Keith’s note: Today’s “Obvious Question Begging An Answer Award” goes to Dennis Lees for his op ed “Earth’s ocean is in crisis. Why spend $5 billion to study the one on Jupiter’s moon Europa?“ in the LA Times which asks “As a marine ecologist, I’ve studied marine sedimentary ecosystems since 1972. My studies show that our current knowledge of these ecosystems is quite poor. Therefore, in this age of existential threats to species habitability and survival on Earth, I have serious objections to spending $5 billion on a project to explore the sea on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, to see if it contains chemicals that might support life. What real good will that do us? Can you imagine how much good it would do to spend those funds here to learn how our own oceans function and how to deal with injuries we humans are causing? What are our funding priorities? What benefits will knowing the chemistry of Europa’s sea create for us here as our planet becomes less habitable?”. If NASA has not explained this mission adequately to the broader scientific community – especially one wherein oceanography is constantly evoked – then maybe NASA PAO (Marc Etkind et al) need to do some clean up. IMHO the first thing you’d want to see is a response to the LA Times from NASA JPL Center Director Laurie Leshin and/or NASA SMD AA Nicky Fox (and whomever does the semi-invisible chief scientist stuff at NASA HQ) – with a broadcast via NASA’s vast web and social media presence. NASA should take these rather simple and credible questions as a challenge to be more transparent to its “stakeholders”. NASA needs to not only speak in a rational way to the scientific community since their support is often needed to keep the NASA science gravy train running but also to the remaining 99.999999% of humanity in the real world who is faced with existential problems right now – and is being asked to pay for these missions.A good place to start would be with the “Artemis Generation” since they are the ones who are going go home with excited questions about space for their parents and the parents need to give quality answers that feed these dreams.. At least that is what happened to those of us who are the “Apollo Generation” and look what we did. Just sayin.
(more…)Keith’s note: OK. 3 expert military aviation witnesses with solid careers serving their country are currently talking about UAP sightings in public before Congress. No tin foil hats, no talk of abductions or Elvis. Just details about totally inexplicable aerodynamic performance. Just sayin’. One witness said he can’t comment in open session if government has had contact with aliens and that non-human biological remains have been recovered from crashes. The whole Life in the universe thing is a long standing feature of NASA’s research portfolio. This congressional testimony begs an inquiry to NASA Public Affairs. Alas, if I asked Marc Etkind and NASA PAO to comment they’d either 1. not respond 2. tell me that they have a committee that is working on the topic and that I am welcome to read their report whenever it comes out.
(more…)Keith’s Note: we did the big move to WordPress. Now I need to figure out how to get NASAWatch back out on the racetrack again. We picked a slow time to do this. And then NASA decided to try and launch SLS on 29 August. Oh well.
Blue Origin “Gambled” with its Moon lander pricing, NASA says in legal documents, The Verge “Overall, NASA effectively called BS on that argument, saying “Blue Origin made a bet and it lost.” Blue Origin “made an assumption about the Agency’s HLS budget, built its proposal with this figure in mind, and also separately made a calculated bet that if NASA could not afford Blue Origin’s initially-proposed price, the Agency would […]
Multi-Agency Research and Development Priorities for the FY 2023 Budget, OMN/OSTP “This memorandum outlines the Administration’s multi-agency R&D priorities for formulating fiscal year (FY) 2023 Budget submissions to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The priorities covered in this memo require continued investments in R&D; science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and engagement; STEM workforce development; technology transfer and commercialization; and research infrastructure, with emphasis on Historically Black […]
GAO: Priority Open Recommendations: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, GAO “In April 2020, GAO identified 12 priority recommendations for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Since then, NASA has implemented one of those recommendations when it calculated the Space Launch System program’s developmental cost growth using a baseline adjusted to reflect the scope of work planned for its first mission. GAO also closed two recommendations as not implemented. Since […]
Watch TIME’s Exclusive Footage of NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever Under Construction, Time Time’s Jeffrey Kluger says “A rocket this big does not come cheap. Developing both the SLS and the ground systems that will support it will cost $11.5 billion, NASA says. And this is for a rocket that, unlike the space shuttle or the reusable boosters built by SpaceX, will be flown once and thrown away. According to […]
Keith’s update: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki just made the following comments at the daily press briefing: “Kristen … asked a great question about the Artemis program – which I dug into and I am very excited about it now to tell my daughter all about it. So .. for those of you who have not been following it as closely, through the Artemis program, the United States government […]
Keith’s note: NASA held a Mars Perseverance media briefing today. I asked a question that follows up on my earlier post “NASA’s Mars 2020 Websites Are Not Ready For Prime Time” wherein I noted that NASA PAO and the Aeronautics and Technology directorates are not paying all of the attention to this mission as you’d expect them to be. My question: “My question should be addressed to people who are […]
Heads up Michoud and Stennis. #HurricaneDelta pic.twitter.com/EPycGeaG7B — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) October 7, 2020 Keith’s note: Let’s hope that the SLS hardware weathers the storm.
