NASA to unveil first commercial astronaut crew Presented by Northrop Grumman

With help from Adrienne Hurst

PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING

CONFIRMED: FIRST COMMERCIAL ASTRONAUT CREW COMING AUG. 3: NASA on Aug. 3 will announce the first class of astronauts under its Commercial Crew Program, the first-of-its-kind public-private partnership to send astronauts to the International Space Station, NASA Press Secretary Megan Powers tells us.


SpaceX and Boeing are building the capsules — the Dragon and the CST-100 Starliner — and the maiden voyage is expected in 2020. That will also mark the first time Americans will travel to space from U.S. soil since the Space Shuttle program was ended in 2011 and NASA began buying rides on Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

The forthcoming crew announcement comes amid reports that Vice President Mike Pence is headed to Florida’s Space Coast that day.

Astronaut Suni Williams, part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, at the controls of a Starliner spacecraft training system. | NASA

WHAT SPACE REGULATORS MAY BE MISSING. The White House National Space Council headed by Pence has issued a series of recommendations to agencies for overhauling regulations so the space industry can thrive. It has also informed three separate presidential directives on returning to the moon, streamlining regulations, and tracking objects in orbit. Congress has been pushing legislation of its own. But we canvassed some industry leaders who worry the government’s field of view may be too narrow — including in the areas of satellite communications and launch vehicles.

Raised on the radio. It’s not enough for the government to revamp its policies to free up more radio frequency for the expanding satellite communications market, insists Barry Matsumori, the CEO of BridgeSat, a Denver-based satellite communications company founded in 2015. He said the Trump administration also needs to address other, more advanced forms of satellite communications coming online commercially, such as the laser communications network the company is developing with NASA that is set for a demonstration later this year.

“The challenge I pose to the National Space Council and the president by extension is…[to] look at advanced communications techniques because the rest of the world is,” Matsumori tells us.

Space Policy Directive-2, issued by the President Donald Trump in May, directs administration officials to prepare a report by Sept. 21, on “improving the global competitiveness of the United States space sector through radio frequency spectrum policies.”

The company is also making its case in a new white paper on the issue. “We do need to focus on ensuring the RF spectrum allocated is managed for the benefit of the US and not lose our eye on that ball,” reads the white paper, which was shared with POLITICO. “However, we should also look at how the United States can provide leadership by supporting the higher performance systems that are being commercialized and will be a necessary complement to existing systems. Doing so will ensure the United States can support the growth of data traffic that is expected and provide the leadership in the space communications world.”

Fixation with the space launch biggies? Much of the space policy focus on Capitol Hill now centers on reusable launch vehicles like those pioneered by SpaceX. But that fails to account for other types of space vehicles that will likely make up a lot of the future space economy, say top executives at Stofiel Aerospace, the St. Louis-based startup founded in 2015 that is aiming to launch satellites from parking lots on 3-D printed plastic rockets that hitch a ride up to the edge of the atmosphere on a balloon.

“That’s a testament to the fact that guys like [SpaceX CEO Elon] Musk and [Blue Origin founder Jeff] Bezos have been able to flex their political power, but it does tint it with their language,” said Alex Smith, the company’s chief operating officer. “My concern is the stuff being written now is too focused on just one type of vehicle.”

But CEO Brian Stofiel likened the available means to orbit to traffic on a highway: SpaceX’s Falcon and other large rockets are the buses taking groups of people to one place and his rockets are the cars that can deliver spacecraft to specific orbits at a price scaled to the size of the payload.

“Cars are much more plentiful, and that’s what we consider ourselves,” he explains.

The company says it is able to print a rocket every two days and has test-fired its design 38 times ahead of the first planned launch in September. It ultimately envisions customers requesting a launch on Monday in orbit by Friday -- and is shooting for 1,000 launches per year by 2021.

The FAA seems to get it. “When we first approached them with the system three years ago, they were pretty hesitant,” Stofiel recalled, but Smith says the agency has “really come around.”

Smith recently met with Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who chairs the Space, Science, and Competitiveness Subcommittee. “People on the Hill really want to do the work and push this whole economy forward. They just are unsure.”

WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our weekly briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond. Email us at [email protected] or [email protected] with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @bryandbender and @jacqklimas. And don’t forget to check out POLITICO's space policy page here.

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SPACE Q&A

FROM THE WRIGHT BROTHERS TO ELON MUSK. That’s the approach the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum is taking as it begins a seven-year, $900 million renovation of the world’s third most popular museum, says its new director, Ellen Stofan.

