Voyager Space Holdings launches its D.C. mission Presented by Northrop Grumman

With help from Bryan Bender

Quick Fix

— Eric Stallmer lays out his plan for boosting Voyager Space Holding’s profile in Washington.


— NASA turns its attention to Venus amid signs of life on the inhospitable planet.

— NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will testify to Congress next week on the budget.

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Space Spotlight

STALLMER GETS NEW D.C. ROLE : A new space firm will be represented in Washington by a familiar face. Eric Stallmer, a member of the National Space Council’s User Advisory Group who has led the Commercial Spaceflight Federation for the last six years, is set to be the executive vice president of government affairs and public policy at Voyager Space Holdings.

Stallmer will begin building a Washington office for Voyager once he starts in the newly created role on Nov. 1 and said he expects to hire a team to both educate officials about Voyager and to advocate on behalf of its subsidiaries: Altius Space Machines, an on-orbit satellite repair and refueling company, and Pioneer Astronautics, a research and development company led by Mars Society founder Robert Zubrin.

“It will be identifying the needs of the portfolio companies. Right now there are two, and I think in the near future there will be another,” Stallmer told us. “If we have five or six different companies, they’ll have their own unique individual interests. That’s not that different from [the Commercial Spaceflight Federation] where we had 89 different interests.”

At the helm of CSF, Stallmer has been a leading advocate for passage of the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015. He has also testified before Congress on the benefits of extending NASA’s role in the International Space Station by four years and supported the president’s second space policy directive calling for regulatory and launch licensing reforms. He also was a vocal proponent for greater partnership between NASA and the commercial industry through programs to send cargo and crew into space on private vehicles.

The search has already begun for his successor, who will lead the trade association at a pivotal time for the commercial space industry, as new technologies are becoming a reality, requiring government regulations, and space agencies are eager to work more with the private sector. The job opening for president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation is posted and the organization has already received some applications, Stallmer said.

What does it mean for Stallmer’s place on the User Advisory Group? He has been an important member of the White House’s body, including co-chairing the economic development and industrial base subcommittee with Mary Lynne Dittmar, who announced she is leaving her post as president at CEO of the Coalition for Deep Space Exploration by the end of the year. But the position on the panel is intended to provide the perspective of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, so Stallmer said he expects it will transfer to his successor.

From the archives: Our Q&A last fall with Voyager’s founder Dylan Taylor.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine is almost certain to face questions about Venus and NASA’s other planetary science goals at a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, according to a congressional staffer. | Getty Images

FIRST IN POLITICO SPACE: Bridenstine to talk budget on the Hill: The NASA administrator is almost certain to face questions about Venus and NASA’s other planetary science goals at a Wednesday hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, according to a congressional staffer. He’s also likely to address questions about the agency’s ambitious goal to put humans on the moon by 2024 at the hearing on the agency’s fiscal 2021 budget proposal, which will be officially announced by the committee today.

‘IT’S TIME TO PRIORITIZE VENUS’: It may be named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty but Venus, our closest planetary neighbor, is decidedly unbecoming. It’s actually hotter than Mercury, even though it’s the second planet from the sun.

But the discovery by astronomers of the gas phosphine in its clouds has trained new attention on the brightest object in our sky behind the sun and the moon, now that there is the real prospect it supports microbial life. Bridenstine called it "the most significant development yet in building the case for life off Earth” and said “it’s time to prioritize Venus.”

It comes as NASA is assessing two proposals for science missions as part of its Discovery Program that call for measuring Venus’ atmosphere and mapping its geological history.

The new knowledge could also impact NASA’s broader priorities for the coming decades in the form of the next Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, which will be laying out research goals for the 2023-2032 timeframe.

The study, which is required by law and compiled by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, will “assess key scientific questions in planetary science and astrobiology, identify priority medium- and large-class missions and other initiatives, and present a comprehensive research strategy.” The National Academies announced the study’s steering committee earlier this week.

“I think this study really does reveal that we need to work really hard to collect a lot more data to understand this really complicated planetary atmosphere on Venus,” Jim Bell, a professor of planetary science at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration, told us.

He said he is not convinced that the chemistry discovered in the planet’s atmosphere is biologically derived but “there’s enormous mysteries about what is happening in the Venus atmosphere, the planet as a whole.”

“There will be more proposals coming for Venus,” he added, “to study the surface and the atmosphere.”