Keith’s note: NASA has an Astrobiology rover heading to Mars. Time to dial up the Astrobiology stuff, right? Guess again. Check out the NASA SMD website. Do a search for Search for “astrobiology”. These are the top search results – yes they are rather stale. Not exactly the top shelf outreach that you’d expect SMD to be doing for a $2 billion Astrobiology mission on its way to Mars. Just […]
Boeing tried to amend bid after guidance from NASA official, raising concerns it received inside information, Washington Post “A person with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said: “I can tell you with 100 percent confidence that no laws were broken. What we are talking about are conversations that occurred outside the normal dictated channels but didn’t violate the […]
Keith’s note: At a ASEB virtual meeting today SMD AA Thomas Zurbuchen announced that Webb will not be launch in March 2021 saying “That is not in the cards right now.” Delays due to COVID-19 resulted in single shifts of work instead of the planned double shifts. No new launch date has been offered but Zurbuchen was optimistic that a launch in 2021 is still possible.
NASA HEOMD AA @DouglasLoverro was asked to resign and he has agreed to do so. Details to follow. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 19, 2020 Well @VP Pence told @JimBridenstine and @NASA to land on the Moon by 2024 "By any means necessary". So @DouglasLoverro did and the powers that be got nervous. So he is gone. So much for the whole #Artemis #Moon2024 thing. #NASA no longer takes risks. […]
Keith’s note: In a public Zoom telecon today between the National Academies of Science, NASA, CASIS, ASGSR, news media, public etc. about the recent CASIS IRT report Craig Kundrot, Director of NASA Space Life & Physical Sciences Research and Applications (SLPSRA) said that CASIS is no longer going to be issuing grants. That’s odd since this is not mentioned anywhere in the IRT report. So I asked Kundrot via email […]
NASA OIG: NASA’S Management of Space Launch System Program Costs and Contracts, OIG “NASA continues to struggle managing SLS Program costs and schedule as the launch date for the first integrated SLS/Orion mission slips further. Rising costs and delays can be attributed to challenges with program management, technical issues, and contractor performance. For example, the structure of the SLS contracts limits visibility into contract costs and prevents NASA from determining […]
GAO: Decision Matter of: Blue Origin Florida, LLC File: B-417839 “Blue Origin Florida, LLC, of Merritt Island, Florida, protests the terms of request for proposals (RFP) No. FA8811-19-R-0002, issued by the Department of the Air Force, for the National Security Space Launch (NSSL) Phase 2 Launch Service Procurement, which seeks to procure commercial item launch services for NSSL missions. Blue Origin alleges that several terms of the RFP unduly restrict […]
Keith’s note: According to Dr. Philip Schein he had clearly stated his intention to retire from the CASIS board several months ago after 5 years of service. He then formally submitted a letter of resignation to the CASIS board. He was not voted off of the board or “removed” as we previously reported. Our original posting was based on multiple sources within and outside of CASIS. Alas, CASIS itself simply […]
Mark Sirangelo is leaving NASA. — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 24, 2019 NASA Statement from @JimBridenstine on Mark Sirangelo's departure from @NASA pic.twitter.com/Rj25xTYgoL — NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) May 24, 2019