China launched its third and final space station module today, completing construction of Tiangong-3. It comes as China gets ready for its first crew rotation later this year, the beginning of China’s permanent human occupancy in Earth orbit. Coincidentally, the launch comes exactly 22 years after the first Russian-American crew launched to the International Space Station, which initiated permanent human occupancy in space for the ISS partners. China’s achievement may be two decades later, but is still a milestone for its growing space program.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of October 30-November 6, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess except for pro forma sessions.

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Australia has become the seventh country to join the United States in agreeing not to conduct destructive direct-ascent antisatellite tests. The U.S. initiative came in the wake of Russia’s ASAT test in November 2021 that littered low Earth orbit with debris. Russia made no apologies and just this week threatened that commercial satellites used to support Ukraine could be legitimate targets for attack. The White House countered that any attack “on U.S. infrastructure” would be met with a response.

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NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel is reopening a recommendation urging NASA to develop a controlled reentry plan for the International Space Station. The panel said today that technical and operational issues arose after a conceptual plan was adopted in 2020 and they now are reiterating concerns about the lack of an executable deorbit plan that could be needed at any time. ASAP also cautioned that operational flights of Boeing’s Starliner commercial crew system could be further delayed. On the good news front, they are pleased with the progress NASA is making on the architecture and integrated planning for Artemis.

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Boeing acknowledged today that it is taking a further $195 million charge against earnings for the CST-100 Starliner commercial crew program. Developed through a fixed-price contract with NASA, Starliner has encoutered a number of delays and Boeing must cover those costs. Added to $688 million already taken, the company now is spending $883 million of its own money on the program.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 23-29, 2022 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess except for pro forma sessions.

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The head of the European Space Agency has confirmed that two ESA science spacecraft will launch on American rockets. The collapse of European-Russian space relationships in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine means Europe has to find new rides for spacecraft that were to launch on Russia’s Soyuz rocket at a time when Europe’s own launchers are in a state of transition. Still pending is a decision on how to launch two European Union Galileo navigation satellites. At the same time, the ESA Council has strongly reaffirmed support for  replanning the ExoMars mission without Russian participation, targeting launch in 2028.

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The chairman of a NASA advisory committee, Wayne Hale, is urging NASA to avoid contracts that prevent release of information to the public because companies claim it as proprietary. That applies particularly to Public-Private Partnerships like the Human Landing Systems being developed for the Artemis program to return astronauts to the  Moon.

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The James Webb Space Telescope continues to produce amazing images of the universe. Perhaps the most iconic image ever taken by a space telescope is the Pillars of Creation seen by Hubble, but it views everything in visible wavelengths. JWST is demonstrating just how much more can be discerned looking in the infrared.

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The European Space Agency announced another delay for the inaugural launch of Ariane 6 today. The new estimate is the last quarter of 2023, but officials stressed the date is contingent on meeting several milestones early next year. Only three Ariane 5 rockets remain. ESA planned to rely on Russia’s Soyuz rocket as a backup, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine upended that partnership. ESA’s small launcher Vega-C will be the only operational rocket in Europe’s fleet in the interim.

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