Stofan, formerly NASA’s chief scientist, has set as one of the chief goals a commercial spaceflight gallery — one she hopes that leading commercial companies will help to support financially and by offering items for exhibition.

“It’s important that we preserve this American story of exploration,” she tells us. “Historically, the bulk of our space-related artifacts have come from NASA because they were the primary player. As we go forward, it’s a huge emphasis of mine to collect artifacts from those space companies because at times, I am worried whether they realize what they’re doing is so historic and so important.

“Preserving the record of what they're doing is part of this great American story we tell here at the museum starting with Orville and Wilbur Wright,” she adds.

The overhaul, which will be completed in 2024 and will be funded by both Congress and private donations, is also focused on leveraging new technologies so the exhibits keep pace with the speed of new space innovations and discoveries.

“That’s daunting because this is a five-to-seven-year renovation,” she explains. “If you think about what technology was five years ago, we have to be careful we don’t go down a path where people will look at it and say ‘Oh wow, that’s so 2018.’ So we have to be flexible. When we fully reopen in 2024, I want people to be able to walk in and know what’s happening right then in space through the stories in our museum.”

And what about all that hidden art? The overhaul should also allow the museum to display many of the gems that have been hidden from public view for lack of exhibit space.

“We actually have over 5,500 pieces of art that preserves the Apollo era,” Stofan reports. “We have two Norman Rockwells. One of them is of [astronaut] Gus Grissom suiting up. I’m very partial to our art collection and we are very excited that when we redo the museum, we will have a section that’s dedicated to our permanent art collection...We will have a space dedicated to showing this really amazing art we have that not everybody gets to see.

She spoke about her strategy for getting buy-in for the renovation and why the effort is so important to incubating a new generation of scientists and engineers. Stofan, who spent her career studying Venus, Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan, also had some strong views on what the big goals should be for public and private space exploration. Read our full interview here.

This Norman Rockwell painting of NASA astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom in 1965 is among the National Air and Space Museum's collection of 5,500 pieces of art. | Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum





IN ORBIT

SPACE DIPLOMACY REBOOT? The United States and other nations must seek out new partners to defend space from potential security threats, officials said at a Thursday event hosted by The Aerospace Corporation and the George Washington University Space Policy Institute.

Previous efforts “focused a little too much on like-minded countries,” said Nishida Michiru, a special advisor for disarmament and non-proliferation policy at the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He pointed specifically to the International Code of Conduct for Outer Space Activities, a voluntary and non-binding 2014 draft developed by the European Union that urges nations to follow international norms in space, including reducing space debris and preventing an arms race. It failed to gain the support of many nations, including a host of emerging space-faring countries such as China and Brazil, who claimed they were not adequately consulted.

“I do agree...on some of the problems the code effort had in terms of just lack of effective outreach,” Richard Buenneke, a senior adviser for space policy at the State Department, said.

Many roadblocks remain, Michael Gleason, a former Pentagon space analyst, told the gathering. They include classification levels that make sharing information difficult and a lack of resources in many foreign militaries.

NASA boss does his own outreach. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine made the case for more international cooperation on civilian missions to the International Space Station and a return to the moon at the Farnborough International Airshow in London this week. He met with officials from the French National Space Agency, European Space Agency, United Kingdom Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, according to a readout from NASA's Powers.

Bridenstine inked an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to cooperate on crewed space missions.

The NASA chief also met with executives from major aerospace contractors including Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney, Raytheon and Boeing, which all work with NASA on key programs like the Orion capsule and Space Launch System. Check out this more detailed readout from Bridenstine’s U.K. trip.

MILITARY SPACE STUDY GETTING ‘FINAL TOUCHES’: The Pentagon is “putting our final touches” on a report to Congress on how to reorganize the space mission, Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, told reporters at the Pentagon this week of the report due to Congress Aug. 1 from Deputy Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan.

It will be the first in a series to examine how the military might stand up a separate Space Force that President Donald Trump has made a top priority despite previous resistance from the Air Force, which currently oversees most space operations.

But no matter how it plays out, “I see this as a huge opportunity right now that we’ve been given to have a national-level dialogue about where we’re going in space,” Goldfein said, citing the challenge of finding “enough people who are interested and passionate about the business of space ... So I love the fact that the president is leading that discussion.”

Goldfein is also taking an international view. He said he’s planning to convene international air chiefs at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs next April to identify potential new partnerships.

GLAM ROCK MEETS MOON ROCKS. Brian May, the guitarist for legendary 70’s rock band Queen — and an astrophysicist — has co-authored a new, “visually stunning” 3-D book on the moon race ahead of the the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. What also makes it unique, he says, is how it recounts the Cold War competition from both the American and Soviet perspectives.

