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This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
nasawatch@spaceref.com | Voice +1.703.787.6567 | RSS Feed | Twitter | Advertising | Important Disclaimer
NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel Releases 2016 Annual Report
"At this critical time, with designs maturing, hardware being produced, and testing intensifying, it is important to maintain a focus on safety, risk reduction, and mission assurance. Challenges and difficult decisions will need to be faced with clarity, transparency, and thoroughness. Inevitably, there will be risks that must be accepted, but that should occur only after thought- ful deliberation of alternatives, understanding the benefits of acceptance, and careful documentation of the decision including the process and rationale for arriving at it. The ASAP reiterates the need for consistent program goals, funding, and schedules, also known as "constancy of purpose." Human space flight and exploration are inherently challenging and risky and require far-reaching, long-term national com- mitment to capitalize on painstakingly achieved knowledge and to realize the results of resource investments. The lack of consistent commitment negatively impacts cost, schedule, performance, workforce morale, process discipline, and - most importantly - safety. The impact on NASA programs from continuing employment of Continuing Resolutions (CRs) is of concern to the ASAP. The uncertainty of an assured and exact budget for a long-duration, technically challenging program and the partial release of funds as the CR unfolds adds, at best, complexity to managing programs and, importantly to the ASAP, can distract from maintaining the required focus on safety."
Categories: Safety
Texas Remains Powerful Space Influence as House Appropriations, Senate Commerce Announce Subcommittee Chairs, Space Policy Online
"The House Appropriations Committee announced the members who will chair its 12 subcommittees today. At the same time, the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee announced the Republican members and chairs of its six subcommittees. There is no change for NASA and NOAA, but the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee will get a new chairwoman -- Kay Granger of Texas. She joins fellow Texans in chairing key space-related committees and subcommittees."
Categories: Congress
NASA Transition Binder, NASA HQ
"NASA's historic and enduring leadership and cutting edge roles for the nation fall within three major strategic thrusts: discovery, exploration, and development. NASA's activities make advances that contribute to fundamental national purposes and goals that align to the core focus areas of our Mission Directorates (Science, Human Exploration and Operations, Space Technology, and Aeronautics Research). In addition, the Agency has a number of activities and support areas, including those in its Mission Support Directorate that enable NASA's missions. NASA's strategic landscape continues to be characterized by six major elements: ..."
Keith's note: This 95.6 MB, 366 page PDF document even has an opening video and theme song.
"*In preparation for public release, selected portions of this report containing sensitive security information have been redacted under exemption (b)(7)(E) of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
NASA received 27 out of 100 possible maturity level points, indicating that overall it has not yet implemented an effective information security program."
Categories: IT/Web, Internet Policies
Mike Griffin will be meeting with Mike Pence in the next day or so. Topic? SecAF? #NASA? Stay tuned. #NASAAdministratorApprentice
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) January 9, 2017
Keith's note: Attention news media: Mike Griffin is scheduled to chair this AIAA session tomorrow in Texas. Also, former SMD AA Alan Stern has expressed interest to people in being considered for Trump's NASA Administrator as well.
What would NASA in the age of Trump look like?, Houston Chronicle
"I don't expect anything grand and dramatic about space for the next two or three years," said Keith Cowing, a longtime NASA observer - and sometimes critic - who oversees a pair of websites related to NASA and other space matters. "They have to figure out how to run the government first. I don't think there is a grand picture for NASA yet. It is the last thing they are thinking about." One thing very much on Trump's mind, apparently, is the promised gargantuan tax cut. Though it is hard to imagine even a Republican Congress agreeing to a $7 trillion-plus loss in revenue over the following decade, even a more modest plan could gut discretionary spending and the government agencies that rely on it - like NASA."
NASA science chief seeks to allay concerns about transition, Space News
"The discussion was very thoughtful, very focused on good objectives and focused on science value," he said in an interview after the town hall meeting. "We were ready for that. Every division director was ready to talk about their programs that way." The landing team, he added, has received all the information they requested. [NASA's Science Mission Directorate AA Thomas] Zurbuchen said he had not been able to glean any information from the landing team about the incoming administration's plans. That included, he said, who it might nominate to be the next administrator of NASA, or when that might take place."
Categories: Transition, TrumpSpace
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Harriet Jenkins, The History Makers
"From 1974 until 1992, Jenkins worked as the assistant administrator for equal opportunity programs at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). ... From 1992 until 1996, she worked with the U.S. Congress and served as the director at the Office of Senate Fair Employment Practices in the U.S. Senate. ... Jenkins retired from the federal government in 1996. In 2000, NASA established a fellowship program in her name, awarding doctoral fellowships to qualifying minority students. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including placing her retirement in the Congressional Record."
