Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 10-16, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until September 2 except for pro forma sessions.
NASA’s Crew-10 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean this morning after five months on the International Space Station. Two private astronaut crews, Fram2 and Axiom-4, made West Coast splashdowns earlier this year, but this is the first NASA crew to land there.
Retired NASA astronaut Jim Lovell passed away yesterday at the age of 97. He will be long remembered as commander of Apollo 13, the historic 1970 mission to the Moon that instead of ending in catastrophe, became a testament to the ingenuity and resilience of the crew and their colleagues back on Earth who were determined to prove that “failure is not an option.”
ULA President Tory Bruno is optimistic the company will reach its goal of two launches a month by the end of 2025. That’s later than planned and total launches for this year will be just nine, but liftoff of the first U.S. Space Force mission on ULA’s new Vulcan rocket next week will kick off a burst of activity that extends into 2026 and 2027. The growing number of launches from Florida’s Space Coast already is creating congestion and Bruno worries about the impact of SpaceX’s plans to launch Starship from there as many as 44 times a year.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy has approved moving a space shuttle to Houston in accordance with language in the reconcilation act. NASA will only confirm that a decision was made, not what it is. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), however, issued a press release thanking Duffy and since he introduced legislation to move Space Shuttle Discovery to Johnson Space Center the implication seems clear. Discovery is currently at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in Chantilly, VA. The NASM says it owns Discovery and has not been contacted by NASA.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy wants a nuclear fission reactor on the Moon to support sustained U.S. presence there. Asserting that the United States is in a Moon race with China, he insists that NASA must establish a base at the South Pole and “claim that for America.” Meanwhile, the chairmen of NASA’s House and Senate oversight committees wrote to Duffy today asking when and how he will spend the $10 billion Congress provided for NASA in the reconciliation bill that was enacted a month ago.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of August 3-9, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until September 2 except for pro forma sessions.
Crew-11 had better luck today. Yesterday their launch was scrubbed one minute before liftoff as storm clouds arrived at just the wrong moment. Today looked like it was going to be a repeat, but they were able to get off in time and are on their way to the International Space Station arriving at 3:00 am ET tomorrow.
Weather prevented Crew-11 from getting off the launch pad today, but they will try again tomorrow. Meanwhile, Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy was at the attempted launch and met with his Russian counterpart, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Bakanov. It was the first in-person meeting between the top NASA and Russian space agency heads in eight years.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved the nominations of Neil Jacobs and Taylor Jordan to top positions at NOAA today. The nominations now must be voted on by the full Senate. No mention was made of the abrupt actions taken by the Trump Administration last Friday putting two other NOAA officials on administrative leave without explanation. The committee also approved Sen. Cruz’s Space Exploration Research Act.