What’s Happening in Space Policy October 5-11, 2025

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 5-11, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is in session this week. The House is not except for pro forma sessions.

During the Week

The government shutdown that began on Wednesday, October 1, continues. The Senate will try again tomorrow, Monday, for the fifth time to pass the Continuing Resolution (CR) that cleared the House on September 19 and reopen the government. Democrats continue to oppose the CR because it does not include an extension of certain health care benefits that will expire at the end of the year or roll back Medicaid cuts imposed by the reconciliation bill that was enacted on July 4. They have an alternative bill that also has been rejected each time.

We’ve written a lot about the shutdown already. Here are just a few key points.

In the Senate, 60 votes are needed to pass legislation like this. There are 53 Republicans and 47 members of the Democratic caucus which comprises 45 Democrats and two Independents (Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont). One Republican, Rand Paul of Kentucky, opposes both bills, so eight members of the Democratic caucus would have to join the other 52 Republicans for the CR to pass. Three have already: King, Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) and John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania).  Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) hopes five more will join them. If he could get 60 votes for the existing CR, the shutdown would end.

Democrats complain Republicans will not negotiate with them over the health care provisions. If negotiations did take place and resulted in Senate agreement to modify the CR, the House would have to approve the changes. In that case the shutdown could not end at least until October 14. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has been keeping the House out of session (except for pro forma sessions where legislative business is not conducted) to try and force the Senate to agree to his CR (H.R. 5371). The CR passed the House on an almost entirely partisan basis 217-212.

The House was supposed to return to Washington to conduct legislative business September 29-30 (taking the rest of the week off for Yom Kippur). But Johnson canceled that and on Friday canceled this week’s legislative meetings. Now they won’t come back until October 14, the day after the Columbus Day holiday.

As a reminder, the shutdown affects all government agencies funded by the 12 appropriations bills, including DOD, NASA, and NOAA. Essential activities that affect life and property continue, but employees are not paid. For NASA, those activities are:

• Operations of the International Space Station;
• Operating satellite missions to ensure safety of the satellites and data received from them; and
• Artemis operations in order to protect production of elements of Artemis II and III and related activities and activities necessary to maintain processing and supply chain safety for Artemis IV+.

Tomorrow, The Planetary Society (TPS) and a coalition of partners will be on Capitol Hill holding a “Day of Action to Save NASA Science.” Members of the 20 organizations will meet with their Senators and any Representatives who may be in town and hold a press conference at the Capitol at 1:00 pm ET. It will be livestreamed on the TPS website.

TPS President Bill Nye, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Maryland) who represents NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Marcel Agüeros, President-elect of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), and Michael Brandon Jones, President of American Geophysical Union (AGU) are among the speakers. Although the title refers to NASA science, the event also supports the National Science Foundation (NSF). Rep. Ivey is a member of the House Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee that funds NASA and NSF as well as NOAA.

Several other events are happening this week despite the government shutdown.  Three space-related committees of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are meeting at the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA: the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (Monday-Tuesday), the Human and Biological Sciences Panel of the committee that’s identifying important destinations for lunar science other than the South Pole (Monday-Wednesday), and the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (Tuesday-Thursday). In all cases some sessions are open and some are closed. Open sessions will be livestreamed.

On Wednesday, Blue Origin will launch another six-person crew from their West Texas launch site on a 10-minute flight above the imaginary line that separates air and space and back to the Texas desert on New Shepard-36. The launch window opens at 9:00 am Eastern. The webcast begins 30 minutes before liftoff.  Five of the six passengers are shown below. The sixth chose to remain anonymous until after the flight. This is the second flight for Clint Kelly, who already flew on NS-22.

Also on Wednesday, Space News will hold a webinar on The Space Investment Horizon. Space News’ Jason Rainbow will be joined by Kirk Konert from AE Industrial Partners, Mark Boggett from Seraphim Space, Masashi Sato from SPACETIDE, and Theresa Condor from Spire Global.

 

The Mars Society holds its 28th annual convention Thursday-Saturday at the University of Southern California.  Speakers include Rob Manning from JPL, Vicky Hamilton from NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), Casey Dreier from The Planetary Society, Bhavya Lal from the RAND School of Public Policy, Albert Haldeman from ESA, and many more including Mars Society President Bob Zubrin. A virtual option is available.

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

Sunday-Friday, October 5-10 (continued from October 4)

• World Space Week, global

Monday, October 6

• Day of Action to Save NASA Science (The Planetary Society et al), Washington, DC
  • Press Conference, 1:00 pm ET, U.S. Capitol (livestreamed)

Monday-Tuesday, October 6-7

• Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics Fall Meeting (Natl Acad), Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (some sessions are open, some are closed; open sessions will be livestreamed)

Monday-Wednesday, October 6-8

• Panel on Human and Biological Sciences of the Committee on Key Non-Polar Lunar Destinations, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (some sessions are open, some are closed; open sessions will be livestreamed)

Tuesday-Thursday, October 7-9

• Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science Autumn 2025 Meeting (Natl Acad), Beckman Center, irvine, CA (some sessions are open, some are closed; open sessions will be livestreamed)
• Bennu and Ryugu: Samples from the Early Solar System (LPI), Houston, TX/virtual

Wednesday, October 8

• Launch of New Shepard-36, West Texas, 9:00 am ET (livestreamed)
• The Space Investment Horizon (Space News), virtual, 11:00 am-12:00 pm ET

Thursday-Saturday, October 9-11

• International Mars Society Convention, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA