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Apollo
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NASAWatch On TV
NASAWatch On TV

Keith’s note: On Wednesday evening I appeared on CGTN to talk about the launch of a cargo spacecraft to China’s Tiangong and the future of the Chinese space station program [audio]. A few minutes later I appeared on the Scripps TV network and all of its affiliates talking about Astrobotic’s peregrine and sending humans back to the Moon. [audio].

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 18, 2024
NASA Delays Future Artemis Moon Missions – Again (update)
NASA Delays Future Artemis Moon Missions – Again (update)

Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO “NASA will hold a media teleconference at 1:30 p.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 9, to provide an update on the agency’s lunar exploration plans for the benefit of all under Artemis. Audio of the briefing will stream live on NASA’s website.” So … what will be discussed? According to Reuters: “Senior NASA officials in recent months have been mulling plans to move the inaugural Artemis astronaut landing to the fourth mission, giving SpaceX and other contractors more practice before making the first such landing in half a century. NASA officials presented that option to the agency’s senior leadership last month, but it could not be determined if it chose that path. It was also unclear what the new target dates for the initial Artemis missions would be.” In 2004 NASA announced that America was going back to the Moon. 20 years later and that is still 3-4 years ahead. In 1961 NASA was challenged to go to the Moon by 1970. It got there early. When we did not know how to go to the Moon we did so faster and much cheaper. Now that we know a lot more about how to go to the Moon it takes us longer to repeat what was once so easy to do. What’s up with that? Update: here is NASA’s release. I live tweeted the presser on @NASAwatch

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 9, 2024
The Dream Is Indeed Alive: Space Exploration For Everyone – Everywhere
The Dream Is Indeed Alive: Space Exploration For Everyone – Everywhere

Keith’s note: The popularity of space exploration – both real and imagined – is something that those of us in the developed and throughly wired developed world take for granted. What we often do not appreciate is how much of our content leaks out and finds its ways across the rest of the world. And in so doing how it can inspire millions of people – ones that we never stop to think about – to aspire to explore space. [much more below]

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 7, 2024
More Talking Head Time With NASAWatch
More Talking Head Time With NASAWatch

Keith’s note: I just did an interview on CGTN and was talking about the year ahead in space – space stations, Moon, Mars – and cooperation in the exploration of space. I mentioned the fact that I was watching a space station EVA clip on social media the other day and was initially confused as to what part of the ISS the astronauts were on – and then I realized it was China’s space Station. How cool – I was confused because there are TWO modern space stations in operation. More please. We then discussed the fact that more than half of humanity has never seen humans walking on another world – live – and for them this will be doing the same thing again for the first time – with more people experiencing this for the first time than watched all of the Apollo landings. I also mentioned the fact that U.S. researchers can now submit proposals to study China’s lunar samples. I then noted that one way great nations can cooperate in space is in great endeavors like space exploration – perhaps the greatest endeavor of them all. [Audio]

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 4, 2024
Frank Borman
Frank Borman

According to NASA PAO: “The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on the passing of former NASA astronaut Col. (ret.) Frank Borman, who passed away Nov. 7, in Billings, Montana, at the age of 95. “Today we remember one of NASA’s best. Astronaut Frank Borman was a true American hero. Among his many accomplishments, he served as the commander of the Apollo 8 mission, humanity’s first mission around the Moon in 1968. “His lifelong love for aviation and exploration was only surpassed by his love for his wife Susan.” More. Ad Astra.

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 9, 2023
TK Mattingly
TK Mattingly

According to NASA PAO: “The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on the passing of former NASA astronaut Rear Adm. (ret.) Thomas K. (TK) Mattingly II. “We lost one of our country’s heroes on Oct. 31. NASA astronaut TK Mattingly was key to the success of our Apollo Program, and his shining personality will ensure he is remembered throughout history.” More

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 2, 2023
Apollo Was About Risk Taking, Excitement, Exploration.   Artemis Is About … What?
Apollo Was About Risk Taking, Excitement, Exploration. Artemis Is About … What?

Keith’s note: On the left is a full page ad in Monday’s issue of the Washington Post by AXA – a French multinational insurance company headquartered in Paris. Note the footprint is in gray soil by a strangely shaped boot. On the right is an actual photo of an Apollo 11 crew footprint on the lunar surface in 1969. Advertising copy is an art style. I get that. What were they trying to evoke with this image? After half a century one would assume that this is a lunar footprint – but how many people not alive at the time get the same impressionas that those of us who lived through it? Given its ubiquity its probably become iconic. Like the God/Adam finger touching image from the Sistine Chapel. But instead of using readily available (and often higher quality royalty free) images from NASA they re-create the footprint in a studio. Funny how they fake a moon footprint when so many people think that all of Apollo was faked, right? Anyway … A French company takes out an expensive full page ad in a prominent American news paper (and probably others) at a cost of millions using the human exploration of the Moon as a symbol of the risk taking they are citing as being important to progress. They never mention space. Nor do they mention Artemis or even exploration. They do not care about space in terms of their product line – but they certainly embrace the core risky notion that the whole Apollo thing embodied. They just throw the paradigm shaking/shifting trips to the Moon in your face as the penultimate risk/benefit exercise. It works. In reality it is a false lesson. You see, we got afraid of going back to the Moon after we went there. Half a century later were are less tolerant of risks involved, stumble when it comes to designs and budgets, and are taking far longer to even begin to match what we did half a century ago. NASA has a vast branding reach. The whole world was exited when Apollo was gearing up. I was there. I saw it. Now, NASA just goes through the motions with occasional flashy Artemis media things that are soon forgotten. Yet in China and India and elsewhere where Moon programs are all the rage, their citizens are in the streets cheering. What have these nations discovered that we have forgotten – and why is NASA so clueless as to how to bring back the excitement that going to the Moon once inspired my generation? Just sayin’

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 1, 2023
Jim Burke
Jim Burke

Keith’s note: Sources report Jim Burke, retired from JPL and past program manager of the Ranger program in the 1960s has died at the age of 97. More to follow. Ad Astra.

