Keith’s note: If NASA PAO really wanted to convey the essence of the Artemis Generation meme and its incredible soft power potential they’d use @NASA Twitter to retweet simple, joyful, hopeful tweets by new space travelers like Sultan AlNeyadi that say things such as “Today we fly to pave the way for the next generations” while he lofts his son – also in an astronaut suit – into the air with his spaceship waiting in the background. But NASA PAO won’t do this. They no longer know how.

Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO: “NASA has appointed veteran astronaut Joe Acaba as chief of the Astronaut Office at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. A decorated veteran of multiple spaceflights, as well a former U.S. Marine and former educator, Acaba is the first person of Hispanic heritage selected to lead the office.” In May 2004 Sean O’Keefe (an educator) was NASA Administrator. NASA selected 3 “educator astronauts” including Joe Acaba. Now, NASA’s chief astronaut is an actual teacher. Wow. While Acaba has a big job ahead of him, I am looking forward to seeing how this affects the the way that NASA engages with the Artemis Generation and how they are inspired by the example that Acaba and his team set , “as only NASA can” as “the next generation of space explorers” sets out to achieve their dreams on Earth – or beyond.

Keith’s Note: There is a NASA Advisory Council Meeting (NAC) today and tomorrow. If you have nothing better to do and want to listen to a bunch of people put forth opinions and ideas that NASA simply ignores, then tune in: Oh yes: Why is there never anyone under 40 – or under 30 – on the NAC? With all this talk about Artemis Generation, education, STEM diversity etc. there is no one on the NAC representing the ACTUAL sector of society that is moving into NASA and the global space industry. is there anyone on the NAC STEM committee who is actually a member of the Artemis Generation? No. Meeting info

Keith’s note: The 2022 Global winners of the 2022 NASA International Space Apps Challenge were announced today. You can read about it but only outside of NASA at the Space Apps website. There was mention many days in advance by the NASA International Space Apps Challenge Twitter account @SpaceApps as well as by the various SpaceApps participants around the world. But that’s more or less all the visibility that was given for this event – an activity that is an impressive demonstration of the truly global soft power projection that NASA is capable of inspiring. There was no mention of this event at NASA.gov before or after the annoncement today. No NASA media advisory was sent out, nor was any press release posted by PAO anywhere within the NASA web universe. Take a look below at how pervasive the ambivalence about this amazing NASA activity was at NASA today:

Keith’s note: If you go to this Reddit post “People greeting Ukrainian soldiers in deoccupied town” on r/UkraineWarVideoReport you will see a video of Ukrainians greeting liberators. At the 00:57 mark you will see a young boy in a sweatshirt with a huge NASA logo come up to greet one of the soldiers. Later in the video you can see him walking with several of the soldiers. Even in a cruel war zone the NASA branding is prominent. What other American government agency can attest to such popularity other than perhaps the Peace Corps? If only NASA understood this. Video below:

Keith’s note: On 8 October Argentinian students at school No. 38 located at Esperanza Base in Antarctica had a chance to talk to NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren on the ISS. What a cool way for NASA to project some soft power – maybe it could be leveraged into getting Argentina to sign on to the Artemis Accords. Indeed, having astronauts talk to school children who live in Antarctica is about as close as you can get to talking to students on another world. But NASA seems to be utterly uninterested in letting anyone know that this even happend. No surprise.

Keith’s note: There was supposedly a SpaceApps global telecon today 5:30 pm EDT according to a NASA SMD tweet (which disappeared after an hour). Apparently it was an error. If Marc Etkind et al at NASA PAO were actually interested in the immense soft power projection capability that this effort has then the @NASA Twitter account would be telling its 63 million followers – globally – and accurately – about this. But they are not. They retweeted a 30 Sep tweet from @SpaceApps about the same event – but not before the event itself – especially not with global time zones taken into account – when they could have helped build a huge global audience. This is not new behavior on NASA’s part. More:

