Keith’s note: according to today’s “Restoring Accountability To Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” Executive Order:

• In recent years, however, there have been numerous and well-documented cases of career Federal employees resisting and undermining the policies and directives of their executive leadership. Principles of good administration, therefore, necessitate action to restore accountability to the career civil service, beginning with positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.
• Sec. 2. Reinstatement of Prior Administration Policy. Executive Order 13957 of October 21, 2020 (Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service), is hereby immediately reinstated with full force and effect, subject to the amendments described in section 3 of this order; provided that the date of this order shall be treated as the date of Executive Order 13957.
• (b) Employees in or applicants for Schedule Policy/Career positions are not required to personally or politically support the current President or the policies of the current administration. They are required to faithfully implement administration policies to the best of their ability, consistent with their constitutional oath and the vesting of executive authority solely in the President. Failure to do so is grounds for dismissal.”

Keith’s note: according to today’s “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives” Executive Order:

• “The President’s power to remove subordinates is a core part of the Executive power vested by Article II of the Constitution and is necessary for the President to perform his duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Because SES officials wield significant governmental authority, they must serve at the pleasure of the President.

• Only that chain of responsibility ensures that SES officials are properly accountable to the President and the American people. If career SES officials fail to faithfully fulfill their duties to advance the needs, policies, and goals of the United States, the President must be able to rectify the situation and ensure that the entire Executive Branch faithfully executes the law. For instance, SES officials who engage in unauthorized disclosure of Executive Branch deliberations, violate the constitutional rights of Americans, refuse to implement policy priorities, or perform their duties inefficiently or negligently should be held accountable.”

Keith’s note: according to today’s “Reforming The Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service” Executive Order: “Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of “equity,” or one’s commitment to the invented concept of “gender identity” over sex. Inserting such factors into the hiring process subverts the will of the People, puts critical government functions at risk, and risks losing the best-qualified candidates. … This Federal Hiring Plan shall:

• (i) prioritize recruitment of individuals committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution;
• (ii) prevent the hiring of individuals based on their race, sex, or religion, and prevent the hiring of individuals who are unwilling to defend the Constitution or to faithfully serve the Executive Branch;
• (iii) implement, to the greatest extent possible, technical and alternative assessments as required by the Chance to Compete Act of 2024;
• (iv) decrease government-wide time-to-hire to under 80 days;

Keith’s note: According to the White House KSC Center Director Janet Petro is the acting NASA Administrator – not Jim Free – who would traditionally be named as the acting Administrator pending confirmation of the president’s nominee. But wait according to NASA Jim Free is acting Administrator. Update: Based on lots of sources all over NASA and within the DC/Trump space bubble – no one knew about the appointment of Janet Petro as Acting NASA Administrator – and not Jim Free – including Petro/Free – until people started to call and email and text each other. I sent a request to NASA PAO hours ago asking for clarification. No response. But let’s dial up the speed at which NASA does the whole Mars thing.

Keith’s note: From the inaugural address: “We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”

Keith’s note: Some people are feeling rather big right now. Others feel rather small. Let’s recalibrate. Wherever you are on the political spectrum just put all of that aside for a moment. We can all rise above this nonsense if we want to. America’s spacecraft have touched the sun and travel across interstellar space. Our reach has always exceeded our grasp. May it always be so. Ad Astra

Keith’s note: Dear Trump Transition Team (whoever you are): America always has been ‘Great in Space’. No “again” is needed. Just sayin’ Ad Astra y’all.

Keith’s note: FYI here’s a list of the “Plum Book” positions – Biden Administration political appointees at NASA. A few of them are rather well off. Let’s see who remains in their positions and who gets reassigned – or fired. And stay tuned for Schedule F!

Keith’s note: According to “Trump team is questioning civil servants at National Security Council about commitment to his agenda” on AP: “Incoming senior Trump administration officials have begun questioning career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council about who they voted for in the 2024 election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by President-elect Donald Trump’s team, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter.”

Keith’s note: When it comes to NASA Transition Teams etc. the names you often hear floated are floated by the same people being named. In reality the people with the most influence often have the best self-discipline and remain low key. As the old saying goes “Those who speak do not know. Those who know do not speak”. It is also important to separate those people (especially the self-identified) who have an axe to grind or scores to settle from those who actually want to help NASA get even better. It is always easier to destroy than to build. Seek out the builders. This has happened before. And it will happen again. See BidenSpace, TrumpSpace, Transition for the last iterations of this activity.

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: “How might NASA change under Trump? Here’s what is being discussed” by Eric Berger is worth a read. FWIW I have watched Transition Team “discussions” trickle out for 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020, and now 2024. Closing centers is a favorite. Poor Ames is always on the list.

Keith’s note: I just spoke with Brian Kilmeade on Fox News Radio about the future of NASA, the Moon, China, Elon Musk, and Jared Isaacman, etc. [audio].

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN talking about the new Artemis program delays, SpaceX, and the stark contrast between NASA programs which cost too much and are constantly delayed – and private sector efforts such as SpaceX and Blue Origin where they make rocket science seem easy and see all of this rocketry as an enabling consumer product. And yes, that is an Enterprise NX-01 crew cap in the background, Mike Gold. [Audio]

Keith’s note: There is an Artemis media thing at NASA today at 1:00 pm EST. Tune in here. During the tenure of Bill Nelson at NASA the Artemis program’s schedule has slipped by several years, costs have continued to balloon out of control, and both OIG/GAO continue to point out chronically unresolved managerial and contractual issues with the whole Artemis/SLS/Orion/Gateway thing. It will be interesting to see what spin Nelson puts on this whole mess today in his exit presser – and how often he will say #SpaceIsHard.

Keith’s note: Here are some quotes with regard to the nomination of Jared Isaacman to run NASA. He’s clearly a space fan and has certainly put his money where his interests lie again and again. In so doing he has sought to squeeze the maximum science, engineering, outreach, and charitable causes into both of his flights and has several more in the planning stages. One interest has been in how to extend the life of the Hubble Space Telescope. How all of these interests intersect with the Trump 2.0 space vision will be interesting to watch. More below.

Keith’s note: According to this post from Truth Social Jared Isaacman is being nominated to become NASA Administrator. Isaacman replied via Twitter.

Keith’s note: Forget about all those Decadal science plans. The future of NASA and all American space activities will be forced into compliance with Project 2025 and implemented with the loyalty and political ideology screening contained within Schedule F.

And this stunt cost taxpayers stupid amounts of money for a totally pre-scripted event – one done simply for the backdrop and to satisfy some egos. All of NASA HQ was raided to pay for this and other NSpC dog and pony shows. https://t.co/gKj1bZ8atB — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 6, 2021 Keith’s note: It is rather strange that the NASA History Office decided to remind people of these lavish National […]