TYB
https://industrialcyber.co/training-development/dod-gsa-nasa-unite-to-boost-cybersecurity-workforce-standards-in-far-alignment-with-eo-13870/
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/01/03/2024-30504/federal-acquisition-regulation-strengthening-americas-cybersecurity-workforce
DoD, GSA, NASA unite to boost cybersecurity workforce standards in FAR alignment with EO 13870
January 07, 2025
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are working to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to incorporate the NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity (NICE Framework), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-181 and additional tools.
The framework describes cybersecurity workforce knowledge and skill requirements used in contracts for information technology support and cybersecurity support services in line with Executive Order (EO) 13870 to enhance the cybersecurity workforce.
In a Federal Register notice published last week, the DoD, GSA, and NASA call upon interested parties to submit written comments to the Regulatory Secretariat Division on or before March 4, 2025, to be considered in forming the final rule.
The notice added that the proposed rule implements requirements for agencies procuring support services and cybersecurity support services to provide the cybersecurity workforce tasks, knowledge, skills, and work roles to align with the NICE Framework in their acquisition plans as a security consideration. It also includes a description, in the requirements documents, of the cybersecurity workforce tasks, knowledge, skills, and work roles to align with the NICE Framework; and requirements for offers, quotes, and reporting requirements (e.g., contract deliverables) to align with the NICE Framework.
The NICE Framework is a nationally focused resource that categorizes and describes cybersecurity work.
The NICE Framework establishes a common language that defines and categorizes cybersecurity competency areas and work roles, including the knowledge and skills needed to complete tasks in those roles.
It is a fundamental resource in developing and supporting a prepared and effective cybersecurity workforce that enables consistent organizational and sector communication for cybersecurity education, training, and workforce development.
Additionally, the NICE Framework is intended to be applied in the public, private, and academic sectors to grow the cybersecurity capability of the U.S. government, increase integration of the federal cybersecurity workforce, and strengthen the skills of federal information technology and cybersecurity practitioners.
When it comes to the acquisition of backup and recovery services and technical support, or cybersecurity support services such as threat analysis, vulnerability analysis, and digital forensics), the proposed rule places a couple of requirements to ensure agencies include the cybersecurity workforce tasks, knowledge, skills, and work roles to align with the NICE Framework in contracts.
For instance, FAR 7.105 is amended to require that agency acquisition plans for acquiring support services or cybersecurity support services describe any cybersecurity workforce tasks, knowledge, skills, and work roles to align with the NICE Framework.
The Federal Register notice detailed that FAR 11.002 is amended to require that cybersecurity workforce tasks, knowledge, skills, and work roles described in agency requirements documents align with the NICE Framework.
Agencies shall also require offers, quotes, and reporting requirements (e.g., contractor deliverables) to align with the NICE Framework.
Also, FAR 12.202 is amended to require compliance with the direction at FAR 11.002 for incorporating the NICE Framework in requirements documents for acquiring commercial products and commercial services.
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Lastly, the DoD, GSA, and NASA sought that FAR 39.104 be amended to reference for information technology support services and cybersecurity support services, the direction at FAR 11.002 for incorporating the NICE Framework in requirements documents.
The notice states that the proposed rule will require government agencies to familiarize themselves with the NICE Framework from NIST Special Publication 800-181 and use additional tools.
This is necessary to accurately describe cybersecurity workforce tasks, knowledge, skills, and roles when procuring IT and cybersecurity support services.
Agencies can verify that offers, quotes, and reporting requirements like contract deliverables align with the NICE Framework. This is expected to take place as part of the government’s existing acquisition process.
The rule does not add any new information collection or additional requirements for contractors when assessing the impact on the public.
However, contractors must ensure contract deliverables are consistent with the NICE Framework when specified for acquiring support and cybersecurity support services.
It is expected that contractors providing support and cybersecurity support services will be required to become familiar with the NICE framework which is estimated to take 20 hours.
Contractors may be required to update their policies and procedures to comply with the NICE Framework requirements for acquisitions of information technology support services and cybersecurity support services.
The notice added that the cost to the public associated with this rule is not expected to be significant because it is limited to the cost of regulatory familiarization and the application of its requirements to offers and quotes for support and cybersecurity support services.
In August, the U.S. administration showcased investments helping create pathways to good-paying cybersecurity jobs critical to national security and economic prosperity.
The ‘Investing in America’ tour is journeying nationwide to showcase and evaluate the administration’s investments, highlighting and promoting exemplary practices strengthening the nation’s cybersecurity workforce.
Additionally, the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD) announced additional commitments that will deliver scholarships and expand registered apprenticeships to enhance opportunities for cyber job seekers across the U.S.
