The Week of February 12, 2024

What’s Ahead

ISS seen from Dragon 2021.jpg — The International Space Station pictured from a SpaceX module that brought astronauts to the station in 2021.

(SpaceX / NASA, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED)

Hearing to Focus on ISS and Potential Private Successors

The House Science Committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the present and future of U.S. activities in low-Earth orbit, a topic of increasing focus given that the International Space Station will be decommissioned sometime after 2030. Among the witnesses are the head of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, Kenneth Bowersox, as well as representatives from the companies Axiom Space and Voyager Space, which are working to build space stations that would be commercially operated. Axiom Space aims to launch the first module of its station in 2026, and Voyager Space aims to launch its station in 2028 or later. In parallel, NASA is currently soliciting proposals for a deorbit vehicle that will cause the ISS to reenter Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up. Also testifying at the hearing is space biologist Robert Ferl, who co-chaired the latest National Academies decadal survey for research conducted on space-borne platforms such as the ISS. That survey concluded the NASA division that funds such research is “severely underfunded” and made the case for Congress increasing its budget tenfold before the end of the decade.

New Research Security Requirements up for Review

Recent and forthcoming expansions of research security policies will be explained by science agency officials at a Thursday hearing organized by the House Science Committee. Many of the changes stem from provisions in the CHIPS and Science, including a requirement that participants in “malign” foreign talent recruitment programs be barred from serving as key personnel on grant projects. For instance, the National Science Foundation updated its policy manual in January to implement the provision, effective May 20. NSF also just released new research security training modules that represent one option for meeting a forthcoming requirement that certain grant personnel receive such training. In parallel, science agencies are harmonizing their requirements for what grant applicants are required to disclose using common forms and definitions that an interagency panel finalized last year. Testifying at this week’s hearing are White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Arati Prabhakar, NSF research security lead Rebecca Keiser, National Institutes of Health extramural research head Mike Lauer, and the Department of Energy’s top science official, Geri Richmond.

Annual AAAS Meeting Looks Toward ‘Science Without Walls’

The American Association for the Advancement of Science will hold its annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, from Thursday to Saturday. The theme of this year’s meeting is “toward science without walls,” focusing on identifying and removing social and institutional barriers that impede science and technology. Among the policy-focused sessions, the director of the State Department’s Office of Science and Technology Cooperation, Jason Donovan, will moderate a panel that aims to “clarify recent policy positions on research security and openness,” featuring representatives from the National Science Foundation, the European Union, and New Zealand. Donovan will also moderate a panel featuring three recent participants in the U.S. Embassy Science Fellows program. Another session will examine the state of the “science of science policy” over the roughly 20 years since former White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director John Marburger called for a focused effort to apply scientific principles to the design, execution, and evaluation of science policy.

Second US Commercial Lander Set for Launch

Nova-C, a lunar lander built by Intuitive Machines, is scheduled for launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket early Wednesday morning. The launch is the second in NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative in as many months. The first CLPS launch in January served as a successful demonstration of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, but the lunar lander built by Astrobotic that it carried suffered a critical propellant loss soon after launch that compromised the mission. If Nova-C successfully lands, it will study how the lander’s engine plume interacts with the lunar surface and how the space weather environment on the Moon could affect future radio astronomy studies conducted there. The lander also carries experimental navigation and precision landing technologies designed to support future missions to the Moon. Two more CLPS missions are planned for 2024, Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1 and Intuitive Machine’s IM-2, but neither has a firm launch date.

Budget Crunch Forces JPL to Lay Off Hundreds

The Caltech-operated Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported on Feb. 6 that it is laying off 530 employees, about 8% of its in-house workforce, as well as 40 contractor employees on top of the 100 it let go earlier this year. These moves were spurred by tight funding constraints on the flagship Mars Sample Return mission, which the lab is developing for NASA. MSR’s annual appropriation has been held at $822 million under the stopgap measure currently funding NASA, but the agency instructed JPL to plan around Senate appropriators’ proposed level of $300 million for all of fiscal year 2024, which is now more than one-third over. The proposed cut is a response to steep growth in MSR’s projected cost, and last fall NASA officials began considering ways to make its mission architecture more viable. Congress’ delayed final appropriations package could include more money for MSR, but that would likely be at the expense of other missions in NASA’s science portfolio. The layoffs represent a striking turnabout for JPL, which last year scrambled to expand its workforce to alleviate strains stemming from the expansiveness of its project portfolio. Beyond the MSR situation, JPL’s Psyche asteroid mission has since then successfully launched and the lab’s development work on the flagship Europa Clipper mission is winding down as its fall launch date approaches.

Semiconductor R&D Initiatives Poised to Launch

An interagency agreement for overseeing the planned National Semiconductor Technology Center was signed by agency leaders last week at the White House. The NSTC will spend at least $5 billion dollars in the coming years to spur semiconductor R&D and workforce development, representing the single largest component of the R&D initiatives funded by the CHIPS and Science Act. Natcast, the operator of the NSTC, also announced last week that it anticipates releasing its first research funding opportunity in the first half of 2024. Another early priority will be to establish a “workforce center of excellence.” The White House stated in a press release that the goal is to launch the NSTC’s workforce activities this summer. Other R&D initiatives funded by the CHIPS and Science Act are also preparing to launch, including a new Manufacturing USA institute focused on creating “digital twin” models of semiconductor manufacturing processes and a program focused on advanced methods for packaging semiconductors. Farthest along is the Department of Defense’s $2 billion Microelectronics Commons, which issued its first grants last year.

NIH Subpoenaed by House over Harassment Investigation

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) subpoenaed the National Institutes of Health on Feb. 5 for documents related to how the agency handles sexual harassment allegations. Rodgers said NIH has refused to turn over detailed information about allegations involving the agency’s employees. NIH has reported summary statistics on case outcomes for 2018 through late 2023, during which it fielded 265 allegations, 135 of which resulted in corrective action, and 18 which were still being investigated. However, Rodgers argues the agency’s invocation of privacy considerations is an inadequate reason for not providing the committee details on the cases. In a cover letter accompanying the subpoena, Rodgers said the agency’s conduct “demonstrates a lack of good faith and an unwillingness to engage with the committee voluntarily.”

DOD R&D Nominee Advances to Senate Floor

The Senate Armed Services Committee voted last week to advance the nomination of Aprille Ericsson to be assistant secretary of defense for science and technology. Ericsson has worked at NASA for three decades, most recently as lead business strategist at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Ericsson was selected by President Biden for the defense role last September. The role was created through a reorganization in the Department of Defense which replaced three deputy chief technology officer roles with equivalent assistant secretary positions requiring Senate confirmation. Nominees for the other two assistant secretary roles have not yet been announced. If confirmed by the Senate, Ericsson will oversee DOD’s Small Business Innovation Research program and make policy decisions impacting the defense STEM workforce, labs, and test infrastructure.