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ARCHIVE
Month: March 2007
NASA OIG On GSFC Procurement Waste

Final Memorandum Addressing Unneccessary Subcontract Costs and Other Deficiencies in GSFC’s Multiple Award Schedule Procurement Process, NASA OIG“We found that Goddard personnel involved in the MOBIS schedule 874 procurement process improperly directed a prime contractor to subcontract with a particular subcontractor, did not chose the most appropriate and cost-effective procurement method to execute the contract action, and wasted funds by paying $169,546.70 in unnecessary subcontract costs.”

  • NASA Watch
  • March 30, 2007
NASA's Second Life

Virtual-space gurus build final frontier, MSNBC“NASA is serious about using Second Life as a frontier for collaboration and technology, said Jessy Cowan-Sharp (a.k.a. DragonFire Kelly) of Ames Research Center. “If you look at the functionality of Second Life, it’s really just a set of tools that you can do whatever you want with,” she told MSNBC.com. “There’s so much more going on with Second Life than games.””

  • NASA Watch
  • March 30, 2007
Griffin on The State of Engineering Education

Speech by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin: System Engineering and the Two Cultures of Engineering“I will be frank. Educators, and I include myself, for I have spent many years as an adjunct professor at various institutions, are far less certain how to teach “generalship” than we are of how to teach the laws of thermodynamics. And yet it is clear that an understanding of the broad issues, the big picture, is […]

  • NASA Watch
  • March 30, 2007
Video from Orbital Express

On-orbit video from Orbital Express now available, DARPA“The first video from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Orbital Express on-orbit demonstration is now available for viewing on-line. The video depicts the global mated survey of the two spacecraft by the arm camera. The video was created from 1,600 still pictures taken by the camera on March 28.”

  • NASA Watch
  • March 30, 2007
The Number of Stars With Planets Just Increased – A Lot

NASA Telescope Finds Planets Thrive Around Stellar Twins“The double sunset that Luke Skywalker gazed upon in the film “Star Wars” might not be a fantasy. Astronomers using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope have observed that planetary systems dusty disks of asteroids, comets and possibly planets are at least as abundant in twin-star systems as they are in those, like our own, with only one star.”

  • NASA Watch
  • March 29, 2007
Rocketplane Kistler To Build in New Orleans

RocketPlane Kistler and NASA Sign Space Act Agreement To Assemble the COTS K-1 Space Transportation System in New Orleans“Rocketplane Kistler, Inc. (RpK) announced today that a Space Act Agreement (SAA) has been established with the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to use NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility (MAF) in New Orleans, LA for the assembly of the K-1 Space Transportation System.”

  • NASA Watch
  • March 29, 2007
Congress Hears About NextGen

Committee Examines the Progress and Problems of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Initiative“Hope and good intentions by themselves are not going to be sufficient to ensure success,” added Chairman Udall.”We are going to need commitment, accountability and ultimately, effective performance by all involved…and I am troubled by indications that all may not be going as well as hoped with the NextGen effort.”Joint Planning and Development Office: Progress and Key […]

  • NASA Watch
  • March 29, 2007
Russia and China Are Headed For Mars

China details Mars exploration with Russia, Reuters“China and Russia will mount a joint effort to explore Mars and one of its moons in 2009, Chinese state media reported on Wednesday following an agreement to boost cooperation between the two ambitious space powers. A Russian rocket will lift a Chinese satellite and Russian exploration vehicle to survey Mars and Phobos, the innermost and biggest of the red planet’s moons, the China […]

  • NASA Watch
  • March 29, 2007
Griffin Explains Budget Cuts At Purdue

Chief says NASA, space need funding, Journal and Courier“Griffin wants NASA to be thought of in the same manner as the Navy, Air Force and other government units. “We don’t debate if we will have a Navy,” he said. “But every year we always seem to debate if we will have a space program.” NASA Cuts Funding to Purdue, WISH“I have to make a choice between putting people into space […]

  • NASA Watch
  • March 29, 2007
Orbital Express Is Not Out of the Woods – Yet

Editor’s update: I spoke with DARPA PAO and they will be providing me with additional information. Suffice it to say that after some software uploads, ASTRO now controls the Orbital Express stack. However, an anomaly earlier in the mission having to do with ASTRO’s reaction wheels seems to be at the heart of the spacecraft’s earlier problems. Editor’s note: Check out this Orbital Express status page at Boeing. What is […]

  • NASA Watch
  • March 29, 2007