|
For several years now, I've been saying it's time to scrap NASA. That is still true, I believe, but until that happens, NASA keeps spending money on pointless and futile projects that deserve the taxpayers' attention. This page is all about the latest news on the subject of space exploration and the enormous price tags that come with those projects. The obsolescense and pointlessness of NASA's manned space flight program is covered on this page, but NASA's other make-work projects are highlighted below. In addition, there are links to other articles with derogatory commentary about NASA's pointless goals and colossal cost. These space exploration projects have very few tangible end products — certainly nothing that benefits the average taxpayer. The exploration of other planets (or any other space flight) is not authorized by the Constitution and is not the proper role of government. The exception would be military projects in support of our national defense, but the Pentagon has its own aerospace facilities. Yes, I know NASA's projects are the highest of high tech. I'm not saying space flight research isn't cool, but spending taxpayers' money on it is illegal. The Constitution defines the limits of our government, and NASA operates outside those limits. The work being done by NASA should (according to the 10th Amendment) be conducted by private industries, and of course no private company could afford to spend billions of dollars per year on pointless experiments in zero-g. As the shuttle Atlantis landed in Florida recently I noticed that NASA called the
flight a "mission to expand the global village of space." Look at the numbers: NASA's Budget Appropriations for 2007 and Projections for 2008 to 2012. Incidentally, the section about NASA's mission to appease the Muslims has been moved to this page. What NASA's next administrator should do if SLS and Orion are cancelled. When George Bush Jr. first proposed in 2004 an American long term effort to return to the Moon that has since become the Artemis program, he made it clear that the goal was not to simply land in 2015 and plant the flag, but to establish an aerospace industry capable of staying on the Moon permanently while going beyond to settle the entire the solar system. The problem was that Bush proposed doing this with a government-built system that was simply not capable of making it happen. Though this system has gone through many changes in the two decades since Bush's proposal, in every case it has been centered on rockets and spacecrafts that NASA designed, built, and owned, and were thus not focused on profit and efficiency. The result has been endless budget overruns and delays, so that two decades later and more than $60 billion, NASA is still years away from that first Moon landing, and the SLS rocket and Orion capsule that it designed and built for this task are incapable of establishing a base on the Moon, no less explore the solar system. The Editor says... From the Moon to Broadband: How DEI Killed American Efficiency. Let's not forget NASA, once a beacon of American ingenuity and technological prowess, now burdened with the requirement that even a mission to the moon must be "equitable and inclusive." The Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, originally budgeted at $7 billion, has ballooned to over $23 billion, while the Orion capsule, initially expected to cost $6.7 billion, is now projected at over $13 billion. The mobile launch tower has similarly seen its costs skyrocket, from an estimated $383 million to more than $1 billion. These projects are not only over budget but also years behind schedule. Biden's NASA placed the same DEI requirements on each of the awardees, demanding that their subcontractors meet stringent DEI goals — slowing their progress, reducing quality, and driving up costs. Meanwhile, SpaceX, unencumbered by such bureaucratic red tape, has rapidly become the undisputed leader in space launches. In 2024 alone, SpaceX was responsible for over 60% of the world's payload to space and conducted nearly 65% of all global launches. They have launched thousands of satellites, accounting for approximately 60% of all active satellites currently in orbit. SpaceX's success is a testament to what can be achieved when innovation is prioritized over ideological checkboxes. NASA's ambitions, once the stuff of national pride and dreams, now sound like a checkbox exercise. NASA's annual audit is not only not as great as NASA claims, it illustrates how the poison of DEI permeates the agency. [Scroll down] Though Ernst & Young reported this issue in its report, its contract with NASA did not require it to include this issue in its final assessment of NASA. And because NASA corrected the issue so that in the end the financial statements added up correctly, the auditor was thus required to issue its "clean" conclusion. Nonetheless, over the decades NASA has had a history of sloppiness in its accounting practices. This audit suggests some of that sloppiness remains, and should be looked into closely by the next administration and NASA's new administrator, whoever that might be. The second issue relates not to the audit but to the Biden administration's insistence that NASA (and all government agencies) impose Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) quotas in its hiring. In this financial report, NASA continues to proudly note how its hiring and contracting policies have imposed racial and gender quotas to favor certain minorities, [women], and the "LGBTQIA+ community." NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to lay off roughly 5% of its workforce. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is preparing to lay off hundreds of employees this week, director Laurie Leshin said in a memo to staff sent Tuesday afternoon. The La Cañada Flintridge research institution will let go of approximately 325 employees across the organization on Wednesday, or roughly 5% of its total staff, the memo stated. NASA staff beg Elon Musk to 'clean house' after agency spent millions of Americans' money on DEI agenda. NASA staff are calling on Elon Musk to 'clean house' as it is revealed the agency blew millions of taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. Spending reports from 2020 to 2024 showed NASA awarded grants to universities and consulting firms to support 'environmental justice' and initiatives that 'embrace greater diversity and inclusive practices.' LMI consulting received over $2 million in 2023 for NASA to 'embark on a venture to incorporate and deeply engrain diversity, inclusion, equity and accessibility in the culture and business.' NASA Spent Millions on 'Environmental Justice' and 'Equity' Grants Despite Budget Woes. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has shelled out millions in awards to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as "environmental justice," despite recently laying off staff and shuttering space programs due to budgetary shortfalls. NASA has allocated roughly $10 million to pay out dozens of grants and contracts aimed at advancing some element of environmental justice or DEI since 2020, federal spending records show. The agency is multiple billions of dollars short of the funding required to complete its current missions, has fired hundreds of people working on its Mars missions over budgetary concerns, and may not have enough funding to maintain a multibillion-dollar space telescope, according to multiple Washington Post reports. NASA warns solar storms may disrupt global internet access. NASA has issued a warning about potential global internet disruptions as solar storms reach an explosive peak in the sun's current cycle. The agency confirms that the sun is experiencing a particularly active phase, characterized by heightened solar activity, including powerful Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs). These intense solar events could interfere with crucial technologies that sustain global communications, including satellites, GPS systems, and the internet. Solar storms, driven by CMEs, occur when the sun ejects large amounts of plasma and magnetic fields into space. If these ejections reach Earth, they have the potential to cause geomagnetic storms, which can severely affect electronic and communication systems. The undersea cables that form the backbone of the global internet are especially vulnerable, as well as satellites that support telecommunications, weather systems, and navigation services. The Editor says... ICYMI: Elon Musk's SpaceX Rescues Stranded Astronauts. Since the useless, despicable propagandists in the legacy media won't cover it in any real way, I wanted to share the video below with you. It is of the moment when SpaceX astronauts celebrate with the astronauts stranded for months on the international space station due to massive failings by NASA and the utterly incompetent DEI hires running Boeing. [Video clip] Musk and X, of course, are now branded by the Biden/Harris White House and US intel community as enemies of the state due to Musk's refusal to bend the knee to the censorship minions in the federal government. Because our legacy media is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democrat party and the Deep State, it is loath to provide any positive coverage to Musk or any of his companies, even when one of those companies, SpaceX, is rescuing US astronauts who have been left stranded in space. It is one of the most inspiring achievements of our time, and most Americans will sadly not ever even know it happened. The Editor says... Clarification: The Editor says... 'Diversity, inclusion, equity' at NASA. The spotlight tends to shine on NASA only when a tragedy occurs or when there are issues such as the recent ones with Boeing's Starliner. The removal of that spotlight coupled with incompetent congressional leadership has left NASA without a strong sense of purpose. This alone would be enough to damage the space program, but there's another rather large issue: for decades, NASA has engaged in open discrimination against white male engineers. This discrimination has led to bloated budgets, caustic work conditions, and many of our best engineers leaving the field. Years ago, NASA decided that there were too many white male engineers. However, there simply weren't enough engineers of other races or of the opposite sex to hire — even with the racially based preferences, mentoring, etc. that NASA has in place. The solution that the government came up with was to let people of other races form "companies" called "subcontrators." NASA would then give those engineering jobs at Lockheed (LM), Boeing, NASA, etc. specifically to those companies. Those companies would then hire those same white male engineers. The engineers do the same work in the same building, as if they were hired directly by those companies, but now those white male engineers count toward minority statistics. Watchdog group launches legal probe into NASA emails over 'Space Czar' Harris as astronauts linger in orbit. A conservative watchdog group launched a Freedom of Information Act probe against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) seeking documents relating to the situation that has left two U.S. astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) for several more months. The Oversight Project's executive director told Fox News Digital on Monday he and his group have legally sought emails between NASA political appointees and the White House, including the office of Vice President Harris, who also holds the title of chair of the National Space Council. The filing by Mike Howell, head of the Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project, also demands outgoing emails to Harris' presidential campaign. Just as Harris was tasked with assuaging the root causes of illegal immigration as the so-called border czar, her role as vice president makes her essentially the lead adviser on space policy in that regard. Astronaut Notices A Strange Noises Coming From Starliner's Speakers. On Saturday (Aug. 31) NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore noticed something weird inside the Starliner spacecraft. Wilmore radioed down to Mission Control to ask about the bizarre noises heard emanating from Starliner's speakers while the spacecraft is currently docked to the International Space Station (ISS). [Audio clip] Boeing's Starliner Faces Uncertain Future as NASA Considers Cancellation. Boeing's plagued Starliner spacecraft is facing an uncertain future as technical issues, delays, and budget overruns continue to mount, leading NASA and industry experts to question the viability of the project. Futurism reports that the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, once touted as a critical component of NASA's Commercial Crew program, is now facing the possibility of cancellation due to a series of technical mishaps, supply chain issues, and years of delays. The troubled capsule is returning empty-handed from its latest mission, with NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams planning to catch a ride back to Earth on SpaceX's Crew Dragon instead. Explanation for Boeing Craft Not Working. Some may wonder why countermoonbat Elon Musk's SpaceX has to step in to save astronauts at the space station after Boeing's spacecraft failed to work: ["]Boeing employees are "humiliated" after NASA announced that two astronauts who have been stranded on the International Space Station by the company's troubled Starliner space capsule will have to be rescued by Elon Musk's upstart rival SpaceX[..."] [...] Are the failures because Boeing doesn't spend enough money? No: ["]Boeing has spent about $1.5 billion in cost overruns beyond the initial $4.5 billion contract it secured with NASA...["] Here's a more likely explanation: [Tweet with video clip] As the Secret Service and the alarming rise of Kamala Harris demonstrate, you can have DEI or you can have competence; you can't have both. Boeing Starliner software. While NASA continues to decide whether the thrusters on the Boeing Starliner now docked to the International Space Station can be relied upon to return the two astronauts who rode it up to the ISS back to Earth, a new issue has apparently arisen: the current flight software on board Starliner cannot perform an automated undocking from the space station and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. You would think space suits would be standardized and interoperable, as if lives depended on it. But I guess not. The Editor says... Everything you need to know about the alleged ultra-secret space program: Radiant Guardian. In the shadowy world of conspiracy theories and covert government operations, few topics generate as much intrigue as the alleged secret space programs. One of these is "Radiant Guardian," which is said to have succeeded the clandestine "Solar Warden" project, claiming to be part of an ultra-secret space program operating beyond public knowledge. Rooted in a mix of science fiction, speculative theories, and alleged leaks, the narrative of Radiant Guardian captivates the imagination of those who believe in hidden truths. This article delves into the origins of these claims, exploring the connection between Radiant Guardian and Solar Warden and examining the supposed details of these covert operations. NASA likely to significantly delay the launch of Crew 9 due to Starliner issues. NASA is planning to significantly delay the launch of the Crew 9 mission to the International Space Station due to ongoing concerns about the Starliner spacecraft currently attached to the station. While the space agency has not said anything publicly, sources say NASA should announce the decision this week. Officials are contemplating moving the Crew-9 mission from its current date of August 18 to September 24, a significant slip. The Editor says... Biorepository on the Moon Could Preserve Genetic Material From Endangered Species, Researchers Say. From climate change and pollution to invasive species, Earth's biodiversity faces several significant threats. Since 1970, approximately three million birds have vanished from North America alone, while 83% of beetles have declined in the U.S. over the last 40 years. Now, an international team of scientists has proposed a unique idea to protect the Earth's endangered species: by creating a biorepository on the Moon. In the journal BioScience, the researchers, led by Dr. Mary Hagedorn from the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, propose a storage facility based on the Moon with frozen samples of genetic material from the most endangered species. The Editor says... 51 Days Later, Two Boeing Starliner Astronauts Still Stranded On International Space Station. There is still no return date for astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams, who remain stranded on the International Space Station due to thruster failures and a helium leak in their Boeing Starliner spacecraft, according to Space.com. On Thursday, NASA's commercial crew program manager Steve Stich told reporters, "We don't have a major announcement today relative to a return date," adding, "We're making great progress, but we're just not quite ready to do that." The Editor says... Days are getting slightly longer — and it's due to climate change. Climate change is causing widespread global impacts, but now scientists are finding that it's altering the very planet itself. Earth's rotation is slowing down, extending the length of a day ever so slightly. As temperatures rise, massive amounts of ice are melting from Greenland and Antarctica. That meltwater flows into the oceans, redistributing the mass closer to the equator. When the planet is thicker around the middle, its daily rotation takes a bit longer. "It's a testament to the gravity of climate change, in a sense," says Surendra Adhikari of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who's an author of the study, just released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Does anybody need some really expensive sulfur crystals? Why Curiosity Cost $2.5 Billion. What's 10 feet long, nine feet wide, seven feet tall, and weighs 2,000 pounds? NASA's Mars Curiosity. The rover was launched on Nov. 26, 2011, from Cape Canaveral and successfully landed on the Red Planet's Gale Crater on Aug. 5, 2012. With a price tag of $2.5 billion, there's been a lot of criticism and skepticism about Curiosity, with the media and public questioning why it cost so much and whether the money was well spent. This is somewhat related, but NASA isn't involved: The Editor says... Six days later, the Associated Press picked up the story: The Editor says... Starliner Astronauts Stranded In Space. The official truth, blasted from every media, is that they are not stranded — NASA and Boeing just want time to run some more tests. The astronauts were supposed to do to space walks, but the space suits did not work either. Which is a problem because the space station needs some external maintenance which can only be done by people going outside in space suits. So everyone on the space station is currently trapped in a container with life support that depends on stuff outside the container, which stuff is unreachable. The reason they want to run more tests is that most of the engines are not behaving as they are supposed to, and one of the engines has failed completely and they do not understand why. It is probably not a good idea to attempt re-entry with humans on board if you have misbehaving engines and you do not understand why they are misbehaving. These engines have been misbehaving for years, to which Boeing has responded with denial, rather than any real attempt to understand. NASA'S Curie Mission Launches to Investigate Mysterious Radio Waves From the Sun. This week, NASA launched the CubeSat Radio Interferometry Experiment, or CURIE, to further investigate the mysterious origins of radio waves from the Sun. Scientists first detected these radio waves decades ago and have been trying to understand their source. More recently, these waves were found to come from significant eruptions of gas on the Sun's surface called Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs), along with solar flares. In 2023, a group of astronomers found that radio waves didn't just originate at CMEs or solar flares but were also found at sunspots, the cooler, darker, and more magnetically active areas of the Sun. The Editor says... Boeing Knew Starliner Was Leaking Helium But Launched Anyway. Last week I asked if Boeing was going to be able to bring their astronauts, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore back to Earth from the International Space Station. They were already almost three weeks overdue at that point because Boeing's Starliner spacecraft had sprung multiple helium leaks and suffered multiple thruster failures when attempting to dock with the space station. The company has slowly begun releasing more details as to what's been going on in conjunction with NASA. The outlook for the astronauts is no better now than it was then. If fact, if anything it's possibly worse. Boeing is now saying that they can't even attempt a return flight until at least July. It's also becoming increasingly clear that they never should have risked the launch in the first place because they underestimated the severity of the leaks that the craft was experiencing back on June 5. The Editor says... Astronauts could mix moon dust with old satellites to make fuel. Soil sourced directly from the lunar surface could help astronauts establish and sustain a permanent presence on the moon. Transporting materials from Earth to create a lunar infrastructure will be a costly and time consuming endeavor. So, instead, researchers from the University of Waterloo's Laboratory for Emerging Energy Research (LEER) suggest lunar regolith — the moon's top layer of soil and dust — is a locally available resource that can be processed into usable materials to support life, generate energy and build long-term habitats. The Editor says... NASA shares cringeworthy "Pride Collage". The intrepid space explorers and brilliant scientists of NASA, an organization that landed mankind on the moon over 50 years ago and that currently receives $25 billion per year in taxpayer dollars, has unveiled their greatest accomplishment yet: a Pride flag collage made with space pictures. [Tweet] The internet didn't seem to like it that much: [More tweets] Almost All Recent Global Warming Caused by Green Air Policies — Shock Revelation From NASA. The world of climate science is in shock following extraordinary findings from a team of high-powered NASA scientists that suggest most of the recent global temperature increases are due to the introduction of draconian fuel shipping regulations designed to help prevent global warming. The fantasy world of Net Zero is of course full of unintended consequences, but it is claimed that the abrupt 80% cut in sulphur dioxide emissions from international shipping in 2020 has accounted for 80% of global warming since the turn of the decade. Although the extra heat is described as "transient", the warming is extraordinary and is expected to rise during the 2020s at a rate of 0.24°C a decade, 20% higher than the claimed warming trend since 1980. The news is likely to cause considerable concern among the mainstream climate hoaxers in media, academia and politics. They have had a field day of late by pointing to rises in temperature as evidence for their evidence-free prediction that the climate is in danger of imminent collapse. NASA Has Innovative Concept to Build Transport Railway System on the Moon. NASA says it is exploring the concept of building a railway system on the moon for the day when it becomes not just an object in the sky, but a working mine for minerals that Earthlings might covet. The concept is called Flexible Levitation on a Track, or FLOAT, and it envisions levitating magnetic robots shuttling about 100 tons of materials per day on the surface of the moon, according to the Daily Mail. Project leader Ethan Schaler, a robotics engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, outlined the goals of the project on NASA's website. "We want to build the first lunar railway system, which will provide reliable, autonomous, and efficient payload transport on the Moon," he wrote. The Editor says... New NASA Mars Crew Has a Muslim, No White People: "To reach out to the Muslim world". NASA no longer has the right stuff, so all it's got is the DEI stuff. Remember this? ["]In July 2010, NASA chief Charles Bolden, an Obama appointee, told Al Jazeera that his boss had given him three priorities... none of them involving space exploration. The foremost priority for the agency once tasked with sending a man to the moon was 'to reach out to the Muslim world... to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.'["] How many of you remember Obama's "Muslim List"? ["]The Muslim list included two alternative candidates for NASA administrator. One of them, Dr. Charles Elachi of JPL was dismissed as 'possibly Christian.' Indeed Elachi, who grew up admiring John Wayne and believes that American success is possible because it isn't 'held back by the long-standing, ingrained systems and beliefs found in the Middle East' would have been a rather poor fit. The other name on the list however is Firouz Naderi, an Iranian board member of the Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans which advocated in support of the Iran nuke sellout.["] While Trump threw out some of this stuff, under Biden NASA is fully woke and going where no one has gone before or ever wanted to go before. NASA's Mars sample return plan is getting a major overhaul: 'The bottom line is $11 billion is too expensive'. NASA is looking for a new way to get its precious Mars samples back to Earth. Those samples are being collected by the Perseverance rover in Mars' Jezero Crater, which hosted a lake and a river delta billions of years ago. Getting ahold of the samples is one of NASA's top science goals; studying pristine Red Planet material in well-equipped labs around the world could reveal key insights about Mars — including, perhaps, whether it has ever hosted life, NASA officials say. The agency has had a Mars sample-return (MSR) architecture in place for some time now, but repeated delays and cost overruns have rendered the original plan impractical, NASA officials announced today (April 15). Socialist Democrats are really good at solving problems nobody has. That describes NASA, too. NASA gets $25.4 billion in White House's 2025 budget request. NASA won't be getting a big budget boost next year. The White House allocated $25.4 billion to NASA in its federal budget request for fiscal year 2025, which was released today (March 11). That's a 2% increase over the $24.9 billion the agency is getting for fiscal 2024, an amount that was enacted by Congress just last Friday (March 8). That enacted amount is a substantial cut from the $27.2 billion that the White House requested for the current fiscal year. So there's certainly no guarantee NASA will get the full $25.4 billion requested for fiscal 2025, which starts on Oct. 1 of this year. NASA: Solar Storms 'Could Cause Internet Apocalypse' by 2025. NASA is warning that the Sun is entering a period of high volatility as it nears the peak of its 11-year solar maximum cycle. During this time, sunspots have the potential to generate intense solar storms, which — if directed at the Earth — could cause widespread outages to electronics and radio communications.The last several months have seen a spike in solar activity, with sunspots causing several coronal mass ejections (CMEs) — phenomena responsible for solar storms. NASA, which has been monitoring our Sun's activity using the Parker Solar Probe (PSP), warns the potential for a solar storm-caused "internet apocalypse" remains a cause for concern through 2025. Such an event could surge currents through our planet's infrastructure, disrupting navigation, communications systems, and the GPS-enabled time synchronization critical to the functioning of the internet. The Editor says... 5,800 pounds of batteries tossed off the ISS in 2021 will fall to Earth today. A nearly 3-ton leftover tossed overboard from the International Space Station is nearing its plunge toward Earth. The multi-ton Exposed Pallet 9 (EP9) was jettisoned from the space station back in March 2021. At the time, it was reported to be the most massive object ever tossed overboard from the International Space Station. Disposing of used or unnecessary equipment in such a way is common practice aboard the space station, as the objects typically burn up harmlessly in Earth's atmosphere. The Editor says... NASA launches its 1st official tabletop roleplaying game campaign. NASA is full of surprises. Perhaps the last thing RPG enthusiasts would expect out of the serious engineers and scientists at the storied space agency is a fun table-top fantasy adventure game. Yet the geeky folks at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have devised a compelling new amusement centered around a cosmic mystery and the Hubble Space Telescope that space fans can download today free of charge. The Editor says... US performs first Moon landing since 1972. The Odysseus lander designed by private aerospace company Intuitive Machines has become the first US-made spacecraft to touch down on the Moon since 1972. It was launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 15. "Without a doubt, our equipment is on the surface of the Moon, and we are transmitting," Intuitive Machines co-founder Tim Crain said during the livestream. "Today for the first time in more than a half-century, the US has returned to the Moon," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said shortly after the 14-foot-tall lander successfully reached the lunar surface. "Today is a day that shows the power and promise of NASA's commercial partnerships." Nuclear power on the moon: NASA wraps up 1st phase of ambitious reactor project. NASA is wrapping up the design phase of a project to develop concepts for a small, electricity-generating nuclear fission reactor for use on the moon. The Fission Surface Power Project aims to develop safe, clean and reliable energy sources on the moon, where each nighttime lasts around 14.5 Earth days. Such a system could play a big role in the agency's Artemis program for lunar exploration. [...] The agency set requirements for a 40-kilowatt reactor that uses low-enriched uranium and weighs no more than 13,200 pounds (6,000 kilograms). [...] In the U.S., 40 kW can, on average, provide electrical power for 33 households, according to NASA. The Editor says... Who benefits from this project? Nobody! After DEI, Every Country Except America Can Land on the Moon. On January 18th, the latest attempt in over 50 years by the United States to return to the moon burned up over the Pacific Ocean. A day later, Japan's lunar lander made it to the moon. In 2023, India landed its robot lander on the moon in a mission that only cost $75 million, while in 2020, China became the third nation, after America and the USSR, to return lunar samples. So why is the United States still struggling to manage something that every other country seems to be able to do and that American engineers used to be able to pull off with slide rules? The Apollo computer used memory made of wire ropes woven by women in the garment industry. Back then we picked the best and the brightest who had the "right stuff". Now the right stuff consists of checking DEI boxes. Who benefits from this? Mark Your Calendar! US Looks to Make First Lunar Visit in Decades by 2024. The upcoming lunar trip, which is expected to take place in January of next year, will be the first US mission to the moon since the last Apollo mission in 1969, during which American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon. The US is returning to the moon, but this time, they're going private. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has commissioned a private American company, Astrobotic, to carry out the lunar mission. The six-foot-tall lander, Peregrine, will have no one on board but will instead carry NASA instruments that will be used to study the moon's environment. The Editor says... NASA and Japan to launch world's 1st wooden satellite as soon as 2024. Why? NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) are planning to launch the world's first wooden satellite into space in a bid to make spaceflight more sustainable. LignoSat, a coffee mug-size satellite made from magnolia wood, is set to launch into Earth's orbit by summer 2024, according to the space agencies. Wood doesn't burn or rot in the lifeless vacuum of space, but it will incinerate into a fine ash upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere — making it a surprisingly useful, biodegradable material for future satellites. After successfully testing their wood samples aboard the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this year, the scientists believe the test satellite is fit for launch. Astronauts Lose Tool Bag in Orbital Oopsy. NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara concluded their spacewalk today at 2:47 p.m. EST after 6 hours and 42 minutes. Their spacewalk began at 8:05 a.m. [...] During the activity, one tool bag was inadvertently lost. Flight controllers spotted the tool bag using external station cameras. The tools were not needed for the remainder of the spacewalk. Mission Control analyzed the bag's trajectory and determined that risk of recontacting the station is low and that the onboard crew and space station are safe with no action required. The Editor says... Houston, We Have Un Probleme: Europeans Ground Own Space Program by Quitting Cooperation With Russia. European economies and industries have taken a beating after joining the United States in trying to suffocate the Russian economy through sanctions, with politicians and business leaders warning that the downturn could culminate in the region's deindustrialization. But turns out there's more bad news. The European Space Agency is facing the fallout of the EU's self-imposed restrictions on cooperation with Russia in space, cornering itself into a "temporary alliance" with America's SpaceX and exposing Europe's lack of independence in this crucial technological field. That's according to an analysis by the francophone newspaper La Nouvelle Tribune, which examined Europe's situation in the context of difficulties being faced by the ESA's Galileo global navigation satellite system project — a key technology "essential for sovereignty in geolocation," which is now "at an impasse with the boycott of Russian technologies and the unavailability of the usual launchers." Nearby asteroid may contain elements 'beyond the periodic table', new study suggests. A handful of asteroids in our solar system are so dense that no element on Earth can explain their properties. Instead, they may be made of naturally occurring "superheavy elements" beyond those listed in the periodic table — our current best catalog of 118 chemical elements — new research suggests. "If asteroids do indeed contain superheavy elements, it would open numerous questions surrounding how these elements were formed and why we have not discovered them outside of asteroids yet," study co-author Johann Rafelski, a physics professor at the University of Arizona, told Live Science. Immensely heavy space rocks, known as compact ultra dense objects (CUDOs), are typically heavier than osmium, the heaviest naturally occurring element on Earth. One such rock is 33 Polyhymnia, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The Editor says... Metal In The Stratosphere: The Unseen Cost of Space Exploration On Earth. In a startling discovery, scientists warn that the stratosphere, one of the most remote and stable regions of Earth's atmosphere, is now showing signs of human interference due to space exploration activities. These unexpected changes, experts caution, might have unforeseen consequences for the planet's climate, the protective ozone layer, and ultimately, the sustainability of life on Earth. Scientists, led by atmospheric veterans Dan Cziczo and Dan Murphy have unearthed alarming data. Using tools delicately hitched to their research planes, they've been probing the secrets of the sky, particularly the stratosphere, more than 11 miles above the Earth's surface. This area was believed to be an untainted sanctuary. Instead, what they've found is alarming: a significant accumulation of metal particles, believed to originate from the debris of spacecraft and satellites that have been launched and re-entered Earth's atmosphere. Scientists excited by first look at OSIRIS-REx asteroid samples. NASA unveiled samples of the asteroid Bennu returned by its Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security — Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft during an Oct. 11 event at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The center is home to an astromaterials curation facility that the agency delivered the OSIRIS-REx sample canister to a day after it landed in the Utah desert Sept. 24. An initial analysis of material showed evidence of water, in the form of hydrated minerals, and a high abundance of carbon. Scientists said the material studied so consisted of 4.7% carbon by weight, among the highest levels of any meteorites studied. Scientists had hoped that the OSIRIS-REx samples would help them understand the formation of the solar system and the building blocks of life on Earth, and that quick-look analysis appeared to confirm that. The Editor says... A long-awaited asteroid sample has landed in the US. An asteroid sample collected by NASA has touched down on Earth, giving scientists the opportunity to learn more about the origins of the solar system and capturing a piece of a massive space rock that has a chance of colliding with our planet in the future. It's the first time the agency has accomplished such a feat. Seven years after launching to space, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew by Earth Sunday to deliver the pristine sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, lifted off in 2016 and began orbiting Bennu in 2018. The spacecraft collected the sample in 2020 and set off on its lengthy return trip to Earth in May 2021. The Editor says... 'Emergency' Spending. Did you survive the budget cuts from the last debt ceiling fight? President Joe Biden called them "draconian," while Republicans praised the deal's "historic reductions in spending." But both parties conned us, as my new video explains. What they call "cuts" were just a reduction in their planned spending increase. Instead of raising spending by 7.8%, they increased it by "only" 3.9%. Only politicians get to call an increase a cut. Biden praised the deal, saying, "We're cutting spending and bringing the deficits down at the same time!" But they didn't. Now they're using tricks to spend even more. "Call it an emergency — done," says Cato Institute budget specialist Romina Boccia. "Spend the money on whatever you want." Boccia reports how the Senate is moving to increase spending beyond the agreed-upon caps simply by calling it "emergency" spending. "They gave $296 million to NASA for 'emergency infrastructure.'" A big telescope on the moon could peer deeper into the universe than James Webb. A robotic telescope on the moon could peer deeper into the universe than the famed James Webb Telescope can and perhaps even help find life on exoplanets, scientists say. Astronomers think that powerful instruments on the moon may open the next frontier in astronomical research, allowing them to study phenomena invisible to existing ground and space-based observatories. Various ideas have been proposed, including supersensitive gravitational wave detectors that could spot more subtle ripples in space-time than Earth-based detectors can and radio telescopes that could take advantage of the moon's quiet environment to detect signals from the earliest epochs in the universe's history. The Editor says... Even NASA admits that the SLS is unsustainable. If you have been following the sad saga of the Space Launch System — the rocket that NASA is depending on to get America back to the moon — you wouldn't be surprised to learn that the General Accounting Office is a critic of the rocket. Everybody sane is a critic of the rocket. But it was a bit of a surprise to see that even NASA, which has poured about $50 billion into a rocket (and space capsule) that costs more than $4 billion dollars a launch, has admitted that it cannot sustain the program unless its budget skyrockets to a level that seems unlikely. So far SLS has launched once. We got some extremely nice pictures out of it. (That cost estimate is higher than NASA's because it includes more than the hardware itself). The SLS is the core piece of hardware that NASA plans to use to jump-start our return to the moon more than 50 years after our first landing there. It is also the most ridiculous program in American history. Lovesick Astronaut Accused of Sabotaging Half a Billion Dollar Spacecraft. A female American astronaut allegedly purposely damaged a $500 million Russian-built spacecraft because she was lovesick and wanted to go back home to planet Earth. Texan Serena Aunon-Chancellor, 47, stands accused by Roscosmos, Russia's space agency of maliciously drilling a hole in its Soyuz MS-09 vehicle, docked with the International Space Station (ISS), because she wanted to go home over "a fight with her boyfriend." In June 2018, along with astronauts Sergey Prokopyev of Russia and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, Aunon-Chancellor had completed a two-day journey in the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle to the ISS as part of a "ISS Expedition 56." They were scheduled to remain in space for six months. But two months into the mission, a two millimeter hole was discovered in the vehicle. The Cost of Rocket Science. I was very struck by an aside he had about halfway through the show re India becoming the fourth nation to make a "soft landing" on the moon (by "soft", they mean the spacecraft doesn't get totaled on impact). The cost of the Chandrayaan-3 mission was about US $75 million, which, as John pointed out, is less than the cost of the Barbie movie. If you want to be nitpicky, you might quibble that that doesn't include the cost of the first two less successful Chandrayaan space missions. Okay, total expenditures on the Indian space programme since its launch in 2003 are approx $140 million — which is still less than the Barbie movie. [...] India can land a spaceship on the moon for less than the cost of an American movie about a space mission. But let's set aside the showbiz comparisons. As I said, the total cost of the Indian space programme, since 2003, is about $140 million — or seven million per annum. What can you get from American government for seven million bucks a year? Nothing. That's a rounding error in the federal budget. "A key lesson in unintended consequences:" The Editor says... 