Independent (6/12/23)

Good morning. Happy Monday! We hope you all had a great weekend.

In today's edition...
☔ Bill for NOAA to go it alone
🧑‍🚀 Moscow details orbital training
🗓️ The week ahead

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GOP Push for NOAA’s Independence

The chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee introduced a bill on Friday that would establish NOAA as a standalone agency akin to NASA.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Act of 2023, led by Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK), would also require the agency to submit a reorganization plan to boost efficiency and the science board to submit an R&D roadmap every five years.

“After years of complex organizational challenges, it’s time for NOAA to become an independent agency and reach its full potential,” Lucas said. “The NOAA Organic Act not only gives NOAA formal statutory authority and authorizes its critical mission, but reduces bureaucratic inefficiencies, streamlines oversight efforts, and refocuses core mission areas.”

The background: The weather-and-ocean-tracking office was established by an executive order in 1970, but has never been authorized in a law from Congress. Today, NOAA exists within the Commerce Department, which also includes the Office of Space Commerce.

Lucas released a similar draft bill in December, but it was never considered as the previous session of Congress was about to end. He also telegraphed this new bill to Polaris last month.

What about the Office of Space Commerce? The bill would strip the office out of NOAA, and make it its own entity within the Commerce Department.

Dream team: The bill has 13 Republican co-sponsors, including Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), who is chair of the House space subcommittee. The bill also has support from two additional members of the subcommittee that oversees the nation’s space program: Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

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Russian Orbital Station Cosmonaut Details Revealed

Russia will select the first cohort of Russian Orbital Station (ROS) cosmonauts by next year, officials announced last week. Development of the training program for the selected cosmonauts is expected to be completed by 2025.

Russian Orbital Station 101: With the ISS set to deorbit by the end of the decade, Russia has proposed building its own sovereign LEO station, similar to China’s Tiangong base.

• Roscomos expects preliminary designs for ROS to be complete within the next few months. The plan is to then launch the first power module by 2027, with four additional modules slated to be installed by 2030.

• The inaugural mission to the ROS will consist of just two cosmonauts.

In April, Russia committed to participating in the ISS through 2028, allowing the Kremlin to bridge its presence in space to the grand opening of the ROS.

Hold your rockets: Despite Moscow releasing details of its crewed ambitions in LEO, the path toward construction for ROS remains unclear. Space stations require a dizzyingly-high financial commitment. The ISS—albeit much bigger than the proposed ROS—has been a $100B+ endeavor, with NASA alone spending ~$3B a year just to keep the lights on.

Between Russia’s existing commitment to help build an ILRS moon base, the expensive war in Ukraine, and a generally smaller GDP, funding for the ROS remains a big question mark.

In Other News

• A US spy satellite observed an explosion at the Kakhovka dam just before it failed.

• China tested a parachute system to control the fall of spent rocket boosters.

• Local fishermen in the Philippines recovered a Long March 7 fairing and dragged it 15 miles to shore.

• The “Mother of Dragons” revealed why she left SpaceX to work on fusion technology.

• SpaceX launched a batch of Starlink sats from the Florida Space Coast early Monday.

The View from the Test Stand

ULA CEO Tory Bruno tweeted a series of videos over the weekend of Vulcan’s latest testing milestone.