The 116th Congress convened at noon today amid a partial government shutdown that will reach the two-week mark tomorrow.  The House is now under control of Democrats while the Senate remains in Republican hands.  The pagentry associated with swearing in new Representatives and Senators soon returned to business as usual, with the two parties blaming each other for the inability to pass legislation to reopen NASA, NOAA and many other departments and agencies that have been without funding since December 21.

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China’s lunar rover Yutu-2 rolled off of the Chang’e-4 lander today (Eastern Standard Time) giving the first view of the far side of the Moon from the surface.  Although the far side has been imaged by orbiters for decades, this is the first time a spacecraft has soft landed there.  Chang’e-4 arrived last night, setting down in the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin at a place called the Von Kármán crater, a place of great scientific interest.

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China achieved a space “first” tonight (January 2 Eastern Standard Time) landing the Chang’e-4 spacecraft on the far side of the Moon.  The United States and Soviet Union landed many spacecraft on the near side, but no country has attempted a soft landing on the far side before.  China’s CGTN tweeted the news just after 10:00 pm EST, but then deleted it for unknown reasons.  China’s CCTV confirmed the landing in its 11:00 pm EST news program (12:00 noon January 3 in Beijing).

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Almost two years into President Trump’s term, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is getting a new director.  Kelvin Droegemeier was confirmed by the Senate tonight as one of its last acts before the end of the 115th Congress.  Sen. John Thune (R-South Dakota), outgoing chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, praised the action.

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New images of Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Ultima Thule taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft reveals a planetary body chock full of surprises.  The tiny 20-mile long object, 4 billion miles from Earth, has only been seen at close range since Monday. From the first 1 pixel image to the 2800 pixel image released today — and much better resolution photos on the way — scientists now know that Ultima Thule really is Ultima and Thule, two objects joined together since the earliest period of solar system formation.

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As the partial government shutdown continues, including NASA and NOAA, the 116th Congress will begin at noon tomorrow.  An impasse over funding President Trump’s border wall is preventing passage of seven of the 12 FY2019 appropriations bills although border security funding is in only of them, the Homeland Security bill.  The fate of the other six is politically intertwined at the moment, but Democrats will try to remedy that as one of their first acts tomorrow when they take control of the House.  They plan to combine and pass Senate versions of the six bills, including Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS), which funds NASA and NOAA.  Homeland Security will be dealt with separately.  It is not at all clear that the Republican-led Senate and Trump will agree.  A meeting of congressional leaders and Trump at the White House is scheduled for this afternoon.

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The asteroid Bennu and Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) Ultima Thule got New Year’s visitors from planet Earth as 2018 rolled into 2019 — robotic probes sent by NASA.  The asteroid sample return mission OSIRIS-REx entered orbit around Bennu for the first time at 2:43 pm December 31 Eastern Standard Time (EST) and New Horizons flew past Ultima Thule at 12:33 am January 1 EST.  Both are collecting data to help scientists understand how our solar system formed and evolved.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next TWO weeks, December 30, 2018-January 12, 2019 and any insight we can offer about them.  The House and Senate will be in session part of this week and next week.  Note that on Thursday, January 3, at noon, the 115th Congress ends and the 116th Congress begins with Democrats taking control of the House while Republicans remain in control of the Senate.

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Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for December 28, 2018:  Nancy Roman passes away; China’s year in space.  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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NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is about to fly past and send back data about a planetary object whose existence was not even known when it was launched in 2006.  Nicknamed Ultima Thule, it is a small ball of ice, rock, or both in a region of our solar system called the Kuiper Belt. Planetary bodies in the Kuiper Belt are thought to be unchanged from when the solar system was formed 4.5 billion years ago.  One billion miles past Pluto, Ultima Thule will be the farthest object visited by a probe from Earth when New Horizons makes its closest approach on January 1 at 12:33 am ET.

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