Keith’s note: There is a meeting next week regarding Landsat: Sustainable Land Imaging Mission Alternatives Analysis Team Industry. The meeting is looking for the cheapest way to do the least with Landsat as a result of the President’s FY 2026 Budget Request. The PBR seeks to cancel Landsat missions and descope Earth science budgets at NASA. One small problem: NASA is acting as if the PBR is the actual budget contrary to what Congress is doing. Congress has already complained about this as it was described in last month’s NASA Town Hall Meeting. But NASA is going ahead with this anyway. (More below)

Keith’s note: This memo was just sent out to NASA SMD employees (and others). It opens with “To ensure the continued safety of our workforce and compliance with security measures, the NASA Headquarters Protective Services Office will be reinstating random searches and inspections of individuals, belongings, and vehicles…” A day or so after NASA scared 4,000+ civil servants out of their jobs (and the contractor count is still TBD), the 9th floor sends out scary memos like this to their workforce. Brian Hughes et al simply do not know how to read the room. When the White House gets around to asking NASA to do something spectacular it will become obvious that they pushed NASA to throw away far too much human expertise. And NASA management now makes a point of needlessly freaking out those who remain. You have minimal resources left Brian, Darren, Sean et al. Treat them as the valuable individuals that they are – not sheep for you to scare whenever you get a memo from the White House . (Full memo below).

Keith’s note: Kevin Coggins (LinkedIn), the current AA for NASA SCaN, who was trying to be noticed as a possible administrator nominee, is supposedly going to be the next Associate Administrator of NASA. Vanessa Wyche is the Acting Associate Administrator so I guess she goes back to JSC where Stephen Koerner is Acting Director. With Coggins moving up that means he’ll be with other Florida natives – de facto NASA head (Chief of staff) Brian Hughes and White House Liaison Darren Bossie (who goes by his rapper name “Darren B.” on LinkedIn) inside the glass doors on the 9th floor. Meanwhile there’s no movement toward getting a real leader in place to head NASA.

Keith’s note: Everything that comes out under Sean Duffy’s name regarding NASA seemingly has a typo, some odd capitalization, or blatantly incorrect facts. Take this tweet for example: “NASA Acting Administrator Sean Duffy @SecDuffyNASA NISAR is successfully in orbit! The mission is a joint U.S.-India effort, negotiated by President TRUMP. Thanks to his LEADERSHIP & our friends at @ISRO, @NASA is Making Space Great Again!” As a community note clarifies: “The agreement to develop and launch NISAR was signed in September 2014, during the presidency of Barack Obama and under the leadership of Charles Bolden as NASA Administrator.” Meanwhile, to the gist of Duffy’s tweet, isn’t it a little odd to announce punitive tariffs against India on the same day the result of a space partnership is realized? (tweets below)

Keith’s note: To those who seek to destroy NASA: You will not succeed.

Keith’s note: Joe Rothenberg, former NASA Associate Administrator for Space Flight and former Director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, had this to say last night on LinkedIn: “What is happening at NASA has long term and potentially unrecoverable consequences to U.S. scientific and technology leadership in not only space but in technology that impacts our quality of life on Earth. Clearly the actions of the current Administration and NASA leadership have mortgaged America’s space and scientific research capabilities, well beyond the point of being able to be recovered by any potential restoration of funding by Congress. The nation’s space program in its early days inspired career pursuits in science and engineering, resulting in not only America’s leadership in space, but in developing technology that has significantly improved medical, communications, and numerous quality of life applications. America now faces the strong possibility of the reverse happening, the indiscriminate cuts in our nation’s scientific research program budgets, and government and civilian workforce, will discourage the next generation from pursuing careers in engineering and sciences. The implications of which are not only loss of leadership in these areas, but also a signicant weakening of our economic and military leadership and a continued downward position of the U.S. on the world stage.”

Keith’s note: To those in and around NASA who like to minimize layoffs at NASA and its contractor workforce: I did not come out of retirement to help my extended NASA family just to listen to you rationalize this massive hit on NASA as a “routine” or “voluntary” exercise. I especially don’t like hearing people on the 9th floor of NASA HQ – both long-time NASA employees and recent political appointees – who have been pushing managers to push their people out the door. NASA will rebound one way or another – not because of you – but in spite of you.

Keith’s note: this was just issued by NASA HQ: “NASA’s Deferred Resignation Program, Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and Voluntary Separation Incentive Program are closing at 11:59 p.m. EDT Friday. Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organization and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars. Numbers are as follows:

• Deferred Resignation Program #1: about 4.8% of the workforce (about 870 individuals)
• Deferred Resignation Program #2 (including VERA and VSIP, in addition to DRP): about 16.4% of the workforce, approximately 3,000 employees
• NASA’s expected remaining civil servant workforce following both DRP programs, as well as normal attrition (about 500) over the same time period: about 14,000
• As more official information becomes available, we anticipate answering more of your questions.

Keith’s note: this went out to everyone at NASA. You’d think that a former TV guy could read the room a little better i.e. “deeply personal and often difficult decisions”. — “Dear Team, Thank you to all who took the time to thoughtfully consider NASA’s voluntary resignation programs. I know these are deeply personal and often difficult decisions. To those who have chosen to depart, I want to express my sincere appreciation for your service. Your work has helped shape NASA’s extraordinary legacy of discovery and innovation. Whether you are continuing the journey here or taking your next step beyond, your contributions will always be part of the foundation we build on. Thank you for all you’ve done – for NASA, for your teams, and for the mission we’ve shared. Sean Duffy Acting NASA Administrator”.

