Washington Updates

This week Space Foundation announced the launch of “Space Symposium 365,” providing a digital platform that builds upon the spirit of the traditional annual gathering. Programming will debut in October, offering exclusive digital content to the global space community leading up to the next in-person Symposium, set for August 2021. Introducing Space Symposium 365 “Space…

Announcing New 36th Space Symposium Dates and Introducing Space Symposium 365 The 36th Space Symposium to Be Held on August 22–26, 2021 Space Foundation will reconvene the world’s space community next year at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., August 22–26, 2021. Although there will not be an in-person gathering this year, Space Foundation’s mission, dedication, and stewardship…

Earlier this week, the space community tuned in to see the Crew Dragon splashdown in Pensacola, Fla., and welcomed astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley home from their two-month stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Their safe return officially categorized the joint NASA/SpaceX Demo-2 mission as a success and heralded the return of regular…

For the international space community, this summer, and especially this week have been heavily focused on Mars. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) launched their historic Hope mission earlier this week from Japan, followed by China’s Tianwen-1 launch. Next week will be NASA’s highly anticipated launch of the Perseverance rover with the mission having cleared its…

It was another busy markup week for House appropriators following last week’s House Armed Services Committee’s full markup of the FY2021 National Defense Authorization Act. For the space industry, the focus was on the FY2021 Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee appropriations bill for NASA and other agencies. For many appropriators, such as Reps. Jose Serrano (D-NY),…

This week, both the House and Senate were in session for committee markups and hearings. A text of the Senate’s $740 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) bill (S. 4049) was released, and the Senate is expected to take procedural votes on the bill with debates to continue through next week, with the goal of…