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Hubble Provides New View of Galactic Favorite
Apr 16, 2025
As part of ESA/Hubble’s 35th anniversary celebrations, the European Space Agency (ESA) is sharing a new image series revisiting stunning, previously released Hubble targets with the addition of the latest Hubble data and new processing techniques.
ESA/Hubble published a new image of NGC 346 as the first installment in the series. Now, they are revisiting a fan-favorite galaxy with new image processing techniques.
The new image reveals finer detail in the galaxy’s disk, as well as more background stars and galaxies.
Over the past two decades, Hubble has released several images of the Sombrero Galaxy, including this well-known Hubble image from October 2003.
In November 2024, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope also provided an entirely new perspective on this striking galaxy.
Located around 30 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, the Sombrero Galaxy is instantly recognizable.
Viewed nearly edge on, the galaxy’s softly luminous bulge and sharply outlined disk resemble the rounded crown and broad brim of the Mexican hat from which the galaxy gets its name.
Though packed with stars, the Sombrero Galaxy is surprisingly not a hotbed of star formation. Less than one solar mass of gas is converted into stars within the knotted, dusty disk of the galaxy each year.
Even the galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, which at nine billion solar masses is more than 2,000 times more massive than the Milky Way’s central black hole, is fairly calm.
The galaxy is too faint to spot with the unaided eye, but it is readily viewable with a modest amateur telescope. Seen from Earth, the galaxy spans a distance equivalent to roughly one-third the diameter of the full Moon.
The galaxy’s size on the sky is too large to fit within Hubble’s narrow field of view, so this image is actually a mosaic of several images stitched together.
One of the things that makes this galaxy especially notable is its viewing angle, which is inclined just six degrees off of the galaxy’s equator.
From this vantage point, intricate clumps and strands of dust stand out against the brilliant white galactic nucleus and bulge, creating an effect not unlike Saturn and its rings — but on an epic galactic scale.
At the same time, this extreme angle makes it difficult to discern the structure of the Sombrero Galaxy. It’s not clear whether it’s a spiral galaxy, like our own Milky Way, or an elliptical galaxy.
Curiously, the galaxy’s disk seems like a fairly typical disk for a spiral galaxy, and its spheroidal bulge and halo seem fairly typical for an elliptical galaxy — but the combination of the two components resembles neither a spiral nor an elliptical galaxy.
Researchers used Hubble to investigate the Sombrero Galaxy, measuring the metals (what astronomers call elements heavier than helium) in stars in the galaxy’s expansive halo.
This type of measurement can help astronomers better understand a galaxy’s history, potentially revealing whether it merged with other galaxies in the past.
In the case of the Sombrero Galaxy, extremely metal-rich stars in the halo point to a possible merger with a massive galaxy several billion years ago.
An ancient galactic clash, hinted at by Hubble’s sensitive measurements, could explain the Sombrero Galaxy’s distinctive appearance.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-provides-new-view-of-galactic-favorite/
https://esahubble.org/projects/Hubble35/
NASA Sees Progress on Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef Design Development
Apr 16, 2025
A NASA-supported commercial space station, Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef, recently completed a human-in-the-loop testing milestone as the agency works toward developing commercial space stations in low Earth orbit.
The human-in-the-loop test scenarios utilized individual participants or small groups to perform day-in-the-life walkthroughs in life-sized mockups of major station components.
Participants provided feedback while simulating microgravity operations, including cargo transfer, trash transfer, stowage, and worksite assessments.
“Human-in-the-loop and iterative testing are essential to inform key decisions and mitigate risks to crew health and safety,” said Angela Hart, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“NASA’s insight into our partner’s testing milestones enables the agency to gain insight into partner progress and share expertise, ultimately improving industry and NASA’s mission success.”
The milestone is part of a NASA Space Act Agreement originally awarded to Blue Origin in 2021 and focused on the design progress for multiple worksites, floors, and translation paths within the station.
This ensures a commercial station can support human life, which is critical to advancing scientific research in a microgravity environment and maintaining a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit.
The test evaluated various aspects of Orbital Reef’s environment to provide information needed for the space station’s design.
Assessment areas included the private crew quarters, dining area, lavatory, research laboratory, and berthing and docking hatches.
To facilitate the test, Blue Origin built stand-alone mockups of each floor in the internally developed habitable module.
These mockups will be iteratively updated as the fidelity of components and subsystems matures, enabling future human-in-the-loop testing.
The research team’s observations will be used to provide design recommendations for worksite volumes, layouts, restraint and mobility aid layouts, usability and workload, and positioning of interfaces and equipment.
NASA supports the design and development of multiple commercial space stations, including Orbital Reef, through funded and unfunded agreements.
The current design and development phase will soon be followed by the procurement of services from one or more companies, where NASA aims to be one of many customers for low Earth orbit stations.
NASA is committed to maintaining a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit as the agency transitions from the International Space Station to commercial space stations.
For nearly 25 years, NASA has supported a continuous presence in low Earth orbit aboard the space station and will continue to build on the agency’s extensive human spaceflight experience to advance future scientific and exploration goals.
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/leo-economy/nasa-sees-progress-on-blue-origins-orbital-reef-design-development/
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space/low-earth-orbit-economy/commercial-destinations-in-low-earth-orbit/
Going Home: NASA Retires S-3B Viking to POW/MIA Museum
Apr 16, 2025
After supporting the center’s research missions for more than a decade, NASA’s S-3B Viking aircraft is moving on from NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to begin a new and honorable assignment.
The aircraft is heading to the National POW/MIA Memorial and Museum in Jacksonville, Florida, where it will be on display, honoring all Prisoners of War (POW), those Missing in Action (MIA), and the families who seek the return of their loved ones.
The museum gives visitors a place of solace to reflect, learn, and hear stories about America’s POW and MIA service members through exhibits and events.
“We are honored to be part of it,” said JD Demers, chief of Aircraft Operations at NASA Glenn. “Moving the S-3 is a win-win for everybody.
The museum gets an aircraft in beautiful shape, and our S-3 gets to continue living a meaningful life.”
Originally designed by Lockheed Martin as an anti-submarine warfare aircraft, NASA’s S-3B Viking will travel south to its new museum home, which is located at the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field where S-3B Vikings once flew.
It will be displayed with a plaque recognizing the 54 service members who perished during S-3 flight missions.
“It’s really fortunate for us that this S-3 has such a well-kept, beautiful airframe that we can use as part of this plaza,” said Ed Turner, executive director of the National POW/MIA Memorial and Museum.
“Cecil Field was the East Coast home for the S-3B Vikings, so we are proud to have it for display here as one of Cecil’s legacy aircraft.”
Behind the scenes, this S-3 supported vital NASA flight research by donating parts to its sister plane, another S3-B Viking that was retired in 2021.
Through the donation of its parts, the S-3 contributed to communications research in advanced air mobility and monitoring of algal bloom growth in Lake Erie.
“Having this aircraft added an extra 10 years of life to its sister plane,” Demers said. “Those 10 years were vital for research.
