In Today’s Deep Space Extra… Congressional support emerges for extending NASA’s leadership of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2030, five years longer than proposed by White House space policy, which backs a transition of low Earth orbit human space activities to the U.S. private sector. President Trump offers support for a federal budget continuing resolution effective through December 7. Experts gather to discuss a strategy to search for evidence of technically skilled extraterrestrial life.

Human Space Exploration

Babin introduces leading human spaceflight act

Spacepolicyonline.com (9/26): U.S. Rep Brian Babin, who chairs the U.S. House Space Subcommittee while representing a Congressional district in Texas that includes NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC), has introduced legislation that would authorize NASA to lead International Space Station (ISS) operations until 2030 or until a sustainable low cost alternative emerges. Currently, a space policy directive from the White House calls on NASA to turn human spaceflight activities in low Earth orbit over to the private sector by 2025. The House Science, Space and Technology Committee hosted a hearing Wednesday on NASA’s future in which introduction of the legislation was unveiled. The legislation also calls on NASA to designate JSC for leadership roles in the development of human deep space exploration capabilities.

Trump says he’ll avert government shutdown

Politico (9/26): President Trump declared Wednesday that he will sign a continuing budget resolution to prevent a U.S. government shutdown at midnight Sunday, the end of the 2018 fiscal year. Congress has yet to complete work on a 2019 budget. The continuing resolution will keep government agencies, among them NASA and NOAA, functioning through December 7.

 

Space Science

NASA wants to begin hunting for intelligent aliens who, like us, create technology

Orlando Sentinel (9/26): In response to Congressional curiosity, NASA is mulling how it might ramp up its search for biological activity beyond Earth by also seeking evidence of technically skilled intelligent life elsewhere. As an incentive, a proposed budget measure would provide NASA with $10 million to partner with philanthropic groups and others in the private sector to extend such a search. The prospect is the topic of a three day workshop underway in Houston at the Lunar and Planetary Institute.

Space junk is a huge problem, but this high-tech satellite net just 

NBC News (9/26): A recent Earth orbiting satellite technology demonstration, RemoveDebris, may offer a means of countering a growing threat to the low Earth orbit environment, the accumulation of manmade rocket and satellite debris. England’s Surrey Space Center leads a consortium of companies and universities behind the experiment in which a small satellite ejected a net to snag simulated debris for eventual disposal by destructively re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere.

 

Other News

A Japanese company has announced a long-term plan to develop the Moon

Ars Technica (9/26): Japan’s ispace, a onetime Google Lunar XPrize contestant, envisions a city on the Moon with a population of 10,000 by 2040. Wednesday, the company announced plans to launch an orbiter and robotic lander in the 2020s, both flying as secondary payloads on SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets. Over time, the company plans to mine the lunar poles for ice and turn the resource into rocket propellants for sale to others.

Space2030: Space as a driver for peace – World leaders proclaim innovative space diplomacy as the new frontier for peace on Earth

Space.com (9/26): The U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs and others gathered on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City this week to discuss space can be a driver for peace on Earth.

Midland City Council approves spaceport extension

Midland Reporter-Telegram of Texas (9/26): Midland’s City Council this week by a healthy margin voted to extend the city’s spaceport license, a $100,000 investment. The approval came despite disappointments with one time anchor tenants XCOR Aerospace and Orbital Outfitters.

Spaceport in New Mexico seeks additional state subsidies

Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle (9/25): No stranger to setbacks as a home to delayed Virgin Galactic suborbital space operations, the New Mexico’s Spaceport America is seeking a 72 percent, or $700,000, funding increase from the state’s general fund, for the coming fiscal year. Virgin Galactic is the lead tenant at the spaceport and has tripled its lease payments this year as well, according to the report.