Grand Jury indicted NASA Education for defrauding veterans

Veterans agency withdrew $30K NASA grant
Northwest Herald
By STEPHEN Di BENEDETTO
Created: Sunday, August 26, 2012

CRYSTAL LAKE – A state veterans agency in 2010 pulled back approval of a $30,000 grant to NASA Education Corp. after the department learned the Crystal Lake nonprofit was being investigated by the federal government.

Louis Pukelis, spokesman for the Illinois Veterans Affairs Department, said the group withdrew the grant intended for equipment upgrades after being told by U.S. Labor Department investigators of an ongoing probe into NASA Education’s management of government contracts.

“This grant was never paid out due to the department being made aware of a federal investigation into NASA Education,” Pukelis said.

On Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted business owner John Blanchard and four other employees from NASA Education and Liberating Solutions Corp. on charges of defrauding veterans and the federal government.
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Endeavour payload is a VA-NASA partnership

Space shuttle Endeavour lifts off from Kennedy Space Center at 8:56 a.m. on STS-134. (Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel)

Endeavour Launch with Research Payload is Milestone in VA-NASA Partnership

WASHINGTON (May 16, 2011) - Today's launch of the Endeavour, with its research payload for two new vaccines aboard, marked yet another milestone in VA's longstanding collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The payload, which carries National Pathfinder Vaccine 10, is the last in a series working toward vaccines for two common infections: salmonella, which commonly contaminates the U.S. food chain, leading to food recalls and
gastrointestinal illnesses, and an antibiotic resistant form of Staphylococcus aureus, also known as "golden staph," the most common bacterial agent found in combat infections.



By using the unique environment of microgravity to determine the cellular changes that determine bacterial virulence, especially changes in gene functioning, scientists have sought to use these space flights to help speed vaccine development.



"The NASA space program has been invaluable to advancing VA research," says VA Chief Research and Development Officer, Joel Kupersmith, MD. "The knowledge gained from this outstanding collaboration has improved health care for our Nation's Veterans and has demonstrated the vital
role research partnerships play in VA's mission to provide Veterans with the care and benefits they have earned."



VA research has flown payloads related to a variety of vaccine targets on the last 10 space shuttles and is scheduled to fly another payload on the final journey of the Atlantis in June 2011. This ongoing work has been in collaboration with the University of Colorado - Boulder,
Banting, Best Lab at the University of Toronto, and Astrogenetix LLC. Additionally, the Durham, North Carolina VA Medical Center (VAMC) houses a lead laboratory for the International Space Station Pathfinder program.



Several VA investigators, such as Millie Hughes-Fulford, Ph.D., director of Laboratory of Cell Growth at the San Francisco VAMC, have accompanied the numerous VA research studies that have been sent into space. A payload specialist astronaut aboard space shuttle flight STS-40, Dr.
Hughes-Fulford has studied a variety of key questions in immunology, including why T-cells - key to the immune system - stop working in mi-crogravity.



For more information on VA research, please see www.research.va.gov/.

Can society afford to stop funding NASA?

I've heard from a lot of people they think NASA is a waste of money. I also know a lot of people working for NASA. Aside from them being forced into unemployment, during a time when we can least afford more people in the unemployment lines, there is a bigger picture most people do not begin to think about. It's what we use everyday in our lives and the things that make our lives better. 6,300 patents have come out of what NASA has needed. It turns out what NASA needs helps all of us.

NASA Spinoffs - Inventions Benefiting Health - Apollo Spinoff Inventions

CAT Scan and MRI

Digital signal-processing techniques, originally developed to enhance pictures of the Moon for the Apollo Program, are an indispensable part of Computer-Aided Tomography (CAT) scan & Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technologies used today worldwide.

Cordless power tools & appliances are one of the most successful commercial spin-offs of space-based technology.

Cool suits, which kept Apollo astronauts comfortable during moon walks, are today worn by race car drivers, hazardous area workers, & people with specific health problems.

Kidney dialysis machines were developed as a result of a NASA developed chemical process that could remove toxic waste from used dialysis fluid.

But there are more

More Cool NASA InnovationsWe can't list out all 6,300 patents that have stemmed from NASA research, but there are a few that almost all of us have in our homes today. A few standouts include ear thermometers, wireless power, smoke detectors, international calling, tires and water purification, among others.

click the links above and then understand that when it comes to NASA, it's not can America afford to continue it. It's can society afford to not do it?

If President Obama is thinking that NASA's programs are a waste of taxpayer funds, he really needs to think again about if Americans can afford to not fund it. Who knows what else they can come up with that will help us because of the research done?

Does Obama Want to Ground NASA's Next Moon Mission?
By Jeffrey Kluger
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008
Getting into a shouting match with the HR rep is not exactly the best way to land a job. But according to the Orlando Sentinel, that's just what happened last week between NASA administrator Mike Griffin and Lori Garver, a member of Barack Obama's transition team who will help decide if Griffin keeps his post once the President-elect takes office. If the contretemps did occur, it could help doom not only the NASA chief's chances, but the space agency's ambitious plans to get Americans back to the moon.

The mere fact that the story is making the rounds reflects the very real friction between NASA and the transition team — which has sparked a groundswell of support among space agency employees to keep the boss. Within NASA, there is a real concern that while the Obama campaign rode the call for change to a thumping victory in November, change is precisely what the space agency does not need. (See photos of different countries' space programs here.)

The stagnant NASA of the past 20 years has been poised to become a very new NASA — thanks, in many respects, to the outgoing Bush Administration. In 2004, the President announced a new push to return astronauts to the moon and eventually get them to Mars. Many skeptics saw the hand of political whiz Karl Rove in that, suspecting that the whole idea was just a bag of election year goodies for space-happy states like Florida and Texas, as well as for voters nostalgic for the glory days of Apollo. But Bush, NASA and Congress did mean business, and eventually came up with a plan under which the space station would be completed and the shuttle would be retired by 2010. That would free up about $4 billion per year, which would be used to pay for a new generation of expendable boosters as well as a 21st century version of the Apollo orbiter and lunar lander for those rockets to carry. (Read about the space moon race here.) click link above for more