This plane allowed us to keep flying that aircraft after the Navy retired the S-3B Vikings in 2009. We wouldn’t have been able to find parts.”
The U.S. Navy flew S-3 Vikings primarily out of three locations: North Island Naval Air Station, Naval Air Station Cecil Field, and Naval Air Station Jacksonville. There were S-3B Vikings in all locations except Jacksonville, until now.
“There are three bases in three locations that used to fly S-3s, and now each area has an S-3 as part of its display,” Demers said. “It belongs there. It’s going back to its original home.”
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/glenn/going-home-nasa-retires-s-3b-viking-to-pow-mia-museum/
Hera's Mars flyby - Asteroid Framing Camera (colourised)
15/04/2025
On 12 March 2025, ESA’s Hera spacecraft soared just 5000 km above Mars and passed within 300 km of its distant moon, Deimos.
Captured by Hera’s 1020x1020 pixel Asteroid Framing Camera, this video sequence offers a rare view of the red planet and its enigmatic moon.
The original greyscale images have been colour-enhanced based on known surface features.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2025/04/Hera_s_Mars_flyby_-_Asteroid_Framing_Camera_colourised
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6swIjI-7RI
Sols 4509-4510: A weekend of long drives
Apr 16, 2025
Earth planning date: Friday, April 11, 2025
Curiosity is continuing to book it to the potential boxwork structures.
The rover drove over 50 meters on Wednesday, and we plan to drive more than 50 meters again in today’s plan thanks to an unusually good viewshed that allows us to see far ahead.
We’ve been able to see glimpses of the boxwork structures in the distance for a few weeks now, and I am really excited about being able to plan long drives that get us closer and closer.
What will we find when we reach them?
Power was on everyone’s mind as we put the plan together today.
The science team had lots of amazing ideas about observations to collect from our current location, but we had to carefully plan and prioritize them to make sure we didn’t use too much power and leave the rover battery lower than we’d like for Monday’s plan.
Winter on Mars certainly keeps us on our toes! We ended up putting together what I think is a pretty good set of activities for the weekend.
MAHLI, APXS, and ChemCam will all work together to observe a flat rock in front of us named “Iron Mountain.”
MAHLI will also do an experiment with this rock, testing different combinations of camera positions to see which produces the best data to help us generate 3D models of the rock’s surface.
I know rocks don’t have feelings, but if they did, I hope Iron Mountain can use this time to feel a bit like a movie star on the red carpet, getting photographed from all angles.
Mastcam will also be photographing the surroundings, working with ChemCam’s RMI imager to take images the ridge containing boxwork structures named “Ghost Mountain,” and taking some solo shots of targets in the foreground named “Redondo Flat,” “Silverwood Sanctuary,” and the oft photographed Gould Mesa. Navcam, REMS, and DAN round out the science plan with some environmental observations.
We’ll be getting one more science and engineering hybrid observation when we collect ChemCam passive spectral data of the instrument’s calibration target in parallel with one of our communication passes.
This observation is part of a series of tests we’re doing to run rover activities in parallel with these passes, and if successful, will allow us to be more even more power efficient in the future.
We’re also celebrating a soliday this weekend, which means we only have a two-sol plan instead of our usual three as the Mars and Earth time zones re-align for the next few weeks.
I’m looking forward to seeing where Curiosity drives next week.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4509-4510-a-weekend-of-long-drives/
High School Student Discovers 1.5 Million Potential New Astronomical Objects by Developing an A.I. Algorithm
April 15, 2025 5:19 p.m.
In a leap forward for astronomy, a researcher has developed an artificial intelligence algorithm and discovered more than one million objects in space by parsing through understudied data from a NASA telescope.
The breakthrough is detailed in a study published in November in The Astronomical Journal. What the study doesn’t detail, however, is that the paper’s sole author is 18 years old.
Matteo Paz from Pasadena, California, recently won the first place prize of $250,000 in the 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search for combining machine learning with astronomy.
Self-described as the nation’s “oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors,” the contest recognized Paz for developing his A.I. algorithm.
The young scientist’s tool processed 200 billion data entries from NASA’s now-retired Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) telescope.
His model revealed 1.5 million previously unknown potential celestial bodies.
“I was just happy to have had the privilege. Not only placing in the top ten, but winning first place, came as a visceral surprise,” the teenager tells Forbes’ Kevin Anderton. “It still hasn’t fully sunk in.”
Paz’s interest in astronomy turned into real research when he participated in the Planet Finder Academy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in summer 2022.
There, he studied astronomy and computer science under the guidance of his mentor, Davy Kirkpatrick, an astronomer and senior scientist at the university’s Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC).
Kirkpatrick had been working with data from the NEOWISE infrared telescope, which NASA launched in 2009 with the aim of searching for near-Earth asteroids and comets.
The telescope’s survey, however, also collected data on the shifting heat of variable objects: rare phenomena that emit flashing, changing or otherwise dynamic light, such as exploding stars.
It was Kirkpatrick’s idea to look for these elusive objects in NEOWISE’s understudied data.
“At that point, we were creeping up towards 200 billion rows in the table of every single [NEOWISE] detection that we had made over the course of over a decade,” Kirkpatrick explains in a Caltech statement.
“So, my idea for the summer was to take a little piece of the sky and see if we could find some variable stars.
Then we could highlight those to the astronomic community, saying, ‘Here’s some new stuff we discovered by hand; just imagine what the potential is in the dataset.’”
Paz, however, had no intention of doing it by hand. Instead, he worked on an A.I. model that sorted through the raw data in search of tiny changes in infrared radiation, which could indicate the presence of variable objects.
Paz and Kirkpatrick continued working together after the summer to perfect the model, which ultimately flagged 1.5 million potential new objects, including supernovas and black holes.
“Prior to Matteo’s work, no one had tried to use the entire (200-billion-row) table to identify and classify all of the significant variability that was there,” Kirkpatrick tells Business Insider’s Morgan McFall-Johnsen in an email.
He adds that Caltech researchers are already making use of Paz’s catalog of potential variable objects, called VarWISE, to study binary star systems.
“The variable candidates that he’s uncovered will be widely studied,” says Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE’s principal investigator for NASA, to Business Insider.
As for the A.I. model, Paz explains that it might be applicable to “anything else that comes in a temporal format,” such as stock market chart analysis and atmospheric effects like pollution, according to the statement.
It’s no surprise the teenager is interested in the climate—as fires burned in L.A. earlier this year, the Eaton Fire forced him and his family to evacuate their home, Forbes reports.
Other teenage scientists recognized by the contest studied mosquito control, drug-resistant fungus, the human genome and mathematics.
“The remarkable creativity and dedication of these students bring renewed hope for our future,” Maya Ajmera, president of the Society for Science, which oversees the award, says in a statement.