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  • NASA Watch
  • August 21, 2023
New Survey: Americans Support Space A Lot. Artemis: Not So Much
New Survey: Americans Support Space A Lot. Artemis: Not So Much

Keith’s note: According to a Pew Research Report released on Thursday, while Americans broadly support space – with some obvious enthusiasm – they are not all that sold on NASA’s Artemis Program to send humans back to the Moon – or on to Mars. According to the survey: “About seven-in-ten Americans say it is essential that the U.S. continue to be a world leader in space, while 30% say this is not an essential role for the country. Support for a U.S. leadership role in space is widely held across groups, including by majorities of Republicans and Democrats alike” and that “47% of Americans say they’ve done at least one of four space-related activities in the last year, including 26% who say they’ve looked at an image from a space telescope, such as the James Webb Space Telescope.” However “Just 12% of Americans say sending human astronauts to explore the moon should be a top priority for NASA, and only 11% say this about sending human astronauts to explore Mars. Larger shares think both of these things are not too important for NASA or that they should not be done (41% and 43%, respectively).” More at “Americans’ Views of Space: U.S. Role, NASA Priorities and Impact of Private Companies

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  • NASA Watch
  • July 21, 2023
Apollo 11 Plus 54: Let’s Boldly Go – Again
Apollo 11 Plus 54: Let’s Boldly Go – Again

“Let us unite, with our eyes on the stars and our hearts full of determination, to build a future where space is not just a distant dream but a boundless frontier that enriches our lives on Earth and beyond. It took just 66 years to push the limits of possibility from the first powered flight of a few hundred yards to putting a man on the Moon. In the 54 years since that flight, we have continued to push the limits of what is possible; imagine where we might push those limits to tomorrow.” — From an OpEd by NewSpace Global President Joe Reagan: Apollo 11: A Small Step for a Man, a Giant Leap for Humankind, a Launchpad for the Space Economy

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  • NASA Watch
  • July 20, 2023
NASA Annual Day Of Remembrance
NASA Annual Day Of Remembrance

“The agency will honor members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery, including the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, leading up to, and during, the agency’s annual Day of Remembrance Thursday, Jan. 26. This year’s NASA Day of Remembrance precedes the 20th anniversary of the Columbia accident on Wednesday, Feb. 1.” More

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 25, 2023
Bill Nelson Is Worried About A Chinese Moon
Bill Nelson Is Worried About A Chinese Moon

Keith’s note: I am trying to wrap my head around this thing that NASA Administrator Senator Bill Nelson keeps saying. Is the State Department putting him up to this? They do not seem to be doing any arm waving about it. Just Nelson. Oddly I do not seem to see anyone else saying it – except in some articles in China who think that America is trying to do the same thing in reaction to Bill Nelson making these claims.

According to ‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon published by the Guardian “The US is locked in a space race with China and the country needs to “watch out” that its rival does not gain a foothold and try to dominate lunar resources, Nasa’s top official has warned. The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.The contest between the US and China, he added, was intensifying and the next two years could determine which country achieves an advantage. “It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” Nelson told Politico. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 3, 2023
NASA’s Apollo Obsession And Artemis
NASA’s Apollo Obsession And Artemis

Keith’s note: I just listened to the speeches from Rice University on the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy’s “Moon Speech”. Yawn. Going to the Moon during Apollo was a pivotal point in human history. But the Apollo Generation lived in a different world. NASA needs to stop looking back and instead look at the world as it is and listen to the Artemis Generation – instead of preaching old history at them. – More below.

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  • NASA Watch
  • September 12, 2022
Hurry Up Artemis
Hurry Up Artemis

Keith’s note: Growing up in the 60s We heard that we’d be “on the Moon by 1970”. Done. Then we heard “Mars by 1981″”. That morphed to “Mars within the next 20 years”. Then “early to mid 2030s”. Now Bill Nelson says “late 2030s or 2040s.” We’re making negative progress NASA. Just sayin.’ Hurry up Artemis.

  • NASA Watch
  • August 29, 2022
One Reason Why Artemis Is Not Apollo
One Reason Why Artemis Is Not Apollo

Keith’s Note: Redwire’s Mike Gold just published an op ed about the Artemis Accords – it starts like this: “To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 the Smithsonian projected the image of a Saturn V taking off on the Washington Monument. It was a stunning display that half a million spectators, including myself, went to see on the National Mall. Afterward, I was walking home when I overheard a young girl ask her mother, “Why haven’t we gone back to the moon?” This was an innocent yet vital question.”

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  • NASA Watch
  • August 27, 2022
Artemis Lunar Landings Will Be Rare Events
Artemis Lunar Landings Will Be Rare Events

If you thought that the #Artemis Generation was going to enjoy – and be inspired by – the same cadence of lunar landings and exploration that the Apollo Generation witnessed – think again. Artemis lunar landings are only going to happen every couple of years throughout the decade pic.twitter.com/ab7HB4MfXw — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) August 10, 2022

  • NASA Watch
  • August 10, 2022