>>23068425

TYB!

The Big Beautiful Bill

Every Democrat Just Voted Against Tax Cuts, Pay Raises, and More

May 22, 2025

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill has PASSED the House of Representatives — without a single Democrat voting to cut taxes, secure the border, or protect taxpayer-funded benefits for Americans who need them.

Here are only a few of the policies Democrats just unanimously opposed:

The largest tax cut in history.

This means $13,300 more for American families and wage increases up to $11,000 for workers with a double-digit percent decrease to their tax bills — plus NO TAX ON TIPS, NO TAX ON OVERTIME, a tax cut on seniors’ Social Security benefits, an expanded child tax credit, and a tax deduction on American-made vehicles.

Americans making between $30,000 and $80,000 per year will see their taxes cut by 15% next year.

Raising wages. American workers will see wage increases of up to $11,600; a typical family with two kids will see take-home pay rise by up to $13,300.

Strong border security. This makes President Trump’s border crackdown permanent with the largest investment ever — funding AT LEAST one million illegal immigrant deportations per year, thousands of miles of new border wall and barriers, 18,000+ new immigration officials, and pay raises for our great ICE and Border Patrol agents.

Protecting Medicaid for American citizens who need it. This ENDS taxpayer-funded benefits for at least 1.4 million illegal immigrants who are gaming the system and requires able-bodied Americans to work if they receive benefits.

Pay raises for troops. This increases special pay for servicemembers and gives them higher allowances for housing, healthcare, and family assistance.

Ending taxpayer-funded chemical castration and mutilation. It reverses the Biden-era mandate that Medicaid cover so-called “gender transition” procedures.

Modernizing air traffic control. This will allow President Trump to act where the Biden Administration failed by completely overhauling the systems that keep Americans flying safely and efficiently.

Revolutionizing the nation’s defense. This funds President Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense shield, restocks America’s arsenal, expands our naval fleet, and improves military readiness to meet the needs of a changing world.

Protecting family farmers. The bill prevents the greedy death tax from hitting two million family-owned farms that would otherwise see their exemptions cut in half and cuts taxes on farmers by over $10 billion.

Unleashing American energy dominance. The bill increases onshore and offshore oil and gas leases, spurs job growth, makes energy more affordable, and makes America less dependent on foreign adversaries.

Reversing runaway spending. This delivers $1.6 trillion in mandatory savings — the most in U.S. history and the largest deficit reduction in nearly 30 years.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/05/every-democrat-just-voted-against-tax-cuts-pay-raises-and-more/

Mysteriously Perfect Sphere Spotted In Space Has Astronomers Baffled

Thursday, May 22, 2025, 11:17 AM EDT

In a discovery that has astronomers both captivated and perplexed, a mysterious perfectly-spherical object, dubbed "Teleios," has been detected in the vast expanse of deep space.

Discovered and observed exclusively through its radio emissions by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, this celestial object bears resemblance to an SNR (SuperNova Remnant), but other clues about Teleios have thrown that theory into doubt.

With data collected by the powerful ASKAP radio telescope, a group of international astronomers have found a deep space object that is almost perfectly round, an exceedingly rare occurrence.

Called Teleios, the bubble is unique not just for its shape, but also its visibility solely within radio-continuum frequencies.

These characteristics bear a striking resemblance to SNRs—the expanding shells of gas and dust left behind after a massive star explodes.

However, the similarities end there, as Teleios exhibits several unusual properties that defy a straightforward SNR classification.

The research paper points out that one of the most puzzling aspects of Teleios is its unusual dimness. Despite its strong radio emissions, the object is remarkably faint compared to typical supernova remnants.

Furthermore, and perhaps even more perplexing, is the complete absence of expected X-ray emissions. Supernova remnants are typically energetic environments that produce significant X-ray radiation, a signature missing from Teleios.

This lack of X-ray activity casts serious doubt on the SNR hypothesis and has left the research team scratching their heads.

Still, the team, led by astrophysicist Miroslav Filipović of Western Sydney University in Australia, have proposed three potential scenarios to explain Teleios' enigmatic nature, each with its own set of challenges and unanswered questions.

The first scenario posits that Teleios' SNR is 7,175 light years from Earth, thus making the object 1,000 years old and about 40 light years in diameter.

The second possibility is that the SNR is 25,114 light years from Earth, meaning the object is more than 10,000 years old and 157 light year across.

The final scenario places the SNR event at 3,262 light years away, this time originating from a "zombie star" Type Iax supernova.

While the specifics of these scenarios are still under investigation, their very existence underscores the profound mystery surrounding this object.

To fully unravel what Teleios might be, the team states that "new sensitive and high-resolution observations of this object are needed."

https://hothardware.com/news/mysteriously-perfect-sphere-spotted-in-space-has-astronomers-baffled

https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04041

This Article Is Part Of A Three-Part Series

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/environmental-intelligence-sensing-danger-orbit-part-one-worldwide-situational-awareness

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/environmental-intelligence-sensing-danger-orbit-part-two-front-lines-high-seas

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/environmental-intelligence-sensing-danger-orbit-part-three-air-space

Environmental Intelligence: Sensing Danger from Orbit. Part Three: Air & Space

May 22, 2025

NOAA Prevents Pilots From Flying Blind

Despite the hazards inherent to air travel, U.S. civil and military aviation is by far the safest form of transit. This is in part due to complementary radar, command and control systems, and satellite-driven weather forecasting.

Atmospheric conditions like dust, clouds, ice, and water vapor are a prime concern to aviators. NOAA’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and geostationary satellites (GEO) satellites provide combined overwatch for potential atmospheric dangers, protecting valuable aircraft and human assets. Volcanic ash is a dramatic example: in 2010, the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull created a plume of heavy ash that interrupted enormous swaths of European airspace for almost a week.

The microwave and infrared sounders flying on Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) work in conjunction to provide three-dimensional profiles of the physical properties of the atmosphere, revealing what pilots will find above, below, and even inside the clouds.

Accurate forecasts fueled by satellite data allow warfighters to plan operations with unprecedented efficiency and safety. Wind patterns, cloud cover, water vapor, and visibility measurements from satellites help meteorologists identify turbulence events.

Flight planners use that information to plan routes to avoid the most dangerous turbulence.

Take-off and landing are the most dangerous phases of flight, as lower speeds and altitude reduce safety margins. GEO satellites provide immediate detection of potential weather issues and threats.

Real-time “eye in the sky” and model-driven forecasted conditions arm air traffic controllers with the environmental intelligence to select the safest flight paths as well as takeoff and landing approaches.

This is particularly important for flight operations at sea, which require highly specific wind conditions to launch and recover aircraft, even requiring ships to change course and speed to create the correct conditions.

NOAA also supports the Department of Defense (DoD) mission by transferring Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) satellites that have completed their NOAA mission to the U.S. Space Force.

Currently, the satellite that previously operated as GOES-15, renamed Electro-optical Infrared Weather System-Geostationary 2 (EWS-G2), operates over the Indian Ocean.

In its new position, EWS-G2 provides critical weather data for planning and executing air, land, and maritime military operations across the region.

Solar activity can also disrupt any technologies that rely on radio or microwave transmissions, including radio communications and radar signatures, including GPS functionality.

GPS radio signals pass through the Earth’s upper atmosphere as they travel from the satellite to the receiver on the ground. When a space weather event disturbs that area, GPS receivers cannot properly determine position.

Space weather also increases radiation in the upper atmosphere, which is especially hazardous to pilots and crew for polar flights.

Finally, when disruptions do occur, space weather monitoring aids operators in satellite anomaly attribution, helping distinguish natural effects from other activity.

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>>23068653

Keeping American eyes in the skies

Space weather disturbances influence our planet and nearby space environment enormously. In addition to affecting navigation and communications, space weather can shut down power grids.

While extreme space weather events are far less common than extreme terrestrial weather events, they pose a substantial national security risk. Such an event would batter both civilian and military infrastructure.

The Congressional Budget Office projects that damage from a severe solar storm would be astronomical; their 2020 analysis estimates costs in excess of a trillion dollars.

The same report underlines the comparative scope of a major solar event, which would dwarf other worst-case scenarios such as a major conventional conflict with large-scale military operations or an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.

Space weather heats Earth’s upper atmosphere and causes expansion, known as atmospheric drag, that can significantly slow satellites and requires more fuel to maintain their orbit. In more extreme cases, the increased drag can even be destructive.

During a period of moderate solar activity in February 2022, 38 Starlink satellites de-orbited shortly after launch due to atmospheric drag. Losses like this are dangerous as the debris can cause cascading risks to other important satellites.

NOAA’s latest generation of GOES satellites carry an instrument that, while designed to map lightning, also detects bright meteors, known as bolides, when they enter Earth’s atmosphere.

Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) data helps NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office and DoD better understand and mitigate the threat posed by larger asteroids hitting Earth.

GLM data helps improve impact prediction warnings by studying how asteroids fragment as they travel through the atmosphere. This information informs risk assessment models and strategies to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids away from Earth.

Both GOES-19 and the Space Weather Follow On at Lagrange 1 (SWFO-L1) carry sun-observing instruments such as the Compact Coronagraph (CCOR).

CCOR provides operational monitoring of our sun to warn about its most energetic activity like coronal mass ejections (CMEs), shown below.