“Driven by their ingenuity, these young scientists are developing groundbreaking solutions that have the potential to transform our world and propel society forward.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/high-school-student-discovers-1-5-million-potential-new-astronomical-objects-by-developing-an-ai-algorithm-180986429/
https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/outreach-program-engages-public-high-school-students-in-the-discovery-of-exoplanets
Experience the Launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 Mission
Apr 15, 2025
Digital content creators are invited to register to attend the launch of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission to carry astronauts to the International Space Station for a science expedition as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
This will be the 15th time a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched by a Falcon 9 rocket takes crews to the orbital laboratory.
Launch of the Crew-11 mission is targeted for no earlier than July 2025 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.
The launch will carry NASA astronauts Commander Zena Cardman and Pilot Mike Fincke, and mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.
If your passion is to communicate and engage the world online, then this is the event for you! Seize the opportunity to see and share the #Crew11 mission launch.
A maximum of 50 social media users will be selected to attend this two-day event and will be given exclusive access to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
NASA Social participants will have the opportunity to:
View a crewed launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft
Tour NASA facilities at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida
Meet and interact with Crew-11 subject-matter experts
Meet fellow space enthusiasts who are active on social media
NASA Social registration for the Crew-11 launch opens on Tuesday, April 15, and the deadline to apply is at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 28. All social applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
APPLY NOW
Do I need to have a social media account to register?
Yes. This event is designed for people who:
Actively use multiple social networking platforms and tools to disseminate information to a unique audience.
Regularly produce new content that features multimedia elements.
Have the potential to reach a large number of people using digital platforms, or reach a unique audience, separate and distinctive from traditional news media and/or NASA audiences.
Must have an established history of posting content on social media platforms.
Have previous postings that are highly visible, respected and widely recognized.
Users on all social networks are encouraged to use the hashtag #NASASocial and #Crew11.
Updates and information about the event will be shared on X via @NASASocial and @NASAKennedy, and via posts to Facebook and Instagram.
https://www.nasa.gov/social-media/nasa-socials-program/experience-the-launch-of-nasas-spacex-crew-11-mission/
https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-social-media-credential-application-nasas-spacex-crew-11-mission-at-kennedy-space-center-in-florida-form/
Testing NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe)
Apr 15, 2025
NASA’s IMAP (Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe) is loaded into the X-ray and Cryogenic Facility (XRCF) thermal vacuum chamber at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in this photo from March 20, 2025.
There, the spacecraft will undergo testing such as dramatic temperature changes to simulate the harsh environment of space.
The IMAP mission is a modern-day celestial cartographer that will map the solar system by studying the heliosphere, a giant bubble created by the Sun’s solar wind that surrounds our solar system and protects it from harmful interstellar radiation.
The IMAP mission will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, no earlier than September 2025.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/testing-nasas-imap-interstellar-mapping-and-acceleration-probe/
Astronauts Prep for May Spacewalk Amid Human Research and Crew Departure
April 15, 2025
Two NASA astronauts are preparing their spacesuits for a spacewalk planned for the beginning of May to ready the International Space Station for a new rollout solar array.
In the meantime, the rest of the Expedition 72 crew on Tuesday kept up its ongoing vision, respiratory, and circulatory system research ahead of this weekend’s crew departure.
Flight Engineers Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers have been assigned by mission managers to exit the orbital outpost’s Quest airlock on May 1 for a spacewalk and work six-and-half hours in the vacuum of space.
The NASA duo will install a modification kit on the port side of the station’s truss structure enabling the future installation of the orbiting lab’s seventh rollout solar array.
They will also relocate an antenna that communicates with approaching and departing commercial crew and cargo spacecraft. McClain will be going on her third spacewalk and Ayers will be conducting her first spacewalk.
McClain and Ayers spent Tuesday inside Quest adjusting the spacesuits ensuring the helmets, boots, and arm and leg assemblies they will wear fit together.
Next, the pair powered up and checked the functionality of suit components such as glove heaters, data recorders, cameras, and helmet lights. Finally, McClain and Ayers began collecting and configuring the tools they will use during the upcoming maintenance spacewalk.
Ayers earlier assisted NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim during the CIPHER investigation on Tuesday checking his blood pressure and performing an ultrasound scan. Kim wore electrodes as Ayers measured his blood pressure and scanned his chest using the Ultrasound 2 device. Doctors will use the data to determine if longer spaceflights lead to changes in vascular structure and function that may affect an astronaut’s eyes and vision. Ayers, Onishi, and McClain later took a vision test reading characters off a standard eye chart.
Kim also took turns with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi and trained for the arrival of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft next week. The duo reviewed the different approach and rendezvous profiles Dragon may use based on the station’s position in space and the techniques used to monitor the spacecraft before it docks to the orbital outpost. Dragon is scheduled to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 4:15 a.m. EDT on Monday, April 21, and dock to the station’s space-facing port on the Harmony module at 8:20 a.m. the next day.
Roscosmos Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexander Zubritsky continued their human research studies first measuring their exhalation rate for a respiratory study then observing how blood flows back and forth from the head to the limbs. Doctors will use the insights to understand how microgravity affects the human body and learn how to keep crews healthy on long duration spaceflights. Flight Engineer Kirill Peskov started Tuesday with orbital plumbing work then checked the station’s Roscosmos segment for stowage space and inspected batteries and electronics components.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner continue preparing for their return to Earth planned for 9:20 p.m. on Saturday, April 19 (6:20 a.m. on Sunday, April 20, Kazakh time). The trio is cleaning crew quarters, packing personal items, and handing over responsibilities to the crewmates staying behind. Ovchinin will also turn his station command over to Onishi the day before he leaves. Expedition 72 will end and Expedition 73 will officially begin when Pettit, Ovchinin, and Vagner undock from the Rassvet module inside the Soyuz MS-26 crew ship at 5:57 p.m. on Saturday.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/04/15/astronauts-prep-for-may-spacewalk-amid-human-research-and-crew-departure/
Atomic Clock and Plant DNA Research Launching Aboard NASA’s SpaceX CRS-32 Mission
Apr 15, 2025
NASA’s SpaceX 32nd commercial resupply services mission, scheduled to lift off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in April, is heading to the International Space Station with experiments that include research on whether plant DNA responses in space correlate to human aging and disease, and measuring the precise effects of gravity on time.
Discover more details about the two experiments’ potential impacts on space exploration and how they can enhance life on Earth:
“Second Guessing” Time in Space
As outlined in Einstein’s general theory of relativity, how we experience the passage of time is influenced by gravity.
However, there is strong evidence to believe this theory may not be complete and that there are unknown forces at play. These new physics effects may manifest themselves in small deviations from Einstein’s prediction.
The ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space) investigation is an ESA (European Space Agency) mission that aims to help answer fundamental physics questions.
By comparing a highly precise atomic clock in space with numerous ground atomic clocks around the world, ACES could take global time synchronization and clock comparison experiments to new heights.
Sponsored by NASA, United States scientists are participating in the mission in various ways, including contributing ground station reference clocks.
Scheduled to collect data for 30 months, this vast network of precise clocks is expected to provide fresh insights into the exact relationship between gravity and time, set new limits for unknown forces, and improve global time synchronization.
