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Personal Things On Board Odysseus – Resting On The Moon
Personal Things On Board Odysseus – Resting On The Moon

Keith’s note: A few weeks ago a robotic explorer named Odysseus completed a journey – one not unlike its mythological human namesake undertook – and struggled ashore at the south pole of the Moon. While injured and out of sorts for a while, Odysseus managed to accomplish much of what it had been tasked to do – starting with a precision landing in a place no human or droid has ever visited before. The way that Odysseus made it to the lunar surface involved some truly heroic thinking the mission control team – rather fitting for a space droid named after a hero.

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  • NASA Watch
  • March 11, 2024
NASA Finally Kills OSAM-1 Long After It Needed To Be Halted
NASA Finally Kills OSAM-1 Long After It Needed To Be Halted

Keith’s note: According to a late Friday blog post NASA said that it “has decided to discontinue the On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing 1 (OSAM-1) project due to continued technical, cost, and schedule challenges, and a broader community evolution away from refueling unprepared spacecraft, which has led to a lack of a committed partner.” Well, DUH. As if that was not already blatantly obvious. This is what NASA OIG said 6 months ago. “The spacecraft bus and SPIDER contracts are FFP with no incentive or award fee. Therefore, NASA lacks the flexibility to use monetary incentives to recognize and reward contractor performance that exceeds meeting basic contract requirements.” Double DUH. How many years and hundreds of millions did it take before NASA finally yielded to the obvious? That internal NASA review process itself ought be examined by OIG. Just sayin’.

  • OSAM-1 cost growth and schedule delays are exacerbated by poor contractor performance and continued technical challenges. After rebaselining its cost and schedule in April 2022, the OSAM-1 project continues to experience cost growth and it now appears the Agency will exceed its current $2.05 billion price tag and the December 2026 launch date commitment to Congress. Development of the servicing payload—the system responsible for rendezvous and refueling Landsat 7—has continued to cost more and take longer than anticipated. Moreover, much of the project’s cost growth and schedule delays can be traced to Maxar’s poor performance on the spacecraft bus and SPIDER contracts with each deliverable approximately 2 years behind schedule. We found the structure of these FFP contracts does not provide NASA adequate flexibility to incentivize Maxar to improve its performance. Consequently, NASA is providing personnel and services to supplement Maxar’s efforts to mitigate contractor performance issues and reduce further impacts to the project’s cost and schedule. Additionally, because NASA continues to pay Landsat 7 operation costs through the on- orbit mission, extended launch delays for OSAM-1 will increase these costs as well.
  • Due to Maxar’s poor performance, NASA is providing unplanned labor and services to supplement Maxar’s efforts to develop OSAM-1’s spacecraft bus. Specifically, between January 2022 and May 2023 NASA provided labor, such as assistance with flight software and systems engineering support, valued at approximately $2 million to help reduce impacts to the mission schedule. According to project officials, supplementing Maxar’s efforts was necessary to reduce risk to the overall project schedule. At the same time, Agency project managers have not modified the spacecraft bus contract to decrease its value to account for the supplemental labor provided by NASA. Instead of making the changes to the contract’s SOW with corresponding adjustments to the contract value, the project is tracking the supplemental government-provided labor using an informal document referred to by the project as a “puts and takes” list that describes the supplements to Maxar and their associated dollar values.
  • The spacecraft bus and SPIDER contracts are FFP with no incentive or award fee. Therefore, NASA lacks the flexibility to use monetary incentives to recognize and reward contractor performance that exceeds meeting basic contract requirements. For example, the government uses award fees to motivate positive contractor performance, and conversely, these fees are not paid when a contractor’s overall cost, schedule, and technical performance is below satisfactory. In our discussions with senior leadership at Goddard, OSAM-1 Standing Review Board members, and procurement officials, each group agreed that the lack of an incentive or award fee on the contracts has limited NASA’s ability to improve contractor performance. According to the Standing Review Board Chair at the time of the mission’s Critical Design Review, the contract structure lacked the ability to incentivize the contractor’s performance, particularly in cases such as this where the contractor is not profiting from the contract due to its FFP nature and cost and schedule overruns. In our discussions with Maxar officials, they acknowledged that they were no longer profiting from their work on OSAM-1.
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  • NASA Watch
  • March 1, 2024
Domains Of Life Sciences In Spacefaring: What, Where, And How To Get Involved
Domains Of Life Sciences In Spacefaring: What, Where, And How To Get Involved

