NASA Deputy Administrator Jim Morhard announced today that the Boeing CST-100 Starliner uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT) is “go for launch” on December 20. A Flight Readiness Review concluded that the mission is ready for its launch to the International Space Station (ISS) as another step towards launching astronauts, hopefully in 2020.
The chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee’s Space Subcommittee, Rep. Kendra Horn (D-OK), said today they are “getting close” to finalizing a draft of a new NASA authorization bill. A Senate bill already has been approved by committee, but she declined to say whether her bill will be similar. She also said legislation comparable to the Senate’s Space Frontier Act for commercial space issues will have to wait until after the NASA bill.
Two top NASA officials urged today that the launch date for the Artemis I mission not become the singular focus of attention as the effort to return to the Moon proceeds. It is just one step. The entire program, including Artemis II and Artemis III, must succeed to meet the objective of landing the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024.
After an arduous two years, Congress is on the precipice of passing legislation to create a Space Force as a sixth branch of the U.S. military. House and Senate negotiators on the FY2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) reached agreement on the legislation today. The House is expected to vote on it Wednesday followed quickly by the Senate.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine proclaimed a milestone for the Space Launch System (SLS) today at the Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) where it is built. Called “core complete” it signifies that the main part of the first SLS rocket is ready to be shipped to Stennis Space Center for testing, another step along the way to the first launch. There was no news, however, about when that launch will take place.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of December 8-14, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Boeing and the United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully completed a Wet Dress Rehearsal (WDR) test today in preparation for the uncrewed flight test of the CST-100 Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS). ULA announced, however, that the launch itself will slip another day, to December 20.
Speaking at a Space Transportation Association (STA) event on Capitol Hill today, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine implored Congress to finalize FY2020 appropriations rather than keeping NASA funded by Continuing Resolutions (CRs) — or worse, allowing a shutdown. In particular, funding for Human Lander Systems (HLS) is “desperately” needed to meet the White House’s goal of returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024.
Doug Loverro has reported for duty at NASA as the new Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD). He succeeds Bill Gerstenmaier, who was abruptly dismissed from the job by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in July. Bridenstine introduced Loverro to the NASA workforce in a Town Hall meeting today and the two answered a bevy of questions. One concerned the estimate, put forward by the White House, that each Space Launch System (SLS) launch will cost $2 billion. Bridenstine pushed back, saying he thinks it will be much less.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for December 3, 2019: Inhofe urges party leaders to break impasse on FY2020 NDAA, SpaceX pauses Starship work in Florida, India’s Vikram crash site on Moon located. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.