CMEs pointed at Earth have caused the strongest space weather effects in recorded history; continued CME monitoring is essential to national security.

NOAA has a series of three CCOR instruments: CCOR-1 is onboard GOES-19 in geostationary orbit, while CCOR-2 and -3 will settle at distant points out in deep space.

NOAA will combine images from the three instruments to paint a more complete picture of CMEs, improving detection and increasing warning time.

Worldwide situational awareness

Weather is a powerful force on Earth. Harnessing NOAA satellite data makes the U.S. military powerful. Missions like GOES and JPSS collect data used for comprehensive planetary modeling and high-resolution focus.

Looking outward, solar monitoring gives the U.S. military forewarning against threats to communications, navigation, and equipment.

In addition to all the direct observations afforded by the many complementary instruments, NOAA’s archives, algorithms, and expertise are indispensable assets to military environmental intelligence.

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Blue Origin Announces Crew for New Shepard’s 32nd Mission

May 21, 2025

Blue Origin today announced the six people flying on its NS-32 mission. The crew includes Aymette Medina Jorge, Dr. Gretchen Green, Jaime Alemán, Jesse Williams, Mark Rocket, and Paul Jeris.

This mission is the 12th human flight for the New Shepard program and the 32nd overall. The live webcast on BlueOrigin.com will start at T-30 minutes. The flight date will be announced soon.

Meet the Crew

Aymette (Amy) Medina Jorge

Amy is a high school and middle school STEM teacher at Odyssey Academy in Galveston, Texas.

She has led more than 60 space experiments and Zero-Gravity projects, including flying biometric sensors developed by her students and performing in-flight 3D printing as part of a parabolic Zero-G flight.

Born in Puerto Rico, Amy’s mission is to boost Hispanic representation in STEM fields and push for greater inclusion in science for underrepresented communities.

She is the 2023 AIAA and Challenger Center Trailblazing STEM Educator Award recipient, which celebrates educators who go above and beyond to inspire the next generation of explorers and innovators in STEM.

Amy's seat is sponsored by Farmacias Similares, a Mexican company committed to social impact and accessible healthcare across Latin America.

Dr. Gretchen Green

Dr. Green is a radiologist specializing in women’s imaging with over 20 years of clinical experience.

An educator, explorer, and lifelong space enthusiast, she first attended Space Camp in 1986, later worked as a Crew Trainer, chaired the Space Camp Alumni Association, and now serves on the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation Board.

Nationally recognized as a medicolegal expert witness and entrepreneur, she founded The Expert Resource to help physicians build expert witness businesses and improve patient care. A certified life coach, she empowers others to pursue their highest purpose.

At 16, she bicycled across the U.S. to fight hunger and, in 2022, reached the North Pole. Dr. Green trained at Harvard, Yale, and Brown, earning degrees in neuroscience, history of medicine, and medicine from Brown, and is a proud graduate of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

Jaime Alemán

Jaime is a Panamanian attorney, businessman, and former ambassador to the United States.

A Notre Dame and Duke Law School graduate, Jaime serves as a Senior Partner at Alemán, Cordero, Galindo & Lee, a law firm he co-founded in 1985, and sits on the board of directors of one of Panama’s largest private banks.

He serves on Special Olympics International’s Board of Directors, Duke Law School's Board of Visitors, and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin America Board.

A lifelong adventurer, Jaime will become the first person to travel to all 193 U.N.-recognized countries, the North and South Poles, and space.

Jesse Williams

Jesse is a Canadian entrepreneur and adventurer. He started his first digital marketing business at age 16 and currently serves as CEO of Car History Group, which he founded in 2012.

A competitive cyclist and avid mountaineer, Jesse has summited six of the seven highest peaks on Earth, including Mt. Everest and Antarctica’s Mt. Vinson.

Mark Rocket

Mark is an entrepreneur and technology leader from Christchurch, New Zealand.

He is CEO of Kea Aerospace, which develops solar-powered, stratospheric UAVs for aerial imaging and monitoring, and President of Aerospace New Zealand, whose mission is to promote the interests of the New Zealand aerospace community.

He was a seed investor in Rocket Lab, where he served as co-Director until 2011.

Paul Jeris

Paul is a real estate developer and entrepreneur. Inspired by his NASA engineer father, he grew fascinated with space at a young age.

He spent his childhood summers on Florida’s Space Coast, watching historic Apollo, Shuttle, Mariner, Voyager, and Viking launches.

Driven by a passion for exploration, Jeris has visited more than 149 countries, aiming to see every nation. Despite his many adventures, his lifelong dream is to journey to space and witness Earth’s fragile beauty from above.

In addition to his professional ventures, Paul actively serves on several local and regional tourism boards, giving back to the travel industry that has helped shape his life.

https://www.blueorigin.com/news/new-shepard-ns-32-mission

Aurora Approves Drone Defense Pact Near Buckley Space Force Base

May 22, 2025

On May 22, 2025, the Aurora City Council greenlighted a resolution to collaborate with federal authorities in tackling drone threats near Buckley Space Force Base, a critical hub for national defense operations.

This agreement, detailed in a report by The Sentinel, aims to bolster airspace security by addressing unauthorized unmanned aerial systems (UAS) incursions, a growing concern for military installations and drone professionals alike.

Strengthening Airspace Security

The agreement establishes a framework for the Aurora Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to respond to reports of drones or unmanned aerial systems operating too close to Buckley Space Force Base.

This includes collaboration with Buckley’s law enforcement, notably the 460th Security Forces Squadron, to monitor and address potential threats.

The pact focuses on a 5-mile radius around the base, ensuring that civilian drone operators are held accountable for violations while federal authorities handle more serious offenses.

For drone professionals and recreational pilots, this means heightened scrutiny in the area. Buckley Space Force Base, located in Aurora, Colorado, houses critical satellite operations, as seen in the Sentinel’s photo of the base’s distinctive radomes.

Unauthorized drone activity in this airspace can interfere with sensitive military operations, potentially compromising national security.

The agreement explicitly states that it “does not declare additional jurisdiction nor limit or modify the existing jurisdiction vested in the parties,” but instead provides “primary responsibilities for the specific subject matter of Unmanned Aerial Systems incursions into Buckley Space Force Base airspace from outside the installation.”

Implications for Drone Operators

This resolution introduces a layered response to drone activity. Aurora police will handle civilian suspects within the 5-mile perimeter, while the FBI steps in for federal offenses.

For drone pilots, this underscores the importance of adhering to airspace regulations, especially near restricted zones like military bases.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) already designates no-fly zones around such installations, typically enforced through geofencing technology in modern drones.

However, incidents of non-compliance—whether intentional or accidental—have prompted this intergovernmental approach.

The agreement also emphasizes public outreach and mutual training exercises on drone regulations, which could benefit the drone community.

By educating pilots on safe flying practices, Aurora aims to reduce violations while fostering a cooperative relationship with the industry.

As the council packet notes, “Promoting safety in our built environment through effective administration of city codes and ordinances and responding to emergencies appropriately to preserve and enhance the community’s sense of security and well-being is the strategic outcome of the agreement, according to the city council packet.”

Industry Trends and Future Outlook

The rise of drone usage—both recreational and commercial—has led to increased focus on airspace management.

In 2024 alone, the FAA reported over 850,000 registered drones in the U.S., with numbers continuing to grow. Military bases like Buckley, which spans over 3,800 acres, face unique challenges in maintaining secure airspace amidst this boom.

The Aurora-Buckley partnership could serve as a model for other municipalities near military installations, balancing public safety with the growth of the Drone Industry.

For drone professionals, this agreement highlights the need for advanced technologies like Remote ID systems, which allow authorities to identify and track drones in real-time.

It also signals a push toward stricter enforcement, potentially influencing future regulations. As Drone Technology evolves, so too must the strategies to ensure safe integration into shared airspace, particularly near sensitive sites.

This resolution marks a proactive step in addressing drone threats, ensuring that Buckley Space Force Base remains secure while supporting Aurora’s commitment to community safety and industry growth.

Drone pilots operating near military zones should stay informed and compliant to avoid Legal repercussions.

https://dronexl.co/2025/05/22/aurora-drone-defense-buckley-space-force-base/

https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/auxilium-neurospan-bridge-implant-3d-printing-space-nerve-regeneration/

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250205806594/en/Auxilium-Biotechnologies-Successfully-Prints-Medical-Devices-for-the-First-Time-on-the-International-Space-Station

Implants 3D-printed in space could enable nerve regeneration

May 22, 2025

After 3D printing implantable medical devices aboard the International Space Station, Auxilium Biotechnologies has enrolled the first patient in a clinical trial of its technology for nerve regeneration.

San Diego-based Auxilium Biotechnologies designed the investigational NeuroSpan Bridge device to accelerate nerve regeneration and nerve targeting after debilitating nerve injuries to extremities.

About 3% of civilian trauma cases and 30% of military trauma cases involve nerve injury, said Auxilium Biotechnologies CEO Jacob Koffler.

“Nerves don’t regenerate where they need to go. They do that very randomly, sometimes even going backward towards the proximal end,” he said in a Medical Design & Outsourcing interview.

“What we have is a technology that is able to organize this regeneration, keep them in the same pathway and bring them to the original target that was denervated due to the injury.”

