The sky is not the limit … #SemperSupra!pic.twitter.com/HKlBiAJLBB — Gen. Jay Raymond (@SpaceForceCSO) October 30, 2020 Keith’s note: This is a nicely done video. One small problem: most of it shows military people from the Space Force doing the things that NASA is supposed to be doing – like going to the Moon and Mars – in SLS/Orion hardware. They also a space station-derived interplanetary vehicle with a large centrifuge […]
Top Interior official retaliated against whistleblower, watchdog says, The Hill “The leader of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) retaliated against an employee who filed a complaint against him, according to an internal watchdog. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) for the Interior Department said in a new report that [former NASA astronaut and] USGS Director James Reilly had agency personnel reassign someone who had complained about him to a […]
The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data “We present occurrence rates for rocky planets in the habitable zones (HZ) of main-sequence dwarf stars based on the Kepler DR25 planet candidate catalog and Gaia-based stellar properties. … We estimate with 95% confidence that, on average, the nearest HZ planet around G and K dwarfs is about 6 pc away, and there are about 4 HZ […]
As Election Nears, Trump Makes a Final Push Against Climate Science, NY Times “The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation’s premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency. The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about […]
Tune in as 1,000 #FutureSoldiers across the nation launch their careers in the @USArmy and take their oath of enlistment from the @space_station with Col. @AstroDrewMorgan. https://t.co/rgjF7FiVCq — U.S. Army (@USArmy) February 26, 2020 NASA’s Crew-1 commander to be sworn into U.S. Space Force from the International Space Station, Space News “NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins, a U.S. Air Force colonel and the commander of the upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon mission, […]
Baffling: After news about water in lunar regolith @NASA is not highlighting decades of #ISRU research. They had time to prepare follow-up news and run with it by featuring all of the tech that is has to draw from. Instead: nothing but crickets. https://t.co/jHf90ToFnp #Artemis pic.twitter.com/s1WACgQFOX — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 27, 2020 It’s time to drown out those crickets with some action. The 2019 Lunar ISRU wksp report is […]
There is something I would like to tell you… tomorrow at 17:00 CET. — Philae Lander (@Philae2014) October 27, 2020 Keith’s note: False alarm. Nothing interesting. This is what the dead lander had to say: Philae’s second touchdown site discovered at ‘skull-top’ ridge. FWIW teasing the media is the best way to have reporters start to ignore these please to pay attention to “news”. Just sayin’
This is circulating from the @SpaceXStarlink TOS. Yes, people will be arguing about the Outer Space Treaty thing but it is interesting to see a company thinking ahead to providing services to people living offworld. Or maybe this is a @SpaceX lawyer having a little fun. Or both. pic.twitter.com/QUKW4hhszJ — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 28, 2020
No Phosphine In The Atmosphere Of Venus “The detection of phosphine (PH3) has been recently reported in the atmosphere of Venus employing mm-wave radio observations (Greaves et at. 2020). We here demonstrate that the observed PH3 feature with JCMT can be fully explained employing plausible mesospheric SO2 abundances (~100 ppbv as per the SO2 profile given in their figure 9), while the identification of PH3 in the ALMA data should […]
Trump Administration Releases Science and Technology Accomplishments from First Term, OSTP “RETURNING TO SPACE EXPLORATION: Since reviving the National Space Council, President Trump established a whole-of-government effort to lead again in human space exploration, safeguard the space environment, promote national security, and streamline regulations to foster commercial space activities.” Advancing America’s Global Leadership in Science & Technology – Trump Administration Highlights: 2017-2020 (report) Keith’s note: But wait: while OSTP’s Director […]