Keith’s note: OK so I am ‘back’. Thanks for all the kind words, support etc. Let’s get to business. The month of September is going to be the hardest yet for NASA. Multiple budget profiles will collide with one another – in an inelastic fashion. Missions will be on hold and operate in holding pattern mode. Other missions will simply die at the hands of budgeteers. And the people of NASA – regardless of where their paycheck comes from – will still be called upon to lead humanity’s exploration of space while being stressed from multiple directions. Meanwhile, the political people inside the glass doors on the 9th floor of NASA HQ simply don’t care what happens to the agency’s workforce – or keeping them informed. As if you had not already figured that out. That said, NASA is already ‘Great In Space”. No “Again” required. Despite the political rhetoric over the years, NASA has begun humanity’s expansion into interstellar space. No one else has done that. And NASA’s lead will be rather hard to eclipse. Anyway – here is my top ten take on things to be aware of in September. Warning – it is not pretty – but it is also not without hope. More: nasawatch.com/trumpspace/nas… #NASA #AdAstra #DareMightyThings

They Are Throwing NASA Away -- Keith's note to NASA employees and contractor partners: If there is no FY 2026 budget by 30 Sep, a CR will be in place until there is. Yet major decisions are already being implemented per the devastating President's FY 2026 Budget Request (PBR). So ignore official statements from #NASA to the contrary. Even if a budget is approved, the actions taken by NASA may be hard or impossible to reverse. @NASA HQ simply does not care what Congress thinks. Senior management across NASA has been told to "implement the PBR to the letter" on October 1. Nothing is in writing. It's all verbal. Odds are that most of your management - nearly all the way up - are being officially kept in the dark and simply told to comply. FYI NASA HQ 9th floor: this is not a secret - everyone, everywhere in the broader space community knows what is going on. So pardon me if I seem to be a tad strident today. I have been watching NASA do its thing since I was a 6 year old in 1961. And I used to work there. I am heart broken - and angry - at the impending destruction of this unrivaled, amazing resource and the horrid treatment of the outstanding, inspired people who have made it what it is. nasawatch.com/activism/they-…

For 50 years GOP has used 3 big scams: *deficits pose dire threat only when Dem is in WH *tax cuts for rich pay for themselves *safety net cuts needed to purge welfare cheats w/this bill, Trump's "working class GOP" is supercharging all three New piece: newrepublic.com/article/1976…

Audio from today's @NASA Town Hall: soundcloud.com/keith-cowing/… Speakers - Janet Petro, Acting NASA Administrator - Brian Hughes, NASA Chief of Staff - Vanessa Wyche, Acting NASA Associate Administrator - Casey Swails, Deputy Associate Administrator

This guy stole $10 million from the employees of his nursing home to buy himself a luxury yacht and Cartier watches. He PLED GUILTY. And because his Mom gave Trump $1 million, he just got a pardon. And this story barely makes the news today. WTF. nytimes.com/2025/05/27/us/po…

For anyone still wondering if the editorial decisions at @washingtonpost have been compromised by the cowardly @JeffBezos, compare yesterday’s nationwide #handsoff protests with the front page of the formerly great newspaper.

U.S. authorities did not respond to a request from The Associated Press for figures on how many tourists have recently been held at detention facilities or explain why they weren’t simply denied entry. to.pbs.org/4hsV3uo

You guys Senate Republicans are ON IT. And by ON IT I mean they had a hearing on colonizing Greenland this morning.

Coronavirus infection may cause lasting damage throughout the body, doctors fear latimes.com/science/story/20…

If this can happen to a president with secret service, if this can happen in Parkland with a cop assigned to our campus, if this can happen in Uvalde with hundreds of police. STOP TALKING ABOUT GOOD GUYS WITH GUNS AND START DOING SOMETHING ABOUT THE GUNS.

After careful consideration, work is underway to transition @NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to operate using only one gyroscope. This change will allow Hubble to continue making important observations through this decade and into the next. Find out why we're making this change and what Hubble's new one-gyro mode means here: science.nasa.gov/missions/hu…

Have a spare 15-20 minutes? Please take this survey to support my colleague's (Adrian Garcia Riber) PhD research, combining sonification, astronomy data, and deep learning. You HAVE to hear some of the ML compositions created from sonification of spectra! forms.office.com/pages/respo…

This is a really nice science paper, but more importantly, hidden in the acknowledgements is a dedication to Rob Hawkins, who was lead developer on the Astronomers' Proposal Tool (APT) until his very sudden passing in November 2020 arxiv.org/abs/2210.14123

I love to see this!

Nicely done!

Quick commentary for #JWST release week: - July 12th = pretty pictures - July 13th = science data products for Webb First Images (the stuff shown on July 12th) - July 14th = Cycle 1 ERS (taken so far) 6 months of Commissioning data (~46 TB!)

I'm so happy to spread the news that #AstroHackWeek is ON this year. It will be in Heidelberg, Germany, between 17-21 October. Applications are currently open, details on the website: astrohackweek.org/2022/ Come and join to learn and do astronomical data science projects.

We are hiring ! If you have substantial software systems engineering experience in handling scientific satellite data and love science, come to work with us at the #ESAC Science Data Centre, near Madrid, in Spain. jobs.esa.int/job/Madrid-Soft… Deadline for applications: 31 May 2022

#JWST Has completed its telescope alignment and begins instrument commissioning. Just take a look at all those lovely focused stars in the Large Magellanic clouds! blogs.nasa.gov/webb/

Very cool!