'Woke' NASA, Which Prizes Diversity Hires, Loses Contact With Major Space Probe Due To Massive Mistake. NASA has announced that contact with the Voyager 2 spacecraft is now lost, possibly permanently, raising concerns about the competence of government agencies, including NASA, and their prioritization of diversity over merit. The recent incident involving the spacecraft's accidental antenna misalignment has led some to question whether such mistakes have become more frequent due to a shift in priorities. Having been launched in 1977 and having made historic discoveries, Voyager 2 was exploring the farthest reaches of our solar system, nearly 12 billion miles away from Earth. [Tweet] However, the spacecraft's communications were disrupted after its antenna tilted away from Earth by a mere 2% due to an erroneous command sent by NASA on July 21. Despite efforts to realign the antenna through a scheduled orientation reset, NASA has now conceded that the loss of contact is permanent, leaving Voyager 2 adrift in the depths of space. NASA enters 'home stretch' in mission to reach golden asteroid worth $10,000 quadrillion. NASA scientists say they are in the "home stretch" of preparing to launch a mission to a $10,000 quadrillion asteroid this year. The preparation is taking place at Cape Canaveral, with the Psyche spacecraft's liftoff scheduled for Oct. 5. The mission's goal is to study a space rock which, in terms of potential value, surpasses the entire global economy, currently estimated at approximately $110 trillion. The asteroid in question, named 16 Psyche, is a unique, metal-rich entity located some 499,555,545 kilometers away from Earth, orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter. It is believed to have a core composed of iron, nickel, and gold, potentially valued at an astounding $10,000 quadrillion. The Editor says... NASA plans to mine the moon by early 2030s, says rocket scientist. NASA has plans to start mining for resources on the moon by the next decade. Gerald Sanders, a rocket scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said America's space agency will at the beginning look into the development of oxygen and water on the moon and will later contemplate exploiting minerals on the moon like iron and rare earth minerals. "We are trying to invest in the exploration phase, understand the resources... to [lower] risk, such that external investment makes sense that could lead to development and production," Sanders announced at a mining industry event in Australia. Sanders noted that the upcoming Artemis manned mission to the moon will collect knowledge that the agency could then use to measure the resources available on the moon so NASA can draw up future plans for exploration and mining activities. The Editor says... Appended two days later: What Was NASA's Role In Developing The Doomed Titan Sub? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) had a deal with submersible company OceanGate to collaborate on the materials and manufacturing process of the Titan craft that imploded while exploring the wreck of the Titanic, according to public statements and contract documents. The Titan likely suffered a "catastrophic implosion" during its expedition, killing all five people on board, the Coast Guard said Thursday; however, OceanGate claimed that NASA played a pivotal role in the "development and manufacturing" of the doomed submersible. In truth, OceanGate had a formal agreement with the agency to provide "institutional and mission support," according to NASA contract documents, while NASA has stated it did not "conduct testing and manufacturing" with the company, and instead only acted as a consultant. Price Tag of NASA's Martian Rock Retrieval Mission Is Skyrocketing. As NASA's chief of science programs, Thomas Zurbuchen oversaw missions like the James Webb telescope launch and the landing of the Mars Perseverance rover. When he stepped down from that post in 2022, he told The New York Times that the key to innovation was to take smart risks and not to panic when some of them don't pay out. It appears NASA itself is struggling to apply that wisdom. Last week, according to reporting from Ars Technica, leaders at the space agency were told that the development cost for the Mars Sample Retrieval (MSR) program had doubled. Originally, the cost to collect rock samples from Mars was estimated at $4.4 billion; now, that number is north of $8 billion. And that's just for development. The estimate does not include launch costs, construction, or operating costs. The final tab could be north of $10 billion. The plan is to send an unmanned sample retrieval lander to Mars in 2028. That vehicle would return to Earth with the rock and soil samples that the Perseverance rover has collected since it landed on Mars in 2021. The Editor says... NASA's Artemis moon rocket will cost $6 billion more than planned: report. An independent report looking into the development of NASA's new moon rocket has found significant cost overruns and delays that could harm the agency's plans to put astronauts back on the moon. Development of the Space Launch System (SLS) began in November 2011. It had a successful test flight in November 2022, six years after its first targeting a debut launch in late 2016. The SLS megarocket is intended to return humans to the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program, but increases in costs related to contracts awarded to Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman for SLS's propulsion systems could threaten that objective. That's according to a 50-page report by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin published by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) on May 25. Altogether, the four contracts for the rocket's booster and engine were initially projected to cost $7 billion over a span of 14 years, but are now projected to cost at least $13.1 billion over nearly 25 years. The True Purpose of 'Earth Day' Was Not Politics or Climate Alarmism. The real founders of Earth Day were not the politicians who rode the wave of environmental consciousness that swept the public in the late 60s and early 70s to establish the logistics of the organization. Nor was it the United Nations or peace and environmental activists who jumped on board the train when it became apparent that people across the world were demanding action to solve the environmental problems of the day. No, it was the scientists, engineers, and courageous astronauts who took us to the Moon. For it was as a result of their actions, photographs, and stories that our perspectives of our small planet changed forever. Indeed, their most important legacy may very well be how their work was a catalyst for a profound philosophical transformation, without which Earth Day and most of the modern environmental movement, would never have taken off. Man Challenges NASA At Brevard County Commission Meeting, Shows Evidence No One Is Inside The Internation Space Station. Possibly the greatest short compilation clip complete with commentary exposing NASA's Lies on the internet. [Video clip] Could China beat us to the moon and claim it as their territory? In the 1960s there was a space race to see who could get to the moon first, American astronauts or Russian cosmonauts. As we all know, we won that battle. Over the weekend NASA administrator Bill Nelson gave an interview to Politico in which he said the US was in a new space race with China to see who would get to the moon first. Nelson even warned that China might try to claim the moon, or at least some territory, as their own. The Editor says... NASA shows leftist bias against Trump, Musk. Space dot com is a NASA website that reports on the latest news in such topics as astronomy, satellites, and space travel. It has even reported on news of UFO/UAP phenomena. Its articles and commentary are well written and informative. They contribute to NASA's reputation as an objective, science-oriented, and nonpartisan agency. One would think that NASA would value that reputation and make its protection a high priority. If NASA, through its website, were to allow itself to become yet another propaganda arm of the Democrat party, as have many other federal agencies, then about half of the public would likely cease to place any trust in its taxpayer-funded programs. NASA's goodwill is worth literally billions of dollars. It is somewhat of a mystery, then, that on at least two occasions, NASA has published clearly partisan pieces at Space dot com. Artemis 1 moon launch is delayed: NASA engineers discover leaks and [a] crack in [the] $22.2 [billion] rocket. NASA was forced to call off its highly anticipated Artemis I mission Monday following several issues with the Space Launch System (SLS) that now leaves the world's most powerful rocket grounded until at least September 2. Engineers were working against the clock to troubleshoot an issue with engine 3, which was not reaching the proper temperature and experiencing an engine bleed that was not tested during the last wet rehearsal due to a fuel leak that cut the event short. NASA tests new moon rocket, 50 years after Apollo. Years late and billions over budget, NASA's new moon rocket makes its debut next week in a high-stakes test flight before astronauts get on top. The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket will attempt to send an empty crew capsule into a far-flung lunar orbit, 50 years after NASA's famed Apollo moonshots. If all goes well, astronauts could strap in as soon as 2024 for a lap around the moon, with NASA aiming to land two people on the lunar surface by the end of 2025. Russia will withdraw from International Space Station by 2024. Russia's new space chief, Yuri Borisov, said Tuesday that the space agency Roscosmos plans to create its own space station. Dimitry Rogozin, Borisov's predecessor, had previously said that Russia would be willing to discuss keeping its astronauts on the ISS, but only if the United States dropped its sanctions against Russia's space industry. The Editor says... Uh-oh. It's a lunar emergency! Scientists are baffled! Give us five billion dollars! Bad News! The Plants Grown in Moon Soil Turned Out Wretched. Remember when scientists grew seedlings in actual Moon soil, collected by Apollo astronauts? Well, don't get too psyched for delicious lunar salad just yet. In a new interview with Astronomy Magazine, University of Florida horticultural scientist Rob Ferl — the author of a recent Communications Biology study detailing the experiment — brought us down to Earth with a description of just how wretched the miraculous plants turned out. "Plants grown in lunar soil tended to be smaller," Ferl told the magazine, "and they contained purplish pigments that were indications of stress." NASA employees caught buying child porn escape prosecution and now their names are being kept secret. NASA employees were caught buying child pornography from a criminal ring in Eastern Europe that distributed images of minors as young as three, it can be revealed. An investigation by Daily Mail Online found staff members from the space agency paid for pictures and videos of children in sexual situations, but were never prosecuted. Their names have never been released because of government guidelines which protect their privacy. Astronauts will grow artificial steak from beef cells on the ISS in a bid to produce 'tender and juicy' meat. If humans are to live on the moon and one day make it to Mars then scientists must come up a way for them to grow their own food. To that end, astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) could soon be tucking into a tasty meal of fresh steak — but only if they can perfect the technology of cultivating it from beef cells in microgravity first. That is just one of the scientific experiments being carried out by three amateur astronauts who are launching to the orbital observatory later today for what will be NASA's first ever space tourism mission. Understanding the Progressive Mind. The money progressives rob from the nation's bank will be redistributed according to the dictates of "social justice" — a measure based on their social whims. In the name of social justice, for example, the Biden regime has allocated $7.5 billion to put a black female astronaut on the moon because she is black and female. This is a preposterous virtue signal that violates the very spirit of America's color- and gender-blind Constitution. But a government that has no respect for the Constitution or the nation's laws needn't be bothered by that. Elon Musk's Space X Might Need to Rescue an American Astronaut Stranded by Russia. [Scroll down] The whole idea of the I.S.S. was to have governments cooperate with operating a space station, which would (hopefully) force or teach the folks down here to behave. That concept has seemed to work for over two decades, even when Russia invaded Georgia and Crimea. When George W. Bush made the boneheaded decision to end the Space Shuttle program, which left America depending on Russia for rides to and from the I.S.S., that put us behind in our space exploration. Thankfully, the private sector, led by Elon Musk and his company Space X in conjunction with NASA, recently allowed the United States to forgo depending in Russia for rides, and now can send manned rockets from the United States' soil again. Russian Space Chief Threatens to Crash International Space Station into U.S. or Europe. Russia is certainly getting very good at making threats. Today, President Vladimir Putin threatened nuclear war or something. He put Russia's nuclear forces on "high alert," according to media reports. Now, Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of Russia's space program, Roscosmos, tweeted out a threat to the International Space Station, saying that U.S. and NATO sanctions could "destroy our cooperation on the ISS." He also suggested that the ISS could crash in the United States or Europe. There are currently four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts, and one European astronaut onboard the space station. Rep. Maria Cantwell: NASA's role in space travel is confusing Americans. NASA's days aren't numbered but it's billionaires with aspirations of conquering other planets that are capturing people's imagination and changing the trajectory of American exploration of outer space. Congress is aware that Americans thinking about a return to the moon now picture billionaires in corporate offices leading the charge instead of NASA's Mission Control Center, according to Sen. Maria Cantwell, Washington Democrat. At a Senate hearing for oversight of NASA, Ms. Cantwell told NASA officials that she has witnessed a shift in people's thinking about the government's role in space exploration. White Scientists At NASA Are Made To Feel Shame During Race Workshop. This workshop presentation by Lila Higgins and Miguel Ordeñana from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County made sure every scientist at NASA was made to feel shame for being white and made sure moving forward they will be more mindful of how the tone of their skin can trigger those who darker tones. An entire guideline on how to speak to anyone considering a minority was outlined including 'being mindful of sharing when it could cause FURTHER harm to black, indigenous, or people of color.' The guidance also suggests using SIMPLE language so it is easy for everyone to understand, as if to say, people of color may be dumber than you white folks so make sure to speak down to them. [Video clip] Forget Biden: We Just Parked a Telescope a Million Miles in Space to Peer Deep Into the Origins of Time. At its launch on Christmas Day, the James Webb Space Telescope cost $10 billion. That seemed like a lot until a year ago when a certain political party took over Washington and began spending several trillion dollars, with trillions more planned. Since its launch, the 14,300-pound observatory has been traveling a million miles out to its reserved parking spot, there to orbit the Sun alongside Earth. [...] The Webb telescope is 100 times more powerful than the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, that has delivered for study over the ensuing years thousands of stunning images of distant galaxies, clouds of space dust and gases, and star nurseries where new stars are forever forming. The Editor says... Scientists cheer as Nasa's $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope module detaches from rocket and begins one million mile journey into space. NASA's revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope has begun its one million mile voyage into solar orbit after successful lift off following decades of planning and delays. Jubilant scientists and engineers shouted 'Go Webb, go!' as the telescope module detached from its rocket and floated off into space far above the earth's surface. It is hoped that the observatory, a replacement for the 30-year-old Hubble telescope, will by travelling so far out be able to peer back in time 13.5 [billion] years — to a point within a mere 100 [million] years of the big bang. Webb Telescope away with two major hurdles cleared after flawless launch. Today [12/25/2021], the James Webb Space Telescope started its journey to a location over a million kilometers from Earth, where it will start its science mission in roughly six months. "This is a day for the ages," said Ken Sembach, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute. "Science won't be the same after today." Sembach said those words roughly an hour before the launch, well before any last minute glitches could have delayed matters, and long before the complicated series of events that would see parts of the observatory unfold from their compact launch configuration. When NASA goes woke. [Scroll down] At page 348, NASA gives examples of how it's taken the lead in figuring out the obvious: poor people are less likely to have power returned quickly after hurricanes than rich people; satellites may be useful in locating water sources in dry regions; big cities without trees get hot (at least, I think that's what it said); and climate change causing rising waters always hits poor people hardest (and apparently never hits rich people like the Obamas, with their multi-million-dollar waterfront properties). Ultimately, as best as I can tell having skimmed this gobbledygook, NASA is restating facts we already know and political points that have already been scored, wrapping them up in woke language, and taking taxpayer money to put a big bow on the package. Getting the willies about some of those new NASA space probes. I had some apprehension when I heard the news. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched a mission to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to "knock it off course." [...] There are approximately 1.113 million asteroids identified by NASA ranging in size from 329 miles across to 33 feet across. The objective of the DART mission, the U.S. component of a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) called AIDA (Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment), is to determine if the motion of an asteroid on a collision course with Earth could be changed to avoid Earth impact. If DART can change the trajectory of an asteroid millions of miles from Earth, even by a little, it could significantly decrease the chance of a collision with the Earth. What could go wrong? Well, lately the scientific community has a less-than-stellar track record when conducting experiments for "the good of mankind." What contingencies have been explored to ensure a course change in the trajectory of Dimorphos, no matter how slight, does not pose a future threat to Earth? What "Butterfly Effect," could result should the trajectory of the mini-moon be altered by just one degree? NASA, SpaceX Launch DART: First Test Mission to Defend Planet Earth. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the world's first full-scale mission to test technology for defending Earth against potential asteroid or comet hazards, launched Wednesday [11/24/2021] at 1:21 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket [...] at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Just one part of NASA's larger planetary defense strategy, DART — built and managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland — will impact a known asteroid that is not a threat to Earth. Its goal is to slightly change the asteroid's motion in a way that can be accurately measured using ground-based telescopes. Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). DART is a spacecraft designed to impact an asteroid as a test of technology. DART's target asteroid is NOT a threat to Earth. This asteroid system is a perfect testing ground to see if intentionally crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid is an effective way to change its course, should an Earth-threatening asteroid be discovered in the future. [...] DART is the first-ever mission dedicated to investigating and demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection by changing an asteroid's motion in space through kinetic impact. This method will have DART deliberately collide with a target asteroid — which poses no threat to Earth[,] in order to change its speed and path. DART's target is the binary, near-Earth asteroid system Didymos, composed of the roughly 780-meter (2,560-foot) -diameter "Didymos" and the smaller, approximately 160-meter (530-foot)-size "Dimorphos," which orbits Didymos. The Editor says... NASA Seeks Ideas for a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon. If anyone has a good idea on how to put a nuclear fission power plant on the moon, the U.S. government wants to hear about it. NASA and the nation's top federal nuclear research lab on Friday [11/19/2021] put out a request for proposals for a fission surface power system. NASA is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy's Idaho National Laboratory to establish a sun-independent power source for missions to the moon by the end of the decade. "Providing a reliable, high-power system on the moon is a vital next step in human space exploration, and achieving it is within our grasp," Sebastian Corbisiero, the Fission Surface Power Project lead at the lab, said in a statement. The Editor says... NASA's Lucy mission will explain the origins of our solar system, UCF researcher says. NASA's Lucy mission that launched at 5:34 a.m. Saturday from Kennedy Space Center will give the science community its first look at untouched asteroids and will deepen an understanding of how our solar system was formed. Over the next 12 years, Lucy will fly by the seven Trojan asteroids believed to be the only remaining original matter that formed giant planets. "What we are looking for is a view back in time to the earliest days of when the solar system was put together," said Daniel Britt, University of Central Florida physics professor and part of NASA's Lucy mission science team. "It gives us a better idea of how solar systems are put together and what the material that makes up a solar system was like in the early days." The Editor says... NASA's Lucy spacecraft begins its wild 4 billion mile journey around the solar system. The Trojan asteroids share an orbit with Jupiter, but they're not actually close to the planet. The Trojans are as far away from Jupiter as they are from the sun. That means Lucy will travel nearly 4 billion miles in 12 years. "What's amazing about this trajectory is we can continue to do loops," said Coralie Adam, Lucy's deputy navigation team chief at KinetX Aerospace. "So after the final encounter with the binary asteroids, as long as the spacecraft is healthy, we plan to propose to NASA to do an extended mission and explore more Trojans." Lucy was built by Lockheed Martin Space and launched Saturday atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. When the spacecraft flies through the Trojan asteroids, it will have traveled farther from the sun than any other solar-powered spacecraft (the record is currently held by the Juno spacecraft that's orbiting Jupiter). Its far-flung predecessors relied on nuclear power. Solar power is preferred for its lower cost — the Lucy mission cost $981 million — and for safety reasons. NASA plan for Wi-Fi on the moon tested to span Cleveland's digital divide. A new study from NASA reveals how a proposed lunar Wi-Fi network could impact communities that lack reliable internet on Earth. The Compass Lab at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland conducted the study in an effort to address connectivity concerns on Earth as a test-case for space. Local neighborhoods were compared to the size of the prospective Artemis basecamp near the Moon's South Pole. At the same time, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, an economic development organization, reached out to NASA to figure out the most effective way to bring Wi-Fi to nearly 31% of Cleveland households without broadband access. The Editor says... Kamala Harris used child actors in her space video. Vice President Kamala Harris's YouTube space series featured child actors in its first installment. The YouTube Original Series, entitled "Get Curious with Vice President Harris," is aimed at getting children interested in space and included an appearance by NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough from the International Space Station. But the children featured in the first installment of the series were child actors, including 13-year-old Trevor Bernardino. [...] The kid actors appear to be genuinely excited, and Harris seems to be revealing something to them that they don't already know. The kids are relentlessly ebullient throughout the video. Kamala Harris Uses Child Actors in Video to Promote NASA. Vice President Kamala Harris is starting a new series of videos on YouTube aimed at promoting NASA to children, but was found to have used child actors in its very first video instead of regular children, Fox News reports. [...] Despite being actors, the children pretended to be as amazed by the presentation as regular children would have been. The video features a virtual meeting between the children and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, who is currently stationed in the International Space Station. Through the Zoom call, Kimbrough led the child actors on a "scavenger hunt" for components to build a telescope, before the actors then got to meet Harris at the Naval Observatory. Kamala Harris's NASA video featured child actors. The first installment of Vice President Kamala Harris's YouTube Originals space series featured child actors who auditioned for their roles in the project. Trevor Bernardino, a 13-year-old actor from Carmel, California, and one of five teenagers featured in the video, was asked to submit a monologue discussing something he is passionate about and three questions for a world leader, according to an interview with KSBW TV. Trevor then interviewed with the production director. [...] Filmed in August and released during World Space Week, the video shows a group of children meeting with Harris at her residence, the Naval Observatory, where she introduces herself as the chairwoman of the National Space Council. Kamala Harris Hired Child Actors For Rebranding Effort That Failed. The Washington Examiner dug a little deeper into the background of the Kamala Harris cringe video. Apparently, team Harris hired child actors to help create the illusion for her rebranding effort. There are many details in the report that represent just how artificial and fake the Biden administration is. [...] A fake stage set for Joe Biden to pretend he's giving discussions from the White House. A group of kids hired by the White House to play the role of kids for a Kamala Harris propaganda effort. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see just how fake this entire effort is as constructed. NASA's high-orbit telescope will study the origin of stars and galaxies. With so many institutions failing us, it is a surprise to find a part of the federal government that more-or-less works: NASA's space exploration program. In February, the agency's Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter returned spectacular footage from the Jezero Crater on Mars. Of the upcoming space missions, the James Webb Space Telescope has generated the most excitement. After years of delay, it is scheduled to launch on December 18 from Kourou in French Guiana. Its 6.5-meter (21 foot) mirror will make Webb far more precise than the Hubble Space Telescope, which has a 2.4-meter mirror. The mirror is composed of 18 hexagonal segments that will fold up like origami to fit on an Ariane 5 rocket. The $10 billion project is twenty times over budget and fifteen years behind schedule. What's the problem? Northrop Grumman, the principal contractor, refuses to cooperate with investigators. Air Force's Secretive X-37B Spaceplane Orbits Earth For 500th Day. The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV-6), is a robotic spacecraft circling Earth for more than 500 days, according to Space.com. X-37B's real mission in low Earth Orbit (LEO) is classified. But a 2017 Air Force press release detailed the plane as a "host platform for experimental payloads." What Is Going on With Boeing's Starliner? New details are emerging about a technical problem that prevented NASA and Boeing from conducting a test launch of a CST-100 Starliner spacecraft last week. The problem appears to be more severe than previously believed, casting doubt on plans to launch the spacecraft later this month. Like a car in the garage for repairs, Boeing's Starliner is back in the hangar as engineering teams scramble to fix a problem related to the spacecraft's propulsion system. Specialists are working to "restore functionality" to 13 valves in the spacecraft's propulsion system, as NASA explained in a recent statement. These valves, as NASA says, "connect to thrusters that enable abort and in-orbit maneuvering," and they failed to open during the countdown on August 3, resulting in the scrub. The Boeing Orbital Flight Test-2 mission to the International Space Station is now on an indefinite delay. Russia's space chief threatens to leave International Space Station program unless U.S. lifts sanctions. Russia's space chief threatened Monday [6/7/2021] to withdraw from the International Space Station program if U.S. sanctions against Moscow's space entities are "not lifted in the near future." "If the sanctions against Progress and TsNIIMash remain and are not lifted in the near future, the issue of Russia's withdrawal from the ISS will be the responsibility of the American partners," Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said during a Russian parliament hearing on Monday, according to an NBC translation. "Either we work together, in which case the sanctions are lifted immediately, or we will not work together and we will deploy our own station," he added. NASA's choice of Starship proves government now fully embraces capitalism in space. Five years ago, before Donald Trump had even announced he was running for president, before Elon Musk had proposed his Starship/Superheavy rocket, and even before SpaceX had successfully begun to dominate the launch market, Jerry Hendricks at the Center for for New American Security (CNAS) asked me to write a policy paper on the state of the American launch industry, providing some background and more importantly, some recommendations that policy makers in Washington, dependent on that launch industry, could use as guidance in the coming years. CNAS is a Washington, D.C., think tank that was founded in the middle-2000s by two political Washington insiders, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, with a focus on foreign policy and defense issues and the central goal of encouraging bi-partisan discussion. Hendricks' area of focus was defense and aerospace matters, and at the time he thought the changes being wrought by SpaceX's with its partly reusable Falcon 9 rocket required in-depth analysis. America is Ready for The Moon. Space is more than "the final frontier," it represents America's future — and Americans are ready to embrace that future. Space is a chance to bring together the public and private sectors toward a noble end and it is fast becoming the psychological bridge between Americans uncertain of the present and future. With space policy direction for the new administration still largely undefined — space was not a significant issue for the Biden campaign — we must swiftly recommit to lifting humans — and our national pride — back toward the moon, and onto to Mars. If cynics doubt the power of space — commercial, civilian, national security, big science, and human exploration — to lift a nation, they need only review the Apollo program, pathfinder to the current Artemis effort, once again ambitiously aiming to put humans on the moon. The Editor offers this rebuttal: SUV-Sized Battery Was Just Jettisoned From The ISS. With space junk becoming a significant problem that could wreak havoc on working satellites, the International Space Station (ISS) decided to dump an SUV-sized pallet of batteries into low Earth orbit. [...] The pallet is made of nickel-hydrogen batteries and will orbit the Earth for the next two to four years "before burning up harmlessly in the atmosphere," according to NASA. [...] The ejection of the 2.9-ton object comes as the European Space Agency (ESA) recently warned that millions of objects are orbiting Earth, and there's bound to be a collision between space junk and working satellites. The Editor says... US considers using NASA facility to house migrant children. A NASA site in California is being considered as a potential location to house the growing number of migrants coming across the border, according to sources briefed on the plans. Sources told ABC News that plans are still in flux, but the site, Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, is expected to house a number of unaccompanied minors in Customs and Border Protection custody, which has risen to just under 3,500 in recent weeks, according to sources and internal CBP documents reviewed by ABC News. After 3 Fails, SpaceX Rocket Lands Safety. More [than] that it was caught midair. I did not know the Federal Communications Commission awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX with nearly $900 million worth of federal subsidies. [Video clip] The Editor says... A manned mission to Mars would be completely pointless. Is space exploration a waste of money or a necessary endeavor? In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satellite (Sputnik) into orbit. The Soviets had "beaten us" into space. That was a "wake-up call" to the United States on many levels. In response, the U.S. began a massive program to catch up with, and pass, Russian technology. That effort led America to the first manned landings on, and safe return from, the Moon in 1969. Since then, we have sent unmanned landers as far away as Titan, a moon of Saturn, and produced astounding photographs from the surface of that frozen world, where there are oceans of liquid methane. Many other amazing achievements since then have occurred, and the efforts continue, not only by the U.S., but by other nations including India, China, and even Qatar. In the U.S., those efforts consume billions of dollars. Many question whether it is worth the cost, especially by a nation that is trillions of dollars in debt, most of it to a foreign enemy nation (China). NASA's Perseverance rover nails Mars landing, ready to search for life. NASA's done it again. The agency's Perseverance rover, a 1-ton mobile science laboratory, slowly lowered to the surface of an ancient lakebed on Mars on Thursday afternoon. Hoots and hollers rang throughout NASA's Mission Control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, at the moment of touchdown, but this wasn't like past Mars landings. Jubilant scientists and engineers jumped from chairs, but social distancing requirements prevented them from their usual embrace. That's what landing a rover on Mars during a global pandemic looks like. NASA's Mars rover Perseverance successfully touches down on the red planet. NASA kicked off a new era of Mars exploration Thursday with the successful landing of Perseverance, a car-size robotic explorer that will search for traces of ancient life on the planet and collect what could be the first rocky samples from Mars that are sent back to Earth. The rover touched down at around 3:55 p.m. ET, after executing a daring and dramatic landing that had been nicknamed the "seven minutes of terror." Perseverance is now NASA's fifth rover to land on Mars and is set to begin a two-year mission to roam its surface and search for signs of ancient microbial life. It is also the latest of three new missions that arrived at the red planet in February. Earlier this month, two other spacecraft launched by the United Arab Emirates and China reached Mars and moved into orbit around the planet. The Editor says... Three Private Citizens Paying $55 Million Each For Trip To International Space Station. Three private citizens, all from three different countries, will pay $55 million each to travel to the International Space Station for eight days as soon as next January in what has been proposed as the first entirely private spaceflight mission in human history. The trip, which will be conducted by Axiom Space, plans to send the three private citizens to the ISS along with Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut and the vice president of Axiom Space. The other men who will be on the mission include: Larry Connor, 71, an American entrepreneur and real estate investor, Mark Pathy, 51, a Canadian investor, and Eytan Stibbe, 63, an Israeli businessman and ex-fighter pilot. The Editor says... Space Force Nearly Tripling in Size, Gaining a Reserve Component in 2021. The nation's newest branch of the military has announced that it expects to nearly triple its forces next year. According to Stars and Stripes, the Space Force, established in December 2019 with the strong backing of President Donald Trump, aims to expand from 2,400 active-duty personnel to 6,200 by the end of 2021. The Space Force was created to increase the nation's capabilities when it comes to the construction and operation of space vehicles, rockets and satellites, according to Forbes. Additionally, it's charged with more familiar projects, such as the nation's global positioning system and weather satellite program. The Editor says... Space Force Reveals What Their Personnel Will Officially Be Called. The United States Space Force (USSF), which is the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces, revealed on Friday that their personnel will officially be called "Guardians." "Today, after a yearlong process that produced hundreds of submissions and research involving space professionals and members of the general public, we can finally share with you the name by which we will be known: Guardians," the USSF said in a statement. "The opportunity to name a force is a momentous responsibility. Guardians is a name with a long history in space operations, tracing back to the original command motto of Air Force Space Command in 1983, 'Guardians of the High Frontier.'" The Editor says... NASA chief says he does not plan to serve in Biden administration. