Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of September 30-October 5, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess (except for pro forma sessions) until October 15, the day after the Columbus Day holiday.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk laid out updated plans tonight for his Starship/Super Heavy system designed to send people to the Moon and Mars. A Starship prototype, Mk1, is under construction at SpaceX’s test facility in Boca Chica, Texas and served as the backdrop for the briefing. Musk laid out an ambitious schedule, saying the first crewed Starship flight to Earth orbit could happen as early as next year. That might come as a surprise to the Administrator of NASA, who tweeted before the briefing that what he wants is for SpaceX to deliver on its commercial crew system to take NASA astronauts to and from the space station, which is years late.
The Senate Appropriations Committee rejected the Trump Administration’s request to elevate the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) to a higher level in the Department of Commerce (DOC) until they get answers to their questions. The committee criticized DOC for refusing to provide witnesses to explain the proposal, especially that DOC take over responsibility from DOD for providing satellite positional data to civil and commercial satellite operators. The Senate bill requires a study by the National Academy of Public Administration and keeps OSC where it is, within NOAA, at its current funding level until it has the results.
The Senate passed a Continuing Resolution (CR) today to keep the government operating until November 21. The CR is needed because none of the regular FY2020 appropriations bills has cleared Congress yet and FY2020 begins on Tuesday. [UPDATE: PRESIDENT TRUMP SIGNED THE CR INTO LAW ON SEPTEMBER 27.] The Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill that includes NASA and NOAA did take a step forward though, with approval by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Gen. John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM), was just confirmed by the Senate to be the next Vice Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The vote was 75-22. Hyten, who has a long career in national security space, was cleared by an Air Force investigation of accusations by a former subordinate of sexual misconduct. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) conducted its own investigation that convinced a majority of its members and now a majority of the Senate to vote in favor of his nomination.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidits for September 25, 2019: Bridenstine in Japan; Northrop Grumman reorganizes; Rogozin mum on Soyuz hole; Space Safety Coalition established. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
The Senate Appropriations Committee began marking up its version of the FY2020 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill that funds NASA today. The eagerly anticipated action is seen as a bellwether of Senate support for NASA’s Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon by 2024. The results appear mixed, with some but not all of the extra $1.6 billion NASA requested in May. It is an improvement compared to the House version, however, which did not include any of the $1.6 billion. Overall the agency did slightly better in the Senate committee than in the House, with a top-line of $22.75 billion compared to $22.32 billion.
NASA and Lockheed Martin signed a contract today for as many as 12 Orion spacecraft designed to take people to the Moon and Mars. The agreement is for NASA to pay $2.7 billion for a set of three, and then $1.9 billion for the next three, with up to six more that may be ordered through September 2030. The contract will be managed by Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Texas. That won praise from the state’s two Senators and the Congressman representing JSC all of whom had strongly criticized NASA for an earlier award to Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
On the heels of an undetected asteroid making a close pass of Earth, the head of NASA’s science program announced today that the agency will begin a new mission to search for asteroids and comets, or Near Earth Objects (NEOs). Speaking at an advisory committee meeting this morning, Thomas Zurbuchen said the agency will initiate a space-based NEO Surveillance Mission (NEOSM) to augment ground-based observations to detect and track asteroids.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of September 22-28, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.