Keith Cowing

Recent Actions

• Posted Dumpster Diving for Science to NASA Watch

  According to Science magazine: NASA Dives Into Its Past to Retrieve Vintage Satellite Data: "They cleaned, rebuilt, and reassembled one drive, then designed and built equipment to convert the analog signals into an exact 16-bit digital copy. "It was...

• Posted Rep. Wolf's China Witch Hunt Resumes (Update) to NASA Watch

  House Chairmen Say NASA May Have Released DOD Secrets To China, Aviation Week "According to sources at Ames and on Capitol Hill, the case involves Ames Center Director Simon P. "Pete" Worden and members of the center's staff who are...

• Posted National Space Society Leadership Change to NASA Watch

  Letter from Paul Damphousse to National Space Society Board "During the last year in this role it has become abundantly clear, however, that as long as elements of the existing leadership of the NSS continue to pursue courses of action--...

• Posted Powerful Nor'easter Coming Together to SpaceRef

  A massive winter storm is coming together as two low pressure systems are merging over the U.S. East Coast. A satellite image from NOAA's GOES-13 satellite on Feb. 8 shows a western frontal system approaching the coastal low pressure area....

• Posted SpaceGAMBIT: First Round of Funding Activity - Open Call For Projects to NASA Hack Space

  "SpaceGAMBIT is pleased to announce the first round of funding activity with an Open Call For Projects. We are looking for community-space built, open-source projects in line with our mission to receive $5000-$20,000USD for a 3-4 month development. Our overall...

• Posted SpaceGAMBIT: First Round of Funding Activity - Open Call For Projects to SpaceRef

  "SpaceGAMBIT is pleased to announce the first round of funding activity with an Open Call For Projects. We are looking for community-space built, open-source projects in line with our mission to receive $5000-$20,000USD for a 3-4 month development. Our overall...

• Posted The Sun Produces Two CMEs to SpaceRef

  In the evening of Feb. 5, 2013, the sun erupted with two coronal mass ejections or CMEs that may glance near-Earth space....

• Posted Earth's Saltiest Pond: Implications for Water on Mars to SpaceRef

  Antarctica's Don Juan Pond might be the unlikeliest body of water on Earth. Situated in the frigid McMurdo Dry Valleys, only the pond's high salt content -- by far the highest of any body of water on the planet --...

• Posted Arianespace orbits Amazonas-3 and Azerspace/Africasat-1a to SpaceRef Business

  On Thursday, February 7, 2013, Arianespace successfully carried out the 54th Ariane 5 launch in a row, orbiting two telecommunications satellites: Amazonas-3 for Spanish operator Hispasat, and Azerspace/Africasat-1a for the Azerbaijani operator Azercosmos JSC and the Azerbaijan Ministry of Communications...

• Posted GAO: Launch Services New Entrant Certification Guide to SpaceRef Business

  The Air Force based its Guide on existing NASA policy and procedures with respect to payload risk classification and launch vehicle certification. Payloads are classified based in part on factors such as national significance, payload complexity and cost, and are...

• Posted Scotland's First Minister views Scotland's First Satellite to NASA Hack Space

  "The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, took a close-up view of Scotland's first satellite today. Clyde Space, which designed and built the UKube-1 nanosatellite, is running final tests at the company's headquarters in the West of Scotland Science Park...

• Posted Scotland's First Minister views Scotland's First Satellite to SpaceRef

  "The First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, took a close-up view of Scotland's first satellite today. Clyde Space, which designed and built the UKube-1 nanosatellite, is running final tests at the company's headquarters in the West of Scotland Science Park...

• Posted World's First Smartphone in Space 'STRaND-1' Ready for Launch to SpaceRef

  "A UK mission, jointly developed by the University of Surrey's Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), to send the world's first smartphone satellite into orbit, is due to launch on 25th February. The unique and innovative...

• Posted World's First Smartphone in Space 'STRaND-1' Ready for Launch to NASA Hack Space

  "A UK mission, jointly developed by the University of Surrey's Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), to send the world's first smartphone satellite into orbit, is due to launch on 25th February. The unique and innovative...