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said this week that he does not plan to stay in his role as head of the space agency under President-elect Joe Biden's administration even if he is asked to serve, according to a report published Sunday. Bridenstine told Aviation Daily that his decision was driven by a desire to support the "best interest" of NASA and the country's space exploration goals as a whole, rather than any partisan leanings. "For that, what you need is somebody who has a close relationship with the president of the United States. You need somebody who is trusted by the administration... including the OMB [Office of Management and Budget], the National Space Council and the National Security Council, and I think that I would not be the right person for that in a new administration," Bridenstine said in an interview with the outlet. NASA doles out half a million in taxpayer dollars for far-out alien detection program at Georgetown. This election week, our [Golden Horseshoe] award is going to the District of Columbia's non-voting member of Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton for her role in securing more than half a million taxpayer dollars to ponder new and unconventional alien life detection techniques. According to a recently released report from Open the Books, in 2019, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded $549,974 to a Georgetown University program — a school with a $1.7 billion endowment — with a focus on new methods for the detection of alien life. Not that it matters to anyone... The Editor says... Potty training: NASA tests new $23M titanium space toilet. NASA's first new space potty in decades — a $23 million titanium toilet better suited for women — is getting a not-so-dry run at the International Space Station before eventually flying to the moon. NASA's new $23 million space toilet is ready for launch. NASA is launching a new space toilet to the International Space Station next week for astronauts to test out before it's used on future missions to the moon or Mars. The $23 million toilet system, known as the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS), is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the toilet currently in use on the space station, and can support larger crews. Publicity stunt: 49 NASA Scientists Tell The Truth. Next time someone tells you that scientists all support the "dangerous climate change from CO2" hypothesis, point out to them that forty-nine former NASA scientists have written an open letter to NASA pointing out that NASA is hyping unsubstantiated and unverified claims about climate. Trump's DOJ Indicts NASA Researcher Involved In Chinese Communist Party Espionage Scheme. The Thousand Talents Plan seeks to lure top scientific talent from the world — especially the U.S. — to aid China's technological development, allowing the country to obtain a scientific cutting edge by deploying deceitful tactics such as intellectual property theft. "Overstressed" NASA Mars exploration budget threatens missions. [Scroll down] Mars 2020 [now known as Perseverance] previously suffered technical problems that caused cost increases. NASA's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal estimated the cost to develop the mission at nearly $2.04 billion, an increase of 21.4% from the baseline cost estimate made in 2017. Problems with one of the instruments on the rover as well as its sample caching system contributed to the overruns. NASA's Mars Perseverance rover launches to hunt for signs of ancient life. The biggest, most sophisticated Mars rover ever built — a car-size vehicle bristling with cameras, microphones, drills and lasers — blasted off Thursday [7/30/2020] as part of an ambitious, long-range project to bring the first Martian rock samples back to Earth to be analyzed for evidence of ancient life. [Another] Mars rover set to launch from Florida in search of ancient life on the Red Planet. Perseverance will soon be on its way to Mars to look for signs of ancient life and test technology that could one day be used to send astronauts to the Red Planet. The rover, about the size of a car, will collect samples that for the first time will be brought back to Earth by a spacecraft sent to gather them, building upon discoveries of NASA's past rovers that found Mars could have once supported life. Perseverance is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral on Thursday [7/30/2020] between 7:50 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and is one of three spacecraft launching to Mars this summer. Two others have already launched: the Hope Orbiter from the United Arab Emirates that will observe the planet's atmosphere and weather, and China's Tianwen-1 lander and rover. The Editor says... IG report: NASA's Orion is a program of lies. In a report released today [7/16/2020], NASA's inspector general confirmed unequivocally what I have been saying for years, that the agency's project to build the Orion capsule has been built on lies, from the beginning. First of all, the report slams NASA for purposely excluding from its public budget almost 60% of the total cost for the entire Orion project. [...] In other words, since 2006 NASA has been illegally mislabeling 59% of Orion's cost to hide this from the public. Through 2030 it expects Orion to cost almost $30 billion, but it has been advertising the cost as only $12 billion. It appears that to Congress NASA has been more honest, though they and Congress have worked together to try to keep this fact quiet. Why did NASA's head of human spaceflight suddenly resign? People resigning or being dismissed from the Trump administration is obviously nothing new these days. We've seen virtually unprecedented rates of turnover for the past couple of years. But the most recent departure comes at a very strange time and leaves a bit of a mystery in its wake. The resignation of Doug Loverro, NASA's chief of human space exploration programs, was announced last night. He'd only been on the job for six months, but that's not the only strange part of this event. We're only eight days away from the first launch of astronauts into orbit from an American spaceport on a rocket built in America in over a decade. Elon Musk's SpaceX corporation is prepared to launch two astronauts into orbit on a Falcon 9 Crew Dragon flight on May 27th, but Loverro won't be the one overseeing this historic mission. NASA's human spaceflight chief resigns just days before historic SpaceX manned launch. The head of NASA's human spaceflight office has resigned just a little more than one week before the agency plans to have its first manned launch from American soil for the first time in nearly a decade. Doug Loverro was selected in October as NASA's new associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate[.] In a congressional notification first obtained by POLITICO, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Loverro resigned on Monday [5/18/2020]. White elephant: The Editor says... Mercury probe makes successful flyby to head deeper into solar system. A spacecraft taking the scenic route to Mercury successfully completed a crucial maneuver on its journey: a precisely choreographed swing past Earth. [...] Scientists hope this work will help them understand how Mercury — and, in turn, the entire solar system — formed. The Editor says... Trump signs order encouraging US to mine the moon. The moon's water ice and other natural resources can be mined and used by the United States, according to a new executive order signed by President Trump. The president on Monday [4/6/2020] signed the executive order, which has been in the works for about a year, titled Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources. The directive stresses that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty allows for the use of space resources on the moon, Mars and elsewhere. The Editor says... NASA announces launch of manned American rocket from American soil. For the first time since the final space shuttle mission in 2011, astronauts will launch into space aboard an American rocket and spacecraft from American soil, according to NASA. The agency, along with SpaceX, is eyeing a mid-to-late May launch for the manned SpaceX Demo-2 flight test from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. What the Failure of Boeing's Starliner Space Capsule Really Means. Boeing's new spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, experienced a partial failure during its first test flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on December 20, 2019. Originally, the Starliner was supposed to launch from Earth and dock with the ISS to prove that the capsule could safely carry humans to the station. However, an error in the mission timer aboard the capsule meant that the spacecraft fell short in its orbit and could not rendezvous with the station as intended. Boeing said that had there been a crew on board, they would not have been in danger. More so, a crew on board could have possibly corrected the error while in transit. However, the nature of the failure implies that there are further systemic problems with the software architecture itself. The Editor says... NASA Still Light-Years Away from Spending Reform. If recent developments at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are any indication, the prospect for spending reform is still light-years away. This week, taxpayers learned that America's space agency overpaid Boeing $287 million for operational flights to the International Space Station (ISS). The Inspector General (IG) report revealed that NASA continues to contract with Boeing for these spacefaring flights, despite Boeing charging NASA over 60 percent more than its competitors. If lawmakers don't sound the alarm and call for greater oversight and accountability, taxpayers will be sucked further into a black hole of wasteful spending. On November 14, the IG released a bombshell report on agency watchers unaccustomed to timely (or particularly biting) IG reports. Wine cellar in space: 12 bottles arrive for year of aging. A dozen bottles of fine French wine arrived at the space station Monday [11/4/2019], not for the astronauts, but for science. The red Bordeaux wine will age for a year up there before returning to Earth. Researchers will study how weightlessness and space radiation affect the aging process. The Editor says... NASA paid SpaceX for safety review after Musk smoked pot. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's infamous pot-smoking incident last year prompted NASA to order a mandatory review of the federal contractor's workplace culture — but taxpayers, not the company, are bearing the cost, according to contracting records reviewed by Politico. The space agency agreed to pay SpaceX $5 million in May to cover the cost of the review, which includes educating its employees and ensuring they are following strict guidelines for federal contractors barring illegal drug use. Affirmative Action and NASA. In the 47 years since the last man set foot on the moon, the space program has changed a great deal. One of those changes has been incorporating mandated affirmative action policies. These policies have had an incredibly negative effect on both the progress in the space program and the engineers whose careers have been destroyed by them. The federal government mandates that a given percentage of work on a government contract go to minority-owned businesses. When building a large and complicated system like a space vehicle, it is almost impossible for a company like Boeing or Lockheed to meet this requirement by hiring out specific design work to small, minority-owned companies. Even if that were feasible, those companies do not exist. Enter subcontracting companies. A subcontracting company is owned by someone of the appropriate race or sex to fulfill the quotas established by the government funding requirements. NASA astronaut accused of stealing identity, accessing bank account of [her] estranged wife while in space: report. A NASA astronaut has been accused of committing the first crime in outer space after her estranged wife alleged she stole her identity and accessed her bank account without permission during a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station. Former Air Force intelligence officer Summer Worden, from Kansas, has been involved in a bitter divorce with astronaut Anne McClain since 2018 but the battle heated up after Worden filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and NASA's Office of Inspector General accusing her wife of assuming her identity and gaining improper access to her private financial records while orbiting the earth, the New York Times reported. Was she arrested in space? NASA puts Alabama center in charge of moon lander program, drawing Texans' ire. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced today that Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama will take the lead role in developing the vehicles for landing astronauts on the moon — which could be good news for Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space venture, but definitely came as bad news for Texas lawmakers. Will NASA Sole-Source Northrop to Build a Space Station to Orbit the Moon? NASA's Artemis Project is a multi-billion dollar bet that we can return to the moon in just five years' time. To get us there, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to build a "Lunar Gateway" space station where spaceships will dock, and from which lunar shuttles will descend and ascend, carrying astronauts to and from the lunar surface. There's just one problem with this plan: Originally envisioned as a near-decade-long marathon in which NASA would methodically make its way back to the moon by 2028, the moon race has morphed into a sprint. Americans change their mind: Majority now favor a manned Mars mission. Two planets in our galaxy are inhabited. One is Earth, where humans have made a mess of things for quite a few centuries. The other is Mars, which is totally inhabited by robots, driving, drilling, listening, sampling their way around that sandy wasteland. For reasons that escape some flat-earthers, abundant curiosity exists about the Red Planet that's only half the size of Earth. The desolation on Mars, they believe, might shed light on the origins of life on Earth. Of course, exploring the desolation of Arizona would be a lot cheaper. The Editor says... Because the "clues about the origins of the universe" might be hiding there, and only there. The Editor says... Whittington: A Replacement For NASA's International Space Station Is On The Way. The International Space Station, by any measure, has been a triumph for the scientific discoveries and the technological innovations that it has given birth to. The ISS has also proven to be a model for international cooperation in space that NASA would like to see replicated for the "return to the moon" program. However, noting that all good things must come to an end, the space agency is already entertaining commercial replacements for the ISS. Current thinking proposes that a company (likely several) would build its own space station, and NASA would become an anchor customer. The Editor says... A Government Coup by NASA's Bureaucracy. Every single big space project since the founding of NASA has always been proposed and approved by elected officials. NASA officials might have lobbied for one version or another, but always, always, it was understood and accepted that the project did not exist without first getting an enthusiastic and very public authorization from elected officials. What was understood without question was that the right to make these fundamental policy decisions belonged only to the lawmakers, elected as they were by the citizenry under the Constitution. NASA's new Lunar Gateway project, however, is something altogether different. It was conceived, designed, and proposed by the big aerospace companies Lockheed Martin and Boeing as a justification for the continuing construction of SLS and Orion. It was added as a budget line item by NASA bureaucrats who supported it, and it now exists as a growing major space project comparable to Apollo, the Space Shuttle, ISS, and SLS/Orion. Yet no president has ever officially and publicly proposed the Lunar Gateway. No Congress ever reviewed or endorsed the program. This NASA Experiment Shows Promise for Farm-Fresh Foods in Space. On long space voyages, food variety will be key. A new NASA experiment called Veg-PONDS 02, which astronauts just ran on the International Space Station, offers a chance to attain that variety. While the experiment used a food already grown in space — romaine lettuce — future crops could include tomatoes or other plants, NASA officials said in a statement. The Editor says... NASA Covers for SpaceX. Video footage of SpaceX's Crew Dragon space capsule exploding on the ground during an April 20 test at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida was leaked online by the next day. Yet SpaceX and NASA are unacceptably dragging their feet in explaining this taxpayer-financed fiasco in the American space program and thus continued SpaceX's worrisome undue influence on government. SpaceX's April 20 press release with its "anomaly" euphemism was immediately contradicted by images provided by a photographer from a local Florida publication covering a surfing festival on a beach near Cape Canaveral. In the telling photos, toxic reddish smoke clouds billow upwards from the space center. The accident is a poor omen for the Crew Dragon, in which NASA wants to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Do NASA's Latest Figures Confirm Global Warming? The new paper uses the AIRS remote sensing instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite. The study describes a 15-year dataset of global surface temperatures from that satellite sensor. The temperature trend value derived from that data is +0.24 degrees Centigrade per decade, coming out on top as the warmest of climate analyses. Oddly, the study didn't compare two other long-standing satellite datasets from the Remote Sensing Systems (RSS) and the University of Alabama at Huntsville (UAH). That's an indication of the personal bias of co-author [Dr. Gavin] Schmidt, who in the past has repeatedly maligned the UAH dataset and its authors because their findings didn't agree with his own GISTEMP dataset. Environmentalists Have Now Declared War On Our Lawns. [Scroll down] "On balance, lawns are awful for the planet," Eric Holthaus wrote last week in Grist, an environmentalist online magazine. "Our addiction to lawns means that grass is the single largest irrigated agricultural 'crop' in America, more than corn, wheat, and fruit orchards combined," he adds. "A NASA-led study in 2005 found that there were 63,000 square miles of turf grass in the United States, covering an area larger than Georgia." Is there no end to the left's screeching sermons, its demands we "do better," the arrogance driven by a sense of moral superiority that believes it can make decisions for others? While Holthaus admits lawns can be "pleasing," "help reduce the urban heat island effect," "help restore groundwater and reduce urban flooding," and draw carbon dioxide from the air, Grist is much more interested in dispatching a tirade. The Editor says... NASA's Insight Mars Lander arrives on the Red Planet, ends successful journey. The InSight lander entered Mars' atmosphere just shortly after 2:40 p.m. EST on Monday [11/26/2018] and touched the surface at approximately 2:54 p.m. EST. The last part of the journey was the most harrowing, with NASA calling it "seven minutes of terror" due to the agency's inability to control the landing of the spacecraft, which cost $828 million. One of NASA's Mars Exploration Tools Has a Glitch That Created The Illusion of Water. We've arrived at a sad realisation. A handful of pixels in about 90 percent of the images taken by one of the major instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are showing things that just aren't there. Researchers uncovered the error after searching for better signs of moisture-absorbing materials on the Martian surface. Not only did they turn out to be a mirage, doubts have now been raised over the precise distribution of water across the planet. House Joins Senate in Push to Extend International Space Station. A key House member announced Sept. 26 that he is introducing legislation that would extend operations of the International Space Station to 2030, weeks after senators sought a similar extension. In his opening statement at a House space subcommittee hearing on the past and future of NASA's space exploration efforts, Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the subcommittee, said he was introducing legislation called the Leading Human Spaceflight Act that he said was designed to "provide further congressional direction to NASA." Boeing may have used a lobbying firm to plant a scathing opinion piece about SpaceX in US news outlets. Boeing, the 102-year-old titan of the aerospace industry, is in a heated competition with SpaceX, Elon Musk's rocket company, for billions of dollars in NASA contracts. As Boeing is seeking to secure that taxpayer funding — and the prestige of launching astronauts into space — the company might be secretly placing an opinion article that criticizes SpaceX in newspapers around the US. Both companies are trying to show NASA they can safely launch the agency's astronauts to and from the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, a roughly $8 billion competition the agency launched to spur private companies to build safe, cost-effective, American-made spaceships. This is only slightly off-topic: Rocket Emissions and the Environment. A recently released study by one set of scholars suggests that rocket launches are having only minimal impact on the environment but that rapid growth of this sector — for all good and proper reasons, creating American jobs as rockets are built and launches proliferate inside the U.S. — indicates advance thinking. [...] More to the point, "solid rocket motors inject chlorine directly into the ozone layer and chlorine has been subject to international regulation since 1987." Moreover, "a second concern has come to light," tied to particle emissions from solids that affect solar energy. In short, solids are bad news in some ways, even if minimal for now and unclear how bad, since we do not know how "tall" the problem will grow. NASA explores placing ads on rockets, allowing astronaut endorsements: report. A NASA spacecraft to Mars could someday feature a Mars chocolate bar logo plastered across one of its wings. NASA has called for a new committee to explore branding and endorsement opportunities, reports said Monday [9/10/2018]. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced he was setting up a committee to examine "provocative questions" of transforming rockets into corporate billboards, much like how ads wrap all around NASCAR race cars, The Washington Post reported. International Space Station crew race to patch a 'leak' caused by a collision with a Meteorite. Crew inside the International Space Station are racing to patch a 'leak' likely caused by a collision with a small meteorite, officials say. The 'micro fracture' in the $150 billion space station was discovered after astronauts noticed a drop in pressure. This was caused by air from inside the ISS rapidly leaking out into space. [...] Officials say the crew is not currently in any danger and will be able to patch the micro fracture from inside the space station. The Editor says... NASA is using underwater robots to explore the deep-sea off the Hawaiian coast. NASA is launching a new project to help it better understand the deepest parts of space, without ever leaving Earth. The announcement, made on Tuesday [8/28/2018], is part of the government space agency's Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog (SUBSEA) project and will help aid NASA's search for life in deep space, as well as better understanding of our own planet. NASA believes the environment around a deep-sea volcano off the coast of Hawaii is similar to that of Saturn's moon, Enceladus. The Editor says... Scientists discover water ice on moon's surface. Here's why that's big news. For the first time, scientists have found what they say is definitive evidence of water ice on the surface of the moon. The discovery suggests that future lunar expeditions might have a readily available source of water that would make it easier "to explore and even stay on the moon," officials at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement Tuesday about the discovery. The ice was detected at the darkest, coldest regions of the moon's north and south poles. It exists in sparse patches in the north and is concentrated in permanently shadowed craters in the south, where temperatures never climb above minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. The Editor says... Yes, we really do need a 'Space Force'. When President Trump first floated the idea of an entirely new branch of the armed forces dedicated to space-based operations, the response from political observers was limited to bemused snickering. That mockery and amusement have not abated in the intervening months. Thursday's [8/9/2018] announcement by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Defense James Mattis that the administration plans to establish a sixth armed forces branch by 2020 occasioned only more displays of cynicism, but it shouldn't have. This is deadly serious stuff. The expansion and consolidation of US capacities to defend its interests outside the atmosphere are inevitable and desirable. International Space Station Not Ready for Privatization. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has led the charge in the Senate on protecting future funding sources for the space station past the current date for defunding it in 2025. The Office of Management and Budget has zeroed out funding for the space station in the future on the promise from private vendors that they will take over the U.S. mission at the space station, yet that does not make much sense. Private enterprise is in the business of making money and if there is no business interest in the research done by the space station, they will just not do it. The Editor says... Make Space Great Again: American Astronauts Flying American Rockets. [Scroll down] U.S. astronauts now take Russian capsules to the space station, with NASA paying as much as $82 million a seat. That was the work of the party that now ceaselessly howls about the Russians. In Just One Week, NASA Will Launch a Spacecraft to 'Touch the Sun'. NASA is just a week away from launching its next science mission, a spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe that will eventually "touch the sun." If all goes according to plan, the probe will take off aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket in the early morning of Aug. 11 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. [...] To successfully reach the sun, the Parker Solar Probe needs to leave Earth incredibly quickly — hence the massive rocket, which is second in launch power only to SpaceX's brand new Falcon Heavy rocket. Cruz Is Right on Space Station. [Scroll down] Frank Slazer, vice president of space systems for the Aerospace Industries Association, backed up the other point. "It will be very hard to turn ISS into a truly commercial outpost because of the international agreements that the United States is involved in," Slazer told the Washington Post. "It's inherently always going to be an international construct that requires U.S. government involvement and multinational cooperation." NASA Talking To Private Companies On Taking Over The International Space Station. NASA is putting together a coalition of private companies that can run the International Space Station as a commercial space lab, The Washington Post reports. The Trump administration plans on ending direct government funding of the ISS by 2025, according to documents uncovered in February. The federal government spends about $3 billion to $4 billion a year to operate the ISS and has sunk about $100 billion into the station, so far. Report: NOAA Set to Abandon Climate Change Mission. For decades, like NASA, NOAA has been a leading player in promoting climate alarmism. As recently as the beginning of this year it was caught red-handed trying adjust the Big Freeze of the winter of 2017/2018 in the U.S. out of existence. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. One of NOAA's jobs is to maintain the United States Historical Climatology Network (USHCN), one of the world's major earth surface temperature datasets. It has frequently been caught adjusting this data in order to make early 20th century temperatures colder and recent temperatures hotter so as to give a more dramatic impression of "global warming." Nasa could launch nuclear bombs into space to defend Earth from asteroids. Nasa and the National Nuclear Security Administration have announced they are now working together on the possibility of destroying hazardous asteroids using nuclear weapons. And like the film Armageddon — where Bruce Willis flies a space shuttle to an oncoming asteroid to drill a warhead into its core — the nuclear payload could be delivered by rocket. Organic molecules 'fundamental to our search for life' found by NASA rover. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has found organic molecules on Mars, the space agency revealed in a major announcement Thursday [6/7/2018]. During a press conference at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Goddard, Md., and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., scientists noted that the molecules provide fresh insight into the Red Planet. "We found organic molecules in rocks from an ancient lake bed," explained Jen Eigenbrode, research scientist at Goddard. A variety of molecules were identified, she added. The rocks are billions of years old, according to NASA. The Editor says... Americans Think Climate Change Should Be NASA's Top Priority, Not Sending Astronauts to Mars. We chose to go the Moon because it was hard, but it turns out difficulty might not be a compelling enough argument to sway Americans these days. That's according to a new poll released by the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan polling group that studies a range of fields including science and U.S. government policy. Perhaps the most interesting set of results came when the researchers asked how NASA should prioritize the suite of tasks the agency oversees. The Editor says... Former NASA scientist says Trump's climate change policy fills agency with 'fear and anxiety'. One former NASA scientist is claiming that the agency's employees are crippled by the "fear and anxiety" brought on by the Trump administration and its adamant denial of climate change. "Nasa's talking point is that it's business as usual, but that's not true," former NASA science communicator, Laura Tenenbaum, told The Guardian. People inside the agency are concerned Trump will cut climate science funding. There is a fear and anxiety there and the outcome has been chaos." The climate change data and research meant for general public knowledge has come to a near halt under President Trump's administration, Tenenbaum claimed, noting she received a warning to stay away from phrases like "global warming" when posting on social media or speaking with the press. She said drafts of blog posts on coal plants becoming solar plants and other "reasons to be positive about NASA" were thrown out by other officials who feared retribution from the new President. NASA study shows humans are responsible for major changes to Earth's water availability. A stunning new study from NASA highlights the impact humans are having on fresh water availability across the globe. The study, published earlier this week, found that Earth's wetlands are getting wetter and dry regions are getting drier, due to human water management, climate change and natural cycles. The Editor says... Mars Helicopter to Fly on NASA's Next Red Planet Rover Mission. The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with the agency's Mars 2020 rover mission, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet. "NASA has a proud history of firsts," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling. The Mars Helicopter holds much promise for our future science, discovery, and exploration missions to Mars." Congress' Omnibus Bill Ended Funding for NASA's Carbon Monitoring System. Science magazine reported this week that funding for NASA's Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), which costs $10-million a year and is designed to measure greenhouse gas emissions, was not included in the $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in March, which in effect kills the program. Trump administration quietly cancels $10m NASA program that tracks key greenhouse gases. A $10 million per year NASA program to track key global warming contributors carbon and methane has been canceled. The program called the Carbon Monitoring System (CMS) was cut due to 'budget constraints and higher priorities within the science budget, a spokesperson for the space agency said Thursday [5/10/2018]. A report from the journal Science called the shut down the latest move in a 'broad attack on climate science' by the White House. Forget about sending humans to Mars — we need a permanent moon base instead. NASA's successful launch Saturday [5/5/2018] of the InSight lander on an exploratory mission to Mars — costing taxpayers about $814 million — is just the latest example of the long fascination people have had with the Red Planet. The lander will study earthquakes — make that marsquakes — to learn more about our neighbor in the solar system. The Editor says... Inside NASA's epic first mission to the last planet. They called it the "first mission to the last planet." In 2006, a 224-foot-tall rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., carrying a tiny, thousand-pound probe named New Horizons. Its mission: to wing its way across billions of miles of cold, dark space for a rendezvous with the solar system's most distant planet, Pluto. The undertaking would finally close a chapter of space exploration, marking the last of the Milky Way's planets to be probed. New NASA chief sees Moon missions building a 'railroad' to Mars. In his first major address as NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine defended the new agency directive to go to the moon first before voyaging to Mars. But his webcast speech at the Humans to Mars summit in Washington, D.C., May 9 did not disclose any new initiatives by NASA to send humans to the Red Planet. Bridenstine, the former Republican congressman from Oklahoma's 1st District, was sworn in as administrator three weeks ago after NASA went 15 months without a permanent leader. While the agency was under interim leadership, the Trump administration tasked NASA with taking humans back to the moon before going to Mars. Trump dismantles NASA climate change program. The Trump administration has cut off funding for a major NASA satellite-based climate change research program, according to the latest issue of Science magazine. The magazine reported that even though Congress has successfully fended off much of the White House's "broad attack on climate science," a spending deal signed in March made no mention of NASA's $10-million-a-year Carbon Monitoring System. Unlike the satellites that provide the climate data, the research program that uses the data had no private contractor to lobby for it. NASA
launches historic InSight spacecraft with mission to Mars. NASA launched its InSight spacecraft bound for Mars on Saturday
morning [5/5/2018] from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, marking the first interplanetary mission ever to depart from the West
Coast. The spacecraft's trip will last approximately seven months and cover some 301 million miles, with arrival in the Elysium
Planitia region of the red planet in late November. According to NASA, it is "the first mission dedicated to understanding the internal
structure of Mars." [...] The $1 billion mission involves scientists from the U.S., France, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
The Editor says... NASA's new planet finder is in space. Now what? Most everyone reading this story will probably know that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched on Wednesday [4/18/2018] carrying a NASA spacecraft into orbit — the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — that will further the space agency's mission of searching for exoplanets. [...] At a cost of $200 million, the TESS spacecraft is about one-third the cost of the Kepler spacecraft, which had a main mirror with a diameter of 0.95 meter. The TESS apertures are considerably smaller: 10cm for four identical cameras. NASA's new satellite TESS is about to lift off in search for alien worlds. TESS or the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is scheduled to lift off this week, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA's hope its that it will help us finally find undiscovered worlds that could harbor extraterrestrial life. NASA awards Lockheed Skunk Works $247.5M supersonic X-plane. Supersonic commercial air travel may once again become a reality under a partnership between NASA and Lockheed Martin. The American space agency announced on Tuesday that it awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works to design, build and flight test the Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator (LBFD), an X-plane that will be used by NASA to find ways to bring supersonic jet travel back to the skies. The cost-plus-incentive-fee contract is valued at $247.5 million. The Editor says... What's the Deal with SpaceX, NOAA and Live Rocket Launch Video? Whenever SpaceX launches a rocket, you can bet the views will be spectacular. After all, SpaceX has cameras up and down its Falcon 9 rockets that offer live views from space as each booster soars into (and sometimes back from) space. So it was weird today (March 30) when, 9 minutes into an otherwise routine Falcon 9 launch of 10 Iridium Next communications satellites from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, SpaceX cut the feed. The video blackout was intentional because of "restrictions" from a U.S. government agency known for its own live views of Earth from space. Trump Considering Privatizing International Space Station. In what might be a turning point for the International Space Station, the Trump administration is considering privatizing the orbiting satellite in the near future. According to The Washington Post, the Trump administration does not plan on allocating funds for the ISS after 2024, which will effectively end direct federal support for the station. Trump Wants to Privatize the International Space Station. The Trump administration is going to think about thinking about considering ending federal funding for the International Space Station (ISS) in 2025. Cue a bunch of people freaking out about the prospect of space station privatization. Before we get into the nitty girtty — a note: if I had a nickel for every major goal set by an American president for the space program with a time horizon of 6 to 20 years, I'd have enough money to continue funding the ISS well past 2025. Every administration comes up with its own blueprint/roadmap/guidebook to go to the moon/Mars/Alpha Centauri with all of the major deadlines conveniently kicking in long after the relevant president is somewhere on a yacht moored outside his presidential library. These plans rarely come to fruition, and even incremental steps are frequently reversed. NASA's Insight Lander Spreads Its Solar Wings. May 2018 is the launch window for NASA's next mission to Mars, the InSight Lander. InSight is the next member of what could be called a fleet of human vehicles destined for Mars. But rather than working on the question of Martian habitability or suitability for life, InSight will try to understand the deeper structure of Mars. InSight stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. InSight will be the first robotic explorer to visit Mars and study the red planet's deep interior. The Editor says...
