“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau – Keith’s note: From orbit, the spell cast by our ocean world is truly vast and compelling. Suni Williams, a naval aviator, arrived at the ISS in a spaceship named “Calypso”.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview with Deutsche Welle about the ongoing air leak on the International Space Station [Audio]

Keith’s note: I appeared on CGTN tonight to talk about the launch of Shenzhou-19 and what the crews will be doing on China’s Tiangong space station. [Audio]

Keith’s note: According to a NASA OIG report NASA’s Management of Risks to Sustaining ISS Operations through 2030: “After more than a decade of effort, NASA and its partners continue to develop a transition and deorbit plan to prevent an operations gap in LEO and ensure a safe and controlled deorbit of the ISS. Russia has not committed to ISS operations through 2030, which includes the deorbit plan and timeline. Without commitment from Russia to the current deorbit plan, the ability to conduct a controlled deorbit is unclear. In June 2024, NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX to develop the U.S. deorbit vehicle to execute the controlled deorbit of the ISS in 2031. Nonetheless, the uncertainty of commercial LEO destination-readiness, limited budget availability, and the potential delay in availability of the U.S. deorbit vehicle adds more schedule challenges and risks to NASA’s 2031 deorbit plan.”

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.

Keith’s note: NASA says that Starliner will return to Earth without any crew. Butch and Suni will stay on ISS until early 2025 when the Crew 9 on a SpaceX Dragon will bring them home. That’s three times that Boeing’s Starliner has flown and each mission has had problems – two of the missions have had mission-altering safety issues. And of course no one has been cited as being at fault. That will likely change when the inevitable congressional hearings occur. Did the post-Columbia safety culture at NASA work? Yes. Full stop. Did contractor oversight by NASA and contractor performance by Boeing work? You tell me. For the same program SpaceX did everything nearly flawlessly with Dragon years before and a $billion+ less than Boeing. Bill Nelson says that NASA will be flying astronauts on Starliner again. Well, it’s easy to punt and say that now since that decision will be made after the election and regardless of who wins Nelson will probably not be making that call. That said, at what point does NASA give up? One has to wonder whether Starliner will ever fly again with – or without – humans. Three strikes and … Update: I spoke about this with LBC Radio in the UK [audio], on Deutsche Welle TV at 4:00 pm EDT [audio] and again at 7:00 pm EDT [audio] and was on CGTN TV at 5:00 pm EDT [audio]. Videos below.

Keith’s note: Wednesday morning I was on CNN talking about the latest news – or rather lack thereof – regarding the ongoing Boeing Starliner saga. NASA held a media update today – except there was no actual “news”. All we heard from them was “yea, they’re still up there. We’ll get back to you” And yes, I did make a reference to the opening of “Gilligan’s Island” on CNN. [Audio]. I was also on CGTN [Audio], Deutsche Welle [Audio], and BBC World Service talking about Starliner during the day. Thursday update: And I just did a radio interview on Starliner with W Radio (with an excellent Spanish interpreter!) and they have a 33 million+ global reach.

NASA official acknowledges internal “disagreement” on safety of Starliner return, Ars Technica: “Boeing engineers are advocating for flying Starliner as is, that enough is known about the problem that failures will not occur during the vehicle’s return to Earth. However, during meetings of key engineers at NASA known as the “Program Control Board” this week, there was no agreement that this so-called flight rationale was enough to fly crew on the vehicle. “We heard from a lot of folks that had concerns,” Bowersox said. “We heard enough voices that the decision was not clear at the Program Control Board.” Given that NASA will soon decide whether to fly crew on Starliner, the Boeing team has about a week to convince the NASA team of Starliner’s safety before a potential switch to Crew Dragon.”

