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Today’s National Space Council Meeting

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
NASAWatch
September 9, 2022
Today’s National Space Council Meeting
National Space Council
Paramount

Keith’s note: Late last night, under embargo, the White House provided insight into the main things that will be discussed today in Houston at the National Space Council meeting: “Inspire, Prepare, and Employ the Space Workforce”. There will also be updates on the ISS, the UAG, and commercial space activities. But education is apparently the main focus. You can watch all the fun starting at 2:20 pm EDT at https://www.whitehouse.gov/live/ (Much) more detail below:

Update: At 8:30 am this morning NASA finally admitted that there is a National Space Council meeting at a NASA facility today: “NASA to Host National Space Council Meeting at Johnson Space Center

According to the White House: “As part of a larger set of announcements that will be made at the meeting, the Vice president will release an Interagency Roadmap to Support Space-Related Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) Education and Workforce. This roadmap outlines the initial set of coordinated federal actions to bolster our nation’s capacity to inspire, prepare, and employ a diverse and inclusive space workforce.

The Vice President will also announce commitments from over a dozen commercial space companies to partner with community colleges, technical schools, and unions to open three reginal training pilot programs in Florida, the Gulf Coast between Mississippi and Louisiana, Southern California next month. Participating companies include Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman—more participants are listed in the attached factsheet. These pilot programs will help thousands of traditionally under represented workers in the space field, learn the skills and access the opportunities they need to take on 21st century space jobs.”

As for specific activities and plans, the White House is releasing a roadmap and some examples of efforts to achieve their outreach goals.

Vice President Harris Announces Commitments to Inspire, Prepare, and Employ the Space Workforce, White House

“Today, at the second convening of the National Space Council, Vice President Kamala Harris is announcing new commitments from the U.S. government, private sector companies, education and training providers, and philanthropic organizations to support space-related STEM initiatives to inspire, prepare, and employ the next generation of the space workforce.

In order to address the challenges of today and prepare for the discoveries of tomorrow, the country needs a skilled and diverse space workforce. This is why the White House released the Interagency Roadmap to Support Space-Related STEM Education and Workforce. This Roadmap outlines the initial set of coordinated Administration actions to bolster our nation’s capacity to inspire, prepare and employ a diverse and inclusive space workforce, starting with increasing awareness of the wide range of space careers, providing resources and opportunities to better prepare jobseekers for the workplace, and placing a focus on strategies to recruit, retain and advance professionals of all backgrounds in the space workforce.”

According to the White House Vice President Harris will also:

  • Reiterate the U.S. commitment to extending operations of the International Space Station (ISS) through the end of the decade. She will highlight the importance of avoiding a gap in operations between retirement of the ISS and the start of commercial space station operations as well as planning for longer term missions to the Moon.
  • Announce that the Administration is developing the first rules framework for U.S. commercial novel space activities to meet the needs of a dynamic and rapidly developing private space sector. These rules will be developed in consultation with stakeholders and will promote innovation and collaboration. They will also help to ensure the United States remains a role model in the responsible use of space.
  • Name General (ret.) Lester Lyles as the Chair of the National Space Council’s Users’ Advisory Group (UAG) with UAG members to be announced in the coming weeks.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

2 responses to “Today’s National Space Council Meeting”

  1. mfwright says:
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    Those Paramount photos are quite surreal. I found a lot of similarity of issues presented much like what John Logsdon gave this talk at MIT in 1998, what impressed me is issues discussed nearly 25 years ago are still discussed these days. And he used a slide from 1983 about space station “reasons why” almost word for word of issues in the 1990s and even now. Logsdon said rationale hasn’t changed very much, an “article of faith” that humans in space have a value. Also presented was commercial space (privatized operations). https://www.youtube.com/wat

  2. Brian_M2525 says:
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    There is nothing wrong with finding new members of the aerospace workforce; companies like Space X are doing a fine job recruiting and using the critically needed skills. The problem both inside NASA and any government contractor is that the companies have neither the need nor the desire to get the job done. The longer they can drag things out, the slower the progress that is made, the more money companies make and actually the better off for the people in NASA too. They can drag programs out, take more time to stay in important positions. The key is to never get the job done. Its a nice initiative but unnecessary.

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