NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

May 27, 2025

Zeta and Rho Ophiuchi with Milky Way

Behold one of the most photogenic regions of the night sky, captured impressively. Featured, the band of our Milky Way Galaxy runs diagonally along the bottom-left corner, while the colorful Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is visible just right of center and the large red circular Zeta Ophiuchi Nebula appears near the top. In general, red emanates from nebulas glowing in the light of excited hydrogen gas, while blue marks interstellar dust preferentially reflecting the light of bright young stars. Thick dust usually appears dark brown. Many iconic objects of the night sky appear, including (can you find them?) the bright star Antares, the globular star cluster M4, and the Blue Horsehead nebula. This wide field composite, taken over 17 hours, was captured from South Africa last June.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Petition begins to stop White House’s massive NASA Science cut

May 26 2025 - 9:37 am PT

The Planetary Society has begun a petition to help stop the White House’s 47% budget cut to NASA’s science programs.

The advocacy group has a goal of gathering as many as 5,000 signatories before sending it to Congress.

The White House’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2026 proposes a shocking 47% cut in funding for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD).

This represents an extinction-level event for the Earth and space sciences, forcing the needless termination of dozens of productive spacecraft, delaying or canceling on-budget development projects, and reducing opportunities for future scientists and engineers.

The Planetary Society petition

The Planetary Society has taken the lead in advocating for not just the massive cut in science missions but also the overall 25% proposed cut to NASA’s budget as a whole.

While some programs were expected, like NASA’s climate research and green aviation tech, the extent of the additional science and reprioritization for going to the Moon and Mars was a bit shocking for some.

President Trump’s cuts to not just NASA’s but across all of the federal government are stated to help bring the federal budget and spending in check.

However, the recent tax bill passed by the House would likely reduce overall tax revenue, making a balanced budget impossible.

https://spaceexplored.com/2025/05/26/petition-begins-to-stop-white-houses-massive-nasa-science-cut/

https://www.planetary.org/advocacy-action-center#/55

Vulnerabilities found in NASA’s open source software

May 27, 2025

The vulnerabilities

Juranić, whose AppSec credentials include founding and leading DefenseCode, is no stranger NASA: in 2009, he discovered and reported a number of serious vulnerabilities in NASA’s Common Data Format (CDF) software library, which ended up getting fixed by the developers.

His latest probing of NASA-developed open source software was limited to 4 hours of manual code analysis, but nevertheless unveiled a slew of vulnerabilities.

He discovered a stack-based buffer overflow vulnerabilities in NASA’s Portable Environment for Quick Image Processing (QuIP), then decided to look for more of them in similar tools used by the agency.

“[The] main motive and reasoning behind that was that all over different NASA’s code in GitHub repositories there is a whole bunch of NASA’s specific file formats processing, and maliciously constructed data files can easily be slipped to the victim over an email or over the web,” he explained.

He quickly found other buffer overflows stemming from use of an inherently insecure function in:

OpenVSP (Open Vehicle Sketch Pad), a tool for creating 3D models of aircrafts for engineering analysis purposes

RHEAS (Regional Hydrologic Extremes Assessment System) software

OMINAS (Opensource Multi-INstrument Analysis Software)

Refine, a 2D and 3D mesh adaptation tool

The CFD Utility Software Library (aka CFDTOOLS), which contains numerical analysis libraries and utility applications built on them, and

The knife library

While he also discovered a reflected cross site scripting (XSS) vulnerability and hard-coded secret values in several web applications developed by NASA, the memory corruption flaws found in the various file processing software applications stand out as particularly alarming as they could allow for remote code execution, Juranić told Help Net Security.

“I didn’t bother to prove that the discovered straightforward vanilla stack based buffer overflows can be exploited, but I didn’t find obstacles to why they wouldn’t be exploitable – the vulnerable code was reachable remotely during the parsing of particular file formats,” he said.

State-sponsored threat actors could exploit those flaws to compromise computer systems at the US space agency, as well as at other institutions (government-operated and not) that use the vulnerable software, he added.