In addition to investigating the laws of physics, ACES will enable new terrestrial applications such as relativistic geodesy, which involves measuring Earth's shape and gravitational field with extreme precision.
These advancements are critical to space navigation, satellite operations, and GPS systems. For example, without understanding the time fluctuations between Earth and medium Earth orbit, GPS would be progressively less accurate.
Probing Plants for Properties to Protect DNA
The APEX-12 (Advanced Plant EXperiment-12) investigation will test the hypothesis that induction of telomerase activity in space protects plant DNA molecules from damage elicited by cellular stress evoked by the combined spaceflight stressors experienced by seedlings grown aboard the space station.
It is expected that results will lead to a better understanding of differences between human and plant telomere behavior in space.
Data on telomerase activity in plants could be leveraged not only to develop therapies for age-related diseases in space and on Earth, but also for ensuring food crops are more resilient to spaceflight stress.
Telomeres and telomerase influence cell division and cell death, two processes crucial to understanding aging in humans. Telomeres are the protective end caps of chromosomes.
Each time a cell divides, the telomeres shorten slightly, essentially acting as a biological clock for cell aging. Conversely, telomerase is an enzyme that adds nucleotide sequences to the ends of telomeres, lengthening them and counteracting their shortening.
In humans, telomere shortening is linked to various age-related conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers.
In astronauts, studies have shown that spaceflight leads to changes in telomere length, with a notable lengthening observed. This phenomenon carries potential implications for astronaut health outcomes.
By contrast, plant telomere length did not change during spaceflight, despite a dramatic increase in telomerase activity.
How this benefits space exploration: Experiments aboard NASA’s SpaceX CRS-32 mission is twofold.
One, they have the potential to significantly enhance precision timekeeping, which is necessary to improve space navigation and communication.
Two, they can provide insights into how plants adapt to protect DNA molecules from cellular stress caused by environmental factors experienced in spaceflight, in an effort to sustain plant life in space.
How this benefits humanity: The experiments conducted on NASA’s SpaceX CRS-32 mission offer a range of potential benefits to humanity. First, improving precision timekeeping for more accurate GPS technology.
Second, capturing data about how telomerase activity correlates to cellular stress in plants, which could lead to assays which better correlate telomerase activity and cellular stress and provide fundamental research to contribute to potential therapies for humans.
https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/biological-physical-sciences/atomic-clock-and-plant-dna-research-launching-aboard-nasas-spacex-crs-32-mission/
https://science.nasa.gov/biological-physical/investigations/aces-atomic-clock-ensemble-in-space/
https://science.nasa.gov/
NASA Aims to Fly First Quantum Sensor for Gravity Measurement
Apr 15, 2025
Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, private companies, and academic institutions are developing the first space-based quantum sensor for measuring gravity.
Supported by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (ESTO), this mission will mark a first for quantum sensing and will pave the way for groundbreaking observations of everything from petroleum reserves to global supplies of fresh water.
Earth’s gravitational field is dynamic, changing each day as geologic processes redistribute mass across our planet’s surface. The greater the mass, the greater the gravity.
You wouldn’t notice these subtle changes in gravity as you go about your day, but with sensitive tools called gravity gradiometers, scientists can map the nuances of Earth’s gravitational field and correlate them to subterranean features like aquifers and mineral deposits.
These gravity maps are essential for navigation, resource management, and national security.
“We could determine the mass of the Himalayas using atoms,” said Jason Hyon, chief technologist for Earth Science at JPL and director of JPL’s Quantum Space Innovation Center.
Hyon and colleagues laid out the concepts behind their Quantum Gravity Gradiometer Pathfinder (QGGPf) instrument in a recent paper in EPJ Quantum Technology.
Gravity gradiometers track how fast an object in one location falls compared to an object falling just a short distance away.
The difference in acceleration between these two free-falling objects, also known as test masses, corresponds to differences in gravitational strength. Test masses fall faster where gravity is stronger.
QGGPf will use two clouds of ultra-cold rubidium atoms as test masses. Cooled to a temperature near absolute zero, the particles in these clouds behave like waves.
The quantum gravity gradiometer will measure the difference in acceleration between these matter waves to locate gravitational anomalies.
Using clouds of ultra-cold atoms as test masses is ideal for ensuring that space-based gravity measurements remain accurate over long periods of time, explained Sheng-wey Chiow, an experimental physicist at JPL.
“With atoms, I can guarantee that every measurement will be the same. We are less sensitive to environmental effects.”
Using atoms as test masses also makes it possible to measure gravity with a compact instrument aboard a single spacecraft.
QGGPf will be around 0.3 cubic yards (0.25 cubic meters) in volume and weigh only about 275 pounds (125 kilograms), smaller and lighter than traditional space-based gravity instruments.
Quantum sensors also have the potential for increased sensitivity. By some estimates, a science-grade quantum gravity gradiometer instrument could be as much as ten times more sensitive at measuring gravity than classical sensors.
The main purpose of this technology validation mission, scheduled to launch near the end of the decade, will be to test a collection of novel technologies for manipulating interactions between light and matter at the atomic scale.
“No one has tried to fly one of these instruments yet," said Ben Stray, a postdoctoral researcher at JPL.
"We need to fly it so that we can figure out how well it will operate, and that will allow us to not only advance the quantum gravity gradiometer, but also quantum technology in general.”
This technology development project involves significant collaborations between NASA and small businesses.
The team at JPL is working with AOSense and Infleqtion to advance the sensor head technology, while NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland is working with Vector Atomic to advance the laser optical system.
Ultimately, the innovations achieved during this pathfinder mission could enhance our ability to study Earth, and our ability to understand distant planets and the role gravity plays in shaping the cosmos.
“The QGGPf instrument will lead to planetary science applications and fundamental physics applications," said Hyon.
https://science.nasa.gov/directorates/smd/earth-science-division/earth-science-technology-office/nasa-aims-to-fly-first-quantum-sensor-for-gravity-measurements/
https://esto.nasa.gov/
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1140/epjqt/s40507-025-00338-1
See the Surprising Shade, Harsh Rants and Taylor Swift-Inspired Memes from Gayle King and Katy Perry's Flight to Space
April 15, 2025 05:46PM EDT
Blue Origin's first all-female flight may have only lasted about 11 minutes, but it was enough time to inspire countless memes and incite some criticism as well.
On board for the journey on Monday, April 14, were Gayle King, Katy Perry and Lauren Sánchez, the fiancée of Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos as well as rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics research scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn.
Some of the most viral memes were in response to King’s facial expressions before the flight.
The journalist, 70, looked visibly distressed as she boarded the capsule in West Texas, even though the other women on the crew looked overjoyed.
"Gayle rethinking all her life choices…" wrote one user, while another quipped, "Gayle king is all of us on a Monday."
King, who has been candid with her nerves over the trip, later set the record straight at a news conference after the short flight.
"At that moment I was so afraid, I just wanted to get into my seat because I just wanted to let the training kick in," she said.
