{"id":116976,"date":"2025-08-04T01:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T01:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116976\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T01:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T01:21:10","slug":"whats-happening-in-space-policy-august-3-9-2025-spacepolicyonline-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/116976\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Happening in Space Policy August 3-9, 2025 \u2013 SpacePolicyOnline.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is SpacePolicyOnline.com\u2019s list of space policy events for the week of August 3-9, 2025 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess until September 2 except for pro forma sessions.<\/p>\n

During the Week<\/strong><\/p>\n

The week began this morning (Sunday) with the launch of Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard-34 (NS-34) passenger flight. One of the six crew members was Justin Sun, the Chinese cryptocurrency billionaire who paid $28 million<\/a> in 2021 at an auction to be on New Shepard\u2019s first passenger flight with Jeff Bezos and then decided he didn\u2019t want to go at that time. He was ready today, joining Arvi Bahal, G\u00f6khan Erdem, Deborah Martorell, Lionel Pitchford, and J.D. Russell for the roughly 10-minute flight from Blue Origin\u2019s launch pad in West Texas, up above the 100 kilometer (62 mile) imaginary line that separates air and space, and back down to the Texas desert.<\/p>\n

\"\"Six passengers in Blue Origin\u2019s New Shepard-34 spacecraft descend under parachutes to land in the West Texas desert, August 3, 2025. Screenshot.<\/p>\n

Today is also the day that NASA should decide which space vehicle to transfer to a NASA field center \u201cinvolved in the administration of the Commercial Crew Program\u201d pursuant to the reconciliation bill.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"Space Shuttle Discovery on display at the National Air and Space Museum\u2019s (NASM\u2019s) Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. Credit: NASM<\/p>\n

The section of the bill crafted <\/a>by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, gives the NASA Administrator 30 days from the bill\u2019s enactment to \u201cidentify a space vehicle\u201d that conforms with specifications in the bill: it must have flown into space, carried astronauts, and is selected with the concurrence of a nonprofit entity designated by the Administrator. Today is 30 days after enactment, which was July 4.<\/p>\n

The Congressional Research Service has a useful \u201cIn Focus\u201d<\/a> report explaining all the possible space vehicles that meet those qualifications, but Cruz and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) have a bill pending in the Senate (S. 1403), and Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) has one in the House (H.R. 4065), that make their intent crystal clear. The \u201cBring the Space Shuttle Home Act\u201d calls for the Space Shuttle Discovery to be transferred from the Smithsonian\u2019s National Air and Space Museum\u2019s Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA to Johnson Space Center.\u00a0Those bills haven\u2019t passed though. From a legal standpoint only the reconciliation bill matters at the moment. It allocates $85 million to transfer the vehicle, but Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said<\/a> he asked NASA and the Smithsonian how much it really would cost to move Discovery and their answer was $305 million. We\u2019ll keep an eye out for when Acting Administrator Sean Duffy makes the announcement.<\/p>\n

The Senate worked through the day yesterday (Saturday) confirming President Trump\u2019s nominations for a variety of positions in the government.\u00a0 There are more waiting and for a while it appeared they might stay in town a little longer to vote on more of them, but negotiations between President Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rancorously broke down last night with Trump using his social media platform to tell Republicans to go home and Schumer to go \u2026 somewhere else.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) blocked Senate consideration of the FY2026 CJS bill that funds NASA and NOAA.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Senate did pass three appropriations bills but, alas, the Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill wasn\u2019t one of them.\u00a0 As we reported last week, there was hope CJS, which funds NASA and NOAA, would be bundled with two other bills, but Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) blocked<\/a> it because of the controversy over the location of a new FBI Headquarters building. The FBI is part of the Department of Justice \u2014 the J in CJS. Otherwise there\u2019s no connection to NASA or NOAA. Van Hollen has a lot of NASA and NOAA interests in Maryland, too, but for now he\u2019s focused on trying to get Congress to insist on putting the new FBI HQ in Greenbelt, MD. The site was chosen by the General Services Administration after a lengthy competition, but the Trump Administration abruptly decided last month to move the FBI into the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n