While a successful attack hinges on target employees being tricked into downloading and opening specially crafted files, this particular hurdle is overcome by attackers every day.

“And standard defensive systems like AV, EDR, IPS and IDS usually don’t pick up and protect from threats of that nature (i.e., zero-day exploits in maliciously crafted files),” he pointed out.

Juranić declined to speculate why these security vulnerabilities haven’t been caught and remediated earlier, but says there’s obviously room for improvement in NASA’s software security processes and NASA’s SRA (Software Release Authority) policy, which is not as comprehensive as it should be.

“Common security practices for Secure Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) are a must these days in every aspect of software development, especially for government agencies and their contractors,” he opined.

Vulnerability reporting problems

“I was quite surprised by the number and severity of security vulnerabilities that I discovered in such a short time by simply grepping for ‘questionable’ stuff in the code – especially since some of these software projects are used in NASA as a part of space missions or data processing,” Juranić told us.

Some bugs are so complicated that they remain undiscovered/undisclosed for over decades in even the most popular, internet-powering software, he added, but these are of the “low hanging fruit” variety.

“I’d be quite surprised if I’m the only person on the planet interested in discovering vulnerabilities in NASA’s in-house developed and used software, since it’s available for anyone on NASA’s official GitHub account.”

He has reached out to NASA a dozen times via different email addresses to share his findings, but did not receive feedback.

A phone call to NASA’s security operation center (SOC) revealed that the agency’s official policy instructs them not reply to vulnerability reports made by individuals outside of the organization.

NASA’s official software Github account (as referenced here and here) is apparently not under NASA’s bug bounty program, he also pointed out, making it complicated to report unearthed security issues via public bug bounty platforms.

We’ve reached out to NASA for comment, and we’ll update this article when we hear back from them.

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/05/27/nasa-open-source-software-vulnerabilities/

Video shows hot air balloon crash near Mexican pyramid, injuring 12

May 26, 2025 • 9:10pm

A hot air balloon has crashed near a pyramid in Mexico injuring at least 12 people.

The incident occurred in San Martin de las Pirámides, Mexico City on Friday (local time), CNN reported.

It was only a short distance from the Pyramid of the Moon, which is an archaeological site that lies in the ancient city Teotihuacan.

Mexico’s civil protection agency told CNN the balloon had to make a “forced landing” after it hit an air pocket.

The agency said in a statement that 12 people who were onboard the balloon were being treated for injuries.

The balloon belonged to a tour company that offers rides to view the pyramids from above.

Police have detained and are investigating a 29-year-old man, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office said.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360703722/watch-hot-air-balloon-crashes-near-mexican-pyramid-injuring-12

https://www.space.com/astronomy/earth/nasa-satellites-show-antarctica-has-gained-ice-despite-rising-global-temperatures-how-is-that-possible

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11430-024-1517-1

NASA satellites show Antarctica has gained ice despite rising global temperatures. How is that possible?

May 27, 2025

Antarctica has gained ice in recent years, despite increasing average global temperatures and climate change, a new study finds.

Using data from NASA satellites, researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai tracked changes in Antarctica's ice sheet over more than two decades.

The overall trend is one of substantial ice loss on the continent, but from 2021 to 2023, Antarctica gained some of that lost ice back.

However, this isn't a sign that global warming and climate change have miraculously reversed. Picture a long ski slope with a small jump at the end.

That's what a line through the Antarctic ice sheet data looks like when plotted on a graph. While there have been some recent ice gains, they don't even begin to make up for almost 20 years of losses.

Most of the gains have already been attributed to an anomaly that saw increased precipitation (snow and some rain) fall over Antarctica, which caused more ice to form.

Antarctica's ice levels fluctuate from year to year, and the gains appear to have slowed since the study period ended at the beginning of 2024.

The levels reported by NASA thus far in 2025 look similar to what they were back in 2020, just before the abrupt gain.