Perry inspired a fair share of memes too, from her choice to sing "What a Wonderful World" to kissing the ground after leaving the capsule.
"Me getting back to my apartment after running errands," one user joked on X. Meanwhile another social media user's mind went in a very different direction, writing, "pigeons when i eat a croissant outdoors."
Others commented on the length of the trip — with one pointing out that Taylor Swift's short film for the fan-favorite "All Too Well," which is just under 15 minutes long, takes more time to watch than the flight did.
Surprisingly, the fast food chain Wendy's got into the conversation as well, taking a series of slight jabs at the “Dark Horse” singer, 40.
“Can we send her back,” their account wrote in response to a post that read, “Katy Perry has returned from space.”
The account also reposted images of the award-winning singer kissing the ground after returning from the expedition, writing, “I kissed the ground and I liked it,” a callback to Perry’s hit 2008 song, “I Kissed a Girl.”
There were also a fair share of critics.
Even before the big day, Olivia Munn questioned the need for the launch while co-hosting the April 3 episode of Today with Jenna and Friends.
“I know this probably isn’t the cool thing to say. But there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now," she said per Page Six.
Following the flight, Emily Ratajkowski went on to slam the flight, while some TikTok comedians mocked the way the flight crew talked about their achievements, poking fun at how Perry floated in space and deriding Blue Origin's billionaire and celebrity connections.
Olivia Wilde had a few choice words too, sharing a meme that featured two photographs of Perry as she exited the capsule. On top of the two photos was a text that read, "getting off a commercial flight in 2025 #BlueOrigin."
"Billion dollars bought some good memes, I guess," Wilde wrote.
When asked about the overall criticism by PEOPLE in a press conference after the flight, King said that in her view, "anybody that’s criticizing it doesn’t really understand what is happening here."
Chiming in, Sánchez remarked, "I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don't just work here but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle.
They love their work and they love the mission and it's a big deal for them."
https://people.com/surprising-shade-harsh-rants-memes-gayle-king-katy-perry-space-flight-11715744
https://x.com/Wendys/status/1911939109871923213
Gov. Ivey signs resolution encouraging officials to move Space Command HQ to Redstone Arsenal ‘immediately’
Updated: Apr 15, 2025 / 10:48 PM CDT
REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (WHNT) — Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a joint resolution Tuesday encouraging officials to move Space Command’s headquarters to Redstone Arsenal.
Gov. Ivey signed Senate Joint Resolution 63 to continue to encourage the President of the United States, the United States Secretary of Defense and the United States Secretary of the Air Force to “immediately proceed in establishing a permanent headquarters” for Space Command at Redstone Arsenal.
“Alabama Republicans and Democrats – along with the facts – agree the U.S. Space Command Headquarters belongs in Huntsville, Alabama!” Ivey said.
The resolution further emphasizes the 2021 announcement of Redstone Arsenal as the preferred location for Space Command’s headquarters.
“In determining where to permanently locate the United States Space Command Headquarters, Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, consistently ranked as the top location throughout the selection process and compared more favorably across four key factors and 21 criteria than any other finalist location,” the resolution states.
The resolution highlights the findings and results from the Strategic Basing Action. This action found Huntsville provided a large and qualified workforce, quality schools, superior infrastructure and low initial and recurring costs to the DoD.
It also says the action proved Redstone Arsenal “was and remains the best location for the headquarters” of Space Command.
On the other hand, the Inspector General of the Department of Defense released a report concerning the location of Space Command on Tuesday.
It says, according to officials at Redstone Arsenal and information technology leaders at USSPACECOM, “constructing temporary operational facilities with the same capacity, connectivity and security as those already in use in Colorado Springs would take 3 to 4 years.”
The report from the inspector general said the USSPACECOM Commander had concerns to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Air Force about risks to USSPACECOM’s readiness.
"Based on these concerns, the USSPACECOM Commander advised the Secretary of the Air Force and the Secretary of Defense that the USSPACECOM headquarters should permanently remain in Colorado Springs,” the report said.
On April 8, Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers said the announcement of Space Command’s relocation could come this month.
“I expect sometime during the month of April, Space Command will be officially assigned to build its headquarters in Huntsville,” Rogers said.
Senator Tommy Tuberville said everything is ready for Space Command in Huntsville.
“Everything’s ready,” Tuberville said. “We’ve got the land, we’ve got the process and we’ve got organization of what we’re going to do and how we’re going to do it.”
He said he believes the president’s appointee for Secretary of the Air Force will be confirmed in the next few weeks, and he will be in charge of the decision.
Tuberville said Dr. Troy Meink can move the Space Command headquarters if he’s confirmed.
https://whnt.com/news/redstone-arsenal/gov-ivey-signs-resolution-encouraging-officials-to-move-space-command-hq-to-redstone-arsenal-immediately/
https://whnt.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/Alabama-2025-SJR63-Enrolled.pdf
https://yellowhammernews.com/heavily-redacted-dod-review-of-space-command-basing-reversal-indicates-bidens-political-interference-came-at-grave-cost/
https://media.defense.gov/2025/Apr/15/2003689366/-1/-1/1/DODIG-2025-084.PDF
Heavily-redacted DoD review of Space Command basing reversal indicates Biden’s political interference came at grave cost
April 15, 2025
A Department of Defense Inspector General report released publicly today details a Biden-era conflict between the Department of the Air Force and U.S. Space Command over where the nation’s newest combatant command should be permanently based.
The heavily-redacted report sheds light on a politically-motivated decision by the previous administration that overrode years of methodical military and logistical planning.
Despite the Air Force’s consistent recommendation of Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, as the permanent headquarters of U.S. Space Command, President Biden intervened in July 2023 to move the command in Colorado Springs, Colorado—where it was tentatively housed.
At that time, the administration said its rationale depended on maintaining “peak readiness in the space domain.”
However, the Inspector General’s findings indicate that readiness risks had been both anticipated and mitigated in planning for relocation to Alabama.
As extensively reported, between 2022 and 2023, four Air Force reviews reaffirmed Redstone Arsenal as the preferred site, citing major cost savings.
“The one-time cost for moving to RSA was $426 million less than remaining in Colorado Springs,” the report states, due to “lower personnel costs and construction savings.”
Even after U.S. Space Command achieved full operational capability at its temporary headquarters in Colorado Springs, the Air Force insisted the command could have transitioned to Alabama without compromising national security.
Still, USSPACECOM leadership resisted.
In an April 25, 2023 memorandum to the SECAF, Commander Gen. James Dickinson urged that the headquarters remain in Colorado.
“Mission success is highly dependent on human capital and infrastructure,” he wrote. “There is risk that most of the 1,000 civilians, contractors, and reservists will not relocate to another location.”
However, the Inspector General found that “USSPACECOM did not conduct any formal surveys to determine how many civilian personnel would relocate.”
1/2
The report also clearly states that the IG’s investigation was obstructed by executive-branch legal interference.
