Space Budgets, Policy, Missions, Benefits, International Updates
Human Space Exploration Update (August 14 – 30, 2017)
New NASA Astronauts: Get to know NASA’s new astronaut class NASA welcomed seven men and five women to the start of two years of astronaut candidate training at the Johnson Space Center, home to the astronaut corps and Mission Control. Learn more about these 12 men and women in a series of NASA videos.
Lunar Exploration: Chris Hadfield: We should live on the moon before a trip to Mars Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield urges space policy experts to consider human expeditions to the moon before setting out for Mars.
Space Mining Program: School of Mines hopes to launch first-ever space mining program Based in Golden, the Colorado School of Mines plans a new graduate program in the identification and extraction of resources from the moon and other solar system bodies that can be used to support deep space exploration, including water, metals and fuels.
Mars Exploration: SpaceX informed NASA of slowdown in its commercial Mars program A top NASA planetary science official confirms that SpaceX has indeed put its Red Dragon mission, a commercial effort to land an uncrewed capsule on Mars, on the back burner for now. Once planned for a 2018 landing, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said earlier this year the experiment has slipped two years and that the company was dropping efforts to equip its Dragon crewed lander with a propulsion landing system.
Citizens for Space Exploration – a pro-space, taxpayer, grassroots advocacy group 
(http://www.bayareahouston.com/content/c_s_e/c_s_e) – has traveled to Washington, D.C. the past 24 years to meet face-to-face with Members/staff of Congress to discuss the value of America’s investment in space exploration. In order to sustain that dialogue on a regular basis, Citizens distributes “Space Exploration Update” to Congressional offices on a weekly basis. The intent is to provide an easy, quick way to stay abreast of key human space exploration program and policy developments.