TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 30, 2025
Mars in the Loop
This composite of images spaced a weather-permitting 5 to 9 days apart, from 2024 September 19 (top right) through 2025 May 18 (bottom left), faithfully traces ruddy-colored Mars as it makes a clockwise loop through the constellations Gemini and Cancer in planet Earth's night sky. You can connect the dots and dates with your cursor over the image, but be sure to check out this animation of the Red Planet's 2024/25 retrograde motion. Of course Mars didn't actually reverse the direction of its orbit. Instead, the apparent backwards motion with respect to the background stars is a reflection of the orbital motion of Earth itself. Retrograde motion can be seen each time Earth overtakes and laps planets orbiting farther from the Sun, the Earth moving more rapidly through its own relatively close-in orbit. In this case Mars' apparent eastward motion began to reverse around December 8, when it seemed to linger near open star cluster M44 in Cancer. After wandering back to the west, under Gemini's bright stars Castor and Pollux, Mars returned to pose near M44 by early May. At its brightest near opposition on 2025 January 16, Mars was a mere 96 million kilometers away.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Hubble Spies Paired Pinwheel on Its Own
May 30, 2025
A single member of a galaxy pair takes centerstage in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image.
This beautiful spiral galaxy is NGC 3507, which is situated about 46 million light-years away in the constellation Leo (the Lion).
NGC 3507’s classification is a barred spiral because the galaxy’s sweeping spiral arms emerge from the ends of a central bar of stars rather than the central core of the galaxy.
Though pictured solo here, NGC 3507 actually travels the universe with a galactic partner named NGC 3501 that is located outside the frame.
While NGC 3507 is a quintessential galactic pinwheel, its partner resembles a streak of quicksilver across the sky. Despite looking completely different, both are spiral galaxies, simply seen from different angles.
For galaxies that are just a few tens of millions of light-years away, like NGC 3507 and NGC 3501, features like spiral arms, dusty gas clouds, and brilliant star clusters are on full display.
More distant galaxies appear less detailed. See if you can spot any faraway galaxies in this image: they tend to be orange or yellow and can be anywhere from circular and starlike to narrow and elongated, with hints of spiral arms.
Astronomers use instruments called spectrometers to split the light from these distant galaxies to study the nature of these objects in the early universe.
In addition to these far-flung companions, a much nearer object joins NGC 3507. The object is marked by four spikes of light: a star within the Milky Way, a mere 436 light-years away from Earth.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-spies-paired-pinwheel-on-its-own/
Astronauts Sunita Williams, Barry Wilmore Reflect On Gruelling Mission After Recovery; 'Gravity Stinks'
May 30, 2025
After spending nearly nine months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have completed their physical rehabilitation and are getting used to life on Earth.
The duo, originally scheduled for an eight-day test flight on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, faced an unexpected extension of their mission, which tested their resilience both in space and upon their return to Earth.
The prolonged exposure to zero gravity posed significant challenges to their bodies, which are accustomed to Earth’s gravitational environment.
To help them readjust, both astronauts underwent a mandatory 45-day rehabilitation program designed to restore muscle strength, balance, and basic terrestrial functions.
During this period, they dedicated at least two hours daily to strength and conditioning exercises under the guidance of NASA’s medical team in Houston.
Speaking to Reuters, Wilmore, 62, reflected on the challenges of returning to Earth’s gravity.
"Right now, we’re just coming off of the rehab portion of our return" he said, adding, "Gravity stinks for a period, and that period varies for different people, but eventually you get over those neurovestibular balance type of issues."
The human body, finely tuned for life on Earth, faces unique hurdles in space. Zero gravity can lead to muscle deterioration, cardiovascular changes, and other physiological shifts that require careful management during and after missions.
Williams (59) described her recovery as a gradual process marked by moments of fatigue as her muscles slowly readapted to Earth’s conditions.
She noted that her early morning routine was disrupted for some time, a lingering effect of her body’s readjustment. However, she recently experienced a breakthrough, saying,
"Then I’m up at four in the morning, and I’m like, Aha! I’m back."
Wilmore shared that his neck and back issues, which limited his head movement before the mission, disappeared in space but resurfaced almost immediately upon landing.
