Esper told the SASC that, if confirmed, he intends to get involved in the Space Force legislative debate. SpaceNews.com

“The closure of this round is really allowing us to accelerate the ability to move into higher levels of production for these tip of the spear type of customers, and those are the space-related defense contractors.” SpaceNews.com

As part of our monthlong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing,  SpaceNews is proud to present this special digital edition. SpaceNews.com

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said July 15 that, as NASA presses ahead with plans to return humans to the moon by 2024, he will not rule out a first human mission to Mars as soon as 2033. SpaceNews.com

I believe that the days are receding rapidly when we considered ourselves a niche and, from the perspective of the wider world, a somewhat invisible industry. SpaceNews.com

SpaceX said July 15 that the explosion that destroyed a Crew Dragon spacecraft during a ground test in April was likely caused by oxidizer that leaked into the spacecraft’s propulsion system and destroyed a valve, but didn’t give a firm schedule for resuming test flights. SpaceNews.com

Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer became the third acting secretary of defense since Jim Mattis resigned. SpaceNews.com

The committee cited concerns about the "turmoil surrounding the Space Development Agency." SpaceNews.com

Under newly proposed rules, smallsat operators will be able to choose a licensing path — for authorization as a domestic operator or for U.S. market access as a foreign operator — for $30,000 instead of the $472,000 fee required today for satellites in non-geosynchronous orbits.  SpaceNews.com

The House and Senate voted in support of a space service to be nested inside the Air Force, but much still remains unresolved. SpaceNews.com

A month after NASA rolled out a strategy to increase commercial use of the International Space Station, some in Congress are skeptical of the effort. SpaceNews.com

Kevin Bell with The Aerospace Corporation describes the 59-year-old organization as an “innovation shop that helps invent and maintain essentially the corporate knowledge for the U.S. government.” SpaceNews.com

Proposed changes to the National Security Space Launch program that Smith introduced in the HASC version of the NDAA made it into the House bill. SpaceNews.com

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said he reassigned the agency’s human spaceflight head, Bill Gerstenmaier, because time was limited to address cost and schedule issues with the agency’s key exploration programs and still meet a 2024 deadline for returning humans to the moon. SpaceNews.com

NASA awarded a $73.7 million contract to Made In Space to additively manufacture beams on the Archinaut One satellite scheduled to launch in 2022. SpaceNews.com

Airbus and the French Space Agency CNES have agreed to cofinance a constellation of four Earth observation satellites while leaving the door open for Airbus to finance additional satellites with other partners.  SpaceNews.com

China appears set to deorbit its Tiangong-2 space lab in the near future, according to a social media release from the China Manned Space Engineering Office. SpaceNews.com

The initial prototype of SpaceX’s next-generation reusable launch vehicle will make its first, albeit low-altitude, test flight early next week, Elon Musk announced July 12. SpaceNews.com

NASA’s leadership offered few details July 11 about the sudden reassignment of two top officials in its human spaceflight program the day before, a move that drew criticism from leading House members. SpaceNews.com

The chairman of the Senate’s space subcommittee says he’s working with colleagues on a “bold” new NASA authorization bill to direct the future of the agency’s human spaceflight program. SpaceNews.com