Keith’s note: I recently participated in a web chat about NASA’s plans to put nuclear power systems on the Moon as part of the Artemis program with my friends Miles O’Brien and space nuclear expert Bhavya Lal. All of us are Star Trek fans BTW (and we’re not shy about that). Here’s the video.

Keith’s Note: I just spoke with Deutsche Welle about the NASA announcement of biosignatures on Mars [Audio]

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN on HBOMax with Jim Sciutto talking about Jim Lovell [Audio] transcript below.

Keith’s note: I was just on Bloomberg TV for the SpaceX Crew 11 launch which was scrubbed due to weather. I stayed on and talked about NASA layoffs, budget issues, and Ted Cruz’s support for the International Space Station – and moving the Space Shuttle to Texas. Let’s see what happens tomorrow. [Audio]

Keith’s note: Moments ago I spoke with CNN about NASA’s budget, science, layoffs, competition with China and newly appointed “interim” NASA Administrator DOT Secretary Sean Duffy. [Audio]

Keith’s note: NASA Won two an Emmy award last night at the 46th News and Documentary Emmy Awards but NASA.gov and @NASA have said nothing about this. There was even a big NASDAQ banner on Time Square. NASA OCOMM and PAO ignores its own great stuff. Let’s not tell anyone how Great NASA is in Space etc. Update: they finally mentioned it on Twitter a full day after the award event. But still nothing on NASA.gov – But wait – its not mentioned on NASA’s home page – the link on the Twitter post is from May 2025 about nominations. Really NASA, why is it so hard to cheer on your own accomplishments in a timely fashion?

• Outstanding Live News Special “2024 Total Solar Eclipse: Through the Eyes of NASA” (NASA+)

Keith’s note: Here is audio from today’s @NASA Town Hall. Speakers:

• Janet Petro, Acting NASA Administrator
• Brian Hughes, NASA Chief of Staff
• Vanessa Wyche, Acting NASA Associate Administrator
• Casey Swails, Deputy Associate Administrator

Keith’s note: I was just on Deutsche Welle TV talking about the new imagery from Vera Rubin Observatory [Audio]. Video below.

Keith’s note: it looks like the iSpace HAKUTO-R lunar lander crashed on the Moon. telemetry was lost when it was going 180 km/hr a minute or so before planned touchdown. I was on Deutsche Welle TV shortly thereafter to talk about this [Audio] (video below) . Meanwhile President Trump and Elon Musk are having a heated back-and-forth on social media. At one point Trump suggested cutting Musk’s contracts. I was on Bloomberg TV to talk through that. When asked for an initial impression I did the classic shocked face expression that the kid actor did on the movie “Home Alone”. [Audio] (video below)

Keith’s note: I was on “CNN This Morning with Audie Cornish” today. We talked about Butch and Suni on ISS, the delay of the crew 10 launch, the status of the NASA workforce, the firing of personnel including the NASA Chief Scientist, the looming gutting of NASA science, and the threat to a bunch of people doing their dream jobs – only to be told they are being fired to meet some arbitrary number. In other words, another day at NASA. [Audio]

Keith’s note: like everyone else I stayed up to watch the New Glenn launch and did some TV talking head time too. Here’s the audio from Deutsche Welle prior to the launch scrub. I was going to be on BBC World too for post-launch coverage but then the delays changed that. Weather is going to be pacing the next launch attempt apparently. Stay tuned. [Audio]

Keith’s note: Last night I spoke with Al Jazeera English about a recent piece of space debris that landed in Kenya and the broader issue of space debris. [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 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: I was just on the Scripps News “Morning Rush” program talking about Earth’s new (temporary) Mini-moon 2024 PT5. Someone needs to give it a name. [Audio]

Keith’s note: Starliner made a mostly flawless return to Earth early today. I was on Deutsche Welle yesterday before the landing [audio] and then again after the landing [audio]. If you go to 03:25 on this YouTube video of the interview you’ll see that I had a walk-on guest commentary on the alien-sounding noises coming out of Starliner’s comm system (the picture on this post). I then did BBC World News this morning [audio] and CGTN this evening [audio]. YouTube videos of these interviews are posted below.

Keith’s note: On Wednesday evening I appeared on CGTN to talk about the launch of a cargo spacecraft to China’s Tiangong and the future of the Chinese space station program [audio]. A few minutes later I appeared on the Scripps TV network and all of its affiliates talking about Astrobotic’s peregrine and sending humans back to the Moon. [audio].

Keith’s note: The first launch of a ULA Vulcan rocket – powered by Blue Origin and Northrop Grumman engines – took off this morning at 2:18 a.m. EST and has sent the Astrobotic Pergegrine lander on its way to the Moon. Alas it is having communications and power issues which they managed to fix that but there there are critical propulsion system issues. I am going to be on Deutsche Welle TV just after 12:00 pm EST Update: [Deutsche Welle Audio] – and then on Alhurra TV around 2:45 pm EST Update: [Alhurra audio] – then BBC World News TV at 3:45 pm EST and then Deutsche Welle TV (again) just after 6:00 pm today Update: [second Deutsche Welle Audio] to talk about the mission and the various things on board the Peregrine lander. More from NASA

Keith’s note: I was just on Alaraby TV in Qatar talking about the recent discovery of methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of super-earth exoplanet K2-18b by the Webb Space Telescope and what this means in terms of Astrobiology and the search for life in the universe. It is fun to not have to talk to jaded American TV. Surprise: People outside of our Americo-centric news bubble are interested in things we don’t seem to care much about. Among many other international networks, I have been on Alaraby, Al Arabiya, Alhurra, and Al Jazeera. Also, since I am being translated into Arabic in real time, it is fun since I used to be a professional American Sign Language interpreter (often on TV) and the translators like that I am good at parsing technical things for translation at a pace that facilitates translation – in real time. Keith’s fun aside, I get the clear impression that NASA has little – if any – interest in making people available to this vast viewing audience. I have asked NASA PAO about this in the past but they always declined to answer. To be certain, the viewership of these Arabic language networks overlaps – but the core audience is somewhere between 200-300 million located in over 150 countries. NASA has an astonishing soft power and branding reach and it rarely takes full advantage of it. This is one example. Baffling. Anyway: here’s the [Audio]