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Month: June 2020
Joel Montalbano Is The New ISS Program Manager
Joel Montalbano Is The New ISS Program Manager

NASA Names Joel Montalbano International Space Station Program Manager “Kathy Lueders, NASA’s associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, has named Joel Montalbano as manager of the International Space Station Program. The appointment was effective June 29 following the June 26 retirement of Kirk Shireman, who held the position since 2015. … Montalbano had served as deputy program manager for NASA’s space station program since 2012, a role in which […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 30, 2020
You Can't Exert National Prestige With A Rocket That Does Not Fly
You Can't Exert National Prestige With A Rocket That Does Not Fly

NASA’s mission to the moon is about far more than cost, Op Ed, Mary Lynne Dittmar/Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, The Hill “As a result, the role played by national assets in deep space cannot be fulfilled solely by privately owned systems. Bringing someone else’s rocket and crew vehicle to the geopolitical table does not convey the same intent. A national presence, backed by the full faith and measure of […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 29, 2020
COVID-19 Cases Soar in Texas, Florida, and California But NASA Status Remains Unchanged
COVID-19 Cases Soar in Texas, Florida, and California But NASA Status Remains Unchanged

Florida breaks new daily record with 9,585 coronavirus cases, Orlando Sentinel “The Florida Department of Health reported 9,585 new coronavirus cases Saturday, shattering the previous daily high for positive COVID-19 infections made just the day before. The state has now registered 132,545 positive cases to date. The previous record for a single-day increase of 8,942 cases was reported Friday, followed by 5,508 cases reported Wednesday.” Texas Gov. Orders Bars To […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 28, 2020
What Our Russian Partners In Space Are Doing Back On Earth
What Our Russian Partners In Space Are Doing Back On Earth

Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says, NY Times “American intelligence officials have concluded that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces in Afghanistan – including targeting American troops – amid the peace talks to end the long-running war there, according to officials briefed on the matter. … The intelligence finding was briefed to President Trump, and […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 26, 2020
The NASA Office of the Chief Information Officer Is Still Broken
The NASA Office of the Chief Information Officer Is Still Broken

NASA OIG: Evaluation of NASA’s Information Security Program under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 “NASA has not implemented an effective Agency-wide information security program. SSP documentation for all six information systems we reviewed contained numerous instances of incomplete, inaccurate, or missing information. We also performed a limited review of the Agency Common Control (ACC) system, which aggregates and manages common controls across all Agency information […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 25, 2020
Rethinking How And Who NASA Honors
Rethinking How And Who NASA Honors

Keith’s note: Yesterday NASA named its headquarters building after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA. By coincidence Wil Pomerantz, Vice President of Virgin Orbit, started a Twitter effort to change the name of Stennis space Center – with some solid reasons based its namesake’s segregationist past as to why it should be considered. I asked via Twitter why the bust of Nazi rocketeer Wernher von […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 25, 2020
NASA On Pause: COVID-19 Cases Soar In Space States
NASA On Pause: COVID-19 Cases Soar In Space States

Alabama sees second highest total for daily coronavirus cases, records 25 more deaths, Al,com “Alabama added 954 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, a large increase over case counts from recent days, and the second highest single-day uptick since the start of the pandemic. The new cases pushed the state’s 7-day rolling average up to almost 673, an 80-case increase over Tuesday’s average.” New record: Florida sees all-time high of 5,511 […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 24, 2020
NASA HQ Named After Mary W. Jackson
NASA HQ Named After Mary W. Jackson

NASA Names Headquarters After ‘Hidden Figure’ Mary W. Jackson “NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Wednesday the agency’s headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African American female engineer at NASA. Jackson started her NASA career in the segregated West Area Computing Unit of the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer, went on to lead programs influencing […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 24, 2020
Mike Griffin and Lisa Porter Are Out at The Pentagon

BREAKING: Mike Griffin, the Pentagon's top technology officer, and his deputy Lisa Porter, will step down next month, according to a Defense Department official. https://t.co/oISlbBsvhy — Inside Defense (@insidedefense) June 23, 2020 Mike Griffin Departing DOD, SpacePolicyOnline “In a joint email to colleagues today, Griffin and Porter said they were taking advantage of an opportunity in the private sector and will leave DOD on July 10. ‘As has been our […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 24, 2020
NASA Wants To Buy Suborbital Flights
NASA Wants To Buy Suborbital Flights

NASA Developing a Plan to Fly Personnel on Suborbital Spacecraft “For the first time in the agency’s history, NASA has initiated a new effort to enable NASA personnel to fly on future commercial suborbital spaceflights. NASA’s Flight Opportunities program has successfully worked with emerging commercial suborbital transportation systems to fly research payloads to space for short periods of microgravity time. In addition, the Flight Opportunities program recently released a call […]

  • NASA Watch
  • June 23, 2020