NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Ovchinin arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) today, five months later than planned.  Along with NASA astronaut Christina Koch, their Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft docked at ISS at 9:01 pm ET approximately 6 hours after lift off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.  The uneventful trip was quite unlike their first launch on October 11 which ended abruptly after a launch failure.  After they docked, NASA and Roscosmos officials confirmed that mixed U.S.-Russian crews will continue to fly on Soyuz and on the new U.S. commercial crew systems once they are operational.  In addition, Koch will remain on ISS longer than originally planned. [Update: On April 17, NASA announced that Koch will remain until February 2020 and set a new record for longest duration on a single spaceflight for a woman.]

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President Trump’s effort to reorganize how DOD deals with space activities took some steps forward this week, but is also facing headwinds from skeptics in Congress and elsewhere.  The FY 2020 budget request includes funds for the three key elements — a U.S. Space Force (USSF) as a new service under the U.S. Air Force, a unified combatant U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM), and a Space Development Agency (SDA).  Key members of Congress expressed reservations about USSF today however, and USSPACECOM has hit a snag.  At the same time, SDA reportedly was officially established yesterday, but over the objections of outgoing Air Force Secretary (SecAF) Heather Wilson.

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NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine made a bombshell announcement at a Senate hearing this morning that the agency is studying whether it can launch the uncrewed Orion spacecraft on its first mission around the Moon on commercial rockets instead of the Space Launch System (SLS).  Bridenstine expressed strong support for SLS and insisted plans for EM-2, the first flight with a crew, would not change.  Coupled with decisions revealed yesterday in NASA’s FY2020 budget request to delay planned SLS upgrades, however, some see this as a further indication that commercial rockets can do the job that SLS is designed to do, but faster and at less cost.

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DOD is requesting $14.1 billion for space activities in FY2020, a 17 percent increase over FY2019 according to DOD officials.  Included in the request is $72 million to begin establishing a Space Force as a separate military service within the Air Force in anticipation of Congress approving that action, although it is not assured.

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The Department of Transportation (DOT) is requesting a total of $64.6 million for commercial space transportation activities in FY2020.  That is a significant boost from its FY2019 level of $36.5 million including all three budget line items that comprise DOT’s support for commercial space launch and reentry activities.  The biggest increase is for integrating commercial space transportation into the National Airspace System (NAS) to reduce disruption to other airspace users.

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The Trump Administration released its FY2020 budget request today.  For NASA, the request is $21.019 billion, a $481 million cut from its FY2019 budget.  NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tried to put a positive spin on it by comparing it to last year’s request since by that measure it is a 6 percent increase, but it is actually a 2.2 percent reduction from current funding.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 10-16, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate are in session this week.

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In a surprise move, Secretary of the Air Force (SecAF) Heather Wilson announced today that she will resign effective May 31, 2019 to become President of the University of Texas at El Paso.  Her name had surfaced repeatedly as a possible successor to Jim Mattis as Secretary of Defense, but that clearly is not in the cards.  President Trump tweeted his appreciation for her service, but neither offered explanations for the sudden departure.

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SpaceX’s Demo-1 uncrewed flight test of its Crew Dragon capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) this morning and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida at 8:45 am ET.  It is a major milestone in NASA’s commercial crew program and restoring the ability of the United States to launch astronauts into space.

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Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for March 6, 2019:  Pence chats with ISS crew, confirms upcoming all-female spacewalk; Canada releases new space strategy; EELV is now NSSL.  Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.

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