Keith’s note: This new RIF directive has appeared online at NASA: https://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/OPD_Docs/NID_3351_150_.pdf: NASA Interim Directive Reduction In Force (RIF) For NASA Employees – NID 3351.150 – NPD 3000.1C – Effective Date: February 11, 2025 – Expiration Date: February 11, 2026. I have embedded it below – just in case it disappears.

• a. This NASA Interim Directive (NID) implements regulations to conduct Reduction in Force (RIF), Transfer of Functions (TOF), and Furlough of more than 30 days in a manner that minimizes adverse impact on employees and limits disruption to critical Agency missions, programs, operations, and organizations, consistent with employees’ assignment and displacement rights.
• b. Management will proactively consider and evaluate the use of programs such as Voluntary Separation Incentive Program (VSIP), Voluntary Early Retirement Authority (VERA), waiver of qualifications, and retraining programs and authorities under pre-RIF actions to minimize involuntary separations.
• c. Management is responsible for planning work and organizing the workforce to achieve agency objectives within available resources. This includes assessing whether there is a surplus of employees in specific roles or locations, determining the necessary positions, their locations, and when they should be filled, abolished, or vacated. Management will decide if a RIF is necessary, due to internal factors (e.g., reorganization) or external factors (e.g., lack of funding), and when it will occur.
• d. The need to apply RIF or TOF procedures does not suspend NASA authority and responsibility to take other legitimate employee actions.
• e. All decisions will be made in accordance with applicable laws and regulations and negotiated bargaining agreements.

Keith’s note: NASA PAO just provided this statement with regard to my post You Must Hide Your Pride At NASA (they waited 4 days to respond) which was cited in a press release from House Science Committee Democrats. To be clear: I stand by every single word in my post. Its real folks.

• NASA: “There are no new bans on any personal affects in employees’ workspaces. As always, the items must adhere to legal, safety, and NASA rules and guidelines. Some managers have been reminding employees to be mindful of what personal affects they have in their workspaces, but there are no penalties or warnings about being placed on administrative leave for displaying personal items.”

Keith’s note: Two weeks: Waiting to see if/when these Space-oriented organizations (list below) respond to newly announced personnel and diversity policy actions directly affecting NASA. Or not. They are just going to let this all happen. If y’all can’t be bothered to speak up then why should I bother?

Keith’s note: Have a look at “CDC Researchers Ordered to Retract Papers Submitted to All Journals“ at MedPage which says “In the order, CDC researchers were instructed to remove references to or mentions of a list of forbidden terms: Gender …” OK, so that apparently means a lot of NASA scientific research needs to be retracted too. It took 60 seconds and a simple word search to find these papers at PubMed containing at least one term forbidden in CDC papers:

• Sex-specific cardiovascular adaptations to simulated microgravity in Sprague-Dawley rat
• Women in space: A review of known physiological adaptations and health perspectives
• Spaceflight induces changes in gene expression profiles linked to insulin and estrogen
• Adaptation to full weight-bearing following disuse in rats: The impact of biological sex on musculoskeletal recovery

Keith’s note: Sorry for the whiplash: the OMB memo regarding a freezing of government payments has now been rescinded. For now. Let’s see what NASA posts. This was posted yesterday. Confused yet? OMB Q&A Regarding Memorandum M-25-13.

Keith’s note: The National Space Council is being discontinued. The upcoming NASA Advisory Council meeting in February has been cancelled. The incoming NASA team will stack the new NAC with sycophants. The same goes for the ASAP (Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel). The UAG (Users Advisory Group) will continue as a thank-you to political and industry supporters and will continue to be useless – except when policy rubber stamping and/or dog & pony show moments with pretty backdrops are needed. This has only begun. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: according to the OMB memo “Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs”: “To implement these orders, each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal. This temporary pause will provide the Administration time to review agency programs and determine the best uses of the funding for those programs consistent with the law and the President’s priorities. The temporary pause will become effective on January 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM. Even before completing their comprehensive analysis, Federal agencies must immediately identify any legally mandated actions or deadlines for assistance programs arising while the pause remains in effect. Federal agencies must report this information to OMB along with an analysis of the requirement. OMB also directs Federal agencies to pause all activities associated with open NOFOs, such as conducting merit review panels.” Update: A Federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s pause on Federal funding until at least 3 Feb. Further update: OMB Memo About Payment Freeze Rescinded

Keith’s note: According to “OMB memo Guidance on Implementing President Trump’s Executive Order titled, “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce”: “On January 20, 2025, the President signed an Executive Order entitled, “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce (“Restoring Accountability”).” This Executive Order reinstates and amends Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020. It creates a new Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service for positions that are of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy advocating character (policy-influencing positions) and filled by individuals not normally subject to replacement or change as a result of a Presidential transition. Such career positions will be rescheduled into Schedule Policy/Career and thereby exempted from the adverse action procedures set forth in chapter 75 of title 5 of the United States Code.”