“The integration of biology and spacefaring has led to the development of three interrelated fields: Astrobiology, Bioastronautics, and Space Bioprocess Engineering. Astrobiology is concerned with the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe, while Bioastronautics focuses on the effects of spaceflight on biological systems, including human physiology and psychology. Space Bioprocess Engineering, on the other hand, deals with the design, deployment, and management of biotechnology for human exploration. This paper highlights the unique contributions of each field and outlines opportunities for biologists to engage in these exciting avenues of research. By providing a clear overview of the major fields of biology and spacefaring, this paper serves as a valuable resource for scientists and researchers interested in exploring the integration of these disciplines.” More here: “Astrobiology, Bioastronautics, And Space Bioprocess Engineering: Domains Of Life Sciences In Spacefaring: What, Where, And How To Get Involved

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  • NASA Watch
  • February 6, 2024
Ike Gillam
Ike Gillam

According to Legacy.com: “After serving in the Air Force, Ike began working for NASA. There, he held a series of jobs starting with managing the Delta Program, which launched communication and weather satellites into orbit. He later oversaw the approach and landing tests of the space shuttle as the Director of Space Shuttle Operations, which led to his becoming the first Black person to lead a NASA center as the Director of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. Next, Ike was appointed as a science advisor to the White House, before serving as the first associate administrator of the Office of Commercial Programs (OCP), that expanded private sector investment in space activities. In the late 1980s, Ike moved to the private sector, initially as Senior Vice President for OAO Corp., and later, for Allied Signal (Honeywell), where he retired.” Ad Astra Ike

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  • NASA Watch
  • February 2, 2024
ASAP Warns NASA: A Full Plate Without Realistic Expectations And Schedules = Future Problems
ASAP Warns NASA: A Full Plate Without Realistic Expectations And Schedules = Future Problems

Keith’s note: According to this press release NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Releases 2023 Annual Report. According to the ASAP Report: “The current budget environment has significant implications for mission and safety risk. NASA has a very full mission plate. To the extent that their budget request is not fully funded, the leadership will need to acknowledge and make critical decisions with respect to program content or schedules, which will need to be adjusted to meet fiscal realities. Attempting to do all planned efforts on expected timelines will introduce unacceptable and unmanaged risk. The Agency will need to rely on its developed strategic vision, objectives, and architecture to establish well-defined priorities to ground its endeavors in reality – taking fully into account the risk-benefit tradeoffs. It is equally critical that the Agency be transparent about these realities and choices with its stakeholder and workforce. Stakeholders must come to understand and respect realistic expectations and schedules, and the Agency cannot bow to external pressure to exceed rational anticipations. The workforce must be confident that NASA leadership’s expectations are reasonable and authentic. The Agency is blessed with a workforce that has traditionally given one hundred percent to achieving difficult goals. If those talented and dedicated personnel are cognizant that they are embarked on a journey that is not just challenging and risky, but not realistically achievable, there will be both a serious erosion of morale and an undermining of the essential safety culture. On the assumption that NASA will make the tough choices to execute safely and effectively within budgeted resources, an even greater challenge resides in the budget uncertainty resulting from Congress’ consistent inability to provide timely and definitive appropriations. The ambiguity within which NASA must plan and execute its mission is deeply troublesome. It causes distraction from the focus on the “real work,” including safety, adds untold hours and days of unproductive labor, and (perhaps most important) hampers the ability to make timely decisions that ultimately impact safety and mission assurance. Given that it is unlikely that Congress will provide appropriate and timely budget clarity, NASA will be compelled to deal with this ambiguity. NASA should be candid and clear about – and Congress and other stakeholders should open their eyes to – the consequences of dealing with budget uncertainty.”

