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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
My awesome nephews touring the Space Shuttle Mission Control in 2007 when we used to send humans to space. #tbt pic.twitter.com/fyQNVTn909
— Mike Allyn (@FCTMike) September 12, 2014
Virgin Galactic Delays First Commercial Flights to 2015, Space News
"... That timeline represents a delay from statements Branson made as recently as last month. In an interview with USA Today published Aug. 17, he said he expected to be on that first commercial flight by the end of this year. "I'll be bitterly disappointed if I'm not into space by the end of the year," he said. A Virgin Galactic spokewoman said that, despite Branson's comments, the company has no formal schedule for beginning commercial flights. "As we've stated in the past, the inaugural commercial flight date will be set by safety and readiness," Jessica Gilbert said Sept. 11 via email."
Categories: Commercialization
Keith's note: Jim Green just made a point of spelling out the URL for this report. He did so rather defensively in an effort to show that there was a science plan in place for MSL. In the process he sought to minimize the comments made by NASA's own NASA Planetary Senior Review Panel Report wherien the MSL science plan was bluntly criticized. If Green thinks that the Review Panel was wrong on their MSL criticism, then does that not call into question everything else they said? If so why did NASA make funding decisions based on the committee's report?
Looking at the report there are no ITAR or SBU notations. Of course they were removed - or were they? Looking at the document properties [image] it is clear that this document was created on 10 April 2014 and modified on 9 September 2014. Why is it that NASA only voluntarily releases documents like this to defend their actions but they don't just publish them - for all to see - simply because they are interesting? Why didn't NASA release this document when the review committee report first came out? Why wasn't this report mentioned in yesterday's hearing where Green testified - when this topic came up?
Oh yes ... by voluntarily releasing this document NASA SMD has set a new precedent for things that a FOIA request can obtain. They have nulified any "predecisional" claims that they might have once been able to make. Oops.
Categories: Space & Planetary Science
Media Day at Wallops for NASA Hurricane Airborne Mission
"As the Atlantic Ocean's hurricane season hits its peak, media are invited to visit NASA's latest airborne hurricane research mission using remotely piloted aircraft on Thursday, Sept. 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT, at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The presentation to the media will be streamed online live beginning at 10 a.m. at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-tv-wallops"
NASA Holds Teleconference to Discuss Science Campaign of Curiosity Mars Rover
Keith's note: NASA SMD PAO's Dwayne Brown continues to refuse to respond to media inquiries from last month's Mars 2020 media opportunity - despite overtly soliciting such inquiries. Let's see who Dwayne ignores during this briefing - since he's NASA PAO - and I am not. As such I am not going to bother to dial in since it is a waste of my time. More opportunity for others to ask questions. I have had multiple interactions with NASA PAO on this non-response by Dwayne and their lack of response is a de facto endorsement of Dwayne's behavior. So it goes. I'll live tweet the event - with commentary.
- SMD Wants To Talk About MSL Science (Or Lack Thereof), earllier post
- Results of Planetary Science Mission Review: MSL = Yawn, earllier post
- NASA PAO Promises To Answer Questions and Then Does Not, earllier post
New Commercial Moon Services Study Available, SpaceRef Business
"The Space Angels Network brought to my attention a new study by Chad Anderson a Managing Director of the Space Angels Network. Chad completed the study while obtaining his MBA at Oxford. The study was finished in 2013 but has only been recently made public."
Continue reading: New Commercial Moon Study.
Subcommittee Considers Asteroid Mining, Planetary Exploration Priorities
"The Space Subcommittee today held a hearing to review issues facing planetary exploration of our solar system, including NASA's proposed budget for planetary science, and potential commercial interests. Witnesses also testified on the American Space Technology for Exploring Resource Opportunities In Deep Space (ASTEROIDS) Act, H.R. 5063."
Prepared statements: Rep. Lamar Smith, Rep. Steven Palazzo, Jim Green, Jim Bell, Mark Sykes, Joanne Gabrynowicz, Philip Christensen
Categories: Congress, Space & Planetary Science Keith's note: Don't expect to see a commercial crew selection announcement this week. Unless things change, of course.
NanoRacks Update on CubeSat Deployer Problem, SpaceRef Business
"NanoRacks this morning provided an update on the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployers (NRCSD) which had inadvertently deployed thee CubeSats while not deploying others when commanded. The NanRacks team has been able to replicate the problem on the ground which they hope will lead to a solution."
