| | | | | |  | | By Jacqueline Feldscher | Presented by |  | | | With Bryan Bender | | | — A look back at President Donald Trump's biggest space accomplishments — and what's here to stay — OPINION: President-elect Joe Biden's space team must push new international rules for behavior in space. — The first commercial biofuel-powered rocket lifts off this morning from Maine. WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond. Email us at jklimas@politico.com or bbender@politico.com with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @jacqklimas and @bryandbender. And don't forget to check out POLITICO's astropolitics page for articles, Q&As, opinion and more. | | | | A message from Northrop Grumman: What if you could get a second chance in space? Revitalize a satellite when it's low on fuel? Or move a spacecraft to another location? In our mission to Define Possible in space, we've built a spacecraft that can do just that: MEV. | | | | | | TRUMP'S LEGACY: Trump's space achievements will perhaps be the most unblemished part of his legacy. Even many who don't agree with his administration's broader politics can't dispute that the top-level focus he put on space has advanced the nation's goals. "Space will be one of the most important things we've ever done," Trump said in May when he attended the first crewed launch from American soil in more than a decade. "I put it up there with 280 federal judges, two supreme court judges." What will be the lasting impacts? We polled James Vedda, a senior policy analyst at the Aerospace Corporation's Center for Space Policy and Strategy; Brian Weeden, the director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation; and John Logsdon, founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University on which of Trump's space initiatives are likely to outlast his time in office. — Artemis: The mission to the moon named after Apollo's twin sister is here to stay. The Obama administration directed NASA to land astronauts on an asteroid but Trump reversed course and seems to have cemented a long-term presence on the lunar surface as the key goal. The mission has strong bipartisan support in Congress and a lot of buy-in from international partners.. The timeline Trump set to launch the mission in 2024, however, is deemed unrealistic and is likely to be scrapped. — Space Force: The first new military branch in more than seven decades is also not going anywhere, nor is the U.S. Space Command, which Trump revived in 2019. Congress codified the Space Force in law with bipartisan support and it would require an enormous amount of political capital to undo it. "I think those are going to be enduring," Vedda said of the new military space organizations. "They're things that would probably have come along anyways, but he probably hurried it up a little bit." — National Space Council: All three policy wonks commended the president for re-establishing the White House panel behind a series of Trump directives ranging from cutting commercial regulations to developing nuclear propulsion for space exploration. They also urged future administrations to follow its lead by facilitating different parts of the government to work together. The Biden team has not yet announced its plans for the National Space Council, but Vedda predicted it "has a good chance of sticking around." — Deregulation: The effort to cut regulations didn't start with this administration, but Trump's second presidential space directive "really pushed those through," Weeden said. Logsdon added that the "integration of the private sector space activity into the broader picture" was a big win for the Trump White House. The Trump administration took a giant leap backwards in one area. When Trump took office in 2016, the Air Force and FAA were ready to begin a pilot program to transfer the nation's space traffic management mission to the Transportation Department after years of groundwork laid by the Obama administration, Vedda said. But Trump instead tapped the Commerce Department to track objects in orbit and provide notice if a collision was imminent. As the Trump administration prepares to leave, the fiscal 2021 omnibus bill provided funding for the Commerce Department to begin working on a similar pilot program that could have been launched in 2017. "That change has set back civilian oversight of space surveillance by at least four years," Vedda said. "That was one significant area where things went backwards." | | | |   | | | | | | GALVANIZING SPACE DIPLOMACY: Biden is all about restoring norms of behavior and one area he needs to work on is space, where the potential for conflict has grown due to military advances and the explosion in commercial activity, two leading government space authorities argue in a new POLITICO op-ed. The incoming administration "has an opportunity — building on previous efforts and working closely with allies and partners — to shape an international consensus on norms than could enhance safety and security in outer space, argue Stephen Flanagan, former senior director for defense policy and strategy at the National Security Council who is now a senior political scientist at the government-funded RAND Corporation, and Bruce McClintock, a retired Air Force brigadier general who leads the RAND Space Enterprise Initiative. They cite in particular halting tests of anti-satellite weapons. "One norm that has engendered broad support is that states eschew destructive ASAT tests and other activities that would add to debris in space," they write. Other norms, or informal "rules of the road" that could evolve into international political agreements or even legally-binding measures, are "further guidelines on mitigation of space debris including disposing of satellites that have ended their service life; greater transparency regarding space operations; and (norms for on-orbit servicing of satellites, which could be used not only to repair but also to damage or destroy another state's satellite." BAMA WINS — FOR NOW: Colorado leaders cried foul over the Air Force's decision to move Space Command's headquarters Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Ala., and members of the state's congressional delegation asked Biden to overturn the decision. Claims the move was