News, very quietly
The president just released a new
national space policy. This was all done
pianissimo; apparently it hasn't been posted on the White House's website, or even on NASA's, but only on the Office of Science & Technology Policy. The policy itself is highlighting things like the right of safe passage of US spacecraft, that nothing should be allowed to interfere with such, and that "freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power."
Incidentally, there have been vague rumors recently that China has been field-testing some new anti-satellite weaponry by pointing it at US satellites. I will just guess that this is no coincidence, and that you're seeing some geopolitics in action here.
Also: The directive for civil space exploration says that NASA's mandate is to "advance fundamental scientific knowledge of our Earth system, solar system, and universe." The part about Earth was removed in an earlier version, and apparently got reinstated. (This has to do with whether NASA should research climate -- n.b. the GISS-E group that does the current gold standard climate modelling is partially based out of NASA)