“We did not interview the SECAF and SecDef because the Office of White House Counsel and DoD Office of General Counsel would not agree to make these officials available… citing concerns about potentially confidential communications that could implicate presidential executive privilege,” the report states.
The IG rejected that condition, stating that allowing legal chaperones “might have negatively impacted the DoD OIG’s unfettered access to such confidential information.”
As a result, “we could not determine why [the SECAF] did not use the authority delegated to him by the SecDef to make and announce a final decision,” the report concludes.
Nor could the Inspector General fully determine the Secretary of Defense’s role in the process.
In effect, the final basing decision bypassed standard DoD channels: “On July 31, 2023, the DoD Press Secretary announced that the [President] decided USSPACECOM HQ would permanently remain in Colorado Springs,” the report recounts.
On Tuesday, members of Alabama’s congressional delegation said the report offers continued proof that their years-long concern was deeply legitimate.
“The Biden administration’s attempt to cover up its unjustified political decision is appalling,” U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) said.
“The Inspector General’s report confirms that the Trump Administration was correct in selecting Huntsville, AL, as the site for SPACECOM Headquarters, and reveals an astounding lack of transparency and accountability by the Biden Administration.
After years of promises about ‘due diligence’ and ‘careful consideration,’ political employees at the White House cut out the Air Force and senior defense leaders to select Colorado over Alabama as the site for SPACECOM headquarters.”
Rogers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, recently announced with confidence that once President Trump’s nominee to lead the Air Force, Troy Meink, is confirmed, a long and needless political war will come to an end — but not without grave consequence.
“According to the IG, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall refused to cooperate with the IG investigation and would not even consent to be interviewed.
The Biden administration’s attempt to cover up its unjustified political decision is appalling,” Rogers said.
“The fact is that the Air Force recommended SPACECOM HQ be built in Huntsville, that any disruption associated with that move could be mitigated, and that moving to Huntsville would save the taxpayer over $420,000,000.”
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Aurora alert! Powerful geomagnetic storm could spark northern lights as far south as Illinois and Oregon tonight
April 16, 2025
Aurora chasers, get ready! The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) has issued a geomagnetic storm warning due to an incoming one-two punch from the sun, and we have possibly received the first blow.
The predicted G3-level storm conditions could bring northern lights as far south as Illinois and Oregon (typically 50° geomagnetic latitude) tonight.
The incoming "punch" from the sun is expected to arrive in the form of two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) that are expected to strike Earth in succession.
The CMEs were launched during a rare double eruption of solar magnetic filaments on April 12 and April 13.
Arriving hours earlier than expected, a CME struck Earth's magnetic field at 1 p.m. ET (1700 GMT) on April 15, according to Spaceweather.com.
A strong (G3) geomagnetic storm watch remains in place for today (April 16) as conditions could intensify again, particularly if another CME arrives.
According to the NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center, the Kp index is expected to peak at 5.33 over the next 24 hours. For the latest forecast and timing details, check out NOAA's 3-day outlook.
NOAA classifies geomagnetic storms using a G-scale, which ranks their intensity from G1 (minor) to G5 (extreme).
The recent geomagnetic storm watch NOAA issued is rated a G3, indicating "strong" storm conditions.
"Watches at this level are infrequent, but not uncommon," NOAA SWPC wrote in the geomagnetic storm watch statement.
CMEs are large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the sun; when they collide with Earth's magnetic field, they can cause geomagnetic storms that trigger brilliant auroras, sometimes visible much farther south than usual.
With this event, auroras may be visible as far south as Oregon and Illinois, making it a must-watch for northern lights enthusiasts.
The effects of the solar punch are expected to be felt through April 17, with heightened geomagnetic activity predicted over the next few days.
The timing of the CME impacts can vary, so it’s important to stay updated on space weather alerts that provide real-time forecasts based on your location.
A great option is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts" (available for iOS and Android). For a deeper dive into space weather conditions, "Space Weather Live" is another excellent choice (available for iOS and Android)
You can keep up to date with the latest aurora forecasts and geomagnetic storm warnings with our northern lights alert live blog.
https://www.space.com/strong-g3-geomagnetic-storm-northern-lights-far-south-illinois-oregon-april-16-aurora-alert
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/g3-watch-16-apr-2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGVdURuMcqM
==James Webb Space Telescope discovers most distant and earliest Milky Way 'twin' ever seen. Meet dragon-galaxy Zhúlóng=
April 16, 2025
Astronomers have discovered the most distant and thus earliest spiral galaxy ever seen, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
This "twin" of the Milky Way existed just 1 billion years after the Big Bang, challenging our theories of galactic evolution.
Previously, it was believed that galaxies like ours would take billions of years to form distinct features like spiral arms, vast star-forming disks, and central bulges of densely packed stars.
Yet, rather than being the expected chaotic galactic blob, those well-ordered features appear to be present in this galaxy, which is so distant that its light has taken 12.8 billion years to reach us.
"We named this galaxy Zhúlóng, meaning 'Torch Dragon' in Chinese mythology.
In the myth, Zhúlóng is a powerful red solar dragon that creates day and night by opening and closing its eyes, symbolizing light and cosmic time," team leader Mengyuan Xiao of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) said in a statement.
"What makes Zhúlóng stand out is just how much it resembles the Milky Way in shape, size, and stellar mass."
Another similarity between the Milky Way and this early cosmic dragon galaxy is the sizes of their stellar disks and the masses of those regions.
Zhúlóng's disk spans around 60,000 light-years and has a mass of 100 billion times that of the sun.
The Milky Way's disk is slightly wider at 100,000 light-years wide with a stellar mass estimated at around 46 billion solar masses.
Zhúlóng was discovered in images collected during the JWST's ANORAMIC survey (GO-2514).
This wide-area extragalactic program led by Christina Williams (NOIRLab) and Oesch (UNIGE) exploits a special mode of the $10 billion telescope called "pure parallel," which allows it to collect high-quality images of one object whilst also collecting data from other targets.
"This allows JWST to map large areas of the sky, which is essential for discovering massive galaxies, as they are incredibly rare," Williams said.
"This discovery highlights the potential of pure parallel programs for uncovering rare, distant objects that stress-test galaxy formation models."
In the future, scientists could use the JWST and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a collection of 66 radio telescopes located in the Atacama desert region of northern Chile, to further investigate the qualities of Zhúlóng.
This could reveal the formation history of this well-ordered galaxy, explaining how a "grand design" spiral galaxy came to exist in the early universe.
"This discovery shows how JWST is fundamentally changing our view of the early universe," Oesch said.
https://www.space.com/the-universe/james-webb-space-telescope-discovers-most-distant-and-earliest-milky-way-twin-ever-seen-meet-dragon-galaxy-zhulong-image
https://www.aanda.org/component/article?access=doi&doi=10.1051/0004-6361/202453487
The Lyrids are back: How to catch this year's spring meteor shower
April 16, 2025
The night sky will dazzle this week as the Lyrid meteor shower kicks off its annual display, marking the return of one of the oldest and most reliable celestial shows of the year.