These include the United States Help Desk Academy; EC-Council; and ICS Village
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Internet Amazed By Intense Green Auroras Captured By NASA Astronaut In Space; 'This Is Unreal'
Jan. 7, 2025
NASA astronaut Don Pettit has shared another jaw-dropping video from the International Space Station (ISS). Taking to X on January 6, he shared views of intensely green auroras as the station flew over Earth on the night side.
The video shows the round solar panels of Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft silhouetted against the shimmering auroras that covered the bright citylights on the ground.
"Flying over aurora; intensely green," Pettit captured the video.
Pettit is part of the station's seven-member Expedition 72 crew led by his counterpart Sunita Williams. He arrived at the station in September 2024, taking over the photography job from Matthew Dominick who returned on October 25 last year.
Netizens were left amazed at the views of the auroras. "This is unreal," a user commented. "Before I die, I want to see those lights in the sky myself. Considering my health, I better get to it," another wrote.
"That is my favorite shade of green. It is beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Stay safe up there," a third user said.
Pettit has been actively photographing the Earth from the station's cupola window where all the cameras are mounted. On January 1, he posted the first auroras picture of the year triggered after the latest solar storm.
The ISS provides a unique vantage point for photographing the Earth, allowing astronauts to capture stunning images that contribute to our understanding of the planet and its complexities.
https://in.mashable.com/science/87703/internet-amazed-by-intense-green-auroras-captured-by-nasa-astronaut-in-space-this-is-unreal
https://x.com/astro_Pettit/status/1876154709519806543
Happy 2025 from NASA Earth Observatory!
January 6th, 2025
We are kicking off 2025 with much to look forward to but also much to look back on. In 2024, over 7.5 million readers visited our website to read our stories, and many millions more viewed our imagery on the NASAEarth social media channels and elsewhere.
Since our founding in 1999 (2024 marked our 25th anniversary), we have produced text and imagery for over 15,700 stories.
Notable events
A new fissure opened on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland near Grindavík in December 2023 and continued erupting throughout 2024.
Whether sparked by lightning, intentional land-clearing, or human-caused accidents, wildland fires are burning longer and more often in some southern latitudes as the world warms.
Auroras and a total solar eclipse darkened our days and lit our nights.
Hurricanes Helene and Milton devastated portions of the Southeast U.S. with winds, rain, and storm surge.
Unique visualizations
Global temperatures soared in 2023 and continued through 2024; climate scientists are trying to understand why.
Insufficient rainfall in 2023-2024 has taken a toll on rivers and groundwater and upended daily life in several South American countries.
Satellite data show the shape of a wave as water sloshed around Dickson Fjord in Greenland after a rockslide triggered a tsunami.
Tracking animals
Animals – elephants in Africa (top) and tuna, sharks, and birds in the remote Pacific (bottom) – provide data that complement satellite observations, helping us better understand wildlife ecology in our changing climate.
Human footprint
From growing fruits and vegetables in China and flowers in the Netherlands to building new capital cities in Egypt and Indonesia, people have transformed the land.
Beautiful Earth
Tidal currents stir up colorful swirls off the Kimberley Coast of Western Australia.
Filaments of sea ice trace ocean currents, creating swirls visible along the coast of Labrador, in eastern Canada.
Contrasting colors of lava and ash reveal the geologic origins of Harrat Khaybar’s volcanic cones.
A burgeoning cumulus congestus displays dramatic structure near the shore of the Persian Gulf.
cont.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/earthmatters/2025/01/06/happy-2025-from-nasa-earth-observatory/?src=earthmatters-rss
Earth Science Data Roundup: January 2025
Jan 6, 2025
CONTENTS
Global Hydrometeorology Resource Center Distributed Active Archive Center (GHRC DAAC)
ER-2 X-Band Doppler Radar (EXRAD) IMPACTS Dataset Now Available
Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC)
GlobFireCarbon Dataset Released
Historical GVHRR/ATS-6 Film Images Now Available Online
Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC)
VIIRS Version 2 Land Surface Phenology Data Products Released
NASA MEaSUREs Geostationary Earth Orbit Land Surface Temperature (GEOLST) Version 2 Data for 2017 through 2023 Now Available
AppEEARS Version 3.68 Released
Atmospheric Ancillary Input Changes to ASTER Level 2 Product Generation Executables
National Snow and Ice Data Center Distributed Active Archive Center (NSIDC DAAC)
Images of Antarctic Ice Shelves, Version 2 Dataset Updated
SnowEx23 Mar23 Snow Pit Measurements, Version 1 Dataset Now Available
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC)
MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) Western Diversity Time Series Campaign (WDTS), Spring 2024 Dataset Now Available
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/earth-science-data-roundup-january-2025
Record-Breaking View: Webb Uses Physics Trick to Spot 44 Distant Stars in a Galaxy Far, Far Away
January 7, 2025
The Webb Space Telescope captured a record-breaking image of stars in the Dragon Arc, a serpentine crescent of a galaxy in the distant universe.