The ice sheet covering Antarctica is the largest mass of ice on Earth. Bigger than the whole of the U.S., the sheet holds 90% of the world's fresh water, according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an environmental non-governmental organization.

Antarctica is also surrounded by sea ice (frozen ocean water), which expands in the winter and retreats to the Antarctic coastline in the summer.

This latest study, published March 19 in the journal Science China Earth Sciences, analyzed data from NASA's Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) and GRACE Follow-On satellites that have been monitoring this ice sheet since 2002.

Studying changes to the sheet is important because any melt releases water into the ocean, which is a major driver of rising sea levels.

The satellite data revealed that the sheet experienced a sustained period of ice loss between 2002 and 2020.

The ice loss accelerated in the latter half of that period, increasing from an average loss of about 81 billion tons (74 billion metric tons) per year between 2002 and 2010, to a loss of about 157 billion tons (142 billion metric tons) between 2011 and 2020, according to the study. However, the trend then shifted.

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>>23087643

The ice sheet gained mass from 2021 to 2023 at an average rate of about 119 billion tons (108 metric tons) per year. Four glaciers in eastern Antarctica also flipped from accelerated ice loss to significant mass gain.

"This isn't particularly strange," said Tom Slater, a research fellow in environmental science at Northumbria University in the U.K. who wasn't involved in the study.

"In a warmer climate the atmosphere can hold more moisture — this raises the likelihood of extreme weather such as the heavy snowfall which caused the recent mass gain in East Antarctica," he told Live Science in an email.

A 2023 study documented Antarctica's unprecedented mass gain between 2021 and 2022. That study, written by many of the same authors behind the new study, found that a high precipitation anomaly was responsible for the gain in ice.

The latest study suggests that the trend continued until at least 2023. Slater noted that researchers expect the ice gains to be temporary.

"Almost all of Antarctica's grounded ice losses come from glaciers elsewhere which are speeding up and flowing into the warming ocean," Slater said.

"This is still happening — while the recent snowfall has temporarily offset these losses, they haven't stopped so it's not expected this is a long-term change in Antarctica's behavior."

A Warming World

Climate change doesn't mean that everywhere on Earth will get hotter at the same rate, so a single region will never tell the whole story of our warming world.

Historically, temperatures over much of Antarctica have remained relatively stable, particularly compared to the Arctic, which has cooked four times faster than the rest of the globe.

Antarctica's sea ice has also been much more stable relative to the Arctic, but that's been changing in recent years.

In 2023, Antarctic sea ice hit record lows, which researchers concluded was extremely unlikely to happen without climate change.

Meanwhile, global sea ice cover is consistently dropping to record lows or near-record lows, while global temperatures are consistently at record or near-record highs.

In 2015, world leaders signed the Paris Agreement, an international treaty promising to limit global warming to preferably below 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) and well below 3.6 F (2 C).

However, that first promise is on the line: April 2025 was the 21st out of the last 22 months to breach the 2.7 F limit, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.

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https://spacenews.com/empyreum-italys-new-satellite-platform-for-the-constellation-era/

https://www.sitael.com/

Empyreum, Italy’s new satellite platform for the constellation era

May 27, 2025

At SmallSat Europe 2025 in Amsterdam, Italy’s SITAEL unveiled Empyreum, its next-generation small satellite platform equipped with the company’s proprietary Spark electric propulsion system.

In this exclusive interview, Chiara Pertosa – CEO of SITAEL and one of second-generation leader of Angel Holding – explains what makes Empyreum unique, how Italy is expanding its satellite manufacturing capabilities, and why achieving European technological independence is more urgent than ever.

Could you walk us through the main features of the newly announced Empyreum platform and explain the market needs it addresses? Why did you name your new product Empyreum?

Empyreum is a modular, high-performance platform designed to meet the growing demand for agile and cost-effective satellites used for Earth Observation, Space Situational Awareness (SSA), and Telecom applications.

One of its core features is the integration of our proprietary Spark electric propulsion system, which provides strong maneuvering capabilities, particularly in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) and in high delta-V missions.

