What’s Happening in Space Policy June 9-15, 2024

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of June 9-15, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

Boeing’s Starliner Crew Flight Test is on our list of upcoming events yet again this week, but for a very different reason. The mission finally lifted off last Wednesday and Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams floated into the International Space Station on Thursday. They will call Washington, DC tomorrow, first to talk to NASA officials (1:00 pm ET) and then to the White House (2:40 pm ET). Chirag Parikh, deputy assistant to the President and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council will moderate the White House call, but NASA’s announcement didn’t specify who else will be there. Both calls will be broadcast on NASA TV and the agency’s other media platforms.

Nominally Butch and Suni are visiting ISS for 8 days, which means Friday is the first opportunity for them to return home so we have it on our list. NASA officials stress, however, that no decision has been made yet. [UPDATE: NASA said late this afternoon they are targeting June 18.] There’s plenty of work for them to do on the ISS helping out the 7-person crew already there and weather is always a consideration. Starliner lands on land, not water. It’s two primary landing sites are at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

With Starliner Calypso docked at the Harmony module’s forward port, Crew Dragon Endeavour at Harmony’s zenith port, and Soyuz MS-25 at the Prichal module, for the first time in the ISS’s more than 23 years of permanent occupancy three different types of spacecraft capable of transporting humans are at the ISS simultaneously. Three cargo ships also are there — two Russian Progresses and a U.S. Northrop Grumman Cygnus.

It’s a busy place and among the upcoming tasks are three U.S. spacewalks this month. NASA will hold a news conference on Tuesday to explain them. The first is Thursday with Tracy Dyson and Matt Dominick, who arrived on Russia’s Soyuz MS-25 and SpaceX’s Crew-8 respectively.  The second is June 20. The date for the third hasn’t been announced yet.

Stay tuned for more information about Starliner’s return and the spacewalks. [UPDATE: NASA said late this afternoon (Sunday) they are targeting June 18 for Starliner’s return. Details remain TBD.]

Closer to home, on Capitol Hill markups continue in the House Appropriations Committee (Defense and Financial Services-General Government on Wednesday) and the Senate Armed Services Committee will mark up the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday-Friday. The parts of the SASC markup of interest to the space community are closed so we have to wait until the end of the week to find out what they decided. They might be done earlier than Friday depending on how controversial the markup becomes.

CSIS has an interesting meeting on Wednesday (in-person and livestreamed) on “Integrating Space for the Joint Fight.”

The first part is a fireside chat moderated by CSIS’s Clayton Swope with two government officials: Col. Bryon McClain and Shannon Pallone, both with the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command. McClain is Program Executive Officer (PEO) for Space Domain Awareness. Pallone is PEO for Battle Management Command, Control & Communications. They’ll discuss “trends and capabilities in space domain awareness, combat power, connectivity, and integration that are key to operating in contested environments and supporting the joint force.”

That will be followed by an industry panel “to discuss the enabling components, capabilities, and role of commercial providers in expanding the competitive advantage of U.S. space forces” with representatives from Azure Space (Stephen Kitay), HEO USA Inc (Nate Notargiacomo), and True Anomaly (Frank Di Pentino). CSIS’s Scott Stapp will moderate that discussion.

Lots of other great events as usual, including the spring meeting of the National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board (Tuesday-Wednesday), a Space News webinar on U.S.-Japan Perspectives on Space Sustainability (Wednesday), and SSPI’s Future of Satellite Spectrum (Wednesday).

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

Sunday-Friday, June 9-14 (continued from Saturday)

• 21st International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW), Williamsburg, VA

Monday, June 10

• Starliner CFT Crew Calls Washington, DC, virtual, 1:00 pm ET (NASA), 2:40 pm ET (White House), watch on NASA TV etc.

Tuesday, June 11

• WIA Program with the Hon. Frank Calvelli, National Union Building, 918 F St., NW, Washington, DC, 9:00-10:00 am ET
• NASA News Conference on Three Upcoming Spacewalks, JSC, 4:00 pm ET (NASA TV etc)

Tuesday-Wednesday, June 11-12

• National Academies’ Aeronautics and Space Enginering Board (ASEB) Spring Meeting, Keck Center, 500 5th St., NW, Washington, DC
• Space Exploration Symposium 2024 (JAXA), Tokyo, Japan/virtual, 9:00 pm June 11 – 3:00 am June 12 ET (June 12, 10:00 am-4:00 pm local time in Japan)

Tuesday-Thursday, June 11-13

• International Space Summit 2024, Seoul, South Korea

Tuesday-Friday, June 11-14

• SASC Subcommittee and Full Committee Markup of the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act (Strategic Forces Subcommittee and Full Committee markups are closed), Capitol Hill

Wednesday, June 12

• Growing Importance of Spaceports to the World Economy (GSA), 2325 Rayburn House Office Building, 10:00-11:30 am ET
• Integrating Space for the Joint Fight (CSIS), 1616 Rhode Island Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 3:30-5:15 pm ET (livestreamed)
• U.S.-Japan Perspectives on Space Sustainability (Space News), virtual, 4:00 pm ET
• Future of Satellite Spectrum (SSPI), Milbank, 1850 K St., NW, Washington, DC, 6:00-8:00 pm ET

Wednesday-Thursday, June 12-13

• NASA Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG), Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, Ithaca, NY/virtual

Thursday, June 13

• U.S. Spacewalk at ISS (1 of 3), Earth orbit, 8:00 am ET (NASA coverage begins 6:30 am ET)
• House Appropriations Full Committee Markup of FY2025 Defense and FY2025 Financial Services-General Government bills, 2359 Rayburn House Office Building, 9:00 am ET (webcast)

Friday, June 14

• TENTATIVE Possible Starliner CFT Return to Earth, details TBD [UPDATE: NASA said late this afternoon (Sunday) they are now targeting June 18.]