What's Happening in Space Policy November 16-20, 2015

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of November 16-20, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The House may take up the compromise commercial space bill (H.R. 2262) on Monday.   It passed the Senate on November 10.   It is a broad bill that deals not only with traditional commercial space issues like third party indemnification (extending the FAA’s authority through 2025) and the “learning period” for commercial human spaceflight (extending the prohibition on new FAA regulations until 2023), but new ones like asteroid mining.  This version is a compromise between the bill that passed the House in May and a bill that passed the Senate in August (S. 1297).  The lead sponsor of the House version is House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who represents the district that includes the Mojave Air and Space Port.   Assuming the bill passes the House, it then will go to the President for signature.

The President could sign the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) this week, although the bill has not officially been presented to him yet.  It can take a couple of days for clerks to look through the bill and make any necessary “technical and conforming changes” before sending it on to the White House.  The Senate passed it on November 10 (the House did so on November 5).

On Thursday, United Launch Alliance (ULA) will announce what it calls a “new program that will transform the way our nation’s CubeSats are launched.”   The announcement (which will be webcast) will take place at the Colorado State Capitol with the State’s Lieutenant Governor participating.  Both the President and the Chancellor of the University of Colorado also will join ULA President Tory Bruno on stage.  ULA is headquartered in Colorado.

Those and other events we know about as of Saturday morning are listed below.  Check back throughout the week for updates to our Events of Interest list on our home page.

Tuesday, November 17

• House SS&T Sbcmte Hrg on Commercial Earth Science Opportunities, 2318 Rayburn, 10:00 am ET

Tuesday-Wednesday, November 17-18

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Institutional Committee.  On Nov. 17, meets at NASA HQ, Washington, DC; on Nov. 18, meets at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Tuesday-Thursday, November 17-19

• Space Commerce Conference (SpaceCom), George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX

Wednesday, November 18

• AIAA-NCS Luncheon Featuring NASA’s Eric Smith, JWST Program Director, Army Navy Country Club, Arlington, VA, 11:30 am – 1:30 pm ET

Thursday, November 19

• ULA Announces Transformational CubeSat Launch Program, Colorado State Capitol West Foyer, Denver, CO, 9:30 am Mountain Time (11:30 am Eastern).  Webcast.
• NAC Ad Hoc Task Force on STEM Education, virtual, 1:00-3:30 pm ET

Friday, November 20

• How and Why We Try to Observe Gravity Waves Google+ Hangout (AAS), virtual, 3:00 pm ET