Stephen Hawking to Receive Medal Flown on Space Shuttle“The British Royal Society is awarding Professor Hawking its prestigious Copley Medal on Nov. 30 for his contributions to theoretical physics and theoretical cosmology. The silver gilt medal flew on space shuttle Discovery’s July 2006 mission to the International Space Station, at the initiative of crew member Piers Sellers, a native of Britain. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin will travel to London to […]

Astronomers Discuss Moon Opportunities, AP“While some have criticized the limited amount of time available for research on space missions, Grunsfeld said about 18 percent is usually available for research. While that may seem like very little time, it is comparable to limitations faced by researchers in other harsh environments, such as the Antarctic, he said.”

New Horizons Gets First Glimpse of Pluto“New Horizons, Not Quite to Jupiter, Makes First Pluto Sighting The New Horizons team got a faint glimpse of the mission’s distant, main planetary target when one of the spacecraft’s telescopic cameras spotted Pluto for the first time. The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) took the pictures during an optical navigation test on Sept. 21-24, and stored them on the spacecraft’s data recorder until […]

Save Centennial Challenges – Space Leaders Call on Congress to Restore Funding“Created with an appropriation of just under $10 million in FY2005, Centennial Challenges is currently returning highly leveraged and efficient research, development, and engineering benefits to NASA at extremely low costs and stands ready to accomplish even loftier goals if given additional funding. Unfortunately, although the House of Representatives voted to support the program in 2007, such funding was […]

Editor’s note: Doug Stanley, the leader of the ESAS last year has been making some interesting posts at nasaspaceflight.com. A friend referred one posting in particular to me. It would seem that Dr. Stanley has some issues with things that were posted on NASA Watch regarding the ESAS.Curiously, throughout the ESAS process – and in the full year following its release – not once did I ever get a request […]

NASA Space Station Status Report 23 November 2006“Tyurin’s golf shot was part of a demonstration for a commercially sponsored endeavor between a Canadian golf company and the Russian Federal Space Agency. The golf club and three balls were flown to the station on recent Russian Progress cargo ships. NASA’s safety analysis showed that the balls will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up in about three days. The balls weigh […]

NASA Strategic Communications Framework Validation Session Presentation“The Office of Communications Planning (OCP) is charged with developing long-term communication strategies and plans for increasing public awareness and understanding of NASA’s mission and goals.You are here today for the presentation of the NASA Strategic Communications Framework. We are requesting your inputs by Monday, November 27, 2006.Together, we embark on a new Communications Approach for the Agency. Today is the first step.” Editor’s […]

In Hoyer’s Rise, Backers Eye Payoff, Washington Post“As the Democratic congressman from Southern Maryland prepares to assume the post of U.S. House majority leader, constituents and officials in his district hope that the move will put Hoyer in a stronger position to do what has earned him much loyal support in his 25 years in Congress: bring home the bacon. … Hoyer has helped to steer billions of federal dollars […]

NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor May Be at Mission’s End“NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor has likely finished its operating career. The spacecraft has served the longest and been the most productive of any mission ever sent to the red planet.”

NASA Internal Memo From Constellation Program Manager Jeff Hanley“All, between articles like this one (see below) and the wave of ‘better ideas’ for architecture that have waded into recent notoriety, I thought it was time to level set folks on where things stand and dispel these rumors and hearsay surrounding the “issue” of the Ares 1 performance and overall implications to the architecture.”Big Problems With The Stick, earlier post Editor’s […]