That Private Astrobiology Mission NASA Ignores

Keith’s note: Last week NASA announced a Public-Private Partnership to Advance Mars Science. Some of that was already happening. Rocket Lab is going to send the privately-funded Venus Life Finder mission to search for biosignatures. Alas, Rocket Lab only has a short paragraph on their Venus Life Finder mission online. But Wikipedia has much more info. A real Astrobiology researcher at MIT Sara Seager heads the mission. Meanwhile, despite this recent announcement by the NASA Administrator, NASA makes zero mention of this private astrobiology mission. Apparently it is of no interest to NASA Science Mission Directorate that the private sector digs Astrobiology enough to send its own mission without government funding. Since NASA missions to Venus have been cancelled or delayed, you’d think that people would be coming forward to show how this is already happening in the space sector. Guess again.