Keith’s note: Last night I spoke with Al Jazeera English about a recent piece of space debris that landed in Kenya and the broader issue of space debris. [audio]

Keith’s note: In typical PAO style NASA is tossing out a bunch of year end reports in a fashion that no one will notice i.e. in stealth mode. And the holiday break will ensure that they remain mostly invisible. In many cases there is no formal agency mention of them to the media. I only learned of these three via a LinkedIn post by Charity Weeden, NASA AA for Technology, Policy, and Strategy: “It’s an OTPS “Hat Trick”! I’m pleased to announce three new reports from NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy:

• 1. OTPS Year in Review 2024: highlights, key accomplishments, and collaborations that support the NASA mission.
  https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/otps/otps-releases-its-2024-annual-report/
• 2. A deep dive into OTPS/Agency Chief Technologist and Center Technology Chief activities for 2024.
  https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/otps/nasas-agency-chief-technologist-presents-their-annual-year-in-review-for-2024/
• 3. “Enabling America on the Space Frontier: The Evolution of NASA’s Commercial Space Development Toolkit” from the OTPS/Agency Chief Economist.
  https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/otps/new-report-analyzes-long-history-of-nasa-support-for-commercial-space/

It’s been a busy and productive year – looking forward to 2025!”

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: According to yet another year-end report issued a few days before the Biden folks on the 9th floor at NASA HQ packs up their offices: “NASA Finalizes Strategy for Sustaining Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit“ which says: “The final framework includes 13 goals and 44 objectives across seven key areas: commercial low Earth orbit infrastructure, operations, science, research and technology development for exploration, international cooperation, workforce development and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engagement, and public engagement.” etc. etc. This “strategy” (it is not a strategy BTW) simply does what every single report like this before has done: it changes dates to reflect cost overruns/program delays since the last report; re-words the same goals and objectives etc. that the last report contained; and simply reflects an endorsement of the status quo. No imagination, no new ideas, just the same old, same old. Yawn.

Keith’s note: This item was posted on NASA.gov on 8 May 2024: “OTPS seeks input from the lunar community to inform a framework for further work on non-interference of lunar activities“. Cool stuff – and important as human activity on the Moon starts to expand with many new players. But who knew about it? I checked and there was no email from NASA PAO on this. When I look at the NASA press release page there is nothing mentioned. No mention is made on the 80 million-follower @NASA Twitter account either. So there does not seem to be much in the way of interest by NASA PAO in pushing out news about OTPS stuff – however cool and relevant it may be. The NASA Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy has a link but you have to know to go there to find the link. OTPS has no social media presence. The OTPS AA Charity Weeden does not have a Twitter account and her LinkedIn account doesn’t do much. Her Deputy has a Twitter account (I think it is hers) @AerospaceFury that has been inert since 2017. However, I did stumble across this OTPS thing for the first time on a LinkedIn post overtly related to an official NASA effort by Therese Jones (the Point of Contact for this NASA activity) which I promptly liked and reposted. But when I went to search out her Twitter account for an official post I discovered that she has blocked @NASAWatch (and my personal account) – thus making it hard to simply retweet it. So, I used another account to see if I could access her Twitter account and found a tweet here from 1:33 pm EDT today and then grabbed the link and tweeted it on @NASAWatch. Her Twitter account has ~2,500 followers. @NASAWatch has 50 times as many followers. Not that big – but 118,000 is more than the lone NASA-related employee account’s 2,500 – the only account that was talking about this activity. It is good that someone took the initiative to get wider exposure for this when official mention was lacking. But wouldn’t you think that an organization and its staff – with such an important role – one saddled with an underpowered PAO/outreach capability – would want to make the most of external/earned media – and not overtly block people/accounts that can help get the good word out? I guess not. 10 May update: the tweet has been deleted – but I am still blocked. Oh well. Maybe NASA OTPS will lift a finger and get PAO to make them an official social media account so that their cool stuff can reach the largest possible audience – in a professional fashion.

