“The program has made progress, but the Artemis schedule poses challenges. Artemis II and III launches (planned for September 2025 and 2026, respectively): EGS is making progress refurbishing the Mobile Launcher 1 – the structure used to transport and launch key systems – and modifying elements to support crew during these missions. New capabilities are taking longer than planned, and the program has only limited time to address potential issues. Artemis IV launch (planned for September 2028): EGS has made some progress toward this mission, such as modifying facilities to accommodate processing and launching the larger Space Launch System (SLS) Block 1B launch vehicle. However, much work remains, some of which cannot start until after the Artemis III launch.” Full report NASA Artemis Missions: Exploration Ground Systems Program Could Strengthen Schedule Decisions

Keith’s note: Payload separation and telemetry AOS for the Europa Clipper Astrobiology expedition confirmed. Europa Clipper has begun its travels across the inner solar system for gravity assists and then outward to the Jovian system and the icy covered ocean world of Europa to search for habitable conditions that might support life. If you are a SciFi fan you may recognize this movie poster parody. Life Looks For Life. Vita quaerit vitae. Update: I was just on Deutsche Welle talking about the Europa Clipper mission – as well as ESA’s Juice mission – and how they will work in tandem exploring the icy worlds that orbit Jupiter – not unlike the polar expeditions of Earth a century ago. Fun fact: these two spacecraft are nearly the same size as the first ships that humans used to explore the arctic and antarctic. [Audio].

Keith’s note: the SpaceX Starship made an apparently flawless launch and return landing this morning – a landing that included being caught by two giant robotic arms at its launch pad – all while its upper stage – the Starship has been placed in its desired orbit. Update: I spoke with Deutsche Welle after the flight about the mission and its significance. [Audio]

Keith’s note: NASA just turned 66. Jimmy Carter just turned 100. Too bad NASA does not remember its own past – a past currently being sent to the stars.

Keith’s note: I was just on the Scripps News “Morning Rush” program talking about Earth’s new (temporary) Mini-moon 2024 PT5. Someone needs to give it a name. [Audio]

Keith’s note: According to a NASA OIG report NASA’s Management of Risks to Sustaining ISS Operations through 2030: “After more than a decade of effort, NASA and its partners continue to develop a transition and deorbit plan to prevent an operations gap in LEO and ensure a safe and controlled deorbit of the ISS. Russia has not committed to ISS operations through 2030, which includes the deorbit plan and timeline. Without commitment from Russia to the current deorbit plan, the ability to conduct a controlled deorbit is unclear. In June 2024, NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX to develop the U.S. deorbit vehicle to execute the controlled deorbit of the ISS in 2031. Nonetheless, the uncertainty of commercial LEO destination-readiness, limited budget availability, and the potential delay in availability of the U.S. deorbit vehicle adds more schedule challenges and risks to NASA’s 2031 deorbit plan.”

Keith’s note: according to the NASA OIG: “Much of NASA’s RPT infrastructure is aging and requires significant funding to maintain. Meanwhile, the landscape for RPT is changing. Increased commercialization in the space industry has lessened demand for NASA’s large-scale RPT facilities. NASA is also transferring some responsibility for payload delivery to commercial partners, such as in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. These trends lead to NASA’s RPT stands sitting unused more often. From fiscal year (FY) 2022 to 2026, the percentage of NASA test stand capabilities in active use is projected to decrease from 47 percent to 26 percent. Of the 10 test stands projected for use in FY 2025, five are being leased to commercial entities. Five of the Program’s test stands are in mothball or demolition status, and Stennis’s A-2 and A-3 test stands sat idle for nearly a decade before being leased to external customers. In addition to decreased demand, the RPT Program is facing a flat budget, with enough funding to maintain core staff and facilities, but insufficient funding to address major maintenance projects.” Full report: NASA’s Rocket Propulsion Test Program

Keith’s note: According to NASA SMD there will be a Town Hall for Planetary Science Research Programs on Oct 15. (official email below) “In advance of and during the webinar questions may be submitted and upvoted on at:
https://nasa.cnf.io/sessions/qfp6/#!/dashboard “ So … all of you out there concerned about planetary and space science missions – vote, add your comments etc. If you are afraid of things being traced back to you – use a private phone or home computer. You pay for this space program. Time to provide some feedback. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: According to a press release “Science Committee Leaders Commend House Passage of NASA Reauthorization“: “Today, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee leaders praised the House passage of H.R. 8958, the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2024. This bipartisan legislation reaffirms our commitment to leading global space and science endeavors and emphasizes the importance of commercial partnerships and international collaboration in advancing space exploration and scientific research. … Read the bill’s Fact Sheet and Section by Section.”

