Keith’s note: According to NASA PAO “Kathryn Lueders, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, announced Monday she will retire from the agency at the end of April. Lueders’ current deputy and astronaut, Ken Bowersox, will become the new head of Space Operations, effective Monday, May 1.” More

Keith’s note: The annual ISSRDC – International Space Station Research And Development Conference has had a series of technical session this week – from 16-18 August. If you go to Twitter no one seems to be tweeting anything about what is being said about the capability and potential of the International Space Station. In the first portion of this year’s ISSRDC earlier this month NIH Director Francis Collins did an […]

NIH Director Francis Collins and NASA Astronaut Kate Rubins to Keynote Joint Session at ISSRDC “The 2021 International Space Station Research and Development Conference (ISSRDC) will include a virtual keynote session that will feature two key science figures: National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Dr. Francis Collins and NASA astronaut Dr. Kate Rubins.” The Smithsonian’s Dr. Ellen Stofan and NASA’s Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen to Keynote Day 2 Session at ISSRDC […]

Keith’s note: These are some of the articles – with links to research publications – in this past week’s NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #949 14 May 2021 (Space Life Science Research Results) As you can see, this is a rather broad array of topics with direct relevance to this whole exploration of space thing that NASA talks about. And the folks who edit this resource put a quality list […]

Keith’s note: As a one-time actual space biologist at NASA I find posting of research data online to be one of the most important things NASA can do to show the value – and availability – of research done on the ISS. NASA has been generating research papers for more than half a century. One very useful resource is NASA Spaceline, a regular (now weekly) NASA-funded summary of research sponsored […]

Sources are reporting that Kirk Shireman is leaving his job as @NASA ISS Program Manager — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) June 16, 2020 Keith’s 16 June update: As we first reported last night ISS Program Manager Kirk Shireman is leaving NASA. Additional NASA sources have confirmed that he has announced his retirement effective 26 June, This departure is quite a surprise to people at NASA. NASA Updates Date, Time for Media […]

Kathy Lueders Selected to Lead NASA’s Human Spaceflight Office “NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine Friday selected Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders to be the agency’s next associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate. Since 2014, Lueders has directed NASA’s efforts to send astronauts to space on private spacecraft, which culminated in the successful launch of Demo-2 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 30.” […]

NASA human spaceflight directorate reorganization on hold, Space News “During a June 1 webinar by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, NASA Associate Administrator Steve Jurczyk said that a reorganization of the agency’s Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate will be delayed until after the agency hires a successor to Doug Loverro, who left the agency May 19.” Keith’s 4 June update: Bringing Mark Geyer back to NASA […]

LEAG Letter To NASA Administrator Bridenstine Regarding Resource Prospector Mission “We wrote to Drs. Gerstenmaier and Zurbuchen to describe the community-wide support for RP on 2 March 2018, after the redirection for this initially HEOMD-led mission to be shared with the new Lunar Exploration and Discovery Program within SMD. We now understand RP was cancelled on 23 April 2018 and the project has been asked to close down by the […]

NAC Gets Stuck on Mars Technology Development Finding, Space Policy Online “The NASA Advisory Council (NAC) reached agreement on a number of findings and recommendations at its meeting over the past two days. Its finding about the Asteroid Redirect Mission has received widespread attention, but other important topics also were discussed. One case where consensus could not be reached was a proposed finding that NASA’s technology development effort in support […]