Fiscal Year 2018 Activities

Aeronautics and Space Report of the President Fiscal Year 2018 Activities Aeronautics and Space Report OF THE PRESIDENT Fiscal Year 2018 Activities The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 directed the annual Aeronautics and Space Report to include a “comprehensive description of the programmed activities and the accomplishments of all agencies of the United States in the field of aeronautics and space activities during the preceding calendar year.” In recent years, the reports have been prepared on a fiscal-year basis, consistent with the budgetary period now used in programs of the Federal Government. This year’s report covers activities that took place from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018. Please note that these activities reflect the Federal policies of that time and do not include subsequent Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2018 Activities and SpaceAeronautics Report 2018 of the Year President • Fiscal events or changes in policy. On the title page, clockwise from the top left: 1. Image of the full moon with topographical shadows added using elevation data derived from measurements by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. 2. Artist’s concept of NASA’s X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology Low-Boom Flight (QueSST) Demonstrator in flight. Credit: NASA/Lockheed Martin. 3. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, launched in 2014, is a joint international project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It is part of an international satellite constellation producing global observations of rainfall and snowfall. Credit: NASA. 4. The unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 5033, located about 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). Credit: Hubble/European Space Agency (ESA). 5. On June 14, 2018, Ricky Arnold, pictured here, and Station Commander Drew Feustel completed the sixth spacewalk at the International Space Station in 2018. Credit: NASA 6. The Orbital ATK Antares rocket, with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, launches from Pad-0A, Sunday, November 12, 2017, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls. TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents Table The National Space Council . .v National Aeronautics and Space Administration . 1 Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate 1 Science Mission Directorate 26 Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate 47 Space Technology Mission Directorate 54 Department of Defense . .67 Federal Aviation Administration . .91 Department of Commerce. 101 Department of the Interior. 123 Federal Communications Commission . 149 U.S. Department of Agriculture . 157 National Science Foundation . 177 Department of State . 191 Department of Energy . 197 Smithsonian Institution. 209 Appendices A-1 U S Government Spacecraft Record 218 A-2 World Record of Space Launches Successful in Attaining Earth Orbit or Beyond 219 B Successful Launches to Orbit on U S Vehicles 220 C Human Spaceflights 223 D-1A Space Activities of the U S Government—Historical Table of Budget Authority in Millions of Real-Year Dollars 224 D-1B Space Activities of the U S Government—Historical Table of Budget Authority in Millions of Inflation-Adjusted FY 2018 Dollars 225 D-2 Federal Space Activities Budget 226 D-3 Federal Aeronautics Activities Budget 227 E-1 Space Policy Directive-2 of May 24, 2018: Streamlining Regulations on Commercial Use of Space 228 E-2 Space Policy Directive-3 of June 18, 2018: National Space Traffic Management Policy 230 Acronyms . 239 v The National Space Council Space National The THE NATIONAL SPACE COUNCIL Since its revival by Executive Order on June 30, 2017, the National Space Council has advised and assisted the President on national space policy and strat- egy and fostered close coordination and cooperation among the domestic civil, national security, and commercial space sectors, as well as advising on international space activities. The Council’s Chair, Vice President Mike Pence, is supported by the National Space Council members, which include the heads of the agencies, offices, and departments responsible for the United States space enterprise. The Council held its first meeting on October 5, 2017, at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. At the meeting, Vice President Mike Pence articulated the Administration’s direction for space exploration, and the Council adopted a recommendation to the President to return American astronauts to the Moon, and then send crewed mission to Mars and other destinations. Space Policy Directive–1, signed by President Donald Trump on December 11, 2017, adopted this recommendation, calling for “an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new knowledge and opportunities.” The Council met again on February 21, 2018, at the Space Station Processing Facility at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. This meeting resulted in four recommendations focusing on regulatory reform to advance the commercial space industry. In an effort to modernize existing regulatory frameworks, Space Policy Directive–2, signed by President Trump on May 24, 2018, directs the transformation of launch and reentry licensing for spacecraft; the elevation of space functions within the Department of Commerce; the review of a wide vi variety of new issues to enable efficient and predictable regulation of space activities; the protection of radiofrequency spectrum for space activities; and an update to commercial space-related export controls. The Council met for a third time on June 18, 2018, in the East Room of the White House, where the Council adopted a recommendation to change the way that space traffic management is conducted in the United States. Space Policy Directive–3, signed at the third meeting of the Council, was issued to address the challenges of operating in a congested space environment by establishing clear roles and responsibilities for U.S. Government departments and agencies. The foundational principles of the new space traffic management policy include safety, stability, and sustainability; timely and actionable space situational awareness data; accessible data and user interface; and a framework that consists of best practices, technical guidelines, safety standards, behavioral norms, pre-launch risk assess- ments, and on-orbit collision avoidance services. On February 18, 2018, it was announced that the Council would be supported by a Users’ Advisory Group comprised of non-federal senior leaders from industry, aca- demia, and other non-governmental organizations. The Users’ Advisory Group met for the first time on June 19, 2018, to focus on strengthening public engagement, increasing commercialization activities in low Earth orbit, accelerating a return to the moon, identifying opportunities for international cooperation, and strengthening the relationship between science and exploration. The Users’ Advisory Group has established six subcommittees: exploration and discovery, national security Aeronautics and Space Report of the President • Fiscal Year 2018 Activities and SpaceAeronautics Report 2018 of the Year President • Fiscal space, economic development and the industrial base, technology and innovation, outreach and education, and space policy and international engagement. 1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION NASA Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate Exploration Systems Development The Exploration Systems Development (ESD) programs—Space Launch System (SLS), Orion, and Exploration Ground Systems (EGS)—continue to make steady progress toward the first missions of the Orion spacecraft and the SLS rocket that will lead the next steps of human exploration to the Moon and beyond, extend- ing human exploration farther into space than ever before. Exploration Mission–1 (EM-1) will be the first integrated test of Orion, SLS, and the supporting ground systems launching from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2020 (date under review) and will pave the road for future missions with astronauts. Orion Orion will serve as the exploration vehicle that will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel, and provide safe reentry from deep space return velocities. Orion will launch on NASA’s new heavy-lift rocket, the SLS. The Orion team has completed the majority of the work to assemble the EM-1 crew module. Thousands of components like Orion’s windows, avionics, wire 2 harnessing, and parachutes, which make up more than 30 subsystems, have been integrated and tested through evaluations like thermal cycle testing, proof tests on propulsion lines, and functional tests to ensure that systems work as planned. The team recently installed the heat shield that will protect the EM-1 crew module upon reentry from the lunar vicinity through Earth’s atmosphere. Testing on a structural test article in Denver for sound and vibration evaluations has confirmed that Orion can withstand the extreme acoustic and vibration environments of the launch and separation event in space. At sea, NASA and the Department of Defense (DOD) have honed the procedures and skills they will use

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