Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of Octber 7-13, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is scheduled to meet this week beginning Tuesday. The House is in recess except for pro forma sessions.
Here are SpacePolicyOnline.com’s tidbits for October 5, 2018: FAA reauthorization bill signed into law; NASA/NOAA GOES-17 investigation board; update on Chinese space stations. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
Today NASA once again updated its projections for the SpaceX and Boeing commercial crew flight tests. None will take place this year. The first, an uncrewed test of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, slips from November 2018 to January 2019. Boeing’s uncrewed test is delayed from “late 2018/early 2019” to March 2019. The dates have slipped many times in the past and today’s announcement carried the caveat that the agency anticipates the dates “may change as we get closer to launch.”
A number of announcements are being made this week about exploration of our Moon and the moons of Mars, and the possible discovery of the first moon outside our solar system. The annual International Astronautical Congress taking place in Bremen, Germany is the venue for many of these announcements. Here’s a quick summary.
The German/French MASCOT lander is on its way down to the surface of the asteroid Ryugu. Separation of MASCOT from Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft took place at an altitude of about 51 meters above the surface. MASCOT will free fall the rest of the way down and is expected to bounce a few times before settling on a specific spot.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and his Chinese counterpart, Zhang Kejian, spoke optimistically about increased space cooperation today while acknowledging that such decisions involve political considerations that are out of their hands. Both are participating in events at the 2018 International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen, Germany.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of October 1-6, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House is in recess this week (except for pro forma sessions). The Senate is scheduled to be in session. [UPDATE, October 1. More information has been added in the fifth paragraph about MASCOT’s landing on Ryugu October 2-3).
Reps. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Jim Cooper (D-TN), the bipartisan duo advocating for a Space Corps within the Air Force, pushed back against what they see as slow walking and gold plating of the idea. Both think their Space Corps idea is a better, less disruptive approach to solving the problems they see than creating a Department of the Space Force, especially one with a $12.9 billion pricetag.
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) announced today that it has selected Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine for its new Vulcan rocket over Aerojet Rocketdyne’s AR1. ULA and Blue Origin announced a partnership four years ago, but the competition with Aerojet Rocketdyne has taken this long to reach its conclusion. ULA will use a different Aerojet Rocketdyne engine for the Vulcan’s Centaur upper stage, however.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) introduced legislation today to ensure continuous U.S. human spaceflight presence in low Earth orbit (LEO) and Johnson Space Center’s (JSC’s) “leadership role as the home of American human spaceflight.” Babin’s congressional district includes JSC and he chairs the Space Subcommittee of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.