Keith’s note: The SpaceX Starship had an apparently quasi-perfect flight today. The Super heavy booster separated and made a nice water landing. The Starship itself had a nice ride into space and a colorful re-entry. Despite some rather toasty times heading back to Earth – including partially melted flaps – the flaps still managed to control the vehicle all the way down to a smooth ocean landing with a perfect landing burn. Live telemetry and live video (albeit it from a damaged camera at one point) was obtained 99.99% of the time during re-entry. Oh yes, the “intermission” music while Starship glided over Earth was “The Blue Danube” – made iconically famous in the film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. The 13 year old boy still within me who first saw that film in a theater when it came out just loved the playlist today – as a senior citizen. Well done SpaceX. Ad Astra y’all.
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“Our review found that NASA deviated from its original, hands-off strategy for the initiative and from its plan for incremental progress towards larger missions. Rather, the Agency’s aggressive lander development schedules led to increasingly risk-averse practices and policies. For example, NASA insight and oversight increased, and more detailed vendor proposals were required. This resulted in higher costs and delayed delivery schedules while threatening the initiative’s ability to achieve its broad objectives. Specifically, inserting a larger lander to accommodate the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) into CLPS’s early schedule interfered with a progressive development approach. This introduced the added risk of beginning the first large lander delivery before knowledge could be gained from the success (or failure) of smaller deliveries. NASA’s planned hands-off approach was also somewhat negated when the Agency added augmented insight and placed added requirements on the vendors’ development process. We found that NASA-directed changes, including augmented insight and landing site changes, led to $171.4 million in project cost increases. … Our analysis showed these challenges will continue to hinder NASA’s ability to meet the initiative’s objectives. While the initiative has a contract capped at $2.6 billion through 2028, increased costs on previous task orders jeopardize the plan to issue two task orders per year. … In the 5 years since CLPS began, NASA has not reassessed market conditions to better understand the Agency’s role and changing market conditions. Finally, we found CLPS lacks a detailed management plan that could outline a disciplined approach, promote accountability for how the Agency measures success, and help the initiative weigh competing priorities.” Full report
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Keith’s note: I did CNN this morning talking about the Boeing Starliner launch, SpaceX Starship, and China’s lunar exploration plans (and my reaction to how NASA Administrator Bill Nelson characterizes them). [Audio] I then did live launch coverage on Bloomberg Radio/Youtube, and then I did a quick interview with BBC World Service [Audio]. I also talked again to Deutsche Welle [Audio].
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Keith’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle talking about the return flight of China’s Chang’e-6 sample return mission. [Audio] I am booked to appear on CNN tomorrow (Wed) morning to talk about Boeing’s Starliner CFT-1 mission, China’s Chang’e-6, and SpaceX’s fourth flight of StarShip. And then I will be on a bit later on Bloomberg to do live launch coverage. Lots of spacey news items this week.
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Keith’s update: A month ago, on 2 May 2024, NASA Ames posted “Researchers Develop ‘Founding Document’ on Synthetic Cell Development“ which says “In a paper published recently in ACS Synthetic Biology, researchers outline the potential opportunities that synthetic cell development could unlock and what challenges lie ahead in this groundbreaking research. They also present a roadmap to inspire and guide innovation in this intriguing field.” When it was originally published at NASA.gov it had a link to “Building Synthetic Cells─From the Technology Infrastructure to Cellular Entities” (ACS Synth. Biol. 2024, 13, 4, 974–997 Publication Date: March 26, 2024) which, it would seem, was the ‘Founding Document’ that NASA wanted everyone to know about. Cool stuff. Thanks for the heads up NASA. But wait: the article that NASA points to is behind a pay wall. It is rather odd for NASA PAO to overtly promote this article as a ‘Founding Document’ – one that is apparently important (to NASA) – but then lets this important thing sit behind a paywall offsite. So I sent an email to NASA a month ago. They said they’d fix it. They then fixed it. Now the link is simply gone from the NASA.gov article and no hint is offered as to where it is or how to read it. A month later and there is still no link to the article or link to the text that is this ‘Founding Document’ By now NASA should be aware of various OSTP/OMB policies with regard to making taxpayer-funded research available. NASA has gotten better at this but apparently not everyone got that memo. So, will you please post the ‘Founding Document’ NASA – or make it openly available at its source?
