NASA issued a notice today that it plans to award a sole source contract to Bigelow Aerospace to continue use of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) that is attached to the International Space Station (ISS). BEAM has been used only as a technology demonstration so far. NASA now wants to use it for on-orbit storage and will allow Bigelow to use it for its own technology demonstrations.
Here is our list of space policy events for the week of October 1-6, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Here are our tidits for today, September 30, 2017 — USRA starts a GoFundMe camapaign to help Arecibo staff, Trump sends up another nomination for NOAA, and VP Pence visits NRO. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live-tweeting of events.
Elon Musk gave his much anticipated talk at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Adelaide, Australia today. The fast-paced pitch raised more questions than it answered, but the bottom line seemed to be that he plans to shift SpaceX’s focus to building the new Mars-capable BFR rocket to replace Falcon 9, Dragon and the upcoming Falcon Heavy.
Here are our tidbits for today, September 28, 2017. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
NASA revealed today that launch of the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will slip from October 2018 to March-June 2019 because spacecraft integration is taking longer than expected. After experiencing repeated cost overruns and schedule delays during the 2000s, NASA restructured the program in 2011 and vowed it would meet the newly established launch date of October 2018. That date now has slipped again, although NASA insists it will not increase costs.
Here are our tidbits for today, September 27, 2017. Be sure to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, signed an agreement today on cooperating in studies of future joint human space flight opportunities. In separate press releases, the agencies focused on different aspects of that cooperation, but the shared goal is jointly expanding human presence beyond the International Space Station (ISS).
Here are our tidbits for today, September 26, 2017. Don’t forget to check our website for feature stories and follow us on Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) for more news and live tweeting of events.
The White House announced today that the first meeting of the National Space Council will take place on October 5, 2017 at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy center outside Washington, D.C. President Trump reestablished the Space Council in June and its first meeting has been much anticipated in the space community.