Keith’s note: I did an A.I. search. There are approx 114,500 grammar, junior, high schools (public & private) in America. Space them out from here to the Moon (239,000 miles) and you get one every 2 miles. 3 million classrooms is 12 per mile. That infrastructure houses 55 million students – the Artemis Generation. As a child of the Apollo Generation I think a successful metric for NASA outreach for Artemis II and beyond would be a NASA poster, study plan, model, webcast in every classroom in America. Prove me wrong. NASA has had a decade or more to plan this. (Thanks Grok!)

Keith’s note: Two officially-issued, government-sanctioned, and un-redacted Santas: NASA Santa and DHS ICE Santa. Seriously. Both were issued by the same government. Ho Ho Ho.

Keith’s note: I was just on i24 TV in Israel talking with Ellie Hochenberg (who opened with (“there is a starman waiting in the skies and he has the keys to NASA now”) about Jared Isaacman, NASA, exploration, Artemis, and the future in space [Audio]

Keith’s note: the webcast can be seen here. NASA has it set so that I cannot embed it.

Keith’s note: Looks like NASA HQ is upset with me because I posted text of an email that multiple employees sent me with links that were included got overloaded. No mention of classification or proprietary nature. They are now blaming me – in this case in a phone call – for blocking people at #NASA from accessing the town hall. Yea its my fault for blocking NASA’s ability to serve up a simple webcast. This is wacky. The same organization that can program spacecraft in interstellar space has no idea how to do load balancing and traffic management. I think its time that I turn this damn thing off Jared Isaacman. When NASA blames a 70 year old retiree sitting in his basement for thousands of employees not hearing what you have to say then something is seriously screwed up – with NASA – not me. This is not a new problem with NASA IT. Now I guess I am waiting for some NASA IT cops to come after me. It was a mistake to bring NASAWatch back. Beam me up.

Keith’s note: FWIW my advice for Jared Isaacman at the town hall. I think he gets this. As the NASAWatch guy, former NASA civil servant/contractor – and Apollo era child: You do not need to give a motivational pep talk to NASA people. No where else does someone get to go to work every day to explore the universe. This is baked into the soul of everyone within and around the agency. And it has been simmering in there for decades, often since childhood. The workforce has been through a lot – budget cuts, layoffs, buyouts etc. They just want to know that they have a leader who will lead – and learn – and have their back. Its that simple. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: The above email was sent out to NASA employees at 8:33 am ET today. If you click on https://townhall.nasa.gov/vpncheck/ It checks you out and sends you to a VPN firewall and then a NASA Access Launchpad security thing. If you click on https://nasa.cnf.io/sessions/frpn/#!/dashboard to submit questions you are asked for name email and center. I just typed in my real name (Hi NASA!) and said I worked at “N/A” center and I got in. Interestingly each of the questions identifies the specific individual asking the question by name – so beware …. I tweeted the questions asked (see below) – with submitter names deleted. More below. Update: According to NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens “@NASAAdmin Jared Isaacman is having his first town hall internally with NASA employees to foster a culture of open discussion and mission-first collaboration with his team. We understand there is a great deal of interest in what will be said in today’s town hall. As such, we will be releasing it in its entirety following the event. NASA is committed to open communication, but agency wide workforce meetings serve an important purpose of allowing employees a direct line of communication and candid conversation with the Administrator without outside influence.”

Keith’s note: According to a message sent to NASA employees from newly-minted NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman who has pledged to “serve transparently” and said “I look forward to discussing this with all of you tomorrow at an agencywide town hall.” So … will this Town Hall be broadcast on NASA+ / NASA TV? UPDATE: NASA PAO says that it will not be publicly webcast. It is not on the website schedule here or here. I have submitted several inquiries to NASA PAO and posted on social media asking if this will be publicly viewable. No reply (yet). It goes without saying that the ‘NASA family’ is much, much larger – and more disperse – than civil servants with access to NASA video behind a firewall. Contractors, extramural/university researchers, people on travel, researches in the field, policy makers – and of course taxpayers – all have a stake in what happens at NASA. If NASA PAO decides not to open up access, I’ll happily accept (once again) audio recordings y’all might want to make on your phones and will ‘acid wash’ them to anonymize any source info. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: according to today’s Executive Order “The National Space Council is dead (again) per today’s Executive Order: “Sec. 4. Rescission. (a) This order supersedes Executive Order 14056 of December 1, 2021 (The National Space Council), which is hereby revoked.”

• (2021) – Executive Order 14056-The National Space Council
• (2017) – NASA Statement on National Space Council: “I am pleased that President Trump has signed an executive order reestablishing the National Space Council.”

Keith’s note: this was distributed internally at NASA. “As a pilot, astronaut, and lifelong space enthusiast, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to serve as your 15th NASA Administrator. I’m humbled by the chance to work alongside you – the greatest scientific and engineering minds this nation has to offer.” More below