Keith Cowing

Recent Actions

• Posted We are part of a culture of explorers to NASA Watch

  Keith'snote:The following statement was read by NASA Advisory Council member Lars Perkins, as an individual, at today's NAC meeting. Perkins' term is expiring and new nominees/renominations have not been announced - yet. "We are part of a species that...

• Posted NASA's Silence on Furloughs (Update) to NASA Watch

  Furloughs underway, but uncertainty remains for many workers, Washington Post "Defense officials said that no final decisions have been made about furloughs for the department's 800,000 civilian employees. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the House Armed Services Committee last week...

• Posted Progress Docking Threatened to NASA Watch

  Umanned Russian spaceship suffers mishap on way to ISS, AFP "An unmanned Progress spaceship racing to the International Space Station with 2.5 tonnes of cargo on board failed Wednesday to deploy a key antenna that helps it dock with the...

• Posted Thursday's NASA Budget/Policy Hearings and Meetings to NASA Watch

  Senate Appropriations Committee Hearing on NASA's FY2014 budget - 9:30 a.m. Live webcast NASA Advisory Council Meeting (Webex/Dial-in)...

• Posted Bolden's Response to Late JWST Instruments: That's News To Me to NASA Watch

  Keith's note: When he was asked by Lamar Smith at House Science Committee hearing on NASA's FY 2014 budget why two James Webb Space Telescope instruments were late, Charlie Bolden then tried to push that off as bad news...

• Posted House Hearing on FY 2014 Budget to NASA Watch

  House Space Subcommittee Reviews NASA's FY 2014 Budget Request "Rep. Edwards: We need to take a careful look at how the resources requested match the program content included in the FY 2014 budget request. At the Full Committee hearing last...

• Posted Space Apps Challenge: Sol: The world's First Interplanetary Weather App to SpaceRef

  Sol is the world's first interplanetary weather app. The mobile and tablet application integrates weather data from the Curiosity rover on Mars with weather data from here on Earth. The project aims to provide users with a sleek, visually appealing...

• Posted Video: SpaceRef Editor Keith Cowing Talks Commerical Space with Russia Today to SpaceRef Business

  SpacRef editor Keith Cowing appeared on Russia Today on 23 April to discuss the recent launch of Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket and the road ahead for space commerce....

• Posted NASA Student Launch Projects Challenge to SpaceRef

  It was rockets ready, set, soar April 21 at the 2012-13 NASA Student Launch Projects challenge. More than 600 students, representing 56 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities in 26 states, launched rockets of their own design -- complete...

• Posted Today's NASA Budget/Policy Hearings and Meetings to NASA Watch

  House Subcommittee on Space Hearing: Overview of the NASA Budget forFY 2014 - 2:00 PM Webcast - Hearing charter NASA Advisory Council Meeting (Webex/Dial-in) 1:00 pm EDT: NASA FY 2014 budget (Robinson) 2:00 pm EDT: NASA Plans for Future Human...

• Posted N2-associated Surface Warming on Early Mars to SpaceRef

  Early Mars may have had a warmer and denser atmosphere allowing for the presence of liquid water on the surface. However, climate model studies have not been able to reproduce these conditions even with a CO2 atmosphere of several bars....

• Posted New Details and Photos of NASA's Three Smartphone Satellites to SpaceRef

  Three smartphones destined to become low-cost satellites rode to space Sunday aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia. SpaceRef has been provided with new details and images....

• Posted Comet C/2012 S1 Is On Its Way Toward the Inner Solar System to SpaceRef

  Scientists eagerly await the arrival of a recently discovered, highly active comet that will skim 730,000 miles above the Sun's surface on Nov. 28 and has the potential to be readily visible from Earth....

• Posted Herschel Links Jupiter's Water to Comet Impact to SpaceRef

  ESA's Herschel space observatory has solved a long-standing mystery as to the origin of water in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, finding conclusive evidence that it was delivered by the dramatic impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in July 1994....

• Posted A Bigger Leap for Grasshoppper to NASA Watch

  Video: Grasshopper 250m Test Flight "SpaceX's Grasshopper flies 820 feet, tripling its March 7th leap. Grasshopper is a 10-story Vertical Takeoff Vertical Landing (VTVL) vehicle that SpaceX has designed to test the technologies needed to return a rocket back to...

• Posted Science Fair at the White House to NASA Watch

  President Obama to Host White House Science Fair "Today, President Obama will host the White House Science Fair and celebrate the student winners of a broad range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competitions from across the country. The...

• Posted Details on The Gutting of NASA Education to NASA Watch

  Proposed STEM Education Reorganization Contained in the President's FY14 Budget Request, Association of American Universities "In follow-up to the discussion today at the Energy Sciences Coalition meeting, below is information provided by OSTP on the nature of the reorganization including...

• Posted Full Text of the NASA/Bigelow Space Act Agreement to NASA Watch

  Text of the NASA/Bigelow Space Act Agreement "The purpose of this Agreement is to facilitate and explore, in a manner that meets both national and commercial goals and objectives, joint public/private arrangements that would continue to build the ability for...

• Posted Text of the NASA/Bigelow Space Act Agreement to SpaceRef Business

  The purpose of this Agreement is to facilitate and explore, in a manner that meets both national and commercial goals and objectives, joint public/private arrangements that would continue to build the ability for humans to live and work in space...

• Posted Antares Launch Success to NASA Watch

  NASA commercial space partner Orbital Sciences Test Launches Antares Rocket "Corporation Sunday launched its Antares rocket at 05:00 p.m. EDT from the new Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad-0A at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The test flight was the...

• Posted Space Apps Challenge Is Underway to SpaceRef

  International Space Apps Challenge, NASA "The International Space Apps Challenge is an international mass collaboration focused on space exploration that takes place over 48-hours in 80 cities around the world (in 42 countries) on the weekend of April 20-21, 2013....

• Posted Space Apps Challenge Is Underway to NASA Watch

  International Space Apps Challenge, NASA "The International Space Apps Challenge is an international mass collaboration focused on space exploration that takes place over 48-hours in 80 cities around the world (in 42 countries) on the weekend of April 20-21, 2013....

• Posted Ethereal View of the Horsehead Nebula to SpaceRef

  To celebrate its 23rd year in orbit, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has released a stunning new image of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies: the Horsehead Nebula. This image shows the nebula in a whole new...

• Posted More Meetings Cancelled Due to Sequestration to NASA Watch

  JPL Open House Suspended "Due to budget restrictions, plans for a JPL Open House in spring 2013 have been suspended. If budget considerations improve, JPL hopes to host an Open House at a future date, perhaps as early as fall...

• Posted Bolden: The Importance of Risk to NASA Watch

  Message from the Administrator NASA and the Importance of Risk "Much of the time, we work in an environment where the consequences of not getting things exactly right are very high. The good news is that our processes and culture...

• Posted Congressional Calls To Halt Planetary Cuts to NASA Watch

  Rep. Schiff and Senator Feinstein Call on NASA to Not Gut Planetary Science "Today, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sent a letter to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator Charles Bolden calling on him to...

• Posted "Why Space Matters to the Future" Winning Videos to NASA Watch

  Three winners selected in "Why Space Matters to the Future" national video contest "The Coalition for Space Exploration (Coalition) and the NASA Visitor Center Consortium are pleased to announce the winners of the "Why Space Matters to the Future" video...

• Posted Three winners selected in "Why Space Matters to the Future" national video contest to SpaceRef

  The Coalition for Space Exploration (Coalition) and the NASA Visitor Center Consortium are pleased to announce the winners of the "Why Space Matters to the Future" video contest: Addie Augsburger, Clyzzel Samson, and Elizabeth Paddock....

• Posted Astrobiology Daily News 18 April 2013 to Astrobiology

  - Detection of Carbon Monoxide and Water Absorption Lines in an Exoplanet Atmosphere, Science - A super-Earth-sized planet orbiting in or near the habitable zone around Sun-like star, astro-ph.EP - Water Planets in the Habitable Zone: Atmospheric Chemistry, Observable Features,...

• Posted Go Behind the Scenes of Space Station Science to SpaceRef

  NASA will host a one-day event for 30 social media followers on May 22, 2013, at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, home of Mission Control. The NASA Social will give guests an opportunity to learn more about the International...