Keith’s note: This is the current NASA Advisory Council. No one is under 50. Many are much older. Indeed, some are de-facto life appointees. And no one is a member of the Artemis Generation – yet NAC members evoke them anyway as a throwaway talking point. If this is where our future in space is to be born it will be dull and listless. We can do better. Much better.

Keith’s note: In case you missed the tweets from almost every single American embassy and the U.S. State Department – it is #SpaceDiplomacyWeek. I was on CGTN this evening – trying to be diplomatic – talking about the return of the Shenzhou 17 crew, China’s Tiangong space station and the International Space Station, what happens when astronauts return from a long space mission, and future human missions to the Moon. [Audio]

Keith’s Note: I did an interview on Scripps news tonight about the politics of space. Here’s the audio. Funny thing – as they were setting up the piece I heard another guest talking and recognizing the voice I said LEROY! – yup. It was my friend Leroy Chiao. Alas we were stacked guests – one after the other – but they did a “bump” shot before we were on and you can see us smiling away waiting to be interviewed. Next time Leroy.

Keith’s note: According to this OSTP Fact Sheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration to Kick off Fourth Investing in America Tour to Highlight How the President Is Delivering for Communities in Every Corner of America: “Throughout the Investing in America tour, President Biden, Vice President Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Cabinet members, and Senior Administration Officials will visit communities across the country where the President is cutting costs for American families, growing our clean energy economy, rebuilding our infrastructure, and creating good-paying jobs along the way. To date, the Administration has now launched over 50,000 infrastructure and clean energy projects and mobilized over $640 billion in private sector clean energy and manufacturing investments.” Alas, NASA is mentioned nowhere in this fact sheet. The fact sheet points to a Brookings Institution report – which also makes no mention of NASA or space. Remember the early days of this Administration when the President pointed out a Moon rock in the oval office? Looks like NASA has lost its mojo. As for the National Space Council – which is supposed to worry about these sort of things – nothing but crickets.

Keith’s note: There was another National Space Council thing in Washington, DC. Big room, lots of flags, big expensive billboard-sized posters from Kinko’s, dramatic lighting – and did I mention lots of flags? Today’s big news was not “news”. VP Harris announced that an international crew member would be part of a mission to the lunar surface. Duh. We’ve all known that for a while. We still do not know what country they wil be from or who they are. NASA can’t even tell you what year they’ll be able to announce the year that humans will land on the Moon – much less who will be in the spaceship or the flag on their shoulder. The Vice President’s team just wants talking points with a sizzle reel. Only NASA OIG and GAO seem to care about NASA’s ability to do things at cost and on time. Artemis and Gateway, Mars Sample Return, ISS service life extension and disposal, commercial space station follow-ons – and all those other other shiny new things will not all fit in the existing budget box. But why worry that the budget required to do things at NASA – It’s showtime! These public things are just a dog and pony show that costs a lot of money three times a year to make the people in the D.C space bubble feel important as they enjoy their choir practice in an echo chamber. The real work goes on behind the scenes. This is just for PR. Just sayin’. Here are the talking points and fact sheets.

• FACT SHEET: Strengthening U.S. International Space Partnerships
• U.S. Novel Space Activities Authorization and Supervision Framework
• Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Meeting of the U.S. National Space Council
• Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a U.S. National Space Council Meeting
• Space Manufacturing Technology Report Submitted to The National Space Council

Keith’s 11 Dec note: There is a National Space Council meeting on Wednesday 20 Dec. Other than a simple release from the White House – emailed to some media but not others – no other information has come out. I asked NASA PAO if it will be webcast. No response. No start/end time is listed. No location. No agenda. Nothing. NASA+ and NASA.gov make no mention whatsoever. You can’t ask the National Space Council since there is no way to actually contact them via their website (no email contact, phone number). It is hard to see how anyone outside of the DC space bubble will even hear what is said. Based on the indifference that the NSpC has had with being open about its activities, it is obvious by now that no one there or in the VP’s office or OSTP actually cares. (see Yet Another Pointless NSpC Users’ Advisory Group Meeting) This is just another VP photo op wherein people read from a script. Hard to take their interest seriously. Beam me up.