Keith’s note: this just came out of my head as a stream of inter-related events. Some times I feel like Forrest Gump. Other times I am in Luke Skywalker mode. And this all happens inside a world not unlike the movie “Cloud Atlas” and sometimes the cult classic “Silent Running”. And at least once a day I go back to Everest Base Camp in my mind. Full post.

Keith’s note: Fact check (sigh) The plans to return Suni and Butch were made in the middle of 2024 – well before the election but the White House still prefers their own revisionist version i.e. “Last month, we saw the same strength again when I ordered the rescue of stranded astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, whose 8-day mission turned into a 286-day journey aboard the International Space Station. It was the vitality of our Nation’s space programs that rose to the challenge and brought them safely home.” Whatever.

Keith’s note: as we resume lunar exploration and then head out to Mars and beyond in search of life, we will need a different mix of skills in the humans that we send out on these long terms expeditions to distant, alien places. Dale Andersen is a prototype of those future explorers. This is what he has been up to – And here’s news about the award: Astrobiologist Dale Andersen Receives Explorers Club Finn Roone Memorial Award: “Dale T. Andersen, PhD, a senior scientist at the Carl Sagan Center of the SETI Institute, has spent nearly five decades exploring Earth’s most extreme environments. A pioneer in scientific diving in Antarctica’s perennially ice-covered lakes, Andersen’s research focuses on microbial ecosystems in extreme settings, with studies in both Antarctica and the Arctic. His discoveries, including large, modern conical stromatolites in Lake Untersee, provide key insights into life on early Earth and serve as analogs for potential life on Mars and icy moons like Europa. Andersen’s work continues to inspire exploration, advancing public understanding of planetary science and the resilience of life.” P.S. The man in the picture below – third from the right is Sir Edmund Hillary.

Keith’s note: According to “NIH cancels its first and largest study centered on women“ in Science magazine: “President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be killing much, if not all, of a historic initiative that was the first, and is still the largest, National Institutes of Health (NIH) effort centered on the health needs of women.” To its credit NASA (often with NIH) has looked at physiology factors that differentially affect female vs male astronauts. Will new government rules bring that to a halt? NASA presentation.

Keith’s note: I give up. When female space youtubers like Eliana Sheriff @esherifftv go out of their way to mock a mission with women going into space – comparing them to chimpanzees – why should the rest of us even bother trying to knock down all the space misogyny. Here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-B_ISPE3mc

Keith’s note: Science agency funding is under heavy scrutiny by DOGE, OMB, OPM and other Administration offices – whether it is for supposed DEI sins, perceived waste, or other things that do not resonate with the White House’s plans. NSF is already having a tough time. NASA is certain to be under similar stresses very, very soon. And of course there are long-standing synergies between NSF – and NASA – and NOAA etc. in terms of interagency research collaboration.

• According to “Trump team freezes new NSF awards — and could soon axe hundreds of grants” at Nature: “All new research grants have been frozen at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) — an action apparently ordered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an initiative by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to cut spending and workers across the US government. DOGE is also now reviewing a list of active research grants assessed in February by the NSF for terms associated with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and considering more than 200 of them for termination, NSF staff members have told Nature.”
• According to “Ranking Member Lofgren Urges NSF to Ignore Inflammatory Cruz Report, Releases Democratic Staff Report in Rebuttal”: “Today, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (CA-18) sent a letter to National Science Foundation Director Sethuraman Panchanathan urging the Director to disregard Senator Ted Cruz’s inflammatory report in any NSF grantmaking decisions. In addition to the letter, the Ranking Member also transmitted a Minority Staff Report that details how Senator Cruz’s report is deeply flawed, and his demand for grant cancellations is therefore misinformed.”
• Meanwhile NASA has already been sending form letters like this out to grantees: “TO: NASA Grant Recipient FROM: NASA Shared Service Center (NSSC), Grants Activities Branch SUBJECT: “Hold” on grants in response to the Executive Order, Executive Order 14222, “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative On February 26, 2025, the President of the United States of America signed an Executive Order titled, “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative.” The purpose of this letter is to notify you that the following NASA grants are placed on “HOLD” until further notice to allow NASA the opportunity to review and determine the next steps. No further activities shall be performed as of today, March XX, 2025. Drawdowns in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Program Support Center, Payment Management System shall be made only for the costs incurred as of today. NASA appreciates your patience and support. With regards, … “

Keith’s note: Apparently the crew of the Blue Origin NS-31 suborbital flight had a great time today. I did live launch/landing coverage on Bloomberg radio/YouTube and then did an interview on Deutsche Welle TV [audio].Video below Every now and then some of that space conference swag comes in useful as a prop when you need to illustrate some rocket science. In this case the squishy Blue Origin capsule.

Keith’s note: According to “NASA reveals astronauts’ return ‘would not have happened’ without Trump’s intervention” on Fox “This is a huge win for the Trump administration. And it would not have happened without President Trump’s intervention [NASA spokeswoman Bethany] Stevens said.” Weirdly, Janet Petro is quoted by NASA the other day as saying “Per President Trump’s direction, NASA and SpaceX worked diligently to pull the schedule a month earlier”. Easy fact check: Plans were announced on 24 Aug 2024 – by NASA – before Trump was even elected: “Wilmore and Williams will continue their work formally as part of the Expedition 71/72 crew through February 2025. They will fly home aboard a Dragon spacecraft with two other crew members assigned to the agency’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission.” A few week’s additional delays were due to SpaceX processing slips for the Dragon spacecraft. Just sayin’.