Space dust could help life jump from planet to planet. It may not take an asteroid strike to transport life from one planet to another. Fast-moving dust could theoretically knock microbes floating high up in a world's atmosphere out into space, potentially sending the bugs on a trip to another planet — perhaps even one orbiting a different star, according to a new study. The Editor says... Goodbye, four billion dollars. The Editor says... President Trump Appoints New NASA Chief. All the right people are complaining about President Trump's new NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, who once demanded an apology from Obama for squandering money on climate research. 'Don't mess with Yellowstone supervolcano' NASA slammed by park geologists over risky plan. A geologist at the national park said the proposal could have dire consequences, including killing scores of animals. The warning comes after the US space agency revealed its options to prevent the volcano from exploding, including drilling into the bottom to release heat from it. Fears were immediately raised the "risky" plan could actually backfire and trigger an eruption — potentially triggering a deadly nuclear winter. NASA wants to prevent the Yellowstone super volcano from destroying the US. There are about 20 known super volcanoes on Earth, NASA says. A major eruption occurs about once every 100,000 years. And these odds are much higher than a repeat of an Earth-changing comet impact of the type that wiped out the dinosaurs. So NASA tasked a team with figuring out how to prevent one. The Editor says... NASA is hiring a 'planetary protection officer' to guard us against alien life — and vice versa. There's a vacancy at NASA, and it may have one of the greatest job titles ever conceived: planetary protection officer. It pays well, between $124,000 and $187,000 annually. You get to work with really smart people as part of the three- to five-year appointment but don't have to manage anyone. And your work could stave off an alien invasion of Earth or, more important, protect other planets from us. President Trump has expressed bullish enthusiasm for America's space program, signing an executive order last month resurrecting the National Space Council, on hiatus since the 1990s, and gleefully discussing the prospect of sending people to Mars. His proposed budget for NASA seeks a slight funding reduction overall, though he wants to realign spending to focus on "deep space exploration rather than Earth-centric research," as The Washington Post reported in March. Fly over the surface of Pluto in stunning NASA video. Now, the space agency has released breathtaking flyover videos using the New Horizons data and digital elevation models, revealing a close-up look at everything from ominous craters of Pluto's 'Cthulhu Macula,' to the bizarre 'moated mountains' on its largest moon, Charon. In recognition of the two-year anniversary of New Horizons' Pluto flyby, NASA also revealed a stunning set of global elevation maps, showing the complex terrain of Pluto and Charon. The Editor says... Former NASA Chief Scientist: America is "Under Siege" from Climate Disinformers. The science is NOT unequivocal that we face a climate emergency. Using the IPCC's own climate figures, there is a real possibility anthropogenic CO2 is not a big deal. Calling people who point this out purveyors of "fake news" is pure climate alarmism. As for what happens after the year 2100, frankly that is their problem. By the year 2100 humanity will know whether CO2 is causing climate problems — and will have the energy supply options and advanced engineering capabilities to deal with any eventuality. Nasa unveils six-wheeled Mars rover complete with full laboratory and life support systems. Nasa has unveiled a new Mars rover concept vehicle designed to function "as both a working vehicle and laboratory" for the next generation of space explorers. The 8.5-metre vehicle would not look out of place in a science-fiction film. It features six huge wheels to allow it to travel over craters, dunes and rocks, a sloping front reminiscent of the Nolan-era Batmobile and solar panels to power everything. NASA's Worst Plan Yet. In the early months of the Trump administration, some lunar advocates spread the rumor that the new president would seek a return to the Moon within his first four years, thereby dramatically making America great again in space. That is not the plan. Nor is the plan to send humans to Mars within eight years, something that I think we could achieve. Nor is it to send human missions to explore near-Earth asteroids, as then President Obama suggested in 2010, nor is it even to send humans to a piece of an asteroid brought back from deep space to lunar orbit for study, as called for in the ARM. No, instead NASA is proposing to build a space station in lunar orbit. This proposal is notable for requiring a large budget to create an object with no utility whatsoever. Unmanned U.S. Air Force Space Plane Lands After Secret, Two-Year Mission. The U.S. military's experimental X-37B space plane landed on Sunday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, completing a classified mission that lasted nearly two years, the Air Force said. The unmanned X-37B, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, touched down at 7:47 a.m. EDT on a runway formerly used for landings of the now-mothballed space shuttles, the Air Force said in an email. Mysterious military spacecraft lands in Florida causing sonic boom. The Air Force posted tweets that the X37B spacecraft landed Sunday morning [5/7/2017] at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral after 718 days in orbit. Widow can sue over NASA's sting operation on her. A 75-year-old widow in tough financial straits reached out to NASA about selling a speck of moon rock her late husband had given her. Joann Davis then became the target of a sting operation at a Denny's that a federal appeals court suggested Thursday was outrageous overkill. The lead agent "organized a sting operation involving six armed officers to forcibly seize a Lucite paperweight containing a moon rock the size of a rice grain from an elderly grandmother," wrote Judge Sidney Thomas of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in the decision allowing Davis to sue, per the Los Angeles Times. [...] Agents also forcibly restrained her second husband, who had accompanied her to the supposed sale. Davis' first husband, Robert, worked as an Apollo 11 engineer, and he saved a paperweight with moon material and another with a bit of the heat shield. Solar wind stripped Martian atmosphere away. Solar wind and radiation are responsible for stripping the Martian atmosphere, transforming Mars from a planet that could have supported life billions of years ago into a frigid desert world, according to new results from NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission) spacecraft led by the University of Colorado Boulder. "We've determined that most of the gas ever present in the Mars atmosphere has been lost to space," said Bruce Jakosky, principal investigator for MAVEN and a professor at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP). The Editor says... This is exactly what President Hillary Clinton would have done. Trump renews NASA mission for human space travel, deep space exploration. President Trump put NASA on course for deep space exploration Tuesday [3/21/2017], signing a bill that authorizes $19.5 billion in funding to revive the agency's manned-space flight program and plan missions to Mars and beyond. Mr. Trump spoke of the renewal of NASA's mission, including development of new spacecraft and preparation for a mars mission, in historic terms. "Almost half a century ago our brave astronauts first planted the American flag on the moon. That was a big moment in our history," he said at an Oval Office signing ceremony. "Now this nation is ready to be the first in space once again. Today we are taking the initial steps toward a bold and bright new future of American space flight." Trump wants to make space exploration great again. President Trump peeled back the curtain on his plans for the US space program on Tuesday — singing a sweeping NASA policy bill into effect and reaffirming the agency's commitment to human exploration and putting a man on Mars. "For almost six decades NASA's work has inspired millions and millions of Americans to imagine distant worlds and a better future right here on Earth," Trump explained during the signing, which was attended by astronauts, lawmakers and scientists. Is Anybody Else NOT Surprised That NASA Making an Announcement Days after Defunding? NASA never fully recovered after the Apollo program. To be fair, it hasn't always been NASA's fault. The agency is constantly the victim of politics.Yet they managed to struggle their way through the shuttle program, the International Space Station, and many different science projects including telescopes, and probes — every one of them costing millions more than budgeted due to technical errors, and accidents. Currently the Juno probe is having engine trouble and is indefinitely stuck in orbit around Jupiter and their heavy-lift rocket motor is plagued with problems[.] Worse yet, the agency has become another tentacle in the Democrat agenda in attempts to make the case of global warming. NASA proposes radical plan to surround Mars with a magnetic field to restore an 'Earth-like' atmosphere. NASA scientists have proposed a radical idea to launch a magnetic field around Mars, with hopes it could protect the red planet from intense solar wind and allow humans to explore alongside rovers. Jim Green, NASA's Planetary Science Division Director, revealed the idea today [3/2/2017] at the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop in Washington DC. Infuriating List of Ridiculous Spending Items By Obama Administration. NASA spent $124,955 to develop pizza that can be printed on a 3-D printer. It already pays Lockheed Martin $1 million a year to develop food for a Mars mission that isn't happening for several decades. The space agency also spent $390,000 to develop a "green ninja" cartoon character to promote climate change, $360,000 on "pillownauts" that lay in bed for 70 days and $3 million on a mission to study the inner workings of Congress. Why is NASA is Exploring an Alien World in Antarctica? Mount Erebus is at the end of our world — and offers a portal to another. Covered in ice and filled with bubbling lava, the massive volcano rising 12,448 feet (3,794 meters) above Ross Island in Antarctica is the perfect proxy for an alien world, which is why NASA's Aaron Curtis, who joined JPL's Extreme Environments Robotics Group in 2016, travels there to test space exploration robots. Has the Cold War started up again? NASA Gets Religion About Extraterrestrials. [Scroll down to page 58] "How might the world's religions respond to the discovery of life on other planets?" NASA is enlisting theologians to answer that question to prepare for if and when human contact is made with extraterrestrials. The NASA Astrobiology Program awarded more than $1.1 million to the Center of Theological Inquiry (CTI) to examine "the societal implications of the search for life in the universe." NASA to explore asteroid made of $10,000 quadrillion worth of metal. NASA recently announced it's latest endeavor: Explore a giant metal asteroid the size of Massachusetts. Made up of mostly nickel and iron, the giant hunk of space metal is about three times further away from the Sun than Earth. Enticingly, the mission's lead scientist has put a price tag of $10,000 quadrillion on the asteroid, known as "16 Psyche." The Editor says... NASA's next stop — Mars or the Moon? [W]ith NASA's limited funds, even before possible cuts under a Trump administration, the space agency can't do both. Sending astronauts to the Moon and establishing a colony would push human exploration of Mars into the second half of this century. Alternatively, making a direct push toward Mars would preclude any meaningful human exploration of the Moon. A choice must be made. The Editor says... Making NASA Great Again. In 1962, at the height of the Cold War, space was important and worthy of such risk. We were going to the moon to demonstrate our technological superiority to the Soviets and the world, and Glenn's flight was a crucial milestone on that path. Half a century later, that sense of importance — and the willingness to take risks that came with it — has been lost. Return America to glory: Retake U.S. space lead. For a couple of decades now, I have been writing that the manned and unmanned space programs of the United States have to be, first, in the best interests of the national security of our nation and, second, never wasteful of the American tax dollar. In full disclosure, I say this as one who has no interest in being part of the Trump transition team, being part of the Trump administration, or having any access whatsoever to those who do. None. I say this only as an American who for years has been deeply concerned that the Obama administration has systematically ceded control of space to the People's Republic of China and Russia and, in the process, has greatly endangered the national security of our nation. The Editor says... NASA was neutered, turned into political PR machine, and Trump is going to fix that. In the last 20 years NASA has been turned from a space agency to one that ignores satellite data in favour of doing statistical tricks with badly placed ground thermometers and relies on Russia to do things in space. Former NASA stars have been protesting for year at the dismal standards in NASA climate research. The same guys who walked on the moon, worked on the Apollo missions, and ran the shuttle program were fed up with NASA's excellent brand name being exploited by junk scientists to do political promotions. Under Obama NASA was told to do three things — inspire kids, help international relationships and help Muslim nations "feel good". So much for space exploration and science. Donald Trump expected to slash Nasa's climate change budget in favour of sending humans back to the moon — and beyond. US President-elect Donald Trump is set to slash Nasa's budget for monitoring climate change and instead set a goal of sending humans to the edge of the solar system by the end of the century, and possibly back to the moon. Mr Trump, who has called climate change a "Chinese hoax", is believed to want to focus the agency on far-reaching, big banner goals in deep space rather than "Earth-centric climate change spending". According to Bob Walker, who has advised Mr Trump on space policy, Nasa has been reduced to "a logistics agency concentrating on space station resupply and politically correct environmental monitoring". Gavin Schmidt Warns Donald Trump Not to Interfere with the NASA Climate Division. Gavin Schmidt, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has "warned" President-elect Donald Trump not to interfere with their climate activities. Schmidt maintains the GISS global temperature series, arguably the most adjusted of all the global temperature products. The Editor says... AT&T And NASA To Build National Drone Tracking System. AT&T and NASA aren't the only ones trying to regulate the skies. In September, DARPA announced the Aerial Dragnet program, requesting proposals for technology that would allow the government to keep track of all objects flying below 1,000 feet. The agency initially envisioned their system relying on a network of tower- or drone-mounted "surveillance nodes" scattered throughout cities. NASA in talks with Russian space agency over joint mission to Venus - report. The US and Russia may join efforts in exploring the second planet from the Sun, as NASA and Russian space agency Roscosmos are discussing a joint mission to Venus, Russian media reports. NASA has already drawn up a number of scenarios for the joint mission with their Russian counterparts to Venus, director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny told the Izvestiya daily. The Editor says... Obama Is Restarting the Mars Program He Canceled 8 Years Ago. President Barack Obama will restart NASA's mission to Mars after he effectively canceled the program eight years ago, according to an op-ed he wrote. Obama's op-ed calls for NASA to send humans to Mars by 2030, but Obama has a long history of slashing programs that would have sent America to Mars much sooner. Obama Vows Mars Mission Even as He Cuts NASA's Budget. [Scroll down] Of course, Obama forgets to mention in the piece that, memories of grandpa and astronauts being fished out of the sea near Hawaii aside, he proposed earlier this year significantly cutting the funding for space exploration so he could pursue all his various earthbound social welfare and environmental policies. Air Force's X-37B Space Plane Mystery Mission Wings by 500 Days in Orbit. The U.S. military launched the robotic X-37B space plane on May 20, 2015, marking the fourth flight for the Air Force program. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lofted the spacecraft from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station to kick off the OTV-4 mission (short for Orbital Test Vehicle-4). Exactly what the winged space plane's duties are while it's in orbit continues to remain a tight-lipped affair. Similarly, how long the vehicle will remain in orbit has not been detailed. Obama [is] Helping U.S. Lose a New, Dangerous Space Race to Red China. President Barack Obama's anti-space exploration policies have created a vacuum that's being filled by China, bemoaned lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during a congressional hearing Tuesday [9/27/2016]. China is catching up to the space programs of NASA and the U.S. military, according to expert witnesses at the hearing, causing Republicans and Democrats to blame Obama for delays and funding cuts. "All of [NASA's] success came to a screeching halt when President Obama was sworn in," Texas Republican Rep. Brian Babin, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Space, said during the hearing. "His fiscal year 2010 budget request slashed well over a billion dollars from the exploration project and budget... China has capitalized on this administration's weakness." The Editor says... NASA is going to an asteroid, and it wants your help. NASA is seeking research partners for its ambitious asteroid redirect mission, the space agency recently announced. The asteroid mission sounds like science fiction. In December 2021, NASA plans to launch a robotic mission that will travel to an asteroid, grab a multiton boulder off its surface, bring it back — and then put it in orbit around the moon. The space agency says they've already identified four asteroid candidates. After that, with a launch in 2026, astronauts will travel to the asteroid and research it, bringing back samples to Earth. The Editor says... Private Moon Mission Gets Go-Ahead From U.S. Government. A small startup is to become the first private company to receive permission from the U.S. government to land a craft on the moon. [...] On Wednesday [8/3/2016], Moon Express announced on its website that it had become the first private enterprise to be granted permission to land a robotic spacecraft on the Moon's surface, following discussions with the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), the U.S. State Department, NASA and other federal agencies. The Editor says... Why NASA still believes we might find life on Mars. The day Gil Levin says he detected life on Mars, he was waiting in his lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, watching a piece of paper inch out of a printer. Levin snatched the sheet and scrutinized the freshly inked graph. A thin line measuring radioactive carbon crept steadily upward, just as it always did when Levin performed the test with microbes on Earth. But this data came from tens of millions of miles away, where NASA's Viking lander was — for the first time in history — conducting an experiment on the surface of Mars. "Gil, that's life," his co-investigator, Patricia Straat, exclaimed when she saw the first results come in. There was jubilation at JPL. [...] It was July 30, 1976. Forty years later, Levin and Straat still believe that their experiment was evidence of microbiotic Martians. But few people agree with them. NASA's next Mars rover will 'seek the signs of life' on red planet. NASA gave a glimpse into its plans for its next Martian rover on Friday [7/15/2016], a craft that will focus on looking for evidence of life on the red planet and preparing samples for possible return to Earth someday. The still-unnamed rover will launch in the summer of 2020 (so the space agency is calling the program Mars 2020) and will arrive at its destination in February of 2021. NASA Spends $73,500 on 'Unconscious Bias' Training. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is spending at least $73,500 to teach astronauts about diversity, their "unconscious biases," and how to "use their privilege." NASA is adding a new curriculum to its "Diversity Dialogue Project," and has hired a contractor to hold "regularly scheduled dialogue sessions" about inclusion. The program is designed for employees to "engage in a facilitated dialogue process in an "open, non-judgmental and comfortable environment," according to documents released by the agency. NASA is really good at finding solutions for which there is no problem. NASA Hopes to Reach Mars by 2030s, With Israel's Help, Space Agency's Administrator Says. NASA hopes to reach Mars in the 2030s, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, adding that the U.S. space agency looks forward to working with Israel, whose "incredibly innovative people on the cutting edge of technology" can help NASA successfully launch the first human voyage to the red planet. Bolden's lecture was attended by a packed audience at Bar-Ilan University Monday morning [6/6/2016]. On Tuesday evening, the university will present Bolden with an honorary doctorate. During his visit to Israel, Bolden will meet with representatives of the Israel Space Agency to discuss the 250 experiments taking place during every six-month expedition on the International Space Station. "We are excited about ongoing relations with the Israel Space Agency and what we can do together on the International Space Station," Bolden said. The Editor says... NASA struggles to inflate space 'bounce house'. NASA's attempts to inflate a unique new module on the International Space Station have stopped for today, the space agency announced this morning [5/26/2016], because the module only inflated "a few inches." The new module, called BEAM, was supposed to be expanded early this morning. But NASA announced that the operation did not go as planned. NASA to officially unveil its green rocket fuel project in Colorado this week. Since 2012, the folks over at NASA have been working on developing a high performance "green" rocket propellant it hoped to one day use as an alternative to the incredibly toxic hydrazine fuel currently in use. According to a press release published in August of 2012, the Washington D.C.-based space agency selected Boulder, Colorado's Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation to research the fuel alternative and as of this month, it appears it's ready to show off its work. In an invite sent to media outlets late last week, Ball Aerospace will officially open its doors on March 31 to unveil NASA's Green Propulsion Infusion Mission. Here's Why Congress Says Obama Has Wrecked NASA. Lawmakers grilled National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Charlie Bolden during a Thursday [3/17/2016] congressional hearing on President Barack Obama's 2017 budget plan. Republicans argued the budget hurts the space agency by diverting more money into global warming research. NASA's budget proposal is far more concerned with spending on global warming research than supporting the agency's mission of space exploration, according to Republican lawmakers. Pluto's moon could have been home to subsurface ocean. Pluto's largest moon Charon may have once had a subsurface ocean that long ago became frozen and expanded. As a result, the expanding ocean that was identified through images from NASA's New Horizons mission may have pushed out the moon's surface — causing it to stretch and fracture on a massive scale, NASA said. The side of Charon viewed by the passing New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015 is characterized by a system of "pull apart" tectonic faults, which are expressed as ridges, scarps and valleys — the latter sometimes reaching more than 4 miles deep. The Editor says... NASA wants to unlock the universe's secrets with telescope more powerful than Hubble. NASA has unveiled plans for a powerful new telescope with a view more than 100 times wider than Hubble. The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is designed to help researchers unravel the secrets of dark energy and dark matter, and explore the evolution of the universe, according to NASA. "It also will discover new worlds outside our solar system and advance the search for worlds that could be suitable for life," explained the space agency, in a statement released Thursday [2/18/2016]. The Editor says... Scientists find evidence of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein. After decades of searching, scientists announced Thursday [2/11/2016] that they have detected gravitational waves — essentially ripples in the fabric of space-time — that had been predicted by Einstein. An international team of astrophysicists said that they detected the waves from the distant crash of two black holes, using a $1.1 billion instrument. The Editor says... The Moon or Mars? NASA must pick 1 goal for astronauts, experts tell Congress. NASA can't afford to put humans on Mars while also pursuing missions to put astronauts back on the moon, according to a panel of experts who testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space Wednesday [2/10/2016]. "Today the future of NASA's human spaceflight program is far from clear," said Tom Young, former director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "There has been continual debate about should we go to the moon or Mars or both ... It is clear, again, that we cannot do both. And there is a need to focus our attention, capability and resources on one option." The Editor says... White House proposes $19 billion NASA budget. The Obama Administration's final budget request, released Feb. 9, offers $19 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2017, a decrease of $300 million from the agency's final 2016 budget. The budget, as proposed, would shift some funds from NASA's exploration programs to aeronautics and space technology, in addition to the overall cuts, while also shifting funds within the agency's science account. The budget request is likely to face strong opposition in Congress, where House and Senate leaders have already said that the administration's overall budget request will be considered dead on arrival. NASA Will Return to the Moon in Preparation for Human Mars Mission. Project managers from Lockheed Martin and NASA gathered last week at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to usher in the return of the Orion crew module and to discuss future missions that will see humans travel beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. Development of the Orion spacecraft will now be ramping up in preparation for Exploration Mission 1 — the module's first journey to the Moon and into deep space. This feat will act as a dress rehearsal for a crewed asteroid retrieval mission in lunar orbit and be a major stepping stone for NASA's manned mission to Mars. NASA Bans The Word 'Jesus'. The name of Jesus is not welcome in the Johnson Space Center newsletter, according to a complaint filed on behalf of a group of Christians who work for NASA. The JSC Praise & Worship Club was directed by NASA attorneys to refrain from using the name 'Jesus' in club announcements that appeared in a Space Center newsletter. "It was shocking to all of us and very frustrating," NASA engineer Sophia Smith told me. "NASA has a long history of respecting religious speech. Why wouldn't they allow us to put the name Jesus in the announcement about our club?" Liberty Institute, one of the nation's largest religious liberty law firms, threatened to file a federal lawsuit unless NASA apologizes and stops censoring the name 'Jesus'. The Space Shuttle's Last Launch. The infrastructure behind NASA's shuttle program was unimaginably vast. At $1 billion each, the launches were so audacious that they seemed to risk collapsing under the weight of their own hubris. And yet, for 30 years the orbiters came and went, acting as a protective vessel, enabling a select group to contemplate the fury of the world in a stillness unobtainable by the rest of us. Then in early 2011, the space shuttle program came to an end. The Editor says... Harsh: Obama Official Who Pled Guilty to Espionage Gets... $250 Fine. Glenn Woodell, a NASA supervisor who pled guilty to violating U.S. espionage laws involving a Chinese NASA contractor was given a slap on the wrist with six months' probation and a $250 fine, the Daily Caller News Foundation has learned. Daniel Jobson, a Woodell colleague and fellow NASA supervisor, had his espionage charges reduced to a misdemeanor and was released without any penalty. The lenient plea deals were quietly delivered October 26 in U.S. District Court in Newport News, Virginia. The U.S. Attorneys office did not to [sic] issue a press release about the deals and declined comment when contacted by the DCNF. Government Funding of Basic Science? Knock It Off. For decades now, even free-market economists have argued that the government should fund basic scientific research. I myself have always felt suspicious of the argument — this is one reason I remain skeptical of NASA, despite the ridicule of my comrades Rob Long and James Lileks, who can barely contain their pleasure at the thought of spending untold sums to send someone to Mars — but I confess that I've never possessed the analytical skills to investigate the argument, let alone refute it. Mars Shows Strong Signs of Flowing Water, Researchers Say. A new study provides the "strongest evidence yet" that salty liquid water sometimes flows on modern-day Mars, researchers said on Monday [9/28/2015] in a discovery that holds implications for future expeditions to the Red Planet. "Our quest on Mars has been to 'follow the water' in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we've long suspected," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator at NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. "This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water — albeit briny — is flowing today on the surface of Mars." NASA Confirms Signs of Water Flowing on Mars, Possible Niches for Life. [Scroll down] Many mysteries remain. For one, scientists do not know where the water is coming from. Water Found on Mars Could Be First Signs of Martian Life. Mars is drier than the driest desert on Earth: It has no lakes, oceans, or rivers, and its atmosphere has at best tiny traces of water vapor. However, Mars used to be much wetter. We can see signs of long-gone lakes and riverbeds, though it's unlikely the planet was ever warm enough to be a lush, damp place like Earth is. The disappearance of Mars' surface water is one of the mysteries we still have to solve. However, we've suspected water can sometimes flow on Mars for a while. The various orbiting Mars-mapping probes have spotted small landslides along slopes that appeared between orbital passes, which could be caused by water, but are more likely to be the result of more boring geological processes. The Editor says... Mars Has Water: Why NASA Discovery Matters. Traces of liquid water have been found on Mars, NASA said today [9/28/2015], raising questions about the possibility of life on the Red Planet. Dark, 100-meter-long streaks flowing downhill on Mars are believed to have been formed by contemporary flowing water, according to NASA. The findings come from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and raise the possibility there could be life — or even microbes — living inside the Red Planet. [...] While today's discovery is huge, it is small compared to the rivers, lakes and vast oceans that are believed to have flowed on Mars billions of years ago. The Editor says... NASA reports flowing water on Mars. But how? A U.S. satellite, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, has found evidence there of water, the foundation of life. Actually, flowing water from as recently as a year ago. Observers, of course, have known of vast quantities of water locked within Mars' polar ice caps. But water elsewhere? Flowing? On a surface ranging from about 80 degrees to minus 190? The Editor continues... Is exploring Mars worth the investment? It's hard to calculate a total price tag, but over the 48 years that NASA has been launching missions to Mars, Americans have spent a significant sum. The Viking missions alone cost nearly $1 billion — in 1970s dollars. The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity cost a total of about $1 billion to build and operate as well. Curiosity, as the Mars Science Laboratory rover is known, is over budget at $2.5 billion. Bias alert: Cost of NASA's Next Mars Rover Hits Nearly $2.5 Billion. NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission needs an $82 million cash infusion to maintain its late November launch date after development of the $2.47 billion rover exhausted program funding reserves last year, according to agency officials. Has NASA Become Mars-Obsessed? $390 million for Mars Odyssey, $500 million for Opportunity, $820 million for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, $2500 million for Curiosity, $670 million for MAVEN, $600 million for Insight, $1500 million for the Mars Rover in 2020 (yet to be named). Total: $6.98 billion. NASA's $17.5 Billion Budget Request for 2015 Would Fund New Science Missions. NASA's 2015 budget would remain essentially flat at $17.5 billion under a White House spending proposal unveiled today (March 4) that would hold the line on the agency's biggest space programs while laying the groundwork for major new astrophysics and planetary science missions. NASA employees caught buying child porn from site which showed three-year-olds being abused — but they escape prosecution. NASA employees were caught buying child pornography from a criminal ring in Eastern Europe that distributed images of minors as young as three, it can be revealed. An investigation by Daily Mail Online found 16 staff members from the space agency paid for pictures and videos of children in sexual situations, but were never prosecuted. Their names have never been released because of government guidelines which protect their privacy — prompting fears some of the culprits are still employed by NASA. Japan launches vital supplies (and mice) toward International Space Station. A robotic Japanese cargo vessel launched toward the International Space Station Wednesday [8/19/2015], embarking on a five-day journey to the orbiting lab to deliver tons of supplies and experiment gear, including a rodent crew of 12 mice [...] whose experiences aboard the space station will help researchers better understand the effects of microgravity on the bodies of mammals. The Editor says... NASA: Seats on Russian rockets will cost us $490 million. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden sent a letter to Congress saying the agency would need to pay $490 million to Russia for six seats on Soyuz rockets for U.S. astronauts to fly through 2017. Methane in Mars meteorites suggests possibility of life. Methane, a potential sign of primitive life, has been found in meteorites from Mars, adding weight to the idea that life could live off methane on the Red Planet, researchers say. This discovery is not evidence that life exists, or has ever existed, on Mars, the researchers cautioned. [...] Much of the methane in Earth's atmosphere is produced by life, such as cattle digesting food. However, there are ways to produce methane without life, such as volcanic activity. NASA's head of science says humans 'are on the cusp' of answering the ultimate question. When NASA representatives made their case for more funding to lawmakers in Washington D.C. Tuesday [7/28/2015], they made a bold announcement: that humanity could be about to turn a page in its history. We're nearing contact with alien life, NASA's head of science John Grunsfeld said to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology near the end of a two-hour hearing. That was his response to a question by committee member John Moolenaar (R-Michigan), who asked what should inspire people to continuing following NASA like they did in the days of the space race. The Editor says... Hi-def space telescope to be used in search for alien life. 25 times more powerful than Hubble. The Editor says... NASA selects 4 astronauts to fly first commercial space expeditions. Each astronaut has test pilot experience and has flown twice in space. Methane in Mars meteorites suggests possibility of life. To shed light on the nature of the methane on Mars, Blamey and his colleagues analyzed rocks blasted off Mars by cosmic impacts that subsequently crash-landed on Earth as meteorites. About 220 pounds of Martian meteorites have been found on Earth. The Editor says... Earlier story from 2012 with editorial comments attached: The Editor says... NASA sets $2.25m prize for 3D printed Mars habitats. Getting astronauts safely to Mars is only the start of your problems when you're trying to explore the red planet: then you have to give them somewhere to live. NASA has kick-started a competition to figure out just how to do that, challenging inventors to come up with a way to not only 3D print a habitat — preferably using materials found on-site — but do so at least semi-autonomously. To encourage the best brains in construction, NASA is dangling a $2.25m prize in the 3-D Printed Habitat Challenge. Mercury Killed The Messenger Probe. The scientific instruments aboard measured the planet's magnetic field and variations in gravity that show how dense rock is below the surface. MESSENGER scientists determined that Mercury's interior is very different than the other terrestrial worlds (Venus, Earth, the Moon, and Mars). Instead of a slippery plasticine layer called the mantle between the solid crust and hot core, Mercury has a layer of molten rock. The Editor says... Messenger probe crashes on Mercury after 4-year historic mission. Messenger, a mission that cost $450 million, was launched in August 2004 and in 2011 became the first probe to go into orbit around the closest planet to the Sun and one of those holding the most mysteries for scientists. NASA probe detects possible polar cap on Pluto. New photos and animations of Pluto and its large moon Charon taken by the fast-approaching New Horizons probe are revealing distinct surface features for the first time, including a bright area that could be a snowy polar cap, mission managers said Wednesday [4/29/2015]. The Editor says... We'll Find Alien Life Within 20 Years, NASA Says. Is there life on other planets? People have pondered this question for millennia, without any definitive answer. But now, NASA officials say, we may soon be on the cusp of a breakthrough. "I believe we are going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth in the next decade and definitive evidence in the next 10 to 20 years," Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for NASA, said at a public panel Tuesday [4/7/2015] in Washington, according to the Los Angeles Times. "It's definitely not an if, it's a when," said Jeffery Newmark, one of Stofan's colleagues. The Editor says...