Keith’s note: It would seem that none of International Space Station Research & Development Conference (ISSRDC) will be webcast. No mention whatsoever is made on their website. No mention of any webcast is made at NASA.gov either. NASA recently issued a contract to destroy the International Space Station. Not even bothering to webcast this event – which supposedly exists to promote and explain all that the ISS has done – is too much for CASIS or NASA to bother setting up. No one at NASA seems to care since they all have Artemis Go Fever. As such, the 300+ million U.S. taxpayers who put billions into this amazing resource aren’t entitled to learn what NASA did with all their money or why ISS needs to be splashed. The scheduled death of the ISS is not even on the meeting’s agenda. And of course, as Artemis delays mount, NASA will come back for more money without ever truly explaining why they are throwing this astonishing resource away or why they need to build another space station out near the Moon to support missions are moving ever further into the future. And then NASA’s Administrator has the audacity to whine and complain that China may beat the U.S. back to the Moon. DUH, Bill. China has a plan and they stick to it. NASA does not. Update: CASIS sent me a note: “While we are not actively promoting the livestream component to the conference yet (similar to last year), it will be made open to the public during the event. We will promote the livestream component for those not able to physically attend in a media advisory prior to the conference. Additionally, there will be social pushes during the event driving the public to the livestream.”

Keith’s note: In case you missed it while the Starliner thruster issue has been in the headlines, yet another EVA was canceled due to a spacesuit issue. First there was a problem with a suit’s comfort/flexibility. Then there was a water leak the other day. Scratch two EVA attempts. These suits are 50-ish years old – older than some of the astronauts who wear them. Now NASA is going to the Moon for long duration stays and new space suits are needed. Axiom and Collins had xEVAS contracts. Now Collins has decided to discontinue their work leaving only one company to produce the new spacesuits. Redundancy in terms of suppliers has been a smart thing that NASA has been doing. Now they will have only one spacesuit option and if it is delayed then that becomes a big pacing item for the whole Artemis thing – as if there are not already enough of those.

Keith’s note: According to NASA Selects International Space Station US Deorbit Vehicle “NASA is fostering continued scientific, educational, and technological developments in low Earth orbit to benefit humanity, while also supporting deep space exploration at the Moon and Mars. As the agency transitions to commercially owned space destinations closer to home, it is crucial to prepare for the safe and responsible deorbit of the International Space Station in a controlled manner after the end of its operational life in 2030.” Simply throwing the ISS away when it has been shown to be upgradable and repairable is short sighted to say the least. Then again NASA simply does not have the money to operate ISS, build and operate Gateway, and fund whatever emerges from the whole Axiom/Starlab/Orbital Reef mix – and do the Artemis things on the Moon – not to mention the notional Mars exploration things that NASA also crows about. NASA’s 50-year-old space suits leak and one of the replacement efforts is quitting. Oh – and Mars Sample Return and other large space science projects want their share too. That said, throwing things away is defeatist, unimaginative, and not the way we’re going to expand throughout the solar system – all while reusability is the new paradigm in the space world. Indeed, SpaceX is making and improving Starships at a rate that is more like a consumer electronics company. One Starship flight could add a decade of life to the ISS. FWIW Here is the International Space Station Deorbit Analysis Summary which has this rather odd justification for not allowing a Starship near the ISS: “However, ascending to these orbits would require the development of new propulsive and tanker vehicles that do not currently exist. While still currently in development, vehicles such as the SpaceX Starship are being designed to deliver significant amounts of cargo to these orbits; however, there are prohibitive engineering challenges with docking such a large vehicle to the space station and being able to use its thrusters while remaining within space station structural margins.” Yet NASA is totally cool with docking a Starship to the Gateway space station 240,000 miles from Earth. But let’s splash ISS instead. NASA is at risk of being known for what it can’t do as opposed to what it can do. Imagination is no longer in NASA’s toolkit.

Keith’s note: I just recorded a piece for Scripps News that should be airing on its various networks/stations about the current Boeing Starliner status and the planned EVA. ICYMI according to a Friday update from NASA: “NASA and Boeing leadership are adjusting the return to Earth of the Starliner Crew Flight Test spacecraft … Mission managers are evaluating future return opportunities following the station’s two planned spacewalks on Monday, June 24, and Tuesday, July 2.” And today’s EVA was cancelled “due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit on Dyson’s spacesuit.” So … things are going to be TBD-ish for a while.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview for ARD TV (German) which is being edited up for later use and also a live interview on Alhurra TV (VOA Arabic language) [audio] about the Boeing Starliner mission. Below: Screen grabs while I was waiting to go on Alhurra. Often the audiences don’t think about space and are preoccupied with more basic things in their daily lives. I actually consider it a priviledge to be asked to talk about space to these audiences. I wish NASA would do more of it. Just sayin’ [More]

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN this morning talking about the current status of the Boeing Starliner which is currently docked with the International Space Station [Audio].