Keith’s note: I was on BBC World News [Audio], Deutsche Welle [Audio], and CGTN [Audio] talking about the Polaris Dawn EVA. During my BBC and DW interviews I compared and contrasted spacewalks in the 1960s and today as well as NASA spacesuits and new commercial space suits. I used one of those spongy astronaut things NASA gives away at meetings but I added a USB-C cable to demonstrate the tether used by the Polaris crew. If you are of a certain age and watched Gemini astronauts doing EVAs live on TV, then you may recognize the orange-visored helmet that my little astronaut is wearing. Update: After the return of Polaris Dawn I spoke with Deutsche Welle Sunday morning [Audio] and then again in the evening [Audio]. I also spoke with Alhurra [Audio] (videos below)

[L] Astronaut Scott Parazynski stands atop Everest, the highest point on Earth’s surface, watching a sunrise. [R] Astronaut Jared Isaacman stands atop Resilience, the highest vantage point in Earth orbit, watching a sunset.

Keith’s note: according to the National Academies report “NASA at a Crossroads – Maintaining Workforce, Infrastructure, and Technology Preeminence in the Coming Decades” (full report) “The committee offers seven “core findings” that, in its view, rise to the highest level of priority. These issues often have cross-cutting connotations that impact more than one of the three resource areas cited in the legislation mentioned above and are interrelated. The committee’s findings regarding these high priority “core” issues are as follows:”

Editor’s note: I first posted this on 10 Sep 2011. I used to run through the precise place where the plane hit the Pentagon when I lived across the street at Riverhouse III (I moved to Reston in 1990). Eric Sterner lived a few blocks away. Bill Readdy’s friend lived in the same building as I did and watched this happen out his window. And Lon Rains was in traffic and saw this unfold with his own eyes. Two people from my town of Reston did not come home that day. Had I been looking up I could have seen the plane in the sky over our house. A few hours after the attack someone in Reston decided to put up an American flag on the pedestrian overpass a few blocks from our house. It was a flag with only 48 stars. An antique. It was all that they could find on such short notice. Through all these years two haunting color images remain in my mind: some red begonias in a window at the Pentagon and that achingly blue September 11th sky. We have one of those blue skies today. Remember. — Original posting below.

Keith’s note: Looks like the crew of Crew Dragon Resilience are off to a good start. After a weather delay at 3:23 am they launched on-time at 5:35 am EDT and are now safely in space. It would be an understatement to say that this is going to be a cool mission. I was just on CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt and Kristin Fisher [Audio] and yes, I compared the new SpaceX spacesuits to what a DJ might wear at a EDM rave. I was also on BBC World News [Audio] and Deutsche Welle [Audio] this afternoon. During my BBC interview I used yet another prop (picture below). This time it was a plastic savings bank shaped like a Mercury capsule I got when I was 7 years old back in 1960s when it was the current advanced human spacecraft. Its the shape that’s important.

Keith’s note: Starliner made a mostly flawless return to Earth early today. I was on Deutsche Welle yesterday before the landing [audio] and then again after the landing [audio]. If you go to 03:25 on this YouTube video of the interview you’ll see that I had a walk-on guest commentary on the alien-sounding noises coming out of Starliner’s comm system (the picture on this post). I then did BBC World News this morning [audio] and CGTN this evening [audio]. YouTube videos of these interviews are posted below.

Keith’s note: NASA posted a blog update on the Europa Clipper mission and put out a tweet. Note the last sentence: “NASA’s Europa Clipper mission remains on track, with a launch period opening on Thursday, Oct. 10. The next major milestone for Clipper is Key Decision Point E on Monday, Sept. 9, in which the agency will decide whether the project is ready to proceed to launch and mission operations. NASA will provide more information at a mission overview and media briefing targeted for that same week. The Europa Clipper mission team recently conducted extensive testing and analysis of transistors that help control the flow of electricity on the spacecraft. Analysis of the results suggests the transistors can support the baseline mission.” Hmmm … “results suggest they’re ready to support our baseline mission”. Um, that’s not the same as “Yes, the transistors have been fully tested and they can fully support the mission we originally planned to do”. There is also another meeting – “Key Decision Point E” – where they give the formal go ahead to launch. I’d ask NASA PAO to clarify the wording – but they won’t respond to me – and if they do respond they will punt and tell me to wait a few weeks for the press event. So stay tuned.

