Keith’s note: According to Bob Jacobs (@BNJacobs) at NASA PAO: “After 25 years of public service, I have decided to retire from NASA. If I enjoyed any success, it was because of the team around me. Yes, I am looking forward to a new career challenge.” Bob’s contributions to NASA are immense and far too numerous to mention. 99% of what he did for the agency was without attribution and often involved diving catches behind the scenes. Some of the coolest things NASA talked about were the direct result of his steadfast dedication to the agency – often when others did not want to expend the energy to fix things and do them the right way. My only concern is where his small army (I am not exaggerating) of ‘Lost In Space’ robots that have guarded his office will end up – hopefully not homeless. I wish Bob all the best now that he is returning to the real world. Ad Astra.

Keith’s note: The following was sent out the other day after news of firings at NASA Public Affairs started to appear on social media (see screen grab from one fired employee below): “As many of you are aware, the spending caps enacted by Congress for fiscal year 2024 and 2025 are requiring many organizations like ours to make hard choices. We are not unique, and, unfortunately, we have had to make difficult decisions that affect some of our team. After thorough analysis and review of all available options, we are reducing some requirements at Goddard, Marshall and HQ on the eMITS and SRACES contracts. These decisions were not made lightly and do not reflect on the outstanding and tireless work of the communications team. While they will no doubt have impact, our core mission remains unchanged– we will continue to tell the incredible NASA story and inspire all to reach for the stars. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me, Michelle Jones or Wes Brown with any questions or concerns you may have. Together, we will navigate these challenges. Marc Etkind Associate Administrator for Communications”

Keith’s note: 56 Nations have signed the Antarctic Treaty and 33 have signed the Artemis Accords. Given more than a half century of global, peaceful collaboration in Antarctica we can now work toward a similar mode of cooperation in space – for everyone, everywhere. Alas, you’d think that on #AntarcticaDay that NASA OIIR or NASA PAO or someone at NASA HQ might stop to note the resonance between these two similar efforts. A worthy goal would be for NASA to seek to equal – and perhaps surpass – the size and extent of the successful Antarctic Treaty. But no. They just do photo ops at embassies.

Family note: “It is with a heavy heart that the Redmond family announces the passing of Chas Redmond. Our loving grandfather/father/husband/brother passed away on November 6th. He will be forever remembered for his laugh, art, music, kindness, adventurous spirit, and the joy he brought to so many.” Keith’s note: I think I knew Chas for nearly all of my 38+ years in DC in and around NASA. He was a multi-talented, creative guy at PAO before creativity was really considered a valuable asset for NASA public affairs. He was fascinated by the whole NASAWatch thing in the 90s and how it developed. Over the past decade or more we interacted multiple times a week on Facebook. Even when his body was doing its best to thwart him he kept going and going. We’ll miss you Chas. Class Act. Ad Astra.

Keith’s 8 March update: NASA PAO has contacted me to tell me that they have corrected this issue. Keith’s original note: NASA issued a press release on 1 March 2023 about newly published results from the DART mission. In that release they link to four papers in Nature magazine about DART mission results. Except when you go to the links that NASA posted you quickly find out that you can only read the abstracts of these papers – not the full paper that is behind Nature’s paywall (see the screen grab from Nature). You have to pay money out of your own pocket to read each of the papers. That’s odd. Repeated calls from the OSTPs in both the Obama and Biden Administrations were made to make access to government-funded research open and transparent for all taxpayers as soon as possible (see “OSTP Issues Guidance to Make Federally Funded Research Freely Available Without Delay” from 25 August 2022). More below.

NAC notes: Wayne Hale, closing today's NASA Advisory Council meeting, suggested the agency would be better served by increased transparency, citing public affairs "happy words" vs more frequent briefings/discussion of technical challenges, problems and solutions — William Harwood (@cbs_spacenews) January 19, 2022

NASA ‘looks to the heavens’ for help: Agency enlists 24 theologians to assess how the world would react to the discovery of alien life on distant planets and how it might change our perception of gods and creation, Daily Mail “NASA is looking to the heavens for help with assessing how humans will react if alien life is found on other planets and how the discovery could impact our ideas […]

Keith’s note: NASA makes an announcement about three of its employees with Hispanic heritage – in association with an organization that focuses on hispanic heritage. NASA has told me that they have an in-house ability to easily translate releases into Spanish. So, what does NASA PAO do with a press release that could be – should be – issued in Spanish goes out? No translation. Go figure. You'd think @NASA […]

#NASA PAO will continue to ignore an immense #softpower capability that NASA quietly developed over the past 10 yr. You'd think that @Pinballme Marc Etkind, the Biden pick to run @NASA outreach with his global TV experience, would see this potential & run with it #BuildBackBetter https://t.co/BiIhwrcJ4p — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) September 8, 2021

Unfortunately @NASA PAO is now holding "virtual briefings" where news media can no longer ask the briefers questions directly. Instead reporters have to email their questions in. This allows #NASA to filter the questions before they are asked – should they so desire #transparency https://t.co/iI00WAH2KO — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) August 31, 2021 While #NASA PAO has started to not allow news media to directly ask #NASA briefers questions at media […]