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 27, 2024
Another Opportunity For NASA To Be Globally Relevant
Another Opportunity For NASA To Be Globally Relevant

Keith’s note: According to a Starlink tweet “Starlink is ideal for rural locations. Later this year @JohnDeere will begin equipping new and existing machines across the United States and Brazil with Starlink to help connect farmers with high-speed internet so they can fully leverage precision agriculture technologies”. Gee, how many people in America are engaged in farming? How often does NASA make specific efforts to engage with these communities which are often rural and somewhat isolated? Not very often. If NASA’s technology folks were actually paying attention to advances and applications of space technology with real world, everyday uses, they’d be thinking how this fits into the whole spinoff thing. Instead of focusing outreach on several zip codes they’d be seeking relevance to the rest of us – and not just U.S. taxpayers – but also to the rest the world where agriculture is the engine that feeds us all. FYI I touched upon similar issues recently in Millions Of People Are Already Training To Fly Helicopters On Other Worlds. Has NASA Noticed? wherein the use of drones – along with satellite connected machinery – can offer great benefits to even small-scale farming operations – especially in rural/remote locations. And there is a clear overlap between their uses on farms and how we’ll be using them on other worlds. And yes, these are private companies doing this Starlink/tractor thing on their own dime. But this application of space technology is an emergent property – one that arises from of all of the technologies that NASA has nurtured and focused on for more than a half century – Starlink – Drones – GPS – remote sensing … You’d think someone at NASA would be chomping at the bit to make this connection. Guess again. Just sayin’.

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 15, 2024
Astrobotic Has Set A New Standard For Space Mission Transparency
Astrobotic Has Set A New Standard For Space Mission Transparency

Keith’s note: Take the time to read the Astrobotic press release (below). While it is sad that Peregrine won’t land on the Moon it is very important that everyone – including NASA – takes note of the unrivaled transparency and promptness of updates that Astrobotic has provided. They’ve set a new standard that all responsible users of space should follow. Ad Astra.

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 14, 2024
Peregrine Is On Its Way To The Moon (Updates)
Peregrine Is On Its Way To The Moon (Updates)

Keith’s note: The first launch of a ULA Vulcan rocket – powered by Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman engines – took off this morning at 2:18 a.m. EST and has sent the Astrobotic Pergegrine lander on its way to the Moon. Alas it is having communications and power issues which they managed to fix that but there there are critical propulsion system issues. I am going to be on Deutsche Welle TV just after 12:00 pm EST Update: [Deutsche Welle Audio] – and then on Alhurra TV around 2:45 pm EST Update: [Alhurra audio] – then BBC World News TV at 3:45 pm EST and then Deutsche Welle TV (again) just after 6:00 pm today Update: [second Deutsche Welle Audio] to talk about the mission and the various things on board the Peregrine lander. More from NASA

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 8, 2024
Reality Check For The Whole Commercial Space Ecosystem Thing
Reality Check For The Whole Commercial Space Ecosystem Thing

Keith’s note: According to this little gem that was tossed online after hours on a Friday NASA Adjusts Agreements to Benefit Commercial Station Development “We continue to see an immense amount of dedication from our partners,” said Angela Hart, manager of Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.“The agency is committed to continuing to work with industry with the goal having one or more stations in orbit to ensure competition, lower costs, and meet the demand of NASA and other customers.” Uh huh. Since when has NASA lowered the cost – of anything? This whole ISS vs Gateway/Artemis vs Orbital Reef vs Starlab vs Axiom vs Russia vs China vs Congress with regard to space stations is all going to result in an inelastic collision – soon. To some extent this announcement is like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The money is simply not there for everything, competing priorities are inherently non-synergistic, and in place of a coherent, national strategy – one that takes these things into account in a realistic way – we have a short-term, seat of the pants, ad hoc, fake it until you make it, free for all. Something has got to give since neither the money or a clear policy path are on the horizon. And the warning signs – if they are even apparent – will be ignored until it is too late. And expecting the National Space Council to do anything substantive is simply naive in the extreme. Oh then there’s the whole 2024 election thing and the fact that NASA has no idea when the moon walking resumes and … Just sayin’

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 6, 2024
Talking Heads Talking Space On TV
Talking Heads Talking Space On TV

