Keith’s note: The Fram2 crew and their SpaceX ship “Resilience” are in orbit after a flawless ride uphill. I did launch commentary on Bloomberg Radio [audio] and was also on Deutsche Welle TV [audio].

Keith’s note: The Aerospace Industries Association just put put their self-serving and totally anodyne “Space Priorities 2025“. Its all bland happy talk – as if nothing was really happening these days when it comes to the health and well being of the aerospace sector. With all of the swirling concern over budget cuts, program cancellations, and layoffs, you’d think that a non-profit established to be concerned about the aerospace sector would be a little more proactive in discussing these threats. Guess again.

Keith’s note: The Starship 8 launch resulted in yet another flawless catch of the Heavy booster first stage and the loss of the Ship upper stage.

Keith’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle TV talking about the IM-2 landing [audio]. The Intuitive Machines Athena Lander is on the Moon. They are shutting down things that are not needed and safing the spacecraft. Power is being generated from solar panels and surface ops have begun. Mission control is waiting for some images and other data so as to see how the vehicle is oriented on the lunar surface. Things were a little confusing to those of us looking over the team’s shoulder as the landing occurred. They apparently had multi-path issues i.e. radio waves taking multiple paths bouncing off of mountains and craters and possibly confusing things a bit. This was expected in places such as the lunar South Pole. I was also on Bloomberg Radio during the landing. I’ll be back on Bloomberg radio and television tonight for the SpaceX Starship 8 launch.

Keith’s note: Dear Trump Transition Team (whoever you are): America always has been ‘Great in Space’. No “again” is needed. Just sayin’ Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: I was just on Bloomberg TV for live coverage of the SpaceX Starship 7 flight. [Audio] They recovered the first stage perfectly but they lost comms near the end of the Starship burn. This was an upgraded version of Starship. So they’ll just try again to get it right.

Keith’s note: According to Blue Origin: “New Glenn safely reached its intended orbit during today’s NG-1 mission, accomplishing our primary objective. New Glenn’s seven BE-4 engines ignited on January 16, 2025, at 2:03 a.m. EST (0703 UTC) from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The second stage is in its final orbit following two successful burns of the BE-3U engines. The Blue Ring Pathfinder is receiving data and performing well.We lost the booster during descent.”

Keith’s note: In order to make sure that no one outside of the DC space bubble knows what is going on with the Federal government and space commerce, this conference will not be recorded or webcast by FAA, or NASA, or the Commercial Spaceflight Federation – or anyone. Meanwhile Blue Origin and SpaceX are launching massive commercially-developed launch vehicles. Go figure.

Keith’s note: like everyone else I stayed up to watch the New Glenn launch and did some TV talking head time too. Here’s the audio from Deutsche Welle prior to the launch scrub. I was going to be on BBC World too for post-launch coverage but then the delays changed that. Weather is going to be pacing the next launch attempt apparently. Stay tuned. [Audio]

Keith’s note: According to a Blue origin posting: “New Glenn successfully completed an integrated launch vehicle hotfire test today, the final major milestone on our road to first flight. NG-1 will carry a Blue Ring Pathfinder as its first manifested payload and will launch from Launch Complex 36 in Cape Canaveral, FL.” Social media postings (as yet unconfirmed) cite a 6 January 2025 launch date target (again, unconfirmed). Soon NASA’s SLS will have two immense rockets that can out-compete it in terms of cost, performance, flight rate, and ability to be adapted and revised. And these rockets were built from scratch using 21st century experience and concepts – not a congressionally-mandated shotgun marriage of 1970s, 1980s, and early 2000’s ideas and rocket parts. Stay tuned.

Keith’s note: In case you did not already notice, the 9th floor at NASA HQ issued these two reports on human spaceflight strategy in less than a week – and yet neither one mentions the other – even thought they overlap and cross-enable. Right? Nor does NASA make any effort to link them together. Why bother. Gotta take all that use-or-lose vacation time.

• Moon to Mars Architecture
• Strategy for Sustaining Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN with Wolf Blitzer to talk about today’s Starship test flight.

Keith’s note: NASA put out a report NASA’s Economic Impact Report for fiscal year (FY) 2023. In addition to its data rich/ lousy common language construction (see A Nice NASA Economic Impact Report By / For Wonks) NASA is not really spending much effort to tell people about it. In addition to the report there are additional data files and one PDF file for every state (but nothing for Puerto Rico). But other than some info from GSFC, KSC, and Armstrong, NASA PAO seems to have ignored its own websites and not sent out any media advisories or press releases relevant to local state economic impacts (no mention here) just their main release and a KSC link. NASA has once again demonstrated that it is utterly clueless and bereft of strategic thought when it comes to demonstrating its value and relevance to its stakeholders, taxpayers, and its puppet masters in DC. This is going to come back and bite the agency. It is downright embarrassing that the same agency that can look outward and back at the beginning of time and reprogram 50 year old spacecraft in interstellar space can’t explain itself to the people that pay for the whole space thing. More snarky detail below.

