Keith’s note: a friend and former co-worker, Doug Koupash, has died unexpectedly. I worked with Doug at the Space Station Freedom Program Office in Reston, VA. We both worked in Utilization and Ops. I worked with the prospective science users, Doug did logistics – one of our “loggies”. We interacted almost daily and sat through endless (re)design reviews. He was one of the kindest folks I think I ever worked with at NASA. For some reason every time I was at some space event at the Reagan building in DC I’d bump into him in the food court – he went to work there for DHS after NASA. He was always upbeat. For those of you who know what we went through at SSFPO in Reston, we became a very tight bunch. Our Friday BBQ parties at Parkridge III and IV were legendary. The Space Station that is in orbit now carries a piece of every soul who helped design and build it – regardless of what name it was called then – or now. And we can see that legacy fly over our homes at night – true to our PR stuff at the time, it’s often the brightest object in the sky. Ad Astra Doug.

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau – Keith’s note: From orbit, the spell cast by our ocean world is truly vast and compelling. Suni Williams, a naval aviator, arrived at the ISS in a spaceship named “Calypso”.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview with Deutsche Welle about the ongoing air leak on the International Space Station [Audio]

Keith’s note: According to a NASA OIG report NASA’s Management of Risks to Sustaining ISS Operations through 2030: “After more than a decade of effort, NASA and its partners continue to develop a transition and deorbit plan to prevent an operations gap in LEO and ensure a safe and controlled deorbit of the ISS. Russia has not committed to ISS operations through 2030, which includes the deorbit plan and timeline. Without commitment from Russia to the current deorbit plan, the ability to conduct a controlled deorbit is unclear. In June 2024, NASA awarded a contract to SpaceX to develop the U.S. deorbit vehicle to execute the controlled deorbit of the ISS in 2031. Nonetheless, the uncertainty of commercial LEO destination-readiness, limited budget availability, and the potential delay in availability of the U.S. deorbit vehicle adds more schedule challenges and risks to NASA’s 2031 deorbit plan.”

Keith’s note: Starliner made a mostly flawless return to Earth early today. I was on Deutsche Welle yesterday before the landing [audio] and then again after the landing [audio]. If you go to 03:25 on this YouTube video of the interview you’ll see that I had a walk-on guest commentary on the alien-sounding noises coming out of Starliner’s comm system (the picture on this post). I then did BBC World News this morning [audio] and CGTN this evening [audio]. YouTube videos of these interviews are posted below.

Keith’s note: Wednesday morning I was on CNN talking about the latest news – or rather lack thereof – regarding the ongoing Boeing Starliner saga. NASA held a media update today – except there was no actual “news”. All we heard from them was “yea, they’re still up there. We’ll get back to you” And yes, I did make a reference to the opening of “Gilligan’s Island” on CNN. [Audio]. I was also on CGTN [Audio], Deutsche Welle [Audio], and BBC World Service talking about Starliner during the day. Thursday update: And I just did a radio interview on Starliner with W Radio (with an excellent Spanish interpreter!) and they have a 33 million+ global reach.

NASA official acknowledges internal “disagreement” on safety of Starliner return, Ars Technica: “Boeing engineers are advocating for flying Starliner as is, that enough is known about the problem that failures will not occur during the vehicle’s return to Earth. However, during meetings of key engineers at NASA known as the “Program Control Board” this week, there was no agreement that this so-called flight rationale was enough to fly crew on the vehicle. “We heard from a lot of folks that had concerns,” Bowersox said. “We heard enough voices that the decision was not clear at the Program Control Board.” Given that NASA will soon decide whether to fly crew on Starliner, the Boeing team has about a week to convince the NASA team of Starliner’s safety before a potential switch to Crew Dragon.”

Keith’s note: It would seem that none of International Space Station Research & Development Conference (ISSRDC) will be webcast. No mention whatsoever is made on their website. No mention of any webcast is made at NASA.gov either. NASA recently issued a contract to destroy the International Space Station. Not even bothering to webcast this event – which supposedly exists to promote and explain all that the ISS has done – is too much for CASIS or NASA to bother setting up. No one at NASA seems to care since they all have Artemis Go Fever. As such, the 300+ million U.S. taxpayers who put billions into this amazing resource aren’t entitled to learn what NASA did with all their money or why ISS needs to be splashed. The scheduled death of the ISS is not even on the meeting’s agenda. And of course, as Artemis delays mount, NASA will come back for more money without ever truly explaining why they are throwing this astonishing resource away or why they need to build another space station out near the Moon to support missions are moving ever further into the future. And then NASA’s Administrator has the audacity to whine and complain that China may beat the U.S. back to the Moon. DUH, Bill. China has a plan and they stick to it. NASA does not. Update: CASIS sent me a note: “While we are not actively promoting the livestream component to the conference yet (similar to last year), it will be made open to the public during the event. We will promote the livestream component for those not able to physically attend in a media advisory prior to the conference. Additionally, there will be social pushes during the event driving the public to the livestream.”

Keith’s note: According to NASA Selects International Space Station US Deorbit Vehicle “NASA is fostering continued scientific, educational, and technological developments in low Earth orbit to benefit humanity, while also supporting deep space exploration at the Moon and Mars. As the agency transitions to commercially owned space destinations closer to home, it is crucial to prepare for the safe and responsible deorbit of the International Space Station in a controlled manner after the end of its operational life in 2030.” Simply throwing the ISS away when it has been shown to be upgradable and repairable is short sighted to say the least. Then again NASA simply does not have the money to operate ISS, build and operate Gateway, and fund whatever emerges from the whole Axiom/Starlab/Orbital Reef mix – and do the Artemis things on the Moon – not to mention the notional Mars exploration things that NASA also crows about. NASA’s 50-year-old space suits leak and one of the replacement efforts is quitting. Oh – and Mars Sample Return and other large space science projects want their share too. That said, throwing things away is defeatist, unimaginative, and not the way we’re going to expand throughout the solar system – all while reusability is the new paradigm in the space world. Indeed, SpaceX is making and improving Starships at a rate that is more like a consumer electronics company. One Starship flight could add a decade of life to the ISS. FWIW Here is the International Space Station Deorbit Analysis Summary which has this rather odd justification for not allowing a Starship near the ISS: “However, ascending to these orbits would require the development of new propulsive and tanker vehicles that do not currently exist. While still currently in development, vehicles such as the SpaceX Starship are being designed to deliver significant amounts of cargo to these orbits; however, there are prohibitive engineering challenges with docking such a large vehicle to the space station and being able to use its thrusters while remaining within space station structural margins.” Yet NASA is totally cool with docking a Starship to the Gateway space station 240,000 miles from Earth. But let’s splash ISS instead. NASA is at risk of being known for what it can’t do as opposed to what it can do. Imagination is no longer in NASA’s toolkit.

Keith’s note: I just recorded a piece for Scripps News that should be airing on its various networks/stations about the current Boeing Starliner status and the planned EVA. ICYMI according to a Friday update from NASA: “NASA and Boeing leadership are adjusting the return to Earth of the Starliner Crew Flight Test spacecraft … Mission managers are evaluating future return opportunities following the station’s two planned spacewalks on Monday, June 24, and Tuesday, July 2.” And today’s EVA was cancelled “due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit on Dyson’s spacesuit.” So … things are going to be TBD-ish for a while.