The NeuroSpan-1 pivotal study is for an anticipated FDA 510(k) clearance submission.

It will include 80 patients with upper or lower extremity nerve injuries to compare the Auxilium Biotechnologies NeuroSpan Bridge against the Integra LifeSciences NeuroGen Nerve Guide and nerve autograft repair.

The NeuroSpan Bridge implants range from 1 cm to 3 cm in length and are made from what Koffler described as a biocompatible, degradable material that has been “known in biomedical research for many years.”

He declined to name the material for competitive reasons. Integra LifeSciences makes its NeuroGen Nerve Guide out of an absorbable Type 1 bovine collagen tube, and the NeuroSpan-1 study will exclude patients who are allergic to bovine products.

The clinical trial’s primary endpoints will measure the change in static two-point discrimination (2PD) at 12 months along with complications and adverse events.

Secondary endpoints will measure motor function, sensory function, moving 2PD and Disabilities of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (DASH) scores. The study will also compared surgery times, pain scores and readmission rates.

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>>23068786

3D printing implants in orbit

Auxilium Biotechnologies announced successful space experiments using its 3D bioprinter and proprietary biomaterial in February 2025, simultaneously printing eight miniature implants in two hours.

The company says its Auxilium Microfabrication Platform (AMP-1) is capable of manufacturing devices with “unmatched precision and efficiency” in orbit thanks to properties of microgravity that allow for uniform material distribution and fine, intricate structures.

“When we 3D print these devices [on Earth], the particles just sink, and we want uniform distribution,” Koffler said.

“The idea is that in space we will get uniform distribution, and when that happens — again, this is the hypothesis — the nerve will experience these particles continuously as it grows through the device, instead of the particles being concentrated on one aspect of the device.”

The pivotal study won’t use devices printed in orbit, with Auxilium Biotechnologies planning to use that particular method later for a third-generation device that can “actively enhance regeneration using drug delivery,” Koffler said.

The microgravity 3D bioprinting technology could also have applications for spinal cord injuries and tissue engineering.

A perfusable blood vessel the company printed (pictured here) could be used for tissue engineering of a thick piece of muscle to avoid necrosis in the center of that tissue, Koffler said.

The AMP-1 machine can print down to a single micron pixel and was used for 20 printing sessions on a single mission, including more than one session per day with multiple devices per session, Koffler said.

“We designed it to be very simple,” he said. “Integration of the printer in the space station literally took two minutes, which was a big advancement.

Others that have tried to 3d print in space always perform one printing session per mission. … We are able to do mass production of medical devices in space. That’s really the key here.”

“In addition to that, the design of the printer is such that we have minimal involvement and need for astronaut time, because astronauts are very busy and astronaut time is very expensive,” he continued.

“We remote control it from here, and the only astronaut time needed is to take a bio ink cartridge, put it in, close the door and then take it out at the end and put it in storage.”

The Auxilium Biotechnologies 3D printer is the first of its kind in space and doesn’t yet have a return date to Earth, Koffler said.

The company is in talks with private companies building commercial space stations to keep the equipment in orbit even after the ISS is decommissioned sometime after 2030.

“A lot of people have been contacting us for the space work and are interested in trying and using our space capability to benefit their own science and projects,” Koffler said.

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Michael Alaimo, Known For Space Jam And Cheers, Dies At 86

May 23, 2025, 06:47 IST

Cheers fans have had a tough few days. Just a day after George Wendt passed away, the news of another actor’s death has shattered the fans of the sitcom.

Michael Alaimo, well known for his guest appearance on Cheers, has died. The 86-year-old actor passed away on May 2 in Burbank, California. His daughter, Gabriella Alaimo Thomas, confirmed the news of his demise on May 21.

Michael Alaimo was known for his role on Space Jam, Scrubs and the Oscar-nominated The China Syndrome.

No cause of death was revealed by Gabriella, but she did state that Michael Alaimo had died “peacefully," Variety reported.

Alaimo got his start in entertainment while he was a student of theatre at Brooklyn College. He took part in Joseph Papp’s NY Shakespeare in Central Park from 1961 to 1964.

There, he led a commedia dell’arte troupe. Alaimo was also involved in political activism with the Gut Theatre in East Harlem.

He then moved to San Francisco, where he became part of the anti-war show F.T.A. In 1973, a move to Los Angeles resulted in his career taking off with roles in Cannom Harry O and The Six Million Dollar Man.

The actor worked in several films and shows alongside avant-garde theatre. Alaimo played a doctor alongside Michael Jordan in Space Jam.

Bill Murray and Wayne Knight were also part of the film. Alaimo starred in Mr. Mom, All I Want For Christmas And The China Syndrome. Starring Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas, The China Syndrome received four Oscar nods.

His television career featured appearances in Mr. Belvedere, The Wonder Years and Scrubs. He was also part of Barney Miller, Betty White’s Off Their Rockers and Hill Street Blues.

In Cheers, Alaimo played Vinnie Claussen in the 1985 episode 2 Good 2 Be 4 Real. His character tried to woo Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman) in the plot. The episode remains a fan favourite.

In his final years, Alaimo cut down on his onscreen appearances. He did not act for six years between 2004 and 2010, when he starred in the movie The Invited.

Later, he was part of the Lethal Weapon TV show. Alaimo’s final appearance was in Sinatra! Eternity. He featured alongside Eric Roberts, Harry Dean Stanton and Michael Madsen in the 2025 docu-drama.

Michael Alaimo is survived by his wife Louise, daughters Giovanna and Gabriella, son-in-law David and granddaughters Malia and Isabella.

https://www.news18.com/movies/michael-alaimo-known-for-space-jam-and-cheers-dies-at-86-ws-l-9348306.html

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0015827/

From space to barbed wire, museums welcome military families for free

May 21, 2025, 10:01 AM

Want to explore more than 2,000 varieties of barbed wire in the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum?

Or get an in-depth look inside the Space Shuttle Trainer Crew Compartment at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington?

Then check out this year’s Blue Star Museums program with free opportunities for military families around the country.

About 2,000 museums are offering free admission to currently serving military personnel and up to five family members now through Sept. 1, Labor Day.

Participating museums, large and small, can be found in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

They include history, art and children’s museums; historic sites; botanical gardens; zoos; aquariums; and more.

“For 15 years, Blue Star Museums has opened doors for military families to explore, connect, and feel at home in their communities,” said Kathy Roth-Douquet, CEO of Blue Star Families, in an announcement of this year’s launch.

“Thanks to our continued partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and participating museums nationwide, we’re proud to continue this tradition of belonging and enrichment.

Museums are more than cultural spaces ― they’re places where military families feel seen, welcomed, and celebrated.”

Some museums could provide interesting day trips. With some planning, they could also provide side trips during summer travel, such as during a move to a new duty station.

Additional information and a complete list of participating organizations are available at arts.gov/initiatives/blue-star-museums, where you can search by museum and state.

Museums can join the Blue Star Museums program all summer long and the map will be updated regularly.

Those eligible for free admission are currently serving members of the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps, Navy, Space Force, reserves, National Guard, U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps, NOAA Commissioned Corps, and up to five family members.

Qualified members must show a military ID for entrance into a participating Blue Star Museum.

Spouses can show their dependent ID card for free admission if their service member is deployed or otherwise unable to come to the museum.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is honored to help connect military service members and their families with their communities through the Blue Star Museums program,” said Mary Anne Carter, senior adviser for the National Endowment for the Arts, in the announcement.

Participating museums range from large institutions like the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago to smaller museums like the Billings Farm & Museum in Woodstock, Vermont.

A spot check of participating museums finds interesting nuggets, like the Kansas Barbed Wire Museum in LaCrosse.

The “Barbed Wire Goes to War” exhibit displays military wire and tools. Concertina wire — rolls of twisted barbed wire — first came into widespread use in World War I.

One of their more unusual exhibits is a massive raven’s nest built mostly out of hundreds of bits of barbed wire, lined with grass as a cushion for their eggs. A railroad engineer discovered it in a tree in Greeley County in the 1960s.

Some museums offer free admission to the general public all year, and some may offer special discounts for military and veterans. For example, admission is free at the Barbed Wire Museum, but donations are encouraged.

https://www.militarytimes.com/pay-benefits/mil-money/2025/05/21/from-space-to-barbed-wire-museums-welcome-military-families-for-free/

Virgin Galactic on track to start flying customers again in 2026

May 22, 2025

Virgin Galactic's spaceflight drought will last just about two years, if all goes according to plan.

The suborbital space tourism company last went to the final frontier in June 2024, on the final flight of its VSS Unity space plane.

Virgin retired Unity to focus on developing its new, more efficient "Delta class" vehicles — and the first of those advanced, six-passenger ships remains on track to debut next year, according to the company.

"An enormous amount of work is taking place across our company, as well as at our key suppliers," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said during an earnings call with investors on May 15.

"We continue to expect our first [Delta] research spaceflight will take place in summer of 2026, with private astronaut flights following in fall of 2026."

That call, which reported Virgin Galactic's financial results for the first quarter of 2025, provided a number of other updates as well.

For example, Colglazier said the company — which currently has about 675 customers on its manifest — plans to start accepting flight reservations again in the first quarter of 2026.

