Today’s Confirmation Hearing for NASA Administrator

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Jared Isaacman answering questions at the December 3, 2025 Senate confirmation hearing. (Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation)

Jared Isaacman appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation earlier today for his second confirmation hearing. Overall, everything went well and he should be ready for a full Senate vote next week that will make him NASA’s next administrator.

In his prepared testimony, he laid our five goals:

  1. The success of the Artemis program that President Trump began during his first term. America will return to the Moon before our great rival, and we will establish an enduring presence to understand and realize the scientific, economic, and national security value on the lunar surface.

  2. Along the way, we will pioneer the next ‘giant leap’ capabilities to extend America’s reach even further into space, including expanding and accelerating investments into nuclear propulsion and surface power programs. These efforts, in addition to industry partners building reusable launch vehicles, we will set the stage for future missions to Mars and beyond.

  3. We will never accept a gap in capabilities again–not with our space station presence in low Earth orbit or our ability to send American astronauts to the Moon.

  4. We will strive to build an orbital and lunar economy that can fund the future we all want to see in space and not rely exclusively on the taxpayer. We will begin making the investments now for the inevitable spacefaring future that is just on the horizon.

  5. We will make the most efficient use of every dollar allocated–pushing for more xplanes, more rovers & telescopes, more exciting missions like Hubble, James Webb, and Dragonfly with the aim of enlightening the world through breakthrouh scientific discoveries–knowing that if NASA doesn’t do it, no one else will.

The third point about a “gap in capabilities” specifically addresses the hardware needed to get to the space station or the moon, but we are also facing a gap in our scientific capabilities given the loss of so much talent this year. The statement reads like a dime store space novel where all we need it a rocket and grit, but hardware can only get your to a location.

Living and thriving once we get to wherever we are going will depend upon many other factors that are outside the understanding of rocket engineers. Yet too many of the senior mission specialists with these needed skills are now sitting at home after being forced out or deciding to retire in the midst of recent chaos. This gap in this area only widened, and the full impact on the NASA’s space programs has yet to be realized. However, these personnel losses are likely to close the gap between the US and Chinese space programs to our detriment.

Maybe Mr. Isaacman needed to add a sixth goal to close this new gap in scientific capabilities created this year by the White House.

A Day in Astronomy: The Death of Percival Lowell

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Percival Lowell’s mausoleum just steps away from the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ. (Atlas Obscura)

On this day in 1916, American astronomer Percival Lowell died at the age of 61 in Flagstaff, AZ. He will forever be remembered for his incorrect theory concerning canals on Mars as well as his better theory about a ninth planet, which contributed to the discovery of Pluto 14 years by Clyde Tombaugh, who was working at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.

Some interesting facts about Mr. Lowell’s life includes:

  • After graduating from Harvard with a degree in mathematics yet spent six years running a cotton mill;
  • He traveled extensively to Asia and wrote numerous books about the region;
  • He was a dedicated pacifist; and
  • His greatest contribution to astronomy related to the preferred placement of observatories.

Mr. Lowell was far from the mark when he said this about Mars:

Speculation has been singularly fruitful as to what these markings on our next to nearest neighbor in space may mean. Each astronomer holds a different pet theory on the subject, and pooh-poohs those of all the others. Nevertheless, the most self-evident explanation from the markings themselves is probably the true one; namely, that in them we are looking upon the result of the work of some sort of intelligent beings. . . . The amazing blue network on Mars hints that one planet besides our own is actually inhabited now.

Yet it is too early to say he was also dreaming when he made this comment:

Now when we think that each of these stars is probably the centre of a solar system grander than our own, we cannot seriously take ourselves to be the only minds in it all.

We Need More Ukrainian Initiative in the Space Industry

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Ukrainian Flamingo cruise missile. (Fire Point)

It is a sad truth that war can create some useful items that propel mankind forward. Maybe these inventions would have occurred anyway, but the desire to survive can certainly stimulate the mind.

Ukraine is a perfect example. Recent stories about its Flamingo cruise missile indicate that the same Ukranian know-how that created the drones was also used to design a cruise missile that costs $500,000 a piece and can penetrate deep into Russian territory. Such quick innovation by Fire Point, the Ukrainian defense firm that created the new cruise missile, puts even Elon Musk to shame (remember, Musk tried to start SpaceX with old Russian rockets).

Ukraine has already knocked about 20 percent of Russia’s petroleum producing capacity offline, and now this. With a range of approximately 1,800 miles, the Flamingo has plenty of military targets that can severely damage Russia’s war-making capabilities.

Just think if all of this ingenuity had been put towards a peaceful space program. Of course, this war too shall end, and Ukraine may have some promising industries that can be quickly retooled for a space program.

Ukraine had a strong space industry when it was part of the USSR, and these latest foolhardy efforts by Putin to reestablish that Soviet empire may instead only reestablish the Ukranian space industry.

Is Ukraine Suggesting an End to US-Russian Cooperation in Space?

Posted on by onespaceman2000

In a recent Washington Post editorial titled “How to Shut Down Putin’s War Machine,” Andriy Yermak, who is the head of the presidential office of Ukraine, states that Roscosmos should not be considered as a “neutral civilian institution.” He notes that the space agency helps to guide Russian missile strikes, so it is just another part of the military-industrial complex.

Mr. Yermak goes on to state that Roscosmos “…must be sanctioned in full and banned from cooperating with Western scientific and academic institutions.”

So how would this apply to the International Space Station (ISS), which is clearly a scientific endeavor?

Russia has already threatened to leave the ISS many times, so its departure is something that has been contemplated by the US and Russia. But here we are talking about about pushing them off the station. Will they take their components and head home? Is a partial station solely dependent on the whims of Elon Musk better than a fully-functional station with the Russians?

Of course, a hot war with Russia is something else. Recent threats by both Russia and the US regarding nuclear weapons has not been helpful, but little has really changed on the ground since the initial Russian invasion (much to President Putin’s chagrin).

It is not only Ukraine questioning the Russian presence on the station. Retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts, who served as a commander on the ISS, recently said this to Radio Free Europe:

Cooperating with the Russians on the ISS is like going on an Antarctic expedition with Nazis in 1943…It’s just morally reprehensible.

So far both nations have decided that the current arrangement is working, but that may not last forever if the current spat between the former Russian president and the current American president continue. That would be unfortunate with Russia’s program limping along and the US space program looking at drastic cuts.

The last thing we need is an empty space station orbiting the Earth as a memorial to our foolishness here on the ground.

Space Quote: ISS is Closed to Visitors at the Moment

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Falcon 9 rocket on the lauch pad with Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 4. (SpaceX)

“NASA and Axiom Space are postponing the launch of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station. As part of an ongoing investigation, NASA is working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module.”

–Statement by NASA regarding an leak in the Russian section of the International Space Station (ISS) that has yet to be resolved. This may slow down some of the space tourism to the site, such as the already delayed Axiom Mission, but it is more important to get this right rather than risk additional lives on the station. Axiom Space stated that the launch of the mission will be no earlier than June 19.