HOUSE SS&T HEARING ON NASA’S ARTEMIS PROGRAM, February 2025
The space subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee held a hearing on February 26, 2025 on NASA’s Artemis program to return U.S. astronauts to the surface of the Moon: “Step by Step: The Artemis Program and NASA’s Path to Human Exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Beyond.”
No NASA witnesses were present, although subcommittee Ranking Member Valerie Foushee (D-NC) noted for the record that NASA had been invited and she was disappointed they chose not to come.
The witnesses were:
- Scott Pace, Director, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University
- Dan Dumbacher, Adjunct Professor Purdue University
SpacePolicyOnline.com published a summary of the hearing on February 26: House Committee Backs Moon-to-Mars, But Changes May be Needed.
As the article explains about the two witnesses: “Both played critical roles at NASA in the George W. Bush Administration’s Constellation program. Dumbacher stayed at NASA and led the early years of the congressionally-directed Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule (SLS/Orion) program during the first part of the Obama Administration before leaving for academia (Purdue). He later was CEO of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and recently returned to Purdue. Pace left the government for academia as well, becoming Director of George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. In 2017, he returned to government as Executive Secretary of the National Space Council during Trump’s first term, and went back to GW at the end of 2020.”