Perhaps Carl Sagan was right: “Observation: there was absolutely nothing to see on Venus,” he wrote in his classic Cosmos. “Conclusion: it must be covered with life.”

ICYMI: Russian space chief says Venus “is a Russian planet,” CBS News

SPACE FOUNDATION INKS PARTNERSHIP WITH UAE: The day after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel signed a historic peace accord at the White House, the Space Foundation announced its own memorandum of understanding with the UAE.

The timing is just a coincidence, said Shelli Brunswick, the Space Foundation’s chief operating officer. “We were working with multiple agencies in the UAE for several months,” she explained, adding that the agreement will allow the nonprofit to help the Gulf nation develop its education system and workforce for an expanding space economy.

The peace accord will also make future space collaboration in the region easier. “We have some programs partnering with Israel,” she said. “Now we have an opportunity to partner on activities with the UAE, Israel and the U.S.”

Top Doc

SPACE WEATHER BILL HEADS TO PRESIDENT: The House this week passed the Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow, or PROSWIFT, Act, sending the bill to the president’s desk for signature after it passed the Senate in July.

The bill seeks to upgrade the nation’s prediction tools for space weather, which can interfere with Earth-bound systems such as GPS and the electric grid.

The bill also will improve partnerships between the government and commercial industry, in part by establishing a pilot program in which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration can purchase space weather data from private companies.

Also: The sun just entered a new 11-year solar cycle, Science Alert

A message from Northrop Grumman: To some, space can seem almost impossibly far away but at Northrop Grumman we see it as closer than ever. Today, our proven rocket propulsion is delivering reliable, affordable access to orbit, while advances in satellite technology allow us to support ever more powerful and capable communications and early warning systems. And tomorrow? The possibilities are limitless; from servicing satellites in orbit to sending humans back to the Moon and beyond. Because at Northrop Grumman, bringing space down to earth is all part of a day’s work. Find out more about how we’re Defining Possible in space. Learn more

Making Moves

Dan Goldin, a former NASA administrator, is now an adviser to Astranis, a geostationary satellite startup.

Retired Adm. Cecil D. Haney, the former head of U.S. Strategic Command, Michael McCord, the Pentagon’s former comptroller, and Retired Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart, the former deputy commander of U.S. Cyber Command, have been named to the Aerospace Corporation’s board of trustees.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Janice Sessing, an analyst at NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service, who was the first to correctly answer that former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin renamed the Lewis Research Center in Ohio as the John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field in 1999.

This week’s question: The Soviet Union was the first nation to autonomously collect a sample from the moon and return it to Earth 50 years ago this month. What was the name of the spacecraft?

The first person to email [email protected] gets bragging rights and a shoutout in the next newsletter!

What We're Reading

— Trump’s rhetoric of “manifest destiny” in space is at odds with NASA’s efforts to increase diversity: The Atlantic

— What a Biden victory could mean for NASA: Quartz

— How to grow crops on Mars: Science Focus

— Study suggests it will be difficult to find evidence of life in Martian soil: Phys.org

— NASA and the Energy Department are working together on nuclear power projects: Space News

— China set to launch its first space mining robot in November: IEEE Spectrum

— General argues the Space Force’s budget should match its “huge” responsibilities: Air Force Magazine

— NASA’s “mysterious” process for deciding which astronauts fly which missions: Washington Post

— SpaceX delays Starlink satellite launch to Friday: Space.com

— NASA astronauts will film at Estee Lauder skincare ad on the International Space Station: CNN

— A U.S. production company is planning a reality TV competition where the winner goes to space: The Verge

Event Horizon

TODAY: The House Science Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics holds a hearing on cybersecurity at NASA and telework challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.

TODAY: MITRE hosts a virtual panel on great power competition in space.

MONDAY: The Defense Innovation Unit holds a virtual discussion about innovation with Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John Hyten.

TUESDAY: Chief of Space Operations Gen. John Raymond and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine will talk about collaboration between the two organizations at an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

WEDNESDAY: Bridenstine testifies before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies on NASA’s Fiscal 2021 budget.

WEDNESDAY: The two- day SmallSat and Space Access Summit begins in Alexandria, Va.

WEDNESDAY: Defense One hosts a virtual discussion about space and an all-domain future.

THURSDAY: The Aerospace Corporation holds its weekly Space Policy Show on satellite spectrum regulation.

FRIDAY: NASA astronaut Kate Rubins conducts interviews from Russia ahead of her launch to the International Space Station.