What's Happening in Space Policy March 30-April 3, 2015

Here is our list of space policy related events coming up in the next week and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess for the next two weeks — their annual Easter Recess.

During the Week

The lack of congressional activities makes more time for all the other interesting events coming up, including the National Research Council’s Space Science Week — there’s an excellent public lecture associated with it on Wednesday evening, meetings of several NASA Advisory Council (NAC) subcommittees, and a very interesting meeting of the FAA’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC).

To start things off, Roger Launius and Nathan Bridges will hold another of their Space Policy and History Forums tomorrow afternoon at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) on the Mall.  The forum meets quarterly and does a great job of introducing new people, topics and ideas to the space policy and history community.  Tomorrow is no exception.  Teasel Muir-Harmony of the Center for the History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics will talk about “Astronaut Ambassadors: The Apollo 11 Diplomatic Tour and the Role of Spaceflight in Public Diplomacy.”  Her research focuses on the use of the U.S. space program in public diplomacy during the Cold War.  The meeting is at 4:00 pm ET.  Be sure to RSVP to Roger in advance to get on the list that allows access to the museum’s office area.

The NAC Planetary Science Subcommittee and the Heliophysics Subcommittee
will each meet tomorrow and Tuesday at NASA Headquarters.  NAC’s Ad Hoc
Task Force on STEM Education meets there on Friday afternoon.  NASA’s
Applied Sciences Advisory Committee, which is not part of NAC, also is
meeting on Monday, virtually we think.

The NRC’s Space Science Week, organized by the Space Studies Board (SSB), brings together its five standing committees in individual and plenary sessions.  The meetings will take place Tuesday-Thursday, but some are closed, including all day Thursday.  All are at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) building on Constitution Avenue, not at the Keck Center on 5th Street.  Beginning last year, the SSB instituted the practice of holding a public lecture in connection with Space Science Week for the general public as well as the space science community.  This year, Jason Kalirai of the Space Telescope Science Institute will talk about “Our Place in the Universe: As Seen Through Past, Present and Future Telescopes.”  That’s on Wednesday at 6:30 pm ET at the NAS building.

If you are more attuned to commercial space than space science or history, you’re in luck, too.  COMSTAC meets on Wednesday and opens at breakneck speed with talks by three of the most influential government policymakers in the commercial spaceflight arena:  FAA’s own George Nield (8:05-8:20 am ET), NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden (8:20 – 8:45 am), and Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations CJS subcommittee (8:45-9:15 am).  The agenda (current as of yesterday) is available from our calendar.

And for those of you still hankering for more ideas on how the future of human spaceflight should unfold, the Planetary Society is holding a “Humans Orbiting Mars” workshop at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs on Tuesday and Wednesday.   Participation is by invitation only (so it is not in our list), but they will hold a press conference on Thursday at 11:00 pm ET to share their results.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday afternoon are listed below.

Monday, March 30

• NASA Applied Sciences Advisory Committee, virtual, 1:00-4:00 pm ET
• Space Policy and History Forum featuring Teasel Muir-Harmony of the American Institute of Physics, National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC, 4:00 pm ET

Monday-Tuesday, March 30-31

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Planetary Science Subcommittee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC
• NAC Heliophysics Subcommittee, NASA HQ, Washington, DC

Tuesday-Thursday, March 31-April 2

• NRC Space Science Week, National Academy of Sciences Building, 2101 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC

Wednesday, April 1

• FAA COMSTAC, NTSB Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza, SW, Washington, DC, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm ET
• Space Science Week Public Lecture, National Academy of Sciences Building, 2101 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC, 6:30 pm ET

Thursday, April 2

• Planetary Society Press Conference on “Humans Orbiting Mars” Workshop, GWU Elliott School, 1957 E Street, NW, Washington, DC, 11:00 am – 12:00 pm ET

Friday, April 3

• NAC Ad Hoc Task Force on STEM Education, NASA HQ, Washington, DC, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm ET