Another key strength is its agility and pointing stability, making it ideal for high-resolution optical payloads for EO and SSA missions. It’s a flexible platform that’s also been engineered for production scalability. The Empyreum is also perfect for dual-use applications.

Empyreum, is our new-generation satellite. The name Empyreum comes from the Greek word empyros, meaning “in fire” or “fiery.”

In ancient cosmology, the Empyrean was considered the highest and purest part of the heavens. It was located beyond the sphere of fixed stars and was a realm of eternal light and home to the divine.

I chose the name Empyreum myself! It’s a technological gem.

What sets Empyreum apart from other small satellite platforms on the market?

We designed Empyreum to be highly performant and easy to build. Its modular, metallic structure allows for quick and simple assembly of subsystems using a plug/and/play approach.

This means shorter delivery times, and lower costs. It’s not just about integration, we own the technology for 80% of the subsystems.

Thanks to our articulated solar arrays, we also offer up to 3 kW peak power, even on inclined orbits, which significantly expands its mission range.

Importantly, Empyreum is constellation-ready. Each satellite comes pre-integrated with optical inter-satellite links, which we believe are essential for next-generation distributed architecture.

What is SITAEL’s strategy for scaling its production to deliver Empyreum in series? Our journey began in 2021 with an initial private investment in our first Space Factory in Mola di Bari.

There we built microHETSat, Italy’s first all-electric microsatellite.

Building on that success, and with the support of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) through Italy’s PNRR (Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan), we have now inaugurated Space Factory 4.0.

This sustainable, digital, and fully integrated production and test facility is located just meters away from our headquarters.

Thanks to the IRIDE constellation, we were awarded a contract by the ESA to deliver five Platino Satellites with Hyperspectral payloads from Leonardo.

This program has served as a test bed and a pilot for the series production of Italy’s post-pandemic space industry boost – SpaceNews.

This has significantly boosted our production capacity. It allows us to offer Empyreum not just as a one-off platform. It is now a series-ready product.

SITAEL has a strong legacy in electric propulsion. What innovations are being integrated into Spark, and why was it chosen as a standalone product?

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>>23087682

Spark is the result of years of engineering, and we’re very proud of our achievement. It’s a compact, integrated, and flight-qualified electric propulsion system, ready for microsatellite platforms.

What sets Spark apart is that all of its components — thruster, PPU, tank, and control electronics — are integrated and pre-tested as a unit.

We made it available to other satellite manufacturers because we believe European space players should rely on European technologies. Having strategic autonomy in space means not depending on non-European propulsion systems.

Where is Spark manufactured?

We are about to open a new production facility in Pisa dedicated entirely to electric propulsion.

This new factory will enable us to increase our output by more than twofold, with the capacity to assemble and test several Spark units each month.

This strategic investment supports both our internal needs and the broader European market.

What is the industrial and strategic significance of Space Factory 4.0, both for SITAEL and Italy’s space sector?

The timing couldn’t be better. The global market demands more satellites faster, and our Space Factory 4.0 is ready to deliver.

However, it’s not just about producing more satellites. We’re adopting a new industrial mindset from Angel Holding’s legacy in the railway and mechatronic sectors.

How do you see SITAEL’s position evolving within the New Space ecosystem, both in Europe and worldwide?

We are developing new products for commercial markets. We are here at Smallsat 2025 to launch the smallest member of our family.

We have other satellite platforms in development, as well as larger sizes of electric propulsion systems and electronic equipment.

These larger satellite platforms are designed for different applications, including Navigation, Telecommunications, and Earth Observation, and can carry larger payloads.

Moreover, we are not only increasing production capacity, but also making our satellites smarter.

Empyreum is designed to natively host AI-powered operations, including intelligent scheduling, autonomous health checks and onboard data processing.

This is where the market is headed, and we want to stay ahead of the curve.

Our vision is clear: to deliver high-performance satellites, propulsion subsystems and electronic equipment at scale, with the intelligence to adapt in orbit. We want to achieve this from Italy, using European technology, for the world.