Keith’s note: Duffy’s first message had a strange farewell at the end. Full message below:

Keith’s note: This letter from Earth scientists has also been published in Science magazine and is reprinted here with the permission of the authors [Science, 389, 357-358. doi:10.1126/science.adz6100]: “In May, the US administration proposed budget cuts to NASA, including a more than 50% decrease in funding for the agency’s Earth Science Division (ESD) (1), the mission of which is to gather knowledge about Earth through space-based observation and other tools (2).

Keith’s note: Hooray! There is a new AI.gov website. And it has an Action Plan page – and a 28 page “Winning the Race AMERICA’S AI ACTION PLAN” PDF. NSF, NIST and other agencies are mentioned. But other than a throw-away line “Just like we won the space race” on the first page there is no mention of NASA, space exploration, etc. Oh well.

Keith’s note: According to a media advisory sent out on 22 July by NASA HQ “Senegal will sign the Artemis Accords during a ceremony at 2 p.m. EDT on Thursday, July 24, at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Brian Hughes, NASA chief of staff, will host Maram Kairé, director general of the Senegalese space agency (ASES), and Abdoul Wahab Haidara, ambassador of Senegal to the United States, along with other officials from Senegal and the U.S. Department of State.” Why is NASA chief of staff Brian Hughes the senior official hosting this event? I thought Sean Duffy was Acting NASA Administrator? And Acting NASA Associate Administrator Vanessa Wyche and NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails, who would seem to out-rank Hughes, still work there, yes? This screen grab from last month’s NASA Town Hall shows a seating arrangement that speaks volumes in terms of who runs the show at NASA right now.

Keith’s note: according to this Reuters article: “NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes speaking at the same town hall, agreed, saying it would “probably be considered irresponsible” to wait for the congressional budget process. The letter added that Hughes recently ordered NASA science programs targeted for cancellation in Trump’s budget request to stop issuing press releases celebrating new scientific results and achievements.” In addition, senior staff at recent meetings at NASA with Hughes have been told not to expect any help from Congress in pushing back against the plan embodied in the President’s FY 2026 Budget Request i.e. multiple mission cancellations and large personnel layoffs. This is in direct contrast to an offer made last week to senior NASA staff by Acting Interim Administrator Duffy to listen to – and then consider – pushing for budget increases (restoration) for items planned for deletion – if a solid case can be made. And today the “Voyager Declaration”, signed by many NASA employees complaint about a variety of unpopular actions, certainly made national news. Word has it that Hughes and his staff were not at all pleased by this or the news coverage – especially CNN’s article. Meanwhile, consolidation of and deletion of various NASA social media accounts continues. Of course this has a side benefit of allowing those missions now scheduled to go away to not have any mention made of whatever scientific results they are still quite capable of providing. This of course hastens the ability for them to just fade away.

Keith’s note: There is a new, rather detailed and annotated “Statement of Solidarity and Support” out called “The NASA Voyager Declaration“ regarding the current state of affairs at NASA. It is modeled after similar efforts by employees at EPA, NIH, and elsewhere within the Federal government. It opens with: “Dear Interim Administrator Duffy, In light of your recent appointment as Interim NASA Administrator, we bring to your attention recent policies that have or threaten to waste public resources, compromise human safety, weaken national security, and undermine the core NASA mission. We, the signatories of this letter, dissent from these policies, and raise these concerns because we believe strongly in the importance of NASA’s mission, which we are dedicated to uphold.” More.

Keith’s Note: Nice of NASA HQ to post a picture in the background from Sean Duffy’s earlier career 😉 . According to a tweet by @SecDuffyNASA “Wrapping up my day at @NASA – spoke with the smart leaders of our mission directorates. We agree- America MUST dominate space and our critical moon mission, #ARTEMIS, must be as known & supported by America just as Apollo was! It’s a race to the moon. Clock is ticking. I’m fired up and ready to launch!” 🚀📷🔥

Last week, President Trump announced Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy will serve as NASA’s next acting administrator. Since then, my focus has been on ensuring a smooth transition. I’m also pleased to share I’ll be returning home to Kennedy Space Center as its center director – rejoining my colleagues and continuing our vital work, hand in hand with our new NASA leadership to propel our ambitious goals.

Keith’s note: this popped out of the White House on Thursday. You may recall the earlier Schedule F thing “that will make it easier to remove federal employees it believes are undercutting President Trump’s agenda.” Now there is Schedule G which involved bringing in a new type of political/policy employee for the duration of an Administration only. Here is the stated rationale for this new classification: “Creating Schedule G fills this gap and facilitates appointments of non-career federal employees who will serve temporarily and implement the policy agenda prescribed by the American people through our elections. This will improve operations, particularly in agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs, by streamlining appointments for key policy roles.”

Keith’s note: According to a press release from Rep. Valerie Foushee: “Today, Congresswoman Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, Congressman Don Beyer (VA-08), and Congressman Seth Moulton (MA-06) led a group of bipartisan lawmakers in urging National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Acting Administrator Sean Duffy to refrain from taking actions to implement a drastic 47% cut proposed in the President’s FY2026 budget request for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), encourage or effectuate actions to meet proposed workforce reductions in the FY2026 budget request, or eliminate vital NASA programs until Congress enacts full-year appropriations for FY2026 through September 30th, 2026.” (More below)