politically driven are fueled by reports that Trump demanded the headquarters be relocated to the heavily Republican state to win the support of Alabama's senators during a new impeachment trial. Colorado Springs will keep the command through 2026 so the Pentagon can conduct environmental assessments and prepare a new site. So there's ample time to rehash the selection process, which was already scrapped and restarted once because of a push for more transparency in the evaluation criteria. Maybe the third time's the charm? Alabama is also likely to have some regional help defending the decision. Tennessee's senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, issued a statement on Thursday extolling the benefits of the move to the wider Tennessee Valley. "Space Command's future headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama, will bring hundreds of new jobs to Tennesseans and further our state's rich history of contributing to our national defense," Hagerty said. | | | STILL NO HOUSE SPACE CHAIR: A big open question about who will shape space policy in Congress is who will lead the House Science Committee's space panel, which was chaired by former Rep. Kendra Horn (D-Okla.), who lost her reelection bid. Reps. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.) and Don Beyer (D-Va.) both chair other committees and are prevented by the rules from wielding two gavels. Ami Bera (D-Calif.), meanwhile, has said he does not plan to seek the position. The first step to naming a chair is filing the committee. Nearly two weeks into the 117th Congress, the space subcommittee only has two members, committee spokesperson Rebekah Eskandani told us, adding she is "unsure" when the rest will be selected. | | | | A message from Northrop Grumman: Space missions have always lived on a fixed timeline. Satellites carry a limited supply of fuel, so it's always been accepted that they'll eventually have to be retired. But now that Northrop Grumman has created the revolutionary Mission Extension Vehicle, we've defined a new era of possible for your satellites. MEV provides propulsion, so expensive satellites no longer have to be decommissioned while they're still useful. MEV-2 | | | | | | THE ECO-FRIENDLY 'UBER TO SPACE': The first commercial space launch powered by biofuel is expected to lift off today from the northern tip of Maine. The rocket, from space startup bluShift, has been under development since the company was founded in 2014, CEO Sascha Deri said. While the exact makeup of the solid fuel is proprietary, Deri tells us it's a "blend of substances that can be had from any farm across America." It's also non-toxic. "My two young daughters could eat the fuel and no harm would come to them with the exception of constipation maybe," as he put it. The suborbital test flight will launch from a portable trailer about one mile up, Desi said. Three payloads are onboard: a cubesat prototype built by students at Falmouth High School, a metal alloy designed to lessen vibrations developed by Kellogg's Research Labs, and a cubesat from software company Rocket Insights packed with Dutch wafer cookies to pay homage to its Amsterdam-based parent company. If all goes to plan, it will then parachute back down to Earth. | 
bluShift CEO Sascha Deri, middle, checks out the bio-fuel powered rocket ahead of Friday's launch in Maine. | Courtesy of bluShift | Protecting the environment is a priority for Deri, who said he couldn't "in good conscience" develop a rocket that pollutes. "If this rocket ever has to ditch in the ocean, we won't be poisoning wildlife and vegetation." The company is working on launches to low-Earth orbit, Desi added. "In the world of space launch, there are freight trains to space like SpaceX. There are a number of buses to space like Rocket Lab or Virgin Orbit. We are the Uber to space," he said of the company's business plan, which calls for missions with no more than three payloads to their preferred locations. The company also hopes the technology is a hit with another person who cares about protecting the environment: Biden. "When we started bluShift, it was two administrations ago and we were quite proud of the fact that we had very green fuel. … As soon as the Trump administration took power, we shifted how we promoted our technology and the green fuel mention was tucked way down below," he said. "I do think there's some opportunities in the future Biden administration. I hope they do embrace green fuel." QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Byron Hood, a senior vice president at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, for being first to correctly answer that there were six women in the first class to include female astronauts. This week's question: The test stand that will be used for the Space Launch System rocket test this weekend was also used to test which Apollo-era rocket engine? The first person to email jklimas@politico.com gets bragging rights and a shoutout in the next newsletter! | | | — What does a Biden administration mean for the Florida space coast: Tampa Bay Times — This is the year the James Webb Space Telescope should finally launch: Forbes — Why space stocks are soaring: The Motley Fool — Blue Origin hoping to fly its first passenger into space in April: NBC News — Can Biden revamp the Space Force's public relations problems? Defense News — Florida's 45th Space Wing plans more than 50 launches in 2021: Space News — National security space programs at risk of losing domestic supply chain: Space News — Japan and NASA formalize their partnership on Artemis: NASA | | | TODAY: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the Embassy of Japan will hold a virtual event on cooperation between the U.S. and Japan on the Artemis program. SATURDAY: The Space Launch System rocket engines will undergo a hot fire test that will be livestreamed by NASA. MONDAY: The virtual AIxSPACE event, which will focus on the intersection between artificial intelligence and space, begins. TUESDAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee considers the nomination of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin to be defense secretary. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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