Known for its fast, bright meteors and occasional fireballs, the Lyrids are a welcome springtime treat for stargazers.
Active between April 16-25, the Lyrids can be seen streaking across the night sky, building toward their peak in the early hours of April 22, when the shower could produce up to 10 to 20 meteors per hour under dark skies.
The Lyrids come from debris left behind by Comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher. This comet, discovered in 1861, is a long-period comet that orbits the sun roughly once every 415 years.
As it travels through the inner solar system, it sheds tiny bits of dust and rock that form a trail of debris.
Each year in April, Earth crosses this dusty trail, and when those tiny particles — some no bigger than a grain of sand — enter the planet's atmosphere at around 30 miles per second (49 kilometers per second), they burn up and create bright streaks of light we see as meteors.
The best time to observe the Lyrids is in the predawn hours when the meteor shower's radiant is at its highest in the sky.
The radiant — the point from which the meteors appear to originate — is located in the northern constellation Lyra, near the bright star Vega.
As a result, the Lyrid meteor shower is best observed from the Northern Hemisphere, whereas meteors appear fewer and lower in the night sky when viewed in the Southern Hemisphere, due to the lower position of the radiant point above the horizon.
However, to see the meteors with the longest tails, viewers should not look directly toward the radiant.
Even though Comet Thatcher hasn't returned since its 1861 visit, the stream of particles it left behind continues to intersect Earth's orbit, producing the Lyrids every spring like clockwork.
In fact, the Lyrids are one of the oldest known meteor showers, with records of sightings dating back more than 2,700 years.
This year, the meteor shower occurs when the moon is a thin crescent, meaning it won't wash out the night sky.
No telescope or binoculars are needed to view the Lyrids — just a spot away from city lights with a clear view of the sky after midnight and before morning twilight begins.
https://www.space.com/lyrid-meteor-shower-2025-has-begun-here-is-how-to-see-it
What kind of tech can dustify a large structure like that?
Bipartisan caucus criticizes proposed NASA science budget cuts
April 16, 2025
The bipartisan co-chairs of a congressional caucus have criticized proposed cuts in NASA’s science programs, marking the first Republican opposition in Congress to the plans.
In an April 15 statement, the co-chairs of the Congressional Planetary Science Caucus, Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.), said they were “extremely alarmed” by reports that the draft budget proposal for fiscal year 2026 would cut NASA’s science budget nearly in half.
“If enacted, these proposed cuts would demolish our space economy and workforce, threaten our national security and defense capabilities, and ultimately surrender the United States’ leadership in space, science, and technological innovation to our adversaries,” they wrote.
“We will work closely with our colleagues in Congress on a bipartisan basis to push back against these proposed cuts and program terminations and to ensure full and robust funding for NASA Science in Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations.”
The “passback” budget document, delivered from the Office of Management and Budget to NASA last week, proposed spending just $3.9 billion on science at NASA in 2026, down from $7.3 billion in 2025.
It would cancel several missions in development, including the Roman Space Telescope and Mars Sample Return (MSR), and threaten many others either in early stages of formulation or in extended operations after completing their prime mission.
While other members of Congress have previously criticized the proposal, this statement is noteworthy because Bacon is one of the first Republicans in Congress to criticize the proposed cuts.
Previous comments, primarily by members in California and Maryland that host centers that would be hard-hit by the proposed cuts, were from Democrats.
Bacon and Chu relaunched the caucus a little more than a year ago, with the stated goal of educating other members on the benefits of funding planetary science and related research, such as studies of exoplanets and the search for life beyond Earth.
Bacon, whose Omaha-area district has little in the way of direct connections to such research, said at the time his interest was in “prioritizing exploration.”
Chu’s district, by contrast, includes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
She has been an outspoken advocate of both the lab and MSR, one of its key programs, particularly as funding issues led to layoffs of hundreds of JPL employees last year amid reviews and restructuring of MSR.
“I am horrified by the reports that the Trump White House wants to defund the MSR mission entirely,” Chu said in an April 14 statement responding to reports about cuts in the passback.
“Ending funding now would completely undermine the decades of investments already made into our Mars program, devastate our nation’s Mars workforce at JPL and around the country, and threaten years of future scientific discovery and innovation to come.”
MSR has been under scrutiny long before the passback, though, as cost overruns and schedule delays led to NASA reviews last year about the program.
In January, NASA announced it would study two alternative approaches to carrying out MSR that would cut the cost of MSR, which has ballooned to as high as $11 billion, to as low as $5.8 billion.
Those studies are intended to continue into next year get revised elements of the program, such as a redesigned Mars Ascent Vehicle rocket, through a preliminary design review (PDR).
“In our plan going forward, we talk about the need to mature those designs to PDR level, and it’s going to take us about a year, year and a half to get there,” Donya Douglas-Bradshaw, MSR program director at NASA, said at a March 31 meeting of the National Academies’ Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science.
She acknowledged, though, that those plans, announced by NASA just two weeks before the start of the new Trump administration, could be changed.
“There is the potential that the new administration may have some opinions or ideas on the architecture options that are under consideration.”
https://spacenews.com/bipartisan-caucus-criticizes-proposed-nasa-science-budget-cuts/
https://bacon.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2647
https://chu.house.gov/planetary-science-caucus
Rocket Factory Augsburg replaces CEO
April 15, 2025
German launch vehicle startup Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) has replaced its chief executive as it works towards a second chance for its first launch.
In an April 11 statement not widely publicized by the company, RFA announced that Stefan Tweraser, who had been chief executive since October 2021, had been replaced by Indulis Kalnins.
The announcement did not give a reason for the change, but it suggested that the company was seeking someone with expertise in the aerospace industry to lead the company.
Kalnins is on the aerospace faculty of a German university, Hochschule Bremen, and has been managing director of OHB Cosmos, which focused on launch services.
“For the tasks that now lie ahead, we are focusing on technical progress and the path to the launchpad,” Jean-Jacques Dordain, chairman of the supervisory board at RFA, said in a statement.
“With the wide range of skills that Dr. Kalnins brings to a highly motivated team, we believe that RFA is well on its way to continuing to prepare for the first launch attempt as the priority to get access to the market of launch services.”
Tweraser, by contrast, came from outside the space industry.
He joined RFA after past work that included being a consultant at McKinsey & Company, country director for the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) region at Google and executive at music streaming company Deezer.
At the time RFA hired him, his experience outside the industry was seen as an asset.
“We deliberately looked for someone with extensive experience in managing enterprises outside the space sector to bring new expertise and additional impetus to the next steps of RFA’s development,” Dordain said in a 2021 statement about hiring Tweraser.
“Under his leadership, we will further professionalize RFA’s processes and structures.
This will help us to transform our rapid technological progress into a sustainable business model,” Stefan Brieschenk, chief operating officer of RFA, said of Tweraser in that same statement.
RFA now appears more focused on getting its first rocket off the pad. The company was working towards a first launch of its RFA ONE rocket from SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands last year, but the first stage of the rocket was destroyed in a static-fire test in August 2024.
