Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned on Wednesday that Washington’s inability to provide funding stability is the greatest threat facing military readiness. If defense budget caps are not lifted, “we are questioning whether America has the ability to survive.”
Here are our tidbits for today, September 20, 2017. Enjoy! [Don’t forget to check our website for feature-length articles, too.]
Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) endorsed Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) to be the next Administrator of NASA today. Shelby chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, making his support quite significant. Bridenstine also has submitted answers to questions posed by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee in preparation for his nomination hearing. They lay out what he sees as the key challenges facing the agency.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting tonight that Northrop Grumman is close to a deal to purchase Orbital ATK. An announcement could come as early as tomorrow (Monday). The two companies are major defense contractors with substantial involvement in space programs, though they are only part of each company’s broad portfolios. [UPDATE, September 18: OrbitalATK confirms this morning that it will be acquired by Northrop Grumman for $9.2 billion ($7.8 billion in cash plus the assumption of $1.4 billion in net debt.]
Here is our list of space policy events for the week of September 18-22, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them. The Senate is scheduled to meet Monday-Wednesday; the House is in recess all week.