New customers will be brought onboard via a new "highly bespoke education sales process" that will feature distinct "waves."

"This approach has several intended benefits for customers," Colglazier said.

"Tailoring the number of new arrivals into our future astronaut community during each wave allows us to provide a white-glove onboarding experience that will form the foundation of each customer's journey to space.

From a yield-management perspective, this allows us to adjust our pricing wave by wave."

Ticket prices have not yet been set, though it's expected to be higher than the $600,000 that the most recent customers paid, he added.

Virgin Galactic is currently building two Delta-class ships but plans to expand the fleet over time. The company will be quite busy once the first one comes online.

Each of the new space planes is designed to fly twice per week, Colglazier said — a big leap in cadence over VSS Unity, which flew seven commercial passenger missions from June 2023 until its retirement a year later.

Virgin Galactic employs an air-launch strategy. Like VSS Unity, each Delta ship will lift off from a runway beneath the wings of a large carrier aircraft, which will drop the space plane at altitude.

The spaceship will then ignite its onboard rocket motor, powering its own way to suborbital space, and come back down to Earth for a landing on the same runway from which it took off.

In last quarter's earnings call, Virgin Galactic mentioned the possibility of making the carrier aircraft a multipurpose vehicle — using it to haul something other than a space plane into the sky.

Over the past few months, the company has continued investigating this potential vehicle variant, which it calls HALE ("High Altitude Long Endurance")-Heavy.

"Since last quarter, we've connected with leaders within the Department of Defense, national laboratories and aerospace and defense companies to ascertain the potential product market fit of our carrier aircraft capabilities with government customer needs," Colglazier said.

"We've been encouraged by initial feedback, which has identified both existing and emerging missions that could potentially benefit from access to HALE-Heavy support aircraft," he added.

"Examples of these missions could include airborne research and development testing; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support; command and control node capabilities; and multiple opportunities within the emerging Golden Dome [missile defense] initiative."

To date, all of Virgin Galactic's suborbital missions have lifted off from Spaceport America in New Mexico. But the company is looking to fly from a second site as well, likely in either Europe or the Middle East.

Virgin Galactic is making progress on this goal as well, Colglazier said during the May 15 call. "We are midway through our feasibility assessment with the Italian government for a spaceport in southern Italy," he said.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/virgin-galactic-on-track-to-start-flying-customers-again-in-2026

https://www.space.com/astronomy/exoplanets/astronomers-want-direct-images-of-exoplanets-they-may-need-quantum-level-tech-to-get-them

https://opg.optica.org/optica/fulltext.cfm?uri=optica-12-4-518&id=570325

Astronomers want direct images of exoplanets. They may need 'quantum-level' tech to get them

May 22, 2025

A team of scientists is developing a "quantum-sensitive" device that could capture direct images of Earth-like exoplanets — something astronomers tend to consider so difficult it's nearly impossible.

Humanity's ability to image the heavens has improved by leaps and bounds since the invention of the telescope in 1608.

Although the earliest of these images were far from clear, astronomers from generations ago could already observe craters on our moon, identify four of Jupiter's moons, and reveal a diffuse ribbon of light arching across the sky — what we now know represents the Milky Way's structure.

But modern telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), have really brought the field forward. For instance, telescopes these days rely on very sophisticated instruments called coronagraphs to observe light coming from objects orbiting bright stars.

"Current leading coronagraphs, such as the vortex and PIAA coronagraphs, are ingenious designs," Nico Deshler, a Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona and co-author of the new study, told Space.com.

"A coronagraph is an instrument used in astronomy to block or suppress the light coming from a very bright object, like a star, to reveal fainter objects surrounding it." This allows scientists to detect objects more than a billion times fainter than the stars they orbit.

However, Deshler and his colleagues believe they can push coronagraphs further to capture direct images of distant worlds.

"Our team is broadly interested in the fundamental limits of sensing and metrology imposed by quantum mechanics, particularly in the context of imaging applications," Itay Ozer, a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland and another of the study’s co-authors, told Space.com.

The idea is to use principles of quantum mechanics to surpass the resolution limits of current telescopes, allowing scientists to image objects smaller or closer together than what traditional optics would permit.

"The resolution of a telescope generally describes the smallest feature that the telescope can faithfully capture," said Ozer. "This smallest length scale, dubbed the 'diffraction limit,' is related to the wavelength of the detected light divided by the diameter of the telescope."

This means gaining higher resolution requires building larger telescopes. However, launching a telescope large enough to surpass the diffraction limit necessary to directly image an exoplanet poses different types of challenges: high launch costs and extreme engineering complexity.

"In this regard, developing sub-diffraction imaging methods is an important pursuit because it allows us to expand the domain of accessible exoplanets given the challenges and constraints associated with space-based observation," added Deshler.

"We were inspired to explore the implications of these newfound quantum information-theoretic limits in the context of sub-diffraction exoplanet imaging where many Earth-like exoplanets are suspected to reside."

The team thus designed a "quantum-level" coronagraph that can sort the light collected by a telescope and isolate the faint signal from exoplanets — light that is usually overwhelmed by the glare of their host stars.

The concept relies on the fact that photons, or particles of light, travel in different patterns known as spatial modes. "In astronomical imaging, the position of each light source in the field of view of a telescope excites different optical spatial modes," explained Ozer.

By using an optical device called a "spatial mode sorter," which is a cascade of carefully designed diffractive phase masks, the team was able to separate the incoming light, allowing them to isolate photons coming specifically from the exoplanet below the sub-diffraction limit.

"As light interacts with each mask and propagates downstream through the mode sorter," said Deshler, "the optical field interferes with itself in such a way that the photons in each spatial mode get physically routed to different non-overlapping regions of space."

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"The correspondence between the positions of light sources and their corresponding excited spatial modes is central to […] nulling of starlight and detection of exoplanets," added Ozer.

"In this way, we are able to siphon the photons emitted by the star away from the photons emitted by the exoplanet."This goes beyond digitally processing an image and subtracts starlight after the fact — in other words, it removes starlight in the optical domain before the light even reaches a detector.

"In exoplanet searches, a telescope is rotated to point directly at a prospective star, which we model as a point source of light," explained Deshler.

"Under this alignment between the star and the telescope axis, all the photons emanating from the star couple to the [telescope’s] fundamental mode — the specific spatial mode that is excited when looking at an on-axis point source."

Under this alignment, all the photons emanating from the star couple to the fundamental mode. By filtering out this mode, Deshler, Ozer and their colleagues were able to effectively eliminate the starlight, revealing only the light from the exoplanet.

"The exoplanet's light is misaligned to the telescope axis, and excites a different spatial mode from the star,” said Ozer. "Our method preserves as much of the pristine uncontaminated photons from the exoplanet as possible, which turn out to carry all the available information."

In the lab, the team set out to show that their device could detect exoplanets positioned extremely close to their host stars — closer than traditional resolution limits allow.

They tested it using two points of light: a bright one to represent the star and a much dimmer one to simulate an exoplanet. By gradually moving the dimmer light and recording the resulting images, they assessed how well the device could localize the exoplanet.

They found that when the artificial exoplanet was very close to the star — less than one-tenth the separation limit of current telescopes — most of its photons were filtered out along with the starlight.

At larger separations, however, the exoplanet's signal became clearer, rising above background noise and aligning with theoretical predictions.

Additionally, by setting the star to be 1,000 times brighter than the planet and analyzing the images with a maximum likelihood estimator, the team achieved results within a few percent of the theoretical limit across a wide range of sub-diffraction planet positions.

"This is a proof-of-principle demonstration that spatial mode sorting coronagraphs may provide access to deeply sub-diffraction exoplanets which lie beyond reach for current state-of-the-art systems," said Deshler.

"We are hopeful that this method might allow astronomers to push the boundaries of exoplanets accessible with direct imaging."

The team says the technology needed to build and implement their quantum-optimized coronagraph already exists. They're now working to refine the device into a deployable system that meets performance targets.

"The main limitation is the fidelity of the mode sorter," explained Ozer. "In the lab, we measure the 'purity' of the modes through a metric called the cross-talk matrix, which describes the undesired photon leakage that occurs between independent modes.

Cross-talk is largely induced by manufacturing imperfections and small experimental misalignments. To successfully image Exo-Earths, […] the mode sorter must isolate each photon in the fundamental mode to better than one part in a billion if the exoplanet is to be resolved."

The team says precision manufacturing is necessary to fabricate high-quality phase masks that can meet these "cross-talk" requirements. "We envision the use of advanced techniques, such as photolithography, additive manufacturing, or micromachining, to construct extremely precise diffractive surfaces," Deshler said.

The duo hopes this technology will one day provide complementary data for future flagship telescope missions like the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a proposed successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

"Direct imaging is one of the few observation strategies that can measure the wavelength spectrum of an exoplanet," explained Ozer. "In turn this spectrum may contain clues about atmospheric composition of an exoplanet and reveal potential chemical biosignatures."

"We imagine that mode-sorter driven coronagraphs could augment the astronomy toolkit and enable better characterization of sub-diffraction exoplanets," added Deshler.

"However, the difficulty of exoplanet discovery warrants cross-validation with a multiplicity of observational techniques such as transits, velocimetry, and gravitational microlensing. Therefore, this technology is by no means a one-size-fits-all solution."

