A bill to extend the commitment of the United States to the International Space Station, to develop advanced space suits, and to enable human space settlement, and for other purposes.

Advancing Human Spaceflight Act

This bill addresses the establishment of U.S. policy, programs, and activities pertaining to human presence in space.

The bill declares that it is U.S. policy to permanently establish a human presence in low-Earth orbit and that such capability shall

 maintain U.S. global leadership and relations with partners and allies, contribute to the general welfare of the United States, and be affordable so as to not preclude a robust portfolio of other human space exploration activities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shall ensure that the International Space Station (ISS) remains a viable and productive facility capable of potential U.S. use through at least FY2030.

NASA must submit a strategy that includes how it will transition to a successor platform to the ISS.

The bill expands the objectives of NASA to include the expansion of permanent human presence beyond Earth in a way that enables human space settlement and a thriving space economy.

NASA shall establish a program of developing space suits and associated technologies.

2U, Inc.

Our mission is to improve lives by eliminating the back row in higher education.  We are a global leader in education technology. For more than a decade, we have been improving lives by powering world-class digital education. As a trusted partner and brand steward of great universities, we build, deliver, and support online graduate programs and certificates for working adults. Our industry-leading short courses, offered by GetSmarter, are designed to equip life-long learners with in-demand career skills.  Over the past decade, we have developed new and innovative tools within our platform to enhance the effectiveness of instructional methods and improve student outcomes and the student experience. During that time, we have also improved our data-driven digital marketing capabilities across our ecosystem of offerings to generate increased student enrollments in a cost effective manner. As a result, demand for our comprehensive platform of integrated technology and services has increased significantly. When 2U was formed in 2008, we had one university client and one 2U-powered graduate program. Today, our university client base has grown to 35, our platform powers 49 graduate programs and over 90 short courses, and from inception to date we have enrolled over 44,000 students in 2U-powered graduate programs and over 86,000 students in our short courses.  Our core strategy is to launch graduate programs and short courses with new and existing university clients, to increase student enrollments and graduations across our portfolio of offerings and to expand our non-degree offerings across the career curriculum continuum. We are also committed to continuously improving our platform to deliver high-quality university and student experiences and outcomes at scale.  In our Short Course Segment, we target working professionals seeking career advancement through skills attainment.  Our Graduate Program Segment derives revenue primarily from a contractually specified percentage of the amounts our university clients receive from their students in the 2U-enabled graduate program for tuition and fees, less credit card fees and other specified charges we have agreed to exclude in certain of our universicty client contracts. The Short Course Segment derives revenue directly from students for the tuition and fees paid to enroll in and progress through our short courses. We share a contractually specified percentage of the tuition and fees received from students in each course with the relevant university client.  Our platform, which we refer to as the 2U Operating System, or 2UOS, consists of a seamlessly integrated ecosystem of technology, people and data. Through 2UOS, we provide our university clients with front-end and back-end cloud-based SaaS technology and technology-enabled services. These two components are tightly integrated and optimized with data analysis and machine learning techniques. 2UOS delivers technology with a human touch and is the keystone of our commitment to provide our university clients the tools they need to lead the digital transformation in education.  2UOS provides the following front-end technology and services to students enrolled in our offerings and to faculty members and university administrators supporting our offerings:  Our online learning platform is a cohesive end-to-end learning and teaching platform, where our university clients can reliably deliver their high-quality educational content to students. For our Graduate Program Segment, our online learning platform replicates an intimate and live classroom environment and is accessible through proprietary web, mobile and TV applications as well as in an offline mode for convenient consumption of asynchronous coursework. With the recent integration of stem-based education tools and collaborative annotation technology and an improved data-driven user experience, we have significantly enhanced the learning experience for students in 2U-powered graduate programs and instruction capabilities for faculty. Our short course offerings are delivered through a separate proprietary learning platform that shares many of the core features of our Graduate Program Segment learning platform, with some exceptions, such as the enhanced features that facilitate the live classroom environment in our graduate program leaning platform.