BUDGET COMING TODAY: Today is budget day. NASA will roll out President Joe Biden's funding proposal for the space agency at a briefing by Administrator Bill Nelson and chief financial officer Steve Shinn that will air on NASA TV at 3 p.m. At the Pentagon, officials will also hold a series of budget briefings, beginning at 1:45 p.m. with Acting Pentagon Comptroller Anne McAndrew and Vice Adm. Ron Boxall, the Joint Staff's director for force structure, resources and assessment. They'll be followed by briefings from individual branches, including the Air Force at 4:25 p.m., as well as the Missile Defense Agency at 5:15 p.m. FOR YOUR RADAR: Nelson also plans his first address to the NASA workforce next Wednesday, June 2, when he will discuss the agency's plans to address climate change and provide an update on the Artemis program to return astronauts to the moon. Related: Bernie Sanders wants to stop NASA funding for Blue Origin, via ArsTechnica. 'A CONSIDERABLE OPPORTUNITY': The Pentagon has an opportunity to learn from past mistakes as it sets out to develop a suite of new space systems, according to an assessment published this week by the Government Accountability Office. But even with all the changes afoot in space acquisition, there are a number of new management challenges and uncertainties that make it far from certain that we won't just see more of the same. The report unpacks a series of major changes in recent years that are intended to achieve better results, including the establishment of the Space Force, a separate Space Development Agency, and the White House National Space Council. But those also bring new challenges. "Working in an environment where so many large changes are happening within a short amount of time is both a management challenge and a considerable opportunity to make lasting improvements to some of the areas," it says. "As with all large scale changes, however, effective and comprehensive planning will be key to making them as to making them as successful as they can be, and implementation of the plans will have to be closely monitored and adjusted as necessary to achieve improvements to the status quo." GAO outlined a host of major programs that are already following the well-worn path of major cost increases and schedule delays, including the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite communications program, the Space Based Infrared System missile tracking constellation, and elements of the Global Positioning System. It attributes some of the problems to "the inherent risks associated with developing complex space technologies." But also responsible are "management and oversight problems that worsened the situation," GAO attests, including "overly optimistic cost and schedule estimates, pushing programs forward without sufficient knowledge about technology and design, and problems in overseeing and managing contractors, among others." Another factor is simply that it calls "exceedingly ambitious" objectives. There are also new and growing threats to space assets like space debris, cyber and electronic jamming attacks, and other anti-satellite weapons. "These new programs are facing a number of changes that could affect their development processes, including increased threats to the space domain, changes in acquisition methods, and changes to governance over DOD's space enterprise," GAO warned. "One major change that DOD faced over the past few years is increasing threats to its on-orbit space systems." ASTEROID TV! The Asteroid Foundation is launching Asteroid TV next week ahead of Asteroid Day on June 30, the annual United Nations-sanctioned day to encourage public awareness of the risks of asteroids to humankind. What's in store: a month-long schedule of programming featuring NASA scientists, industry experts and astronauts who are dedicated to advancing our knowledge of what big space rocks could be headed our way some day and how to prevent the unthinkable. Asteroid Day was founded by astrophysicist and Queen guitarist Brian May; Apollo 9 Astronaut Rusty Schweickart; filmmaker Grig Richters; and B612 Foundation President Danica Remy. Since it began thousands of events have been held around the world to mark the day. "This next decade is going to have a tremendous number of asteroid missions and science," Remy, whose foundation is trying to build the first comprehensive map of asteroids, tells us. What are your Asteroid Day plans? At minimum we will rock out to this, one of May's other cosmic endeavors. Related: Are we doing enough to protect Earth from asteroids? via Scientific American. | 
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