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https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/ax-4-private-astronaut-mission-to-the-iss-is-go-for-its-june-8-spacex-launch

https://www.axiomspace.com/mission-blog/ax-4-mission-patch

https://www.axiomspace.com/mission-blog/axiomspace-ax4-frr

Ax-4 private astronaut mission to the ISS is 'go' for its June 8 SpaceX launch

May 22, 2025

The next private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS) just completed a major milestone ahead of its upcoming launch.

Houston-based company Axiom Space completed an internal Flight Readiness Review (FRR) on Wednesday (May 21) ahead of the launch of the company's fourth crewed mission to the ISS.

Ax-4 is on track for a liftoff next month on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a multinational crew aboard a brand-new Dragon spacecraft.

The mission is scheduled to get off the ground on June 8 at 9:11 a.m. EDT (1311 GMT), from Launch Complex-39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Wednesday's FRR confirmed that all systems and personnel are "go" for next month's launch, which will be the most research-intensive mission that Axiom has conducted to date.

During their roughly 14-day mission, the Ax-4 crewmembers are slated to complete more than 60 science and outreach activities aboard the ISS.

Ax-4 will be led by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. It will be Whitson's fifth orbital spaceflight, and her second for Axiom.

The upcoming mission will bring her total tally to nearly 700 days spent off Earth, extending her own American record.

Whitson's crewmates are pilot Shubhanshu Shukla of India, mission specialist Sławosz Uznański of Poland and the European Space Agency (ESA), and mission specialist Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

Ax-4 will mark the first visit to the ISS by astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary, and the first spaceflight for each of these three people. "

This is realizing the return to human spaceflight for these countries," said Axiom Chief of Mission Services Allen Flynt during a May 20 press call. Poland, Hungary and India have all had astronauts fly to space before, but never to the space station.

"We believe that missions like Ax-4 will motivate our young minds to be passionate about space technology," said Sudeesh Balan, project director for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), during Tuesday's call.

The 60 experiments and outreach activities that Ax-4 will perform represent contributions from 31 countries. Dana Weigel, NASA's ISS program manager, described the mission as a "phenomenal way" to expand the space agency's research footprint on the ISS.

The recent 2026 "skinny budget" from the Trump administration proposes a nearly 25% cut to NASA's funding, including a reduction of crew and cargo missions to the ISS.

Exploration advocates have raised concerns about the agency's ability to conduct research aboard the orbital laboratory in such a budget environment.

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Ax-4 could help bridge the gap, according to Weigel. A private mission like this one "really expands the breadth of what we can do with research and the number of countries, institutions, academic organizations, etc, who participate," she said.

"So, my hope and my goal would be that we continue to maximize everything we can on missions like this, just to help with overall science and return on investment with station."

Seventeen of the 60 experiments are being supported by ESA, most in cooperation with Poland specifically for Ax-4, ESA mission manager Sergio Palumberi said during the May 20 call.

Hungary has contributed 25 experiments through the country's orbital astronaut program HUNOR.

Orsolya Ferencz, HUNOR's ministerial commissioner of space research, called the effort "a strategic national effort, an expression of Hungary's commitment to sovereignty in critical technological fields and to securing a place in the rapidly evolving space economy."

The Ax-4 quartet will launch aboard a brand-new SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. As is tradition, the crew of a spaceship's first voyage gets the right to name the vessel.

However, the name of the newly built Crew Dragon has yet to be revealed. That honor is also being saved for the crew, according to SpaceX Director of Dragon Mission Management Sarah Walker, and was not released during the May 20 call with reporters.

Ax-4 will remain docked to the ISS for two weeks, as the crew work their way through the mission's record number of science and technology demonstrations.

As Axiom continues gaining on-orbit experience, the company is making strides toward its long-term goal of operating its own private space station in low Earth orbit.

"This is allowing us to develop and refine our processes, our procedures, our technology, and develop the operational experience necessary to execute the missions on the Axiom Station," explained Flynt.

Axiom is targeting as early as 2027 for the launch of its first station module, which will initially attach to the ISS before additional modules can provide the power and life support needed for the private station to be independently operable.

Flynt expects those missions to continue the multinational representation that Ax-4 and previous Axiom missions have exemplified.

"We are certainly looking towards the opportunities to continue partnership with the international community, and certainly would expect that to have a complement of crew that will represent multiple nations," he said.

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Chinese astronauts add debris shields to Tiangong space station during 8-hour spacewalk

May 22, 2025

A pair of taikonauts have completed their first spacewalk aboard China's Tiangong space station, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

Two Shenzhou-20 crewmembers performed the mission's first extravehicular activity (EVA) on Thursday (May 22).

The duo worked outside the Chinese low-Earth orbit laboratory for eight hours, wrapping up at 4:49 a.m. EDT (0849 GMT; 4:49 p.m. local time in Beijing).

Chinese astronauts Chen Dong and Chen Zhongrui served as the EVA's assigned spacewalkers, while their crewmate Wang Jie assisted from inside Tiangong with mission operators coordinating on Earth.

Dong and Zhongrui exited the space station through the node cabin of the Tianhe module, marking the first time that airlock has been used for an EVA since Tiangong became operational.

This was the 19th time taikonauts aboard Tiangong have conducted an EVA; many of these spacewalks have focused on installing debris shields to the station's exterior.

With assistance from the station's robotic arm, Dong and Zhongrui successfully positioned a protective sheet on a designated exterior location on Tiangong. The pair also performed routine station maintenance and equipment inspections.

The Shenzhou-20 crew arrived at Tiangong on April 24, and are just about one month into their six-month-long mission. The trio replaced China's Shenzhou-19 astronauts, who returned to Earth on April 30.

China has at least one more crewed mission planned for 2025. Shenzhou-21 is expected to launch sometime this fall.

The Tiangong space station was completed in 2022 and has a continual occupancy planned for at least the next decade. The station presently consists of three main modules, but allows for China to launch more should they wish to expand the orbiting lab.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/chinese-astronauts-add-debris-shields-to-tiangong-space-station-during-8-hour-spacewalk-video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGq5zrz5K8

The moon and Venus kick off Memorial Day weekend with a lovely conjunction early on May 23

May 22, 2025

Should your local weather forecast suggest that Friday morning — the start of the Memorial Day Holiday Weekend — will be fair and clear, it will be well worth setting your alarm clock to awaken you about 90 minutes before the sun comes up.

If you head outside at that early hour and if you have a clear and unobstructed view toward the east, you will be treated to a lovely pairing of the two brightest objects in the night sky.

You'll immediately notice the crescent moon; appearing slender and sliver, its disk will be illuminated just 16 percent by sunlight.

And hovering to the lower left of the lunar crescent will be the planet Venus, shining like a brilliant silvery-white celestial lantern of magnitude -4.5.

The two objects will be separated by a rather wide gap: roughly 7 degrees, which is approximately equal to three-quarters of the apparent width of your fist held at arm's length.

Certainly, this won't be an exceptionally close approach between these two objects but their great brilliance makes them an eye-catching sight in the early morning sky.

Of course, what we are seeing is an illusion of perspective. On this particular morning, the moon is 225,700 miles (363,300 km) from Earth, while Venus is 259 times more distant at 58.5 million miles (94.1 million km).

Venus will arrive at its greatest western elongation — its greatest angular distance west of the sun — on June 1. But it actually will slowly get higher in the eastern morning sky right on through the first half of the summer.

Currently it's rising just shy of two hours before the sun, but by the third week of July that will have increased to three hours.

And Venus will shine at nearly the same brilliance for a number of mornings to come.

Venus currently rises in the east at 3:35 a.m. local daylight time. The eerie, low glimmering of Venus is a harbinger of daybreak, which begins exactly at that same time.

In a telescope, Venus's illuminated portion has fattened to 45-percent; almost half full. And once you know where Venus is relative to the moon, see if you can keep track of it after the sun has come up.

You should have no problem glimpsing it in the daytime; a tiny white speck against the blue sky.

And Saturn too!

Incidentally, on Friday while you're admiring Venus and the moon, take a moment to also look for Saturn. You'll readily see it shining complacently, approximately 10 degrees ("one fist") to the right of the crescent moon.

You might recall how there was considerable ballyhoo over a recent formation between the moon, Venus and Saturn on April 25th, stating that it would resemble a smiley face in the dawn sky that morning.

But what many failed to take into account was that all three objects would be very low in the eastern sky and deeply embedded in the bright dawn twilight.

Those who awoke early that morning could easily see Venus thanks to its great brilliance, but had a bit more difficulty seeing the smile created by the crescent moon, only 9 percent illuminated.

But unless you had binoculars, you may have missed out on seeing Saturn, because it was likely swamped by the growing light of the approaching sunrise.

However, you'll have another chance at seeing all three objects on Friday morning, and this time the task will be much easier. For one thing, all three will rise earlier and appear higher against a darker backdrop of the eastern sky.

The lunar crescent will be 7 percent wider compared to last month and unlike last month, Saturn should be readily seen with your unaided eyes.

Keep in mind that it will appear much dimmer than Venus — only 1/191 as bright. Shining at magnitude +1.2, it's almost the dimmest Saturn ever gets.

The reason is that its nearly edge-on rings will contribute almost no light. But in spite of this, you should not have any problems sighting Saturn's sedate yellow-white glow against the early light of dawn.

