NASA Advisory Council Meeting (dial in info, etc.) “In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the NASA Advisory Council. DATES: Thursday, March 31, 2016, 9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; and Friday, April 1, 2016, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., Local Time.” CASIS Is Not The Best Way To Use a Space Station, earlier post “NASA has made […]
Keith’s note: The National Academy of Sciences held a “Full-Day Mini Symposium: NASA Intentions for Commercial LEO” on Wednesday. Below are some Tweets regarding the opening session with Sam Scimemi. Among other things we learned that the 2024 ISS retirement date for NASA is, well, not a retirement date after all. Something different will happen. What? No one knows. P.S. sorry for the typos: the tweets were done rapid fire […]
GAO Report: NASA: Assessments of Major Projects “Although NASA’s overall performance has improved, for 8 out of the last 9 years at least one major project has experienced significant cost or schedule growth. Such growth often occurs as projects prepare to begin system assembly, integration, and test; nine projects will be in that phase of development in 2016, including the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System, which are […]
Keith’s note: On Saturday a Cygnus cargo vehicle arrived at the International Space Station (ISS). On board: a variety of experiments. Some of the experiments made it to the ISS via CASIS – a non-profit organization that relies on NASA for 99.9%+ of its income. Yet if you look at the press release issued to news media by CASIS about Cygnus’ arrival, there is no mention whatsoever of “NASA” – […]
NASA OIG Audit of the Spaceport Command and Control System for SLS and Orion “The SCCS development effort has significantly exceeded initial cost and schedule estimates. Compared to fiscal year 2012 projections, development costs have increased approximately 77 percent to $207.4 million and the release of a fully operational version has slipped by 14 months from July 2016 to September 2017. In addition, several planned capabilities have been deferred because […]
Keith’s note: NASA Watch officially turns 20 on Friday, 1 April. It started in 1996 as “NASA RIF Watch”. The “RIF” was dropped when the threat of a RIF (Reduction in Force) under NASA Administrator Dan Goldin subsided. This is the news item I posted on the sci.space.policy USENET group on 28 March 1996 that pushed me to create a website (NASA RIF Watch) a few days later: NASA is […]
Neil deGrasse Tyson: ‘The delusion is thinking that SpaceX is going to lead the space frontier The Verge Neil deGrasse Tyson to Elon Musk: SpaceX Is “Delusional” About Mars, Motley Fool “In less than 10 years from now, SpaceX may or may not beat NASA in the race to Mars. Astrophysicist, Hayden Planetarium director, and host of the National Geographic Channel’s StarTalk Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson is placing his bet […]
Hillary On Area 51 Secrets: ‘I Think We Ought To Share It With The Public’, Daily Caller “Hillary Clinton says barring any national security risk, she would like to open up the government files on Area 51 to the public if she is elected president. “I would like us to go into those files and hopefully make as much of that public as possible,” she told Jimmy Kimmel Thursday night […]
Keith’s note: According to KSC Daily News for Thursday, March 24, 2016 it looks like you now need formal (that usually means written) permission from some unidentified “appropriate approval authority” at CCAFS to take pictures of “commercial launch sites, launch vehicles and equipment”. So that apparently means not only are people onsite at a launch are forbidden to take pictures without the aforementioned but unspecified permission from the “appropriate approval […]
New funding matchmaker will cater to NIH rejects, Science Magazine “Last year, U.S. researchers received about 42,500 pieces of bad news from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their grant proposal had been rejected; they wouldn’t be receiving a piece of the agency’s roughly $30 billion federal funding pie. For many, the next step is to cast around for slices of smaller piesgrants from nonprofit disease foundations or investments from […]