NASA Should Maintain Long-Term Focus on Mars as “Horizon Goal” for Human Space Exploration “The technical analysis completed for this study shows that for the foreseeable future, the only feasible destinations for human exploration are the moon, asteroids, Mars, and the moons of Mars,” Lunine added. “Among this small set of plausible goals, the most distant and difficult is putting human boots on the surface of Mars, thus that is […]

Palazzo, Edwards Say Human Space Exploration Should Be Priority “We are writing to express our strong support for a safe, focused and expeditious return of American astronauts to deep space exploration on an American rocket launched from American soil. Congress has done its part in helping to codify a future deep space exploration architecture in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 (PL 111-267), and has followed with a robust funding […]

Neither person in the selfie w/ the President are interested in having humans in space – only robots. #WhatIsNASAFor pic.twitter.com/01tU4XppY7 — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 1, 2014

Keith’s note: One night in January I got frustrated trying to find something on NASA’s Human Spaceflight website(s). So, I decided to map them. As you can see from this chart (enlarge), NASA’s HSF web presence – like much of NASA’s sprawling cyber infrastructure – is an unorganized mess. Yet despite this convoluted web structure, people often manage to find things simply because a lot of what NASA does is […]

NASA science chief advocates ties with human spaceflight, SpaceflightNow “Grunsfeld told Spaceflight Now he met with Bill Gerstenmaier, head of NASA’s human exploration division, in his first week in office. “One of the reasons I’m in this job now is because NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden believed that teaming with human spaceflight on those things that make sense, on our exploration program, for science to take advantage of the resources of […]

Restored Photos: Project Gemini Comes to Life “On 23 March 1965, the first of ten crewed Gemini spacecraft was launched carrying it’s crew of two astronauts, Gus Grissom and John Young. The NASA Johnson Space Center and the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University today proudly unveil the Project Gemini Online Digital Archive. The archive contains the first high-resolution digital scans of the original Gemini flight […]

– Sen. Rockefeller (statement) Witness Panel 1 – Charles Bolden(statement) Witness Panel 2 – KSC Center Director Robert D. Cabana – JSC Center Director Michael L. Coats – MSFC Center Director Robert M. Lightfoot

Florida raises concern over Wallops expansion, Orlando Sentinel “The most pressing issue for the Florida workforce is the sense of betrayal that their tax dollars might be used in establishing a competing orbital human spaceflight launch capability in another state when they have so well and ably done the job here in Florida,” wrote Lynda Weatherman, president and CEO of the Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast. Added Frank […]

NASA to share telescope cost, Nature “The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is perilously overbudget and under threat of cancellation, but Nature has learned that it may be offered a financial lifeline. The flagship observatory is currently funded entirely through NASA’s science division; now NASA is requesting that more than US$1 billion in extra costs be shared 50:50 with the rest of the agency. The request reflects administrator Charles Bolden’s […]

Keith’s note: I do not think suicide is funny – under any circumstance. Yet this photo essay makes a point – and it uses a powerful iconic image of an anonymous person in a spacesuit in an exaggerated fashion to make that point. A lot of people are rather depressed and demoralized right now with the retirement of the Space Shuttle. Entire careers have come to an abrupt end. Yet […]