Keith’s note: According to this new report New Report Shows NASA’s $75.6 Billion Boost to US Economy “NASA highlighted how its Moon to Mars activities, climate change research and technology development, and other projects generated more than $75.6 billion in economic output across all 50 states and Washington, D.C., in fiscal year 2023. … Combined, NASA’s missions supported 304,803 jobs nationwide, and generated an estimated $9.5 billion in federal, state, and local taxes throughout the United States. The study found NASA’s Moon to Mars activities generated more than $23.8 billion in total economic output and supported an estimated 96,479 jobs nationwide. For investments in climate research and technology, the agency’s activities generated more than $7.9 billion in total economic output and supported an estimated 32,900 jobs in the U.S.” Full report

• Great news. Everyone should know by now that NASA has a broad impact in terms of economic factors. It also has a great impact on education, inspiration and serves as a potent source of soft power globally. Alas, the NASA people who generated this report, the people who run education and public outreach, and the people who run international relations at NASA will not make the best use of this report – or each other’s metrics. The report has lots of numbers. How about some real world stories and metrics that are meaningful to actual human taxpayers, citizens, students etc. – things that they can wrap their minds around when it comes to their daily lives, dreams, futures, and finances? This is a fine report but it was written by econometrics wonks and is only relevant to other econometrics wonks – not real people. If you ask NASA Public Affairs about real world impacts of this report they will be clueless and simply direct you back to the report. I’d like to know:
• How does this economic news affect the communities where the money is spent? [Give examples of specific, identifiable communities and impact that NASA spending has had]
• How were these economic metrics generated and how do they map NASA’s impact when compared to other agencies? [Does DoD spend more/less?; how does this compare to local non-space industries?]
• How do these efforts find synergy in the Artemis Accord signatories? [NASA Space Apps and other OIIR activities have an impact, yes? So .. what is it and how does it map against various NASA agreements and collaborations and where might there be new opportunities?]
• What impact does this pervasive NASA spending and participation affect career choices for young people?[Is there a correlation between spending in a locality and the number of students choosing space science and engineering and allied fields?]
• How do the communities where this money is being spent get to interact directly with NASA missions (other than communities with large NASA centers)? [How many ISS student interactions, town halls, etc. are done and where? what areas have the largest number of people’s names on space missions, mailing list memberships?]
• How does the economic news in this report find its way into national, regional, and home town media stories [why not create a publicly available, updated list of press citations so we can all see our tax dollars at work while NASA does all of its amazing things?]

Keith’s note: the SpaceX Starship made an apparently flawless launch and return landing this morning – a landing that included being caught by two giant robotic arms at its launch pad – all while its upper stage – the Starship has been placed in its desired orbit. Update: I spoke with Deutsche Welle after the flight about the mission and its significance. [Audio]

Keith’s note: according to the NASA OIG: “Much of NASA’s RPT infrastructure is aging and requires significant funding to maintain. Meanwhile, the landscape for RPT is changing. Increased commercialization in the space industry has lessened demand for NASA’s large-scale RPT facilities. NASA is also transferring some responsibility for payload delivery to commercial partners, such as in the Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative. These trends lead to NASA’s RPT stands sitting unused more often. From fiscal year (FY) 2022 to 2026, the percentage of NASA test stand capabilities in active use is projected to decrease from 47 percent to 26 percent. Of the 10 test stands projected for use in FY 2025, five are being leased to commercial entities. Five of the Program’s test stands are in mothball or demolition status, and Stennis’s A-2 and A-3 test stands sat idle for nearly a decade before being leased to external customers. In addition to decreased demand, the RPT Program is facing a flat budget, with enough funding to maintain core staff and facilities, but insufficient funding to address major maintenance projects.” Full report: NASA’s Rocket Propulsion Test Program

Keith’s note: I was on BBC World News [Audio], Deutsche Welle [Audio], and CGTN [Audio] talking about the Polaris Dawn EVA. During my BBC and DW interviews I compared and contrasted spacewalks in the 1960s and today as well as NASA spacesuits and new commercial space suits. I used one of those spongy astronaut things NASA gives away at meetings but I added a USB-C cable to demonstrate the tether used by the Polaris crew. If you are of a certain age and watched Gemini astronauts doing EVAs live on TV, then you may recognize the orange-visored helmet that my little astronaut is wearing. Update: After the return of Polaris Dawn I spoke with Deutsche Welle Sunday morning [Audio] and then again in the evening [Audio]. I also spoke with Alhurra [Audio] (videos below)

Keith’s note: Looks like the crew of Crew Dragon Resilience are off to a good start. After a weather delay at 3:23 am they launched on-time at 5:35 am EDT and are now safely in space. It would be an understatement to say that this is going to be a cool mission. I was just on CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt and Kristin Fisher [Audio] and yes, I compared the new SpaceX spacesuits to what a DJ might wear at a EDM rave. I was also on BBC World News [Audio] and Deutsche Welle [Audio] this afternoon. During my BBC interview I used yet another prop (picture below). This time it was a plastic savings bank shaped like a Mercury capsule I got when I was 7 years old back in 1960s when it was the current advanced human spacecraft. Its the shape that’s important.

Keith’s note: Starliner made a mostly flawless return to Earth early today. I was on Deutsche Welle yesterday before the landing [audio] and then again after the landing [audio]. If you go to 03:25 on this YouTube video of the interview you’ll see that I had a walk-on guest commentary on the alien-sounding noises coming out of Starliner’s comm system (the picture on this post). I then did BBC World News this morning [audio] and CGTN this evening [audio]. YouTube videos of these interviews are posted below.