SITAEL space activities are vertically integrated to cover the Design, Development and Production of Small Satellites, Advanced Electric and Chemical Propulsion Systems, Earth Observation and Science Payloads, Platform and Payload Avionics from equipment down to complex component level.

Leading contractor and preferred partner for many stakeholders in several space missions, SITAEL joins its flexibility and deep knowledge of design with a continuous look to innovation, ensuring the highest quality attention to each project while optimizing costs and development times.

ESA/NASA standard certifications have been obtained in order to guarantee highly qualified processes, increasing the quality of offered products and solutions.

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https://www.unilad.com/news/world-news/kim-jong-un-nuclear-war-space-threat-trump-golden-dome-929039-20250527

North Korea threatens 'nuclear war' in space after slamming Trump's $175,000,000,000 'golden dome'

15:29 27 May 2025 GMT+1

North Korea has condemned Donald Trump's $175 billion Golden Dome project by threatening to 'turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field'.

On May 20, President Donald Trump revealed his plans for a $175 billion 'Golden Dome' missile defense program while speaking to reporters from the Oval Office in the White House.

The goal of the program is to help the US to intercept missiles, 'even if they are launched from space'.

And - shockingly - the news hasn't gone down too well with some other countries, with North Korea even going so far as to warn it could 'turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field'.

What is the Golden Dome and why is it necessary?

China and Russia have already put offensive weapons in space - including satellites that can disable critical US satellites - meaning the US is subsequently vulnerable to attack.

And following warnings from the Pentagon that updating countermeasures is a much-needed step, Trump decided to do something about it.

Essentially, the Golden Dome program is set to strengthen the US' ability to detect and stop missiles at four specific stages of a missiles' launch and journey:

Before a launch

During the earliest stage of a missile's flight

During the middle of a missile's course

During the final minutes as a missile approaches a target

General Chance Saltzman, head of the US Space Force, said the Golden Dome and its weapons 'represent new and emerging requirements for missions that have never before been accomplished by military space organizations'.

And North Korea isn't exactly happy about the plan, with the controversial country speaking out earlier today (May 27).

North Korea's response to Trump's Golden Dome plan

Pyongyang's foreign ministry told the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in a statement shared with AFP that the program is 'very dangerous', before accusing it of 'threatening the strategic security of the nuclear weapons state'.

The foreign ministry accused the US of being 'hell-bent on the moves to militarize outer space'.

It resolved: "The US plan for building a new missile defense system is the root cause of sparking off global nuclear and space arms race by stimulating the security concerns of nuclear weapons states and turning […] outer space into a potential nuclear war field."

And Trump certainly isn't messing around when it comes to how long he hopes it'll take to execute his plans for the Golden Dome.

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>>23087725

Trump's timeline for the Golden Dome and costs

Trump's presidency is set to come to an end in 2029 - as long as he doesn't try and find a loophole to run for a third time that is - and he's said hopes the Golden Dome will be 'fully operational before the end of [his] term'.

The president also detailed an initial spend of $25 billion to begin work on the program, the system reported as being set to cost $175 billion to create - and it could cost the US an even heftier amount in the long-run.

With medium, high and 'extra high' choices for developing options within the program, an official said as reported by PA News Agency, the differences between the three options would essentially depend on how many satellites, sensors, and space-based interceptors are bought.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that space-based components of the program alone could cost as much as $542 billion over the next 20 years.

Although, newly confirmed Air Force Secretary Troy Meink noted to senators there's not actually any money currently available for the project yet with the Golden Dome 'still in the conceptual stage'.

And where Trump goes, Musk always follows it would seem, the Tesla CEO reportedly potentially ending up involved in the Golden Dome too.

Elon Musk's potential involvement in the Golden Dome

'Six people familiar with the matter' told Reuters that Musk's SpaceX alongside two partners are 'frontrunners' to help build the program.

