Keith’s note: when I was working at NASA on the Space Station program back in the day one things we’d tell students and the general public was that the space station would be one of the brightest things in the night sky and that it will fly over their house. I have gone outside more times than I can remember just to see it fly over. Ask my neighbors. I always explain to them how to find the flyover times online. When I was in Nepal at Everest in 2009 I went to the Spot the Station website to get ISS flyover times and showed the flyover to a bunch of Sherpa guides who had no idea that this was a thing you could do or that a person who lived up there was in Nepal with me. Now, in a memo sent out on 14 May 2025, NASA is taking the ISS tracking website offline and relying only on cell phone apps. The memo sent out to Spot the Station website uses says “the ability to find sighting opportunities near you will also no longer be available on the website.” At a time when everyone struggles to explain the value and impact of space exploration, shutting off a website like this is counterproductive in the extreme. Apps are great – but why delete a trusted source that has been of global utility for decades – especially one with text messages that have great utility for people with limited Internet access? Full Memo below.

Keith’s note: Butch and Suni are back on planet Earth. I just did 20 minutes of color commentary with my friends at Bloomberg TV. Lots of questions regarding political claims made about the whole “stuck in space” thing and who offered what to whom and when. I tried to get into what goes into planning these complicated missions to distant, potentially hazardous places. Having been on multiple expeditions myself to remote places in the arctic and the Himalayas I tried to offer some personal experience regarding the actual logistical mindset that goes into planning things such as missions to the space station. Everyone at NASA and SpaceX did what they needed to do to make the best of this unexpected situation. Ad Astra y’all. [Audio]

Keith’s note: I was on Deutsche Welle tonight just after 6:00 pm EST to talk about Parker Solar Probe’s close encounter with our sun [Audio] See video below. I pre-taped a segment for CNN’s Christmas show which aired on Wednesday [Audio]. Update: I was on DW again on Friday to talk about Parker Solar Probe phoning home [Audio] See video below.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview with Deutsche Welle about the ongoing air leak on the International Space Station [Audio]

Keith’s note: It would seem that none of International Space Station Research & Development Conference (ISSRDC) will be webcast. No mention whatsoever is made on their website. No mention of any webcast is made at NASA.gov either. NASA recently issued a contract to destroy the International Space Station. Not even bothering to webcast this event – which supposedly exists to promote and explain all that the ISS has done – is too much for CASIS or NASA to bother setting up. No one at NASA seems to care since they all have Artemis Go Fever. As such, the 300+ million U.S. taxpayers who put billions into this amazing resource aren’t entitled to learn what NASA did with all their money or why ISS needs to be splashed. The scheduled death of the ISS is not even on the meeting’s agenda. And of course, as Artemis delays mount, NASA will come back for more money without ever truly explaining why they are throwing this astonishing resource away or why they need to build another space station out near the Moon to support missions are moving ever further into the future. And then NASA’s Administrator has the audacity to whine and complain that China may beat the U.S. back to the Moon. DUH, Bill. China has a plan and they stick to it. NASA does not. Update: CASIS sent me a note: “While we are not actively promoting the livestream component to the conference yet (similar to last year), it will be made open to the public during the event. We will promote the livestream component for those not able to physically attend in a media advisory prior to the conference. Additionally, there will be social pushes during the event driving the public to the livestream.”

