Keith’s note: NASA is consolidating social media accounts (yes this was needed). The FY 2026 NASA Budget Request from the White House eliminates STEM funding, removes all public affairs staff at the field centers, cuts NASA HQ PAO staff, and reduces the overall communications and outreach budgets. And of course diversity, equity, and inclusion is now a forbidden concept. So where is the plan that NASA is following in order to do all of this? Is there a plan for this at NASA? Or does NASA just have a concept of a plan? One would assume that all of these dramatic changes to the public face of NASA are being done according to some overall guidance – yes? What follows are some random questions off the top of my head about the effective education and public outreach and engagement plan that the world’s pre-eminent space agency would need in order to continue to lead the way – and also expand that lead. Or maybe they don’t actually care to have a plan. Or know how. (More below)

Keith’s note: according to “What government programs should be slashed? NASA nears top of list, poll finds“ in the Miami Herald: “In the latest Marquette Law School Poll, 63% of respondents said they would be willing to reduce spending on NASA and its space program to shrink the federal budget deficit. Meanwhile, just 37% said they would not be willing to cut it. And just 5% said sending astronauts to Mars or back to the moon is a major priority, while 39% said this is important, but not a top concern. A majority, 56%, said it should not be a priority at all.” (deep sigh) NASA has touched the sun, visited every planet in our solar system, has spaceships traversing interstellar space, and has telescopes that look back toward the dawn of the universe – yet NASA Public Affairs and other communications and outreach efforts at the agency consistently fail to convey these awesome, exciting accomplishments to the public. Only NASA could make America’s unparalleled accomplishments in space exploration so boring that such a large portion of the public wants to cut space funding. Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: This NASA memo is circulating and was sent out yesterday ordering “all NASA contractors and grantees to cease and desist all DEIA activities required of their contracts or grants.” (Full memo below)

Keith’s note: I am posting this piece by Fredrik Jonsson (video link below) as an example of what millions of people can now do with tools on their personal computers. At once realistic and fictitious – and yet sublime and majestic – these tools now allow one’s imagination to go wild. What is often lacking is a strong narrative – a message. Instead we get vibes and memes.

Keith’s note: Yet another example of the global interest in space exploration – between Colombia and Poland – and yet they are half a world apart. Oh yes: note the logo on the boy’s hat. NASA’s reach is global and usually beyond its own understanding since the agency passes on capitalizing on innumerable soft power options to help empower the Artemis Generation – everywhere. The one glaring exception is the NASA Space Apps competition which is only promoted in a substantive way by some portions of NASA SMD – but not the rest of the agency (sadly). This is from A space camp’s cultural exchange, Science (subscription): “The camp’s instructors—including author C.O.D.—had come from Colombia to conduct research at Poland’s Analog Astronaut Training Center (AATC). As the head of the camp, which is run by AATC, I had invited them to share their knowledge with the campers. We worked together to translate the scientific concepts from Spanish to English to Polish. As we planned the lessons, they shared the Colombian traditions of integrating movement, art, music, and ancestral knowledge into scientific work. For example, one activity demonstrated how scientists are extracting the pigments from Colombian fruits and trying to incorporate them into green solvents that could be used to make organic solar panels. During a break, we played salsa music over a loudspeaker and encouraged the campers to dance.” More on NASA branding.

Keith’s note: Chirag Parikh Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Secretary, National Space Council posted something on LinkedIn. There is something happening next week – “Find Your Place in Space Week” from 6-13 April 2024. I never got anything from NASA PAO, OSTP, or National Space Council. There is no mention of this here at NASA news or here at the NASA main page or at NASA STEM Engagement or OSTP or National Space Council. Apparently NASA TV is ignoring it. If you use NASA’s search engine there is no mention. BUT If you Google these words “Find Your Place in Space Week NASA” a page shows up – but it is hidden inside of NASA.gov – you have to already know about it before you search for it. The Space Foundation is holding the Space Symposium next week – a natural tie-in, right? They ignore it too. The Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, AIAA, Planetary Society, National Space Society etc. make no mention of this either. There are lots of partners on listed by National Space Council but if you go to USGS, NSF, NOAA, etc. etc. there is no mention whatsoever of this event that they are co-sponsoring. Again, you already need to know exactly what words to use to find this – otherwise, no joy since none of the obvious places even mention it. It is baffling that one part of the federal government has no idea what other parts are doing – especially NASA. All we get is a White House guy telling the space wonk community about it on LinkedIn. Here’s what Parikh posted:

