Keith’s note: In typical PAO style NASA is tossing out a bunch of year end reports in a fashion that no one will notice i.e. in stealth mode. And the holiday break will ensure that they remain mostly invisible. In many cases there is no formal agency mention of them to the media. I only learned of these three via a LinkedIn post by Charity Weeden, NASA AA for Technology, Policy, and Strategy: “It’s an OTPS “Hat Trick”! I’m pleased to announce three new reports from NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy:

• 1. OTPS Year in Review 2024: highlights, key accomplishments, and collaborations that support the NASA mission.
  https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/otps/otps-releases-its-2024-annual-report/
• 2. A deep dive into OTPS/Agency Chief Technologist and Center Technology Chief activities for 2024.
  https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/otps/nasas-agency-chief-technologist-presents-their-annual-year-in-review-for-2024/
• 3. “Enabling America on the Space Frontier: The Evolution of NASA’s Commercial Space Development Toolkit” from the OTPS/Agency Chief Economist.
  https://www.nasa.gov/organizations/otps/new-report-analyzes-long-history-of-nasa-support-for-commercial-space/

It’s been a busy and productive year – looking forward to 2025!”

Keith’s note: In case you did not already notice, the 9th floor at NASA HQ issued these two reports on human spaceflight strategy in less than a week – and yet neither one mentions the other – even thought they overlap and cross-enable. Right? Nor does NASA make any effort to link them together. Why bother. Gotta take all that use-or-lose vacation time.

• Moon to Mars Architecture
• Strategy for Sustaining Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit

Keith’s note: According to yet another year-end report issued a few days before the Biden folks on the 9th floor at NASA HQ packs up their offices: “NASA Finalizes Strategy for Sustaining Human Presence in Low Earth Orbit“ which says: “The final framework includes 13 goals and 44 objectives across seven key areas: commercial low Earth orbit infrastructure, operations, science, research and technology development for exploration, international cooperation, workforce development and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) engagement, and public engagement.” etc. etc. This “strategy” (it is not a strategy BTW) simply does what every single report like this before has done: it changes dates to reflect cost overruns/program delays since the last report; re-words the same goals and objectives etc. that the last report contained; and simply reflects an endorsement of the status quo. No imagination, no new ideas, just the same old, same old. Yawn.

Keith’s note: This item was posted on NASA.gov on 8 May 2024: “OTPS seeks input from the lunar community to inform a framework for further work on non-interference of lunar activities“. Cool stuff – and important as human activity on the Moon starts to expand with many new players. But who knew about it? I checked and there was no email from NASA PAO on this. When I look at the NASA press release page there is nothing mentioned. No mention is made on the 80 million-follower @NASA Twitter account either. So there does not seem to be much in the way of interest by NASA PAO in pushing out news about OTPS stuff – however cool and relevant it may be. The NASA Office of Technology, Policy and Strategy has a link but you have to know to go there to find the link. OTPS has no social media presence. The OTPS AA Charity Weeden does not have a Twitter account and her LinkedIn account doesn’t do much. Her Deputy has a Twitter account (I think it is hers) @AerospaceFury that has been inert since 2017. However, I did stumble across this OTPS thing for the first time on a LinkedIn post overtly related to an official NASA effort by Therese Jones (the Point of Contact for this NASA activity) which I promptly liked and reposted. But when I went to search out her Twitter account for an official post I discovered that she has blocked @NASAWatch (and my personal account) – thus making it hard to simply retweet it. So, I used another account to see if I could access her Twitter account and found a tweet here from 1:33 pm EDT today and then grabbed the link and tweeted it on @NASAWatch. Her Twitter account has ~2,500 followers. @NASAWatch has 50 times as many followers. Not that big – but 118,000 is more than the lone NASA-related employee account’s 2,500 – the only account that was talking about this activity. It is good that someone took the initiative to get wider exposure for this when official mention was lacking. But wouldn’t you think that an organization and its staff – with such an important role – one saddled with an underpowered PAO/outreach capability – would want to make the most of external/earned media – and not overtly block people/accounts that can help get the good word out? I guess not. 10 May update: the tweet has been deleted – but I am still blocked. Oh well. Maybe NASA OTPS will lift a finger and get PAO to make them an official social media account so that their cool stuff can reach the largest possible audience – in a professional fashion.

