Keith’s note: I was just on CGTN representing my Astrobiology.com website with Dr. Amitabha Ghosh to talk about the UAP image release and the search for life in the universe. We spent nearly all of our time talking about the science of searching for life and the prospects of finding life – intelligent and otherwise – elsewhere. [Audio].

Keith’s note: I was just on Al Jazeera talking about all of the images and things that were released today about UAPs, aliens, lens flares, etc. [Audio]

Keith’s note: Last year NASA was going through a brutal downsizing effort. The White House is at it again with proposed budget FY 2027 cuts that would cripple large parts of NASA. And new management changes threaten the workforce and science efforts. I needed your financial support last year to keep NASAWatch running. I need help again. 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. NASAWatch is a tiny presence when it comes to immense NASA. Sometimes it squeaks with a loud voice – thanks to you. Note: The button below goes to the secure Stripe financial payment system. The payment will be made to SpaceQ Media Inc. which is handling our donations. It will appear as “SPACEQ MEDIA INC.” on your credit card statement. This is not a tax deductible donation.

Keith’s Note: If you read the NASA press release regarding former NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes’ return to NASA It says “Reporting to NASA Headquarters in Washington, Hughes will have direct responsibility for launch operations at NASA Kennedy, as well as the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. He will work across government, industry, and local leadership to strengthen coordination among stakeholders supporting NASA’s spaceports, enable increased launch cadence, and support execution of the President’s National Space Policy to ensure continued American leadership in space.” As such, the decades-long management by NASA Goddard of NASA Wallops – a launch facility in Virginia (a blue state) will now be run out of Florida (a red state) – thus continuing the deliberate shrinkage of NASA Goddard. And while NASA HQ is not being moved out of Washington DC, some of its major functions will be moving to Florida. Stay tuned as other aspects of the long-anticipated “Red Wedding“ unfold at NASA. Update: NASA Administrator Isaacman and I had a Twitter exchange about this. Full exchange below.

Keith’s 8:54 am EDT note: Former NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes is coming back – to NASA KSC as Senior Director of Launch Operations based at KSC and will report to NASA HQ with direct responsibilities KSC and Wallops. Update 10:23 am EDT: here is the official release

Keith’s note: I posted an item Contractor Conversion Flaws Arise At NASA wherein I summarized information from multiple employees at NASA KSC about workforce contractor to civil servant conversion. Before I continue, I stand by what I wrote based on the very real sources I interacted with. But this is NASA we’re talking about i.e. “NASA = Never A Simple (Straight) Answer“. Communication up and down the management tree at NASA is always flawed with chronic built-in distortion. The new Administrator’s push for transparency has helped, but his efforts are a work in progress. NASA PAO usually ignores NASAWatch these days, so the agency’s response came via the @NASAAdmin account saying that what I posted was “not true”. Again, I can only go by what sources convey to me and what I can confirm via those sources. This evening I got a note from someone in the mix at KSC that contradicts much (but not all) of what I posted (see below). I know who the person is – but retribution for speaking out is still alive and well at NASA – so they will simply be known as “LETF Employee”. Full response from LETF Employee below.

Keith’s note: Prior to the arrival of NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman a substantial part of NASA management direction was done verbally and not documented. Often times it was in direct opposition to stated congressional direction. Congress was not amused – especially Democrats. That has changed under Jared Isaacman to a rather substantial extent. While the FY 2027 Presidential Budget Request for NASA is a near mirror image of the FY 2026 PBR, Congress seems to have a much better interaction with Isaacman – and NASA management. But they are still not happy with science and education cuts. And there is still the matter of NASA delivering its FY 2026 operating plan to Congress. If Democrats gain majority in the House (and maybe the Senate) those concerns will be turbocharged. Meanwhile, the White House is leery of what a potential congressional flip in one or both chambers might mean. According to the Washington Post “The roughly 30-minute briefings have included a PowerPoint presentation about how congressional oversight works and best practices for handling it, according to the two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Staff from the counsel’s office have encouraged political appointees to be careful about what they put in writing and provided guidance for how to respond to congressional inquiries in a timely manner, the people said.” NASA may be somewhat ahead already when it comes to thinking across the aisle. That said … stay tuned.

