Here is our list of space policy events for the week of November 19-24, 2017 and any insight we can offer about them. The House and Senate are in recess this week (except for pro forma sessions).

During the Week

Thursday is Thanksgiving in the United States, a major holiday where people spend most of the week scurrying hither and yon to be with their families. Consequently, we know of only one space policy-related meeting in the United States scheduled this week, but there are two really interesting ones elsewhere.

One is at International Space University (ISU) in Strasbourg, France and begins today (Sunday): the International Moon Village Workshop. Plenary sessions for the three-day conference will be livestreamed. All times on the agenda are in Central European Time (subtract 6 for Eastern Standard Time).

ESA Director General Jan Woerner kicks off the event TODAY (Sunday) with a speech at 1900 CET/1:00 pm EST that will be livestreamed. It’s difficult to tell from the agenda which other sessions will be livestreamed, but hopefully the “Moon Village Implementation, Programmes and Policy: Challenges and Opportunities” panel tomorrow (Monday) will be one of them. It features NASA’s Tom Cremins, JAXA’s Shizuo Yamamoto, Luxembourg’s Mathias Link, Airbus’ Silvio Sandrone, Association of Space Explorers President Michel Tognini, TeamIndus’ Adithya Kothandhapai, International Space University’s Gongling Sun (China), and RUDN University’s Sergey Kupreev (Russia). Each of them also have their own speaking slots earlier in the day.

Another meeting starting today is of the National Academies committee on extraterrestrial sample analysis facilities. The agenda does not show any sessions today, but all the sessions tomorrow (Monday) and on Tuesday morning are open and available by WebEx for those who want to listen in. The meeting is at the Beckman Center in Irvine, CA, so bear in mind that times on the agenda are shown in Pacific Standard Time (add 3 for EST).

The third meeting is the 17th annual Canadian Space Summit in Ottawa from Tuesday-Wednesday. It is sponsored by the Canadian Space Society. Among the listed speakers are Sylvain Laporte, President of the Canadian Space Agency; Mary Lucy Stojak, Chair of the Space Advisory Board; Michelle Mendes, Executive Director and President of the Canadian Space Commerce Association; Marc Boucher, Founder, SpaceQ and of SpaceRef Canada Interactive, Inc.; and representatives of traditional and entrepreneurial companies as well as universities. The event’s website does not indicate if any of the proceedings will be livestreamed.

Those and other events we know about as of Sunday morning are listed below. Check back throughout the week for others we learn about later and add to our calendar (perhaps SpaceX’s Zuma launch?).

And to all of our readers here in the States —

Sunday-Tuesday, November 19-21

International Moon Village Workshop, International Space University, Strasbourg, France (portions livestreamed)

National Academies Committee on Extraterrestrial Sample Return Analysis Facilities, Beckman Center, Irvine, CA (open sessions on November 20 and 21 available by WebEx)

Tuesday-Wednesday, November 21-22

17th Canadian Space Summit, Ottawa University, Ottawa, Canada

Thursday, November 23