Categories: Commercialization
Crimea Catch-22: Russia Space Training May Put NASA in a Bind, NBC
"Here's the kicker: Shifting the survival training to Russian-occupied Crimea will require foreign cosmonauts to accept travel there without Ukrainian visas, an explicit acquiescence to the new diplomatic status of the province. Refusal to attend survival training is equivalent to failing the training, which by existing training regulations is an automatic disqualification for flight certification. No Crimea trip, no space trip. Lonchakov hinted that Crimea might be used for more than sea survival training. "We are also planning, if it works out, to hold sea and mountain survival training," he told the Itar-Tass news agency. He has also said a post-flight rehabilitation center for cosmonauts could be reopened near Yevpatoria, a Crimean coastal resort."
Categories: Astronauts, ISS News, RussiaNASA Holds Teleconference to Discuss Science Campaign of Curiosity Mars Rover
"NASA will host a teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT Thursday, Sept. 11, to discuss mission status and the future science campaign for the Mars rover Curiosity mission."
NASA Planetary Senior Review Panel Report
"Unfortunately the lead Project Scientist was not present in person for the Senior Review presentation and was only available via phone. Additionally, he was not present for the second round of Curiosity questions from the panel. This left the panel with the impression that the team felt they were too big to fail and that simply having someone show up would suffice. ... As Curiosity is a flagship mission, the panel was surprised by the lack of science in the EM1 proposal ..."
Hearing Charter: Exploring Our Solar System: The ASTEROIDS Act as a Key Step, House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
"Specifically, the panel felt that Curiosity's extended mission plan to take only eight samples in the next two years was not efficient and that "this is a poor science return for such a large investment in a flagship mission." The panel also found that "the proposal lacked specific scientific questions to be answered, testable hypotheses, and proposed measurements and assessment of uncertainties and limitations."
Categories: Space & Planetary Science
Space Crowdfunding: What's the Secret?, Winners and losers among the space start-ups, Air and Space
"I had guys clambering over the [radio antenna] dish in Arecibo [Puerto Rico], hanging hardware while people were still giving money, and people were saying, 'This is great!' " he says. "I was live-tweeting everything we did. Every geeky expression that happened in the control room I threw out there, and people were telling me they got in trouble for not going to work, or skipping class, sitting on the subway reading it on their phone." "The bulk of the people that give you money don't quite even understand exactly what you're going to do," says Cowing. But success comes "if you tell a compelling story, couch this in a way that there's adventure involved, but also a payback opportunity that people feel is important, that there's something to be learned."
Categories: ISEE-3
The First Orion Crew Module Is Complete
"NASA's first completed Orion crew module sits atop its service module at the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The crew and service module will be transferred together on Wednesday to another facility for fueling, before moving again for the installation of the launch abort system. At that point, the spacecraft will be complete and ready to stack on top of the Delta IV Heavy rocket that will carry it into space on its first flight in December."
Categories: SLS and Orion
NASA Selects U.S. Firms to Provide Commercial Suborbital Flight Services
"NASA has selected four companies to integrate and fly technology payloads on commercial suborbital reusable platforms that carry payloads near the boundary of space. The selection is part of NASA's continuing effort to foster a viable market for American commercial reusable suborbital platforms that allow testing of new space technologies within Earth's atmosphere."
Categories: Commercialization, suborbital
Researchers reel from defunding of only UC-owned observatory, The Daily Californian
"[Alex] Filippenko and other researchers blame fellow astronomer Steven Beckwith, the former UC vice president of research and graduate studies, for inappropriately acting on personal biases against Lick Observatory. Beckwith, Filippenko pointed out, is a former director of the Space Telescope Science Institute and has publicly belittled the merits of ground-based telescopes, such as those at Lick, in comparison to space-based instruments, such as Hubble telescope. "The guy has openly expressed in rather contemptuous ways his lack of interest in ground-based telescopes," said Garth Illingworth, a UC Santa Cruz professor of astronomy. "He views himself as a person to choose the direction of UC astronomy like a CEO in a company. But that's not his job." ... In June 2013, the UCO Board recommended the university terminate all funding for Lick. Following suit, UCOP will implement a "glide path" for Lick in 2016, phasing out all funding from $1.3 million to zero by 2018."
Save the Greenbank Telescope, Greenbriar Valley Economic Development Corporation
"On August 14, 2012, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Astronomical Sciences Portfolio Review Committee issued a report entitled: Advancing Astronomy in the Coming Decade; Opportunities and Challenges. In that report, the NSF recommended that two NRAO instruments, the GBT and the Very Long Based Array (VLBA) in New Mexico, be fully divested from the NSF Astronomy Division's research facilities portfolio within five years."
Categories: Astronomy
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Space Station Expedition 40 Crew Safely Lands in Kazakhstan 
Three crew members from the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth Wednesday after 169 days of science and technology research in space, including a record 82 hours of research in a single week, which happened in July.