“We retell the incredible story of the space race, the astronauts, the cosmonauts, the spacewalkers and the moonwalkers — their tribulations and triumphs — and the technological marvels that propelled them,” May, who also co-founded Asteroid Day in 2014, writes in the forward of the book co-written with David Eicher, editor of Astronomy magazine. “But we will take you on this journey in a way that’s never been possible before, even though the trail is half a century old, through a narrative which gives us perspectives from both sides of that scramble to reach the Moon, including stories which could never be told until now.” “Mission Moon 3-D: A New Perspective on the Space Race,” which publishes this fall from MIT Press.

We’re most familiar with this work that May penned on planetary science.

Brian May, the guitarist for legendary 70’s rock band Queen — and an astrophysicist — has co-authored a new, “visually stunning” 3-D book on the moon race. | NASA

MAKING MOVES: Makenzie Lystrup has been promoted to vice president and general manager of the civil space strategic business unit at Ball Aerospace, the company announced this week. Lystrup, who is currently a senior director, previously worked as the director for space science and strategic operations in Ball’s Washington office. She was also a congressional science and technology policy fellow. She will replace Jim Oschmann, who is retiring next month.

TOP DOC: The global space race by the numbers. The United States accounted for more than half of governmental space spending worldwide in 2017, according to the Space Foundation’s annual report released this week. Beyond just government spending, the global space economy totaled more than $380 billion last year. The report also found 65 percent of spacecraft in orbit are American and the number of launch attempts worldwide increased 7 percent last year.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "NASA's charter is to give Americans the means to get into the wild, black yonder, beyond even the grasp of the federal government that funded it. -- Homer Hickam, former NASA engineer author of "Rocket Boys."

WEEKEND READS

— Space Launch System development advances.

— Astronauts, your ride is here.

— Watch the latest and ninth successful test of Blue origin’s New Shepard rocket.

— Blue Origin insists it hasn’t priced space flight tickets yet.

— Why smaller satellites are fueling the space boom.

— NASA promotes commercial use of satellite data.

— Maxar to acquire Canadian robotics firm.

— Virgin signs launch agreement with U.K.

— Britain announces plan for Scotland launch and selects Lockheed to help build it.

— Chinese official derides NASA’s lunar gateway plan.

— China’s super-sized space plans may involve help from Russia.

— The United States needs to get tough with Russia on space weapons.

— It’s never too early to plan the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

— Why nobody has visited the moon in 45 years.

— Remembering the dual launches of Apollo-Suyoz.

— President Richard Nixon’s speech if the Apollo 11 moon landing has been a disaster.

— New research shows Mars’ atmosphere behaves as single, interconnected system.

— How one 17-year-old is preparing for her journey to Mars.

— Twelve new moons discovered around Jupiter.

— Space, still the final frontier.

— Liquor me up, Scotty. Meet the new Star Trek-themed vodka.

EVENT HORIZON

Today: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Director Andrei Iancu, astronaut David Wolf and National Air and Space Museum Director Ellen Stofan discuss innovations in aerospace technology.

The museum also hosts a screening of “Apollo 13” later this evening.

Saturday: The Buzz Aldrin ShareSpace Foundation and the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation hold a gala at the Kennedy Space Center to celebrate the 49th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Monday: In celebration of NASA’s 60th birthday, Administrator Jim Bridenstine speaks alongside former NASA Administrators Sean O’Keefe (2001-2005) and Charlie Bolden (2009-2017) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies event. Catch the livestream here.

Monday-Thursday: The International Space Station Research and Development Conference takes place in San Francisco, organized by the American Astronautical Society.

Wednesday: Northrop Grumman holds its first earnings call since its acquisition of Orbital ATK and the independent review of the James Webb Space Telescope were finalized.

The full House Science Committee holds a hearing, “James Webb Space Telescope: Program Breach and its Implications.” NASA’s Bridenstine and Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush testify.

The Senate Space, Science and Competitiveness Subcommittee holds a hearing on human exploration of Mars.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center holds its Space Weather Enterprise Forum. This year’s theme: advancing national space weather research and forecast capabilities.

The Washington Post hosts a conversation with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson titled “Securing Tomorrow.”

Thursday: The Federalist Society holds a luncheon event at the National Press Club focused on "Modernizing American Space Policy," exploring the Trump administration’s commercial space policy efforts and the Federal Communication Commission’s regulatory approach to space.

Follow us on Twitter Bryan Bender @bryandbender



Dave Brown @dave_brown24



Jacqueline Feldscher @jacqklimas

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