Events of Interest: Week of January 21-25, 2013 -- UPDATE

UPDATE:   Adds Deep Space Industries announcement on Tuesday (will be webcast).

The following events may be of interest in the week ahead.   The House and Senate are in session for at least part of the week.

During the Week

The inauguration ceremonies for President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are the highlight of the week.  Both have been officially sworn in already today, Sunday, January 20, as required, but the ceremonial event will take place tomorrow.   Official events at the Capitol begin at 11:30 am ET, followed by the parade -- with two NASA floats, one for Orion and one for Curiosity -- which has an expected start time of 2:35 pm ET, but one never knows when it actually will start!

Almost anything else seems tame by comparison, but the first meeting of the new House Science and National Labs Caucus on Wednesday is more directly related to space policy.   Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson is the speaker.   The Caucus clearly has a broader focus than NASA -- most national labs are operated by the Department of Energy and Department of Defense -- but it is interesting that they picked Tyson as the first speaker.   We don't know what he will discuss, but he is the one who instigated the "penny4NASA" movement last year, calling for a doubling of NASA's budget to lift the spirits of the nation and reclaim its "birthright to dream of tomorrow."  The meeting is Wednesday at noon in the Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress. 

Monday, January 21

• Inaugural ceremonies: Events at the Capitol begin at 11:30 am ET; parade scheduled to begin at 2:35 pm ET (but subject to change)

Tuesday, January 22

• Deep Space Industries announcement, Santa Monica Museum of Flying, CA, 10:00 am PT (1:00 pm ET)

Wednesday,  January 23

• House Science, Space and Technology Committee organizational meeting, 2318 Rayburn, 9:00 am ET
• House Science and National Labs Caucus first meeting, Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, 12:00-1:00 pm ET

Thursday, January 24

• Annual "Start of the Year" Press Conference by European Space Agency Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain, 09:00 Central European Time (3:00 am ET), Paris, FR

Friday, January 25

• NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), Kennedy Space Center, FL, 10:00-11:00 am ET
• FAA Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) Business/Legal Working Group re Maximum Probable Loss Methodology, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm ET, telecon