The galaxy is a whopping 6.5 billion light-years from Earth and Webb’s recent snapshot of it captures 44 individual stars, seen thanks to the telescope’s remarkable capabilities and the fortuitous layout of objects between the telescope and the galaxy.
Let us explain.
The Dragon Arc is just that—a bent strip of light in space—because its light is flattened by the gravity of intervening objects.
Those intervening objects are gravitational lenses, which bend and refocus the light from more distant objects, magnifying them to an observer (in this case, the Webb Space Telescope).
Lens within a lens
In a recent study, a group of astronomers scrutinized Webb observations of a galaxy cluster and well-known gravitational lens known as Abell 370.
The cluster magnified the distant stars by approximately 100 times, and a star within the cluster acted as a lens within that lens, making the distant stars come into sharper relief.
The team’s research describing the target stars was published this week in Nature Astronomy.
“Inside the galaxy cluster, there are many stars floating around that are not bound by any galaxy,” said Eiichi Egami, a research professor at Steward Observatory and co-author of the paper, in an Arizona State University release.
“When one of them happens to pass in front of the background star in the distant galaxy along the line of sight with Earth, it acts as a microlens, in addition to the microlensing effect of the galaxy cluster as a whole.”
New possibilities
The lensception, if you will, made it possible for the research team to pick out individual stars which otherwise would have been too fuzzy to make out.
The team studied the stars and concluded that “many of them are consistent with red giants or supergiants magnified by factors of hundreds,” as the group wrote in the paper.
“This groundbreaking discovery demonstrates, for the first time, that studying large numbers of individual stars in a distant galaxy is possible,” said Fengwu Sun, a researcher at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, in the release.
Such red stars are nearing the end of their lives. As the stars use up their fuel, they swell and offload reams of gas and dust.
Webb is no stranger to such ancient stars; in 2022 and 2023, the state-of-the-art observatory trained its eye on Earendel, the most distant known star, and found signs that the ancient ball of gas may have a partner in crime.
Discovering a single distant star is remarkable on its own. In November 2024, astronomers captured the first detailed image of a star outside our galaxy—a red supergiant in its final stages of life.
But a whole collection of stars is more scientifically useful. As the team wrote, the work demonstrates that “observations by the Webb Space Telescope could lead to the possibility of conducting statistical studies of high-redshift stars.”
Astronomers will conduct follow-up observations of the arc with the Webb telescope, which are expected to reveal more of the magnified stars within the distorted galaxy.
Besides helping scientists understand how different gravitational lenses magnify ancient light, the findings could reveal aspects of dark matter.
https://gizmodo.com/record-breaking-view-webb-uses-physics-trick-to-spot-44-distant-stars-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away-2000546879
CEO Tom Vice Is Out At Sierra Space
January 7, 2025
Tom Vice, a longtime Northrop Grumman executive tapped to lead Sierra Space in 2021, retired from the company on Dec. 31, a spokesperson told Payload.
Sierra didn’t announce the unexpected leadership change, which was first reported by Eric Berger.
Sierra Space chairman Fatih Ozmen will step in as CEO, with his wife Eren acting as president; the two have owned Sierra’s former parent company since 1994.
Backstory: Vice became CEO when the company was spun out of Sierra Nevada Corporation in 2021, armed with $1.5B in new, private capital from investors including General Atlantic, Coatue, Moore Strategic Ventures, Blackrock, and AE Industrial Partners.
The plan was to exploit growing demand for commercial space products with a new standalone prime contractor that could offer customers a reusable LEO spacecraft, the infrastructure for private space stations, as well as satellites and their components.
In 2023, Vice led another $290M fundraising round, and last year, even suggested an IPO might be in the cards.
The company reportedly kicked the tires on a purchase of ULA from owners Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Chasing dreams: Sierra’s Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft, under development for well over a decade and originally expected to fly in 2021, missed its deadline to make the second launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket last year.
Sierra still expects to fly Dream Chaser in 2025, a spokesperson told Payload.
What’s next? An executive search is underway, and besides overseeing Dream Chaser’s long-awaited maiden flight, whoever takes the helm at Sierra has lots to do, including fulfilling a $740M satellite contract from the SDA, contributing inflatable habitats to Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station, and even exploring a reentry business.