The Editor says... NASA launches billion-dollar mission to solve mystery of magnetic fields. NASA launched four identical spacecraft Thursday [3/12/2015] on a billion-dollar mission to study the explosive give-and-take of the Earth and sun's magnetic fields. MMS Launched on March 12, 2015. The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission is a Solar Terrestrial Probes mission comprising four identically instrumented spacecraft that will use Earth's magnetosphere as a laboratory to study the microphysics of three fundamental plasma processes: magnetic reconnection, energetic particle acceleration, and turbulence. These processes occur in all astrophysical plasma systems but can be studied in situ only in our solar system and most efficiently only in Earth's magnetosphere, where they control the dynamics of the geospace environment and play an important role in the processes known as "space weather." The Editor says... NASA spacecraft blast off to provide 3D views of magnetic field reconnection. The findings from the $1.1 billion US mission will be useful in understanding magnetic reconnection throughout the universe. Closer to home, space weather scientists along with everyone on Earth hopefully will benefit. "We're not setting out here to solve space weather," Burch said. "We're setting out to learn the fundamental features of magnetic reconnection because that's what drives space weather." The Editor says... Ordinary taxpayers don't care about any of that. Space weather can be observed, but it can't be changed — just like terrestrial weather. It is not a problem to be solved. This entire project is a waste of money because it is a study of natural forces that are of interest only to a handful of people who study theoretical astrophysics. Government expenditures of this sort are unconstitutional (i.e., illegal) because they benefit only a few specific people, not the general public. Let the scientists spend their own money on their research projects!"The Magnetospheric Multiscale, or MMS, mission studies the mystery of how magnetic fields around Earth connect and disconnect, explosively releasing energy via a process known a magnetic reconnection. MMS consists of four identical spacecraft that work together to provide the first three-dimensional view of this fundamental process, which occurs throughout the universe. The mission observes reconnection directly in Earth's protective magnetic space environment, the magnetosphere. By studying reconnection in this local, natural laboratory, MMS helps us understand reconnection elsewhere as well, such as in the atmosphere of the sun and other stars, in the vicinity of black holes and neutron stars, and at the boundary between our solar system's heliosphere and interstellar space." What does soil moisture have to do with aeronautics and space? NASA's Soil Moisture Satellite Goes Into Orbit. The uncrewed Delta 2 launched NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive observatory, or SMAP, which is to spend at least three years making precise measurements of the amount of water in Earth's topsoil. [...] NASA's price tag for the launch, spacecraft and three years of operation is $916 million. Get NASA Out of the Climate Alarm Business. Unless you live on the moon you've probably heard lots of feverish hype attributed to NASA about 2014 being the "hottest year" ever. And being NASA, you'd expect that they should know, given that they have all those advanced satellites we taxpayers bought them. Well, maybe you'd be very wrong to assume that, much less to expect an honest and objective report. A lot more skepticism on the part of the media would be prudent. White House budget would fund NASA's Europa, Mars missions. The White House budget request for 2016 has proposed to give NASA $18.5 billion, including funding for the Mars 2020 rover and a mission to Jupiter's icy moon Europa. [...] The White House proposal would set aside $1.361 billion for planetary science, which is about $76 million less than Congress allotted the division in 2015. Isn't this what NOAA is for? NASA Facing The Heat For Hottest Year Lie. With great fanfare NASA announced that 2014 was the hottest year on record. The part of the story they didn't mention is they are only 38% sure it was the hottest on record. The other thing they didn't mention is that surface temperatures were used rather than satellite data and part of their data used estimated temperatures. Per the UK Daily Mail, "the claim made headlines around the world, but yesterday it emerged that GISS's [NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies] analysis — based on readings from more than 3,000 measuring stations worldwide — is subject to a margin of error. NASA admits this means it is far from certain that 2014 set a record at all. Spacecraft Nears Pluto After Nine-Year Trip. NASA spacecraft New Horizons is finally drawing close to Pluto almost nine years after setting off on the three-billion-mile journey from Earth. Pluto is around 3.67 billion miles from the Sun and, when it was discovered in 1930, it was the planet furthest from the solar system's centre. Before explosion, NASA knew aging Soviet engines posed risks. Years before an unmanned rocket erupted in a fireball in October, NASA officials knew the metal in its 50-year-old Soviet-made engines could crack, causing fuel to leak and ignite, government documents show. As early as 2008, a NASA committee warned about the "substantial" risk of using the decades-old engines, and a fire during a 2011 engine test in Mississippi heightened the agency's concern. Lockheed Gets NASA Funding for the SR-72 Hypersonic Spy Drone. NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a modest $892,292 earlier this month to study the feasibility of developing an unmanned hypersonic spy plane called the SR-72. This superfast recon drone, first teased in November 2013, would fly at speeds of Mach 6.0, or 4,500 mph. That's almost double the speed of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, which made its first flight 50 years ago. NASA's $349 million monument to its drift. In June, NASA finished work on a huge construction project here in Mississippi: a $349 million laboratory tower, designed to test a new rocket engine in a chamber that mimicked the vacuum of space. Then, NASA did something odd. As soon as the work was done, it shut the tower down. The project was officially "mothballed" — closed up and left empty — without ever being used. NASA launches Orion spacecraft. [Lockheed Martin Corp.] handled the $370 million test flight for NASA from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, opting for the Delta IV rocket this time given its heft. Design a climate change coping app and win cash in NASA's new $35,000 challenge. NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are offering more than $35,000 in prizes to citizens who design apps — computer applications — to make use of available climate data to respond to climate change. The competition opens Dec. 15. The challenge stems from the latest National Climate Assessment that says the U.S. already faces or will face challenges because of climate change. Where did Earth's water come from? Rosetta data muddies [the] picture. Water vapor emitted by Comet 67P/Churyumov-Geramisenko is very different from the water found on Earth, casting doubt on the belief that Earth's water originally came from comets. [...] A leading theory to explain the Earth's oceans has been that the water was delivered from space by heavy bombardment by comets in the distant past. The Editor says... NASA's New Horizons Pluto Probe 'Wakes Up' for Work. From 2.9 billion miles away, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft let its handlers know on Saturday that it has awakened from hibernation and is ready for the climax of its nine-year trip to Pluto. The first signals were received at the mission's control center at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland via a giant radio antenna in Australia just before 9:30 p.m. ET, nearly four and a half hours after it was sent by the piano-sized probe. It takes that long for signals to travel between there and here at the speed of light. The Editor says... 51 Examples of Government Waste. [#43] NASA spent $360,000 for people to stay in slightly declined beds for 70 days to test the effects of gravity on humans over long durations of time. NASA had already conducted this experiment many times since the 1960s. [#44] NASA gave two grants totaling $237,205 to the University of Washington to study how rainfall effects the red crab's annual migration to Christmas Island. Researchers hope this study will help them better understand the potential consequences of climate change for the red crabs. Mystery Surrounds NASA's Secret Mission in Africa. A NASA official recently confirmed that one of the agency's aircraft had been spotted on an American military airstrip in eastern Africa a few weeks ago, but like a series of U.S. military officials, declined to say what the space agency's high-tech bird was doing there. "I really can't give you any of the details," Jim Alexander, a NASA official with the WB-57 High Altitude Research Program, told ABC News. "You know, the airplane was there, you see it in the picture. But I really can't tell you what it was for." The wobbling of Saturn's moon might mean there's an ocean sloshing inside of it. Planets aren't always filled with molten rock, and guessing the composition of distant planets can be a tricky business. But scientists now believe that Saturn's moon Mimas has one of two things under its icy, rocky surface: a core shaped like a football or a liquid ocean. In a study published Friday [10/17/2014] in Science, researchers analyzed Mimas's movements as it orbited Saturn. By looking at images from NASA's Cassini satellite, they determined how much Mimas was wobbling. The wobble was a lot wonkier than expected, leaving the research team puzzled. The Editor says... Having solved all other problems... Get ready! NASA's MAVEN mission is about to reach Mars. The spacecraft, the first mission to examine the planet's upper atmosphere, was 218 million kilometers away from Earth on Wednesday [9/17/2014] and a mere 1.2 million kilometers from Mars. MAVEN takes off: what you need to know about NASA's new mission to Mars. Today [11/18/2013], NASA will launch a new mission — one that cost $671 million and has been in development for 10 years — to determine what happened to the water on Mars. The Editor says... MAVEN spacecraft enters Mars orbit to explore its climate change. It won't land on the red planet but instead study Mars' atmosphere from above to answer questions about its climate change, NASA says. NASA's MAVEN craft will live up to its formal name — the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution craft — by helping scientists figure out how ancient Mars changed so dramatically into the planet we know today. The Editor says... NASA picks Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts. NASA will turn to aerospace giant Boeing and "new space" startup SpaceX to launch U.S. astronauts again from American shores, ending a reliance on Russian Soyuz capsules that began after the last space shuttle landed on Earth three years ago. Boeing and SpaceX Will Fly Astronauts to the International Space Station. In a much anticipated announcement, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said today (Sep. 16) during a webcast that spacecraft made by Boeing Company and SpaceX will carry American astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017. Two vehicles, Boeing's CST-100 and SpaceX's Dragon V2, will launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida and take Americans into low Earth orbit, before docking with the ISS. Each company will run between two to six missions, carrying teams of four astronauts per mission. NASA's Mars Curiosity rover reaches 'far frontier'. The biggest Mars rover ever made landed on the Red Planet in August 2012 after a dramatic touchdown, with the goal of exploring the terrain for traces that life may once have existed. The Editor says... New space race: 3 companies vie to build space shuttle successor. The agency says a decision on which company will build its next-generation vehicle to put astronauts in space is imminent. A $4 billion contract is at stake, and that's made for some intense competition. Boeing is one of three companies competing to build the successor to the space shuttle. It hopes its CST-100 capsule will be chosen to ferry Americans to the International Space Station. Scientists think they have dust specks from outside our solar system. Researchers studying the contents of a capsule returned to Earth in 2006 at the conclusion of the Stardust spacecraft's primary mission believe that they have found seven remarkable specks on its collection panels. Although they weigh about 10 trillionths of a gram in all, the microscopic motes of "alien" dust described in the journal Science could alter astronomers' perception of the galaxy beyond our own stellar neighborhood. The Editor says... Historic rendezvous between a comet and a space probe. If all goes well, the mission in November will carry out the first landing on a comet. Rosetta will send a robot chemistry lab to the surface to delve into a theory that comets hold the key to understanding how our star system formed. "After completing a complex series of nine orbital manoeuvres since the end of hibernation on January 20, Rosetta is finally in position to rendezvous with the comet," the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday [8/5/2014]. The Editor says... The Mars Mission: Red Ink for the Red Planet. [Scroll down] What we don't see with our earth-bound eyes is a dollar sign anywhere in this exciting news. Visionaries aren't fond of mundane concerns such as the costs of their pet projects. George W. Bush, who was never very good at counting costs, urged the nation to embrace the Mars mission in 2004. Bob Park of the American Physical Society recalled at the time that the president's father was boosting a Mars mission when he was in the White House in 1989. "He invoked Columbus, as they always do," Park said. "He said like Columbus 'we dream of shores we've never seen' and went on to propose a return to the Moon and then on to Mars. And that lasted until they got a cost estimate." Cost estimates of the Mars mission appear to be rarer than moon rock and wide as the solar system, ranging from $6 billion to $500 billion or more. The race to put men on the moon has been pegged at $100 billion. The space station cost another $100 billion. Editor's note: Is the International Space Station Worth $100 Billion? Asking the International Space Station to justify its existence is a tall order. NASA estimates the station has cost U.S. taxpayers $50 billion since 1994 — and overall, its price tag has been pegged at $100 billion by all member nations. [...] The space agency contends that the weightless environment provided by the station offers a unique way of unmasking processes of cell growth and chemistry that are hidden on Earth. But some critics don't see a zero gravity laboratory as filling a crucial scientific need. The Editor says... Congress should phase out the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA could not mask its embarrassment when the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter was lost after reaching the Red Planet because technicians neglected to convert crucial numbers from English to metric units. Saving Two American Astronauts From Russian Blackmail. The United States paid Russia 60 million dollars per American astronaut to get access to the Space Station. Russia pledged tit-for-tat measures in revenge for U.S. sanctions, by refusing to allow Americans access to our 150 billion-dollar International Space Station, of which the United States paid 84 percent of the cost. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin even threatened to cut off American access to the station, saying "I propose that the United States delivers its astronauts to the ISS with the help of a trampoline." Sadly, today NASA cannot put men into space without Russian cooperation and hasn't done so for years. Why NASA is Stagnant. [W]hile NASA was able to put men on the Moon within eight years of the Apollo program's start, the space agency has been unable to go further in the four and a half decades since. In fact, it is no longer capable of going to the Moon and, as these lines are written, is totally adrift, with no real plan for going anywhere. The Editor says... NASA to launch replacement global warming satellite. The $468 million mission is designed to study the main driver of climate change emitted from smokestacks and tailpipes. The Editor says... Activists Seek to Block Florida Space Launch Facility. Environmental activists are attempting to block construction of a space launch facility in Florida, claiming the proposed site should be preserved for scrub jays and other species. Dramatic NASA satellite images show our air getting cleaner. If Americans are breathing easier than they were a decade ago, these new NASA satellite images may help explain why. They show — in vividly color-coded maps — that levels of nitrogen dioxide, an important air pollutant, have plummeted across the country over the last decade. The Editor says... NASA's deep-space craft readying for launch. The U.S. space shuttle program retired in 2011, leaving American astronauts to hitchhike into orbit. But after three long years, NASA's successor is almost ready to make an entrance. Orion, the agency's newest manned spaceship, is being prepared for its first mission in December. In future missions, it will journey into deep space — to Mars and beyond — farther than humans have ever gone before. The Editor says... Global Warming 'Fabricated' by NASA and NOAA. Scientists at two of the world's leading climate centres — NASA and NOAA — have been caught out manipulating temperature data to overstate the extent of the 20th century "global warming". The evidence of their tinkering can clearly be seen at Real Science, where blogger Steven Goddard has posted a series of graphs which show "climate change" before and after the adjustments. When the raw data is used, there is little if any evidence of global warming and some evidence of global cooling. However, once the data has been adjusted — i.e., fabricated by computer models — 20th century 'global warming' suddenly looks much more dramatic. This is especially noticeable on the US temperature records. The news media waves a shiny object to divert us from
Barack H. Obama's many scandals. Providing those distractions may be their primary mission! NASA: Humans on Mars by 2035 is 'primary focus'. "In the near term, Mars remains our primary focus," Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist said May 15 in a talk at the Royal Institution in London. [...] "I don't think that first group will necessarily stay there, but we need to think of this as establishing an outpost," she said. "We want it to be possible for those people to come back if they want to, but it's the beginning of sustained human presence on Mars." Stofan said the drive behind this huge undertaking is the fundamental question: "Are we alone?" NASA also plans to continue studying the moon and asteroids, she said. The Editor says... As NASA seeks next mission, Russia holds the trump card. As an uncommonly brisk night fell over Houston last week a tiny Russian spacecraft, bathed in blinding sunlight, re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and plunged toward a dusty steppe in Kazakhstan. Of the three astronauts inside one was American, Rick Mastracchio, returning from a 188-day stay aboard the International Space Station. His arrival was closely watched in Houston, where Johnson Space Center has responsibility for U.S. human operations in space. [...] Such is today's space Realpolitik that, while the United States paid for most of the $140 billion space station, launched nearly all of it into orbit, and controls most of its day-to-day operations from Houston, Russia still holds the trump card: access. "They have us right where they want us," said three-time NASA astronaut Mike Coats. Where no man has gone before. James Van Allen, after whom the radiation belt is named, asked in 2004 whether human spaceflight is a legacy dream, a survival of some outdated science-fiction notion, now overtaken by harsh reality. [...] He asks the obvious question: why bet on the loser, manned space flight when unmanned space has proved the winner? Russia to ban US from using Space Station over Ukraine sanctions. Russia is to deny the US future use of the International Space Station beyond 2020 and will also bar its rocket engines from launching US military satellites as it hits back at American sanctions imposed over Ukraine crisis. Russia's deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin announced a series of punitive measures on Tuesday [5/13/2014] against the US in response to sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea. The two countries have long cooperated closely on space exploration despite their clashes in foreign policy. The Space Station is manned by both American and Russian crew, but the only way to reach it is by using Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. As Obama tightens sanctions, Russia notes its control of U.S. space access. In the event of escalating sanctions, Russian diplomats promise a "tit for tat" exchange of punishments. Which might seem comical given Russia's relatively small economic power. Except for one major thing. Because Obama allowed the U.S. space shuttle program to die in 2011, scores of missions short of the crafts' designed lifespans, the only way for American astronauts to reach space and return now is in Soyuz spacecraft atop Russian rockets. This relinquished America's hard-won space superiority. Rocket Science: House Conservative Targets NASA's $3 million Spent to Find Intelligent Life ... in Congress? An Arizona conservative congressman is shining light on how President Barack Obama is using $3 million of taxpayer money to teach National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials how to lobby Congress. In the first of a series of efforts targeting wasteful government spending, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote to House Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) last week to pressure him to include language banning the Obama administration from spending money on the program. Nasa Cuts Ties With Russia Over Ukraine. Nasa employees cannot travel to Russia, host visitors, or email Russian counterparts, according to a memo sent out to workers. Activities relating to the International Space Station are exempt. In a statement Nasa said it will continue to work with Russia's space agency "to maintain safe and continuous operation" of the station. The Editor says... NASA Pays Russians $71 Million to Send American Astronaut into Space. President Obama cancelled NASA's $9 billion space program in 2010, which was set to build three new shuttles. "To people who are working on these programs, this is like a death in the family," NASA chief Charles Bolden said at the time. Bolden has expressed concern about relying on the Russians for space missions, and others are worried that current tensions with the country could leave American astronauts stranded in space. NASA launches a mission to measure snowpack in California, Colorado mountain ranges. The snowpack atop mountain peaks in California and Colorado has a new set of eyes watching from high above to better gauge the amount of water that will rumble down rivers and streams each spring as runoff. Here's How NASA Thinks Society Will Collapse. Few think Western civilization is on the brink of collapse — but it's also doubtful the Romans and Mesopotamians saw their own demise coming either. If we're to avoid their fate, we'll need policies to reduce economic inequality and preserve natural resources, according to a NASA-funded study that looked at the collapses of previous societies. [...] As limited resources plague the working class, the wealthy, insulated from the problem, "continue consuming unequally" and exacerbate the issue, the study said. The Editor asks... Our Comrades at NASA. You may well wonder just what NASA, (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is doing funding research on the decline of the Roman Empire when officially it is supposed to be responsible for America's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. Which Gov't Agency Is Becoming an 'Organ to Play the Music of Karl Marx'? Glenn Beck slammed NASA on his radio program Tuesday [3/18/2014], saying it should be "defunded right now" and is being fitted into an "organ to play the music of Karl Marx." Beck's ire centered around a study sponsored by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center claiming industrialized nations have created an unsustainable model doomed to implode, and the solution is to dramatically reduce resource consumption and income inequality. NASA is planning to make water and oxygen on the Moon and Mars by 2020. NASA is forging ahead with plans to make water, oxygen, and hydrogen on the surface of the Moon and Mars. If we ever want to colonize other planets, it is vital that we find a way of extracting these vital gases and liquids from moons and planets, rather than transporting them from Earth. The Editor says... NASA launches newest communication satellite. This newest $350 million satellite — which will work its way up from a temporarily low orbit — is designated "L" in the TDRS series. Nasa to try growing vegetables and herbs on the moon to see if humans could one day live there. Nasa is to try growing vegetables and herbs on the moon to see if humans could one day live there. The US space agency plans to send seeds to the moon in 2015 in sealed canisters containing everything that is needed for the seedlings to thrive. As well as ten seeds each of basil and turnips, there will also be around 100 seeds of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard. MAVEN takes off. Today [11/18/2013], NASA will launch a new mission — one that cost $671 million and has been in development for 10 years — to determine what happened to the water on Mars. [...] It could be that some of the missing water has been absorbed into the soil or simply frozen. But scientists are intrigued by another possibility — water on Mars may have evaporated and been lost to space. NASA Aims for Mars, With Robotic Maven Set to Soar. The Maven mission will cost $671 million over its entire lifetime. NASA launches new spacecraft to orbit Mars. You may have heard it before: Billions of years ago, Mars probably looked more like Earth does now, with clouds and oceans and a much thicker atmosphere. [...] So what happened? Where did the air and water go? [...] NASA says the mission will cost $671 million. The Editor says... It's Official! Voyager 1 Spacecraft Has Left [the] Solar System. A spacecraft from Earth has left its cosmic backyard and taken its first steps in interstellar space. After streaking through space for nearly 35 years, NASA's robotic Voyager 1 probe finally left the solar system in August 2012, a study published today (Sept. 12) in the journal Science reports. Voyager probe 'leaves Solar System'. Launched in 1977, Voyager was sent initially to study the outer planets, but then just kept on going. Today, the veteran Nasa mission is almost 19 billion km (12 billion miles) from home. This distance is so vast that it takes 17 hours now for a radio signal sent from Voyager to reach receivers here on Earth. Exiting the Solar System and Fulfilling a Dream. By today's standards, the spacecraft's technology is laughable: it carries an 8-track tape recorder and computers with one-240,000th the memory of a low-end iPhone. When it left Earth 36 years ago, it was designed as a four-year mission to Saturn, and everything after that was gravy. The Editor says... Google's Brin, Page lose Pentagon fuel subsidy on private jets. Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have lost a jet fuel perk, according to a new report. Google and the Pentagon inked a deal, which started in 2007, that let Google purchase fuel for its entire fleet — seven jets and two helicopters — at a discounted price from the US government, according to the Wall Street Journal. Google Jet Fleet Loses a Pentagon Fuel Perk. The agreement between the Google founders and the government, which started in 2007, ended Aug. 31 after officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — which sponsored the arrangement — opted not to renew it, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman. Man Made Climate Change Arguments Don't Survive Scrutiny. As an example, in 2006 NASA predicted sunspot cycle 24, the current cycle we're in now, would be the strongest in 300 years. The reality is that it will be the weakest in 100 years. They could not have been more wrong. Computer models from the 1990s predicted that global average surface temperature would continue to increase after the year 2000. They were wrong. There has been no measured temperature increase since 1998. Everything you need to know about LADEE, the thing NASA just sent to the moon. It's the first spacecraft designed and built by NASA's Ames Research Center and the first spacecraft to use a modular body. It's 7.7 feet high, 4.74 feet deep and wide, and powered by a bunch of solar cells mounted on the body. The Editor says... LADEE. The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) is designed to study the Moon's thin exosphere and the lunar dust environment. [...] Total mission cost is $263 million. Energy Department nominee struggled with financial management at NASA. Elizabeth Robinson, the woman President Obama has named to make the Energy Department's oft-criticized contracting more efficient, is leaving behind a trail of spending questions in her past job as NASA's chief financial officer. A Washington Times review of NASA inspector general reports finds the space agency struggled to achieve austerity under Ms. Robinson's financial leadership, as cost overruns grew sixfold from $50 million in 2009 to $315 million in 2012. Sounds like busy work to me. Caution: Chinese propaganda site. May not be factual. NASA Makes Another Useless Global Warming Prediction. A new NASA study says global warming could "increase the risk for extreme rainfall and drought." We've heard this sort of threat many times before and, no, there's nothing to see here. Another day, another pointless and expensive experiment. US won't be returning to moon, NASA chief says. "NASA is not going to the Moon with a human as a primary project probably in my lifetime," Bolden told a joint meeting of the Space Studies Board and the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board in Washington last week, according to Jeff Foust of SpacePolitics.com. "And the reason is, we can only do so many things." Instead, he said the focus would remain on human missions to asteroids and to Mars. Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer. NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator revealed Friday [4/5/2013]. The Editor says... This article makes no mention of lunar orbit, except in a photo caption. Treasonous Obama Strikes Again. The world is laughing at us. It has come to light that the Obama administration has allowed hundreds of Chinese nationals — who are closely associated with the Chinese Liberation Army — to work in a sensitive area of NASA's Langley Research Center. What could possibly go wrong? Here's what: one of these nationals, Bo Jiang, was arrested on Monday [3/18/2013] at Dulles International Airport for apparently attempting to take sensitive information out of the U.S. NASA's Chinese Spy Problem. Looks like