Keith’s note: I was on Deutsche Welle TV today – twice – once with presenter Phil Gayle. This was my fifth TV appearance this week. I have been on global TV hundreds of times in the past 28 years. Pick a network – I have been on it. Just as the whole notion of talking to millions of people all over the planet becomes something that I do without thinking, I get a comment on my Facebook page that stopped me in my tracks. In this case, it was from someone I have never met – and would likely never meet – Jahwill KaGulda in Soweto, a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa – thanking me for explaining new technology. Wow. I’m pleased to say that I am still easily humbled by this whole Internet/TV thing – and I hope that I always will be. When I am not, then it is time to turn off the computer. Meanwhile this is motivating in the extreme. An American being interviewed by a Brit on German television prompts someone in Soweto, South Africa to thank us for having taught them something about science. This one Facebook comment is worth more to me than you can possibly know. As Sean O’Keefe was fond of quoting from his Jesuit schooling, he suggested to me that sometimes “you only make one convert at a time”. I guess I did. The Facebook post with the comment by Jahwill KaGulda is below.

Keith’s note: The popularity of space exploration – both real and imagined – is something that those of us in the developed and throughly wired developed world take for granted. What we often do not appreciate is how much of our content leaks out and finds its ways across the rest of the world. And in so doing how it can inspire millions of people – ones that we never stop to think about – to aspire to explore space. [much more below]

Fictional astronaut Callie Rodriguez continues exploring space as the first woman to walk on the Moon in a new issue of NASA’s First Woman graphic novel series. Now available digitally in English and Spanish, “First Woman: Expanding Our Universe,” follows Callie and her crewmates as they work together to explore the unknown, make scientific discoveries, and accomplish their mission objectives.

Keith’s note: According to a tweet by NASA SMD Nicky Fox the other day “Fun Friday night build – some tense moments when I managed to dislodge a critical piece in the sample arm gears but all good eventually! @LEGO_Group @NASAJPL @NASAPersevere and #Ingenuity in the house! @LaurieofMars you may be disappointed by the underside 😉🙃”. Too bad cool STEM education things like this conducted by two of the top female scientists running NASA – JPL Director Laurie Leshin and SMD AA Nicky Fox – go totally unnoticed by NASA Public Affairs, PAO AA Marc Etkind and Education AA Mike Kincaid. Don’t you have a Space Act Agreement LEGO? You used to have one. There is a NASA JPL Mars rover logo on the box that Nicky is holding. Gee, how did that get there? No mention of this outreach opportunity has been made by @NASA (74.9 million followers) or @NASAJPL (3.8 million followers). According to Local Community Engagement at LEGO “Our local community engagement program currently operates in 31 countries, and we are working hard to expand it even further.” Amazon is filled with NASA-themed LEGO products. More than 220 million LEGO sets are sold globally each year. You would think that someone in a position to make creative and strategic decisions would have a way to coordinate nascent outreach opportunities like this. NASA has one of the largest, most ubiquitous branding visibilities on Earth – and it is 100% positive, exiting, proactive, diverse – and hopeful. As such one would think that working with another equally visible entity (LEGO) would only result in a synergistic visibility for the common values shared by both. NASA can certainly get far greater reach than this. But the people responsible for doing so must have to want to see this happen. Oh yes another female leader at NASA Technology, Policy and Strategy AA Bhavya Lal is totally into LEGO as well. If NASA leadership is into the same thing as hundreds of million of people around the world isn’t this something to utilize as an outreach tool? Missed opportunities. Just sayin’.