Keith’s update: see “Contractor Conversion: Two Things Can Be True At NASA” Keith’s note: I have been hearing of some concern at NASA KSC (and elsewhere around NASA too) about a perceived rush to convert core functions from contractors to civil servants. At a top level there is a certain logic to this. But when reality pops up it gets messy. One issue has to do with waiving education requirements to retain civil servant expertise. Again, this makes some sense – people who have been doing the job and doing it well should be allowed to continue regardless of where they got their experience. But when this is put in practice it is totally different. Some of the engineering folks at KSC have 10, 20, 30+ years of experience but are lacking college degrees. They are being told that this prevent or limits their ability to be converted from contractor to civil servant. At the Launch Equipment Test Facility (LETF) the younger contractor engineers with degrees were converted – but the ‘legacy’ (older) engineers were laid off – and with them a lot of space muscle memory went out the door. Update: this response from the NASA Administrator’s witter account was just tweeted. NASA PAO does not bother to contact me directly any more. I stand by my post. Apparently the full picture is not being communicated clearly at all levels and among affected employees at NASA KSC.

Keith’s note: Imagine that I am a regular person trying to find those 12,000 Artemis II images from links in all the recent articles about them. If you go to https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov and search for “Artemis II” or “ArtemisII” or “Artemis” you get one search result (see image). If you search for “Moon” you see “Lunar Collection” which has nothing from Artemis – nor are there any ‘Artemis’ links elsewhere on this Moon page. If you go to the NASA Artemis page or the Artemis II page these 12,000 Artemis II images are not even mentioned.

Keith’s note: Keith’s note: There are lots of CNN stories being told this morning. Ted Turner has left us. But he’s still here. CNN gave him a window into the world and he sought to bring that window to everyone, everywhere. He also cared passionately about peace and our home world’s environment and donated billions to back that up. He was one of a kind. Here’s my story. In August 1980 I was still working for Gov. Jerry Brown’s presidential campaign. We were at the Democratic National Convention in NYC. I was sitting in our campaign suite in the Waldorf Astoria and someone from CNN called. I sort of knew who they were. They had only been on the air for a few weeks. They wanted Jerry on their air. I said that we were aiming for ‘larger’ audiences. They said “but we’re on [was it twenty?] cable systems”. I asked where their booth was in Madison Square Garden. It was way, way up in the cheap seats. I recall saying something like “so you’re up there with AM radio, yes?” and The CNN guy said “yea its really cheap up here and we have a great view”. Ted Turner had been personally working the assembled delegates and candidates to get them on air. I saw him doing that in a hotel lobby. CNN was often the underdog and they always tried harder. Oh yes – then there was the time my good friend Miles O’Brien and I were covering a shuttle launch on the Fourth of July. Suddenly North Korea launched a bunch of missiles toward Japan we had to do 30 minutes of on-air seat of the pants coverage until the military guys showed up in the green room after being pulled out of their holiday picnics. No one else was covering this. We were. Fun times. I have been on CNN over 50 times. I am clearly a fan. It is my favorite network. And it is what it is because of Ted Turner’s vision. Thanks for inviting me over to chat Ted – with all of your great journalists.

Keith’s note: Last Friday afternoon @ASGSRSpace (American Society for Gravitational and Space Research) tweeted that they “hosted an AVATAR Lunch & Learn with congressional staffers Thursday, connecting space biomedical research with policy. Speakers: Lisa Carnell (NASA),Shelby Giza (Space Tango), Mamta Nagaraja (Voyoma/ASGSR) #ASGSR #AVATARBPS #SpacePolicy #ArtemisII @NASA @NASAArtemis”. Science folks justifiably worry about FY 2027 NASA science cuts. It’s good that a few of them decided to try and update Congress on what is going on. That said, no one in the media knew in advance. NASA sent a staffer – but said nothing about their participation. These science advocates hold small events, alert no one, post nothing afterward – except selfies. As a result, a vast pool of external advocates outside the DC space bubble learn nothing. If the NASA science budget is restored it’s probably going to happen in spite of these stealthy efforts. Just sayin’ – but keep tryin’

Keith’s note: I was just on i24 in Israel talking about the Artemis Accords (I used a visual aid), the Artemis II mission, international cooperation in space exploration, inspiration, and that maybe – just maybe – a hope that the way we explore space can teach us something about how we can get along better back on Earth e.g. the ultimate space spinoff. [Audio]