A lovely way to kick off the unofficial start of summer.

https://www.space.com/stargazing/the-moon-and-venus-kick-off-memorial-day-weekend-with-a-lovely-conjunction-early-on-may-23

Jupiter used to be twice as big as it is now — it could have held 2,000 Earths

May 21, 2025

Long before it became the giant planet we see today, Jupiter was even bigger and had a much stronger magnetic field, according to a new study that looked back in time to reveal what the world was like in its early years.

The new calculations, described in a paper published Tuesday (May 20) in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest that just 3.8 million years after the solar system's first solid objects formed, Jupiter was twice its current size and had a magnetic field at least 50 times stronger than what we see today.

"Our ultimate goal is to understand where we come from, and pinning down the early phases of planet formation is essential to solving the puzzle," Konstantin Batygin, a professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, who led the new study, said in a statement.

"This brings us closer to understanding how not only Jupiter but the entire solar system took shape."

To uncover Jupiter's ancient planetary conditions, Batygin and his team largely bypassed the assumptions of existing planetary formation models, such as the rate at which primordial gas was gathered by young planets.

Instead, they focused on two of Jupiter's lesser-known moons, Amalthea and Thebe.

These small satellites orbit very close to Jupiter and follow slightly tilted paths that scientists suspect have remained unchanged since the solar system's early days.

By analyzing those subtle orbital tilts, the researchers were able to reverse-engineer Jupiter's primordial size and magnetic strength, according to the new study.

The team's calculations indicate that young Jupiter had a radius nearly twice its current size, with a volume large enough to hold more than 2,000 Earths. In the present day, the planet's volume can fit 1,321 Earths.

Although the study doesn't directly explore how such a massive Jupiter would have influenced the early solar system, it emphasizes that the planet's formation and early evolution played a "pivotal role" in shaping the solar system's overall architecture.

According to Batygin and his team, the new findings also capture Jupiter at a crucial point in time, when the cloud of gas and dust left over from the sun's formation evaporated. This marked the end of planet formation and locked in the basic layout of the solar system.

"What we've established here is a valuable benchmark," Batygin said in the statement. "A point from which we can more confidently reconstruct the evolution of our solar system."

https://www.space.com/astronomy/jupiter/jupiter-used-to-be-twice-as-big-as-it-is-now-it-could-have-held-2-000-earths

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02512-y.epdf

Pentagon boosts budget for Palantir’s AI software in major expansion of Project Maven

May 22, 2025

The Pentagon is dramatically increasing spending on artificial intelligence for military operations, raising the contract ceiling for Palantir Technologies’ Maven Smart System to nearly $1.3 billion through 2029.

The Defense Department announced May 21 it is upping the spending limit for software licenses under Maven by $795 million, compared to a ceiling of $480 million just a year ago.

The new funding is specifically for U.S. combatant commands, which oversee military operations across geographic regions.

Project Maven, launched by the Pentagon in 2017, was designed to accelerate the adoption of AI and machine learning across the U.S. military.

The program uses artificial intelligence to analyze massive volumes of imagery and data from sources like satellites, drones and other sensors, enabling rapid detection, identification and tracking of objects of interest.

In 2022, operational control of the geospatial intelligence aspects of Maven was transferred to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which coordinates intelligence gathering from satellite imagery and other location-based sources.

Palantir has separate contracts with NGA and for Maven Smart System software licenses for the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force.

“Adoption by the U.S. combatant commands for the first year has been far greater than expectations,” according to a report from William Blair investment firm analysts.

The much higher contract ceiling reflects the “mass adoption of the Maven Smart System for geospatial awareness and targeting.”

NGA Director Vice Adm. Frank Whitworth said the agency recently awarded Palantir a $28 million contract to expand access to Maven Smart System for the agency’s analysts.

There are now more than 20,000 active users of Maven across more than 35 military service and combatant command software tools. The user base has more than quadrupled since March of last year and more than doubled since January alone.

“Maven Smart System is designed to speed up detection, identification and characterization of features and objects in drone and satellite imagery,” Whitworth said May 21 at the GEOINT Symposium in St. Louis.

From hours to minutes

The AI system is transforming how quickly military units can identify and engage targets.

Whitworth said Maven helps decrease targeting workflow timelines by a substantial amount, with one unit reporting that its intelligence-operations timelines during a recent exercise dropped from hours to minutes from sensing to target engagement.

“Army leaders, specifically, are trying to leverage Maven to meet a new vision for units to make a thousand high-quality decisions — choosing and dismissing targets on the battlefield—in one hour,” Whitworth said.

He described Maven as “our marquee targeting program of record,” adding: “We embrace the speed and scale AI brings to our tradecraft.”

Under the Maven program there is close collaboration between government agencies and private contractors, Whitworth said. He described targeting operations using AI and geospatial intelligence as a “team sport.”

“Everyone dives in on this … our own experts, Palantir’s experts, even experts from the combatant commands,” he said. About a dozen subcontractors also support the Maven Smart System.

Palantir, founded in 2003 in Palo Alto, California, specializes in big data analytics and has become a major Pentagon contractor.

The company’s Maven Smart System uses AI algorithms and machine learning to scan, identify, and prioritize enemy systems and objects by fusing data from various intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sources.

https://spacenews.com/pentagon-boosts-budget-for-palantirs-ai-software-in-major-expansion-of-project-maven/

https://spacenews.com/ursa-university-of-illinois-and-palantir-win-luno-a-contracts/

10 DOS Changes Command at Patrick SFB, Expands Mission

May 21, 2025

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The 10th Delta Operations Squadron, a unit under Space Delta 10, held a change of command ceremony May 2, 2025, at Patrick Space Force Base, ushering in a new phase for the squadron as it deepens its focus on operational wargaming and expands its presence in Florida.

Lt. Col. Sheena Mira relinquished command to Lt. Col. Justin Jones during a ceremony attended by U.S. Space Force and Air Force personnel, Space Launch Delta 45 leadership, mission partners, and community leaders.

Col. S. Shannon DaSilva, commander of Space Delta 10, highlighted the squadron’s evolving role and the strategic significance of its mission realignment.

“While this guidon is still the emblem of the 10th Delta Operations Squadron, the original purpose of this unit has changed dramatically over the last year,” she said.

“Originally a unit stood up to provide traditional S-staff functions to Delta 10, the 10 DOS mission has now shifted into one of only two wargaming squadrons tasked to support the Chief of Space Operations’ direction to evaluate operational concepts and shape the future force.”

Now headquartered at Patrick SFB, 10 DOS is growing to meet the demands of its expanded mission. The squadron is adding new personnel and increasing coordination with joint, allied, interagency, and academic partners to support the Space Force’s enterprise-level wargaming efforts.

Under Lt. Col. Jones’ leadership, the squadron will continue to strengthen collaboration with industry and academia, leveraging modeling and simulation expertise in the region to advance Space Force wargaming capabilities.

“We are in a pivotal position to influence the Space Force's structure and capabilities through wargame operations. Our tactical decisions will have strategic impacts, directly shaping the development and application of combat power for our Nation,” said Jones.

10 DOS is responsible for executing the Space Force’s external wargaming mission, which includes advancing the Service’s role in joint and allied wargames, managing the first-ever Space Force wargame education course, and designing whole-of-government wargames to educate senior decision-makers on space capabilities.

The squadron also plays a critical role in ensuring the success of the Schriever Wargame Series—the Space Force’s premier Title 10 wargame involving allied and partner nations—with this year’s capstone event scheduled for August.

“This is a rare moment of opportunity,” DaSilva said. “10 DOS is poised to shape how the Space Force trains, integrates, and innovates through wargaming on a global scale.”

Space Delta 10 is the Space Force’s organization for wargaming, field experimentation, concept evaluation, and doctrine development. It also facilitates the Service’s lessons learned program and is responsible for wargame assessments.

Currently aligned under Space Training and Readiness Command, Space Delta 10 prepares Guardians to be space warfighters while forging critical partnerships across the joint force, industry, academia, and numerous allied and partner nations.

https://www.starcom.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4194749/10-dos-changes-command-at-patrick-sfb-expands-mission/

Remarks by Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman at the USGIF GEOINT Symposium

May 22, 2025

St. Louis, Mo. (AFNS) – As delivered by U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman on May 21, 2025.

Thank you for having me! You know, the last time I spoke at a GEOINT Symposium, it was April 2022. Russia had demonstrated an antisatellite capability, and China had tested a hypersonic glide vehicle.

Later that year, I was promoted to Chief of Space Operations… and—just like magic—all that bad behavior STOPPED… I’m just sayin’.

Seriously, though, so much has happened in the last three years, and there’s no sign of a slowdown. So, I’m really excited to have this opportunity to speak with such an important audience.

But first, let me start by thanking Ronda Schrenk and Robert Cardillo for inviting me. Thanks to Sue Gordon for moderating.

And thanks to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation as a whole for sponsoring this event. The world of GEOINT is evolving rapidly—every day, we see new requirements, new technology, new challenges.

That’s why it’s so important to get together like this. To talk and, more importantly, to listen to each other.

That’s why it’s such a pleasure to be here today with so many friends from across the GEOINT community. In particular, I want to recognize Vice Admiral Whitworth.

