Experts are predicting that China’s small space station, Tiangong-1, will reenter Earth’s atmosphere sometime tomorrow or Monday (April 1-2 Eastern Daylight Time). Most of the 8.5 metric ton (MT) space station, about the size of a schoolbus, will burn up during its fiery descent, but there is a tiny chance something could make it all the way to Earth.
Here are our tidbits for March 29, 2018: Trump talks space again; Tiangong-1 reentry countdown; another nugget from NAC. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
Here are our tidbits for March 28, 2018: latest Tiangong-1 reentry predictions; snapshots from NAC meetings re lunar plans, commercial crew, international cooperation and more. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
NASA announced another slip in the launch date for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) today. Last fall the date slipped from the long established October 2018 to a period between March and June 2019. Now it is May 2020 at the earliest. NASA officials said they do not yet know how much that will add to the cost. If it exceeds the $8 billion cost cap set in law, it will have to be reauthorized by Congress.
China’s small Tiangong-1 space station is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry at the end of this week or the beginning of next. Space objects routinely reenter through the atmosphere and most are destroyed in the fiery process, but there is a small chance that some parts of Tiangong-1 will reach the surface. Predicting when and where is difficult.
Updated free SpacePolicyOnline.com fact sheets on the FY2018 budgets for NASA and NOAA’s satellite programs, and our 115th Congress legislative checklist, are now available. The budget fact sheets incorporate final action in the FY2018 omnibus appropriations act and include tables comparing FY2018 appropriations with the Trump Administration’s request and prior year funding as well as discussions of the key issues that were debated.
NASA announced late today that it will hold a media teleconference tomorrow, March 27, at 11:30 am ET, with an update on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). NASA science chief Thomas Zurbuchen said last week that the results of an independent assessment of whether JWST could meet its revised launch schedule would be released this week. Presumably that is what this briefing is about. He will be joined by NASA Acting Administrator Robert Lightfoot and Zurbuchen’s deputy, Dennis Andrucyk.
Here is our list of space policy events for the week of March 26-30, 2018 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess and will return the week of April 9 for legislative business (as usual there are pro forma sessions scheduled throughout the recess).
The White House released a brief summary of a new National Space Strategy yesterday. It puts “American interests first,” “emphasizes dynamic and cooperative interplay between the national security, commercial, and civil space sectors,” and builds on the National Security Strategy “emphasizing peace through strength in the space domain.”
Despite loud complaints about the lack of time to read it, the House and Senate passed the FY2018 omnibus appropriations bill in record time. The bill was released by the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday evening, passed the House Thursday morning, and passed the Senate just after midnight Friday. It now goes to the President. He is expected to sign it. The bill funds most government agencies through the end of FY2018 on September 30, 2018. [UPDATE, March 23, 2:30 pm ET: President Trump has signed the bill into law.]