A group of European dignitaries is calling for European autonomy in human and robotic space exploration. Established by ESA but conducting its work independently, the 12-person High Level Advisory Group insists that Europe must step up and ensure independent access to and use of space or be dependent on others, with economic and geopolitical consequences. Among the recommendations is for “independent and sustainable” European human landing missions to the Moon within 10 years.

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The world’s first 3D printed rocket, Relativity Space’s Terran-1, lifted off the launch pad tonight on the third try. Although a second stage anomaly meant it did not reach orbit, company officials were delighted it got as far as it did, passing through the point of maximum aerodynamic pressure, or Max Q.

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In a letter to the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spelled out the “devastating and potentially unrecoverable” impacts if the discretionary portion of the federal budget, which includes NASA, is held to its FY2022 level as House Republicans are proposing.

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In lieu of our weekly emails, on Mondays SpacePolicyOnline.com now will post here on the website and circulate via Twitter (@SpcPlcyOnline) and Facebook (Facebook.com/SpacePolicyOnline) a roundup of the articles we published the previous week to make them easy to find. This is the first edition of the Weekly Roundup and includes two weeks (March 6-19, 2023) to ensure continuity from when the emails ended. The articles are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on the title to read the story.

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Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com’s list of space policy events for the week of March 19-25, 2023 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in session for part of the week (Senate returns for legislative business on Tuesday, the House on Wednesday).

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A trio of veteran space policy experts cautioned today that although President Biden’s request for a 7 percent increase for NASA in FY2024 is good news, in reality it merely keeps pace with inflation. The VERITAS Venus orbiter saw its budget all but vanish as science programs come under financial stress despite record levels of investment and the agency’s human spaceflight budget now needs to accommodate a space tug to deorbit the International Space Station.

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DOD’s FY2024 budget request includes $30 billion for the U.S. Space Force, about $4 billion more than FY2023. The request supports the Space Force’s embrace of profilerated constellations of many small satellites in various low and medium orbits instead of a few large satellites in geostationary orbit that are easier for adversaries to target — what DOD officials call a “resilient architecture.”

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The FAA is requesting an increase in funding and staff resources for the Office of Commercial Space Transportation in FY2024 as the commercial space launch industry continues to grow. The $42 million request is about $5 million more than Congress appropriated in FY2023. Additional funding for commercial space in other parts of the FAA budget raise the total for FAA’s commercial space activities to almost $50 million.

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NASA’s FY2024 budget request includes a record-breaking $8.26 billion for science. The largest component is planetary science that includes the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission to bring samples now being collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth. The request includes almost $1 billion for MSR, but comes with a warning that costs may grow and it may need to be descoped or other science missions cut. NASA also is requesting money to help ESA finish the ExoMars mission after it severed its partnership with Russia.

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NASA laid out some of the details of its FY2024 budget request today. The $27.2 billion request, a 7.1 percent increase over FY2023, supports NASA’s full suite of programs in space and earth science, space technology, aeronautics and human spaceflight including the Artemis program to return astronauts to the Moon and continued operations of the International Space Station. One new program is development of a space tug to deorbit the ISS, which could cost as much as $1 billion.

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