What's Happening in Space Policy June 21-28, 2015 – UPDATE
UPDATE: Friday’s House SS&T hearing on astrobiology has been postponed. Friday’s HASC subcommittee hearing on RD-180 is now at 9:00 am rather than 10:30 am ET. Here is our list …
DLR Selects Pascale Ehrenfreund As Its New Leader
The German Research Center (DLR) announced today that Pascale Ehrenfreund will replace Johann-Dietrich Wörner as Chair of its Executive Board. Wörner is about to become Director General of the European …
Senate Passes FY2016 Defense Authorization, But Blocked on Defense Appropriations
The Senate passed the FY2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) today despite the threat of a Presidential veto. Shortly thereafter, however, the Senate Republican leadership was blocked in an attempt …
Europa Mission Moves into Formulation — Might ESA Provide a Lander?
A mission to send a spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa that owes its existence to an alliance between a few planetary scientists and Washington politicians moved from concept review …
Senate Appropriators Favor Earth Science, Exploration; Cut Space Technology, Commercial Crew
The Senate Appropriations Committee publicly released its report today on the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill that it marked up last week. Some of the winners and losers were clear already, but …
Philae Phones Home
The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Philae comet lander has awakened and is sending data back to Earth once more. Scientists have anxiously waited seven months for this moment. Philae (pronounced …
What's Happening in Space Policy June 15-19, 2015
Here is our list of space policy related events for the week of June 15-19, 2015 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in …
Mikulski Amendment Rejected – No Relief for NASA in Senate Appropriations Markup
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) offered an amendment to the FY2016 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) appropriations bill during full committee markup today that would have added money above the level recommended yesterday by …
Mikulski Fails in Attempt To Restore Funding for Future Weather Satellites
The Senate Appropriations Committee today rejected an amendment by Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) to restore funding for NOAA to proceed with future satellites in the Joint Polar Satellite Sytsem (JPSS) …
RD-180 Pits Senate Appropriators Against Authorizers
The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) may want to hold DOD’s feet to the fire to stop using Russian RD-180 engines by 2019, but the Senate Appropriations Committee (SAC) isn’t …