What's Happening in Space Policy March 23-27, 2015

Here is our list of space policy related events coming up for the week of March 23-27, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate will be in session.

During the Week

Another busy week in the space policy business is coming up.   In the NASA realm, the Senate Commerce Committee’s expected approval of Dava Newman’s nomination to be NASA Deputy Administrator on Wednesday surely is at the top of the list.  It is only one step in the process, and the challenge of getting anyone’s nomination through the Senate these days is all too apparent, but the fact that the committee did not see a need to hold a hearing on the nomination is a good sign. 

Perhaps — but just perhaps — even bigger news will come from the Mission Concept Review (MCR) for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM).  A NASA spokesman says the MCR is on Tuesday (it is not open to the public), but still cannot forecast whether it will result in the long awaited announcement of whether Option A or Option B won the toss for how to implement the mission.  NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot planned to reveal the decision in December, but ultimately announced that more time was needed.   NASA CFO David Radzanowski said the day the FY2016 budget request was released in February that the choice could be announced in days, at the MCR, or afterwards, he simply did not know.  Lightfoot is scheduled to speak at Thursday’s USRA/Space Policy Institute symposium, which is about Near Earth Objects (NEOs) — asteroids and comets — and other small bodies in the solar system, an opportunity to share the results of the MCR, though it is not clear he will do so.  The symposium has a lot of other very interesting speakers, too.  Unfortunately, we’re told it will not be webcast.

The House Science, Space and Technology Committee’s hearing on Tuesday about the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) should be especially interesting with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s John Mather there to talk about the science JWST will be able to accomplish.  Mather, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics and JWST’s Senior Project Scientist, is exceptionally good at conveying to a non-scientific audience what we do and don’t know about the universe, why we need to know more, and how JWST will move us along that path.   NASA science head John Grunsfeld will also be there, along with Cristina Chaplain from GAO and Jeffrey Grant from Northrop Grumman, JWST’s prime contractor.  Grunsfeld, an astrophysicist and former astronaut who repaired the Hubble Space Telescope on three shuttle missions, also excels at communicating science to non-scientists, but probably will be handling programmatic questions about whether JWST will meet its cost and schedule targets (its previous cost overruns and delays are legendary).

On the military space front, the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing specifically on the FY2016 budget request for national security space activities.  Several hearings have already touched on some of those issues, including last week’s hearing on assured access to space, but this is focused on the entire national security space enterprise with a who’s who of its leadership in the military and intelligence communities.

Lots more on tap, too, including the launch of Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko on their one-year mission to ISS. 

Here is list of all the events we are aware of as of Saturday afternoon.

Monday, March 23

• International Law and Military Activities in Space (Secure World Foundation), GWU Elliott School, 1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC, 12:00-2:00 pm ET

Tuesday, March 24

• House SS&T Sbcmte Hrg on James Webb Space Telescope, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET

Tuesday-Thursday, March 24-26

• Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Spaceflight, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Wednesday, March 25

• Women in Weather Google- Hangout (AAS and AMS), virtual, 12:00 pm ET
• Senate Commerce Committee Markup of (inter alia) Dava Newman’s Nomination to be NASA Deputy Administrator, 253 Russell, 2:30 pm ET
• HASC Hearing on National Security Space Activities, 2212 Rayburn, 5:00 pm ET

Thursday, March 26

• AIAA-NCS Luncheon Featuring NOAA’s Steve Volz, Lockheed Martin Global Vision Center, Arlington, VA (Crystal City), 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET
• Asteroids, NEOs, and Small Bodies in the Solar System (USRA and SPI), Capitol Hill Holiday Inn, Washington, DC, 1:00-5:00 pm ET

Thursday-Friday, March 26-27

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Institutional Committee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC

Friday, March 27

• Sharing Weather Satellite Spectrum with Terrestrial Networks (Secure World Foundation), 1779 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC, 12:00-2:00 pm ET 
• Soyuz TMA-16M Launch and Docking with 1-Year ISS Crew:  launch 3:42 pm ET, docking 9:36 pm ET, hatch opening 11:15 pm eT