NASA is suffering from a massive infestation of Chinese spies. So, let me get this straight (and I'm not being funny here): NASA — Subjugated, "Repurposed" and Sleeping With Our Enemies. When Obama came into power over four years ago, I knew it was the opening volley of the destruction of much of what America holds dear. One of the first things he did was attack NASA. People may have forgotten the layoffs and changes in NASA. I haven't. Obama has overseen the Islamization of NASA with instructions to run a Mohammedan outreach program. He cut the Constellation program, intended to develop new rockets to carry people into space and the space shuttle program was mothballed — with a special dissing of Texas because they bucked Obama's EPA mandates. Stellar thuggery gone mad — space exploration, the Chicago way. FBI probe of defense tech allegedly leaked from NASA stonewalled, sources say. A four-year FBI investigation into the transfer of classified weapons technology to China and other countries from NASA's Ames Research Center is being stonewalled by government officials, sources tell FoxNews.com. Documents obtained by FoxNews.com, which summarize these and other allegations and were given to congressional sources last week by a whistle-blower, described how a "secret grand jury" was to be convened in February 2011 to hear testimony from informants in the case, including a senior NASA engineer. But federal prosecutor Gary Fry was removed from the case, which was then transferred from one office in the Northern District of California to another where, according to the documents, "this case now appears to be stalled." "The information is staggering," the whistle-blower told FoxNews.com. NASA spends your money on projects unrelated to space travel: NASA to smash two probes into the moon today. [Scroll down] This information will give scientists insights into what lies beneath the lunar surface, and in addition to enlightening us about the moon, it will tell us about the evolution of Earth and other rocky worlds in the inner solar system. NASA crashes two probes into a mountain on the moon. A pair of NASA moon-mapping probes smashed themselves into a lunar mountain on Monday [12/17/2012], ending a year-long mission that is shedding light on how the solar system formed. The Editor says... The Air Force has its own space program. NASA to send new rover to Mars in 2020. Most missions to Mars have failed, although there have been a handful of successful projects, including the Pathfinder, which landed in 1997 and the Spirit, which landed in 2004 and roamed the surface for six years before contact was lost. The $2.5 billion nuclear-powered Curiosity is designed to hunt for soil-based signatures of life on the Earth's nearest neighbor and send back data to prepare for a future human mission. The Editor says... Of Space and Men. With its moon mission accomplished, if NASA was to achieve the eternal life that Ronald Reagan identified, space travel needed to be cheaper. The answer appeared to be a reusable orbiter. The space shuttle promised, but it failed to deliver. Over its 30-year life, 135 missions have cost over $200 billion, two orbiters, and fourteen astronaut lives. Endeavour's final final approach. Interesting how attached humans can become to a machine with a name, as if it had a personality. Or, more likely, carried within it some of the peoples' hopes and dreams.This will never happen: NASA considers orbital outpost near moon as next big project. Top NASA officials have picked a leading candidate for the agency's next major mission: construction of an outpost that would send astronauts farther from Earth than they've ever been. Called the gateway spacecraft, it would hover in orbit on the far side of the moon, support a small crew and function as a staging area for future missions to the moon and Mars. Somebody doesn't know what unprecedented means. Illiteracy at NASA. Apparently NASA should start distributing dictionaries to the authors of its press releases. The chances of finding spontaneous life on any planet are practically zero. Doug Axe explains the chances of getting a functional protein by chance. The final probability of getting a functional protein composed of 100 amino acids is 1 in 10125. Even if you fill the universe with pre-biotic soup, and react amino acids at Planck time (very fast!) for 14 billion years, you are probably not going to get even one such protein. And you need at least 100 of them for minimal life functions, plus DNA and RNA. Boeing, SpaceX win $900 million in awards for spacecraft. The U.S. retired its shuttle fleet last year and relies on countries such as Russia to ferry astronauts and supplies to the International Space Station. The administration wants the private sector to take over those jobs so NASA can focus on missions to asteroids and Mars. NASA pays about $63 million per seat on Russian Soyuz spacecraft. In the private sector, this is called "outsourcing" and "shipping jobs overseas". NASA chief: U.S. won't go it alone on manned Mars mission. U.S. astronauts won't land on Mars by themselves but with international partners in the 2030s, NASA's chief said Wednesday. [...] Obama administration plans are for the $17.7 billion space agency to land an astronaut on an asteroid in 2025, then go to Mars by the middle of the 2030s. The mission inevitably will be international, as will any future human landings on the moon, [Charles] Bolden said. "We already have gone there first," he said. Arctic Ocean mega-bloom: Scientists' eyes popped and jaws dropped. The discovery of an "enormous, off-the-charts" bloom of microscopic marine plants in the Arctic has floored scientists. The Editor asks... What does that have to do with aeronautics and space? NASA gets two military spy telescopes for astronomy. The secretive government agency that flies spy satellites has made a stunning gift to NASA: two exquisite telescopes as big and powerful as the Hubble Space Telescope. They've never left the ground and are in storage in Rochester, N.Y. [...] The telescopes have been declassified, though they remain sufficiently sensitive that neither the NRO or NASA would provide a photograph of them. The Editor says... Last year's model, perhaps? These two have "never left the ground", they say, but how many others just like them are in orbit right now? Pentagon releases results of 13,000-mph test flight over Pacific. The results are in from last summer's attempt to test new technology that would provide the Pentagon with a lightning-fast vehicle, capable of delivering a military strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour. The Editor says... This "aeronautics and space" project apparently has no connection to NASA, which just goes to show that the development of spacecraft for national defense is being done by the U.S. military, and the frivolous use of space for "human cannonball" stunts is being done by NASA. NASA rocked by global warming rebellion. Fifty top astronauts, scientists and engineers at NASA have signed a letter asking the agency to cease its global warming buffoonery. The global warming emperor has no clothes, and people are finally saying so out loud and in public. Notrickzone brings us the entire letter, noting that the signers have a combined 1000 years of professional experience. Astronauts condemn NASA's global warming endorsement. In an unprecedented slap at NASA's endorsement of global warming science, nearly 50 former astronauts and scientists — including the ex-boss of the Johnson Space Center — claim the agency is on the wrong side of science and must change course or ruin the reputation of the world's top space agency. Challenging statements from NASA that man is causing climate change, the former NASA executives demanded in a letter to Administrator Charles Bolden that he and the agency "refrain from including unproven remarks" supporting global warming in the media. Former Astronauts Protest NASA's Global Warming Activism. With proponents of the theory that human activity is the cause of global warming becoming increasingly defensive of their flawed theory, the joint letter signed by NASA veterans — including several heroes of the space program — is one more blow to a theory which has been losing ground in the realm of public opinion. And the letter is particularly critical of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where both director Jim Hansen and climatologist Gavin Schmidt have been particularly vocal proponents of the theory of manmade climate change. NASA 1986: All Life Extinct In A Few Decades Due To Global Warming. Milwaukee Sentinel, June 11, 1986. If NASA has no official position on climate change, what is this? If NASA has no official position on climate change, as claimed to Andy Revkin by as-usual clueless Gavin Schmidt, what is this? "NASA Policy Statement — Adapting to a Changing Climate" (May 2011). Nasa scientist: climate change is a moral issue on a par with slavery. Averting the worst consequences of human-induced climate change is a "great moral issue" on a par with slavery, according to the leading Nasa climate scientist Prof Jim Hansen. He argues that storing up expensive and destructive consequences for society in future is an "injustice of one generation to others". NASA probe offers new view of Mercury. Mostly ignored since a brief fly-by in the 1970s, Mercury, our solar system's smallest, swiftest planet, received a longer house call last March: NASA's $450 million Messenger probe, which achieved orbit, a tricky feat never before attempted. The Editor says... The government took money out of your paycheck (under threat of imprisonment) to pay for this. How are you better off if we now have clearer pictures of Mercury? You aren't. A Year Later, Mysterious Space Plane Is Still in Orbit. The Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane gets more mysterious by the day. Designed to spend up to nine months on unspecified errands in Earth's orbit, the second copy of the Boeing-made craft, known as Orbital Test Vehicle 2, has now been in space for a year and two days — and is still going strong. The endurance milestone is unqualified good news for America's space force at a time when its funding and future missions are in doubt. There's just one thing. We still don't know exactly what the 30-foot-long X-37B is doing up there. Update: X-37B to land after a year in orbit. The plane resembles a mini space shuttle and is the second to fly in space. It was meant to land in March, but the mission of the X-37B orbital test vehicle was extended — for unknown reasons. Stolen NASA laptop contained the command codes to control the International Space Station. A laptop stolen from NASA contains the control codes used to command the International Space Station. The unencrypted laptop stolen last year is among dozens of mobile devices containing sensitive information that have been reported missing from the space agency, an internal investigation has found. Giving testimony on the space agency's security issues, NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin told Congress that 48 agency devices were lost or stolen over a two year period. [Emphasis added.] Stolen NASA laptop had Space Station control codes. A NASA laptop stolen last year had not been encrypted, despite containing codes used to control and command the International Space Station, the agency's inspector general told a US House committee. NASA IG Paul Martin said in written testimony (PDF) to the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology that a laptop was stolen in March 2011, which "resulted in the loss of the algorithms used to command and control the ISS". Obama's Budget Would Cut Mars Program, Solar System Exploration. The budget coming Monday [2/13/2012] from the Obama administration will send the NASA division that launches rovers to Mars and probes to Jupiter crashing back to Earth. Scientists briefed on the proposed budget said that the president's plan drops funding for planetary science at NASA from $1.5 billion this year to $1.2 billion next year, with further cuts continuing through 2017. Mars too dry for life. Life could not exist on the surface of Mars because the planet has experienced a 600 million year "super-drought", scientists claim. The Editor says... Good! Now we can stop sending expensive probes to Mars. Russia postpones two manned launches to International Space Station. Worrisome cracks in its spacecraft have forced Russia to postpone two manned launches to the International Space Station (ISS), the Interfax news agency reported Friday — echoing a 2011 situation that left the country's space transport vehicles grounded and led to speculation that scientists may be forced to abandon the orbiting space base. Red Flag on the Red Planet: China's Great Leap Marsward? American society is becoming increasingly risk-averse, fearful, and mistrustful of science and technology. Not surprisingly, public enthusiasm for America's space program is at an all-time low. Twin NASA Probes Have New Year's Date with the Moon. [Scroll down] While scientists focus on gravity, middle school students will get the chance to take their own pictures of the moon using cameras aboard the probes as part of a project headed by Sally Ride, the first American woman in space. There's already chatter about trying to extend the $496 million mission, which was slated to end before the partial lunar eclipse in June. NASA admits losing moon rocks. NASA's Inspector General says the US space agency seems to have misplaced some pieces of the moon, meteorites and other space items. NASA concedes that more than 500 pieces of space material have been stolen or been missing since 1970. That includes 218 stolen moon samples that were returned and about two dozen moon rocks and chunks of lunar soil that were reported lost last year. Have they checked eBay? Hundreds of NASA's moon rocks reported missing. The space agency has lost or misplaced more than 500 pieces of the lunar rocks and other space samples, NASA's inspector general reported Thursday [12/8/2011], making the case for better inventory controls. Astronauts on the Apollo moon landings from 1969 to 1972 returned 842 pounds of lunar rock and soil to Earth. The space agency now loans samples, along with meteorite and comet dust, to about 377 researchers worldwide. The space agency now lists 517 moon rock samples as missing or stolen. With discovery, NASA now on the road to finding Earth's twin. Our world felt a little less special on Monday, as NASA's Kepler mission announced the discovery of an "Earth-sized" planet orbiting a "sun-like" star. Yes, another one. But this new orb merits special status — because it's the first planet to be officially confirmed to exist in the so-called "habitable zone." It's an ideal size. It orbits just the right distance from its star, which is a lot like our own sun. The Editor says... The Earth is "a little less special" only to the godless left-wing fools who run NASA. The article above sounds as if it were written by NASA itself: "It orbits just the right distance from its star," etc. Oooo... It's just the right color and it all nice and round and everything. Absolute Certainty Is Not Scientific. One of the changes among scientists in this century is the increasing number who believe that one can have complete and certain knowledge. For example, Michael J. Mumma, a NASA senior scientist who has led teams searching for evidence of life on Mars, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, "Based on evidence, what we do have is, unequivocally, the conditions for the emergence of life were present on Mars — period, end of story." Liftoff! NASA mission heads to Mars, looking for life. The world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, NASA's Curiosity rover, rocketed toward Mars today [11/26/2011] on a search for evidence that the red planet might once have been home to itsy-bitsy life. The Editor says... This time, NASA says methane would be concrete proof of life on Mars. What are the chances of finding methane in the air if they can't find water on the ground? Why didn't they test for methane two or three probes ago, and how does the presence of methane prove anything? And how do we know there's not a little can of methane on the probe just in case they can't find any native methane? American astronaut hitches a ride on Russian rocket to space station. Not suprisingly, news that an American astronaut lifted off from Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in a Soyuz rocket along with two Russian cosmonauts was not given much publicity by our government. Obama readies to blast NASA. Word has leaked out that in its new budget, the Obama administration intends to terminate NASA's planetary exploration program. The Mars Science Lab Curiosity, being readied on the pad, will be launched, as will the nearly completed small MAVEN orbiter scheduled for 2013, but that will be it. No further missions to anywhere are planned. After running out of things to do... NASA rolls out Web-based game. NASA must think some people are interested in learning how astronauts, mission controllers and scientists communicate during space missions. The agency is rolling out a game called NetworKing that puts players in charge of building a fast and efficient communication network. U.S. Abandons Space. Not long ago, Capt. Shen Zhong of the Chinese Navy Research Institute said: "The mastery of outer space will be requisite for military victory, with outer space becoming the new venue for combat." Certainly the Chinese development of an operational anti-satellite program speaks to Beijing's view that space is not a demilitarized zone. The Editor says... Even if there are no U.S. astronauts in orbit, we have not abandoned space. There is still a lot of hardware in orbit, and unmanned rockets are launched periodically to add more. If there is a potential for warfare in space, that's a matter for the Air Force and the Army, not NASA. NASA's Fallen Satellite Highlights Human Fears. [Scroll down] Undoubtedly anyone who had just avoided being hit by a piece of satellite crashing to Earth should be warned about its potential for "sharp edges" — but the government's decision to send UARS plummeting into the atmosphere on an unknown trajectory sounds like the very definition of abandonment of property. The notion that the killjoys at NASA would insist on trying to pry fragments of their abandoned property from the hands people who had nearly become victims of their reckless practices for de-orbiting satellites is lost somewhere between humorous and positively insulting. The Wages of Terror. We may not have a space program anymore, but NASA has partnered with Saudi Arabia on "lunar and asteroid science research". The good news is that the Saudis can afford to buy us a new shuttle, so long as we don't let any women drive it. Will NASA Abandon Ship? Problems with the Russian crew rocket may force the space agency to abandon the space station. Prominent scientist pleads guilty to attempted espionage. Stewart Nozette, once a prominent scientist for NASA who served on the Space Council under President George H.W. Bush, pleaded guilty Wednesday [9/7/2011] to attempted espionage, a case that attracted widespread notice but began as a seemingly routine fraud investigation. Obama's Creepy Agency Creep. In a much-reported event, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration revealed that its "foremost" mission is to improve relations with the Muslim world. Note the complete and obvious lack of intersection between the words "aeronautics/space" and "Islam/outreach." Nonetheless, President Obama decided that such outreach logically followed the space shuttle, Hubble, Rover, and space station successes. In a more recent drift from core competencies, NASA chief Charles Bolden played politics by steering the shuttle museum decision away from Republican-dominated Houston, home of the shuttle program and most of its astronauts. Obama Administration: Lost in Space. Astronauts are stranded on the space station. America's once-mighty Space Shuttle fleet has been disassembled and mothballed with nothing to replace it. The Russians, once the inferior player in the space race, is the only hope left to rescue the stranded astronauts. Aliens May Strike Humans To Save The Galaxy: Study. Beyond endangering the earthly inhabitants, humans may have posed a serious threat to the entire galaxy, possibly prompting aliens to destroy humanity in order to end global warming and save the rest of the galaxy from being contaminated as well. Surprisingly, the suggestion comes from one of NASA's scientists. The Shuttle: a journey through space and time that took us nowhere. The Shuttle story should really be titled "Lost in Space". About $210 billion went towards a programme born of fantasy. The story came to an end because the American government finally accepted what experts realised at the beginning: strip away the drama of manned space travel, and the Shuttle is an expensive and complicated way to provide what should be a cheap and simple service. NASA: Muslim world here we come. Now that the space shuttle program has been retired, NASA can start focusing on its primary mission: reaching out to the Muslim world. Soyuz carrying Furukawa blasts off for ISS. [Satoshi Furukawa] is the third Japanese to spend an extended period of time at the space station. Also on his task list at the ISS are zero-gravity experiments, including making green tea, trying out "suminagashi" Japanese ink marbling and growing cucumbers. The Editor says... In other words, they sent him up there with nothing to do. Boeing lays off 260 shuttle workers in Houston. Boeing today [6/3/2011] sent layoff notices to 510 employees — including 260 in Houston — involved in space shuttle work. The notices give 60 days advance notice of an expected job elimination. Harrison Schmitt Proposes Dismantling of NASA and Creation of a New Agency. When a new President takes office in 2013, he or she should propose to Congress that we start space policy and its administration from scratch. Federally Funded NASA 'Educates' Children About Global Warming on 'Climate Kids' Web Site. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Web site network includes "Climate Kids: NASA's Eyes on the Earth," which use cartoons, games, and other activities to teach children about man-made global warming and climate change. According to NASA's budget request for fiscal year 2012, totaling $18.7 billion, the agency would dedicate $145.8 million to educational programs. The "Climate Kids" site is supported through NASA's educational programs, according to a spokesman with the agency. NASA Over a Russian Barrel. The Russians are asking exorbitant fees to transport our astronauts to the space station while preventing American private companies from doing the job. Adventures in Federal Budget Cutting. [Scroll down] Though a space scientist, I have never actually worked for NASA, but was considered for the position of chief scientist by NASA heads Jim Fletcher in 1989 and by Mike Griffin in 2001. But perhaps my views about certain NASA programs had become known to them. I have always considered the International Space Station as a big 'White Elephant' — and the manned-moon base of George Bush the elder and George W. Bush an even bigger disaster. Needless to say, I did not get the NASA job. I still consider the space station to be a fairly useless enterprise. Space isn't a jobs program. In the most austere fiscal climate in memory, Congress refuses to be serious about space policy. When the Obama administration, based on recommendations from a blue-ribbon panel in 2009, proposed cancellation of the overbudget, behind-schedule, underperforming Constellation program a year ago, its decision was hamstrung by wording that Congress had added to legislation that prevented NASA from shutting down any aspect of it. As a result, the space agency, like other government programs, has been forced to continue spending hundreds of million dollars on a program that most, including many in Congress, now agree will not move forward in its present form. $424 million dumped in the ocean. NASA Satellite Rocket Launch Fails, Lands In Ocean. A rocket carrying an Earth-observation satellite plummeted into the Pacific Ocean after a failed launch attempt Friday [3/4/2011], the second-straight blow to NASA's weakened environmental monitoring program. Another Climate Fail for NASA. The earth observation satellite Glory failed to reach orbit on Friday [3/4/2011] after its protective cover did not detach following its launch, a NASA official said. "The fairing did not separate and the vehicle does not have sufficient velocity with the fairing on to achieve orbit," an official said on NASA TV, adding that there was "no indication as to why it did not separate." Eerie Coincidences in Failure of NASA Climate Monitoring Satellites. [Scroll down] Just a little over two years ago, on February 24th, 2009, a Taurus assigned to deliver the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) met exactly the same fate, and the two lost satellites are probably sitting on the ocean floor not far from each other. After that failure, OSC [Orbital Sciences Corporation] conducted an investigation to determine its cause. Apparently, that investigation failed as well, because if they had discovered and fixed the problem, it's unlikely it would have happened again on Friday. Lawmakers questions NASA's budget proposal. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle criticized NASA's fiscal 2012 budget proposal this week for diverting funding from manned spaceflight towards boosting the commercial space industry. Increased air traffic may be a factor in climate change. Wispy white jet contrails are a familiar sight, a sign of today's considerable air traffic, and to some people, a visible reminder of environmental threat. The trails — formed when moisture condenses around aircraft engine exhaust — create cirrus clouds that block solar energy from above and trap heat below. They may be contributing to warming of the Earth's surface temperature, NASA studies show. Obama Administration Unilaterally Limiting U.S. Space Development, Ceding to China. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates just finished explaining how the U.S. needs to suit up for future space wars, so naturally the Russians are pushing for us to forgo developing our space assets, promising they'll follow along. Now the problem with striking arms deals with the Russians is that they cheat. Congress to NASA: Study Space! (Not Climate.) The amount of money being spent to study global warming, as a percentage of NASA's budget, is startling — especially when one considers this is not part of NASA's original mission. In budget year 2010, NASA spent 7.5% of its funding — over $1B — to study global warming. On top of that — the vast majority of federal stimulus money given to NASA in 2010 was spent on studying global warming. As a whole, the U.S. federal government has spent $8.7 billion dollars on global warming studies — just in the past year! Many of the sixteen separate agencies doing this work were performing redundant research. In a time of federal spending cuts that are sure to come, much of this redundancy certainly can and must be eliminated, saving taxpayers billions. NASA launches search for 'moon trees'. The agency announced last week that it is still searching for several hundred "moon trees" grown from seeds carried aboard the Apollo 14 command module that orbited the moon in 1971. Part science experiment, part public relations campaign, the idea was to see whether space flight affected their ability to sprout. The Editor says... The seeds orbited the moon before they sprouted. So what? Unless you're extraordinarily superstitious about the moon, how does that add any value to the trees? NASA extremist advocates U.S. decline. Consider James E. Hansen, director of the taxpayer-funded NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Last week, blogger Marc Morano discovered a Nov. 24 blog post by Mr. Hansen calling on China to lead an international effort to impose fees on carbon-dioxide emissions, then lead the World Trade Organization to allow import fees on goods from any county — with the U.S. being the target — without such fees. The goal would be to punish America, causing "continual descent into second-rate and third-rate economic well-being," until the "fossil-money- 'democracy'" no longer "rules the roost in Washington." Mr. Hansen also praised communist Chinese leadership for "tak[ing] the long view ... in contrast to the West with its [lamentably] short election cycles." The Tom Friedman of Climatology. One of the striking features of our political era is that increasing numbers of liberals are coming out of the closet as enemies of the Constitution and of democracy. The latest is James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Hansen is, to be blunt, an awful human being and one of the worst of the global warming fraudsters. Under his guidance, NASA's data have become so unreliable as to be an embarrassment to any scientists who may still be in the picture. One giant leap from a lake to a lapse. The news is buzzing with headlines like "Arsenic eating bacteria suggests extraterrestrial life possible," the headlines are not on the Enquirer at the checkout line, they are coming from NASA. NASA pushes for a green jetliner. They might be best known for space travel, but the folks at NASA are determined to shape the future of commercial aviation. The agency says airliners need to be quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient. To attain those goals, NASA handed out nearly $6 million in contracts this week to two defense industry giants: Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. The Editor says... Nothing in the Constitution authorizes the funding of basic scientific research, and nothing in the Constitution permits the federal government to meddle in the operation of lawful private businesses. If the airlines consider projects of this sort to be necessary, let them foot the bill. Remember, NASA has no money of its own. That was your money they gave away! With NASA Budget, Time for Republicans To Be ... Republicans. Part of the mythology of the agency is that it is somehow important to national security for NASA to have its own unique means of getting astronauts into space. Some (and even some who should know better, on the Hill) imagine that it's literally true, in the sense that there are secret military missions performed by NASA astronauts (there aren't). Others see it as symbolic, harkening back to Apollo when it was a matter of international prestige in an existential Cold War with the Soviets. The Future Of NASA and A "Moon Shot" At The Economy. Since the Apollo program ended and the shuttle program began, astronauts have been going only on orbital missions, launching and servicing satellites, and building the hugely expensive space station which seems to be used more by the Russians than the U.S. What new innovations, discoveries, or developments have come from the space station program? Maybe occasionally they use it for something useful but mostly it's just a waste of money and was primarily built for political purposes to give Russia and the U.S. common grounds for working together after the cold war. NASA previews its sexiest Mars Rover yet. JPL scientists allowed a sneak peak Thursday at "Curiosity," the $2.3-billion generation-next of Mars rovers that has scientists both elated and tense as they draw near its 2011 launch date. A candy-coated suicide mission: The Hundred Year Starship. Nasa is planning an audacious mission to send a manned spacecraft on a one-way trip to permanently settle on other planets. The ambitious idea is known as the Hundred Years Starship and would send astronauts to colonise planets like Mars, knowing they could never come home. Does the 'S' In NASA Suddenly Stand for 'Stupid'? The latest example of the brainless void in the Obama administration (no, not Joe Biden this time) comes directly from the head of NASA. The space agency's Administrator Charles Bolden said recently that the "foremost" mission of our space agency was to make Muslims feel good about stuff they did hundreds of years ago. It's not an accident. Bolden had been in Cairo promoting this stupidity, following up on Obama's speech a year ago catering to the Muslim world. NASA's Muslim outreach: Al Jazeera was told first. Lawmakers across Capitol Hill, both Democrats and Republicans, were surprised to learn recently that the Obama administration has made reaching out to Muslim nations a top priority for the space agency NASA. They will probably be more surprised to learn that administration officials told the Middle East news organization Al Jazeera about it before they told Congress. President Dogbert. Set aside whatever you are thinking now about making Muslim nations feel good. If this was the new NASA administrator's "mission," how is it discernible from, say, a mission that could be assigned to the Secretary of Education? Couldn't General Bolden accomplish his mission without even having to put anything or any person into space ever again? This "mission" has the earmarks of the bad mission statements I recall from my tenure as a cubicle-dweller: It is a "save the world" (and its children and Muslims) mission, and it has nothing specific to do with NASA itself. It could apply equally to the Dept. of Education, the Dept. of Energy, or the Dept. of Agriculture. Farewell to Space. Just when you thought Barack Obama's toadying to Islam could not get any worse, now comes this: The President directed the new administrator of NASA, retired Marine Major General Charles Bolden, as "perhaps [his] foremost" charge to "find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage more dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science... and math and engineering." One Giant Leap (Backward). "Waste anything but time." That was the motto of the teams behind NASA's Apollo missions. That spirit has long since evaporated. Today's NASA is pulled by a million missions, from improving education and spinning off more products like Tang to its latest call of duty: telling Muslims how good they are at math. ... We've gone from "waste anything but time" to "waste everything, especially time" in about a generation. The NASA-Muslim Outreach Story 'Has Not Made the Cut'. Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the New York Times: 0. • Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program in the Washington Post: 0. • Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on NBC Nightly News: 0. • Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on ABC World News: 0. • Total words about the NASA Muslim outreach program on CBS Evening News: 0. The Distance NASA Travelled Over 48 Years. [Scroll down] One listens to this interview and remembering this is the United States of America we are talking about, one is tempted to say the piece is an absolutely nutty story, one wants to say it is ridiculous, even bizarre, a fraud. Then one realizes it is real, it is where we have traveled in the last 48 years, and one shudders. Allah's final frontier. What's unclear is what Mr. Bolden believes the United States has to gain by reaching out to a part of the world that has been technologically stagnant for centuries. The Muslim world has nothing to offer the United States as a space-faring nation. If anything, America should be discouraging Middle East space programs. Iran has the most advanced space initiative in the region and claimed to have launched a satellite in February. It's a short step from putting satellites in space to being able to do the same with warheads. U.S. Space Program Bows To Mecca. At a time when the only missile programs in the Arab world, namely in Syria and Iran, are aimed at hitting Israel with chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, NASA administrator Charles Bolden goes on Al Jazeera to tell the Muslim world his "foremost" goal was to make them feel good about their achievements in math, science and engineering. Citing the International Space Station as an example, Bolden described space travel as an international collaboration of which Muslim nations must be a part. Obama Making Carter Years look Like Paradise. The United States government and some in media seem obsessed with appeasing anybody and anything Islamic. Only the latest example is the decree from NASA that its "foremost" mission is to recognize and appreciate the contributions of Muslims to science. The Right Stuff Goes Wrong. The president and Bolden think it will improve relations with the Muslim world if we praise them for their work in math and science many centuries ago, but what has the Muslim world done for humanity lately? Muslim pandering 'not good for the country'. A conservative media watchdog thinks the mainstream media has virtually ignored the NASA administrator's recent outlandish statement that the "foremost" mission of the space agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden made that announcement on the English language version of Al Jazeera, which Jeff Poor of the Media Research Center's Business and Media Institute believes was a questionable move in and of itself. The White House backpedals at full speed: Muslim Outreach Not the Job of NASA, White House Says. