The Space Advocate Newsletter, January 2021

Op-Ed: “Pro-space” lawmakers on wrong side of history after Capitol riot (spacenews.com) "The uncomfortable truth now facing the space community, in the days after the horrific events at the Capitol Jan. 6, is that some of the most prominent Republican supporters of space in Congress are on the wrong side of history. In the days leading up to the formal, and usually only ceremonial, certification of the Electoral College results, members like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Reps. Brian Babin (R-Texas) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) announced their intent to challenge several states’ electors, citing baseless claims of voter fraud...Those actions helped fuel a protest, which became a riot. Afterward, those members disavowed the violence, but were hardly repentant."

Its future uncertain, the National Space Council releases final report for the Trump-era (spacepolicyonline.com) "Scott Pace resigned as Executive Secretary of the Space Council on December 31. The White House released a final report of the Space Council’s activities over the past four years. It is a well written and useful summary of what the Space Council wanted to achieve and what they accomplished under the leadership of Vice President Mike Pence."

You can read the full report here. After the report was released, the President signed an additional space policy directive regarding global navigation and positioning systems.

Congress came through for NASA's science missions, but not Artemis (planetary.org) NASA's final fiscal year 2021 budget was signed into law in the waning days of 2020. The budget is responsive to a number of The Planetary Society’s advocacy goals for the year: it restored funding for the Mars Curiosity and Odyssey missions; it continued development of the Roman Space Telescope (neé WFIRST); and it called for a 2025 launch of the NEO Surveyor mission, though it didn’t provide the necessary funding to ensure that timeline.

After a decade, NASA’s big rocket fails its first real test (arstechnica.com) "For a few moments, it seemed like the Space Launch System saga might have a happy ending. Beneath brilliant blue skies late on Saturday afternoon, NASA’s huge rocket roared to life for the very first time...About 50 seconds into what was supposed to be an 8-minute test firing, the flight control center called out, “We did get an MCF on Engine 4.” This means there was a “major component failure” with the fourth engine on the vehicle. After a total of about 67 seconds, the hot fire test ended."

NASA subsequently identified over-cautious test constraints as one of the reasons for the premature shutdown. A second test appears likely, and could occur within the next month.

Photo: The 4 engines of NASA's Space Launch System's core stage roar to life during their first "hot fire" test at Stennis Space Center. Credit: NASA.

Jim Bridenstine departs NASA, hopes Artemis continues (spacenews.com) "Bridenstine said he hasn’t made any plans for his future after NASA, other than returning to Oklahoma and spending time with his family there. He’ll be closely following the agency, planning to watch next month’s landing of the Mars 2020 rover and the Artemis 1 launch. He also pledged to support whomever succeeds him as the leader of NASA. “Whoever the next NASA administrator is, I’m going to be all-in,” he said in the interview. “However I can help them, I want to help them.”