Axiom Space’s third private astronaut flight is underway with the first all-European space crew. Astronauts from the Italian, Turkish and Swedish Air Forces are on their way to the International Space Station with Axiom’s commander, a dual citizen of Spain and the United States. After docking on Saturday, they will spend 14 days aboard the ISS conducting experiments and enjoying the experience.
With no drama, the Senate and House passed another Continuing Resolution this afternoon to keep the government operating for a few more weeks. For the third time since September, House Republican leadership was able to get a CR passed despite strong opposition from the ultra-conservative wing of their party. Without the bill, agencies funded by four of the 12 regular appropriations bills would have had to close down operations at midnight tomorrow.
The first U.S. lunar lander since the Apollo era is about to meet its end. Astrobotic’s Peregrine suffered a mission-ending propulsion failure soon after launch earlier this month. Its trajectory brought it back towards Earth and Astrobotic was able to steer it enough to direct it to reenter Earth’s atmosphere and burn up this afternoon. Peregrine is just the latest of several small, comparatively inexpensive lunar probes to fail, but that has not deterred others from trying. Japan’s next attempt is tomorrow and several U.S. private sector probes are queueing up.
Members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee expressed strong support for NASA’s Artemis program today. Citing the need for U.S. leadership in space, especially to get U.S. astronauts back on the Moon before China does, Republican and Democratic members left no doubt about their enthusiasm for Artemis. Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin, one of the witnesses, was the only voice for abandoning Artemis on the basis that a complete do-over is required if the United States does, indeed, want to stay ahead of China.
SpaceX’s Elon Musk told company employees on Friday that the achievements they made last year are leading to his goal of establishing human settlements on Mars. He forecasts the first people will land there eight years from now. Well known for his overly optimistic timelines, Musk’s comments came just days after NASA slipped the date for U.S. astronauts to return to the Moon’s surface by a year in part because of delays in SpaceX’s development of the Human Landing System needed to take them down and back.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has chosen Kurt Vogel to be the new head of the Space Technology Mission Directorate. Vogel is relatively new to NASA, but had a long career in the Air Force and national security space before joining the agency in 2021. He takes over from Jim Reuter who retired last year.
Here are links to all the articles published on SpacePolicyOnline.com over the last week, January 8-14, 2024, 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 of January 14-20, 2024 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session this week starting Tuesday.
Despite agreement among the four key congressional leaders on top level funding for FY2024, the threat of a partial government shutdown a week from now is as real as ever. The small group of ultra conservative House Republicans who deposed Speaker Kevin McCarthy and put Mike Johnson in his place are demanding Johnson now reject the deal he just agreed to. The existing Continuing Resolution has two expiration dates, January 19 for some agencies and February 2 for others. Another CR will be needed by Friday to keep that first set funded, but whether they can do even that is anyone’s guess.
In a change of command ceremony in Colorado Springs today, Gen. Stephen Whiting took over the reins at U.S. Space Command from Gen. James Dickinson. The handover was delayed several months by Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) blockade of military promotions for most of last year. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks praised Dickinson for staying in his position until Whiting could be confirmed, delaying his own retirement. Hicks’s main message was that while China and Russia seek to turn space into a warfighting domain, the United States is committed to preventing conflict through deterrence.