Keith’s note: I was on Deutsche Welle TV today talking about Astrobiology Mars, Europa Clipper, JWST, international cooperation, space stations, and the year ahead in space. [Audio]. What is always frustrating to me (and by now I unfortunately understand why) is how rarely NASA sends anyone to talk on TV – especially non-American TV – about space exploration in general – and talk about everything – human and robotic, Earth and Astrophysics, commercial and civilian – everything – that all nations and all companies and so many individuals are doing – in and about space. When tired NASA spokesmouths like Bill Nelson do get on TV its to repeat pre-prepared, non-controversial, and non-committal talking points that brag about some things but gloss over other things that are best left unmentioned since the answer is embarrassing or uncertain. The NASA talking heads stick to the official Artemis II launch in 2024 even though no one at NASA believes that is even remotely possible – much less lunar landings in 2025, 2026, 2027 … I was probably the only person on global TV – here or internationally – talking about space to a zillion people today – and probably the only one who tried to be inclusive and enthusiastic about everyone’s success and opportunities – and I am certain that I was the only person on TV saying the word “astrobiology” today. Really pathetic, NASA. Someone please prove me wrong. (sigh) I’ll be on another global network in a few days. Update: here’s the DW segment with an intro – and then my banter.

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  • NASA Watch
  • January 2, 2024
The Space Mining Hearing That Went Down A Rabbit Hole
The Space Mining Hearing That Went Down A Rabbit Hole

Keith’s note: This morning the House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing on space mining. It was obvious that this oddly-timed hearing – one that is not exactly of immediate importance – was, at best, a distraction. More often than not it was a chance to swipe at the other side on unrelated things while most (but not all) of the panel tried to stay on topic. Rep. Gosar chaired the hearing and mumbled through his text as if he has not slept for a week. Rep. Stansbury asked why the whole space mining thing (still decades away) was even being discussed when more important things need their attention. Rep. Rosendale sort of agreed with her, brought up near term domestic terrestrial mining issues, and took issue with a lot of what Greg Autry said. Indeed Rosendale was incredulous about mining issues and punctured one remark with “in OUTER SPACE?!?” There was lots of economic babble, a whole lotta China bashing, and gotcha comments (from both sides). What a waste of time. And of course at 1:20:00 in this video Trump Administration boarding party alumni Greg Autry took the bait from Rep. Eli Crane about “President Biden and his son” and dove into the conspiratorial talking point rabbit hole about consulting fees “for who knows what” while trying to say that he wants space policy to be non-partisan. Uh huh. Watch the hearing here also see “Hearing Preview: Moon Mining, China Bashing, And Space Advocate Choir Practice“).

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  • NASA Watch
  • December 12, 2023
Hearing Preview:  Moon Mining, China Bashing, And Space Advocate Choir Practice
Hearing Preview: Moon Mining, China Bashing, And Space Advocate Choir Practice

Keith’s note: according to this notice: “On Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at 10:15 a.m., in room 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold an oversight hearing titled “The Mineral Supply Chain and the New Space Race.” Five key messages are mentioned. The first two include the word “China”. The rest talk about supply chain issues, leadership, and space mining. One of the witnesses wrote a book with former Trump advisor Peter Navarro called “Death by China” – so I guess we can see what rabbit holes this hearing may dive into. We can’t even re-do Apollo after half a century and we get all upset when other nations try to. Don’t expect any solutions. This will just be a China bashing session mixed with ideas that space people only discuss with other space people – but not with the rest of us.

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  • NASA Watch
  • December 11, 2023
GAO Report: FAA Should Improve Its Mishap Investigation Process
GAO Report: FAA Should Improve Its Mishap Investigation Process

According to the GAO: “The commercial space industry is rapidly growing as private companies transport cargo, satellites, and people to space. But not all launches go smoothly. Some have exploded or otherwise failed, which can endanger the public. Usually, FAA is responsible for finding out what caused such mishaps. Although FAA can investigate a mishap itself, it has always opted to authorize the launch operator to investigate under agency supervision. But FAA doesn’t have criteria to determine when to authorize an operator to investigate its own mishap, nor has it evaluated how effective its investigation process is. We recommended that FAA address these issues.” Full Report

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  • NASA Watch
  • December 7, 2023
B-52s Will Fly For A Century.  ISS – Not So Much
B-52s Will Fly For A Century. ISS – Not So Much

