NAS Space Studies Board Quietly Announces Online Public Access After Event Starts

NAS SSB: Committee on Human Spaceflight Meeting
Keith’s note: Only after today’s event began did the NAS Space Studies Board bother to tweet that there was a Webex feed for this meeting – something they only added to the event’s page after the fact. Bill Gerstenmaier is speaking on “Status on HSF Plans and Challenges” . Call-in toll-free number: 1-(866) 668-0721 Conference Code: 448 560 9647
Attendees in the audience at the event were unaware that this event was being webcast or available on telephone dial-in. Indeed, I asked the SSB ahead of time and they said it would not be webcast or audiocast so I came into town only to learn that I could have listened from my office. Thanks guys. The National Academy of Sciences’ Space Studies Board has been chronically uninterested in making these “public” meetings truly “public” – as are other NAS events, Congressional hearings, and NASA Advisory Council meetings. Is this Webex visibility a trend – or a fluke? We’ll see.
Neil Tyson will be talking about “Delusions of Space Enthusiasts” on Wednesday from 9:00 – 10:00 am EDT. WebEx Access Call-in toll-free number: 1-(866) 668-0721 Conference Code: 448 560 9647. Otherwise, this committee’s efforts tomorrow and part of Wednesday will be devoted to closed door sessions that SSB doesn’t seem to feel that anyone needs to know about (who is speaking etc.) – even though 100% of the cost of these meetings is paid for by NASA.
Yet Another Slow Motion Advisory Committee on Human Space Flight
“Net result: the committee’s advice will be out of synch with reality and somewhat overtaken by events having taken a total of 3 years, 7 months to complete. Oh yes: the cost of this study? $3.6 million.. The soonest that a NASA budget could be crafted that took this committee’s advice into account would be the FY 2016 budget request. NASA and OMB will interact on the FY 2016 budget during Fall 2014 and it won’t be announced until early 2015 – 4 1/2 years after this committee and its advice was requested in the NASA Authorization Act 2010.”
Why Does Space Policy Always Suck?
“This self-perpetuating space policy echo chamber existed before sequesters, shutdowns, and CRs and it will continue to exist once this current budget nonsense is resolved – and it will survive as future congressional calamities ensue. Yet people still wonder why, after all these years, the process whereby space policy is developed sucks so very much – and why NASA finds it harder and harder to do what it is chartered to do.”