Keith’s lament: Apollo missions to the Moon were seen as great feats of exploration by the media. As we try to do that again NASA has clearly lost control of the narrative to tabloid-level stupidity. Since this whole ‘Back to the Moon, Mars, Beyond’ etc. thing was announced 21 years ago we constantly lose our way and get distracted and drag things out faster than we accomplish those things. And now we are going to beat China to the Moon? That’s not gonna happen unless we change the way the government/space industry hive mind does things. Moreover, it will not happen unless NASA gets the population and media on board while all this other crap is going on. Just sayin’

Keith’s note: I just got an update from KeepTheShuttle. OMB wants NASA and the Smithsonian to figure out how to cut Space Shuttle Discovery apart into pieces to move it. As you will recall that option was ruled out when Space Shuttle Endeavour was moved to Los Angeles on the now-defunct 747 carrier and then moved through the streets where utilities were moved and trees were cut down. Every effort was taken to preserve the integrity of this historic space ship. Now Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are only interested in snagging a tourist attraction – not a precious historic relic that deserves to be preserved – and certainly not chopped up like a leftover exhibit from a state fair and tossed on a flatbed. Full statement below. Update: There was a story on WUSA Channel 9 in DC this afternoon about this including some snark from me. video.

Interplanetary Memorial to Victims of Sept. 11, 2001: “The piece of metal with the American flag on it in this image of a NASA rover on Mars is made of aluminum recovered from the site of the World Trade Center towers in the weeks after their destruction. The piece serves as a cable guard for the rock abrasion tool on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit as well as a memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. An identical piece is on the twin rover, Opportunity. The rock abrasion tools were built by Honeybee Robotics in lower Manhattan, less than a mile from the site. This image comes from the panoramic camera on Spirit and was taken on Feb. 2, 2004, the 30th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit’s work on Mars.”

Keith’s note: According to a press release from KeepTheShuttle: “the KeepTheShuttle team is pleased to report that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors just completed a unanimous and bipartisan vote opposing the proposed relocation of the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Smithsonian.

Keith’s note: FYI Sean Duffy: NASA pushes out narratives (issued from the White House) about winning the “second space race” to the Moon. OK, that seems like a straight forward story to tell. Having historians and storytellers explain this adventure would be smart. But you really can’t do that when your boss dumps on one of the greatest lunar popular storytellers i.e. Tom Hanks. Read the room. Just sayin’

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN on HBOMax with Jim Sciutto talking about Jim Lovell [Audio] transcript below.

Keith’s note: Instigated by Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn from Texas, Congress is moving ahead with a plan to take Space Shuttle Discovery (which has been deeded by law from the U.S. Government to the Smithsonian) and send it to Texas. The Smithsonian’s Udvar Hazy facility is for all Americans to visit their aviation and space history. According to this website (https://keeptheshuttle.org/) that has popped up “We will not let that happen. Join us, if you believe that Discovery and all of the Smithsonian’s priceless artifacts should be protected from political maneuvering.”

Keith’s note: Up until last year NASA always made mention of Juneteenth and what it represents to NASA and to our nation. Not any more. Why is that Janet?

Keith’s note: this just came out of my head as a stream of inter-related events. Some times I feel like Forrest Gump. Other times I am in Luke Skywalker mode. And this all happens inside a world not unlike the movie “Cloud Atlas” and sometimes the cult classic “Silent Running”. And at least once a day I go back to Everest Base Camp in my mind. Full post.

Keith’s note: As best I can collate the facts, on 18 March 1945, 80 years ago today, a V-2 missile was launched from Statenkwartier in The Hague in occupied Netherlands at 9:25 am by Germany’s Battery 485. My father was almost killed when it struck London a few minutes later. My 50 year career was enabled by that V-2. A direct descendant, a Saturn V, designed by the same V-2 team, placed Americans on the Moon. The other day, yet another direct descendant, the SpaceX Starship, leapt above the sky.

Keith’s note: Looks like this DEIA-oriented page at NASA.gov needs to be erased ASAP: “45 Years Ago: NASA Selects 35 New Astronauts On Jan. 16, 1978, NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts, the first time in more than eight years that the agency had admitted new astronauts. The selection of the first class of space shuttle astronauts held historic significance not only because of its then-record size but also because, for the first time, the group included women and minorities. Previous astronaut selections in the 1960s consisted of test pilots or scientists, in those days the domain principally of white men.“ Update: I posted this on Sunday morning, 26 January. I checked today – 27 January – and it is gone. This is what it looked like 2 days before being removed.

