The lag in having a US launch system able to deliver cargo and crew to the International Space Station won’t be as long as is 
generally thought, NASA Director Charles Bolden told attendees at AFA’s Air & Space Conference at National Harbor, Md., Monday afternoon. Bolden said “most audiences” believe it will be three to five years before there is a way to ISS but “actually, we’re months away” from sending cargo to the ISS via the Space-X Dragon capsule. The vehicle won’t technically dock with the station but will “berth” alongside it, and the remote manipulator arm will unload the cargo. A man-rated system is, however, three to five years off, Bolden said. He recognizes that people are “uncomfortable” with reliance on the Russian Soyuz system until then—especially given a recent Soyuz failure—but Bolden is confident the system is acceptable for the near term. Soyuz stepped in to provide access in 2003 after the Columbia accident, and has served as a space taxi since then, he said. “I’m confident US industry will rise to the occasion” in providing a domestic outsourced access to low Earth orbit on schedule, Bolden said. However, “we couldn’t afford to fly shuttle” anymore.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.