Washington Updates

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…

In recent weeks, Washington, D.C., has been the setting of numerous protests against racial discrimination and police brutality. In Congress, House Democrats are working to secure supporters for a new police reform bill. Much of the bill was drafted by the Congressional Black Caucus, with Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) as the lead whip, and the…

Washington, D.C., along with the rest of the world, tuned in Wednesday to watch the SpaceX Demo-2 launch return astronauts to space from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011. Due to uncooperative weather that day, the world now eagerly awaits the rescheduled launch on Saturday, May 30 at 3:22 EDT. Today, the District…