Expect changes in the "beachhead" team @NASA HQ in the coming weeks as frustrated participants give up due to lack of direction at #NASA pic.twitter.com/K3Kf71GGkd — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 20, 2017 Latest inside-the-beltway #NASA dream team being chattered about: Administrator: Jim Bridenstine Deputy Administrator: Scott Pace — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) February 18, 2017 Sources tell us that the impetus for Robert Lightfoot to send the SLS EM-1 crew memo […]

Growing wave of federal workers is pushing back against Trump, Washington Post “Presidents appoint the heads of agencies and a few officials at the top of each department, but the great majority of those who implement any administration’s agenda are civil servants who enjoy legal protections meant to encourage them to blow the whistle on fraud and corruption. Short of formal whistleblowing, workers are finding small ways to express their […]

Trump Names Former Climate Scientist Erik Noble to NASA Advisory Role, Wired “Trump named Autry his White House liaison, a role NASA Watch editor Keith Cowing calls “traditional” – and Noble his White House senior advisor at NASA. That’s less typical. “Does that mean he’s at NASA, or is he just another liason?” Cowing says. “My guess is these guys are two peas in a pod.” Which is to say, […]

Message from the Acting Administrator of NASA “As the transition progresses, we have some initial assignments from the new administration. Erik Noble has been named White House Senior Advisor at NASA. Greg Autry, who was with the Agency Review Team, has been named White House Liaison. I know you will all join me in giving them a warm welcome to the NASA family and thanking them for becoming part of […]

Keith’s note: Charles Miller has joined the NASA Landing Team. No word yet as to whether the conflict of interest checks for Alan Lindenmoyer and Alan Stern have been completed. Given that Steve Cook (who works for a SLS subcontractor) made it onto the team to work SLS issues, this should not be taking as long as it has. Then again the presence of these commercial add-ons to the NASA […]

Keith’s 16 December note: The Trump Landing Team will be halting work at NASA Headquarters in a few days and then coming back after New Year’s. As such, I doubt that there will be any movement from Trump Tower in terms of naming an Administrator. Then again there may be a few interesting developments prior to the Landing Team’s vacation … Keith’s 17 December update: Sources report that Brandon Eden, […]

Trump transition team for Energy Department seeks names of employees involved in climate meetings, Washington Post “Donald Trump’s transition team has issued a list of 74 questions for the Energy Department, asking agency officials to identify which employees and contractors have worked on forging an international climate pact as well as domestic efforts to cut the nation’s carbon output. The questionnaire requests a list of those individuals who have taken […]

#NASA Administrator choice will be Gingrich/Walker(Bridenstine/new blood) Vs Sessions (Griffin/status quo) competition with Pence deciding — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) December 9, 2016 But "there is another" There's talk of a 3rd option – an outsider entrepreneur under consideration by #NASA Administrator Apprentice team — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) December 9, 2016

Will Trump go to Mars? Nasa’s nervous wait, The Guardian “The space policies were not very different. People would joke that you could take an editorial by a Republican space person, change a couple of words here and there and then put Clinton’s name on it. We were all assuming that Clinton would win. I knew who the people were that would show up at Nasa the next day to […]

Trump’s First 100 Days: Space, Scientific American “What is certain, [Bob] Walker says, is that Trump’s “space policy doesn’t contemplate any real increases in NASA’s spending.”, It will likely have to accomplish all that it is being asked to do now and in the future without significant boosts to its bottom line, and with the distinct possibility of deep budget cuts. And that, more than anything else, could be very […]