• Posted Close Earth Flyby By Asteroid 2012 DA14 to SpaceRef

  A little-known asteroid will skim past Earth on 15 February, passing just 28 000 km from our planet. The 50 m-diameter chunk of space rock was discovered in last year by ESA-sponsored amateur astronomers in Spain....

• Posted What Is A National Consensus on Space? to NASA Watch

  Space Abhors a Policy Vacuum; The NRC Report and The Need for a Broad National Space Policy, Dennis Wingo "...The above sentence in its implication says that a scientifically justifiable space program is the only means to continue its international...

• Posted Global Space Launch Market Forecast to SpaceRef Business

  As government spending decreases worldwide, space launch expenditures within established national programs will steadily decrease with the implementation of cost-cutting measures....

• Posted Euroconsult Expands Executive Team and Global Network of Affiliates to SpaceRef Business

  Euroconsult, the leading global consulting firm in the space sector, today announced the hiring of two new executives and six affiliate experts....

• Posted Cassini Sees Titan Cooking up Smog to SpaceRef

  A paper published this week using data from NASA's Cassini mission describes in more detail than ever before how aerosols in the highest part of the atmosphere are kick-started at Saturn's moon Titan. Scientists want to understand aerosol formation at...

• Posted A Spiral Galaxy with a Secret to SpaceRef

  The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope -- with a little help from an amateur astronomer -- has produced one of the best views yet of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106. Located a little over 20 million light-years away, practically a neighbor...

• Posted ESA's Educational CubeSat Program to SpaceRef

  "ESA invites European student teams who are building CubeSats with mainly educational objectives to propose their satellite for the new 'Fly Your Satellite!' programme. 'Fly Your Satellite!' is an exciting new initiative from the ESA Education and Knowledge Management Office....

• Posted ESA's Educational CubeSat Program to NASA Hack Space

  "ESA invites European student teams who are building CubeSats with mainly educational objectives to propose their satellite for the new 'Fly Your Satellite!' programme. 'Fly Your Satellite!' is an exciting new initiative from the ESA Education and Knowledge Management Office....

• Posted Finding the key to immunity in Space to SpaceRef

  Living in space weakens astronauts' immune systems, researchers have discovered. The findings are providing clues on how to tackle diseases on Earth before symptoms appear....

• Posted Mapping Mars to SpaceRef

  Nearly 90% of Mars' surface has been mapped by the high-resolution stereo camera on ESA's Mars Express, which celebrates ten years since launch this June....

• Posted Are Super-Earths Actually Mini-Neptunes? to SpaceRef

  In the last two decades astronomers have found hundreds of planets in orbit around other stars. One type of these so-called 'exoplanets' is the super-Earths that are thought to have a high proportion of rock but at the same time...

• Posted Why Does MSFC Point NASAIMAGES.Org At Pictures of Weapons? to NASA Watch

  NASA and Internet Archive Launch Centralized Resource for Images (24 July 2008) "NASA and Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library based in San Francisco, made available the most comprehensive compilation ever of NASA's vast collection of photographs, historic film and...

• Posted Why Didn't SMD Announce Mars 2020 Science Definition Team? to NASA Watch

  Keith's note: NASA has decided who is on their Mars 2020 rover Science Definition Team. No press release however. Isn't it a bit odd that SMD uses a bull horn to tell everyone who was not selected, but can't...

• Posted RASSOR, The Moon Mining Robot to SpaceRef

  After decades of designing and operating robots full of scientific gear to study other worlds, NASA is working on a prototype that leaves the delicate instruments at home in exchange for a sturdy pair of diggers and the reliability and...

• Posted Study Rebuts Idea that Comet Attacks Ended Clovis Culture to SpaceRef

  Rebutting a speculative hypothesis that comet explosions changed Earth's climate sufficiently to end the Clovis culture in North America about 13,000 years ago, Sandia lead author Mark Boslough and researchers from 14 academic institutions assert that other explanations must be...

• Posted FY2014 Budget Delays and NASA to NASA Watch

  NASA MEPAG #27 Cancellation Notice "Delays in the federal budget process means that the President's traditional budget message is unlikely to occur by the time of the presently scheduled February 26 and 27th MEPAG meeting in Washington D.C. You are...