The House and Senate will return on September 2 with the clock ticking down to the start of FY2026 on October 1. So far the House has passed two of the 12 annual appropriations bills (MilCon\/VA and Defense) and the Senate three (MilCon\/VA, Agriculture, and Legislative Branch). The likelihood of them agreeing on any of the 12 bills before October 1 is remote, and certainly not all of them. Whether they\u2019ll pass a temporary Continuing Resolution or shut down the government is up in the air. We\u2019ve been through this many times before and, as always, there\u2019s no way to forecast what will happen.<\/p>\n

Congress may be gone for a month, but the space policy world remains busy. In fact Redwire is holding an event at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning, August 5, to talk about \u201cFrom In-orbit to Innovative Insulin: How Space Will Revolutionize the Pharmaceutical Sector.\u201d Be sure to RSVP to Redwire (see the link in our Calendar entry) to get details on the location.\u00a0 The emailed announcement cautions that space is limited, but the company asked us to help spread the word. Speakers include Ken Bowersox, NASA\u2019s Associate Administrator for Space Operations; John Vellinger, Redwire\u2019s President of In-space Industries; John Barnett, ExesaLibero Pharma\u2019s President and Chief Scientific Officer; and Dave Cavossa, President of the Commercial Space Federation.\u00a0 Looks intriguing.\u00a0 By the way, Redwire will release their second quarter 2025 financial results after the market closes August 6, with the quarterly earnings telecon the next morning.<\/p>\n

Crew-10 may begin their trip home from the International Space Station on Wednesday, though NASA and SpaceX are assessing the weather before making a final decision. Their replacements on Crew-11 arrived yesterday morning and were welcomed by ISS Commander Takuya Onishi (JAXA) and the rest of Expedition 73.<\/p>\n

\n

After the members of Crew-11 enter the @Space_Station<\/a>, the full station crew takes part in a welcome ceremony, marking the beginning of Crew-11\u2019s mission aboard the orbital outpost. pic.twitter.com\/PL6AIpw32E<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NASA (@NASA) August 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Gen. Stephen Whiting, Commander, U.S. Space Command, will speak at the 2025 SMD Symposium on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The annual Space and Missile Defense (SMD) Symposium will take place Tuesday-Thursday in Huntsville. It always has an impressive agenda and this year is no exception, although the website notes that the \u201cGolden Dome for America Panel\u201d has been \u201cremoved from our program\u201d and information about Golden Dome \u201cwill be promulgated by the government.\u201d Golden Dome is the Trump Administration\u2019s effort to build a missile defense shield similar in concept to Ronald Reagan\u2019s Strategic Defense Initiative. Congress appropriated $25 billion<\/a> for it in the reconciliation bill and Gen. Michael Guetlein was recently confirmed<\/a> to lead the program, but details are pending.\u00a0 The Symposium agenda has lots of other speakers on space-related topics, however, including U.S. Space Command Commander Gen. Stephen Whiting and a SPACECOM panel introduced by Whiting\u2019s Deputy, LTG Thomas James.<\/p>\n

Also on tap this week are a Mitchell Institute webinar with U.S. Space Force Chief Operations Officer LTG DeAnna Burt (Monday), an open FCC meeting where they\u2019ll discuss streamlining reviews by the Space Bureau (Thursday), and open sessions of a meeting of the Lunar and Planetary Science panel of the National Academies\u2019 study on Key Non-Polar Destinations Across the Moon to Address Decadal-level Science Objectives with Human Explorations (Thursday).<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll also mention that the 39th Small Satellite (Smallsat) Conference begins next Sunday before our next edition goes to press.\u00a0 Sunday is mostly for side meetings, with the main conference beginning on Monday.\u00a0 For the first time Smallsat is not taking place in Logan, Utah having outgrown its historic roots. This year it is in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are shown below. Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our Calendar<\/a> or changes to these.<\/p>\n

Sunday, August 3<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monday, August 4<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday, August 5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tuesday-Thursday, August 5-7<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wednesday, August 6<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thursday, August 7<\/strong><\/p>\n