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday [7/12/2010] that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden must have misspoken when he told Al Jazeera last month that one of his top priorities is to reach out to Muslim countries. "That was not his task and that's not the task of NASA," Gibbs said. Bolden, though, said last month in the interview that it was President Obama who gave him that task. He made a similar claim in February. White House denies NASA remark on Muslim outreach. The White House is contradicting the NASA administrator's claim that President Barack Obama assigned him to reach out to Muslims on science matters. In Search of Islam's Contributions. NASA administrator Charles Bolden gave an interview in late June to Al Jazeera television and told the Arabic-language news network that before he took his new job, Obama told him that "perhaps" his "foremost" duty was "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering." This is ludicrous. It is not our government's job to make foreigners feel good about themselves. Norm Augustine's Subversive Agenda. To commemorate the first anniversary of Barack Obama's Cairo speech, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, interviewed on al Jazeera TV, said that one of his foremost responsibilities was improving relations in the Muslim world by highlighting their contributions to math, science and engineering, thereby making them feel better. Notwithstanding that Muslims abroad learned of this outreach before the Americans who will fund it did, while your first instinct may be to focus on the emotional aspects of using taxpayer-funded NASA to enhance public relations with Muslims, a sizable majority of whom hate us, we must look at the totality of what Barack Obama is doing to America's military and space programs and how those actions are intertwined, before the national security implications become apparent. NASA's Final Frontier. Once upon a time, NASA led America's great ascent into the final frontier. But in a stunning case of misplaced priorities, the space agency now seems to be primarily concerned with raising Muslim self esteem. NASA Outreach Program 'Confirmed' Despite White House Denial, Rep Says. The White House is disavowing a plan to have NASA conduct outreach to Muslim countries, but a congressman who talked to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about that plan last month said the initiative was very real until somebody slammed the brakes on it. Rep. Pete Olson, ranking Republican on the Space and Aeronautics House Subcommittee, told FoxNews.com that Bolden described the outreach program as part of the administration's space plan during a conversation they had in June. What Muslim Scientific Achievements? [Scroll down] Walid Phares, an author and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted that the U.S. shouldn't "be in the business of bringing religion, Islam or other to space development." ... "This is a ridiculous concept. Those who enter a spaceship are humans not members of religious sects. I think what lays behind this medieval perception of space technology is a policy of partnership with Islamist regimes, most of which are oppressive of their own people." More about Obama and the Muslims. This is a man with very little work to do: Holdren: US Must Prepare for Asteroid. If an asteroid were on a collision course with Earth, would we be ready to defend against its destructive impact or would we be helpless and defenseless? NASA, America's space agency, is being charged with leading the way to protect not only the U.S. but the entire world in the event of such a horrifying scenario. Now that global warming has fizzled, let's move on to the next crisis. Climate Alarmism Takes Off in a New Direction. NASA has just voiced its concern over the threat that our modern technological society is now facing from "solar storms." Now it's true of course, that our society has become quite dependent on new technology, such as satellite communications and GPS mapping, that is vulnerable to the effects of major solar storms, but NASA seems to be a bit too worried about how big the threat really is. One Giant Leap for Commercial Space. While the Obama administration shuts down the Shuttle and the Constellation programs, commercial space firms are stepping into the void. NASA's mission to nowhere. In a speech given at the Kennedy Space Center last month, President Obama reaffirmed his administration's decision to cancel Constellation, NASA's program to create new vehicles for human flights to the moon and Mars. If implemented, this decision will guarantee a decade of non-achievement by NASA's human spaceflight program, at a cost of more than $100 billion. NASA accused of 'Climategate' stalling. The man battling NASA for access to potential "Climategate" e-mails says the agency is still withholding documents and that NASA may be trying to stall long enough to avoid hurting an upcoming Senate debate on global warming. Did someone mention ClimateGate? CEI's NASA global warming lawsuit. In case you missed this item on Thursday [5/27/2010], the Competitive Enterprise Institute is suing NASA over its failure to respond to requests made under the Freedom of Information Act going back to 2007. Obama Space. [Scroll down] Why are they doing this? I haven't a clue. The real disappointment is that they choose to decentralize and privatize manned space flight while doing everything humanly possible to take over and control the rest of the American economy. My guess is that the $19-billion NASA budget is not large enough to warrant their interest and that most of the manned space flight activities are conducted in "Red States." U.S. military launch space plane on maiden voyage. A top secret space plane developed by the US military has blasted off from Cape Canaveral on its maiden voyage. Billed as a small shuttle, the unmanned X-37B heralds the next generation of space exploration. It will be the first craft to carry out an autonomous re-entry in the history of the US programme. But its mission — and its cost — remain shrouded in secrecy. A weapon that can strike anywhere on Earth in 30 minutes. Call it a reusable space vehicle. Call it a space plane. But whatever you do, just don't call it a space weapon. That's the message from the Air Force after last week's launch of its X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which can stay on orbit up to 270 days. The Air Force won't say what, exactly, the robotic space plane will be doing there, how long it will linger this time, or even how much it costs. The Editor says... All that secrecy can only mean one thing: It's a weapon. Nasa: Evidence of life on Mars. NASA scientists last night unveiled compelling evidence of life on Mars. A special mission to the Red Planet has revealed the likely presence of a form of pond scum — the building blocks of life as we know it. The Editor says... I wonder why we're only hearing about this "discovery" in a British tabloid. And what exactly is a "special mission"? Losing it in space. Rather than reaching toward the stars, America's premier scientific organization has settled its sights on studying shrimp schools beneath the Antarctic ice cap and sticky accelerators on Toyotas. Hiding NASA Decline. The agency that put Americans on the moon can't tell you the temperature that day. It isn't returning to the moon, but it will fix the brakes on your car. Two senators want to know what's going on. NASA chief vows help for Florida employees. NASA chief Charles Bolden on Wednesday [2/24/2010] outlined plans to help the Kennedy Space Center and Florida's aerospace workers through the cancellation of the back-to-the-moon program — without mentioning comparable assistance for Houston's Johnson Space Center. Turning NASA into a Global Alarmism and Scares Administration: The president's budget gives the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a hefty $6 billion budget increase over the next five years, with nearly $2.5 billion dedicated to research on global climate change. ... It is activism, not science, that the Obama administration's vast new funding will encourage. To Boldly Go Nowhere: NASA Foregoes Moon, Concentrates on 'Global Warming'. [Scroll down] The President of the United States, according to [a] story in the Orlando Sentinel, doesn't seem to share that sense of wonder or to understand the educational, societal and economic value that comes along with indulging natural human curiosity about the universe we live in. If he has his way, Obama will replace the sonorous call to "boldly go where no man has gone before" with a mere murmur, to blandly study what everyone has been studying for years. The Atheist-Dominated National Academy of Sciences. It is important for us to understand the mindset of the hierarchy of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) because they are the ones whose alleged expertise on "global warming" will justify the Democrats' cap-and-tax legislation. Over the last 50 years, the NAS hierarchy has become one of the most poisonous organizations in America, a nest of atheists who base their pseudo-scientific dogma on the arbitrary rejection of God, and not upon empirical evidence and the scientific method. NASA chief: Mars is our mission. NASA's emerging exploration plan will call for safely sending humans to Mars, possibly by the 2030s, and de-emphasize exploration of the moon, the agency's leader said Tuesday [2/9/2010]. Panel Says NASA Needs To Privatize. A blue-ribbon panel said Tuesday [9/8/2009] that a lack of financing has left NASA's current space program on an "unsustainable trajectory" and that the Obama administration should consider using private companies to launch people into low-Earth orbit. The panel, convened in May in response to a request by President Obama, delivered an executive summary of its report to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. The full report is expected later this month. This report is dubious at best: India's lunar mission finds evidence of water on the Moon. Dreams of establishing a manned Moon base could become reality within two decades after India's first lunar mission found evidence of large quantities of water on its surface. Data from Chandrayaan-1 also suggests that water is still being formed on the Moon. Scientists said the breakthrough — to be announced by Nasa at a press conference today [9/24/2009] — would change the face of lunar exploration. The Editor asks... Large quantities of water, really? If you paid any attention in high school, you may remember that the moon has no atmosphere, so if there is a puddle of water, it sits in a vacuum, and must endure an average daytime temperature of about 107°C. (Remember what happens at 100°C.?) A pond or a lake would last about half an hour under those conditions. If there are large quantities of water on the moon, why has no probe detected them until now, and why are there no clouds around the moon? And really, "water is still being formed on the Moon"? It is being formed out of what? Could this report be any more absurd? 40 years later, the moon landings have unintended consequences. Plan to Combat Global Warming? Pie in the Sky. Whenever you hear a politician start a sentence with, "If we can put a man on the moon...," grab your wallet. For years, Democrats, enthralled by the cargo cult of the Kennedy presidency, have used the moon landing as proof that no big government ambition is beyond our reach. ... The problem with the "if we can put a man on the moon, we can certainly spend trillions on this or that" formulation is that it sees political and scientific accomplishments as interchangeable. NASA's mission to bomb the Moon. The LCROSS mission will blast off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a missile that will blast a hole in the lunar surface at twice the speed of a bullet. The missile, a Centaur rocket, will be steered by a shepherding spacecraft that will guide it towards its target — a crater close to the Moon's south pole. Scientists expect the blast to be so powerful that a huge plume of debris will be ejected. The Editor says... In all likelihood this explosive long-distance exploration will probably accomplish little or nothing. How many billions of dollars will be thrown away on fireworks shows of this kind, before the general public complains about the waste of their money? Wanted: A Space Program with a Vision. In 1993, when the space station was on the verge of being canceled, it was saved by only one vote in Congress, and then only because the Clinton administration converted it to a foreign-aid program for the Russians. This explains much of the quandary in which we remain today; in which we are dependent on them for a lifeboat to get us to the Space Station and for actual access to it after the Shuttle retires next year, if current policy follows through. Earth bears scars of human destruction: astronaut. [In July 2009, the Endeavour] astronauts delivered a Japanese-built experiment platform, installed new batteries for the station's solar power system and stashed spare parts to keep the station operational after shuttles are retired next year after seven more flights. The $100 billion station, a project of 16 nations, is nearing completion after more than a decade of work. Astronaut's underwear an endeavor of its own. In what might embarrass less adventurous souls, astronaut Koichi Wakata is returning to Earth with the pairs of underwear he wore for a solid month during his space station stay so that scientists can check them out. They are experimental high-tech undies, designed in Japan to be odor free. The Editor says... Was it necessary for this man to be in orbit to test his underwear? Is this going to be called a beneficial by-product of space travel, even though it could have been accomplished on the ground? Are experiments of this sort really worth 18 billion dollars a year? NASA employee speaks out on 'Pride Month'. A NASA employee is voicing concern over a recent email and memo from her supervisors. The controversial memo was sent out by NASA officials to employees and encouraged them to celebrate "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month," in accordance with a presidential proclamation. NASA officials not only encouraged employees to celebrate the pro-homosexual observance, but also encouraged them to participate in pride events in their communities. If there was no such event in their community, employees were encouraged to start one. NASA chief tells employees to celebrate gay pride month. The Catholic News Agency reported this morning [6/12/2009] that National Aeronautics and Space Administration's acting Chief Christopher J. Scolese sent an internal communication to all employees at the space agency directing them to organize and participate in Gay Pride Month celebrations. Family Advocates Baffled as NASA Celebrates Homosexual "Pride" Month. Pro-family advocates are charging The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with having gone "completely-off mission" with its decision to officially promote homosexual rights. ... "LGBT Pride Month is a reflection of NASA's commitment to inclusiveness across the broad spectrum of our workforce," said NASA's Acting Administrator Christopher J. Scolese. NASA goes 'completely off-mission' with LGBT Pride Month, critic charges. [Scroll down] John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, said [Christopher J.] Scolese's announcement was "stunning" and charged that it promoted activities which "'celebrate' aberrant forms of sexual conduct." He called the action "completely off-mission" and counterproductive to the best interests of children, families and "the common good of society." ... He said the action breeds "bad internal morale" and disrespects the consciences of "tens of thousands, if not the vast majority, of NASA's own 300,000 employees" who object to "the promotion of sexual activism." NASA: A Scientific Organization or a Political One? NASA is wasting time, energy and taxpayer dollars promoting an immoral, unnatural and unhealthy sexual behavior, something that — if they really wanted to do a public service — they would discourage along with other self-destructive unhealthy behaviors. NASA is launching a telescope to find Earth-like planets. The universe may be filled with Earth-like planets — worlds where extraterrestrials might flourish. But these planets were once considered too small to spot, even with the latest in space technology. Now, many astronomers believe NASA's $600 million Kepler telescope, which is scheduled to shoot into space this week, will help to clear up the mystery. NASA Satellites Get 'Counterfeit' Parts; Taxpayers Pay. Maybe it was something he didn't mean to say. Or maybe NASA has a problem. At a House subcommittee hearing on NASA's cost overruns, the agency's acting administrator, Christopher Scolese, was asked why it is that so many space projects fail to stick to their budgets. He listed a variety of reasons, including management mistakes, bad planning or the sheer complexity of missions that have never been tried before. And then he said, as one extra point, that some spacecraft are built with parts that turn out to be "counterfeit." Bolden Is Tapped to Run NASA. President Barack Obama picked former astronaut and retired Marine Corps Gen. Charles Bolden Jr. to head the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, but controversy over his background and NASA's future direction could complicate his job. Obama offers extra $1.4B for lunar missions. Efforts to return to the moon are supported by the Obama White House, and NASA will receive $1.4 billion extra next fiscal year for a variety of lunar missions, a preview of the new administration's first federal budget showed Thursday. The White House released a bare outline for the $3.55 trillion federal spending plan that includes a recommendation of $18.7 billion for NASA. On the other hand... NASA may abandon plans for moon base. NASA will probably not build an outpost on the moon as originally planned, the agency's acting administrator, Chris Scolese, told lawmakers on Wednesday [4/29/2009]. His comments also hinted that the agency is open to putting more emphasis on human missions to destinations like Mars or a near-Earth asteroid. H.R.1: The House's Pig Pen. [Excerpt from NASA's requests:] $400,000,000 — Science (not less than $250,000,000 "shall be solely for accelerating the development of the tier 1 set of Earth science climate research missions); $150,000,000 — Aeronautics; $50,000,000 — Cross Agency Support Programs (restoration and mitigation of NASA infrastructure and facilities damaged during 2008 disasters). The Editor says... It sounds like NASA is moving away from space exploration and turning into an employment agency for environmentalists. Martian Methane Suggest Solar-Induced Global Warming. A group associated with NASA`s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, using NASA`s Infrared Telescope Facility at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii discovered plumes of methane in the Martian atmosphere over several seasons of observations. Methane is a gas normally produced by biological or volcanic processes-something not believed possible on Mars, which is considered both biologically and geologically dead. The Editor says... If Mars is considered dead, why are we spending billions to send probes there? Nasa rocket crash is big setback to knowledge of climate change. The satellite, which was the first Nasa had dedicated to measuring the greenhouse gas from space, was expected to transform science's grasp of the "carbon sinks" in soil, forests and oceans that absorb CO2 and keep much of it out of the atmosphere. Its observations were considered crucial both to predicting future carbon dioxide levels and to developing strategies for protecting the sinks that hold back its damaging effects. Nasa's £190m 'global warming' satellite crashes. Nasa scientists were left red-faced today after a £190 million rocket carrying a global warming satellite crashed into the ocean near Antarctica. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory was the agency's first attempt to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide from space and was designed make climate change models more accurate. Professor, Wife Accused of Defrauding NASA of Hundreds of Thousands of Taxpayer Dollars. The FBI and NASA are investigating a University of Florida professor and his wife for allegedly defrauding NASA out of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for their own personal use. Iranian-born Samim Anghaie, 59, is the Director of the Innovative Nuclear Space Power and Propulsion Institute at the University of Florida. His wife, 55-year-old Sousan Anghaie, is president of New Era Technology Inc. (NETECH) in Gainesville, Fla. Conspiracy theorists spot 'timber plank' on Mars. An image sent back from the Red Planet has revealed an object bearing an uncanny resemblance to a wooden log. It was captured by the Mars Rover near the Endurance Crater. ... [However], there is no scientific evidence of any macroscopic plant life on Mars and the vista in the image is one of a vast and desolate desert. What are the chances? U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide. In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite ran into each other Tuesday [2/10/2009] above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today. The international space station does not appear to be threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other military or civilian satellites. Big Communication Satellites Crash 500 Miles Above Siberia. Scientists are keeping a close eye on orbital debris created when two communications satellites — one American, the other Russian — smashed into each other hundreds of miles above the Earth. NASA said it will take weeks to determine the full magnitude of the unprecedented crash and whether any other satellites or even the Hubble Space Telescope are threatened. Thousands of fragments spread from satellite wreck. A high-speed collision between American and Russian satellites in one of the most congested regions of space was bound to happen and has significantly increased the floating pools of debris above the Earth, experts said Thursday. "The debris cloud created by this collision is like a shotgun blast," said David Wright, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program. Space Laws: Space is governed by laws, too. Today in Popular Mechanics, Glenn Reynolds gives an overview about space laws — what he calls "rules of the road" for space. But he also explains how certain "standards of practice" have not yet been written, most having to do with space debris. When the laws governing space were written forty years ago, who would have every thought there would be so many satellites roaming overhead? The Law of Space Collisions: International Rule Above the Earth. When two satellites collided on Wednesday nearly 500 miles over Siberia, the first thought for NASA scientists was to assess the effects space debris would have on the International Space Station. Now that the ISS has been deemed out of harm's way, damages are being assessed. The question now turns to who pays for damages in space. Astronauts vow remaining tool bag won't drift away. Astronauts vowed to double-check, even triple-check, to make sure a bag of tools is properly tied down during a spacewalk Thursday [11/20/2008] so it doesn't float away like one did earlier this week. ... The bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalking astronaut, and NASA guessed it cost about $100,000. Update: Tool Bag Lost In Space Meets Fiery End. A tool bag lost by a spacewalking astronaut last year met its fiery demise in Earth's atmosphere Monday [8/3/2009] after months circling ever closer to the planet. The $100,000 tool bag plunged toward Earth and burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere, according to the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center tracking it and more than 19,000 other pieces of space junk in orbit today from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Space station's remodeling will fix water supply — but don't ask. Time for a remodeling job for the International Space Station. At 10 years old, it needs more bedrooms, another kitchen and bathroom and a more reliable water supply — though one that might make most folks squirm a bit. Top priority for the Endeavour crew, poised to lift off Friday night from Florida for a 15-day mission: installing hardware designed to recycle urine into drinking water. New NASA capsule Orion resembles Apollo. The agency unveils the test module for structural testing at Edwards Air Force Base. The capsule, designed to carry humans to the moon, looks a lot like the one that first did so four decades ago. NASA can't reach Mars lander, ends mission. NASA scientists said on Monday they could no longer communicate with the Phoenix Mars Lander and were calling an effective end to its five-month-plus mission on the Red Planet. Mission engineers last received a signal from the lander on November 2, the space agency said. NASA's Ares V may crush Kennedy crawlerway. The budget for NASA's Constellation programme — comprising the Orion and Ares vehicles — looks like it may have run to a few billion cubic metres of road surfacing after the agency admitted the Kennedy Space Center crawlerway over which spacecraft are trundled to their launchpads could collapse under the weight of the Ares V heavy lifter. This is tabloid journalism at its most doubtful. Life on Mars. Alien microbes living just below the Martian soil are responsible for a haze of methane around the Red Planet, Nasa scientists believe. The gas, belched in vast quantities in our world by cows, was detected by orbiting spacecraft and from Earth using giant telescopes. The Editor says... If that is proof of life on Mars, it also proves there is life on nearly every other planet as well.* Computer viruses make it to orbit. A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). Nasa has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG. The worm was first detected on Earth in August 2007 and lurks on infected machines waiting to steal login names for popular online games. Frustrated NASA chief vents about agency's fate. In congressional testimony and speeches across the country, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has presented the Bush administration's space policy as under pressure but on track to returning humans to the moon by 2020. His public face has been steadfast. But privately, the agency chief is far less certain. In a remarkably candid internal e-mail to top advisers obtained by the Orlando Sentinel, Griffin lashed out last month at the White House for what he called a "jihad" to shut down the space shuttle, expressed frustration at the lack of funding for a new moon rocket — and despaired about the future of America's human-spaceflight program. The Editor asks... Is it really a "jihad" when taxpayers want to stop throwing money down the drain? Discord With Russia a Worry for NASA. NASA's ability to send its astronauts to the $100 billion international space station is in danger of becoming a costly casualty of the Russia-Georgia war. ... NASA wants to negotiate a contract this year to have Russia's Soyuz spacecraft transport all astronauts traveling to and from the station during the gap. But first, Congress has to pass a waiver to a 2000 law forbidding government contracts with nations that help Iran and North Korea with their nuclear programs, as Russia has done. Ambitious NASA Probe to Fly Through Sun's Fringe. Spurred to action by Congress, NASA is finally moving out on an ambitious mission to send a spacecraft closer to the sun than any has ever gone before. NASA directed the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL) to begin preliminary work on a proposed $750 million Solar Probe mission last month, with plans to launch around 2015 to fly through the sun's corona and study the stream of charged particles it regularly blasts into space. 1.5 billion dollars down the drain. The Device NASA Is Leaving Behind: The instrument, which would detect and measure cosmic rays in a new way, took 500 physicists from around the world 12 years to build. But with room on the 10 remaining shuttle missions to the space station in short supply, many fear that it will remain forever warehoused on Earth, becoming the most sophisticated and costly white elephant of the space era. Phoenix Mars Lander Prepares For Final Countdown. [Scroll down] It will be for the first time when a Mars mission reaches so far north, with the clear purpose of determining whether the Red Planet is a setting for past or future forms of life. The Mars Lander will examine the soil in place at the surface, at the icy layer and in between, and will take samples for analysis. [No mention of the price tag.] Mars Phoenix to try shake-and-bake once more. In a series of maneuvers that sounds more like cooking class than research on Mars, scientists said Monday [6/9/2008] they would try one more time to shake bits of the clumpy Martian soil into a test oven on NASA's Phoenix lander before switching to a backup strategy that called for dribbling the soil into the oven. ... The Martian soil is proving to be much clumpier — cemented, in scientific terms — than expected. Alkaline Soil Sample From Mars Reveals Presence of Nutrients. Stick an asparagus plant in a pot full of Martian soil, and the asparagus might grow happily, scientists announced Thursday [6/26/2008]. An experiment on the Phoenix Mars lander showed the dirt on the planet's northern arctic plains to be alkaline, though not strongly alkaline, and full of the mineral nutrients that a plant would need. Mars Phoenix lander finds soil similar to that in backyards on Earth. The Phoenix lander's first taste test of soil near Mars' north pole reveals a briny environment similar to what can be found in backyards on Earth, [emphasis added] scientists said today in Los Angeles. The finding raises hope that the Martian arctic plains could have conditions favorable for primitive life. The Editor says... "Similar?" I don't think so. The soil in my back yard is full of last year's grass and a bunch of spiders, ants, snails, worms, and the decaying excrement of every dog that has ever lived here. It could very well be that all the scientists have found — after spending billions of our tax dollars — is slightly alkaline dirt (or dust) and sterile water. Update: Mars soil may not be so good for life. New results from NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suggest that the surface layers of the Martian arctic region may not be as friendly to life as initial results suggested, NASA said Monday [8/4/2008]. Two samples analyzed within the last month … suggest that the Martian dirt may contain perchlorate, a highly oxidizing substance, which would create a harsh environment for any potential life. Martian soil may not have life after all. Weeks after being billed as fit for growing asparagus, it now seems the red soil of Mars may not be quite so friendly after all. After days of growing speculation about an important discovery, NASA finally revealed a secret yesterday. Its Phoenix lander, which touched down in May, has found not the chemistry of life, but perchlorate — a toxic, highly corrosive compound used in household cleaners, explosives and rocket fuel that can destroy organic matter. At last! Proof of life on Mars! WRONG! Mars Craft Detects Falling Snow. Icy snow falls from high in Mars's atmosphere and may even reach the planet's surface, scientists working with NASA's Phoenix lander reported yesterday. Laser instruments aboard the lander detected the snow in clouds about 2½ miles above the surface and followed the precipitation as it fell more than a mile. The Editor says... If snow is found on Mars, that is not proof of life on Mars. Snow is not life. Will NASA Ever Find Life on Mars? NASA has long taken an incremental approach to searching for biology, with "follow the water" as a driving strategy. That means, perhaps to the frustration of some, that the current Phoenix lander mission and the twin rovers on Mars are not even designed to detect Martian life. The Editor says... Why the "incremental approach"? Money, obviously. Once NASA finds Clue #1 and Clue #2, it just has to send another billion-dollar probe to find Clue #3. Court nixes NASA background checks. A federal appeals court ruled Friday [1/11/2008] that NASA should be blocked from conducting background checks on low-risk employees at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, saying the practice threatens workers' constitutional rights. NASA Wary of Relying on Russia. The launch of the Jules Verne Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) … highlights a stark reality: In 2½ years, just as the station gets fully assembled, the United States will no longer have any spacecraft of its own capable of carrying astronauts and cargo to the station, in which roughly $100 billion is being invested. The Editor says... The logic behind NASA's concern escapes me. Apparently the justification for squandering more money is the fact that We have invested $100 billion in the space station already. That's like finding out that you're on a dead end road and refusing to turn around because you've gone so far already. First View of Mercury's "Other Face". The first of many planned images from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is showing astronomers a side of Mercury no one's ever seen before. Mercury is tough to view from Earth, since it's so close to the sun. And when the Mariner 10 probe flew past the innermost planet in 1974 and 1975, only one side of the body was facing sunlight. [The article includes no mention of the price tag for these pictures, nor any explanation of how these new pictures benefit the taxpayers.] Nasa investigates virtual space. The US space agency is exploring the possibility of developing a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. The virtual world would be aimed at students and would "simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions". At last — something important! Boomerangs come back in space, Japanese astronaut finds. Japanese astronaut Takao Doi has thrown a boomerang in space and found, to the surprise of many, that it does come back. The 53-year-old conducted an experiment aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday [3/18/2008], Japanese time, to see whether boomerangs fly back in space. Scientists aim for origami space flight. Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its trip back to Earth. It's no joke. A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel this month, Japan's space agency adopted it Wednesday [3/26/2008] for feasibility studies, and a well-known astronaut is interested in participating. The Editor says... It is comical and somewhat surreal to see well-educated men undertake these studies as if the answers were urgently needed. Let's go to Mars, says Nicolas Sarkozy. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has called for the world to unite to explore Mars. Speaking during a visit to French Guaiana, Mr Sarkozy called for a coalition of the willing from Europe, America, Russia and beyond to explore the red planet. The Editor says... The Socialist Sarkozy is merely looking for a handout from the U.S. In other words, if there is to be a trillion dollars spent on a trip to Mars, he wants France to climb aboard the gravy train. Secrets of 1957 Sputnik launch revealed. 50 years later, it emerges that the momentous launch was far from being part of a well-planned strategy to demonstrate communist superiority over the West. Instead, the first artificial satellite in space was a spur-of-the-moment gamble driven by the dream of one scientist, whose team scrounged a rocket, slapped together a satellite and persuaded a dubious Kremlin to open the space age. 