The question is whether the company can get all that done without raising more capital, or if Sierra will need to narrow its ambitions.
https://payloadspace.com/ceo-tom-vice-is-out-at-sierra-space/
New Glenn Launch Targeting No Earlier Than January 10
Jan 6, 2025
New Glenn’s inaugural mission (NG-1) is targeting no earlier than Friday, January 10, from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida.
The three-hour launch window opens at 1 a.m. EST (0600 UTC). NG-1 is our first National Security Space Launch certification flight.
The payload is our Blue Ring Pathfinder. It will test Blue Ring’s core flight, ground systems, and operational capabilities as part of the Defense Innovation Unit’s (DIU) Orbital Logistics prototype effort.
Our key objective is to reach orbit safely. We know landing the booster on our first try offshore in the Atlantic is ambitious—but we’re going for it.
“This is our first flight and we’ve prepared rigorously for it,” said Jarrett Jones, SVP, New Glenn.
“But no amount of ground testing or mission simulations are a replacement for flying this rocket. It’s time to fly. No matter what happens, we’ll learn, refine, and apply that knowledge to our next launch.”
https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-glenn-launch-targeting-january-10
Toyota invests $44 million in rocket startup amid Japan govt push for private sector
7 Jan 2025, 02:33 PM IST
The global space race has reignited with private sector push into the space — from Elon Musk's SpaceX to Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. And now Japanese auto major Toyota Motor Corporation has made firm moves too.
Japanese start-up Interstellar Technologies, which aims to mass produce lightweight rockets, on January 7 said the MNC is investing $44 million (7 billion yen) in it, through a subsidiary, according to a Bloomberg report.
Made through Woven, the company's research unit, the investment will gain Toyota a seat at Interstellar's executive board.
Notably, the Japanese government has recently made progress to “nurture the country’s private space sector” as the United States launches over 100 rockets annually, China over dozens and India's homegrown missions achieving continued success.
In comparison, Japan’s successful space attempts are still in the single digits.
According to the statement from Interstellar, Japan made three launches in 2023, which means that there is much further to go to reach its goal of 30 launches a year by 2030 first half.
The start-up pointed out that Japan will need a “structural transformation of the domestic space industry”, adding that the company aims to “leverage automotive industry expertise, including Toyota’s production methods, to transition rocket manufacturing into a high-quality, cost-effective, and scalable process.”
Notably in December 2024, Japan failed for the second time to launch its first commercial rocket from its first commercial launchpad.
This is not Toyota's maiden adventure in the space sector, In 2019 the auto major collaborated with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to build the lunar rover used in NASA’s Artemis program which seeks to take manned missions to the Moon.
Astronauts will be able to ride without spacesuits in the Toyota rover and explore the lunar surface for longer periods of time, the US State Department said in April after the two governments signed an agreement for the vehicle.
For Toyota, the deal with Interstellar deal is one small step for many companies looking to take advantage of booming demand for spacecrafts able to carry satellites to orbit.
Hajime Kumabe, Woven’s CEO told reporters that the investment in Interstellar is “another way to expand mobility in land, sea and air”, adding that Toyota's craftsmanship expertise will be an asset to rocket manufacturing.
The report noted that Japanese companies have been credited for their satellites and precision instruments, but the country's geography makes building of launching facilities difficult.
In November 2024 the Japan govt announced recipients (startups, research institutions and manufacturers), of its strategic fund, who would receive ¥1 trillion over the next 10 years.
https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/space-news-toyota-invests-44-million-in-rocket-startup-amid-japan-govt-push-for-private-sector-interstellar-technologies-11736220854680.html
China makes first industrial-grade niobium alloy for hypersonic flight
Updated: 2:56pm, 7 Jan 2025
For more than three years in the Tiangong space station, astronauts have been conducting a seemingly mundane experiment.
It involves striking alloy particles that are suspended in a vacuum chamber with a laser and then recording the subtle changes that occur as the particles cool.
The experiment has been going for so long that the equipment and samples have been replaced three times. But it has been worth it.
Using data from the astronauts’ work, scientists back on Earth have now managed, for the first time, to produce niobium-silicon alloy that meets the stringent requirements of industrial applications.
This development could potentially revolutionise aerospace technology.
Turbofan engine blades made from niobium-silicon alloy, for instance, can withstand temperatures exceeding 1,700 degrees Celsius (3,092 degrees Fahrenheit).
Lighter than the nickel or titanium alloys that are commonly used today, and with three times the compressive strength at high temperatures, engines made of such a material would be able to reach speeds and operational efficiency that are impossible with existing technology.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3293302/gift-heaven-china-makes-first-industrial-grade-niobium-alloy-hypersonic-flight?
https://www.firstpost.com/world/what-is-niobium-alloy-that-china-is-claiming-a-breakthrough-in-13850701.html