Keith’s note: The following note was sent to NASA employees by Jared Isaacman today: his take home quote: “I encourage the workforce to leave the politics for the politicians and remain focused on the mission.“ Full text below.

Keith’s note: The path NASA was on included ISS and one, maybe two, LEO space stations requiring heavy subsidies – plus the mini-lunar space station Gateway. Funding was lacking for this big space party which was always over budget and years behind schedule. And oh yes, let’s land people on the Moon. The fact that all the big players (old space and new space alike) who always need more money and (risk little of their own) complain off the record to media means that Jared Isaacman must have struck the right nerve – with precision. This whole thing needs to be rebooted. That’s the plan and it’s long overdue. Just sayin’.

Keith’s note: Dr. Kate Marvel at NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (gutted by NASA and DOGE) has left the agency. According to E&E News “Kate Marvel announced Tuesday that she’d quit her job at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies due to ongoing uncertainties about science funding and the ability to conduct climate research under the Trump administration.” On BlueSky she noted: “I just resigned from NASA. It breaks my heart to leave, but I’ve become convinced the best path forward is to do the best science I can, and that can’t be here anymore. I’m still in love with the promise of those four magic letters. Ad astra per aspera, and remember: Earth is the only good planet.”

—- Keith’s note: I have annotated Jared Isaacman’s new directive “Workforce Directive: Restoring NASA’s Core Competencies“ with some of my thoughts. This directive does bear a certain similarity to a posting “Recognize, Reward, Inspire” that he made on 16 January 2026 – and the earlier Project Athena document he produced in 2025 before becoming administrator and benefited from some sanity checks during his first month on the job and his road trip to all the NASA centers. This is a somewhat stream of consciousness ramble on my part (as is usually the case on NASAWatch – and I may fiddle with it). Before I start, there are some prevailing, over-arching, and hard-to-avoid factors: (more below)

Keith’s note: the White House just issued this Executive Order “Ensuring American Space Superiority”. Full text below.

Keith’s note: There’s now a “Project Athena” to fix Artemis, Orion, and lots of Greek mythology things; a plan developed by someone; reimagined by someone else; leaked but never published; to thwart the original author’s chance of becoming NASA administrator. I’m waiting to hear what Kim Kardashian thinks about all of this. According to Politico: “The 62-page plan, obtained by POLITICO, proposes outsourcing some of NASA’s missions to the private sector and treating the government agency more like a business. The draft, known as “Project Athena,” not only showcases Isaacman’s radical vision for the space agency. It comes as he reemerges as a potential candidate for the position against acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy. The longtime space enthusiast gave the confidential manifesto to Duffy this summer, according to two people familiar with the plan, but never meant for it to go public. Isaacman and Duffy are now battling for control of the agency and President Donald Trump’s support.”

Keith’s note: Speaking as a person bitten by a space bug at age 6 in 1961, nothing in this Planetary Society piece “A cosmic perspective worth fighting for“ is actually incorrect per se. But it is written from the warped perspective of one person inside the space bubble talking to others inside the same space bubble. Anyone who takes 30 seconds looking outside that bubble will realize that the real world – where all of the non-space converts and decision makers spend 100% of their time – has no time for lofty goals and inspirational things. It is all about meat and potatoes, paychecks, whether or not you can love someone, all covered with a deep sauce of ‘us Vs them’. Space people need to read the room and adapt their strategies to the world as it is – not as we would like it to be. Ad Astra etc.

Keith’s note: OK so I am ‘back’. Thanks for all the kind words, support etc. Let’s get down to business. The month of September is going to be the hardest yet for NASA. Multiple budget profiles will collide with one another – in an inelastic fashion. Missions will be on hold and operate in holding pattern mode. Other missions will simply die at the hands of budgeteers. And the people of NASA – regardless of where their paycheck comes from – will still be called upon to lead humanity’s exploration of space while being stressed from multiple directions. Meanwhile, the political people inside the glass doors on the 9th floor of NASA HQ simply don’t care what happens to the agency’s workforce – or keeping them informed. As if you had not already figured that out. That said, NASA is already ‘Great In Space”. No “Again” required. Despite the political rhetoric over the years, NASA has begun humanity’s expansion into interstellar space (see image). No one else has done that. And NASA’s lead will be rather hard to eclipse. Anyway – here is my top ten take on things to be aware of in September . Warning – it is not pretty – but it is also not without hope. [More below]

Keith’s note: Last week two internal NASA directives dropped – except NASA has yet to officially release them: NASA Commercial LEO Space Stations Acquisition Strategy and Directive on Fission Surface Power (FSP) Development.

• From what I have managed to piece together these things were pitched in an end run directly to Sean Duffy – outside of the usual process of surfacing such things to the Administrator – especially in Directive form ready for signature. Both directives were signed on the same day – surprising everyone. Associate Administrators and Center Directors were not alerted or asked for comment. And in the case of the CLD directive, industry was left in the dark and they are not happy.
• Meanwhile, Congress is wondering what passes for planning and transparency at NASA given that the agency is actually adhering to the PBR being the scenes – but saying that they are adhering to Congressional budget intentions when pressed for public content. NASA cant have it both ways.
• Both directives built upon some ideas that had been developed over the past several years and have been kicking around NASA in one form or another. Chief of Staff Brian Hughes has zero experience with spaceflight engineering – so he leans heavily on a couple of his favorite people for ad hoc Rocket Science 101 to find exciting things to pass on to Duffy.
• Duffy is a part timer. Hughes is a gate keeper. NASA needs a real, full time leader – now.

Keith’s note: As the Administration seeks to gut funding of all government science agencies, they have issued another word salad executive order – one that could have been expressed in vastly simpler language. Indeed it calls for a process of conducting science in a transparent and reproducible fashion that has already been in place for nearly a century. Of course, this wordiness is a fig leaf for some specific political issues. e.g. “Actions taken by the prior Administration further politicized science, for example, by encouraging agencies to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations into all aspects of science planning, execution, and communication.” And the response of this Administration is to simply politicize science even more.