NASA Invites Media to Discuss New Science, Commercial Study Today
NASA will hold a media teleconference today at 4:30 p.m. EDT, Thursday, Sept. 29, to discuss a new study exploring potential commercial space opportunities for NASA science missions. The agency will livestream audio of the teleconference on its website.
Participants include:
- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator, NASA’s Science Mission Directorate
- Kathy Lueders, associate administrator, NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate
- Jessica Jensen, vice president, customer operations and integration, SpaceX
- Jared Isaacman, commercial astronaut and commander of Polaris Dawn
- Patrick Crouse, Hubble Space Telescope project manager, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
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The story in a nutshell: Jared Isaacman and SpaceX approached NASA about a potential re-boost mission for Hubble using a modified Crew Dragon that might also involve doing some servicing as well. NASA has agreed to a six-month study with SpaceX and Isaacman’s Polaris project on a no-funds-changing-hands basis to evaluate technical feasibility and mission design.
Press questions were, for the most part, unremarkable with the exception of those from two notoriously “woke” media entities, NPR and Wired. The NPR questioner asked why, as NASA has not given a high priority to any Hubble-related mission, this proposal should not be viewed as simply “rich people looking for something to do in space.” The Wired questioner, in essence, questioned Isaacman’s bona fides for being in any way involved in such a project. Charming.