ESA celebrated its 50th birthday at this week’s Paris Air Show, signing agreements for future space missions, releasing a space technology vision, and reinforcing its association with the European Union. One of NASA’s oldest partners, ESA is moving forward despite global uncertainty in general and cooperation with NASA in particular. The deep cuts in President Trump’s FY2026 budget request could affect many NASA-ESA joint programs including NASA’s participation in the space-based gravitational wave detector LISA. Nonetheless, ESA optimistically signed an agreement with OHB to begin LISA’s construction.

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SpaceX’s Starship exploded on the launch pad at Starbase, TX just after midnight EDT during a static fire test in preparation for an upcoming launch. Starship, the second stage of the massive Super Heavy/Starship space transportation system, is designed to take payloads and people to Earth orbit and beyond, but failed during its last three test flights. Today’s explosion is another setback. SpaceX is under contract to NASA to have Starship ready to put astronauts on the lunar surface two years from now.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of June 15-21, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House is in recess this week. The Senate is in session Monday-Wednesday.

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NASA, SpaceX and Axiom Space are looking at Thursday, June 19, for the launch of Axiom-4 as NASA continues to evaluate the apparent success of recent repairs in the Russian segment of the International Space Station. A tunnel leading to a docking port at the far end of the Russian segment has experienced air leaks for several years and defied previous remedies, but the tunnel now is holding pressure. NASA wants a few more tests before docking another spacecraft, however, and on Thursday abruptly postponed the launch of Ax-4. NASA said they now are “reviewing launch opportunities” and June 19 is the earliest.

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The European Union and the European Space Agency are emphasizing the need for European readiness to use and protect space assets and ensure autonomy for access to space as global events create a “perfect storm” for Europe. One factor for ESA is the Trump Administration’s proposed deep cuts to NASA’s budget that would impact many NASA-ESA projects. ESA is “doing its homework” and reinforcing relationships with other countries like Canada, India, Japan and the UAE.

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The House Appropriations committee took the first step in crafting a FY2026 bill to fund the Department of Defense today, albeit reluctantly. Appropriators from both parties lamented the paucity of data they have about what the money will be used for, but decided to move ahead and mark up their bill at subcommittee level this afternoon. Full committee markup is scheduled for Thursday. President Trump’s request would cut about $2.5 billion from the U.S. Space Force’s budget, but the committee would restore it and add a little more. [Update: the full committee approved the bill on June 12.]

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of June 8-14, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

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A second attempt by a Japanese company to land on the Moon failed today, two years after the first try.  In a post-landing press conference, the company, ispace, said they have just begun analyzing the data to figure out what happened. Whether there are any similarities to the first failure is yet to be determined.

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The Senate committee that oversees NASA released its proposal for the reconciliation bill today signaling support for NASA’s current Moon to Mars plan, not the Trump Administration’s version. The $10 billion designated for NASA includes full funding for the Gateway lunar space station, two more SLS rockets and a fourth Orion spacecraft. None of that is in the Trump plan.

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Less than one week after Elon Musk and President Trump shared a warm Oval Office send-off as Musk ended his Special Government Employee status, the two are in a war of words with Trump threatening to end Musk’s government subsidies and contracts. Musk responded with his own threat to immediately begin decommissioning Dragon, which would have dramatic consequences for the International Space Station. Cargo Dragon is one of two U.S. spacecraft that can deliver supplies to the ISS and Crew Dragon is the only operational U.S. vehicle capable of ferrying crews back and forth.

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