This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
NASA Culture
LATEST
Annual NASA OIG Report: Great Science – Poor Project Management
Annual NASA OIG Report: Great Science – Poor Project Management

Keith’s note: The annual NASA OIG look at issues confronting NASA is out and nothing has changed. NASA still accomplishes astonishing things yet that is challenged by the fact that NASA still cannot figure out what things cost or deliver them on time. “… Despite these important achievements, substantial cost growth and lengthy schedule delays continue to impact not only human space flight programs, like the Space Launch System and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, but also other major science and exploratory programs, projects, and missions. In addition, the International Space Station’s planned retirement at the end of the decade poses a challenge for the Agency as it seeks to maintain an active human presence in low Earth orbit. The Agency also faces long-standing challenges managing its information technology; overseeing contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements; ensuring it attracts and retains a highly technical and diverse workforce; and managing outdated infrastructure and facilities.” Full report: OIG 2023 Report on NASA’s Top Management and Performance Challenges

(more…)
  • NASA Watch
  • November 1, 2023
Another NASA Exploration Report (Re)States The Obvious But Lacks True Exploratory Energy
Another NASA Exploration Report (Re)States The Obvious But Lacks True Exploratory Energy

Keith’s note: NASA has issued another report (“New NASA Report Looks at Societal Considerations for Artemis“). Titled Artemis, Ethics and Society: Synthesis from a Workshop the report “seeks to foster discussion about how the agency can make such dramatic progress in a way that takes ethical and societal considerations into account”. I have read through it and decided to make an annotation of the overall findings with my usual snark. This is a typical NASA report – one that spends a lot of time in less than normal stilted and cautionary English talking about the process of writing the report – and less time on providing useful information. It is mostly ‘OMG we’re actually going to do this whole Artemis Moon thing for real and we jumped into this without thinking things through ahead of time. Or maybe some other part of NASA has done this for other programs and lost that report or who cares this is different. But we need bullet charts and action items in boxes to show that we are serious’. To be fair some people involved actually rose to the occasion and said some smart things – but in many cases NASA punted because they were afraid to step outside of their sandbox or look out of their organizations’ stovepipe. In addition, NASA, as an agency is risk adverse in every imaginable way. And when to comes to public affairs, education, and public outreach or talking to real people on the street they are terrified of bad results. So they stay in their cubicles and have meetings about sentences and do not venture out beyond what the groupthink sees as safe. This whole Artemis thing is about going to live on the Moon long-term and then go to Mars. That is a bold undertaking – on steroids. NASA needs to stop finding excuses not to interact with the real world and new partners and instead “go boldly” into this endeavor. Back when the whole exploration re-visit/reboot happend post-Columbia, the Exploration AA Craig Steidle had a simple exploration logo with the latin phrase “audaces fortuna juvat” – “Fortune favors the bold”. I see nothing remotely “bold” in this report. Below is a stream of consciousness annotation of the four main observations starting on page iii:

(more…)
  • NASA Watch
  • September 21, 2023
Florida’s Head Is In The Sand While It Sends Things To The Stars
Florida’s Head Is In The Sand While It Sends Things To The Stars

Keith’s note: FWIW I just tweeted this: “Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem “The Hill We Climb” was banned by a Florida school – the same state where @NASA sends missions that climb a great hill – up to the stars. FYI Florida words by @TheAmandaGorman were launched – from Florida – on the #NASA @LucyMission Just sayin’ “

  • NASA Watch
  • May 24, 2023
NASA Has A New PAO Contractor
NASA Has A New PAO Contractor

Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO: “NASA has selected PCI Productions LLC of Huntsville, Alabama, to manage communication services for all agency centers including headquarters, as well as its mission directorates, to enable the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of NASA information. … “This is one major step in our overall procurement strategy for communications that will allow us to more efficiently and effectively use the amazing capability of NASA communications organizations to connect the world with the agency’s missions,” said Johnny Stephenson, deputy associate administrator for Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington.” FYI Johnny Stephenson spent most of his career at NASA MSFC – also in Huntsville, Alabama. On his Twitter account @jfstephenson1 he lists his position as “Director/Strategic Analysis & Comm at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center, Real Estate investor, Sports fan”. He has 106 followers. This is the number two Comms guy for all of NASA – yet he can’t even make his social media account accurate. Oh yes, the new NASA PAO contractor @PciProductions only has 7 followers on Twitter. Let the world-class outreach goodness commence.

(more…)
  • NASA Watch
  • March 3, 2023
NASA Space Apps Challenge Ignored (Again) By NASA
NASA Space Apps Challenge Ignored (Again) By NASA

Keith’s note: The 2022 Global winners of the 2022 NASA International Space Apps Challenge were announced today. You can read about it but only outside of NASA at the Space Apps website. There was mention many days in advance by the NASA International Space Apps Challenge Twitter account @SpaceApps as well as by the various SpaceApps participants around the world. But that’s more or less all the visibility that was given for this event – an activity that is an impressive demonstration of the truly global soft power projection that NASA is capable of inspiring. There was no mention of this event at NASA.gov before or after the annoncement today. No NASA media advisory was sent out, nor was any press release posted by PAO anywhere within the NASA web universe. Take a look below at how pervasive the ambivalence about this amazing NASA activity was at NASA today:

(more…)
  • NASA Watch
  • December 8, 2022
Yet Another Example Of The Global Reach Of The NASA Brand

Hmm, what can I do if you can find NASA t-shirts practically everywhere for like ~5 euros, while ESA ones… These photos are from the Romanian science festival last year pic.twitter.com/EDlFYohu94 — Sandor Kruk (@kruksandor) February 22, 2020 – Bridenstine: “The NASA brand is the most valuable brand America has”, earlier post Keith’s note: NASA has done a good job – an increasingly good one – at allowing the logo’s […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 25, 2020
Jim Bridenstine Spoke At Liberty University Today

