space Traffic Management.  That’s a pretty narrow topic, though, and with the President there once must expect — the unexpected!  The meeting will be broadcast on NASA TV and the White House’s own White House Live website. [UPDATE, June 17, 10:00 pm ET — the agenda still has not been made public, but the President’s schedule shows that he is meeting with the Space Council at 11:30 am ET.]

On Tuesday, the Space Council’s Users’ Advisory Group (UAG) will meet for the first time.  That meeting will be at NASA HQ from 9:00 am – 2:00 pm ET.  The UAG is composed of about 30 people from industry, non-profits, politics, and several former astronauts (Buzz Aldrin, Eileen Collins, Pam Melroy, Jack Schmitt, and David Wolf).   Andy Pasztor at the Wall Street Journal has a story this morning that two of the members, Newt Gingrich and Pete Worden,  have been “sidelined” from the panel because of complications vetting their financial and business ties, although Pasztor goes on to report that some think there’s more to it. In any case, he quotes Gingrich as confirming that he will be at the meeting only as a member of the public, and Worden as saying that his ties to the Luxembourg government were an issue.  The UAG meeting will be available remotely by WebEx and telecon.

To bookend the week, the House Science, Space, and Technology’s (SS&T) Space Subcommittee and the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Strategic Forces Subcommittee will hold a hearing on Friday on “Space Situational Awareness: Whole Of Government Perspectives on Roles and Responsibilities.”  Assuming Trump does sign SPD-3 at Monday’s Space Council meeting, that would provide a nice backdrop to this hearing.  It’ll be a high level group at the witness table:  Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (who devoted a lot of his time in Congress to this issue), and Gen. John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command.  Note that the hearing is in the HASC hearing room (2118 Rayburn), not the House SS&T hearing room (2318 Rayburn), and is a little earlier (9:00 am ET) than usual.  It will be webcast.

On the national security space front, the Senate is hoping to complete work on and pass the FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) tomorrow.

And in international space news, the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) is holding a two day (Monday/Tuesday) symposium in Vienna, Austria, followed by a two-day (Wednesday/Thursday) special segment of the annual meeting of the U.N. Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), to commemorate the 1968, 1982 and 1999 “UNISPACE” conferences.  The set of meetings is called UNISPACE+50 to reflect the 50th anniversary of the first UNISPACE.  Some of the activities will be webcast.  The rest of the regular UNCOPOUS meeting will continue to the end of next week.  UNCOPOUS is administrated by UNOOSA.  (The Space Generation Advisory Council, which was created at the 1999 conference, is having its own meeting in Vienna this weekend.)

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.

Sunday, June 17

• Second day of Space Generation Forum 2.0, Vienna, Austria

Sunday-Wednesday, June 17-20

• Live WORX 18 Technology Conference and Marketplace, Boston, MA

Monday, June 18

• White House National Space Council, the White House, Washington, DC, time TBA (livestreamed)

Monday, June 18 – Friday, June 29

• UNISPACE+50 and UNCOPUOS, Vienna, Austria
  • UNISPACE+50 Symposium, June 18-19 (portions webcast)
  • UNISPACE+50 Special Session of UNCOPUOS, June 20-21 (portions webcast)
  • Regular Session of UNCOPUOS, June 22-29

Tuesday, June 19

• National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group (UAG), NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 2:00 pm ET (WebEx/telecon)
• MSBR Luncheon Featuring NASA Goddard’s Colleen Hartman, Martin’s Crosswinds, Greenbelt, MD, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET

Wednesday, June 20

• The Science of Food Security (House Earth and Space Science Caucus and AGU), Rayburn Goldroom, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC, 5:00-7:00 pm ET
• Public Lecture by Robert Smith: The Historical Quest to See the End of the Universe…Or Its Beginning, National Air and Space Museum, 600 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC, 8:00 pm ET (webcast)

Thursday, June 21

• Strategic Nuclear Deterrence, Missile Defense and Space Policy: Discussion with Rep. Mike Rogers, Capitol Hill Club, 300 First St., SE, Washington, DC, 8:00 am ET (pre-registration required)
• NOAA “Community Day” to Discuss Satellite Architecture Study, Silver Spring Civic Center, Silver Spring, MD, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm ET

Friday, June 22

• House SS&T/HASC Joint Sbcmt Hearing on Space Situational Awareness, 2118 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC, 9:00 am ET (webcast)