Science and Innovation

Today, NASA’s Orion spacecraft successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean near Guadalupe Island, off the coast of Mexico. This marks the culmination of the Artemis I mission. After Orion is recovered, NASA will continue to evaluate… Read more »

Today, Artemis I, the first integrated Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion crew vehicle, successfully launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, beginning its four to six-week mission. The Artemis I mission is an uncrewed flight test that will demonstrate the performance of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion spacecraft that will eventually carry astronauts to… Read more »

Today, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics is holding a hearing titled, Unfolding the Universe: Initial Science Results from the James Webb Space Telescope. Chairman of the Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Rep. Don Beyer’s (D-VA) opening statement as prepared for the record is below. Before we begin,… Read more »

Today, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, successfully carried out the first-ever planetary defense test mission. The Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) mission demonstrated kinetic impactor technology to affect the asteroid Dimorphos’s speed and trajectory. Dimorphos is part of the… Read more »

Today, Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics Chairman Don Beyer (D-VA) and Ranking Member Brian Babin (R-TX) led a letter to Acting Administrator Billy Nolen of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding the FAA’s investigation into the booster failure experienced this Monday by Blue Origin’s New Shepard-23. In the letter, the Subcommittee leaders assert the seriousness of… Read more »

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the National Aviation Preparedness Plan Act, legislation introduced by Reps. Rick Larsen (WA-02) and Don Beyer (VA-08) to require the development of a national aviation preparedness plan for future public health emergencies. The bipartisan bill, which passed the House by a final vote of 293 to 133, now heads to the Senate for… Read more »

Today, Blue Origin’s commercial suborbital launch vehicle, New Shepard-23 (NS-23), which launched from its launch site in West Texas, suffered a booster failure that caused the vehicle’s crew escape system to activate. The vehicle, which was reportedly carrying science payloads, was uncrewed and no humans were on board. However, the same booster design is used for the company’s… Read more »

President Joe Biden yesterday signed the CHIPS and Science Act into law, which included the first NASA authorization passed by Congress in over five years. That section of the Act, Title VII of the science division, included the full text of Rep. Don Beyer’s Cleaner, Quieter Airplanes Act. Beyer chairs the House Science Committee’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics; he introduced the… Read more »

Originally published on The Hill.  President Biden signed into law on Tuesday bipartisan legislation to provide billions of dollars in incentives to the domestic semiconductor industry and fund scientific research that proponents say will help boost U.S. competitiveness and solve supply chain challenges. “Today is a day for builders. Today America is delivering,” Biden said at… Read more »

Today Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), a longtime member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Chair of its Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, voted for the CHIPS and Science Act, which passed the House on a bipartisan vote. The bill now goes to President Biden’s desk for signature. The bill contained the first NASA authorization passed by Congress in over five… Read more »