"Lebanese American University (LAU) will welcome Dr. Charles Elachi, director of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), as the new chairman of its Board of Trustees later this year. A valued member of LAU's Board of Trustees for several years, Dr. Elachi will succeed Dr. George Faris, who has served meticulously as the chairman since 2006."

"A month after LROC's first image of the Apollo 11 landing site was acquired, LRO passed over again providing LROC a new view of the historic site. This time the Sun was 28 degrees higher in the sky, making for smaller shadows and bringing out subtle brightness differences on the surface. The look and feel of the site has changed dramatically."

Keith's note: A press release? No. mention on NASA.gov? No. A Twitter post? No. Why bother, eh?

"Virginia Commercial Space Flight (VCSFA) seeks a skilled, entrepreneurial leader willing to join a small team and assume full responsibility for all ops. including construction, design, launch manifest, grants, personnel, bus. development financial mgmt and public affairs are produced, implemented and evaluated cost effectively and in accordance with all contract requirements, federal and state laws and regulations. The ability to work with Government and private sector Program Managers affiliates and subcontractors on time and cost results in a matrix management environment is vital. Deputy works with the Executive Director to establish the VCSFA as the East coast leader in commercial space flight support services."

"Yesterday, as the spacecraft approached Mercury for the mission's third flyby of the Solar System's innermost planet, MESSENGER captured this striking view.

In this image, just returned to Earth early this morning, the newly imaged terrain is located in a wide vertical strip near the limb of the planet (on the left side of Mercury's partially sunlit disk)."

"Mark Schoeberl, age 60, of Silver Spring, Maryland, a senior manager and scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), pleaded guilty today to a felony conflict of interest charge in connection with his participation in NASA contracts given to his wife's company, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. When government officials direct business to themselves or their family members, other people are deprived of a fair chance to compete, said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.  It is illegal for any federal employee to make an official decision that directly affects their financial interest, unless they disclose that conflict of interest and get approval from the government.  Mark Schoeberl personally arranged for NASA contracts to be directed to a business owned by his wife, and he filed a financial disclosure form that failed to disclose that NASA had paid her more than $50,000 in 2007."

"Flight Engineers Jeffrey Williams and Maxim Suraev of the 21st International Space Station crew launched in their Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 3:14 a.m. EDT Wednesday to begin a six-month stay in space. Less than 10 minutes after launch their spacecraft reached orbit, and its antennas and solar arrays were deployed shortly afterward. With Williams, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and Suraev, a colonel in the Russian Air Force, is spaceflight participant Guy Laliberté, flying under an agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency and Space Adventures, Ltd."

Keith's note: I will be interviewed on CBC Radio this morning to talk about Guy Laliberté's flight. This is the schedule: 6:00 Sudbury, 6:20 am EDT Quebec City, 6:40 Thunder Bay, 7:00 Winnipeg, 7:10 Corner Brook, 7:30 Yellowknife, 7:50 Victoria, 8:15 Regina, 8:30 Kelowna, 8:40 Vancouver

"NASA can improve its management of the JPL contract:

- NASA's overall assessment of contractor performance may have been overstated because the Agency's performance evaluations for fiscal year (FY) 2007 were incomplete or did not otherwise comply with its guidance.
- The contractor's poor performance on a large, significant project was offset in NASA's assessment by higher performance on smaller projects because the Agency did not use proportional weighting in its evaluations.
- NASA's award of $16 million in fees and 27 months of contract term extensions, value at $3.375 billion, were unsupported because the Agency's performance evaluation factors did not include an assessment of required cost control measures.
- NASA does not have assurance that the existing contract still meets its needs or provides the best value for the taxpayer because the Agency did not fully comply with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requirements for a 5-year comprehensive review of the use and need for the FFRDC.
- NASA's use of a single CPAF contract for all aspects of the FFRDC creates a significant administrative and management burden for the Agency that is unnecessary given that there is a basis for the contracting officer to establish fair and reasonable prices for routine operations and maintenance of the facility."

NASA audit criticizes contract awarded to Caltech for the operation of JPL, Pasadena Star News

"Officials from JPL and Caltech declined to comment on the report."

"NASA/Johnson Space Center (JSC) has a requirement for an Open Innovation Service Provider with an extensive external network that can be used to introduce collaboration opportunities to the public. Specifically, NASA JSC is looking for an offeror that supports a network of experts that can facilitate solutions to a vast array of issues and challenges facing the future of human health and performance in spaceflight. Challenges are of varied type and difficulty and could include technological, biological, or human modeling needs. The potential offeror will provide NASA JSC with the methodology and infrastructure to facilitate Open Innovation within the organization and for solutions to outsourced challenges or problems."

Keith's 20 Aug note: (Sigh) Typical NASAese. The JSC folks use a phrase "Open Innovation" - complete with uppercase letters as if it is the proper name of some sort of formal process or thing (like TQM, ISO 9000, etc.) - yet they never define what it is as they ask people to submit responses as to how they'd help JSC as an "Open Innovation Service Provider" and to do so "within the organization". Does "open" refer to "open" thinking within NASA - or does it refer to things being "open" to the public? And what constitutes "innovation"? Doing things differently (or better) than NASA currently does things? Doing things different (and better) than is done outside of NASA? And when all of that is cleared up, how much money is available to do this? Some times it costs more to be innovative.