Keith’s note: NASA has asked companies to offer $1 billion ideas for how to dump the International Space Station into the Pacific. NASA seems to feel that it is not worth updating and they want to replace it with one or more commercial mini-space stations. But NASA may not have anywhere near the funds to do that for a while thus causing a gap in NASA’s human space flight access. Oh yes – and then there’s that Gateway mini-ISS that NASA wants to build out near the Moon for the constantly delayed and always over-budget Artemis Moon program. Congress is rather cool on dumping ISS – and much, much warmer on extending ISS. And if NASA gets cold feet on the future of humans in LEO – or the CLD money dries up – the various CLD commercial space station companies may have a hard time drumming up private sector funding – thus worsening the gap. We’ve already seen Northrop Grumman dropping their own independent CLD bid and merging with Voyager Space. But y’know: old things still work. And if you maintain them, they still will – and if you are smart, old things can get upgrades and keep working for less than replacing them. FWIW The USAF has flown B-52s since 1955. They still had 72 operational as of 2022. Upgrades were done in 2013-15. The last B-52s may well serve to 2050s i.e. 100 year old aircraft. Yet NASA struggles to extend the International Space Station to just one-third of that lifespan. Yes, this is an apples/oranges thing but we threw away Skylab – do you really want to splash the ISS NASA? Seriously.

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 27, 2023
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends Early But Major Milestones Were Accomplished
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends Early But Major Milestones Were Accomplished

Keith’s note: The second flight of a Starship/Heavy Booster began on time today at 8:00 am EST. The rocket performed nominally up to and during “hot staging”. Moments after the separation of the Heavy Booster and Starship the first stage blew up. The Second stage – Starship – continued on a nominal ascent until just before the point at which it would have normally shut down its engines. And all data stopped. SpaceX said on its webcast “No more data from second stage so we think we may have lost it” followed by “Apparently flight termination system may have activated late in ascent over the Gulf of Mexico”. SpaceX then terminated its olive webcast. So, i summary, they had 33 engines on the first stage all the way up to staging, did a clean separation, lost the first stage, sent the second stage almost all the way and then lost that to. Again this was a test flight and they got much further along than they did on the first test flight. Its rocket science folks. Update: I appeared on Deutsche Welle TV this morning to discuss the flight test [Audio]

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 18, 2023
My Suborbital Life Blog 10: Looking Up, WAY Up — S. Alan Stern
My Suborbital Life Blog 10: Looking Up, WAY Up — S. Alan Stern

Years ago, whenever I got an email from Burt Rutan, the legendary airplane designer and the mastermind behind the foundational spaceship designs at Virgin Galactic, Burt would always close with, “Looking up, WAY up!” Today, having finally flown to space myself just under two weeks ago in a spaceship that Rutan first conceived, I find myself thinking a lot about “Looking up, WAY up.”

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 14, 2023
My Suborbital Life Blog 9: Anticipation, Revealed — S. Alan Stern
My Suborbital Life Blog 9: Anticipation, Revealed — S. Alan Stern

This is the 9th and next to last blog I’ll write surrounding my inaugural spaceflight, which took place as a research and training mission that flew last week on Virgin Galactic. Here, I want to close the loop for you on the things I said I was so highly anticipating knowing once I had flown; I published that list in my 6th blog in this series, called “Anticipation.” So, here’s that list again, this time with answers about how each question turned out.

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 7, 2023
My Suborbital Life Blog 8: Welcome to Space! — S. Alan Stern
My Suborbital Life Blog 8: Welcome to Space! — S. Alan Stern

On Thursday I flew to space, and what a ride it was! From the hurtling ascent, to the jam-packed 3 minutes of otherworldly microgravity to get our real work done, to the washboard deceleration of entry, and then the steep glide to a greased landing, it was simultaneously thrilling, fulfilling, and enchanting. And, there’s no contest, it was the single best work day I have ever had!

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 4, 2023
Watching Mom Become An Astronaut
Watching Mom Become An Astronaut

Keith’s note: There is a whole generation alive today who have known no time when humans were not living full time in space. Now the Artemis Generation has members who can watch a parent become an astronaut between breakfast and lunch time. Ad Astra y’all.

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  • NASA Watch
  • November 3, 2023