Keith’s note: I just did the Brian Kilmeade show on Fox News Radio / YouTube. It was a fast moving show – he asks a lof of questions about a lot of things. I had a good time. Oh yes: we both agreed that Space Force needs unitard uniforms instead of camo uniforms, Just sayin’ [Audio]

Keith’s note: On Friday I did a live shot on Scripps News on the Boeing Starliner CFT-1 mission. [Audio] I also taped some comments in advance for Bloomberg Radio that they’ll use tomorrow. On Saturday I’ll be on CTV at 1:00 pm EDT and at 2:00 pm EDT on Deutsche Welle talking about CFT-1. I’ll be on CGTN on Saturday at 7:00 pm EDT to talk about the Chang’e-6 lunar landing and then on Deutsche Welle on Sunday to talk about Chang’e-6 as well. Oh – Starship is going to do something next week, so … UPDATE: launch scrubbed at T-3:50 – launch sequencer saw something that it did not like. Further Further Update: I spoke with BBC Five Live Radio about the launch scrub for Boeing’s Starliner and China’s successful landing of Chang’e-6 on the far side of the Moon. (oh yes, there is a tennis update in the middle) [Audio]

Keith’s note: I just spoke with Scripps News about the upcoming flight of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station, the problems Boeing has had with the spacecraft, competition with SpaceX, and what is on the horizon (Blue Origin etc.) [Audio part 1] [Audio part 2]

Keith’s note: I was just on a media telecon with Astronaut Loral O’Hara who just returned from 204 days on the International Space Station.

“I have a question that comes out my own experience doing long expeditions to remote research locations, small tents, bad food, etc. But then there’s the amazing place I visited and explored. And you forget the hard parts of it all. You have been a submersible driver and a long-term space station astronaut. Both involved things called “expeditions”. In one case you leave the big floating lab and go somewhere. In the other you stay in the big orbiting lab while IT goes somewhere and you get to go outside maybe once or twice. Which of these activities is a better analog for what astronauts (maybe you) will be doing on the Moon and Mars? Or are they both valuable? What other non-space activities or analogs on Earth might be useful to help prepare these future space explorers (again, maybe you)?”

Note: There was an issue with the JSC PAO audio but they got enough to ask Loral the gist of my question.

Loral O’Hara: “I think that there a lot of analogs that we can do here on Earth.  Before I worked at NASA I worked as an ocean engineer and I went out on research ships and that was a great analog. Like you said you’ve had a lot of great experiences around the world working in (ant)arctica or doing field work pretty much anywhere – I think having those small teams in the field working with a team somewhere else back on shore with more resources I think is a good analog for space station and all the missions we’re hoping to do in the future.

Keith’s note: Although NASA did not sponsor research wherein tardigrade proteins were tested in human cells to see if they work and possibly influence human metabolism – someone did -and it worked. This emerged as the result of prior work into extremophiles. Tardigrades are a favorite extremeohpile amongst astrobiologists. They have even been studied on the International Space Station. Drug companies scour the world – sifting through soils, undersea creatures, and toxic waste dumps for interesting organisms that can provide new industrial processes or biomedical applications. One would hope that the people at NASA who do the whole Spinoffs thing every year would pay attention to things like this. Perhaps a little funding might be worth considering. NASA loves to talk about all the things ISS biomedical research can do for people back on Earth. Who knows maybe the notion of hibernating astronauts on long space missions could benefit. Last week NASA was crowing about the Biden Cancer Moonshot thing. Well, NASA Astrobiology research might also have similar spinoff benefits. But NASA won’t know unless it starts to poke around. Full release.