What's Happening in Space Policy March 6-10, 2017

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of March 6-10, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session.

During the Week

Hang onto your hats!  It’s going to be quite a week.  From two overlapping conferences (Satellite 2017 and the AAS Goddard Memorial Symposium) in Washington to the first meeting of a new National Academies committee on planetary protection policy to scheduled House floor action on two important pieces of legislation to the annual “Space Prom” and many other events in between, we’ll barely have time to catch our breaths.

Starting on Capitol Hill, the House has scheduled floor action — again — on the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 (S. 442).  At this point last Sunday, it was included on the House Majority Leader’s list of legislation to be considered under suspension of the rules the next day.  Later, however, it was pulled from the list. There are varying viewpoints on why.  It is back on the list now for a vote on Tuesday.  We’re not going to say it “will” come up for a vote, only that it is on the schedule at the moment.

The FY2017 defense appropriations bill is also on the floor schedule for debate to begin on Wednesday “subject to a rule being granted.”  That one will be debated under regular order, which requires a rule delineating what amendments are in order and how much time is allocated for debate, for example.  The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday at 5:00 pm ET to write that rule.  Defense appropriations is one of the 12 regular appropriations bills Congress is supposed to pass each year.  None of the 12 cleared Congress last year.  Government agencies are operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) basically at their FY2016 levels until April 28.  Congress must pass new legislation before then to keep them operating.  The defense bill is the first one out of the gate. The House passed a different FY2017 defense appropriations bill last year.  This new one (H.R. 1301) reflects agreement with the Senate and the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which did become law.  One space program singled out in the House Appropriations Committee’s summary of the bill is that it includes funding for GPS III operational control and space segments.

Also on the Hill and also on Wednesday, the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Space Subcommittee has a hearing scheduled on “Regulating Space: Innovation, Liberty, and International Obligations.”   Regulatory matters may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but this hearing has a REALLY interesting set of witnesses who will lend their expertise to issues that could have a profound effect on how the private sector engages in new non-traditional activities in Earth orbit and beyond.  It’s at 10:00 am ET.  The committee webcasts its hearings. 

Fortunately the committee archives the webcasts for people who can’t be in multiple places at once, which is how Wednesday is shaping up.  The Satellite 2017 conference will be in full swing (it begins Monday) at the Washington Convention Center and the American Astronautical Society’s Goddard Memorial Symposium will be starting at the Greenbelt Marriott in Greenbelt, MD, just outside the Beltway. 

Your SpacePolicyOnline.com editor will be at the AAS Goddard Symposium on Wednesday moderating a panel discussion in the afternoon on “The Political Environment” with a terrific panel:  Frank Morring of Aviation Week; Chris Shank, now at DOD, but who headed the NASA transition team for the Trump Administration; Tom Hammond from the House SS&T
Space Subcommittee; and Nick Cummings from the Senate Commerce Committee.   Others who will be speaking at the two-day conference include NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot, AURA President Matt Mountain, and, at various points in the program, the NASA Associate Administrators heading the three mission directorates most involved in space (Bill Gerstenmaier, Thomas Zurbuchen, and Steve Jurczyk) and Acting Chief Scientist Gale Allen.  AAS hasn’t posted a link for a webcast of the conference, though it has livestreamed the annual conference in the past.  If we learn of one, we’ll add it to the entry on our Events of Interest calendar.

Also on Wednesday a new National Academies study committee on Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes will continue its meeting, which begins Tuesday.  Some sessions are closed, but those that are open will be available by WebEx and telecon. The committee is assessing how planetary protection policy is developed domestically and internationally and whether it is responsive to, among other things, “the exploration interests of state and non-state actors.”  Non-state actors include private companies, like SpaceX with its Red Dragon plans to land spacecraft on Mars.

And still on Wednesday, a symposium on “Will Collaboration or Competition Get Humans to Mars and Beyond” with a fascinating set of speakers — established voices and completely new ones — hosted by a group called Future Tense, which itself is a collaboration of Slate, New America and Arizona State University.  A little later, Defense One and Next Gov will hold a “cocktails and conversation” event on “Space and Satellites in the New Administration.”  Both sound really interesting.  Their websites don’t indicate if they will be webcast, but, if they are, hopefully they’ll be archived so those of us who don’t have clones can catch up later.

There are many other events (see the list below) that we can’t highlight here or this would go on and on and on.  The week at last comes to a close with the National Space Club’s annual Goddard Memorial Dinner — or the Space Prom as it is affectionately known — as usual at the Hilton Washington. There’ll be a lot to talk about.

As a heads up, though we’ll need a lot of rest after a week like that, unfortunately the United States returns to Daylight Saving Time next Sunday (March 12) so we’ll lose an hour of sleep.

Those and other events we know about as of this Sunday morning are shown below.  Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Events of Interest list.

Monday-Tuesday, March 6-7

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Ad Hoc Task Force on Big Data, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC (WebEx/telecon)

Monday-Wednesday, March 6-8

• National Academies Earth Science Decadal Survey Steering Committee, Washington, DC (location not specified, some or all of the sessions may be closed)

Monday-Thursday, March 6-9

• Satellite 2017, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC

Tuesday, March 7

• WSBR Luncheon Featuring ViaSat’s Mark Dankberg, Washington Convention Center (in conjunction with Satellite 2017), 11:00 am – 1:30 pm ET
• House Rules Committee meets on Defense Appropriations bill H-313 Capitol, 5:00 pm ET (usually webcast)
• NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017 scheduled for consideration by the House, time TBD (House proceedings are broadcast the House’s website and on C-SPAN)

Tuesday-Thursday, March 7-9

• AAS Goddard Memorial Symposium, Greenbelt Marriott, Greenbelt, MD (conference sessions are on March 8-9)
• National Academies Committee on Planetary Protection Policy, National Academy of Sciences building, 2101 C St., NW, Washington, DC.  Some sessions are closed.  Open sessions available via WebEx/telecon

Wednesday, March 8

• Orbital ATK telecon on Financial Results, virtual, 9:00 am ET
• Fast Space: Rethinking Space Access (Mitchell Inst), SVC-10 Capitol Visitor Center, 9:30-10:30 am ET (pre-registration is required)
• House SS&T Sbcmte Hrg on Regulating Space, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET (webcast)
• Will Collaboration or Competition Get Humans to Mars and Beyond? (Future Tense), New America, 740 15th St., NW, Washington, DC, 12:00-3:00 pm ET
• Space and Satellites in the New Administration (Defense One/NextGov), Long View Gallery, 1234 9th St., NW, Washington, DC, 5:30-7:30 pm ET
• FY2017 Defense Appropriations Act scheduled for consideration by the House subject to a rule being granted, time TBD (House proceedings are broadcast on the House’s website and on C-SPAN)

Thursday, March 9

• House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee Members’ Day, H-140 Capitol, 9:30 am ET (usually webcast)
• House Appropriations Transportation-HUD Subcommittee Members’ Day, 2358-A Rayburn, 10:00 am ET (usually webcast)

Friday, March 10

• Goddard Memorial Dinner (National Space Club), Hilton Washington, 1919 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington,DC, 6:30 pm ET