Keith’s note: On Saturday I posted a series of links about NASA’s decision to try and erase all mention of the two “First Woman” graphic novels it released several years ago. It did not work. They are spreading. The Iceland Space agency is now featuring them and will soon have links to both documents.

Keith’s 23 March update: within a few hours after this was posted (over a weekend) A NASA YouTube video and an official NASA photo of two female astronauts were pulled offline. Both things had been online for several years. This is not the first time this has happened. Apparently NASA DEI Sanitation Squad is using my postings to help them delete things. Details below. Keith’s 22 March note: in 2021 NASA issued the first of two interactive comic books/graphic novels (“First Woman: Dream to Reality”) depicting young women dreaming of – and then training for – a future that would comprise the so-called “Artemis Generation.” NASA issued a second novel (“First Woman: Expanding Our Universe”) in November 2023. Yet, as of March 2025 NASA has moved all evidence of these two publications from their various internet platforms as part of the ongoing Federal Government purge of anything related to diversity or women etc. (see “NASA’s Ever-Changing Artemis Crew Tagline‘). But these two publications are not totally gone. I found them – rather easily. Here they are:

Keith’s note: there has been a swarm of stories of late about NASA abandoning the whole “first woman and first person of color” tag line that the Biden Administration used with regard to Artemis lunar missions – which evolved further to “NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and first international partner astronaut on the Moon”. That tagline evolved out of the Trump 1.0 Administration’s original “first woman” preface as to who’d be landing on the Moon. Now that’s all gone as part of the DEI purge and shunning of international partners that has been inflicted upon all of the Federal Government by Trump 2.0.

Keith’s note: I was just on CNN talking about the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore to planet Earth after their excellent adventure in space. [Audio]

Keith’s note: Butch and Suni are back on planet Earth. I just did 20 minutes of color commentary with my friends at Bloomberg TV. Lots of questions regarding political claims made about the whole “stuck in space” thing and who offered what to whom and when. I tried to get into what goes into planning these complicated missions to distant, potentially hazardous places. Having been on multiple expeditions myself to remote places in the arctic and the Himalayas I tried to offer some personal experience regarding the actual logistical mindset that goes into planning things such as missions to the space station. Everyone at NASA and SpaceX did what they needed to do to make the best of this unexpected situation. Ad Astra y’all. [Audio]

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: Looks like this DEIA-oriented page at NASA.gov needs to be erased ASAP: “45 Years Ago: NASA Selects 35 New Astronauts On Jan. 16, 1978, NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts, the first time in more than eight years that the agency had admitted new astronauts. The selection of the first class of space shuttle astronauts held historic significance not only because of its then-record size but also because, for the first time, the group included women and minorities. Previous astronaut selections in the 1960s consisted of test pilots or scientists, in those days the domain principally of white men.“ Update: I posted this on Sunday morning, 26 January. I checked today – 27 January – and it is gone.

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.” – Jacques Yves Cousteau – Keith’s note: From orbit, the spell cast by our ocean world is truly vast and compelling. Suni Williams, a naval aviator, arrived at the ISS in a spaceship named “Calypso”.

Keith’s note: I was on BBC World News [Audio], Deutsche Welle [Audio], and CGTN [Audio] talking about the Polaris Dawn EVA. During my BBC and DW interviews I compared and contrasted spacewalks in the 1960s and today as well as NASA spacesuits and new commercial space suits. I used one of those spongy astronaut things NASA gives away at meetings but I added a USB-C cable to demonstrate the tether used by the Polaris crew. If you are of a certain age and watched Gemini astronauts doing EVAs live on TV, then you may recognize the orange-visored helmet that my little astronaut is wearing. Update: After the return of Polaris Dawn I spoke with Deutsche Welle Sunday morning [Audio] and then again in the evening [Audio]. I also spoke with Alhurra [Audio] (videos below)

[L] Astronaut Scott Parazynski stands atop Everest, the highest point on Earth’s surface, watching a sunrise. [R] Astronaut Jared Isaacman stands atop Resilience, the highest vantage point in Earth orbit, watching a sunset.

Keith’s note: Looks like the crew of Crew Dragon Resilience are off to a good start. After a weather delay at 3:23 am they launched on-time at 5:35 am EDT and are now safely in space. It would be an understatement to say that this is going to be a cool mission. I was just on CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt and Kristin Fisher [Audio] and yes, I compared the new SpaceX spacesuits to what a DJ might wear at a EDM rave. I was also on BBC World News [Audio] and Deutsche Welle [Audio] this afternoon. During my BBC interview I used yet another prop (picture below). This time it was a plastic savings bank shaped like a Mercury capsule I got when I was 7 years old back in 1960s when it was the current advanced human spacecraft. Its the shape that’s important.