Europe’s new Ariane 6 rocket lifted off this afternoon for the first time. Four years late and a year after the final Ariane 5 took flight, European space officials initially were gleeful after it achieved orbit. ESA’s Director General called it a “historic day for Europe,” the president of France’s space agency declared “Europe is back in space,” and the head of ArianeGroup echoed “Ariane is back.” Later, however, an anomaly with the second stage spoiled the celebration and prevented it from reentering into the Pacific Ocean as planned. The stage remains in orbit.

Read More Read More

The full House Appropriations Committee will mark up the FY2025 bill that funds NASA tomorrow. The top-line numbers have been known since subcommittee markup last month, but now the subcommittee’s report is out with details on spending priorities. Despite cutting NASA below the President’s request — which would have been just enough to restore the agency’s funding to its FY2023 level — the subcommittee directs NASA to spend more on certain programs, notably Mars Sample Return. [Update: the committee approved the bill on July 9 with no changes to the NASA section.]

Read More Read More

The House Science, Space, and Technology Committee will mark up a 2024 NASA authorization bill on Wednesday. SpacePolicyOnline.com has obtained a copy of the discussion draft. An amended version is expected to be circulated later today or tomorrow.

Read More Read More

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of July 7-13, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week.

Read More Read More

Two men and two women who spent more than a year in a simulated Mars habitat emerged from isolation today. Although they actually were here on planet Earth, they lived as much as is feasible as though they were on Mars 140 million miles from family, friends and supplies. It was the first of three NASA Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog or CHAPEA missions that the agency plans to conduct over the next several years.

Read More Read More

Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com over the past three weeks, June 10-30, 2024 including our “What’s Happening in Space Policy” for this coming week. Click on each title to read the entire article.

Read More Read More

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the next two weeks, June 30-July 13, 2024, and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week except for pro forma sessions, returning the week of July 8.

Read More Read More

Today NASA and Boeing pushed back on the narrative that the Starliner crew is stranded in space, but declined to provide a date for when they will return. Starliner is ready to bring NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back home anytime if there is an emergency, but otherwise they want to collect more data before deciding on a date.  They also are holding off on deciding when to try again to accomplish a spacewalk after two attempts this month were scrubbed.

Read More Read More

The House passed the FY2025 Defense Appropriations bill today on largely partisan lines, primarily because of social policy provisions that were included. The bill cuts almost $1 billion from the $29.6 billion requested by the Biden Administration for the U.S. Space Force as the House continues to prioritize reductions in federal spending.

Read More Read More

NASA just awarded a contract to SpaceX to build a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station at the end of its lifetime, currently planned for 2030. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has been urging Congress to fund such a vehicle for more than a year, but without success so far. With 2030 just six years away, time is getting short.

Read More Read More