Every Monday, SpaceNews.com’s new daily e-newsletter the DOWNLiNK delivers a weekend news roundup and look at what’s happening in space during the week ahead. To receive these updates every Monday by 8 a.m. Eastern, go to spacenews.com/thedownlink to sign up. 

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

  • Washington: A Senate Commerce Committee executive session at 2:30 pm EDT will consider several nominations, including that of Dava Newman to be NASA deputy administrator.
  • Cape Canaveral: A ULA Delta 4 will launch the GPS 2F-9 satellite at 2:36 pm EDT, at the beginning of a 18-minute launch window
    .
  • Washington: The House Armed Services Committee will hold a “Fiscal Year 2016 National Security Space Hearing” at 5:00 pm EDT. Several key officials, including the commander of Air Force Space Command and the directors of NRO and NGA, are witnesses.
  • Yasny, Russia: A Dnepr rocket will launch the Kompsat-3A remote sensing satellite for South Korea at 6:09 pm EDT.
  • Tanegashima, Japan: An H-2A rocket will launch a Japanese government Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) between 9:00 and 11:00 pm EDT.

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Thursday:

  • Washington: USRA and GWU’s Space Policy Institute are hosting a forum titled “Asteroids, NEOs and Small Bodies in the Solar System” from 1:00 to 5:00 pm EDT.

Friday:

  • Washington: Secure World Foundation is hosting a panel session on “Challenges In Sharing Weather Satellite Spectrum With Terrestrial Networks” at 12:00 EDT with representatives from government, industry, and academia
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  • Baikonur, Kazakhstan: A Soyuz rocket will launch the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft at 3:42 pm EDT carrying three new ISS crewmembers. Two of the three, Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko, will remain on the ISS for one year.
  • French Guiana: A Soyuz rocket will lift off carrying two Galileo navigation satellites at 5:46 pm EDT.

Saturday:

  • Sriharikota, India: A PSLV rocket will launch the Indian IRNSS-1D navigation satellite at 7:49 am EDT.

Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews. He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science...