Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com during the week of May 8-14, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week plus a day of May 14-21, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
The United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket is getting closer to its first launch. Originally planned for May 4, the date for the Cert-1 mission slipped because of an upper stage accident during testing, but today ULA rolled the rocket out to the launch pad for pre-launch tests. Vulcan is ULA’s future, replacing the existing Atlas V and Delta IV rockets over the next several years. The first launch also is Astrobotic’s ride to the Moon, delivering the Peregrine lander with NASA and other payloads to the lunar surface.
Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic plans to resume crewed suborbital spaceflights later this month. The first flight will carry only company employees, but the long-awaited first commercial flight is planned for late June. The move comes almost two years after SpaceShipTwo last took people, including Branson, to space and follows a bankruptcy filing for Branson’s other space company, Virgin Orbit.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com during the week of May 1-7, 2023, including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. (We’re actually including a bonus article that we published early this morning, May 8.) Click on each title to read the entire article.
China’s uncrewed reusable spaceplane, thought to be similar to the U.S. X-37B, has returned to Earth after 276 days in space. Both China and the United States are highly secretive about what these spacecraft do while they are in space, but lengthy mission durations seem to be part of the plan.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall was peppered with questions from two congressional committees about when a decision will be made on where to locate the headquarters of U.S. Space Command, but he said he has no news to share. The prickly issue pitting Colorado versus Alabama has been on hold for over two years. One powerful House member from Alabama said “we’re beyond the point of frustration,” but Kendall adroitly avoided making any promises about a resolution.
Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of May 7-13, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.
Senators Gary Peters and John Cornyn have reintroduced legislation requring the Department of Homeland Security to help prevent disruptive cyberattacks on commercial satellites. The bill requires DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to consolidate voluntary satellite cybersecurity recommendations to help operators understand how to secure their systems and ensure they have the tools and resources they need for cybersecurity defense.
The Czech Republic became the 24th country to sign the U.S.-led Artemis Accords today. In a signing ceremony at NASA Headquarters, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský pointed to his country’s participation in the lunar Gateway space station and the more than 100 companies and research institutes involved in space activities. Prague also is home to the European Union’s space agency.