Keith’s 14 May note: The “skinny” FY 2026 White House budget proposal tells NASA to “reduce the space station’s crew size and onboard research”. In advance of an actual budget, NASA is already preparing to implement deep cuts. Soon. (16 May Update from NASA PAO below)

Keith’s note: Now that NASA has been told to cancel Gateway what happens to all its pieces? Social media is full of speculation: Halo as a Mars lifeboat; PPE as part of a lunar or Mars relay; building some portion of Gateway and sending it to Mars as part of a sprint human effort. And what happens to all the international partners who trusted America and threw in billions to build parts – and the whole Artemis Accords thing? Did anyone put any reasons or strategic thought into this?

Keith’s note: Lisa Watson-Morgan HLS Program Manager held a tag-up with over 400 attendees today after NASA Acting Administrator Janet Petro sent an email out about the White House FY 2026 “skinny” budget [Audio part 1] [Audio part 2]

Keith’s note: This hearing starts Tuesday morning at 10:00 am EDT House Space & Aeronautics Subcommittee Hearing – Leveraging Commercial Innovation for Lunar Exploration: A Review of NASA’s CLPS Initiative and will be webcast live.

Keith’s note: On Saturday I posted a series of links about NASA’s decision to try and erase all mention of the two “First Woman” graphic novels it released several years ago. It did not work. They are spreading. The Iceland Space agency is now featuring them and will soon have links to both documents.

Keith’s 23 March update: within a few hours after this was posted (over a weekend) A NASA YouTube video and an official NASA photo of two female astronauts were pulled offline. Both things had been online for several years. This is not the first time this has happened. Apparently NASA DEI Sanitation Squad is using my postings to help them delete things. Details below. Keith’s 22 March note: in 2021 NASA issued the first of two interactive comic books/graphic novels (“First Woman: Dream to Reality”) depicting young women dreaming of – and then training for – a future that would comprise the so-called “Artemis Generation.” NASA issued a second novel (“First Woman: Expanding Our Universe”) in November 2023. Yet, as of March 2025 NASA has moved all evidence of these two publications from their various internet platforms as part of the ongoing Federal Government purge of anything related to diversity or women etc. (see “NASA’s Ever-Changing Artemis Crew Tagline‘). But these two publications are not totally gone. I found them – rather easily. Here they are:

Keith’s note: According to Ars Technica: “On Friday, with less than an hour’s notice, David Dutcher, Boeing’s vice president and program manager for the SLS rocket, scheduled an all-hands meeting for the approximately 800 employees working on the program. The apparently scripted meeting lasted just six minutes, and Dutcher didn’t take questions.” Oh yes: Eric Berger just update this story with a tweet saying “NASA HQ was caught completely unaware on Friday afternoon when the first stories started to appear. Boeing apparently did this to pressure lawmakers to ‘save’ SLS before the White House takes action.”

Keith’s note: According to this NASA Artemis page: “NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.” The “first person of color“ phrase was added during the Biden Administration but the “first woman” line emerged during the Trump 1.0 Administration. Let’s see how the Diversity purge affects this popular opening line for NASA Artemis postings. As for the “first international partner” line …

Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO: “As NASA develops a blueprint for space exploration throughout the solar system for the benefit of humanity, the agency released several new documents Friday updating its Moon to Mars architecture. The roadmap sets NASA on course for long-term lunar exploration under the Artemis campaign in preparation for future crewed missions to Mars. Following an Architecture Concept Review, the 2024 updates include a revision of NASA’s Architecture Definition Document which details technical approaches and processes of the agency’s exploration plans, an executive overview, and 12 new white papers on key Moon to Mars topics.” More

Keith’s note: There is an Artemis media thing at NASA today at 1:00 pm EST. Tune in here. During the tenure of Bill Nelson at NASA the Artemis program’s schedule has slipped by several years, costs have continued to balloon out of control, and both OIG/GAO continue to point out chronically unresolved managerial and contractual issues with the whole Artemis/SLS/Orion/Gateway thing. It will be interesting to see what spin Nelson puts on this whole mess today in his exit presser – and how often he will say #SpaceIsHard.