A staffer for Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) said today that the Congressman will make an all-out effort to get a space weather bill passed this year.

Jeff O’Neil, Perlmutter’s Legislative Director, told a group of space weather experts meeting at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that Perlmutter is intent on ensuring that this is the year the bill becomes law.

The legislation has been through many iterations since Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Cory Gardner (R-CO) introduced the first version in 2016.  What hopefully is the final version, S. 881, passed the Senate on July 27 and is awaiting action in the House.

It carries the Senate bill number, but the title used by the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee — Promoting Research and Observations of Space Weather to Improve the Forecasting of Tomorrow (PROSWIFT) Act — when it approved the bill in January.

O’Neil said “we’re working to pass that as soon as possible in the House.” If it does not pass before the 116th Congress ends, the process will have to begin all over again.  He was reluctant to promise a timeline, but “anyone who knows my boss knows that when he’s [focused] on something he’ll work to get it done.”

Interest in space weather typically addresses protecting satellites and terrestrial systems from Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and solar wind that can overload systems that are critical to daily life, like the electric grid. More recently, the impact on humans traveling beyond low Earth orbit has become another focus as NASA ramps up efforts to send astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars. The latter is a particular interest of Perlmutter’s whose “Mars 2033” bumper sticker has become a staple of House SS&T hearings on NASA’s human spaceflight program.

The bill is co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), so has bipartisan support in both chambers. It does not authorize funding, but assigns agency roles and responsibilities and directs NOAA to create a commercial space weather data pilot program.

The Academies’ Space Weather Operations and Research Infrastructure Workshop, Part 2, continues tomorrow and Friday.

Reuters: Boeing Agrees to Independent Ethics Review in HLS Inquiry

Reuters is reporting today that Boeing has agreed to an independent review of its compliance and ethics practices in connection with allegations of wrongdoing in its Human Landing Systems (HLS) bid to NASA.

Joey Roulette writes that the agreement was signed in August with NASA and the Air Force.