NASA to Announce New Science Results About Moon “NASA will announce an exciting new discovery about the Moon from the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) at a media teleconference at 12 p.m. EDT Monday, Oct. 26. Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website.” Keith’s note: OK, let’s use Google. Look what shows up if you search for some names, Moon, and SOFIA. Gee, I wonder […]

OIG: NASA’s Management of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy Program “The lack of clear and achievable performance expectations and lack of concurrence between SMD and SOFIA management on science output goals including publication and citation metrics has reduced productivity and threatens the Program’s future viability. The Program is unlikely to achieve the community’s expectation of 150 publications per year by 2022, or the Program’s goal of 100 annual publications, […]

NASA OIG: SOFIA: NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy “We found that despite substantial delays in reaching operational capacity, SOFIA remains capable of contributing to the scientific body of knowledge and many in the science community view the observatory as a valuable resource. However, we understand that the SOFIA Program is competing for limited resources and policymakers will have to decide whether other NASA projects are a higher scientific and […]

SOFIA … eine Erfolgsgeschichte ist in Gefahr (in German), January Wörners Blog, DLR [translation] “As part of the current budget statement of NASA it has now let announced from Washington that the continued operation as of 2015 could no longer be financed. That would not only be a major blow for the science that has planned many interesting astronomical research for the coming years, but also for the relationship between […]

Computing a Winner, Fusion a Loser in U.S. Science Budget, Science Insider “A White House summary of NASA’s budget notes that the savings achieved by reducing funding for SOFIA will enable “continued support for higher priority programs, including lower cost, competitive science missions, and extended operations for the Cassini Saturn mission.” A more detailed presentation of the space agency’s budget proposal, unveiled this afternoon by NASA, says the agency is […]

Keith’s note: I am really baffled by this. I got this unsolicted email today from the JPL OIG. I had no idea that this SOFIA audit was going on. My reply (to PAO, OIG): “Thanks for thinking that I may have opinions relevant to your audit/investigation. But what I want to know (and, heads up,  I consider this to be newsworthy and hence publishable) is why are you using an […]