Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO “Roscosmos has paused Friday’s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, as more measurements and data is assessed. Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International Space Station. We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.” — Note: I will be on BBC World News TV around 12:00 pm EDT, Al Jazeera English at 1:00 pm EDT, and Deutsche Welle at 4:00 pm EDT to talk about this and no doubt show up on some other network.

Keith’s note: a modified version of the long-feared ‘Schedule F’ has arrived albeit in a somewhat truncated form. Thousands of career civil service positions are now political positions subject to new rules including greatly enhanced ease of quick dismissal. Curiously there has been no public mention of this dramatic personnel overhaul by NASA. (earlier posts).

• Implementing Schedule Policy/Career in the Excepted Service, White House: “Section 1. Purpose. The President relies on subordinates in the executive branch to help him faithfully execute the laws and advance the priorities for which he was elected by the American people. Officials in confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, and policy-advocating roles (policy-influencing positions) play particularly important roles in helping him fulfill this constitutional duty. Therefore, ensuring that such employees can be removed for misconduct or poor performance is essential to protecting democratic self-government by an elected President.”
• Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Increases Accountability in the Federal Workforce, White House: “Federal employee removal procedures are lengthy and burdensome. Removals and subsequent appeals often take a year or more to process. As a result, agencies seldom remove career employees, even at senior levels, including for egregious conduct or subversion of Presidential priorities.”
• Trump signs order moving thousands of federal employees into Schedule F, Government Executive: “The official said the vast majority — around 97% — of those impacted are either GS-15s or senior leaders (SL). Jobs targeted for conversion include agency office and division heads; C-suite posts like chief information officers; regional officers and their deputies and chiefs of staff; program managers; those who help write federal regulations and attorneys involved in crafting agency or internal policies, as well as advisors, senior HR officials and grantmaking posts.”
• Trump moves about 8,000 federal positions to Schedule Policy/Career, Federal News Network: “You can have any political views, but if you allow those views to basically interfere with your willingness to actually carry out lawful orders and policy directives with the administration, then this provides a mechanism for people in those agencies to be able to be removed effectively at-will,” [Office of Personnel Management Director Scott] Kupor continued.”

Keith’s note: During the “Ignition“ event in March NASA said it would launch a new government-owned anchor or core module to the ISS and then have it remain as the nucleus of any future commercial space station. Given that every commercial space station effort more or less launches its own infrastructure this would have thrown a wrench into their plans and possibly undermined commercial investment. NASA has decided to dial that back: “In the spirit of learning from past programmatic challenges and ensuring a responsible transition from the International Space Station, NASA evaluated both the current commercial space station approach and alternative pathways. Industry has provided extensive feedback making the case for a sustainable commercial market in which NASA is one customer among many, along with assurances regarding available transportation capabilities. The industry position will now shape the path forward as NASA proceeds with the original commercial strategy. Over the coming weeks, NASA will work with stakeholders and industry to refine flexible requirements and acquisition plans, with a draft RFP expected later this month.”

Keith’s note: NASA HQ now has a new public visitor facility with some cool stuff. On the front windows of HQ are some big banners – one mentions some sort of sponsorship by/affiliation with “Freedom 250”. Meanwhile I got a press release from the Federal Circuit Center for Innovation & Law that said “America 250 program takes visitors from Dolley Madison’s parlor and NASA’s first DC headquarters …” So what is the intent of Freedom 250 vs America 250 things involving NASA? Like most people in DC, I am confused as to what is political and what is not. I’d ask NASA PAO, but they are all political there, so.

• America 250 (United States Semiquincentennial) is a non-political entity created by Congress to ensure all 350 americans can participate. America 250 was established by Congress as a bipartisan committee in 2016 focusing mostly on historical and educational events nationwide.
• “Freedom 250“ was created under an executive order by the President and supports fireworks, Patriot Games National Competition, the White House UFC mega cage fight thing and that Indy 250 race through the streets of DC.
• Some in Congress now accuse Freedom 250 of using a portion of the $150 million allocated by Congress for America 250 to fund events under the executive branch i.e Freedom 250. – There was also alot of confusion as to who was sponsoring that now-cancelled concert wherein nearly all acts cancelled when they found out it was poliical (Freedom 250) and not apolitical (America 250).
• If you look at the pictures of NASA Administrator’s private jets (private, not government) they have a Freedom 250 logo on the tail.
• If you go to the official NASA 250th birthday website it says “Freedom 250” i.e https://www.nasa.gov/freedom250/ with pictures on lots of NASA rockets and aircraft
• If you go to any random Artemis II SLS picture like this you can see America 250 logo on the SRBs – but no Freedom 250. But the Artemis II crew (including a Canadian) wore Freedom 250 patches.
• The line between America 250 and Freedom 250 is blurry. Will politics will outweigh the patriotism – and where does NASA fit into all of this? Hard to tell these days.

Keith’s note: The current administration forbids mention of Pride Month by NASA – but they cannot stomp out Pride inside, outside, and surrounding NASA.

Keith’s note: Last year I was trying to retire. Circumstances at NASA changed that. I needed financial help to run a beefed-up NASAWatch to handle the traffic and y’all were very kind and funded it for a year. My long-time business partner Marc Boucher and I are now working a total overhaul of the site as it moves into the future. Lots of new things will be added. Meanwhile I am going to try and get back to my interest in Astrobiology on my Astrobiology.com website which I also host. And maybe I can finally finish my book on Astrobiology expeditions. We’re doing a soft launch of our crowd funding campaign today. FYI I am not drawing any salary from this. The funds go to what it takes to run the site and add new talent to it. Anything you can spare will help keep NASAWatch going. Thanks in advance. Ad Astra y’all.

