Keith’s note: At its last meeting in September 2018 the NASA Advisory Council adopted this recommendation: “Elevating the Status of the Ad Hoc Task Force on STEM Education. Recommendation: The Council recommends that the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Ad Hoc Task Force on STEM Education should become a regular committee of the NAC. Major Reasons for the Recommendation: A regular committee of the NAC that focuses on STEM engagement, and […]

Trump officials act to tilt federal science boards toward industry, Nature “Legally, there is nothing to stop the Trump administration from appointing anybody it likes to agency science boards. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), which governs most of them, does not spell out qualifications for membership. (Some committees such as the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee are governed by their own statutes with stricter service rules.) “All FACA […]

Annual Invitation for Public Nominations by U.S. Citizens for Service on NASA Federal Advisory Committees on Science “NASA announces its annual invitation for public nominations for service on four new Federal advisory committees of NASA that advise NASA on science. The four new committees, formerly subcommittees of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) Science Committee (NAC SC), have been established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), and will advise four […]

NASA Advisory Council Meeting March 31 – April 1 2016, NASA “Dr. Wanda Austin asked Mr. Bolden to discuss how NASA plans to work with the Presidential transition teams to maintain progress on NASA’s current programs and activities. Mr. Bolden explained that the Pre-Election Presidential Transition Act of 2010 allows each political party, after their nominating convention, to assemble transition teams . Beginning in August 2016, NASA will have access […]

The Future of the International Space Station Is Up to a Weird Little Florida Nonprofit, Wired “Which brings us to March, when the NASA Advisory Council released a memo that included this: The Council has also been told by NASA that a successful transition from the “Earth Reliant” phase to the “Proving Ground” is dependent at least in part on the success of attracting future commercial users of the ISS […]

Keith’s note: More than two months ago I posted news that NASA Advisory Council chair Steve Squyres had sent an email to the NAC and to NASA resigning as chair of the NAC. NASA never publicly announced Squyres’ departure, never publicly thanked him for his service, etc. How creepy is that?. Now we quietly find out that Ken Bowersox is the “interim chair” of the NAC. Again, no public announcement […]

Keith’s note: A month ago I posted news that NASA Advisory Council chair Steve Squyres had sent an email to the NAC and to NASA – resigning as chair of the NAC. In the month that followed this posting NASA has said nothing about the status of the NAC. If you go to the NAC home page at NASA nothing has changed in terms of NAC membership (including people whose […]

Keith’s note: NASA Advisory Council Chair Steve Squyres has resigned his position telling people in an email “I’ve simply been finding it too difficult to balance my responsibilities and meet them all well, and something had to give.” One would expect that NASA would begin looking for a new chair for the NAC. Steve was unusual when it came to NAC chairs. Usually the chair is someone who is retired […]

Keith’s note: CASIS (Center for Advancement of Science in Space, Inc.) came to Washington this past week to talk about their management of science and commercial activity aboard the International Space Station National Laboratory. The first stop for CASIS was an event at the National Academy of Sciences on low Earth orbit commerce on Wednesday. The presentation that CASIS gave was their standard Powerpoint chart collection totally lacking in any […]

Red Planet red flags? NASA council has doubts about Mars mission, CNet “A NASA Advisory Council meeting is typically about as exciting as it sounds, but the three-day meeting of the NAC now underway at the Johnson Space Center in Houston included a bit of a bombshell from council member Bill Ballhaus. He chairs a committee tasked with looking into NASA’s plans to address risks and challenges of the journey […]