| | | | | |  | | By Jacqueline Feldscher | | | | — Will Russia's relationship with the U.S. in space survive the latest round of sanctions? — The size of the space workforce hit a nine-year high in 2020, according to analysis by the Space Foundation. — NASA's Ingenuity helicopter must attempt its first flight before May 4, when its 31-day mission runs out. 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 bbender@politico.com with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @bryandbender. And don't forget to check out POLITICO's astropolitics page for articles, Q&As, and more. HATCH CLOSING: Jacqueline here. This will be the last newsletter with me at the helm as I prepare to blast off to a new role at Defense One later this month. I can't thank the space community enough for welcoming me with open arms over the last three years, teaching me so much and sharing everything that makes your jobs so cool. But fear not! The newsletter will continue in the capable hands of Bryan Bender. | | | WILL SANCTIONS REACH SPACE?: Americans and Russians were living and working together 254 miles above the White House when President Joe Biden announced new sanctions on Thursday to punish Moscow for its attempt to interfere in the American presidential election and cyberattacks. (There are currently five American, four Russians and one Japanese astronaut aboard the International Space Station.) Russia is expected to respond in some way to the sanctions. But will it impact the relationship between the two nations' civil space programs? It's possible, said Jeffrey Edmonds, a former director for Russia on the National Security Council, especially if ties between the two countries in space weaken. For example, the U.S. no longer relies on Russia for rides to the space station, and there are no plans for Russia and the U.S. to work together when the International Space Station is retired this decade. "It is not beyond the imagination that at some point Russia could sever all space cooperation with the United States as a show of its discontent with U.S. policy," Edmonds said. "I see it as low probability at this point but definitely something worth keeping an eye on. If Russia wants to respond strongly to U.S. actions, it may choose to do so in areas where it sees itself in more peer-to-peer terms, space being one of those." There's precedent, however, for the close partnership in space operating independently of terrestrial pressures. When Astronaut Terry Virts was on the International Space Station in 2015, a dangerous ammonia leak on the U.S. side of the orbiting lab drove all the astronauts to seek shelter in the Russian segment. On Earth, former President Barack Obama had imposed sanctions on Russia just a month before in the midst of Moscow's invasion of Crimea. But the tension did not impact cooperation on the station. "The deputy prime minister called us up. He had also tweeted that America can take a trampoline to the ISS because of the sanctions," Virts previously told us. "But he said, 'You can stay as long as you want. We're going to fix this together.'" | | | SPACE INDUSTRY ON THE RISE: Five sectors of the space industry added nearly 5,000 jobs in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, pushing private space employment to a nine-year high of 147,953, according to the quarterly Space Report released this week by the Space Foundation. It does not say what five sectors it evaluated, but said the areas "most closely aligned with the space industry" represent a 3.2 percent increase from 2019. Investment also grew in 2020 with mergers, buyouts and equity financings totaling more than $18 billion, the report found. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, such activities generated about $15 billion. | | | INGENUITY UPDATE: The clock is ticking for NASA's Ingenuity helicopter to make its first flight on Mars. The four-pound helicopter, which was expected to fly last weekend but has been delayed twice waiting for software updates, dropped down from the belly of the Perseverance rover on April 3. From the time it's deployed to the surface, it has just 31 Earth days to finish its mission. That means it has to fly by May 4, just 18 days away. NASA has not yet announced a new timeline for the first flight attempt. Democrats and Republicans alike are eagerly awaiting the flight. In a Washington that's frequently split along party lines, excitement about Ingenuity has united space lovers on Capitol Hill regardless of policy divides. And NASA's boosters hope that will translate into bigger budgets when for other expensive firsts, including returning Martian soil samples to Earth and sending astronauts to Mars. "I know there are skeptics out there who think we can do a lot more uncrewed [missions], but the prospect of taking human beings back to the moon and on to Mars excites people across politics and religion and age," Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), the chair of the House space and aeronautics subcommittee, told us. "Struggles in Washington and the government writ large are not fun. It's difficult to get unity. But with NASA, especially with going to other planets, there's a great sense of bipartisanship." ICYMI: Ingenuity could be a model for aerial scouts on future Mars missions, but helicopters on Mars won't ever carry people, CNET reports. | | | Raha Hakimdavar, who was previously a hydrologist and acting national program lead for the U.S. Forest Service's remote sensing, monitoring and geospatial analysis research activities, is now the director of space sciences at Ball Aerospace. Tom McIntyre , who was most recently deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office's Office of Space Launch, is now director of government relations at Ball Aerospace. QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congratulations to Todd Harmer, senior vice president at American Defense International, for being the first to correctly answer that Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was 5'2". This week's question: Happy early Earth Day! During which space mission did astronauts take the first picture of the entire planet from space, dubbed the Blue Marble? The first person to email bbender@politico.com gets bragging rights and a shoutout in the next newsletter! | | | — Will the next space station be inflatable?: Freethink — Artemis will send first person of color to the moon under Biden administration's plan: CNN — Cleaning up junk in orbit should be a top global priority: Scientific American — Why haven't NASA's landers detected any big Marsquakes in two years?: Business Insider — Startup Phantom Space wants to be the Henry Ford of rockets: Bloomberg — Blue Origin one step closer to flying humans with its latest test flight: Washington Post — Sierra Nevada Corporation is spinning off its space business: CNBC — China wants to weaponize space, according to intel threat report: Defense News — 'Space Hero' reality TV show signs agreement with NASA: Space.com — New 'Fast and Furious 9' trailer shows rocket-car hybrids reach edge of space: Autoblog | | | TODAY: Three people aboard the International Space Station are expected to return to Earth. MONDAY: The Aerospace Corporation launches its four-day Space Power Workshop. MONDAY: The four-day virtual Space Resources Week conference begins. TUESDAY: The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing with Gen. James Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command. TUESDAY: The Space Force Association hosts a virtual event with Col. Wallace Turnbull, director of cross-mission ground and communication enterprise at the Space Force. Also hears testimony from.Dickinson . THURSDAY: The SpaceX Crew Dragon is expected to launch astronauts from the U.S., Japan and Europe to the ISS at 6:11 a.m. THURSDAY: The Space Foundation hosts a virtual conversation with Brig. Gen. Heather Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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