With Bryan Bender

PROGRAMMING NOTE: POLITICO Space is publishing on Wednesday, Nov. 25 this week. We’ll be back to our normal schedule on Friday, Dec. 4.

— The Biden administration must make space collaboration a top priority or risk losing momentum, Aerospace Corporation CEO Steve Isakowitz argues in an op-ed.

— Congress is worried about China’s “significant step” towards a lunar presence with new moon mission.

— A new deep-dive into the politics that drove Apollo is out from Smithsonian curator Teasel Muir-Harmony.

WELCOME TO POLITICO SPACE, our must-read briefing on the policies and personalities shaping the new space age in Washington and beyond, where we’re wishing you a happy Thanksgiving! Email us at [email protected] or [email protected] with tips, pitches and feedback, and find us on Twitter at @jacqklimas and @bryandbender. And don’t forget to check out POLITICO's astropolitics page for articles, Q&As, opinion and more.

LET’S GET IT TOGETHER: The head of the government’s leading space think tank has a warning for the incoming administration: Unless agencies can work more effectively together to tackle a host of major policy challenges, the historic level of thrust that’s been building in both commercial and government space endeavors could burn out.

“In the next presidential term, the U.S. will face high-level decisions on critical space policy issues with long-lasting implications,” Steve Isakowitz, CEO of the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center, argues in a new POLITICO op-ed.

“Strategies that earned the U.S. space preeminence in the 20th century won’t keep us ahead in this century,” he adds. “We need new methods to achieve this. At a high level, we recommend an emphasis on stronger collaboration across the space enterprise to realize this potential and address those challenges.”

That means streamlining how agencies collaborate, especially when it comes to managing growing space traffic. “The U.S. should establish a national approach to space safety with clear lanes of authority and technically informed regulations,” writes Isakowitz, a former president of Virgin Galactic who also oversaw space programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget. “We must especially lead in developing space traffic management safety norms and standards for space operators to mitigate the growing risks of orbital debris.”

The lack of coherence is also hampering the ability of allies to join forces with the United States on both civil and military space efforts, he argues. “The U.S. and its close partners comprise 11 of the world’s 15 largest space budgets while operating two-thirds of all active, orbiting satellites,” Isakowitz writes. “However, with multiple U.S. agencies working on defense space, some allies are expressing frustration that their space communities don’t have a clear path to collaborating or know with whom to engage, while information classification frequently stymies collaboration.”

Take the next leap to help unleash commercial endeavors: There is also more to be done in the area of regulatory reform to help the private space economy continue to keep the United States at the forefront.

“Space investors and innovators seek a balance between regulatory flexibility to accommodate new ideas and reasonable levels of certainty that allow for longer-term investment planning and space sustainability,” according to Isakowitz. “Striking this balance is a priority.”

CONGRESS ALARMED OVER CHINESE LAUNCH: China on Monday launched its mission to collect samples from the lunar surface and return them to Earth, a feat that only two countries — the U.S. and the Soviet Union — have accomplished. Collecting samples from around Mons Rumker, a younger part of the moon than where the Apollo missions ventured, could help scientists accurately determine the age of different parts of the moon using radiometric dating. Long term, China hopes the mission paves the way for future missions and eventually a lunar research station near the middle of this decade.

The moon rocks, which would be the first collected since the 1970s, should be returned to Earth in mid-December.

But the attempt is raising concern for some members of Congress who worry America is losing its leadership position, and with it the ability to set norms of behavior. Rep. Frank Lucas, the top Science Committee Republican, called the mission “a significant step” towards establishment of a permanent Chinese presence on the moon.

“The nation that leads in space will dictate the rules of the road for future technological development and exploration, and the influence of the People’s Liberation Army in the [Chinese Community Party’s] space program makes China a particularly irresponsible and dangerous candidate,” he said in a statement. “We can no longer take America’s leadership in space for granted.”

MAKING THE CASE FOR SLS: NASA is less than two weeks away from the seventh “green run” for the Space Launch System rocket, which will carry astronauts to the moon and Mars. During the test, which is currently set for Dec. 7, NASA will load the rocket with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic propellants to make sure the rocket is ready for its first flight expected next year.

Jim Maser, the vice president of space at Aerojet Rocketdyne, explained why the government-designed rocket is crucial to NASA’s long-term exploration plans, despite commercial systems like SpaceX‘s heavy-lift rocket under development — and despite the expense.

Because the SLS is more powerful than any other design, comparing the cost is “not even apples and oranges. That’s apples and hamsters,” Maser, whose company is building the engines for the Boeing SLS, told us. This extra power will enable NASA to launch the human landing system that will bring astronauts to the moon in a single launch rather than delivering components in multiple launches.

Maser also stressed that despite repeated delays in the program, every piece of the rocket that will be used for the Artemis 1 mission to the moon set for 2024 will be completed and at Kennedy Space Center early next year, while some commercial providers have not yet built their platforms. “The SLS is real, it’s being built and integrated,” he said.

‘OPERATION MOONGLOW’ OUT NOW: Former President John F. Kennedy painted the race to the moon as humanity’s aspirational quest for knowledge in his 1962 speech at Rice University. But the Apollo program was never solely about scientific progress, according to “Operational Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo.”

The newly released book from Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator of the Apollo collection at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, examines the space race’s political goals to restore America’s place on the world stage and establish a global order aligned with the United States amid Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Congrats to Tim Chrisman, executive director of Foundation for the Future, for being the first to correctly answer that astronauts celebrated the first Thanksgiving in orbit in 1973.

This week’s question: How many days did the Air Force’s X-37B spend in orbit on its longest mission?

The first person to email [email protected] gets bragging rights and a shoutout in the next newsletter!

— NASA is using AI to map Earth’s trees: Sci Tech Daily

— The Curiosity rover found signs of past flooding on Mars: CNET

— First astronauts to visit Mars will need to be "conscientious," study finds: CNN

— Joe Biden’s plans for outer space: National Review

— Lockheed Martin is partnering with commercial companies to vie for unconventional Pentagon programs: Space News

— Relativity Space raises $500 million to scale 3D printed rockets: CNBC

— A history of Thanksgiving celebrations in orbit: NASA

TODAY: The McGill Annual Strategic Space Law Course continues through Thursday.

TODAY: The Australian Space Forum conference begins online.

TODAY: The Canadian Space Society’s annual summit continues through Friday.

TODAY: The International Astronautical Federation hosts a conversation on bridging the space divide for developing countries.

TODAY: Space4Impact hosts a two-day virtual kick-off event, including remarks from Simonette diPippo, director of the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs, and Claude Nicollier, a former Swiss astronaut.

TUESDAY: The University of Maryland’s Center for Orbital Debris Education and Research hosts a three-day online workshop.

TUESDAY: The American Geophysical Union fall meeting begins online.

WEDNESDAY: The Senate Commerce Committee will hold an executive session to consider the nomination of Greg Autry to be chief financial officer of NASA.