Keith’s note: This was sent out to NASA employees. Note the way that Janet Petro signed this – with a standard “Embrace the Challenge.” closing. This was not on her earlier DEI memo. Just sayin’. Full text below.

Keith’s note: NASA just turned 66. Jimmy Carter just turned 100. Too bad NASA does not remember its own past – a past currently being sent to the stars.

Editor’s note: I first posted this on 10 Sep 2011. I used to run through the precise place where the plane hit the Pentagon when I lived across the street at Riverhouse III (I moved to Reston in 1990). Eric Sterner lived a few blocks away. Bill Readdy’s friend lived in the same building as I did and watched this happen out his window. And Lon Rains was in traffic and saw this unfold with his own eyes. Two people from my town of Reston did not come home that day. Had I been looking up I could have seen the plane in the sky over our house. A few hours after the attack someone in Reston decided to put up an American flag on the pedestrian overpass a few blocks from our house. It was a flag with only 48 stars. An antique. It was all that they could find on such short notice. Through all these years two haunting color images remain in my mind: some red begonias in a window at the Pentagon and that achingly blue September 11th sky. We have one of those blue skies today. Remember. — Original posting below.

Keith’s note: the archetype for NASA outreach – beyond space enthusiasts – was the original NASA Art Program during Apollo. It expressed in images what math and physics could not. I recall seeing these images as a young boy and they served to heighten the excitement of what lay ahead. I am willing to state that everything NASA has done with and for the arts since that time has its roots in this program – including such things as the Golden Record on the twin Voyagers and the Pale Blue Dot image. According to “James Dean, Founding Director of NASA Art Program, Dies at 92 (NY Times): “James Dean, a landscape painter who ran a NASA program that invited artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Norman Rockwell and Jamie Wyeth to document aspects of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, died on March 22 in Washington. He was 92. … Mr. Dean believed that artists offered a perspective that could not be found in photographs. “Their imaginations enable them to venture beyond a scientific explanation of the stars, the moon and the outer planets,” Mr. Dean and Bert Ulrich wrote in their book, “NASA/ART: 50 Years of Exploration” (2008).” Ad astra James Dean.

Keith’s note: I had an interesting job at STS-1 – I was California Governor Jerry Brown’s advance man. I took a few days off from my job at Rockwell Downey where I stood inside of Discovery and Atlantis as they were being built to work for my old boss (I worked on his 1980 presidential campaign). The trip to the launch was insane. The area was still somewhat boarded up after the post-Apollo economic downturn and things were opening up for the shuttle era. So everyone was happy on the Space Coast.

Keith’s note: As best I can collate the facts, on 18 March 1945, 79 years ago today, a V-2 missile was launched from Statenkwartier in The Hague in occupied Netherlands at 9:25 am by Germany’s Battery 485. My father was almost killed when it struck London a few minutes later. My 50 year career was enabled by that V-2. A direct descendant, a Saturn V, designed by the same V-2 team, placed Americans on the Moon. The other day, yet another direct descendant, the SpaceX Starship, leapt above the sky. I originally wrote this story in 2019 as the Apollo 11 anniversary approached. Humanity now lives in space permanently. Our spacecraft have left the solar system. Our space telescopes look back to the beginning of time. We are spacefarers. Space technology has its roots in weapons of war. America’s early accomplishments in space were achieved with direct use of Nazi technology and personnel. Russia followed a similar path. Today North Korea, Iran, Russia and other nations use rocket designs with a clear lineage originating with Hitler’s V-2. All technology is iterative. Smart technology persists and finds peaceful uses despite its war making origins.

Keith’s note: I spent some time in Washington, DC this morning at the World War II memorial. My father was born 100 years ago today. We lost him a few years ago at age 95. He was a WWII vet. I thought this was an appropriate time to finally visit this hallowed place. As I have written previously (“That Time Wernher von Braun’s Rocket Tried To Kill My Father“) my father – barely out of his teens – came within a matter of feet from possible death during a V-2 attack on London in 1945. He was injured physically – and that healed. But the emotional scars stayed with him until he drew his last breath – in my arms. As I also noted – the direct descendants of the thing that nearly killed my father – and thus almost preventing me from ever existing – gave my life purpose as a child and totally directed the course of my career. More Below

Keith’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle TV and spoke about the legacy of Astronaut Walt Cunningham, the Apollo 7 mission, and The Artemis Generation. Audio below.