Keith’s note: NASA’s branding – whether it is the “meatball” or “worm’ logo (or both) is ubiquitous and throughly enmeshed in global culture to the point that it is trendy and cool – because it is. While NASA does an OK job letting these logos run free in the wild, I am not certain NASA totally understands just how potent a brand it has since a lor of their PR is backward-looking and usually goes under or over large audiences domestically and globally. But, that said, NASA is still cool. Here are two recent examples from IAC 2022:

Why The Space Industry Needs A Space College, By Dylan Taylor and Keith Cowing, The Space Review “According to the Space Foundation’s annual report, the global space economy netted $447 billion in 2020. Commercial space activity alone rose to nearly $357 billion, representing 80% of the total space economy. Launch attempts, which totaled 145, were the highest in history. The formation of a campus–a “space college,” if you will–committed to […]

Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Competed Space Mission Leadership at NASA Will Require Extensive Efforts Along Entire Career Pathways, Says New Report, National Academy of Sciences “Inadequate data gathering and reporting are critical barriers to NASA’s understanding of the efficacy of its own DEIA efforts to date, and of the proposal leadership pool’s demographics, according to the report. These are necessary steps for measuring progress, and for identifying […]

NASA Releases Equity Action Plan to Make Space More Accessible to All

“In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to advance racial equity in the federal government, NASA has released its first-ever Equity Action Plan. The plan establishes key focus areas that will allow the agency to track progress toward improved diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility both internally and externally to NASA. “At NASA, all of our missions depend on our steadfast commitment to equal opportunity,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The Equity Action plan deepens our commitment to further identify and remove the barriers that limit opportunity in underserved and underrepresented communities. This framework anchors fairness as a core component in every NASA mission to make the work we do in space and beyond more accessible to all.”

Keith’s note: The 2021 NASA Space Apps Challenge winners were announced today. I have posted an annotated list below. This is one of the finest worldwide outreach efforts that NASA has ever done over the half century of its existence. It is a superb example of the use of NASA’s global branding in a synergistic, soft power fashion. Alas, while Thomas Zurbuchen at SMD has openly embraced this effort, over […]

YouTube confirms it picked kids featured in Harris video https://t.co/wKJZH8GaOy #NASA The children auditioned for the role and were paid for their participation. So much for finding actual kids actually interested in actual space exploration. #BuildBackBetter #NASA pic.twitter.com/OP6ykkyymz — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 12, 2021 Kamala Harris slammed for using child actors in bizarre space video, NY Post “All five of them are actors,” Carlo Bernardino, whose 13-year-old son Trevor […]

Keith’s 7 October update: It took TWO DAYS for NASA PAO and the NASA STEM Engagement Office to make mention of the event with VP Harris, one powered by global video giant YouTube. It is rather baffling that NASA would take so long to acknowledge an event which, in the end, turns a national spotlight on NASA and space exploration – during World Space Week (which is almost over now) […]

Keith’s note: Sources report that the NASA Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM) has been moving all of its contracted work to MORI Associates Inc. under a contract awarded on a sole source basis via JSC under a new umbrella contract called Communications, Outreach, Multimedia, and Information Technology (COMIT). OSTEM AA Mike Kincaid has had previous experience working with MORI when he was at JSC. This sole source contract is being […]

NASA Releases Interactive Graphic Novel “First Woman” “We crafted this graphic novel and digital ecosystem to share NASA’s work in a different and exciting way,” said Derek Wang, director of communications for the Space Technology Mission Directorate at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “We set out to make the content both engaging and accessible. From space fans of all ages to hardworking educators looking for new ways to get students […]

Lee primera mujer en inglés aquí.

#NASA PAO will continue to ignore an immense #softpower capability that NASA quietly developed over the past 10 yr. You'd think that @Pinballme Marc Etkind, the Biden pick to run @NASA outreach with his global TV experience, would see this potential & run with it #BuildBackBetter https://t.co/BiIhwrcJ4p — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) September 8, 2021

Name of Information Collection: Generic Clearance for the NASA Office of STEM Engagement Performance Measurement and Evaluation (Testing), Federal Register “Methodological testing will include focus group discussions, pilot surveys to test new individual question items as well as the complete form and instrument. In addition, test-retest and similar protocols will be used to determine reliability characteristics of the forms and instruments. Methodological testing will assure that forms and instruments accurately […]