Boeing sued over alleged theft of IP, counterfeiting of tools used on NASA projects; CNBC, June 7, 2023

 Michael Sheetz, CNBC; Boeing sued over alleged theft of IP, counterfeiting of tools used on NASA projects

"Wilson’s complaint alleges that its tools — used for NASA projects including the International Space Station and its Space Launch Systems moon rocket — helped Boeing win billions in contract awards and fees from the government. Wilson also alleges that the counterfeit version of the tools that Boeing made led to leaks on the ISS and the SLS — and “put lives at risk,” including the lives of astronauts.

The company brought 10 claims against Boeing, including claims of copyright infringement, misappropriation and theft of trade secrets, and fraud."

NASA unveils new spacesuit specially tailored for lunar wear; The Business Standard, March 18, 2023

 Reuters via The Business Standard; NASA unveils new spacesuit specially tailored for lunar wear

"The precise look of the suits, however, remained a closely guarded trade secret. Those on display came with an outer layer that was charcoal grey with dashes of orange and blue and Axiom's logo on the chest - intended to obscure Axiom's proprietary outer fabric design."

SpaceX Just Retroactively Put Copyright Restrictions on Its Photos; Motherboard, December 11, 2019

Karl Bode, Motherboard;

SpaceX Just Retroactively Put Copyright Restrictions on Its Photos

"As SpaceX began supplanting NASA in humanity’s quest to explore outer space, Motherboard pondered in 2015 what would happen to the public’s unfettered access to space imagery data (images taken by NASA are in the public domain and can be used by anyone for almost any purpose.) Thankfully, SpaceX soon after made the important decision to offer mission images under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) License, allowing them to be freely shared and even remixed by anyone. This is the least-restrictive Creative Commons license in existence and allows anyone to use the photos for almost anything (you could, for example, make and sell a photo book or calendar of SpaceX images if you wanted to.)

But a little noticed change to the SpaceX Flickr account this week stripped away the CC0 license affixed to the company’s images, replacing it with an “Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic” license. That, in turn, imposed notable and potentially confusing restrictions on how those images can be shared and re-used."

Destination Station: "Sharing the Wonders of YOUR International Space Station (ISS)"; Kip Currier, November 12, 2018

Kip Currier; Destination Station: "Sharing the Wonders of YOUR International Space Station (ISS)":

[Kip Currier: Tuesday, November 6, 2018 (also Midterms Election Day in the U.S.), the University of Pittsburgh hosted Destination Station--a NASA traveling educational effort to raise awareness of the 15-nations International Space Station, NASA's recent-past missions and future ones, and research conducted in space that yields real-world commercial opportunities and benefits here on Earth. Some of that research leads to "patentable subject matter", as I'll highlight below.

This is the press release that Pitt sent out before the 11/6/18 event:

"Destination Station is making its way to Pittsburgh and landing on Pitt’s campus at the University Club on Tuesday, November 6!

At Destination Station, NASA astronauts, scientists and staff partner with the ISS to share the real and potential impacts of the space station on our everyday lives through general public events, researcher meetings, educational activities and legislative discussions.

The space station utilizes microgravity, extreme conditions and low-Earth orbit to provide a unique science platform, which has currently enabled over 2,400 researchers in 95 countries to conduct more than 2,000 innovative experiments. Since 2000, the station has supported investigations in the areas of biology and biotechnology, human health, technology demonstrations and Earth, space and physical science. To learn more about the space station, please visit www.nasa.gov/station."

NASA Astronaut Mike Fincke, Col., USAF, gave a fascinating presentation. Col. Fincke is originally from Emsworth, Pennsylvania, just north of Pittsburgh. He was a member of the July 2011 final mission of The Endeavour Space Shuttle, which was also the historic final Space Shuttle mission (see here and here).

Col. Fincke told some very memorable stories, some with photos. One photo showed him as a young boy launching a rocket near the Buhl Planetarium (I remember fondly the excitement of visiting here as well, on school and family visits!), which was located on Pittsburgh's North Side. He noted how lucky it was that the photo managed to capture the trail of his rocket as it rose into the air--as this was before the many upshot options of digital photography! Little could he have imagined, he said, that some thirty years later, he would be strapped into a Soyuz Rocket at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkhstan, blasting up to the International Space Station, which was constructed between 1998 and 2011 by 15 nations, including the U.S.

He also showed some photos of other noteworthy experiences; like visiting the set of TV show Star Trek Enterprise (the underrated 2001-2005 prequel series to The Original Star Trek of the 1960's) and meeting actor Scott Bakula (top right image in the photo assortment below), who played Enterprise Captain Jonathan Archer.
(The beginning credits to Star Trek Enterprise show real footage of significant aviation and space exploration-related historical events--like the International Space Station at the 1:02 mark--with a few futuristic spacecraft renderings at the end, depicting the Trek universe's first deep space-venturing ships.)

Col. Fincke's talk provided background about the International Space Station (ISS).
One "Fun Fact": the Station orbits Earth once every 90 minutes (at an altitude of 256 miles above the planet). 

Here are some slides about research conducted in space:

Some examples of the kinds of research done on the Station. Col. Fincke mentioned that Proctor & Gamble secured several patents from the Colloidal Stability research. And that Flame Retardant findings help firefighters and consumers.

Col. Fincke shared his excitement about humans going to Mars and beyond, with spacecraft like the Orion:

 At the entrance to the University Club, where the event was held, a spacesuit greeted visitors:

A trailer parked outside offered a brief video about the International Space Station and a look at a rock from Earth's moon:

 

Now anyone can access NASA-funded research; Quartz, 8/20/16

Ian Kar, Quartz; Now anyone can access NASA-funded research:

"The US space agency has announced that it will be archiving research data at a web portal open to the public. Beginning this year, all NASA-funded authors of peer-reviewed papers will be required to provide copies of their science journal articles and the accompanying data. The research will be made available on the public portal, for free, within a year of publication...

While the portal, called PubSpace, doesn’t have the most gorgeous interface, it’s a step toward meeting a 2013 request from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, seeking increased public access to the results of federally funded research."