Keith’s note: This is the current NASA Advisory Council. No one is under 50. Many are much older. Indeed, some are de-facto life appointees. And no one is a member of the Artemis Generation – yet NAC members evoke them anyway as a throwaway talking point. If this is where our future in space is to be born it will be dull and listless. We can do better. Much better.

Keith’s note: In case you missed the tweets from almost every single American embassy and the U.S. State Department – it is #SpaceDiplomacyWeek. I was on CGTN this evening – trying to be diplomatic – talking about the return of the Shenzhou 17 crew, China’s Tiangong space station and the International Space Station, what happens when astronauts return from a long space mission, and future human missions to the Moon. [Audio]

Keith’s Note: I did an interview on Scripps news tonight about the politics of space. Here’s the audio. Funny thing – as they were setting up the piece I heard another guest talking and recognizing the voice I said LEROY! – yup. It was my friend Leroy Chiao. Alas we were stacked guests – one after the other – but they did a “bump” shot before we were on and you can see us smiling away waiting to be interviewed. Next time Leroy.

Keith’s note: According to this OSTP Fact Sheet: Biden-⁠Harris Administration to Kick off Fourth Investing in America Tour to Highlight How the President Is Delivering for Communities in Every Corner of America: “Throughout the Investing in America tour, President Biden, Vice President Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Cabinet members, and Senior Administration Officials will visit communities across the country where the President is cutting costs for American families, growing our clean energy economy, rebuilding our infrastructure, and creating good-paying jobs along the way. To date, the Administration has now launched over 50,000 infrastructure and clean energy projects and mobilized over $640 billion in private sector clean energy and manufacturing investments.” Alas, NASA is mentioned nowhere in this fact sheet. The fact sheet points to a Brookings Institution report – which also makes no mention of NASA or space. Remember the early days of this Administration when the President pointed out a Moon rock in the oval office? Looks like NASA has lost its mojo. As for the National Space Council – which is supposed to worry about these sort of things – nothing but crickets.

Keith’s note: There was another National Space Council thing in Washington, DC. Big room, lots of flags, big expensive billboard-sized posters from Kinko’s, dramatic lighting – and did I mention lots of flags? Today’s big news was not “news”. VP Harris announced that an international crew member would be part of a mission to the lunar surface. Duh. We’ve all known that for a while. We still do not know what country they wil be from or who they are. NASA can’t even tell you what year they’ll be able to announce the year that humans will land on the Moon – much less who will be in the spaceship or the flag on their shoulder. The Vice President’s team just wants talking points with a sizzle reel. Only NASA OIG and GAO seem to care about NASA’s ability to do things at cost and on time. Artemis and Gateway, Mars Sample Return, ISS service life extension and disposal, commercial space station follow-ons – and all those other other shiny new things will not all fit in the existing budget box. But why worry that the budget required to do things at NASA – It’s showtime! These public things are just a dog and pony show that costs a lot of money three times a year to make the people in the D.C space bubble feel important as they enjoy their choir practice in an echo chamber. The real work goes on behind the scenes. This is just for PR. Just sayin’. Here are the talking points and fact sheets.

• FACT SHEET: Strengthening U.S. International Space Partnerships
• U.S. Novel Space Activities Authorization and Supervision Framework
• Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Meeting of the U.S. National Space Council
• Secretary Antony J. Blinken at a U.S. National Space Council Meeting
• Space Manufacturing Technology Report Submitted to The National Space Council

Keith’s 11 Dec note: There is a National Space Council meeting on Wednesday 20 Dec. Other than a simple release from the White House – emailed to some media but not others – no other information has come out. I asked NASA PAO if it will be webcast. No response. No start/end time is listed. No location. No agenda. Nothing. NASA+ and NASA.gov make no mention whatsoever. You can’t ask the National Space Council since there is no way to actually contact them via their website (no email contact, phone number). It is hard to see how anyone outside of the DC space bubble will even hear what is said. Based on the indifference that the NSpC has had with being open about its activities, it is obvious by now that no one there or in the VP’s office or OSTP actually cares. (see Yet Another Pointless NSpC Users’ Advisory Group Meeting) This is just another VP photo op wherein people read from a script. Hard to take their interest seriously. Beam me up.

