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ARCHIVE
Month: December 2011
OIG Finds Flaws in NASA's Real Property Master Planning Efforts

NASA OIG: NASA’s Real Property Master Planning Efforts “NASA’s development of the Agency’s first integrated master plan is a positive step toward better managing its diverse real property assets. However, we found deficiencies within the individual Center master plans the Agency is using to develop the integrated Agency plan that may limit the Plan’s usefulness for making strategic real property decisions. Specifically, we found that NASA is developing its initial […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 31, 2011
NASA's Sprawling Web Presence

Keith’s note: According to State of the Federal Web Report, issued 16 Dec 2011 by the .gov Reform Task Force “Some agencies, such as NASA, have a relatively small number of domains compared to other agencies, yet NASA reported the highest number of public websites, with 1,590.” NASA is quoted in this document as saying: True number of systems unknown: Several agencies admitted that it was not clear how many […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 29, 2011
More Spectacular Images From Cassini

Photo: Titan and Dione As Seen by Cassini “Saturn’s third-largest moon Dione can be seen through the haze of its largest moon, Titan, in this view of the two posing before the planet and its rings from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This view looks toward the anti-Saturn side of Titan (3200 miles, 5150 kilometers across) and Dione (698 miles, 1123 kilometers across). North is up on the moons. This view looks […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 29, 2011
NASA's Inability To Speak With One Voice Online

Dawn Obtains First Low Altitude Images of Vesta Keith’s note: This press release says “More information about the Dawn mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.” That’s two separate websites at NASA for the same mission. But wait – there’s yet another here. But you also reach this site if you go to http://www.nasa.gov/dawn. Two websites and three web addresses. Then there are the multiple official Kepler websites: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler/, http://kepler.arc.nasa.gov/, […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 29, 2011
More Problems for Russia's Breeze M Upper Stage

ILS Announces Proton Launch Delay of SES-4 Satellite “ILS has informed SES that the launch of the Proton launch vehicle with the SES-4 satellite was postponed for approximately 25 days for technical reasons with the avionics system of the launch vehicle’s Breeze M upper stage. The additional time is needed due to the destacking and replacement of the affected avionics unit. The satellite was built by Space Systems/Loral.” Powerful communications […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 29, 2011
White Paper – China's Space Activities in 2011

China Releases White Paper – China’s Space Activities in 2011, SpaceRef Marc’s note: China’s Information Office of the State Council today published a white paper on China’s space activities in 2011. You can download a PDF of the white paper from the SpaceRef web site. “Outer space is the common wealth of mankind. Exploration, development and utilization of outer space are an unremitting pursuit of mankind. Space activities around the […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 29, 2011
GRAIL Is Go For Lunar Orbit

NASA Twin Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit “NASA’s twin spacecraft to study the moon from crust to core are nearing their New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day main-engine burns to place the duo in lunar orbit. Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), the spacecraft are scheduled to be placed in orbit beginning at 1:21 p.m. PST (4:21 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-A on Dec. 31, and 2:05 […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 28, 2011
Watching a Dirty Snowball In The Night Sky

Christmas Comet Lovejoy Captured at Paranal “The recently discovered Comet Lovejoy has been captured in stunning photos and time-lapse video taken from ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The comet graced the southern sky after it had unexpectedly survived a close encounter with the Sun.”

  • NASA Watch
  • December 28, 2011
Peering Through Titan's Haze

Image: Peering Through Titan’s South Pole Haze “These views from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft look toward the south polar region of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and show a depression within the moon’s orange and blue haze layers near the south pole. The close-up view was captured with the narrow-angle camera. Another view taken a second later with the wide-angle camera is also included here for context.”

  • NASA Watch
  • December 28, 2011
Space and the Upcoming Election

NASA no priority for most presidential candidates, Orlando Sentinel “Of all the presidential candidates, the election of Newt Gingrich likely would have the greatest effect on NASA for one simple reason. He would pay attention to it. The beleaguered space agency, despite its frequent mention in lofty speeches about “reaching for the stars,” rarely gets put on the front burner of domestic policy — if it’s on the stove at […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 28, 2011