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Keith’s note: The following message was sent to NASA employees by Jared Isaacman today: “NASA Team, I want to take a moment to congratulate and recognize Will Boyington’s accomplishments as he steps down from his role as Associate Administrator for NASA’s Office of Communications to take on a new position outside of the agency.” More below

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN [Audio] talking about the New Glenn explosion last night – based mostly on video and initial reports of damage. The technical aspects, root cause etc. will take a while to emerge. Given delays with both SpaceX and Blue Origin contributions to the Artemis program this is a rather uncertain time for America’s return to the Moon. But NASA and its contractor team has bounced back before. Ad Lunam. Update: I was also on Deutsche Welle [Audio] and NewsNation with my long-time friend Leroy Chiao [Audio]. Video links below.

Keith’s note: a few minutes ago the Blue Origin New Glenn rocket exploded on its launch pad during a static test. Major damage has been reported. To state the obvious – especially in light of issues with SpaceX Starship 12 flight, this certainly changes things for NASA’s Artemis plans. Of course NASASpaceflight.com, always alert, caught the whole thing.

Once upon a time humans took short trips to the Moon. Then we stopped. Now we are going back – to stay. The prospect of an actual Moon base wherein we live and work offworld utterly fascinates me. It has for more than 50 years. Now we’re actually going to do it. How we do this whole Moon base thing absolutely captivates me. I’m going to write a lot about this on NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com as I pivot my efforts in the years ahead. I am already writing a book on how to mount Astrobiology expeditions on this world – and beyond. So these dispatches will be somewhat of an installment series from that process. More below

Keith’s note: According to this press release from the National Space Society, I will be receiving the NSS’s ‘Space Pioneer Award for excellence in mass media’. I am not exactly the award winning type. As such, I am doubly flattered by this – especially given the folks who have been similarly honored in prior years. More below.

Keith’s note: According to this press release NASA did a big Moon base reveal today. Lunar landers, rovers, and drone selections were announced. Two Moon-related BAAs will be released as well. And the NASA Moonbase website has some upgrades.

Keith’s note: I asked Achintya Bairat (social accounts) from NASA JSC if I could post this rather inspiring story he just posted on LinkedIn. Wow. What an experience. Space is a potent calling. “April 16th is a day etched into my memory forever. In the morning, I received a call for an interview for my dream job at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Two hours later, I got a call from my doctor. “We’ve diagnosed you with stage 4 metastatic cancer. If we don’t treat this now, you won’t have a future to worry about, let alone an interview.” As fate would have it, my first surgery was scheduled for the exact same time and day as my NASA interview.” More below

Keith’s note: I was just on CGTN to talk about the launch of Shenzhou 23 and China’s longer term space ambitions. And I managed to get a plug in regarding the Artemis Accords (at 3:02). [Audio]

Keith’s note: according to “White House is ordering agencies to place its new app on all employees’ government phones” on Government Executive: “The White House recently unveiled a new app to give the public “unfiltered” access to “key priorities,” “historic moments” and “policy breakthroughs.” Now, it’s directing agencies to help install it on the government phones of federal employees.” FYI NASA employees: Here’s a link to the app that will soon appear on your government-issued phones. I wonder if NASA PAO items will be posted there. It is rated as useful for people ages 4+. What could possibly go wrong.

Keith’s note: according to U.S. researchers face new restrictions on publishing with foreign collaborators from Science Magazine: “Grants managers at two of the U.S. government’s largest funders of scientific research have recently placed unprecedented limitations on the ability of U.S. scientists to publish with co-authors from other countries, researchers say. Units of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are privately directing grantees to request permission in advance for any co-authorship with a scholar affiliated with a foreign institution, even if all the work was done in the United States. NASA, meanwhile, is reportedly telling some grantees that papers co-authored with researchers in China may have violated its rules.”

Keith’s note: The V 3.0 edition of the SpaceX Starship made its maiden flight tonight. The first stage with its sexy new Raptor 3 engines and total vehicle redesign did OK on the way uphill – but struggled with engine issues on the way back and made big splash (as planned) in the Gulf of Mexico. Ship 39 did much better. It lost a vacuum Raptor during ascent but otherwise did everything perfectly in space – except a Raptor re-light. A bunch of Starlink test satellites made elegant departures from the Ship’s ‘Pez dispenser’. They were followed by two “Dodger Dogs” – variants of the Starling 3 platform – equipped with cameras to look back at the spacecraft. And wow, they sure did. What a view. Re-entry was smooth and the vehicle looked rather clean as it did a soft water propulsive landing, fell over and did a nice rapid disassembly.

Keith’s note: Here it is: Jared Isaacman’s Magnum Opus 2.0 on how to reorganize and reboot NASA. Typos are mine not Jared’s. Oh yes – the picture, well … early on, Jared said he wanted to develop “Starfleet Academy” at NASA, right? “It has been a busy few weeks, and I wanted to provide some updates. To begin, I want to once again acknowledge the incredible contributions of the NASA workforce, along with our commercial and international partners, in sending the Artemis II crew safely on a historic mission around the Moon. You have captivated the world again, and now the show goes on as we prepare to return to the surface, build a base, and get ready for where we will inevitably go next.” While this is a long letter discussing organizational changes, the objectives remain unchanged …. ” Full letter below

Keith’s note: NASA just issued this press release: “NASA announced plans Friday to compete the next contract for managing and operating the agency’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in Southern California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), to ensure continued accountability and strong value for U.S. taxpayers.” Full text below

Keith’s note: NASA Just issued this: “NASA announced Friday an agencywide realignment to increase mission focus and move out on the National Space Policy. These changes position the agency to better deliver on the nation’s highest‑priority objectives with speed and efficiency.” Full (rather lengthy and specific) announcement below