Yes they asked this question at a Bible college and the @LibertyU guy could not resist making a dozen #Uranus jokes at @JimBridenstine's expense pic.twitter.com/VIY95kI2JH — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 7, 2020 Keith’s note: More tweets below. FYI I stumbled across this in my Facebook feed. NASA did not make any mention of this appearance. Toward the end they played a question and answer game with Jim Bridenstine. Whoever was […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 7, 2020
NASA Asks For Comments About Seeking Comments About Comments
NASA Asks For Comments About Seeking Comments About Comments

NASA Notice of Information Collection, NASA HQ “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections. … Comments are invited on–(1) Whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of NASA, including whether the […]

  • NASA Watch
  • December 21, 2016
NASA Future In-Space Operations: Design Space for Space Design
NASA Future In-Space Operations: Design Space for Space Design

NASA FISO Presentation: Design Space for Space Design – Cybernetics, Human-Centered Design “Tibor Balint is a researcher at the Royal College of Art, School of Design, finalizing his second PhD in Innovation Design Engineering. He spent 4 years at NASA-HQ as the Senior Technical Advisor; the Program Executive for GCD at STMD; and a Senior Technologist at OCT. At JPL he worked for 8 years as a mission architect and […]

  • NASA Watch
  • August 19, 2016
NASA Worm to Meatballs Lecture

From Worms to Meatballs — NASA Talk Traces Emblematic History, NASA Langley On Tuesday, July 9, at NASA’s Langley Research Center, retired NASA aerospace engineer Joe Chambers will present, “Wings, Meatballs, Worms and Swooshes: The Unknown Story of the NASA Seal and Insignia,” Chambers will discuss the history and origins of the official NASA seal and the less-formal NASA insignia and how they became two of the most recognized emblems […]

  • NASA Watch
  • July 9, 2013
Are you ready for the Red Planet? Book Review: Mary Roach's "Packing for Mars"

Mary Roach’s Packing for Mars: the Curious Science of Life in the Void will give you a whole new view of an astronaut’s life Frank Sietzen, Jr.: For most of us spacers human spaceflight is nothing to, well, joke about. After all, riding rockets into the cosmos is serious business, and there’s nothing that NASA or we do better than take ourselves seriously – perhaps too seriously. In the last […]

  • NASA Watch
  • August 15, 2010
Citizen Science: Will NASA Lead or Fall Behind?

Citizen Scientists Discover Rotating Pulsar, NSF “Idle computers are the astronomers’ playground: Three citizen scientists–an American couple and a German–have discovered a new radio pulsar hidden in data gathered by the Arecibo Observatory. This is the first deep-space discovery by Einstein@Home, which uses donated time from the home and office computers of 250,000 volunteers from 192 different countries. This is the first genuine astronomical discovery by a public volunteer distributed […]

  • NASA Watch
  • August 13, 2010
GSFC PAO Is Bragging (Again)

Keith’s note: GSFC PAO has taken to bragging a bit. This little gem is posted at the bottom of some photo captions on their Flickr account: “NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation’s largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.” Is this accurate? I’m not exactly certain […]

  • NASA Watch
  • August 5, 2010
Making NASA "Open"

NASA Idea Brainstorming Tool, Open Government at NASA “NASA is seeking input on the creation of the NASA Open Government Plan. As outlined in the Open Government Directive, this brainstorming tool is a mechanism gain input on how to make the key principle of openness a meaningful pillar of NASA’s mission, and how to implement participation, transparency and collaboration activities such that NASA becomes more relevant, efficient, and accountable. Key […]

  • NASA Watch
  • March 8, 2010
The NAC Makes A Big Step Towards Transparency

Keith’s note: You can watch the NASA Advisory Council’s Subcommittee on Education and Public Outreach meeting today live via USTREAMTV here between 10 am and 4 pm EST. After all the abuse I heap on the agency, I am glad to see that NASA is finally getting the message. Eventually, all NAC meetings – including all NAC subcommittee meetings – need to be made available to the public like this […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 17, 2010
"I wasn't born here at JSC, but I got here as soon as I could"

reader note: “An unbadged man said to me as I left my JSC building last Friday, “Is this a place of business or a campus? I mean, is this ‘where it all happens’?” I was going to challenge him but he explained he was a bus driver from that bus over there that had brought in some people. I said, just, Yes Sir! and went on home. (It was a […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 13, 2010
You Know You Messaging Plan Is Not Working When …

Keith’s note: You know that the message plan NASA has been trying to roll out is not working when signs carried by protesters outside of KSC today say “Obama lied – NASA died”. It gets worse: I also received a link to a YouTube video from someone sitting at their desk at NASA that uses captioned movie footage of an actor playing Hitler to criticise the Obama decision on Constellation. […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 6, 2010
Bolden Talks About The Constellation Team

“NASA Administrator Charles Bolden outlines the Administration’s fiscal year 2011 budget request as the agency’s road map for a new era of innovation and discovery, and answers questions from reporters as the featured Newsmaker at the National Press Club in Washington Feb. 2” Keith’s note: If you go to 55:18 in this video, I ask Charlie Bolden how he is going to get people to make the transition from flying […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 2, 2010
Erasing History – Not An Easy Task

Keith’s note: Now that NASA has been directed by the White House to cancel Constellation, and with it, all of NASA’s big time lunar ambitions, I wonder when they will start to yank things like this sad dancing Moon walker animation offline. Seriously – this is not an insignificant task since there is an immense amount of VSE-related material that NASA has put online since 2004 that will now need […]

  • NASA Watch
  • February 1, 2010