Keith’s note: According to NASA “The next meeting of the National Space Council (NSpC) Users’ Advisory Group (UAG) is scheduled for December 1, 2023, 11:00am – 2:00pm EST. This meeting will be virtual-only, via dial-in and WebEx. Access information links for both virtual video and audio lines will be posted in advance on this website.“ This meeting was supposed to happen on 4 August 2023 but they rescheduled it – no reason given. It then took them 4 months to figure out what they wanted to do and reschedule it. It sure doesn’t sound like there is a lot of priority attached to this meeting in the NSpC or the Vice President’s office. As we all know by now all of the topics that are discussed by the UAG have already been decided – in advance – by the NSpC staff. The same thing happened in the previous Administration so at least they are being consistent. All the UAG does in these meetings is a short photo op (in this case a screen grab opportunity) and have the members say words prepared by their staff about the things that have already been decided/enacted. This gives the impression that experts deliberated about whatever their words say they did. And then someone checks a box because they did another one of those FACA advisory meeting things we do here in Washington. Here is the agenda. Will they talk about SLS delays/overruns or Mars Sample Return woes? There does not seem to be room in a 3 hour telecon with a jammed agenda like this. Meanwhile if you want to actually ask the NSpC what all this is about they still do not have any way to contact actual NSpC staff on their official website which is 3 paragraphs on a generic White House webpage. If you have nothing better to do then here are prior rants posts about the whole NSpC/UAG space advisory rabbit hole to look at.

• According to the Daily Mail ‘The China-U.S. relationship has never been smooth sailing and always faces problems of one kind or another,’ Xi said through a translator as he met Biden. ‘Yet it has kept moving forward amidst twists and turns. For China and the United States, turning their back on each other is not an option. It is unrealistic for one side to remodel the other, and conflict and confrontation has terrible consequences for both sides. Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed.’ Biden said “We have to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict and we have to manage responsibly that competition,’ Biden told his counterpart. ‘That’s what the United States wants and what we intend to do. I believe that’s also what the world wants from both of us. ‘We have a responsibility to our people and the world to work together when we see it in our interests to do so. The critical global changes we face from climate change, narcotics to artificial intelligence demand us to work together.”

• Meanwhile NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has been quoted in Politico as saying “It is a fact: we’re in a space race,” the former Florida senator and astronaut said in an interview. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’” He pointed out that Russian cosmonauts operate the International Space Station side by side with NASA astronauts, and that they frequently trust each other with their lives. And on CTV Nelson said “We built the International Space Station with the Russians. What a contrast, with the Chinese government,” Nelson said. “They are secretive, they are non-transparent. They will not share when Earth is threatened by one of their tumbling rockets coming back in, they will not share their trajectories, so it’s a huge difference in the way we approach our civilian space program with the Russians visa vie the Chinese.”

• It would seem like Bill Nelson has been off on his own hawkish path with regard to China while being extra tender with regard to Russia (with whom we are fighting a proxy war) while the White House (and seemingly Beijing) are moving in the opposite direction than Nelson’s Cold War-ish rhetoric. Is Nelson out of touch – or is this a ‘good cop/bad cop’ game that the Administration is using Nelson for?

Keith’s note: The Foreign Minister of Bhutan and his entourage made a “courtesy visit” to NASA HQ on Wednesday. NASA only posted a few pictures. Why was the Foreign Minister of Bhutan visiting NASA? Did Bill Nelson talk about Artemis Accords with him? Perhaps issues associated with Himalayan climate change? China? A personal interest in space by Bhutan? Of course NASA Public Affairs and the Office of International and Interagency Relations are silent on this. Oh yes: the fancy shiny new NASA.gov website search engine finds no mention of this visit even though pics are posted at NASA.gov

Keith’s note: This 8 hour video of Space 18th SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) at the United Nations has no one under 50. Most speakers are over 60. 98% are male. Where is the next generation when it comes to speaking about THEIR future in space?

Shri Vinay Kwatra, India’s Foreign Secretary: “With regard to the BRICS space consortium, second question, also cooperation in space. Look, there is already a BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation which was established by BRICS during India’s chairmanship. Space is a domain in which we have been very forward leaning in offering our capacities in a cooperative framework with other countries. So, for example, India has SAARC satellite which we built essentially for the South Asian Association of Regional Countries. BRICS, as I said, BRICS Remote Sensing Satellite Constellation and the Space Exploration Consortium that we have proposed will essentially take that as a base layer and build on it. Now, obviously, for any such concept to be successful, it has to address the priorities which each of the BRICS countries would have. So, the relevant working groups of the BRICS which would deal with this would look into this aspect, identify its elements and the space of cooperation in space, in the field of space or space in the field of space is actually so extensive. It’s so, I would say, productive in terms of how we integrate the capacities in the space with our own economic endeavors. This can be a very, very promising area of cooperation and something in which, as I said, India has always been forward leaning in terms of offering its capacities.” — Transcript of Special Briefing by Foreign Secretary on Prime Minister’s visit to South Africa and Greece (August 24, 2023) — More news below.

