What's Happening in Space Policy November 28-December 2, 2016

Here is our list of space policy events for the week of November 28 – December 2, 2016 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

During the Week

The House and Senate return to work this week.  They must pass an appropriations measure by December 9 to keep the government operating and there is a strong desire to complete action on the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), but apart from that, it appears that the plan is to wait until next year to deal with most issues.   Appropriations likely will be handled by extending the existing Continuing Resolution (CR) through March 31 and agreement on the NDAA seemed close just before Thanksgiving.  The 114th Congress could adjourn “sine die”  (“without a day” for recovening, meaning it is the end of the session) as soon as those are passed.  A slim chance remains for getting the NASA Transition Authorization Act passed, but time is running out.

The Presidential election is over — sort of.  Officially it is not final until after the Electoral College votes on December 19 and Congress certifies that vote on January 6, 2017 (CRS has a very useful report about the Electoral College for those who are interested).  At the moment, Donald Trump is
expected to win the Electoral College decisively with at least 290 votes
(270 are needed to win) versus 232 for Hillary Clinton.  Clinton has decisively won the popular
vote by more than 2 million (64,637,503 for Clinton versus 62,409,389 for Trump according to Cook Political Report ).  Under the Constitution, it is the Electoral
College vote that determines the winner.  The race in Michigan still has not been called for either candidate, but its 16
electoral votes are not enough to change the outcome.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein has demanded a recount in Wisconsin and plans to ask for recounts in Pennsylvania and Michigan.  Stein says she is doing it to ensure the “integrity” of the election process and it “is not intended to help Hillary Clinton.”  Indeed, few (if any) expect the outcome of the election to change, including Clinton herself.  Her spokesman made that clear, saying they are “fully aware” that the vote margin in the closest of the states (Michigan) is much larger than any margin ever overcome in a recount.  Any recounts must be completed before the Electoral College meets.

The Trump transition team continues its work, announcing a number of
White House appointments and three Cabinet nominees (Attorney General, Secretary of Education and
Ambassador to the U.N.).  
While there are strong rumors about who will be nominated for Secretary
of Defense (national security space programs) and Secretary of Commerce
(NOAA satellite programs), Trump has not made any official
pronouncements.  Nothing has been said about NASA so far. 

The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) meets in public session on Wednesday in Palmdale, CA, near NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Facility (available by WebEx/telecon). The agenda has not been posted yet, so there is no way to know what they plan to discuss, but any news about a “landing team” being assigned to NASA and the impact of operating under a FY2017 CR for 6 months instead of just 3 months are possible topics.  This is the last NAC meeting under the Obama Administration and, presumably, Charlie Bolden’s tenure as Administrator.  The NASA Administrator appoints the members of NAC, so its composition could change before the next meeting.

The Ministerial Council of the European Space Agency (ESA) will meet in Switzerland on December 1-2.  The ministers responsible for space activities in each of ESA’s 22 member countries get together every 2-3 years to make policy and funding decisions.  ESA says this meeting will “further the vision of a United Space in Europe in the era of Space 4.0.”   A press conference is scheduled for the end of the meeting on December 2 at approximately 13:00 CET (7:00 am ET).  One of the topics they will consider is whether to provide an increase of approximately 400 million Euros  to complete the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars program. The first two ExoMars spacecraft — the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli lander — were launched together in March and arrived at Mars last month.  TGO successfully entered orbit, but Schiaparelli crashed.  Schiaparelli was a technology demonstrator for a Russian lander and ESA rover scheduled for launch in 2020 (delayed from 2018).  Costs for the 2020 mission have grown, necessitating a decision by the Council on whether to proceed.   ESA’s portion of the total program cost was estimated in 2008 at 1.3 billion Euros.  ExoMars originally was an ESA-NASA program, but the Obama Administration declined to fund the U.S. portion, so ESA turned to Russia instead.

Mars is but one planet in our beautiful solar system.  NASA’s Venus Exploration Analysis Group (VEXAG) meets Tuesday-Thursday at NASA Headquarters to discuss future exploration of that planet.  The meeting will be available remotely via WebEx and telecon.

And then there’s Earth itself!  The American Astronautical Society and the American Meteorological Society will hold an event to highlight Space-Based Environmental Intelligence on Thursday evening at the Naval Heritage Center in Washington, DC.  Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) is the speaker.  He chairs the Environment Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and crafted provisions in law to create commercial weather data pilot programs at NOAA and DOD (NOAA’s is underway; the DOD provision is in the FY2017 NDAA).

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

Tuesday-Thursday, November 29-December 1

• VEXAG, NASA HQ, Washington, DC

Wednesday, November 30

• NASA Advisory Council (NAC), AERO Institute, Palmdale, CA, 1:30-9:30 pm ET (10:30 am – 6:30 pm local time)  WebEx/telecon
• NASA Press Conference with Upcoming ISS Crew, NASA Johnson Space Center, 2:00 pm ET (1:00 pm local time)  NASA TV

Thursday, December 1

• NASA Centennial Celebration of Langley Research Center opening event, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, 11:00 am ET (NASA TV)
• Space-Based Environmental Intelligence (AAS/AMS), Naval Heritage Center, Washington, DC, 5:30 – 9:00 pm ET

Thursday-Friday, December 1-2

•  ESA Ministerial Meeting, Lucerne, Switzerland