UPDATE: The viewing for Dr. Jenkins are listed below:
Continue reading: Services for Harriet Jenkins.FYI @mikamckinnon we fixed your map so that it shows ALL of Canada pic.twitter.com/ilvojarJBR
— SpaceRef Canada (@CanadaInSpace) January 6, 2017
Totally amused by & approve if this fix, @csa_asc needs to hassle @nasa into fixing the official image! https://t.co/iuYUIlDtJN
— Mika McKinnon (@mikamckinnon) January 6, 2017
Keith's note: NASA does not seem to know how large Canada actually is - check the illustration they have online.
Elon Musk Is Meeting With Trump Advisor Steve Bannon, Inverse
"Elon Musk, the billionaire president of SpaceX and Tesla, is meeting with Donald Trump's senior counselor and chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to the press pool. Musk was spotted walking into New York's Trump Tower on Friday a little before noon. There aren't many details about what the two will be talking about at this point. It's not the first time Musk, who has a role advising Trump as part of the President's Strategic and Policy Forum -- has come to Trump Tower to meet with members of the incoming administration. In December he was one of several big, big names in the tech industry, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Amazon's Jeff Bezos, that met with the president-elect in a gather that led to, if nothing else, some awkward photographs."
Categories: Transition
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 Landing Team was imposed upon NASA Landing Team leader Chris Shank by Trump Tower to correct an imbalance in team expertise so some foot dragging is to be expected.
Given the rapidly approaching Inauguration (the point at which all Transition Team activities halt) Chris Shank has been proposing a "Beachhead Team" that would start work at NASA on 20 January with himself as Chief of Staff. Shank's proposal is that his job and others on the Beachhead Team would only last for 120 days and that the new NASA Administrator would then pick their own permanent team. This of course assumes that a new NASA Administrator is named and that they get through the confirmation process within 120 days without hitting the traffic jam posed by some of the more controversial appointees that looms ahead. Based on prior experience, when "temporary" people arrive at the 9th floor at NASA headquarters, they tend to hang around for a long time.
Categories: TransitionApparently @HouseScience is now an official climate denial Twitter account. #aas229 #NASA https://t.co/1ydLUzeqH0
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) January 4, 2017
NASA Selects Two Missions to Explore the Early Solar System, NASA
"In addition to selecting the Lucy and Psyche missions for formulation, the agency will extend funding for the Near Earth Object Camera (NEOCam) project for an additional year. The NEOCam space telescope is designed to survey regions of space closest to Earth's orbit, where potentially hazardous asteroids may be found."
NASA Cancels Space Act Agreement With B612 Foundation, earlier post
NASA Cancels B612 Sentinel Agreement and Then Picks JPL NEOCam, earlier post
Keith's earlier note: Isn't it a litte odd that the decision to cancel the Space Act Agreement with B612 for its "Sentinel" asteroid hunting mission suddenly came to light on the eve of Discovery mission finalists being announced -- and that JPL's asteroid hunting "NEOCam" mission is among those selected for further work?. These spacecraft even look a lot alike. JPL folks clearly saw Sentinel as competition - even if it was Sentinel team that first pushed the envelope on this whole idea. JPLers were pushing Lindley Johnson and others at NASA HQ to end the Sentinel agreement. At this point Johnson could use all the help he can get given how miserably his organization's NEO work has been progressing.
Keith's update: A lot of people in the planetary science community were pushing for an in-space NEO/asteroid detection capability such as this. For a while, NASA SMD used to get around the issue (and funding it) by saying "Oh, we don't have to worry about that, B612 is going to do that for us". But then the pressure from JPL began to mount and NASA pulled the rug out from under B612 to make the way easier for NEOCam. Now, a year later, they don't even pick NEOCam - but they keep it on life support - perhaps until JPL can submit another proposal next time.
NASA to Hold Media Call for Discovery Program Announcement
"NASA will discuss the results of its latest Discovery mission selection during a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 4. Members of the public also may submit questions to be answered during and immediately following the briefing using #AskNASA."
Streaming audio of the briefing will be available on this page: https://www.nasa.gov/nasalive
NASA Selects Two Missions to Explore the Early Solar System
"NASA has selected two missions that have the potential to open new windows on one of the earliest eras in the history of our solar system - a time less than 10 million years after the birth of our sun. The missions, known as Lucy and Psyche, were chosen from five finalists and will proceed to mission formulation, with the goal of launching in 2021 and 2023, respectively."
National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy
"The National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy (Strategy) and the forthcoming National NearEarth Object Preparedness Action Plan (Action Plan) together seek to improve our Nation's preparedness to address the hazard of near-Earth object (NEO) impacts by enhancing the integration of existing national and international assets and adding important capabilities that are currently lacking. The Strategy and Action Plan build on efforts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to better detect and characterize the NEO population as well as recent efforts at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prepare for and respond to a NEO impact. Together, they aim to foster a collaborative effort in which the Nation can better understand, prevent, and prepare for the effects of a NEO impact."
NASA International Space Station On-Orbit Status 10 January 2017 
Orbital ATK has completed a significant mission milestone for NASA's next International Space Station cargo mission.