Keith’s Note: When Senator Administrator Bill Nelson walked in the door at NASA they thought Mobile Launcher 2 would cost $500 million. NASA OIG now says that it will have cost $2.7 billion by the time Bechtel delivers it. Add in delays and cost overruns in the overall Artemis project and the ever slowing launch cadence between missions and you have to wonder why NASA is building something that it simply does not need and probably never did. And when OIG suggests that NASA convert this to a fixed cost contract to nail down the final costs NASA says “no”. Bill Nelson gets mad about China beating the U.S. (back) to the Moon when NASA is doing a great job of allowing that to happen. According to OIG: “NASA projects the ML-2 will cost over three times more than planned. In 2019, NASA estimated the entire ML-2 project from design through construction would cost under $500 million with construction completed and the ML-2 delivered to NASA by March 2023. In December 2023, NASA estimated the ML-2 project would cost $1.5 billion, including $1.3 billion for the Bechtel contract and $168 million for other project costs, with delivery of the launcher to NASA in November 2026. In June 2024, NASA established the Agency Baseline Commitment (ABC)—the cost and schedule baseline committed to Congress against which a project is measured—for a ML-2 project cost of $1.8 billion and a delivery date of September 2027. Even with the establishment of the ABC, NASA intends to keep Bechtel accountable to the cost and schedule agreed to in December 2023. Despite the Agency’s increased cost projections, our analysis indicates costs could be even higher due in part to the significant amount of construction work that remains. Specifically, our projections indicate the total cost could reach $2.7 billion by the time Bechtel delivers the ML-2 to NASA. With the time NASA requires after delivery to prepare the launcher, we project the ML-2 will not be ready to support a launch until spring 2029, surpassing the planned September2028 Artemis IV launch date. NASA officials disagree with our analysis and expect cost growth to lessen over time now that Bechtel has started construction of the launcher. The Agency believes this is an area of expertise for the contractor. While progress has been made with the beginning of construction of the ML-2, it is still too early to determine the impact on the contract’s continued cost growth and whether Bechtel can achieve and sustain an improved level of performance throughout the construction phase.” Full report: NASA’s Management of the Mobile Launcher 2 Project

Keith’s note: NASA says that Starliner will return to Earth without any crew. Butch and Suni will stay on ISS until early 2025 when the Crew 9 on a SpaceX Dragon will bring them home. That’s three times that Boeing’s Starliner has flown and each mission has had problems – two of the missions have had mission-altering safety issues. And of course no one has been cited as being at fault. That will likely change when the inevitable congressional hearings occur. Did the post-Columbia safety culture at NASA work? Yes. Full stop. Did contractor oversight by NASA and contractor performance by Boeing work? You tell me. For the same program SpaceX did everything nearly flawlessly with Dragon years before and a $billion+ less than Boeing. Bill Nelson says that NASA will be flying astronauts on Starliner again. Well, it’s easy to punt and say that now since that decision will be made after the election and regardless of who wins Nelson will probably not be making that call. That said, at what point does NASA give up? One has to wonder whether Starliner will ever fly again with – or without – humans. Three strikes and … Update: I spoke about this with LBC Radio in the UK [audio], on Deutsche Welle TV at 4:00 pm EDT [audio] and again at 7:00 pm EDT [audio] and was on CGTN TV at 5:00 pm EDT [audio]. Videos below.

Keith’s note: I was watching Sen. Tammy Duckworth speak at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday night and had a flashback. In August 1980 I was working on Gov. Jerry Brown’s presidential campaign. Among many other things I did, I was his sign language interpreter – which is what I did for a living prior to joining his campaign.

Keith’s note: Wednesday morning I was on CNN talking about the latest news – or rather lack thereof – regarding the ongoing Boeing Starliner saga. NASA held a media update today – except there was no actual “news”. All we heard from them was “yea, they’re still up there. We’ll get back to you” And yes, I did make a reference to the opening of “Gilligan’s Island” on CNN. [Audio]. I was also on CGTN [Audio], Deutsche Welle [Audio], and BBC World Service talking about Starliner during the day. Thursday update: And I just did a radio interview on Starliner with W Radio (with an excellent Spanish interpreter!) and they have a 33 million+ global reach.