Space Quote: NASA’s Space Expertise at Risk of Eroding

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Artemis-1 rocket next to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Nov. 3, 2022. (Voice of America)

“Extreme caution is needed to ensure that NASA’s critical relationships with commercial partners do not erode NASA’s own expertise, particularly in early-phase developmental efforts, and the agency should work to maintain a balance between benefiting from its partners’ capabilities and maintaining advanced internal skills. The report recommends that NASA drastically increase its investment in internal research and development to advance early-stage, mission-critical technologies that are not commercially available currently. It also makes a range of recommendations for maintaining an expert workforce, including the adoption of a new human capital strategy, and coordination with Congress to refresh the NASA Flexibility Act of 2004 and gain more appointment and hiring authority.”

-September 10, 2024 press statement for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s recent report NASA at a Crossroads: Maintaining Workforce, Infrastructure, and Technology Preeminence in the Coming Decades. The report was requested by Congress in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened an independent expert committee to evaluate whether NASA’s current workforce, infrastructure, technological capabilities, and their interfaces can meet its strategic goals. 

Space Quote: Exciting Days Ahead for the US Space Program

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): An image of Buzz Aldrin’s bootprint on the lunar surface from the Apollo 11 mission. (NASA)

“After having no other U.S. options for over 30 years, three different human spacecraft programs are now underway. In addition to the SpaceX Crew Dragon and the Boeing Starliner, NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis II mission, is planned to fly four astronauts around the Moon in the next couple of years. These programs have had setbacks and bumps along the way – and there will be more – but I haven’t been this excited about human spaceflight since I was an 11-year-old cheering for Apollo and dreaming about putting the first human footprints on Mars.”

–Statement by former commander of the International Space Station Michael Fossum when asked by The Conversation about NASA’s decision to return the craft uncrewed, the future of the Starliner program and its crew’s extended stay at the space station.

Space Quote: Elon Musk’s Spat Jeopardizes Starlink Operations in Brazil

Posted on by onespaceman2000

“He can’t go around insulting presidents, insulting deputies, insulting the Senate, insulting the Chamber, insulting the Supreme Court. Who does he think he is?…That guy has to accept the rules of this country, and if this country made a decision through the Supreme Court, he has to comply. If it applies to me, it applies to him.”

–Statement by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva regarding Elon Musk protesting the Brazilian Supreme Court’s order suspending Twitter/X nationwide. The issue relates to the spread of misinformation on Twitter/X and the company’s refusal to name a representative in Brazil. The spat is already having ripple effects on SpaceX’s Starlink operations in the country.

Space Quote: NASA’s North Star Means Boeing Astronauts to Return to Earth on SpaceX Capsule

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Boeing Starliner attached to the ISS. (NASA)

“Spaceflight is risky, even at its safest and most routine. A test flight, by nature, is neither safe, nor routine. The decision to keep Butch and Suni aboard the International Space Station and bring Boeing’s Starliner home uncrewed is the result of our commitment to safety: our core value and our North Star…I’m grateful to both the NASA and Boeing teams for all their incredible and detailed work.“

–Statement by NASA Administrator Bill Nelson regarding NASA’s decision to return Boeing’s Starliner to Earth without astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams aboard the spacecraft. Instead the two astronauts will remain on the International Space Station (ISS) until February 2025 when they will return to Earth aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

Space Quote: Microscopic Life on Mars?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover. (NASA)

“Cheyava Falls is the most puzzling, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance…On the one hand, we have our first compelling detection of organic material, distinctive colorful spots indicative of chemical reactions that microbial life could use as an energy source, and clear evidence that water — necessary for life — once passed through the rock. On the other hand, we have been unable to determine exactly how the rock formed and to what extent nearby rocks may have heated Cheyava Falls and contributed to these features.”

–Statement by Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist of Caltech in Pasadena, regarding a recent finding by the Perseverance rover on Mars. The rock, labeled “Cheyava Falls,” may answer whether Mars was home to microscopic life in the distant past.