Republicans and Democrats on a House committee today shared common ground on not letting China outpace the United States in space, but witnesses were generally pessimistic that NASA is on a path to beat China back to the Moon. They also stressed it is not just about returning to the lunar surface before China, but establishing a sustained presence there as well as continuing to lead in space science.
Jared Isaacman’s nomination to be NASA Administrator could be approved by the Senate in the next three weeks. During his mostly-friendly second confirmation hearing today, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee said they hope he will be in his new job before the end of the year. The committee will vote on the nomination next Monday. The full Senate can take it up anytime thereafter and is scheduled to complete its work for 2025 by December 19.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 30-December 6, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
As ESA celebrates its 50th anniversary, the agency’s 23 Member States just pledged a record 22 billion Euros for the next three years of programs from space and earth science to space transportation to human and robotic exploration to space safety and more. ESA’s budget is set by its Member States every three years and this is a 32 percent increase (17 percent when corrected for inflation) over 2022. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher called it an “important moment” for Europe’s autonomy and leadership in space.
The Russian launch pad used to send Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, Site 31, suffered damage today as a result of the launch of Soyuz MS-28. Roscosmos acknowledged the situation in a post on Telegram, but provided few details. Other experts on Russia’s space program posted that the “maintenance cabin” platform apparently collapsed into the flame trench below. Site 31 is Russia’s only launch pad for sending crews into orbit.
Soyuz MS-28 arrived at the International Space Station this morning with its crew of two Russian cosmonauts and NASA’s Chris Williams. Unlike most Russian crew rotations, they are scheduled to stay for eight months instead of six as Russia reduces its cadence of Soyuz launches. NASA similarly is considering whether to extend mission durations to reduce the number of launches as a cost saving measure.
ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher announced today that NASA has confirmed it will help get the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover to Mars. Developed in partnership with Roscosmos, ESA terminated all its activities with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 and turned to NASA to provide critical components to achieve the rover’s mission. ESA’s 23 Member States are meeting in Germany right now to decide on ESA’s programs and budget for the next three years, including the rover’s future.
China launched an uncrewed Shenzhou-22 spacecraft this evening Eastern Standard Time to replace the damaged Shenzhou-20 attached to the Tiangong space station. The Shenzhou-20 crew returned to Earth in Shenzou-21’s spacecraft leaving that three-man crew aboard the space station without a safe haven or a way to come home until this new capsule arrives. Shenzhou-20’s spacecraft apparently was damaged by space debris. [UPDATE — It docked 3.5 hours after launch on November 25, 2025.]
NASA and Boeing have agreed to modify the contract for the Starliner commercial crew vehicle designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Repeated setbacks in Starliner’s development, including last year’s Crew Flight Test that left two NASA astronauts on the ISS for over nine months instead of eight days, already have cost Boeing more than $2 billion under the fixed-price contract. Now Starliner will launch four instead of six times for NASA, the first of which will carry only cargo.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of November 23-29, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions.