Keith Cowing

Recent Actions

• Posted Upcoming STA Event to NASA Watch

  STA Event: An Engineering Assessment of the Way Forward in Human Spaceflight "STA will be hosting a roundtable discussion focused on the topic, "An Engineering Assessment of the Way Forward in Human Spaceflight". Panelists will include: Mike Griffin, former NASA...

• Posted NASA IT Summit Day 2 to NASA Watch

  Keith's 17 Aug note: This morning, before anyone spoke, NASA Deputy CIO James Williams said that no sessions can be recorded. This was rather startling given that no prohibition whatsoever was made prior to this. Nor did NASA PAO...

• Posted Keeping Our Eyes On The Prize to NASA Watch

  What will inspire tomorrow's rocket scientists?, CNN "President Barack Obama's NASA proposal currently being scrutinized by Congress focuses on researching propulsion for deep space and asteroid landings. It scraps the Constellation Project, which was launched six years ago with the...

• Posted Photo Tour of Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project to NASA Watch

  Four decades later, recovering lunar images (photos), CNET "Around 2005, space entrepreneur Dennis Wingo and Keith Cowing of NASA Watch learned of prior attempts at restoring the images. With a renewed interest from NASA in moon exploration and the Lunar...

• Posted Here We Go Again: Do More With Less to NASA Watch

  Senate compromise may be setting up NASA for another failure, Orlando Sentinel "The plan orders NASA to build a heavy-lift rocket and capsule capable of reaching the International Space Station by 2016. But it budgets less money for the new...

• Posted STS-135 Is Almost A Certainty to NASA Watch

  Kosmas Successful in Fight for Additional Shuttle Mission "Today, Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24), during a meeting of the House Science & Technology Committee, successfully amended the House NASA Reauthorization Bill to add an additional Shuttle mission to the current manifest,...

• Posted Webb Team Has CR Worries to NASA Watch

  Keith's note: Word has it that there are big worries at NASA and Northrop Grumman with regard to Webb Space Telescope. If NASA ends up operating under a Continuing Resolution - one that does not provide the increased funds...

• Posted California Reps Support White House Space Plan to NASA Watch

  Letter From California House Members to Rep. Bart Gordon Regarding NASA's FY 2011 Budget "The President's NASA budget replaces an over-budget and behind-schedule Constellation Program with a sustainable architecture that will take the Agency in a new direction enabling NASA...

• Posted Which "Compromise" Will Prevail? to NASA Watch

  House NASA Bill Puts Brakes on Commercial Crew Initiative, Space News "According to the bill text, commercial crew programs would get just $50 million annually through 2015 and another $500 million over that same time period via direct government loans...

• Posted Showing NASA Some Love in the House to NASA Watch

  Congress to NASA: "Help is on the way", Houston Chronicle "And what's the message for Johnson Space Center? "The first message is we love you," [Rep.] Olson said. "We think about what these men and women are doing right now...

• Posted A Missed Opportunity (Update) to NASA Watch

  How Obama Let Down Mr. Spock "Even some in Mr. Nelson's home state of Florida begin to doubt the senator's priorities, suspecting they have more to gain from a thriving private market in affordable space travel than from another NASA...

• Posted NASA Authorization Act and NASA Budget Updates to NASA Watch

  Keith's note: Markup of H.R.5781- the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2010 - by the House Science and technology Committee is underway. Watch the webcast here. Earlier Twitter updates by Marcia Smith can be read here....

• Posted KSC and JSC Really Want a Shuttle to NASA Watch

  Media alert: Florida, Texas trying end-run for space shuttle, National Aviation Heritage Alliance "Florida and Texas are trying to make an end run around NASA's competitive process to decide where to give the retired space shuttles by getting Congress to...

• Posted NASA Authorization Bill Works Its Way Through Appropriators to NASA Watch

  Shelby: CJS Bill Sustains Human Space Flight "U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee (CJS), today announced subcommittee approval of the fiscal year 2011 CJS Appropriations bill, which restores significant...

• Posted Senate Appropriations Marks Up NASA Authorization Bill to NASA Watch

  Subcommittee Markup of the Fiscal Year 2011 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill. 10:00 AM, Location: Dirksen 192. Support America's Space Programs, AIA "The U.S. must act to ensure global leadership, competitiveness and innovation in space."...

• Posted Letter: Armstrong, Cernan, and Lovell Support NASA Authorization to NASA Watch

  Letter to Senators Mikulski and Shelby from Apollo Astronauts Neil Armstrong, James Lovell, and Eugene Cernan, 20 July 2010 "This week, Chairman Gordon of the House Committee on Science and Technology released his Committee's version of the NASA Reauthorization Bill....

• Posted House Wants To Kill CRuSR to NASA Watch

  Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation Keith's note: One thing that the House version of the NASA Authorization Act does is to cut further into proposed commercial activity - specifically, CRuSR (Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research). In this draft...

• Posted Flip Flopping at DoD Over Solid Rockets to NASA Watch

  Solid rocket industry needs consolidation-Pentagon, Reuter "The U.S. solid rocket motor industry is "over capacity" and needs consolidation, the Pentagon's top official for industrial policy said. "It is over capacity right now," Brett Lambert said at the Farnborough Airshow on...

• Posted Full Draft Text of House NASA Authorization Legislation to NASA Watch

  NASA Authorization Act of 2010 - House of Representatives Draft "(10) In an environment of constrained budgets, responsible stewardship of taxpayer-provided resources makes it imperative that NASA's exploration program be carried out in a manner that builds on the investments...

• Posted Video: VSS Enterprise Makes First Crewed Flight to NASA Watch

• Posted Video: Boeing CST-100 Crew Transport Docking With Bigelow Space Station to NASA Watch

• Posted Big News for NASA Nebula to NASA Watch

  NASA's Nebula Cloud Computing Technology To Play Key Role In New Open Source Initiative "The core technology developed for NASA's Nebula cloud computing platform has been selected as a contributor for OpenStack, a newly-launched open source cloud computing initiative. It...

• Posted Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Joins CSF to NASA Watch

  Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Joins the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, Endorses NASA's New Direction "The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce that Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne has joined the Federation as an Associate Member. With 3,100 employees across Florida, California,...

• Posted New Director at NASA Lunar Science Institute to NASA Watch

  NASA Names New Director for Lunar Science Institute "Yvonne Pendleton has been named director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) headquartered at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. Pendleton has served as the NASA Ames deputy associate center...

• Posted Obama and Glenn Meet To Talk Space to NASA Watch

  Obama to meet with John Glenn today, Orlando Sentinel "President Barack Obama plans to meet with former astronaut and senator John Glenn this afternoon to discuss the administration's new plan for NASA. White House officials did not reveal specifics of...

• Posted The Senate NASA Compromise: A Hinge of History? to NASA Watch

  Frank Sietzen Jr.: Last week, the Senate Commerce, Science and Space Committee marked up a draft of a proposed FY2011 Authorization bill for NASA. That bill maintains the Obama administration's top line budget for the civil space agency, but otherwise...

• Posted When The White House No Longer Has Your Back .... to NASA Watch

  Diplomacy: Nothing new about NASA outreach, editorial, Houston Chronicle "Bolden's comments are a reminder of what we could do, what we could be and how we could continue to help create a better world. He could make it happen if...

• Posted Farewell (Again) Constellation, Welcome Back Orion to NASA Watch

  NASA appears to no longer be shooting for the stars, opinion, LA Times "The $150-million facility was built to contain the next-generation manned spacecraft for the Constellation program, NASA's project to send humans back to the moon. It is the...

• Posted Oops. Looks Like Elon Musk Isn't Broke After All ;-) to NASA Watch

  Tesla Motors shares surge in 1st day of trading, Business Week "Shares of Tesla Motors Inc. surged in their first day of trading on Tuesday, gaining more than 20 percent after the company raised more than expected in its initial...

• Posted Facebook Resource for Huntsville Folks to NASA Watch

  Keith's note: The Facebook Group Huntsville Space Professionals is tracking workforce issues, layoffs, etc. in the Huntsville area....