Washington Updates

This week in Washington: The House and Senate are in August recess. The Artemis 1 launch slipped to Saturday, September 3rd. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) extended SpaceX’s commercial crew mission contract by $1.6 billion and 5 launches. Boeing, Raytheon, and Ursa Major were awarded government contracts for missile and engine development. United…

This week in Washington: The House and Senate are in summer recess, though the House came back in for a quick vote on CHIPS. President Biden signed the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act into law earlier this week. Vice President Harris announced the next National Space Council meeting in September ​with a focus on…

This week in Washington: President Biden nominated Lieutenant General Chance Saltzman to succeed General Jay Raymond as the head of Space Force, the NASA Authorization Bill was passed for the first time in five years as a part of the CHIPS and Science Act and will head to the President’s desk, the Senate Appropriations Committee…

This week in Washington: The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act passed the House, the Senate Armed Services Committee released its version of the NDAA requesting an additional $45 billion in defense spending, NASA and Roscosmos reached an agreement exchanging seats on Crew Dragon and Soyuz launches, and the NASA Authorization Act was included in the…

This week in Washington: The House Armed Services Committee passed its FY23 National Defense Authorization Act markup, which will now advance to the House floor, the Federal Aviation Administration ruled to allow SpaceX launches to proceed despite environmental concerns, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Space Launch System rocket passed its final wet dress…

This week in Washington: National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) markups called for Pentagon reports on hypersonic missile threats, NASA’s Office of the Inspector General’s released its audit on the Mobile Launcher 2 Contract, the Space Development Agency (SDA) awarded its first Tranche-1 O&I contract, and France signed the Artemis Accords. United States Space Policy Updates…

This week in Washington: The Department of Defense’s Program Integration Council (PIC) successfully coordinated five-year planning documents for space acquisition among interagency members, a Congressional conference committee met to start reconciling competitiveness bills, including language in USICA (United States Innovation and Competition Act) authorizing NASA to select a second company for the Human Landing System…

This week in Washington: Vice President Harris declared a commitment to end ASAT tests; Travis Langster was announced as DoD’s Principal Director of Space Policy; Richard DalBello was tapped to lead NOAA’s Office of Space Commerce; and NASA awarded $278.5 million in contracts for near-Earth space communication development. US Space Policy Updates Travis Langster was…

This week in Washington: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed rules to strengthen investor protections in IPOs by SPACs; six candidate locations have been selected for USSF Space Training and Readiness Command Headquarters; the Chairwoman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology authored a letter to President Biden expressing…