Keith’s note: Looks like there was a high level meeting last week of the NASA Deputy Administrator, State Department, National Space Council Executive Director – and the Mongolian Prime Minister. But no one seems to care except Pam Melroy. The only place any of this is mentioned is on @Astro_Pam – an account with only 13,000 followers. @NASA has 75 million followers – but makes no mention. But PAO AA Marc Etkind and his crack social media squad could not be bothered with using that account to spread this international news INTERNATIONALLY or use NASA.gov to tell the folks here in the U.S. Of course, NASA OIIR never updates anything online. And forget about National Space Council – they do not even have telephone/email contacts on their useless home page. And the Mongolian Embassy Twitter mentions everything that their Prime minister did in Washington, DC last week – except the NASA thing. And don’t even bother with the search engines on NASA’s old or new (beta) websites. All they have to say about Mongolia has to do with forest fires 10 years ago. Meanwhile the Mongolian Prime minister was at the White house signing a “Strategic Third Neighbor Partnership”. The joint statement says “The United States and Mongolia also discussed ways to increase U.S.- Mongolia space and technology cooperation, including through the development of a bilateral space dialogue. Both countries are working towards advancing space situational awareness cooperation and ensuring a peaceful, safe, secure, and sustainable space environment.” But other than Pam Melroy no one at NASA seems to care. Yet another example of Squandering NASA’s Immense Soft Power. Just sayin’

Keith’s note: According to NASA “To help guide NASA’s efforts over the next decade, the agency today released its Planetary Defense Strategy and Action Plan.” This is kinda important, right? NASA PAO tweeted about it and posted a thing on NASA.gov but did not bother to issue a media advisory or press release to the news media. No mention is made on the White House website, by OSTP, the National Space Council, the Users Advisory Group, or the Vice President’s office. Or Space Force, DHS, NOAA etc. No one really bothers to try and coordinate this stuff across the government anymore since it is really not much of a priority – unless there is a photo-op with the VP. More info.

Keith’s note: A week ago the National Space Council User’s Advisory Group held a meeting. They said that they’d get everything online. It has been a week. All that is online is the agenda. It as a link for the presentations. If you go there you will not see any presentations. There is a link for “National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group: Findings and Recommendations” but it points to a page last updated on 30 July 2020. All that was posted is a video by Buzz Aldrin and a raw video of the meeting at the original livestream link. NASA.gov makes no mention of this anywhere. NASA OIIR which oversees all of this inter- and intra-governmental advisory stuff is clueless as well. There is no mention of this or any other meeting. Nor is there any way to contact an identifiable human (like Chirag Parikh) at the official National Space Council webpage. There is a White House link to a short summary of the photo op all of the UAG members met VP Harris – lots of flowery blather but no substance. Oddly I had a link to Thomas Zurbuchen’s presentation – the one that NASA’s crack AV squad screwed up) which was online moments after the meeting ended – last week. You can catch my UAG coverage on Twitter here. It took the Biden Administration and NASA 2 years to actually assemble this UAG panel for a meeting. It is doubtful that they will accomplish anything more than the Trump Administration’s UAG did – other than dog and pony shows with expensive backdrops. I have seen innumerable pointless advisory panels in my 37 years inside of – and watching – NASA. This UAG is probably the most pointless of them all. If the Administration and NASA do not take the whole “user” aspect of space seriously then why should anyone else? Another 4 years wasted. Just saying.

Keith’s note: The National Space Council (NSpC) Users’ Advisory Group (UAG) Is meeting on Thursday 23 February from 9:00 am – 1:15 pm EST at the JW Marriott Hotel in Washington, DC. You can watch it live here. If you look at the Agenda you will see that it is filled with UAG members, space insiders, and NASA staff briefing one another in true echo chamber style. There is no scheduled outside input from the real world. There is a mention on the agenda that you can “submit a question, comment, or idea to the UAG, please use the following e-mail: [email protected]“. Just know that any questions you submit will be filtered and screened by lots of government people – so nothing provocative is likely to be asked at the meeting. And any answers you get back after the meeting will be bland and lacking in terms of having any worthwhile content. The UAG could have had real value. Instead it is mostly a pointless dog and pony show. More below.