NGA has been a wonderful partner to the Space Force. And as Director, I’ve appreciated Trey’s expertise as an Intelligence Officer and his deep passion for GEOINT.

He is immensely proud of the work that NGA and its partners have done, and he has every right to be.

On that note, let me congratulate NGA on the construction of its new campus! Next NGA West will provide an exceptional platform for partnership and collaboration long into the future.

You know, I’ve had the opportunity to work across the Interagency for many years, including as Commander of the Aerospace Data Facility in Colorado.

And to some degree, I was trained in GEOINT by NIMA at Sunnyvale. So I’ve worked hand-in-glove with GEOINT professionals.

There is great power in people from different organizations sitting side-by-side in pursuit of the same mission.

When you break down the barriers between organizations—when you set aside tribalism and organizational orthodoxy—what you’re left with is singular focus on mission… and the creative solutions that focus inspires.

It doesn’t matter if your badge reads Space Force, Air Force, NGA, NRO, or whatever else… all that matters is that you have a job to do, and that job is delivering quality Intelligence to the customer.

Collaboration across agencies is vital… it’s the key to solving problems bigger than any single entity could solve alone. That’s why I’m excited for the unveiling of Next NGA West, and I have no doubt that we’ll all be better for it.

As a student of History, I also have to take a moment to applaud the choice of St. Louis as the campus’ home.

After all, NGA’s history in the city dates back to WWII, when the Army Map Service opened its doors at the St. Louis Arsenal. The Map Service was the Department of Defense’s military cartographic agency from World War Two until 1968.

For decades, it compiled, published, and distributed topographical maps and related materials for use by the U.S. Armed Forces… including on D-Day and during the Korean War.

It might surprise you to learn that the Army Map Service even supported space exploration. It mapped the moon for use during the Apollo missions, and it contributed to the development of our modern GPS system, which remains a critical Space Force mission to this day.

cont.

https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4195055/remarks-by-chief-of-space-operations-gen-chance-saltzman-at-the-usgif-geoint-sy/

Russian missile strike obliterates Ukrainian special forces camp – MOD

22 May, 2025 08:00

Up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen have been killed in a Russian missile strike on a training camp for Kiev’s special forces, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has reported.

The camp was located during reconnaissance activities near the village of Shostka in Ukraine’s Sumy Region, which borders Russia’s Kursk Region, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

After receiving the coordinates, crews manning Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems carried out the strike against the facility, the ministry added.

The attack killed up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen, including 20 instructors, while also destroying an ammunition depot and ten units of equipment, the statement read.

Footage of the strike published by the ministry showed a major explosion inside the camp after one of the buildings was hit by a ballistic missile.

In late April, Moscow announced the full liberation of the border areas of Kursk Region, which had been seized by Kiev’s troops after they launched an incursion last August.

According to Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, the Russian military is currently working to set up a security zone in the border areas inside Sumy Region to prevent new attacks on Russian territory.

Earlier this week, the Defense Ministry announced the capture of the village of Maryino, meaning Russian forces now control five settlements in Sumy Region.

https://www.rt.com/news/617987-sumy-iskander-strike-ukraine/

>>23069030

Ukrainian shelling injures civilians in Russian border region – acting governor

22 May, 2025 17:24

Twelve civilians, including two minors, have been injured by Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Kursk Region, acting Governor Aleksandr Khinshtein has said.

In a post on his Telegram channel on Thursday, the official wrote that the Ukrainian military had “conducted a massive strike on the city of Lgov,” with the Kursk-Rylsk highway coming under fire.

“As a result of the strike, there are, unfortunately, 12 injuries, with two children among them – a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old,” Khinshtein wrote.

According to the acting governor, the younger victim sustained shrapnel wounds, while the other minor received a concussion.

The other victims include seven women and three men, all of them currently being hospitalized with shrapnel wounds and bruises.

None of the civilians sustained life-threatening injuries, Khinshtein noted.

On top of that, three residential buildings and four vehicles were damaged in the attack, with the extent of destruction currently being evaluated by the authorities, according to the statement.

https://www.rt.com/russia/618017-kursk-region-civilians-injured-ukrainian-shelling/

>>23069034

Russian ballistic missile destroys Ukrainian Patriot complex (MOD VIDEO)

22 May, 2025 13:48

A Russian Iskander-M operational-tactical missile system has destroyed a US-supplied Patriot air defense system operated by the Ukrainian military, the defense ministry in Moscow has reported.

In a post on its Telegram channel on Thursday, the ministry reported that the strike on a position in Ukraine’s Dnepropetrovsk region had taken out a multifunctional AN/MPQ-65 radar, a control unit, as well as two Patriot launchers.

A single air defense battery of this type is estimated to be worth over $1 billion.

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Kiev has received entire Patriot units and separate constituent parts from the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain.

However, in March, a spokesperson for Germany’s defense ministry acknowledged during a press briefing that Berlin had reached the limit of its capacity in terms of weapons it could provide to Ukraine by emptying out its stocks, including with regards to Patriot air defense systems.

The official noted at the time that Berlin had to ensure its own capabilities were adequate.

A month prior, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky lamented that his military was running out of missiles for their US-supplied air defense systems.

He floated the idea of producing the rockets under license in Ukraine, should direct supplies from Western nations prove unfeasible.

Russia has repeatedly stated that no amount of Western weapons supplied to Kiev can change the course of the conflict, and that these ‘donations’ needlessly prolong the bloodshed.

The Kremlin has also consistently warned that the delivery of ever more sophisticated weaponry to Ukraine could potentially result in an all-out conflict between Russia and NATO.

https://www.rt.com/russia/618005-russian-iskander-destroys-ukrainian-patriot/

>>23069046

Nearly 500 Ukrainian drones downed over Russia in two days – MOD

22 May, 2025 16:22

Russian air defenses have brought down a total of 485 Ukrainian drones across the country over the past 48 hours, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has stated.

In a post on its Telegram channel on Thursday, it said that the massive air raid started on Tuesday evening, with Belgorod, Kursk, and Bryansk regions, which all share a border with Ukraine, bearing the brunt of the attack.

Orel Region, which is located close to the border, has reported downing around 135 incoming Ukrainian UAVs.

Meanwhile, Moscow Region, which lies relatively far from the front line, similarly endured a barrage of 63 fixed-wing drones over the same period, the Russian Defense Ministry reported in its daily update.

Apart from that, air defenses are said to have intercepted a number of JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) guided bombs and HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) missiles.

Over the past several days, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported the downing of at least 40 Ukrainian drones approaching the Russian capital.

He did not mention any casualties or material damage on the ground.

Residents of the area close to Moscow have been posting videos online, appearing to show Ukrainian UAVs flying toward the city.

At least one clip purports to show the moment a drone was destroyed in mid-air.

In a post on her Telegram channel, Evgeniya Khrustaleva, the head of Domodedovo district, wrote that a drone fragment fell on the grounds of a kindergarten in the area on Wednesday, triggering the evacuation of the children and staff.

Commissioner for children’s rights in Moscow Region, Ksenia Mishonova, told TASS that “there were 98 children in the [kindergarten] at the time of the incident.” She added that none of them sustained any injuries.

Russian media reported that Moscow’s Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, and Sheremetyevo Airports repeatedly halted their operations amid the air raid, causing huge flight delays.

Similar scenes played out in all of Moscow’s major airports earlier this month, days ahead of the festivities commemorating the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

https://www.rt.com/russia/618012-russian-mod-485-ukrainian-drones-downed/

https://www.rt.com/russia/617988-moscow-drones-shot-down/

Myanmar Partisans Outpace Ukraine, First to Down Helicopter with FPV Drone

May 22, 2025

The Ukrainian military has been a pioneer in the use of drones on the battlefield, but this time, the Defense Forces of Ukraine were outpaced, as Myanmar's Kachin Independence Army has successfully scored a historically first kill on a helicopter with a drone strike.

The video shows an FPV drone attack on a Myanmar junta Mi-17 helicopter near the town of Bhamo in Kachin State, northern Myanmar, on May 20.

It shows that the drone attack occurred during the helicopter's landing, while it was still in the air.

An FPV drone operated by the partisans hit the Mi-17’s rotor, resulting in a loss of stable control. The pilots stopped the landing and tried to escape the area despite the damage.

Although the video does not show the helicopter crashing, the junta has confirmed the crash, and footage from the site is available.

It is also stated that the helicopter crashed near the town of Shwegu. According to unofficial sources, all seven members of the crew and landing team died.

It should be noted that the Kachin Independence Army made a statement about two helicopters, but the evidence and use of the FPV drone relates to only one.

Thus, it can be said that Myanmar partisans were the first to successfully destroy a helicopter in flight using a drone.

At the same time, Ukraine has been close to destroying an enemy helicopter several times using an FPV drone.

The first attempts have been recorded since September 2023. Moreover, the attacks caused some damage.

The first such incident happened in August 2024, when a Ukrainian FPV drone hit the tail of a russian Mi-28. A few days later, a similar episode happened with a Mi-8.

However, despite several similar hits, no reliable record exists of a helicopter being downed or destroyed by this weapon so far.

This also applies to the recent case of a russian Ka-52 being hit but not shot down.

At the same time, the situation in Myanmar was much easier because of the Mi-17's hovering during the troop drop-off.

