Keith’s note: I just spoke with Al Jazeera Arabic about the recently released image of the Ring Nebula taken by the Webb Space Telescope. [Audio]

Keith’s note: I spoke with Alhurra TV this afternoon about the recent communications issues with NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. [audio]

Keith’s note: I spent some time in Washington, DC this morning at the World War II memorial. My father was born 100 years ago today. We lost him a few years ago at age 95. He was a WWII vet. I thought this was an appropriate time to finally visit this hallowed place. As I have written previously my father – barely out of his teens – came within a matter of feet from possible death during a V-2 attack on London in 1945. He was injured physically – and that healed. But the emotional scars stayed with him until he drew his last breath – in my arms. As I also noted – the direct descendants of the thing that nearly killed my father – and thus almost preventing me from ever existing – gave my life purpose as a child and totally directed the course of my career. More Below

Keith’s note: I was just on Bloomberg Radio to talk about the Apollo 11 anniversary, Artemis, and the future of lunar exploration – and beyond. [Audio]

Keith’s note: On 8 April 2023 I appeared on Al Jazeera Arabic TV to talk about a giant black hole that is traveling through the universe and creating stars in its wake (story). Yet another TV show with an Arabic translator wherein I have to distill down a science story into words a general audience can get – via an Interpreter. Strangely You do not see NASA personnel on these networks with huge global audiences – especially when there is one Arabic speaking astronaut on the ISS and another heading up soon. You’d think that NASA PAO, SMD, HEOMD, or OIIR would want to get some soft power synergies going. Guess again. Audio.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview on Alhurra TV and talked about space radiation research on astronauts and its applicability to medical treatments on Earth. I actually said “spinoff” several times. If you listen to the audio you will hear that I had a two-way English/Arabic interpreter. I worked as a professional Sign language interpreter for a number of years – so I know how to de-jargonize things and parse my comments to facilitate translation. Add in the fact that the program is aimed at a general global audience with no background in NASAese and there you are. That said – I had no talking points in advance from NASA or anyone else – and only a general idea of what might be asked. Having had a real job once upon a time working in NASA space life sciences certainly helped. Alas, these days, NASA Public Affairs takes little interest in providing media who get in front of large global audiences (such as Alhurra, BBC etc.) with relevant talking points to help make the discussion more relevant. And when a non-NASA talking head gets something wrong then PAO gets upset and has meetings and complains within itself about the quality of space news coverage. Oh yes: an arabic-speaking astronaut is living on ISS and another is heading up soon. I mentioned them too. A little soft power projection – not that NASA OIIR cares. At this point if they are reading this they are rolling their eyes. Just sayin. Here’s the audio.

Keith’s note: On 19 May 2009 at 6:15 pm EDT (20 May 4:00 am Nepal time) Astronaut Scott Parazynski stood on top of the world with piece of the Moon. My old, voided, damaged NASA badge (and a picture of astronaut Sunni Williams’ dog Gorby) went along while Miles O’Brien served as our news anchor back in New York. Each of us has gone through a lot in the subsequent […]

Moon rocks, collected during the historic Apollo 11 mission, found a new residence aboard the International Space Station alongside a piece of Mt. Everest. More photos below.

Everest, Apollo, Soyuz, NEEMO, and Space Station Resonances, OnOrbit “When my friend, astronaut Scott Parazynski and I went to Nepal in 2009, Suni sent a picture of Gorbie to us. This picture flew with her on the ISS. That picture of Gorbie plus my old NASA badge from 1990 made it to the summit of Mt. Everest (the picture Gwen is holding) with an Apollo 11 moon rock I carried […]

Keith’s note: I had a rather special guest visit me today at the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) at Building 596 (aka “McMoon’s”) at NASA Ames Research Center. Dan Goldin. Having Dan visit was really cool. It was great to have him stop by and visit our rebel operation. I really enjoyed showing him around. Dan asked a string of very sharp, cogent questions and offered us some valuable […]