Keith's update: JSC has made two contract awards: one to Innocentive, Inc. and the other to Yet2.com. Looking at their websites they do not seem to have any experience with NASA as a client. That is not necessarily a bad thing. As to whether JSC has something in specific in mind or is on an intellectual fishing expedition only time will tell. Again, as to what "open" means well, that is still unclear. Stay tuned.

NASA JSC Contract Award: Innovation Support Services - Innocentive Inc.
NASA JSC Contract Award: Innovation Support Services - Yet2.com Inc.

"Supporters of NASA have to prove to Congress and the American people that NASA is "an essential part" of the nation's scientific, educational and economic prowess, as well as milestone in U.S. history, [J.T.] Jezierski said. "A collection of mission patches may get you in the door (on Capitol Hill)," Jezierski said. "But the ability to share the NASA story, not just about what we did 40 years ago but what we are doing today" remains crucial to getting the message out "while conveying that through NASA we can promote innovation for our industrial base, create and secure jobs and inspire the next generation of engineers and scientists." Jezierski urged the audience to "rally around" the recommendation by a White House-appointed panel of space experts for Congress to boost NASA's budget by $3 billion a year by 2014 to underwrite a robust manned space program."

"County officials are braced for as many as 28,000 direct and indirect job losses when the shuttle program ends either late next year or early in 2011. A presidential panel that recently looked at NASA said the agency's proposed successor, Ares I, won't fly before 2017 and that NASA can't afford a "viable" manned-space program without $3 billion more a year. On Monday, local organizers also announced a letter-writing campaign to remind Obama of his campaign pledge a year ago. Its Web site, website, called SaveSpace.us, is complete with letter templates, a copy of Obama's August 2008 speech in Titusville, a map of the counties affected by the space program and a list of participating organizations."

Keith's note: What I find to be really annoying is how these "save NASA" groups only appear and get active when there's a risk of budget cuts and layoffs. They regularly cite NASA's incredible value to the nation, all matter of spinoffs (real and imaginary), and the jobs that will be lost etc. etc. But when there is no looming threat, these groups - and the people they seek to motivate - couldn't be bothered with making any overt attempt to explain the value of space exploration to a wider audience. Only when jobs are threatened, it would seem, is NASA suddenly such a great value to society.

To be certain, real people are about to lose real jobs and there is no denying the impact this will have on those dedicated workers and the region. Perhaps if these groups and their supporters had kept a steady focus on public education and the value of what NASA does - and possible commercial alternatives (they hire people too) they would not be facing such a situation in the first place. Its not as if these Shuttle layoffs are any big surprise - they been very clearly known to be in the works for a number of years.

"NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission (LCROSS) based on new analysis of available lunar data, has shifted the target crater from Cabeus A to Cabeus (proper). The decision was based on continued evaluation of all available data and consultation/input from members of the LCROSS Science Team and the scientific community, including impact experts, ground and space based observers, and observations from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Prospector (LP), Chandrayaan-1 and JAXA's Kaguya spacecraft. This decision was prompted by the current best understanding of hydrogen concentrations in the Cabeus region, including cross-correlation between the latest LRO results and LP data sets."

"In economic and foreign policy, as in fashion and music, the 1970s were largely a miserable decade. But out of that woeful time arose a generation of conservative giants in journalism and public life, among them the New York Times columnist William Safire, who died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at age 79."

In Event of Moon Disaster, WikiSource

"Presidential speech writer William Safire wrote a memo to White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman suggesting how the administration might react if Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were stranded on the moon. The memo contained a draft speech intended to be read by President Richard Nixon.: "In Event of Moon Disaster"

"The images of the Moon's surface taken by five NASA Lunar Orbiter satellites in 1966 and 1967 are still among the most detailed ever made. The original analog data, beamed down to Earth to plan landing sites for the Apollo missions, was recorded on magentic tapes that collected dust for decades and were nearly discarded. Now a team of engineers at an abandoned McDonald's at Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, CA is processing the data using restored and custom-built equipment, enabling a public that saw only snapshopts of these historic images to view them at their full resolution for the first time."

Save Space is a movement started by people on the Space Coast to raise the awareness of the nation, the President, and other elected officials: Space needs to be a priority for America. As the clock ticks toward the end of the Space Shuttle program, as the President and his advisors review the Augustine Commission recommendations, as Florida's economic engine falters. it is imperative that we make our voices heard by writing letters to the President: Save Our Space Program!

Domain Owner: John Sellers Brevard County

Keith's note: And of course the obligatory, yet mostly mythical, totally unsubstantiated, vaguely described, and often plain wrong NASA spinoff paragraph is included as well: "Satellite communications, microwaves, cellular phones, miniaturized computers, pacemakers, kidney dialysis, scratch-resistant lenses, medical and sports technology, adjustable smoke detectors, cordless tools, and water filters are just a few examples of the advances that have occurred through NASA space research. Not to mention the entrepreneurs, jobs, and commercial aspects of many space research spin-offs."

Microwave ovens were invented in the 1940s - before NASA. Modern kidney dialysis was also invented in the 1940s. Doesn't anyone ever research these claims?