The crash and loss resulted from the crew’s decision to return to base instead of landing the helicopter immediately.

Earlier Defense Express reported that Ukrainian drone forces had struck russian semiconductor plant linked to missiles and fighter fets.

https://en.defence-ua.com/news/myanmar_partisans_outpace_ukraine_first_to_down_helicopter_with_fpv_drone-14600.html

https://twitter.com/Y_D_Y_P/status/1925476654245404874

Cochranites reminded of ‘no drone zones’ ahead of G7

Thursday, May 22 2025, 7:37 AM

With the G7 summit on the horizon and air traffic expected to surge, residents of Cochrane are being reminded that areas around Springbank Airport are strict no-fly zones for drones.

Springbank Airport, located just a short distance southeast of Cochrane, falls under a federally regulated ‘No Drone Zone’ covering 3.5 nautical miles, or 6.5 km, from the airport's center.

“Most may not realize the risk even a small drone can pose to aircraft, passengers, operations and emergency services,” said Chris Dinsdale, President and CEO of The Calgary Airport Authority.

“A single drone sighting can delay or divert flights, shut down runways and lead to costly investigations,” Dinsdale added. “We’re asking everyone to be mindful of the no drone zones to help us keep our skies safe.”

Springbank Airport services private, charter, and emergency flights, and its proximity to Cochrane means residents need to be especially vigilant.

Unauthorized drone use can result in fines of up to $3,000 and possible jail time, enforced by the Calgary Police Service’s Remote Pilot Aircraft System (RPAS) enforcement team.

Drone users are also reminded that flying in national and provincial parks, including Kananaskis and Banff, is heavily restricted.

These areas are protected by federal regulations, and flying without a special permit can result in significant fines.

Drone operators are encouraged to consult Transport Canada and municipal bylaws before planning any flights.

Reports of unauthorized drone activity can be made to the Cochrane RCMP non-emergency line at 403-932-2211.

https://cochranenow.com/articles/cochranites-reminded-of-no-drone-zones-ahead-of-g7

Salisbury paedophile guilty of flying drone over school

May 22, 2025

A CONVICTED paedophile has pleaded guilty to flying a drone over a primary school.

Jeremy Bird, 47, has been accused of using the lightweight aircraft to 'watch' young children.

A court heard that on one occasion, Bird caused one pupil to 'run and cry' as he used the device to follow them.

Bird accepted a charge of recklessly or negligently causing or permitting an aircraft to endanger a person or property at Salisbury Magistrates' Court.

But he said that he 'didn't have any control over it' and is only pleading guilty because he did not have the 'appropriate qualification' to fly the aircraft.

Elizabeth Valera told magistrates that the charge relates to the use of a drone over Pembroke Park Primary School in Salisbury.

She said: "The Crown says he’s flying them over primary school children to watch the children.

“He accepts he’s flying them [but said in interviews] that he didn’t have control over it.

“There’s one video where a child is actually followed, and they’re running and crying while he follows them with a drone."

Valera told the panel that he had previously tried to engage primary school children in conversations outside of the school.

Paul Jones, defending, said: "The charge is recklessly flying that drone – that does not relate to the question of taking images of children.

“He accepts recklessly flying the equipment because he does not have the appropriate qualification to do so."

At a hearing in Winchester Crown Court, Bird also pleaded guilty to two charges of making indecent photographs.

These included Category A images, which are the most serious kind.

Prosecutor Kellie Enever reminded the judge that Bird 'does have previous relevant convictions, albeit back in 2011'.

Bird will be sentenced at Salisbury Crown Court on July 18.

He was granted bail until then on the condition that he does not have any unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 18 and that he does not enter any school grounds.

Bird was handed a community order in 2011 after he was caught with indecent images.

https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/25184117.salisbury-paedophile-guilty-flying-drone-school/

Yemeni forces conduct missile, drone strikes against Israeli targets

Last Update: Thursday, 22 May 2025 10:17 AM

The Yemeni Armed Forces have conducted new missile and drone operations against Israeli targets in the occupied territories in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip amid the genocidal war on the besieged territory.

In a statement released on Thursday, the Yemeni forces said they had fired a Zulfiqar ballistic missile toward Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

"The operation successfully achieved its goal, thanks to God, causing millions of occupying Zionists to rush to shelters and bringing the airport to a standstill for nearly an hour," they added.

The Yemeni forces also said that they had launched two Yaffa drones at two vital Israeli enemy targets in the occupied areas of Yaffa and Haifa.

The ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestinians in Gaza call for all members of the Islamic Ummah to fulfill their religious, moral, and humanitarian duty and take immediate action, the statement read.

Yemen will continue its anti-Israeli operations and will not hesitate to expand and escalate its retaliatory strikes until Israel ends its Gaza onslaught and lifts the siege on the Palestinian territory, it noted.

The Yemeni Armed Forces began their campaign against Israeli-linked ships and targets in the occupied lands in November 2023, a month after the usurping regime unleashed its genocide in Gaza.

Yemen halted its attacks in January, when Israel accepted a Gaza ceasefire. Two months later, however, Israel unilaterally broke the Gaza truce and resumed its aggression, prompting the Yemeni forces to resume their operations in solidarity with Palestinians.

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/05/22/748412/Yemen-missile-drone-strikes-Israel

Families evacuated after fire breaks out at Bristol maternity hospital

Thursday 22 May 2025 18:25 BST

Families are said to have been evacuated after plumes of black smoke were seen billowing from a maternity hospital in Bristol.

Avon Fire and Rescue Service said on Thursday afternoon it was responding to a fire on Southwell Street, Bristol, and warned people to avoid the area.

Videos shared by locals on social media showed smoke rising from St Michael's Hospital as mothers and babies were reportedly led across the road to safety by midwives.

Jess Hutchinson, 22, whose waters had broken, told the BBC it was “scary” hearing there was a fire on the roof.

Matt Burden, from Weston-super-Mare, told the BBC that he was inside the maternity unit with his wife when the fire broke out and that his wife was in labour with their third baby.

"I went out to get some food, came back and obviously the alarm went off," he told the broadcaster, adding that his partner was safe inside.

"They said all partners had to leave. Everyone was going down the fire exit quite fast. When we came out I saw black smoke, all up in flames."

Green Party co-leader and MP for Bristol Central wrote on social media:

“Scenes from the fire at St Michael's Hospital look incredibly distressing - my thoughts are with all those who had to evacuate in such scary circumstances, and huge thanks to the emergency services for their bravery.

“I'll be keeping a close eye on the situation as it develops.”

Smoke could be seen across the city, including from Bristol Temple Meads station, as videos showed a number of firefighters battling the blaze.

Around an hour after the fire service confirmed the fire, it added: “We can confirm that the fire has safely been extinguished. The cause of the fire will be investigated.”

Residents have been told to expect delays and use alternative routes, as nearby St Michaels Hill is closed between its junctions with Hortfield Road and Tyndall Avenue.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/st-michaels-hospital-bristol-fire-maternity-b2756209.html

Chaos at Nakawa Court as plain-clothed operatives seize 2 amid Besigye treason trial

May 21, 2025

KAMPALA, UGANDA | THE INDEPENDENT | Chaos erupted outside Nakawa Chief Magistrates Court on Wednesday when plain-clothed operatives whisked away two people, among them a local councilor, shortly after proceedings in the treason and misprision of treason case against Dr. Kizza Besigye and others were adjourned.

The drama unfolded moments after Besigye’s lawyers, led by Senior Counsel Martha Karua and Erias Lukwago, addressed the media.

Grade One Magistrate Jonathan Tiyo had stepped in for Chief Magistrate Esther Nyadoi, who was absent, and adjourned the trial to May 29, 2025.

As hundreds exited the courtroom, men in civilian clothes bundled the two suspects into a waiting white van (“the drone”) parked opposite the court. Witnesses say the vehicle then sped off toward the nearby Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

Bystanders shouted for their release, and one enraged supporter punched an officer before uniformed Joint Anti-Terrorism (JAT) personnel arrived in a double-cab and escorted the van away.

Counter-terrorism officers on duty at Nakawa attempted a pursuit but were unable to keep pace. Harold Kaija, Secretary-General of the Patriotic Front for Freedom (a splinter faction of the FDC), identified one of those taken as Katongole, a councillor from Kira Division.

According to sources, Katongole was involved in an earlier scuffle when court spectators drove out a man suspected of photographing the audience covertly—a man the mob labelled a “state spy.”

Other accounts claim Katongole and a companion had been leading anti-government chants outside the court, singing that President Yoweri Museveni and his son, the Chief of Defence Forces, would one day fall and that Besigye’s faction would prevail.

Speaking to our reporter, lawyer Eron Kiiza, who says he too was seized but later released, condemned the arrests as unlawful.

“Courts are supposed to be sanctuaries of liberty, not dangerous scenes of arrests by security operatives,” Kiiza said. “These courthouse arrests intimidate people and discourage them from accessing the very safe havens the Constitution envisions.”

In recent years, “drone” vans have become notorious for swift, unannounced detentions of government opponents, prompting public outcry and court orders to curb the practice—orders critics say have gone unheeded.

https://www.independent.co.ug/chaos-at-nakawa-court-as-plain-clothed-operatives-seize-2-amid-besigye-treason-trial/