Saturday’s anomaly during testing of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon abort system is not the only pacing item for getting the commercial crew systems ready for operational flights.  NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) stressed during a meeting today that despite the successful uncrewed test flight of SpaceX’s Demo-1 last month, both SpaceX and Boeing have a long way to go before their systems are ready for astronauts to climb aboard.  Separately, ASAP warned that NASA is taking too much risk with the aging spacesuits astronauts must use and next-generation suits are needed immediately.

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NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) emphatically urged NASA today not to skip the Green Run test planned for the Space Launch System (SLS). NASA is considering that option in order to meet the Trump Administration’s recent directive to return astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024, four years earlier than NASA was planning.  The directive was issued just after Boeing notified NASA that the first SLS flight would slip from 2020 to 2021. NASA is trying to figure out how to get SLS back on track.

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Alan Stern will chair NASA’s new review board to take a fresh look at existing planetary protection guidelines and determine if changes should be made in light of advances in planetary science over the past several decades.  The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) called for such a review last year.  Stern’s board will make recommendations that flow through several other bodies on their way to the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), which sets those guidelines for the international space community.

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Scott Pace said today that returning humans to the surface of the Moon by 2024 provides an ambitious goal and near-term results needed to show progress as the United States once again becomes a spacefaring nation beyond low Earth orbit.  Although only minimal capabilities are needed in the next 5 years, the Gateway and other facilities will grow over time to support “never-ending firsts,” not just flags and footprints.

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SpaceX’s 17th cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) remains on track for launch on April 30 while the company and NASA continue to investigate an anomaly over the weekend during a test of the crew version of the Dragon spacecraft.

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SpaceX and NASA have confirmed that an “anomaly” occurred yesterday during a static fire test of the SuperDraco engines on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.  The Crew Dragon spacecraft has eight SuperDraco engines that are used for its abort system in case of an emergency during launch or ascent to orbit.  SpaceX is readying for an in-flight abort test as part of its preparations for commercial crew flights to the International Space Station (ISS).

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of April 21-27, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in recess this week, except for pro forma sessions.  They return for legislative business next week.

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Margaret Kivelson is the new chair of the Space Studies Board (SSB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.  She succeeds Fiona Harrison who stepped down in order to co-chair the ongoing Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics. Harrison was the first woman to chair SSB in its 61-year history. Now Kivelson is the second.

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NASA released crew assignments for the International Space Station (ISS) through spring 2020 today.  Notable by their absence are flights by the two U.S. commercial crew companies, SpaceX and Boeing.  NASA had hoped that U.S. launches of ISS crews would begin this year.  Instead, U.S. crew members will be staying for longer periods of time, including what will be a record-breaking mission by Christina Koch.  She will remain for almost 11 months, returning in February 2020 instead of this fall.

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The Science and Technology Policy Institute’s (STPI’s) independent analysis of the possibility of sending humans to Mars in 2033 concludes that it is “infeasible under all budget scenarios and technology development and testing schedules.”  It might be possible for such a mission to depart Earth in 2037, but 2039 is more realistic, the report says.  “Mars 2033” became a rallying cry for some human spaceflight enthusiasts during the Obama Administration and although NASA’s plans have changed quite a bit since then, a sizable Mars-or-bust community remains.

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