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.

• According to the Daily Mail ‘The China-U.S. relationship has never been smooth sailing and always faces problems of one kind or another,’ Xi said through a translator as he met Biden. ‘Yet it has kept moving forward amidst twists and turns. For China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option. It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has terrible consequences for both sides. Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.’ Biden said “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict and we have to manage responsibly that competition,’ Biden told his counterpart. ‘That’s what the United States wants and what we intend to do. I believe that’s also what the world wants from both of us. ‘We have a responsibility to our people and the world to work together when we see it in our interests to do so. The critical global changes we face from climate change, narcotics to artificial intelligence demand us to work together.”

• Meanwhile NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has been quoted in Politico as saying “It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” the former Florida senator and astronaut said in an interview. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’” He pointed out that Russian cosmonauts operate the International Space Station side by side with NASA astronauts, and that they frequently trust each other with their lives. And on CTV Nelson said “We built the International Space Station with the Russians. What a contrast, with the Chinese government,” Nelson said. “They are secretive, they are non-transparent. They will not share when Earth is threatened by one of their tumbling rockets coming back in, they will not share their trajectories, so it’s a huge difference in the way we approach our civilian space program with the Russians visa vie the Chinese.”

• It would seem like Bill Nelson has been off on his own hawkish path with regard to China while being extra tender with regard to Russia (with whom we are fighting a proxy war) while the White House (and seemingly Beijing) are moving in the opposite direction than Nelson’s Cold War-ish rhetoric. Is Nelson out of touch – or is this a ‘good cop/bad cop’ game that the Administration is using Nelson for?

Keith’s note: The House Science Committee held a Fiscal Year 2024 Proposed Budget Request for NASA hearing today. According to committee chair Frank Lucas’ prepared sattement: “Because of these overflowing costs, NASA has been forced to make difficult choices in its science portfolio. It postponed a selected mission to Venus, indefinitely paused a flagship heliophysics mission, and delayed launch of an important asteroid detection spacecraft. If this trend continues, then NASA may have to make difficult decisions to postpone or cancel future missions. This is unacceptable and we must do better.” Bill Nelson made no mention of delays or cost overruns. Instead all he said in his prepared statement was “The FY 2024 Request is the highest request for NASA science in history, supporting over 120 NASA science missions and 10,000 U.S. scientists through more than 4,000 openly competed research awards.” Video below.

Keith’s note: A school principal was fired and/or forced to quit in Florida after a lesson involved Michaelangelo’s nude statue of David. Apparently Florida is going to make all the nude images in history illegal to use in schools. FYI this image was sent to Interstellar space – FROM FLORIDA – TWICE. OMG what will those aliens think? This NASA.gov page points to an image of the plaque on the pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft. It is also here, and here and a million other places. So Florida’s eventual website censors (you know that is coming following book banning) are going to be busy. NASA Administrator and former D-FL Senator Bill Nelson is a “Florida Man”. I am wondering why he has been so silent about this situation back home. If NASA truly supports the best possible dedication of resources toward the education of the “Artemis Generation” – and wants to have a safe work and living environment for all NASA and contractor employees and their families in Florida (and Texas, Alabama etc.) then you’d think that Bill Nelson would say something. But he and Pam are in Australia and his Education Office is clueless. Just sayin’.

Keith’s note: Whenever I am asked about the Russian issue on the ISS on TV I usually reply that while things are bad back on Earth, somehow we always managed to cooperate in space with the same people we cannot get along with on Earth – and that maybe how we live in space can provide us a lesson with how we should live on our home planet’s surface. Indeed I think the idea of ISS as a Nobel Peace Prize winner is a good one. In the past several years that in-space cooperation has been tested with regard to Russia. We’ve seen that relationship challenged by Nauka’s malfunction, leaky Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, accusations of American astronaut tampering, and repugnant rants from the (former) head of Russia’s space program (who is now an active participant in the invasion of Ukraine). Yet the ISS continues to operate surprisingly smoothly. Now the U.S. has openly declared that “The United States has formally determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity.” Is Bill Nelson going to address this? Probably not. Oddly Bill Nelson has been quite vocal for months about China (not a NASA partner in space). Yet when it comes to a formal U.S. accusation of crimes against humanity in Ukraine by Russia (an actual NASA partner in space) Nelson is surprisingly quiet. Why is that?

Keith’s note: I am trying to wrap my head around this thing that NASA Administrator Senator Bill Nelson keeps saying. Is the State Department putting him up to this? They do not seem to be doing any arm waving about it. Just Nelson. Oddly I do not seem to see anyone else saying it – except in some articles in China who think that America is trying to do the same thing in reaction to Bill Nelson making these claims.

According to ‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon published by the Guardian “The US is locked in a space race with China and the country needs to “watch out” that its rival does not gain a foothold and try to dominate lunar resources, Nasa’s top official has warned. The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.The contest between the US and China, he added, was intensifying and the next two years could determine which country achieves an advantage. “It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” Nelson told Politico. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’

Lori Garver has a new book out titled “Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age” which explains much of how space exploration and utilization is being done in the third decade of the 21st century. But how did we get here? She explains. She was there.

NASA Invites Media to Discuss Future of NASA “NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other senior agency leaders will host an employee town hall for all civil servant and contractor employees at noon EDT, Tuesday, Sept. 21, to provide updates about the agency’s human spaceflight programs, projects, and activities to the workforce. The town hall will air live on NASA Television, the NASA app, the agency’s website, and multiple agency social […]

Revealed: Biden’s ethics exceptions, Axios “The details: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was excused from rules that would have barred him from working with Lockheed Martin, for which he was a paid advisory board member. Nelson assured ethics officials prior to his confirmation that he would only be participating in policy matters potentially affecting Lockheed, not any procurement or contracting decisions involving the company.”

Keith’s note: After four years of attempts to kill NASA’s Education Office a new Administration wants to increase NASA’s education funding. A person with a PhD in Education lives in the White House. Overall, the Biden/Harris Administration talks about enhancing education in all quarters of the government. Instead of having a political donor running the Department of Education into the ground, an actual teacher and professional educational manager is now […]