Representatives of SpaceX alongside software maker Palantir and drone builder Anduril reportedly met with Trump administration officials alongside the Pentagon to make their pitch.

The pitch? To build and launch between 400-1,000 satellites around the globe to detect missiles alongside another 200 armed with missiles or lasers themselves to stop enemy missiles.

And it's not only North Korea which has spoken out against the Golden Dome but China too.

China's response to the Golden Dome

Not long after Trump's announcement of the program, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning issued a warning, echoing that of North Korea by noting the dome increases the risk of outer space becoming militarized.

The spokesperson said: "The United States, in pursuing a 'US-first' policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself.

This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability. China is seriously concerned about this."

Mao ultimately urged Washington to ditch the development of the Golden Dome altogether.

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Traverse City’s ATLAS Space Operations Advances Capabilities for Air Force Research Lab

May 27, 2025

ATLAS Space Operations in Traverse City has concluded a successful series of demonstrations of its Freedom Software Platform’s ability to integrate diverse government and commercial satellite ground station networks for the U.S. Air Force Research Lab and Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).

The demonstrations validated a “transformative” approach to satellite ground operations, providing secure, scalable, and resilient space data transmission, according to ATLAS.

Through the DIU Hybrid Space Architecture project, ATLAS demonstrated the Freedom platform’s capability to manage and orchestrate multiple disparate networks, ensuring timely data transmission while maintaining information assurance and security.

The software’s architecture, built on best-in-class commercial practices, features software-defined controls, interfaces, and security, ensuring flexibility and trust amidst rapid technological changes.

Key objectives achieved during the project include integrating commercial networks, such as the ATLAS global network and Viasat’s Real-Time Earth, onboarding DoD assets, and enabling rapid access for federal users, including the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC).

The Freedom UI provided an intuitive, web-based interface for operators to manage satellite contacts across these diverse networks, while advanced cyber controls, aligned with DFARS/NIST 800-171 standards, secured data, and communications.

“By unifying disparate ground networks through a secure, cloud-native interface, we’ve demonstrated how Freedom transforms satellite operations into a scalable, software-defined service,” says Brad Bode, co-founder and chief technology officer of ATLAS Space Operations.

“This architecture not only ensures rapid onboarding and cross-network orchestration but also delivers resilient, mission-ready connectivity aligned with the DoD’s need for agile and secure space access.”

Key outcomes of the demonstrations include:

Operational Interoperability: Seamless integration across DoD and commercial ground station assets, including secure tasking and telemetry.

Cybersecurity Maturity: Meeting DFARS/NIST 800-171 compliance and demonstrating readiness for FedRAMP and ITAR requirements. ATLAS and Freedom Space Technologies also completed a NIST 800-53 Rev. 5 Moderate baseline security assessment.

Federated User Access: Successful onboarding of the U.S. Army SMDC, proving the platform’s ability to support diverse agencies securely.

Dynamic Scheduling and Network Abstraction: Enabling task execution across multi-vendor networks through a seamless user experience.

Scalability and Modularity: Demonstrating the platform’s ability to scale by adding antennas, users, and partners without system re-architecture.

Enhanced User Experience: Providing an intuitive interface for scheduling, monitoring, and data retrieval.

Readiness for Future Capabilities: Collecting rich data to enable predictive analytics, automated mission validation, and machine learning-driven autonomous operations.

https://www.dbusiness.com/hustle-and-muscle-articles/traverse-citys-atlas-space-operations-advances-capabilities-for-air-force-research-lab/

https://atlasspace.com/

SpaceX Starlink Mission

May 27, 2025

SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, May 27 for a Falcon 9 launch of 24 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Liftoff is targeted for 9:57 a.m. PT, with backup opportunities available until 1:14 p.m. PT. If needed, additional launch opportunities are also available on Wednesday, May 28 starting at 9:14 a.m. PT.

A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.

This will be the 13th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched USSF-62, OneWeb Launch 20, NROL-145, and nine Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.

There is the possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions.

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-17-1