World magazine, September 22, 2007. NASA Awards $1.8 Billion for Moon Mission Motor. NASA has awarded defense contractor Alliant Techsystems Inc. $1.8 billion to develop a motor for the Orion capsule, which will replace the space shuttle and be able to reach the moon and Mars, the company said. NASA Presents Details of Plans for Moon Base. NASA announced new details yesterday [9/20/2007] about its plans for a Moon base that included a pair of small, pressurized rovers with a range of nearly 600 miles. The space agency plans to return astronauts to the Moon around 2020. Agency officials first described proposals last December for a polar lunar base powered by near constant sunlight on solar panels. How many probes must we send to Mars to prove a negative? NASA Sends Robotic Lander In Search Of Water And Life On Mars. A US space probe embarked Saturday [8/4/2007] on a 10 month journey to Mars, where it will dig through Martian soil in a search for signs of life in a frigid region of the Red Planet. We can't all go to the moon, but our names can. NASA has established a free "Send Your Name to the Moon" Web site that "enables everyone to participate in the lunar adventure and place their names in orbit around the moon for years to come," according to the space agency. Phoenix lander blasts off to Mars. NASA's Phoenix Mars lander blasted off on Saturday on a mission to determine whether icy ground near the planet's north pole could ever have supported life. The mission launched at 0526 EDT (0926 GMT) on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, US. [The article includes no mention of the price.] Where are the PETA people? NASA, Russia To Study Effects Of Spaceflight On Small Lizards, Snails. According to NASA, the Russian Foton-M3 mission will launch from Kazakhstan this Friday [9/14/2007], sending an automated Vostok spacecraft — a heavily modified version of the same basic spaceship that carried Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961 — into low Earth orbit for 12 days. Instead of a human astronaut, however, the small craft will hold several geckos, newts, and snails. [And again, the article includes no mention of the pricetag.] Just another government cover-up... NASA won't disclose survey of pilots on air safety. An unprecedented national survey of pilots by the U.S. government has found that safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than previously recognized. But the government is withholding the information, fearful it would upset air travelers and hurt airline profits. NASA won't disclose air safety survey. NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million safety project, through telephone interviews with roughly 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since ending the interviews at the beginning of 2005 and shutting down the project completely more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge the results publicly. NASA Won't Disclose Air Safety Survey. Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results who was not authorized to discuss them publicly. The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numbers of pilots who experienced "in-close approach changes" — potentially dangerous, last-minute instructions to alter landing plans. [Since when is NASA in charge of airline safety? Isn't that the function of the FAA?] Update: NASA reluctantly releases airline safety study. NASA begrudgingly released some results today from an $11.3 million federal air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. It published the findings in a format that made it cumbersome for any thorough analysis by outsiders. [If you wanted to avoid news media coverage, what better time to release such a study than New Year's Eve?] NASA again postpones the launch of Atlantis. NASA was forced to postpone the scheduled Jan. 10 launch of shuttle Atlantis so flight engineers can fix the problematic fuel tank sensor system on the shuttle. ... Even though the shuttle launch is indefinitely delayed, NASA declined to comment on possible future launch dates. NASA'S Luxury, At Your Expense. [Scroll down] The awards are to honor workers who've contributed to flight safety. But it's not just a low-key dinner for a handful of the best and brightest. Try five days and four nights at a luxury Florida hotel for 300 honorees and their guest. (sic) Fancy receptions and front-row tickets to the most exciting show in the space business, the shuttle launch. All paid for by your tax dollars. NASA gives Google founders a coveted parking place for their private jet. [NASA] confirmed earlier this week that H211, a limited liability company that counts Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, as one of its principals, had secured rights to operate a refurbished wide-body Boeing 767-200 out of Moffett Field, an airport that is run by NASA and is generally closed to private aircraft. Drunk astronauts allowed to fly, admits panel. A panel has found that astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions despite warnings they were so drunk they posed a flight risk, Aviation Week reported today on its website. The publication said the panel set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues reported "heavy use of alcohol" within 12 hours of launch. It said flight surgeons and other astronauts warned that the drunken astronauts posed a flight risk when they flew on the two known occasions. NASA's hangover won't easily go away. NASA plans to overhaul the way it monitors the behavioral and mental health of its astronauts following findings that shuttle astronauts in at least two instances were launched into space despite warnings that they posed a safety risk by being intoxicated. Update: NASA to begin drug testing for astronauts. After finding no evidence of astronauts drinking before launching into space, NASA said Wednesday [8/29/2007] it is considering limited alcohol testing of its employees, including astronauts. Russia Denies Report Astronauts Flew on Space Shuttle Drunk. Russia's space agency denied Saturday that an astronaut could have flown drunk aboard a Soyuz spacecraft from its Baikonur cosmodrome, reacting to allegations reported by the chairman of an independent U.S. panel on astronaut health. Amid NASA turbulence, Congress stays on board. With NASA pushing ahead with plans for exploring the moon and Mars, administrator Michael Griffin acknowledged last week that scandals and reports of astronaut misconduct have "shaken public confidence" in his agency. Congress, however, is standing by NASA, ignoring a veto threat in an attempt to fund space endeavors with more money than President Bush's $17.3 billion request for the 2008 fiscal year. NASA Reports Sabotage of Flight Computer. A space program worker deliberately damaged a computer that is supposed to fly aboard shuttle Endeavour in less than two weeks, an act of sabotage that was caught before the equipment was loaded onto the spaceship, NASA said Thursday [7/26/2007]. Muslim astronaut given guidelines. Malaysia's first astronaut will blast off into space next month armed with guidelines from Muslim authorities on how to pray, wash and even be buried in space. Guidebook issued for Muslims in space. Malaysia has come up with the world's first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space as its first astronaut prepares to go into orbit next week. The book, Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites at the International Space Station, teaches the Muslim astronaut how to perform ablutions, determine the location of Mecca when praying, prayer times, and how to fast in space, the Star newspaper reported. NASA Buys $19 Million Toilet System. NASA has agreed to pay $19 million for a Russian-built toilet system for the international space station. The figure may sound astronomical for a toilet in space, but NASA officials said it was cheaper than building their own. "It's akin to building a municipal treatment center on Earth," NASA spokeswoman Lynnette Madison said Thursday, explaining the cost of the new toilet system. The Editor says... Yes, "it's akin to building a municipal treatment center" for the exclusive use of four or five people. Spacecraft to examine massive asteroids. The US spacecraft Dawn, due to launch on Sunday [7/8/2007], will take a close look at two massive asteroids to try to penetrate the mystery of our solar system's origins 4.6 billion years ago. By examining the two celestial bodies Ceres and Vesta in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, scientists hope the unmanned Dawn probe will shed light on the earliest moments in the birth of the solar system. NASA set to launch "Dawn" asteroid spacecraft. NASA is ready to launch this weekend a spacecraft that will search for clues about the solar system while traveling to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter for a rendezvous with two of its largest asteroids. … Dawn is set to blast off Sunday afternoon from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a Delta II rocket. The launch caps a tumultuous effort in which the $344 million mission was killed last year because of cost overruns and technical problems, then brought back online after NASA appeals. This is no longer news, but it is instructive... Shuttle return may be delayed. Russian computers that control the international space station's orientation and supply of oxygen and water have failed, potentially extending the space shuttle's mission — or cutting it short. Russian engineers are not sure why the computers stopped working. A failure of this type has never occurred before on the space station. Last try for space station computer reboot. Space officials said it was so-called secondary power sources that had failed, rather than the German-built computers themselves or the Russian software that they run on. The Editor says... With all the billions of American taxpayer dollars that have been poured into the Space Station, why is it held in place with German computers running Russian software? Update: Internal NASA Reports Explain Origins of June Computer Crisis. The technological — and diplomatic — lessons of that crisis need to be fully understood and appreciated. Because if the failure had occurred on the way to Mars, say, it probably would have been fatal, and it will likely be the same international partnership that builds the hardware for a future Mars mission. NASA paid $26.6M to Columbia families. NASA paid $26.6 million to the families of seven astronauts who died aboard space shuttle Columbia — a settlement that has been kept secret for more than 2½ years. The space agency recruited former FBI Director William Webster, also a former federal judge, to act as a mediator and adviser in negotiating the out-of-court settlements, according to documents released to the Orlando Sentinel through a federal Freedom of Information Act request. Columbia's Sacrifice: On February 1, 2003 the Space Shuttle OV-102 Columbia broke apart during reentry and took with it the lives of seven astronauts. The resulting debris field spread across several states and possibly a portion of the Pacific Ocean as well. This tragedy left not only an extended debris field and grieving families, but also left many questions in the minds of those who witnessed it in person as well as on TV. As a mechanical engineer with an aerospace background, I believe that there are aspects of the events that took place between 8:45 and 9:00 a.m. EST on February 1st that do not appear to fit the theories NASA is currently making public. Neither damaged tiles, missing tiles, or a breach of the shuttles wing itself adequately explain the chain of events that led to the final catastrophic breakup of the orbiter. As far as why the Columbia was destroyed any analysis or comments regarding politics is outside the scope of this website and anything written here is pure conjecture. It is very difficult to believe that anyone in our government would willingly give an order to murder seven astronauts and destroy a space shuttle. It would be far easier to believe that Columbia's destruction was simply a terrible accident. Either a test of the HAARP transmitter was being conducted without the knowledge that a Space Shuttle was reentering the atmosphere or the Columbia was part of a test that went terribly wrong. … The reason for the cover-up is probably to keep the capabilities of the HAARP system secret.* NASA Ponders Death, Sex On Mars Mission. With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most "Earth-like" planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration. Rover discovery supports idea life was possible on Mars: NASA. A soil analysis by the Mars rover Spirit strongly suggests that the Red Planet was once wet, providing evidence of conditions that might have supported life, NASA scientists said Monday. Spirit found soil that is rich in silica, and "the processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water," it said in a release. US achieves autonomous docking in space. Two free-flying satellites performed the first autonomous separation and docking for the US on 5 and 6 May. The test was done without any human intervention as the craft flew nearly 500 kilometres above the planet, and could one day lead to robotic spacecraft that are able to repair damaged satellites. On to Mars! The current American space program has clearly reached a dead end. The construction and maintenance of a space station, and its regular resupply by space shuttles, have been remarkable achievements, albeit costly ones in both lives and treasure. But the landing of men on the moon in 1969 and a few subsequent years were the last really historic steps that NASA took, and the experiments recently devised by high-school students to occupy the time of astronauts in the space shuttles are little more than insults to the human intelligence. US military wants $10m space-weapon funding. The US Missile Defense Agency wants $10 million to investigate space-based weapons over the next year. As Pentagon budgets go, it is small change, but it is also a red flag for critics who worry that such plans could turn space into a shooting gallery. Satellite to probe mysterious glowing clouds. NASA is about to launch a spacecraft to study mysterious invaders lurking above Earth's poles — not UFOs, but the shimmering, high-altitude apparitions known as noctilucent clouds. NASA Releases 3D Images of Sun. NASA released the first three-dimensional images of the sun Monday [4/23/2007], saying the photos taken from twin spacecraft may lead to better predictions of solar eruptions that can affect communications and power lines on Earth. [Better predictions? Will it make any difference if we get another 24 hours notice of such an event? There's still nothing we can do about solar eruptions when they happen. NASA is one of the few places where people never weigh the cost of new projects versus the benefits, because the greatest benefit is NASA's continued existence.] Russians accuse US of sabotaging satellite during missile tests. According to one unnamed space official quoted by the Russian Interfax news agency, communications were lost with the Russian satellite on 9 March just as the US was carrying out missile experiments. A second Russian specialist, also unnamed, gave a different rationale, arguing it was affected by ground-based tests to knock out spacecraft through wave experiments. As if the US owns the moon... The Moon opens for business. The first private Moon landing has finally been given the green light by the US government. NASA: China could be next to go to the moon. China's surging space program could launch explorers on the moon before Americans make a lunar return, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told a congressional oversight panel Thursday. … That prompted a round of questions from Rep Ken Calvert, R-Calif., on whether the United States might lose its lead in space to China. "How good is their space program? … Do you think they have an opportunity to get to the moon before we do?" Calvert asked. [Why should we care if China goes to the moon? Is there any justification for a space race in the absence of a Cold War?] NASA being shortchanged, congressman charges. The chairman of the U.S. House science committee said Thursday [3/15/2007] that NASA is headed for "a train wreck" if the space agency isn't better funded to finish building the international space station and develop the next-generation spacecraft. [They act as if there is some grave danger to us all if the space station is not maintained and expanded.] A waste of space. [The International Space Station is] little more than an updated MIR where scientists can float around and study the effects of zero gravity. Its major reason for existing seems to be to give the shuttle fleet a destination. And, in a nice circle of reasoning, the shuttles exist to service an international space station. How convenient. Cosmonaut to Hit Golf Ball Into Orbit. A Russian cosmonaut will whack a golf ball from the international space station in a publicity stunt on Thanksgiving Day, NASA officials said Tuesday [8/22/2006]. Russian flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin will show off his swing to promote a Canadian golf club manufacturer during a spacewalk on November 23. [At last we know what the Space Station is good for.] Lockheed Martin wins NASA moon contract. NASA on Thursday [8/31/2006] gave a multibillion-dollar contract to build a manned lunar spaceship to Lockheed Martin Corp., the aerospace leader that usually builds unmanned rockets. The nation's space agency plans to use the Orion crew exploration vehicle to replace the space shuttle fleet, take astronauts to the moon and perhaps to Mars. Unlike Apollo and earlier spacecraft perched atop rockets, it will be reusable. NASA estimated the cost at $7.5 billion through 2019 for likely eight separate spaceships. Nasa looks to a new frontier by building telescope on the Moon. The most powerful radiotelescope yet devised is to be built on the Moon, under plans being put together by Nasa for its 2018 lunar mission. Mike Griffin, the head of the US space agency, said the construction of a telescope is being "factored into" the mission. [What is the end product? More research into the origins of the universe, no doubt. No mention of the price tag, as usual. NASA is pretty obviously struggling to come up with new ways to spend the taxpayers' money.] NASA crushes lunar real estate industry. NASA has confirmed its moon base will not illegally occupy other people's land. The news deals a crushing blow to the dreams of thousands of idiots, who coughed the cash for their very own patch of dusty countryside on the moon. NASA announced earlier this week it would start building a permanent lunar outpost in 2020. NASA to review process of screening astronauts. NASA said today [2/7/2007] it would review its psychological screening process in light of an astronaut's arrest on charges she tried to murder a woman she believed was her romantic rival for the affection of Discovery astronaut William Oefelein. Spacecraft will hunt for planets. [William Borucki's] proposal was rejected four times by NASA. Then other delays and budget cuts threatened to scuttle the $500 million effort before it reached the launch pad. But persistence is paying off for Borucki, 68. The Kepler space telescope is under construction at Ball Aerospace & Technologies in Boulder, with launch set for November 2008. NASA Studies Manned Asteroid Mission. NASA is appraising a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid-gauging the scientific merit of the endeavor while testing out spacecraft gear, as well as mastering techniques that could prove useful if a space rock ever took aim for our planet. NASA's Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet. From 2002 until this year, NASA's mission statement, prominently featured in its budget and planning documents, read: "To understand and protect our home planet; to explore the universe and search for life; to inspire the next generation of explorers … as only NASA can." In early February, the statement was quietly altered, with the phrase "to understand and protect our home planet" deleted. For $35M, You Too Can Walk in Space. You don't have to be an astronaut anymore to experience walking in space. All you need is $35 million and the willingness to risk your life. A private Virginia firm that already has sent three super-rich men to the international space station for $20 million each announced Friday [7/22/2006] it would offer an even rarer adventure: A stroll outside the space station for an extra $15 million. Nixon was ready to report NASA deaths. The US was so eager to beat the Soviet Union in the race to the moon that it launched its 1969 mission before it was ready, and president Richard Nixon even prepared an address to announce the deaths of the astronauts aboard, a new documentary says. It's time to go beyond the shuttle. The hesitance about the coming launch among members of the NASA team responsible for mission safety is alarming. So was the apparent "reassignment" of one such NASA official who was a bit too public in expressing his misgivings about mission safety. And the billion-dollar price tag that American taxpayers have picked up since the last tragic loss of shuttle and crew raises the biggest issue of all. Ohio, Ala. to Play Bigger Roles for NASA. Space centers in Ohio and Alabama will get added work as NASA shifts direction from flying circles around the Earth in a shuttle to zooming to the moon again in a brand new space vehicle. NASA's DART spacecraft smashes into satellite. NASA's 800-pound Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) spacecraft was supposed to circle a defunct orbiting Pentagon satellite. NASA orbiter arrives at Mars. A NASA spacecraft successfully slipped into orbit around Mars yesterday [3/10/2006], joining a trio of orbiters already circling the Red Planet. … The $720 million mission is managed by the JPL in Pasadena, Calif. [There were three probes orbiting Mars already? How many of these do we really need, at $720 million each?] Missions to the moon and Mars: The US House of Representatives yesterday [7/22/2005] overwhelmingly endorsed President Bush's plans to go to the moon and Mars. But the House also insisted that NASA concentrate on space research and on repairing the Hubble orbiting telescope. The Hubble, along with science programs and aeronautics research, are popular in Congress – partly because the contracts generate thousands of jobs, injecting millions into the economies of many lawmakers' districts. There could be no clearer example of pork barrel spending! Scientists find new clue to life on Mars. A vast, dust-covered ocean of ice is the most likely place to discover life on Mars, according to a team of British scientists. The frozen ocean was captured by cameras aboard the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe, which revealed an expanse of pack ice just north of the Martian equator, in Elysium, a region strewn with dormant volcanoes. If the European Space Agency is sending probes to Mars, why are we duplicating the effort? Scientists object to Bush's moon-Mars missions. They say the president's two-year-old Vision for Space Exploration program is gobbling up billions of dollars that they think could be better used for less expensive projects, including new telescopes and unmanned robots such as the twin rovers on Mars. [This assumes that the billions of dollars must be spent somewhere.] NASA to unveil plan for moon mission in 2018. NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday [9/14/2005] on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. NASA to unveil plans for 2018 moon mission. NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle is expected to cost $5.5 billion to develop, according to government and industry sources, and the Crew Launch Vehicle another $4.5 billion. The heavy-lift launcher, which would be capable of lofting 125 metric tons of payload, is expected to cost more than $5 billion but less than $10 billion to develop, according to these sources. NASA Wants Astronauts Back on Moon by 2018 ...at a cost of $104,000,000,000. NASA Planning Moon Launch for 2018. It will cost $104 billion over the next decade to send astronauts back to the moon, NASA's chief said Monday [9/19/2005], defending the price tag as an investment the nation can afford despite the expense of Hurricane Katrina. Described as "Apollo on steroids," the new moon exploration plan unveiled by the space agency will use beefed-up shuttle and Apollo parts and aims to put people on the moon by 2018. [Suppose NASA lands on the moon again in 2018. What will that accomplish? What is there to learn about moon rocks that hasn't already been learned?] Space: The Ultimate Prize. Recently asked [November 1999] what it would take to return to the moon, NASA responded by stating, "20 years." Those old enough, recall in the 1960s that the task took only 10 years when there was no experience and no technology to achieve it. NASA has evolved into a bureaucracy. Has a New Era of Space Venture Arrived? The 1967 UN Treaty on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which the U.S. government signed, prohibits claims of national sovereignty on any extraterrestrial body. Moreover, the 1979 Moon Treaty disallows any private ownership on the moon. The commission reported that the United States "has not ratified the 1979 Moon Treaty, but at the same time, has not challenged its basic premises or assumptions." As a result, "the legal status of a hypothetical private company engaged in making products from space resources is uncertain." NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake. The space shuttle and International Space Station — nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades — were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday [9/27/2005]. … The shuttle has cost the lives of 14 astronauts since the first flight in 1982. Roger Pielke Jr., a space policy expert at the University of Colorado, estimates that NASA has spent about $150 billion on the program since its inception in 1971. NASA Eager to Fix the Problem, But Some Have Doubts. Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union … called it "ridiculous" that American taxpayers continue to "pour billions" into the shuttle program as well as the international space station — based on the "circular logic" that we need to send people into space to see how they act in space. House backs Bush on space quest. The House on Friday overwhelmingly endorsed President Bush's vision to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars as it passed a bill to set NASA policy for the next two years. No inspiration in space-based socialism. NASA will cost taxpayers $16.2 billion in fiscal 2005, up $822 million from 2004. That is an astronomical sum, considering not only the less-than-stellar returns NASA has yielded Americans recently, but also this year's projected deficit of $348 billion (to be piled atop a $7.4 trillion national debt). Our Future in Space. A truly bold vision of the future of space exploration for America would place private space entrepreneurs at the forefront. Like other industries (e.g. semiconductors, biotech, and the internet), the federal government played a significant early role in demonstrating key technologies. But these industries flourished when entrepreneurs stepped in and took the reins. We are now at that point with the exploration of space. Computer will tell Muslim astronaut how to pray in space. Malaysian scientists and religious scholars are trying to determine how Muslims should behave in space, as the predominantly Islamic country prepares to dispatch its first astronaut next year. [Perhaps Muslims shouldn't be in space at all. How would you know if you're really bowing toward Mecca in a zero-g environment, where the floor is the same as the ceiling? How would you know, at any given moment, that you weren't also bowing toward Jerusalem, or New York, or Hell itself?] Cutting Out HUD, NASA and Other Losers. The civilian space program is a 21st century version of Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) program, a boondoggle that provides employment on useless projects. It is nothing more than high-class welfare for scientists and engineers and the domestic aerospace industry. Editor's Note: The article above is just one of several excellent articles by Jim Grichar in which he lists dozens of federal agencies that should be trimmed or eliminated. Pork Hamstrings NASA'S Mission. Originally, the shuttle was expected to be a cheap way to transport people back and forth into space. At just $5 million per launch, it would supposedly open space up to all sorts of possibilities. However, the space shuttle program has not exactly lived up to our original expectations. To begin with, the cost per launch is actually 100 times higher than originally projected — at $500 million per trip. Nickels and dimes add up: NASA Employs a Performance Artist with a $20,000 Taxpayer-Funded Stipend. For two years, NASA paid Laurie Anderson as the agency's "artist in residence." The performing artist was commissioned to perform a theatrical story-telling piece in theaters across the nation, as part of a NASA outreach effort. The artist in residence position was not specifically authorized by Congress. … Her job Description: Create and tour a theatrical piece, educating theater-goers about NASA; and "…to produce a film on the moons of the solar system" for the 2005 World Expo. Why Do We Have A MANNED Space Program? As Poul Anderson put it in a 1984 lecture, Space: Promises and Problems, "The average man is not dumb; he's perfectly able to see that sending men to the moon is a rather roundabout and expensive way of producing a teflon frying pan, especially considering that teflon was already in existence." There are too many worthy research programs, such as on aircraft icing, that are notoriously underfunded, and too much of the manned space budget goes for repetitive "operations" that have little to do with technology development. Moon and Mars Missions are Not a Priority for Taxpayers. The President's initiative was left for dead in the summer of 2004 after a lukewarm reception from the public and deep skepticism from prominent scientists. But funding for the initiative was included at the last minute in the fiscal 2005 omnibus bill. For fiscal 2006, House appropriators have marked up NASA's budget at $16.5 billion including $3.1 billion for the moon/Mars initiative which is $275 million above fiscal 2005 levels and $15 million above the President's budget request. Scrap The Shuttle Program. The shuttle is far more expensive than expendable rockets used for the Apollo program the 1960s. The orbiter and solid rocket boosters are recovered for reuse, but an army of engineers must inspect and rebuild them for the next mission. As a result, plans for 100 shuttle missions a year have fallen to around four, costing $550 million each and employing 30,000 people. Don't Lavish Funds on NASA. After NASA sold the nation on the space shuttle as an inexpensive, reusable lifter, the cost of hefting a pound of payload into space, accepting NASA's accounting, soared from $3,800 in the 1960s Apollo program to $6,000 (in constant dollars). When Alex Rowland of Duke University included the development and capital costs of the shuttle, the cost rocketed to $35,000 per pound. NASA's costs went up when the cost of just about everything else — megabytes of computer memory, airline tickets, shipping a barrel of oil — were falling in real dollars. The difference between NASA's rising costs and the falling costs elsewhere is that computer makers, airlines, and oil shippers are in competitive markets. Time to Privatize NASA. The inflation-adjusted cost of commercial air travel has dropped by about 30 percent since the late 1970s, when airline deregulation began. And the cost of shipping oil has dropped by as much as 80 percent in a little over two decades. But the government's reusable shuttle has actually made spaceflight more expensive. Interesting web site: Space Projects dot com: "A bilingual, international directory of nearly everything space-related, including constructive reform proposals [by ex-NASA personnel] focused on making space access far more affordable." Somewhat related article: Scuttle the shuttle program. After Columbia clearly had disintegrated, NASA briefers characterized the occurrence as "a contingency." This mirrored the language of football coaches characterizing ruptured spleens and broken limbs as "bumps and bruises." Then followed suggestions to media that budget cuts inflicted by White House and Congress might have compromised shuttle safety. This crass, self-serving reaction was quickly replaced, however, by another football coach-like reaction: NASA would have to get the shuttles back into space again, as the dead astronauts would have wanted it. This just in: Probe finds a frozen orange world. The Huygens probe, part of a $3 billion joint mission involving NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, made its pioneering descent to Titan on Friday [1/14/2005], sending back readings on the moon's atmosphere, composition and landscape. … Scientists believe a study of the icy moon could yield clues about how life developed on Earth. Editor's Note: As I was saying at the top of this page, NASA's only remaining mission is the never-ending search for theories about the origin of the universe. Any theory will do, as long as it disagrees with the first chapter of the Bible. There is no end to this sort of theorization. Worrisome news in NASA survey. More than a year after the loss of space shuttle Columbia, NASA workers are still afraid to speak up about safety concerns, according to a survey released Monday [4/12/2004] that places much of the blame on the agency's leadership. Auditor quits with NASA finances in chaos. As NASA sets course for the moon and Mars, the space agency's finances are in disarray, with significant errors in its last financial statements and inadequate documentation for $565 billion posted to its accounts, its former auditor reported. NASA's Last Days? NASA is still mired in the old "throw money away" method of space travel. Testing such expensive equipment [as the X-43A] and throwing it away is wasteful, as if millions of dollars that went into it were nothing, and the jet itself, after the test, was of no more value than a model airplane. What Troubles NASA: A 248-page report issued by a 13 member board on the Columbia space shuttle accident makes 29 important recommendations to ensure the safe return of the shuttle for use in America's space program. However, there is nothing new in this report. Space Station May Have to Be Abandoned. If crew members have to leave the station they would do so aboard a Russian-made Soyuz vehicle that is left docked to the station as a lifeboat. China [is trying] to buy the moon. A company has set up operations in China to sell land on the moon for 289 yuan ($45) an acre, cashing in on renewed interest in space travel after the successful five-day voyage of Shenzhou VI. Privatize the Space Program. Phase out government involvement in space exploration, and the free market will work to produce whatever there is demand for. NASA's Unhappy Birthday: While space is indeed challenging, there's no excuse for many of the management mistakes that have given us near-sighted telescopes, misguided space probes, the fiery loss of billions of dollars of hardware with its crews, and most tragically, the squandering of billions of dollars, and irreplaceable years, on mismanaged and misbegotten programs that were ostensibly to reduce the cost of space flight, but instead ended up lining the pockets of contractors while delivering, at best, hangar queens. The space shuttle is a major polluter. The Shuttle is the largest of the solid fuel rockets, with twin 45 meter boosters. All solid fuel rockets release large amounts of hydrochloric acid in their exhaust, each Shuttle flight injecting about 75 tons of ozone destroying chlorine into the stratosphere. Those launched since 1992 inject even more ozone-destroying chlorine, about 187 tons, into the stratosphere (which contains the ozone layer). Scrap NASA. Throughout its existence, the most rewarding aspect of the space program has been sticking it to the Russians. With the ending of the Cold War, this motivation no longer applies. What then are we getting out of the program which will consume $86 billion dollars over the next five years? Tragically it seems these days that the only time the space program is grabbing top headlines is when disasters occur. [We just can't stop the manned space program at that point. When astronauts get killed in the line of duty, we must press on, because "that's what they would have wanted." This is an example of decision making based upon emotion rather than reason.] NASA Hopes to Spur Commercial Space Growth. The U.S. space agency is sponsoring a competition in which winning companies will get $500 million in seed money to develop space vehicles that NASA will never design, build or own. Like a U-Haul truck rental, NASA instead will merely lease them on a per-trip basis for sending cargo and eventually crew to the international space station. $500 million in "seed money"? Sounds like an enormous SBA loan. Maybe NASA's should be called the Large Business Administration. This still sounds like pork barrel politics and a busy-work project for rocket scientists, because there still is no end product in sight, other than support of the space station. Deep Impact probe hits comet. At a cost of $330 million, Deep Impact is the eighth mission in NASA's Discovery Program, which supports low-budget science missions. $333 million is the price of a low-budget mission! Deep Impact: NASA hopes the core of the Tempel 1 comet may hold cosmic clues to how the sun and planets formed. Permit me to reiterate: Every NASA mission — whether it's the Mars lander looking desperately for water, Deep Impact hitting a comet, or just flying around in circles for several days at a time — has as its goal something having to do with gathering clues about the origins of the solar system. After decades of these projects, what new clues are there? Does NASA have any tangible end product? Some estimate the cost of Deep Impact at $333 million. [1] [2] [3] [4] Others, perhaps rounding down, say $330 million. [5] [6] Update: NASA Announces Another Comet Mission. The University of Maryland-led team that produced the spectacular Deep Impact mission, which smashed an impactor into Comet Tempel 1 in July, 2005, hopes new information gathered from Comet Boethin will help coalesce the vast array of new cometary information into solid ideas about the nature of comets, how they formed and evolved and if they have played a role in the emergence of life on Earth. Comet dust capsule lands in desert. The mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cost $212 million. Comet Dust Capsule Lands In Utah. The mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, cost $212 million. Stardust's return to Earth was the reverse of the ill-fated Genesis mission that carried solar wind particles. Stardust of yesterday. Scientists believe comets are icy, rocky debris left over from the beginning of the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. … They expect that analysis of the Stardust samples will help them better understand how the planets formed and evolved. NASA's Comet Tale Draws to a Successful Close in Utah Desert. NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth [1/15/2006]. … Scientists believe these precious samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system. Capsule Brings First Comet Dust to Earth. After a seven-year journey, a NASA space capsule returned safely to Earth on Sunday [1/15/2006] with the first dust ever fetched from a comet, a cosmic bounty that scientists hope will yield clues to how the solar system formed. And now, on to the next frivolous project: Super Fast Spacecraft Zooms Toward Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft blasted off aboard an Atlas V rocket Thursday afternoon [1/19/2006] in a spectacular start to the $700 million mission. Despite the speed – it can reach 36,000 mph – it will take 9½ years to reach Pluto and the frozen, sunless reaches of the solar system. The Long Road to Pluto and Why We're Going. ... and the price tag for this boondoggle is $700 million. [1] [2] [3] Satellite could open door on extra dimension. An exotic theory, which attempts to unify the laws of physics by proposing the existence of an extra fourth spatial dimension, could be tested using a satellite to be launched in 2007. Such theories are notoriously difficult to test. But a new study suggests that such hidden dimensions could give rise to thousands of mini-black holes within our own solar system — and the theory could be tested within Pluto's orbit in just a few years. The official GLAST web pages at NASA, Stanford University, and General Dynamics can tell you everything there is to know about this project, except the cost. How many people care so much about black holes? Let them pay for this kind of research from their own pockets! Special subsection about the Genesis probe Capsule from Genesis Space Probe Crashes in Utah Desert. Scientists will soon begin trying to recover as much data as they can from the damaged Genesis canister in an attempt to salvage the $264 million mission. Crash of Genesis disappoints. Genesis held hundreds of fragile silicon wafers embedded with microscopic bits of the sun's surface. They were precious cargo, collected during the spacecraft's three-year, $264 million mission to unlock mysteries of the solar system's formation. NASA Board To Investigate Crash Of Spacecraft. One of the men who got an up close look at the Genesis space probe that crashed Wednesday in Utah said the outer shell and the canister with solar particles opened when it hit the desert. A drogue parachute and a parafoil that were supposed to allow helicopters to capture the delicate samples apparently did not fire, allowing the 500-pound craft to smash into the desert. Chute failure turns space probe descent into a crash landing. A NASA capsule carrying pieces of the sun hurtled out of control before smashing into Utah's west desert Wednesday, an almost-200-mph crash landing that could reverberate through the nation's troubled space agency. There goes another $264 million down the drain in an attempt to gather information to support a new theory about the origin of the universe. Is there no one at NASA or in the US Congress who can (or will) veto an idea like this before any money is spent on it? How many more missions of this sort are already underway? Update: Genesis slammed to Earth after parachutes failed. A report released Tuesday [6/13/2006] blamed a design flaw for the 2004 crash of a NASA space probe carrying solar wind atoms back to Earth and criticized engineers for failing to detect the error. The 231-page document prepared by independent investigators found that gravity switches on the Genesis probe designed to trigger the deployment of its parachutes were installed backward. [At first you might ask, "Doesn't somebody check things like that during construction? A better question would be, "How many people were fired as a result of this?" I would guess the answer would be a maximum of two people. The actual number will probably be closer to zero.] Again I say, it is time to pull the plug on NASA and privatize or terminate everything NASA does. It was the coolest science project of the 1960's, and it was a peaceful way to show the other superpowers that we had big rockets and fast computers, but the Cold War is over, and there is no reason — other than shameless pork barrel spending — to keep NASA around forever. Top Ten NASA Contractors for Fiscal Year 2005: $2,041,608,378 to United Space Alliance $1,516,216,915 to California Institute of Technology $1,337,979,568 to Lockheed Martin Corp. $1,300,155,000 to Boeing $ 428,771,225 to Science Applications International Corp. $ 384,582,105 to Alliant Techsystems, Inc. $ 322,390,911 to Space Gateway Support $ 315,459,867 to Honeywell, Inc. $ 297,369,749 to Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. $ 283,567,087 to Northrop Grumman Corporation Also of interest: A number of huge grants to companies that the average taxpayer has never heard of, as well as grants that are somewhat counterintuitive. $ 61,391,592 to West Virginia High Tech Consortium $ 12,144,530 to United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation $ 9,674,997 to American Museum of Natural History $ 9,200,297 to SETI Institute $ 4,097,810 to National Science Teachers Association $ 3,033,269 to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Total federal contracts awarded by NASA for Fiscal Year 2005: $14,548,190,252. [Source] Total federal contracts awarded by NASA for Fiscal Year 2011: $15,401,074,637. [Source] NASA budget requested for 2015. $17,460,600,000 — including 3,050,800,000 for the International Space Station Back to It's time to Scrap NASA Back to the Home page 
|
