NASA is considering its options to move to an earlier date for the launch of its Lunar Trailblazer spacecraft that is expected to be completed in October 2022, SpaceNews reported Friday.

Lunar Trailblazer, which is part of the agency's Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program, is a small lunar orbiter that has been cleared to transition to full-scale development after it passed the Key Decision Point C review in November.

The spacecraft will launch as a rideshare payload on the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP) mission aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket. Development delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back the launch of IMAP from October 2024 to February 2025.

“We’re looking across the whole directorate, looking for another ride for Lunar Trailblazer; a little sooner, if that’s possible,” Lori Glaze, planetary science division director at NASA, said in response to a question about the possibility of launching the orbiter as a co-manifested payload on one of the Commercial Lunar Payload Service missions.

Glaze said Wednesday during a meeting of the Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science of the National Academies that NASA has not yet decided to take the spacecraft off the IMAP launch and is looking out for other launch opportunities for the orbiter.

Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the Department of Transportation (DoT), told lawmakers on Thursday about the need to address the country’s $1 trillion backlog of infrastructure projects, Nextgov reported Friday.

“Across the country, we face a trillion-dollar backlog of needed repairs and improvements, with hundreds of billions of dollars in good projects already in the pipeline,” Buttigieg told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Thursday. “We see other countries pulling ahead of us, with consequences for strategic and economic competition.”

He appeared before the House panel as the current administration works on a $3 trillion investment package that seeks to address domestic and infrastructure priorities. President Biden is expected to provide details on the package during his trip to Pittsburgh this week.

Buttigieg told lawmakers that he would consider borrowing or using general fund revenues and user fees to help pay for the infrastructure package.

Denis McDonough, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), said he believes VA could meet its timeline for the implementation of its new electronic health record system amid setbacks with the EHR at its first go-live site in Spokane, Washington, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

McDonough acknowledged the productivity concerns with Cerner’s Millennium EHR system before the House Veterans Affairs Committee Thursday.

“We’re seeing productivity declines bigger than I would have anticipated, but importantly also continuing longer than I would have anticipated,” he said.

He also agreed with lawmakers that clinicians at the Veterans Health Administration should play a key role in developing the requirements for the EHR platform.

“At the end of the day, this is about service provision and outcomes for the vets,” McDonough said. “That has to be what drives it, and the best proxy for that right now is making sure that our practitioners, clinicians, doctors… and nurses understand what it means and see its benefit. If they don’t, we’re going to be in this box for a long time.”

On March 19th, McDonough announced a 12-week strategic review of VA’s EHR modernization effort to address issues with the system, which was first deployed at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane.

Gen. John Murray, head of Army Futures Command (AFC) and a two-time Wash100 Award recipient, said the U.S. military should resist the urge to get in a “rush for lockdown requirements” for the Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept, Breaking Defense reported Thursday. 

With JADC2, he said the four service branches need more time to perform “bottom up” experimentation to determine the technologies to pursue and how to operate and fight in future conflicts with peer competitors given each service’s unique challenges.

“I just can’t throw away everything we own — nor can the Air Force — and start over. So I think that’s a service unique perspective that’s important as well, not only just for the Army but for all the services,” Murray added.

To register for this virtual forum, visit the Potomac Officers Club Events page.

Sen. Edward Markey, D-MA. and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-CA, introduced legislation called the Investing in Cures Before Missiles (ICBM) Act on Friday that would transfer funding from the  Air Force’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) program to Coronavirus prevention and research, DefenseNews reported on Friday.

 “The ICBM Act makes clear that we can begin to phase out the Cold War nuclear posture that risks accidental nuclear war while still deterring adversaries and assuring allies, and redirect those savings to the clear and present dangers presented by coronaviruses and other emerging and infectious diseases,” commented Sen. Markey.

If enacted into law, this legislation would prohibit the federal government from using fiscal 2022 spending on the GBSF program and National Nuclear Security Administration’s W87-1 warhead modification program. This program's funds would instead be allocated to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for research on a universal coronavirus vaccine that could protect against future pandemics. 

Along with transferring funds to NIAID, the monies allocated for the W87-1 modification program would go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The bill would also create an independent study of the National Academy of Science to find ways to prolong Minuteman III missiles' operational life until 2050.

Northrop Grumman won a $13.3 billion GBSD contract to build a replacement for the aging LGM-30G. The project's total acquisition costs are estimated to be somewhere between $93 to $96 billion. 

U.S. Strategic Command and Air Force officials have often stated that GBSD is the only cost-effective means to modernize the U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile leg of the nuclear triad. STRATCOM head Adm. Charles Richard commented in January that “You cannot life-extend Minuteman III, It is getting past the point of [where] it’s not cost-effective to life-extend Minuteman III. You’re quickly getting to the point [where] you can’t do it at all.”

In 2020, Rep. Khanna presented a similar proposal to the House Armed Services Committee that would have moved $1 billion from the GBSD to coronavirus pandemic-related research. That proposal failed to pass the committee last July.