“We must focus all our energy on the technology and the first launch,” said Marco Fuchs, chairman of the board of OHB, which owns a majority stake in RFA, in the statement about the leadership change.
“I am very pleased that we have been able to appoint a recognized expert for RFA in Kalnins. I have known Dr. Kalnins for almost 30 years and therefore know about his exceptional expertise.”
“I have known RFA since it was founded almost seven years ago and have always followed its progress with great interest,” Kalnins said in the statement.
“I have been working with RFA for some time now, so I know that I have a great, motivated and technically excellent team that is eager to get off to a successful launch as quickly as possible.”
He did not elaborate on the work he had been doing with RFA prior to be named chief executive.
RFA is working towards a second attempt at a first flight for RFA ONE. It secured a launch license from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority in January for the vehicle, allowing the company to conduct up to 10 launches a year from SaxaVord.
Tweraser said in a January interview with CNBC that the company was “racing towards the third quarter” for a launch.
“For us, the most important thing is launching this year,” Brieschenk said in an April 2 interview with NASASpaceflight.com, but said the company has not set a specific launch window yet as it make upgrades to the first stage.
“We’re probably, say, anywhere between six and eight months, basically, before the first launch attempt.”
https://spacenews.com/rocket-factory-augsburg-replaces-ceo/
Space Force at the 40th Space Symposium
Developing a Combat-Credible Force: STARCOM at the 40th Space Symposium
April 15, 2025
At this week's 40th Space Symposium, leaders from Space Training and Readiness Command made it clear: the U.S. Space Force isn’t just refining how it trains Guardians – it’s leveraging the development of Guardians—officer, enlisted and civilian—to further the service’s combat credibility.
Brig. Gen. Matthew Cantore, STARCOM deputy commander, joined a panel on the evolution of the space cadre alongside leaders from the Royal Air Force, U.S. Army and U.S. Navy.
The Space Force is realizing a vision from decades ago, when space expertise was scattered across the military and lacked a dedicated focus.
“If you go back a number of years, we had a variety of space experts across the U.S. military, and within the United States Air Force, we had a subset – a major command – that was focused on space,” Cantore said.
“But it certainly was just one of a variety of specialties the larger Air Force had.”
He referenced the early 2000s Rumsfeld Commission report, which called for greater focus on space as a warfighting domain.
That report helped lay the foundation for the creation of the Space Force and the deliberate structure STARCOM is building today, bringing officers, enlisted and civilian Guardians together to achieve a common purpose: to secure our nation’s interests in, from and to space.
“Our officers are our primary joint planners… our enlisted are the service’s primary warfighters… and our civilians give us opportunities for longevity [and] increased technical specification where needed,” Cantore said.
cont.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4155092/developing-a-combat-credible-force-starcom-at-the-40th-space-symposium/
Lt. Gen. Schiess discusses critical role of CIC, JCO commercial capabilities at 40th Space Symposium
April 15, 2025
During the Space Foundation’s 40th Space Symposium, U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, U.S. Space Forces – Space commander and Combined Joint Force Space Component commander, participated in a one-on-one discussion with retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. David Buck, April 9, and highlighted the importance of commercial partnerships in space operations.
S4S oversees two different commercial operations entities, the Commercial Integration Cell, or CIC, located at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, as well as the Joint Commercial Operations, or JCO cell, at Colorado Springs.
Schiess illustrated the importance of these partnerships with a real-world example of a recent satellite breakup when a commercial satellite communication provider, and member of the CIC, quickly communicated with S4S about emerging problems.
Schiess explained, “Our first indication was because that company, a member of the Commercial Integration Cell, called the ops floor and said, ‘Hey, we're starting to have problems with our satellite.”’
cont.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4155533/lt-gen-schiess-discusses-critical-role-of-cic-jco-commercial-capabilities-at-40/
Building Space Readiness: STARCOM Hosts International Engagements at 40th Annual Space Symposium
April 15, 2025
Senior leaders from Space Training and Readiness Command met with international counterparts during the 40th Annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., April 9–10, 2025.
Through a series of bilateral engagements, STARCOM leaders discussed opportunities to strengthen partnerships, enhance interoperability, and advance collaboration in space education, training, testing, and operational readiness.
Meetings included representatives from the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland, reinforcing STARCOM’s commitment to building a globally integrated space force through allied cooperation and shared strategic priorities.
https://www.starcom.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4155682/building-space-readiness-starcom-hosts-international-engagements-at-40th-annual/
Lets have it already
Space Chiefs forum reinforces international partnerships
April 16, 2025
Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman and Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John Bentivegna hosted military space leaders from 18 other countries at the annual Space Chiefs Forum on April 10.
The event is part of ongoing Space Force efforts to foster multinational collaboration that builds enduring operational advantages.
First held in 2021, the forum is a key opportunity for global partners to collectively assess the space security environment, evaluate new cooperative concepts and discuss steps that can be taken together to maintain the safety, stability and long-term sustainability of the domain.
This year’s iteration explored ways to increase cooperation across a range of mission areas and featured a series of briefings and discussions led by U.S. and partner nation representatives.
Topics included the space security environment, force design, multilateral cooperation and the U.S. Space Force’s pending international partnership strategy.
“You have to train like you fight, and we must be prepared to operate as a coalition when a crisis emerges,” Saltzman said.
“That’s why it’s important we develop integrated capabilities, conduct combined training and exercises and unify around a common operational picture.”
Bentivegna hosted international senior enlisted leaders during the Space Chiefs Forum to discuss what the U.S. Space Force is doing to advance space control.
Topics of discussion included Space Force training, exercises, education and enlisted operations for the Joint Force.
“Strategic deterrence remains a top priority mission for Department of Defense and our nation, and that mission wouldn’t be possible without a strong enlisted force,” Bentivegna said.
“The work our Guardians are doing today is setting the standard for future space operations.”
Partner nations and organizations in attendance included: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, NATO, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
“Make no mistake, America first does not mean America alone,” Saltzman said. “Particularly in space, partnerships are vital to our ability to compete with and, if necessary, defeat our adversaries in the domain.
It’s these kinds of interactions that enable our shared advantage and enhance our ability to respond to the threats we all face.”
In addition to Saltzman and Bentivegna, participants from the U.S. included: Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, assistant chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships; Lt. Gen. David Miller, commander, Space Operations Command; Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, commander, U.S. Space Forces – Space; Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements; Maj. Gen. Timothy Sejba, commander, Space Training and Readiness Command; Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, deputy chief of Space Operations for Intelligence; Maj. Gen. Devin Pepper, deputy chief of Staff, Strategic Plans and Policy at NATO Supreme Allied Command Transformation; Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, commander, U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific; Brig. Gen. Jacob Middleton, commander, U.S. Space Forces Europe and Space Forces Africa; and Deanna Ryals, acting director of Space International Affairs for the Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force, International Affairs.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4156120/space-chiefs-forum-reinforces-international-partnerships/