Keith’s note: According to NASA Selects International Space Station US Deorbit Vehicle “NASA is fostering continued scientific, educational, and technological developments in low Earth orbit to benefit humanity, while also supporting deep space exploration at the Moon and Mars. As the agency transitions to commercially owned space destinations closer to home, it is crucial to prepare for the safe and responsible deorbit of the International Space Station in a controlled manner after the end of its operational life in 2030.” Simply throwing the ISS away when it has been shown to be upgradable and repairable is short sighted to say the least. Then again NASA simply does not have the money to operate ISS, build and operate Gateway, and fund whatever emerges from the whole Axiom/Starlab/Orbital Reef mix – and do the Artemis things on the Moon – not to mention the notional Mars exploration things that NASA also crows about. NASA’s 50-year-old space suits leak and one of the replacement efforts is quitting. Oh – and Mars Sample Return and other large space science projects want their share too. That said, throwing things away is defeatist, unimaginative, and not the way we’re going to expand throughout the solar system – all while reusability is the new paradigm in the space world. Indeed, SpaceX is making and improving Starships at a rate that is more like a consumer electronics company. One Starship flight could add a decade of life to the ISS. FWIW Here is the International Space Station Deorbit Analysis Summary which has this rather odd justification for not allowing a Starship near the ISS: “However, ascending to these orbits would require the development of new propulsive and tanker vehicles that do not currently exist. While still currently in development, vehicles such as the SpaceX Starship are being designed to deliver significant amounts of cargo to these orbits; however, there are prohibitive engineering challenges with docking such a large vehicle to the space station and being able to use its thrusters while remaining within space station structural margins.” Yet NASA is totally cool with docking a Starship to the Gateway space station 240,000 miles from Earth. But let’s splash ISS instead. NASA is at risk of being known for what it can’t do as opposed to what it can do. Imagination is no longer in NASA’s toolkit.

Keith’s note: I just recorded a piece for Scripps News that should be airing on its various networks/stations about the current Boeing Starliner status and the planned EVA. ICYMI according to a Friday update from NASA: “NASA and Boeing leadership are adjusting the return to Earth of the Starliner Crew Flight Test spacecraft … Mission managers are evaluating future return opportunities following the station’s two planned spacewalks on Monday, June 24, and Tuesday, July 2.” And today’s EVA was cancelled “due to a water leak in the service and cooling umbilical unit on Dyson’s spacesuit.” So … things are going to be TBD-ish for a while.

Keith’s note: I just did an interview for ARD TV (German) which is being edited up for later use and also a live interview on Alhurra TV (VOA Arabic language) [audio] about the Boeing Starliner mission. Below: Screen grabs while I was waiting to go on Alhurra. Often the audiences don’t think about space and are preoccupied with more basic things in their daily lives. I actually consider it a priviledge to be asked to talk about space to these audiences. I wish NASA would do more of it. Just sayin’ [More]

Keith’s note: NASA has asked companies to offer $1 billion ideas for how to dump the International Space Station into the Pacific. NASA seems to feel that it is not worth updating and they want to replace it with one or more commercial mini-space stations. But NASA may not have anywhere near the funds to do that for a while thus causing a gap in NASA’s human space flight access. Oh yes – and then there’s that Gateway mini-ISS that NASA wants to build out near the Moon for the constantly delayed and always over-budget Artemis Moon program. Congress is rather cool on dumping ISS – and much, much warmer on extending ISS. And if NASA gets cold feet on the future of humans in LEO – or the CLD money dries up – the various CLD commercial space station companies may have a hard time drumming up private sector funding – thus worsening the gap. We’ve already seen Northrop Grumman dropping their own independent CLD bid and merging with Voyager Space. But y’know: old things still work. And if you maintain them, they still will – and if you are smart, old things can get upgrades and keep working for less than replacing them. FWIW The USAF has flown B-52s since 1955. They still had 72 operational as of 2022. Upgrades were done in 2013-15. The last B-52s may well serve to 2050s i.e. 100 year old aircraft. Yet NASA struggles to extend the International Space Station to just one-third of that lifespan. Yes, this is an apples/oranges thing but we threw away Skylab – do you really want to splash the ISS NASA? Seriously.

Keith’s note: First we hear that Blue Origin and Sierra Space partnership for a commercial space station (Orbital Reef) is falling apart. Now we hear that Northrop Grumman is going to end its independent effort and is going to join with the Voyager Space/Nanoracks team. What was once 4 different space station ideas with NASA funding is now suddenly two i.e. Axiom Space and Voyager Space/Nanoracks/Northrop Grumman. The question is whether this helps NASA as budgets tighten or frees up more funds to make things happen faster. Or both. Or neither. Stay tuned. Keith’s 11 October update: both @BlueOrigin and @Sierra Space tweeted that they are still working together, But it took more than a week for them to get around to doing so. Hmmm ….