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 was sent to NASA Employees today from Jared Isaacman: “I wanted to take another moment to express my appreciation for Janet Petro’s incredible contributions to her country and our space agency.  I wish her the very best in a well-deserved retirement. It was also a real honor to accompany the Artemis II crew to visit the President of the United States in the Oval Office, where we presented the golden moon to represent NASA’s most recent accomplishment, along with a model of SR-1 Freedom to represent the future. Every time I listen to Reid, Victor, Christina and Jeremy speak, I am reminded what amazing human beings they are, masters of their profession, and great representatives of humanity. I then think about all of you who put them in a position to succeed and how excited I am for the journey ahead. Whether you have stopped to think about it yet or not, America’s return to the Moon is no longer something we read about in history books. Many of you are building and supporting the hardware that will carry future crews to the lunar surface, preparing as flight controllers for the missions ahead, and the astronauts who will walk on the Moon again are walking the halls of Johnson Space Center today. You are part of something extraordinary, and not just the Artemis program that makes the headlines, but the scientists working our telescopes, probes, and rovers, the engineers, controllers, and astronauts supporting the International Space Station, the pilots taking X-59 quietly through the sound barrier, and the rest of you, the unsung heroes behind the scenes, who pull it all together every day. There will be more notes from me in the weeks ahead as we get moving on building the Moon Base, advancing our nuclear spacecraft, and all the other priorities in front of us. But for now, it is an honor to work beside you. Thank you–and have a wonderful weekend. — Jared”

Keith’s note: according to the NASA KSC posting “NASA announced Friday Janet Petro, center director for the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is retiring. … Effective Friday, Kelvin Manning now is stepping into the role of acting center director”. Jared Isaacman also put out a note (see below).

Keith’s note: The House Appropriations Committee (chaired by Republicans) has released its FY2027 Commerce-Justice-Science bill which includes NASA, NSF, and NOAA [Summary] [Full Text] The bill asks for $24.4 billion for NASA. This amount is the almost exactly the same that NASA received in the enacted FY 2026 budget. Last year OMB submitted a FY 2026 Presidential Budget Request asking for $18.8 billion. That large gut was eventually reversed and increased to $24.4 billion – an amount mostly matching the amount NASA got for FY 2025. Apparently, not getting last year’s congressional message, OMB has asked for $18.8 billion for NASA in FY 2027. If last year was a feature – not a bug – then that OMB mark has a significant chance of being bumped upwards – again – perhaps to something close to the $24.4 billion. There is a mark-up hearing on this budget Thursday at 8:00 am EDT so we’ll see what’s likely to happen. Update: the committee approved its FY 2027 bill by a vote of 8 to 6. Republicans who were voting said ‘yes’ and all of Democrats voted against it.

Keith’s note: today the Artemis II crew and Jared Isaacman went to see the president in the Oval Office. This was the crew’s second visit to the Oval Office In 2003 they met with President Biden and talked about their mission and the Moon rock that was on display. Today they met with President Trump. After some initial comments about the actual Moon mission, all that the media – and President Trump – seemed to be interested in was UFOS, Ukraine, Iran, Russia, Putin, Comey, Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Act, fake news, mental institutions, drug dealers, murderers, Farm Bill, nukes,  auto plants, tariffs, trade, Congress, border control, NATO and everything but the Artemis II mission to the Moon and back – the first time this has been done in half a century. A transcript from CSPAN of what was said is included below. NASA/Artemis comments by the President are highlighted in red. Jared Isaacman/NASA comments are highlighted in blue. There is not much in the way of red. Very little blue. More below

Keith’s note: The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS), will host a hearing with Jared Isaacman on the President’s fiscal year 2027 budget request for NASA on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at 10:00 am EDT in Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 138. Livestream HERE.

Keith’s note: NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies

• Isaacman Statement
• Webcast

Keith’s note: According to the Washington Post: “Members of the independent board that guides the National Science Foundation said they received a notice from the White House that their positions were being terminated. Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions Friday by President Donald Trump.” According to House Science Committee Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren: “This is the latest stupid move made by a president who continues to harm science and American innovation,” said Ranking Member Lofgren. “The NSB is apolitical. It advises the president on the future of NSF. It unfortunately is no surprise a president who has attacked NSF from day one would seek to destroy the board that helps guide the Foundation.”