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Keith’s note: I just did Deutsche Welle twice – first at 12:00 pm EDT via a 45 minute chat with Deutsche Welle and David Ariosto (@davidariosto) – SpaceWatch Daily podcast and co-author of the book “Open Space”. [Video]. I then did another DW interview at 2:00 pm EDT on the Chang’e-6 lunar landing [Audio] [Video]
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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]
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Keith’s note: when the new Star Trek Show “Starfleet Academy” was announced the question on every fan’s mind was ‘is this a prequel or a sequel?’ i.e. does it happen closer in time to us – or not. Here’s the answer – and why it is not going to be set in a time close to us. The decision makes perfect sense – unfortunately. More below.
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According to NASA: “Renowned ozone scientist Dr. Richard “Rich” Stolarski died on February 22, 2024, at age 82 from the complications of prostate cancer. Rich was born at Fort Lewis, WA on November 22, 1941. Rich joined NASA in 1974 at the Manned Space Center (now the Johnson Space Center) as a research physicist in the Environmental Effects Projects Office. He moved to NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in 1976 to join the fledgling Stratospheric Physics and Chemistry Branch. Rich was branch head (1979 – 1985) and a research scientist (1985 – 2010). He was the Program Scientist for the Atmospheric Effects of the Stratospheric Aircraft program at NASA headquarters from 1992 to 1995. From 2010 until his passing, Rich was a NASA Goddard Emeritus scientist and a Research Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.” Ad Astra.
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Keith’s note: The following was sent out the other day after news of firings at NASA Public Affairs started to appear on social media (see screen grab from one fired employee below): “As many of you are aware, the spending caps enacted by Congress for fiscal year 2024 and 2025 are requiring many organizations like ours to make hard choices. We are not unique, and, unfortunately, we have had to make difficult decisions that affect some of our team. After thorough analysis and review of all available options, we are reducing some requirements at Goddard, Marshall and HQ on the eMITS and SRACES contracts. These decisions were not made lightly and do not reflect on the outstanding and tireless work of the communications team. While they will no doubt have impact, our core mission remains unchanged– we will continue to tell the incredible NASA story and inspire all to reach for the stars. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Michelle Jones or Wes Brown with any questions or concerns you may have. Together, we will navigate these challenges. Marc Etkind Associate Administrator for Communications”
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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]
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Keith’s note: Yet another example of the global interest in space exploration – between Colombia and Poland – and yet they are half a world apart. Oh yes: note the logo on the boy’s hat. NASA’s reach is global and usually beyond its own understanding since the agency passes on capitalizing on innumerable soft power options to help empower the Artemis Generation – everywhere. The one glaring exception is the NASA Space Apps competition which is only promoted in a substantive way by some portions of NASA SMD – but not the rest of the agency (sadly). This is from A space camp’s cultural exchange, Science (subscription): “The camp’s instructors—including author C.O.D.—had come from Colombia to conduct research at Poland’s Analog Astronaut Training Center (AATC). As the head of the camp, which is run by AATC, I had invited them to share their knowledge with the campers. We worked together to translate the scientific concepts from Spanish to English to Polish. As we planned the lessons, they shared the Colombian traditions of integrating movement, art, music, and ancestral knowledge into scientific work. For example, one activity demonstrated how scientists are extracting the pigments from Colombian fruits and trying to incorporate them into green solvents that could be used to make organic solar panels. During a break, we played salsa music over a loudspeaker and encouraged the campers to dance.” More on NASA branding.
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Keith’s note: the following was sent by Lori Glaze: Dear Colleagues, I’m writing to tell you about some near-term leadership changes in the Planetary Science Division (PSD).
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Keith’s note: My friend Jeff Bingham has died. There would probably be no space station and certainly no ISS National Lab without his valiant efforts over the decades – mostly behind the scenes at NASA and in Congress. I spoke with him by Facetime on Monday. We were laughing. AdAstra Jeff.
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Keith’s note: although the clouds have prevented us from seeing the aurora here in the Metro Washington DC area the rest of the planet seems to be having a great time. I did Alhurra TV [audio] and CGTN [audio] this afternoon as an explainer guy. I also did CGTN the other day about the whole Moon exploration thing. Video below.
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