He recalled with a laugh, "We’re still floating in the capsule in the ocean, and my neck starts hurting, while we still hadn’t even been extracted yet."
https://in.mashable.com/science/94936/astronauts-sunita-williams-barry-wilmore-reflect-on-gruelling-mission-after-recovery-gravity-stinks
https://twitter.com/CNBCTV18News/status/1928017499548963142
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14761593/Major-health-update-NASA-stranded-astronauts.html
NASA Tech Gives Treadmill Users a ‘Boost’
May 29, 2025
Creators of the original antigravity treadmill continue to advance technology with new company.
The antigravity treadmill, which has benefits in space and on Earth, was pioneered by Robert Whalen at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, in the 1980s and ’90s.
Whalen built a system that placed a pressurized bulb over the user’s upper body, creating downward pressure that could simulate gravity for astronauts running on a treadmill in space.
With support from Ames, he prototyped a treadmill in his garage that reversed the concept, with the bubble enclosing the user from the waist down to create lift. He thought the system could help patients rehabilitate.
Years later, his son recalled the prototype in the garage and turned it into the AlterG concept.
The AlterG treadmill, which uses air pressure to take weight off the user, had proven popular with professional sports teams and rehabilitation clinics, but Whalen and his friends wanted to make it affordable enough for home use, so they founded Boost Treadmills in 2017.
Now Boost, based in Palo Alto, California, has cut the price of an antigravity treadmill by almost two thirds.
In 2022, the company released the Boost 2, which is quieter and more energy-efficient than its predecessor, among other improvements.
The Boost 2 has roughly tripled sales to individuals, progressing on the company’s goal of moving into the home.
Offloading weight during exercise is a clear solution for patients whose injuries prevent them from walking or running at their full weight, but Boost says it can be equally valuable for people with long-term mobility impairments, such as obesity or arthritis.
Advanced through NASA, the antigravity treadmill is one of many space-inspired technologies benefitting life on Earth.
https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/nasa-tech-gives-treadmill-users-a-boost/
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/nasa-tests-new-ways-to-stick-the-landing-in-challenging-terrain/
NASA Tests New Ways to Stick the Landing in Challenging Terrain
May 29, 2025
Advancing new hazard detection and precision landing technologies to help future space missions successfully achieve safe and soft landings is a critical area of space research and development, particularly for future crewed missions.
To support this, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) is pursuing a regular cadence of flight testing on a variety of vehicles, helping researchers rapidly advance these critical systems for missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
“These flight tests directly address some of NASA’s highest-ranked technology needs, or shortfalls, ranging from advanced guidance algorithms and terrain-relative navigation to lidar-and optical-based hazard detection and mapping,” said Dr. John M. Carson III, STMD technical integration manager for precision landing and based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Since the beginning of this year, STMD has supported flight testing of four precision landing and hazard detection technologies from many sectors, including NASA, universities, and commercial industry.
These cutting-edge solutions have flown aboard a suborbital rocket system, a high-speed jet, a helicopter, and a rocket-powered lander testbed. That’s four precision landing technologies tested on four different flight vehicles in four months.
“By flight testing these technologies on Earth in spaceflight-relevant trajectories and velocities, we’re demonstrating their capabilities and validating them with real data for transitioning technologies from the lab into mission applications,” said Dr. Carson.
“This work also signals to industry and other partners that these capabilities are ready to push beyond NASA and academia and into the next generation of Moon and Mars landers.”
The following NASA-supported flight tests took place between February and May:
Suborbital Rocket Test of Vision-Based Navigation System
Identifying landmarks to calculate accurate navigation solutions is a key function of Draper’s Multi-Environment Navigator (DMEN), a vision-based navigation and hazard detection technology designed to improve safety and precision of lunar landings.
Aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard reusable suborbital rocket system, DMEN collected real-world data and validated its algorithms to advance it for use during the delivery of three NASA payloads as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative.
On Feb. 4, DMEN performed the latest in a series of tests supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, which is managed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
During the February flight, which enabled testing at rocket speeds on ascent and descent, DMEN scanned the Earth below, identifying landmarks to calculate an accurate navigation solution.
The technology achieved accuracy levels that helped Draper advance it for use in terrain-relative navigation, which is a key element of landing on other planets.
High-Speed Jet Tests of Lidar-Based Navigation
Several highly dynamic maneuvers and flight paths put Psionic’s Space Navigation Doppler Lidar (PSNDL) to the test while it collected navigation data at various altitudes, velocities, and orientations.
Psionic licensed NASA’s Navigation Doppler Lidar technology developed at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and created its own miniaturized system with improved functionality and component redundancies, making it more rugged for spaceflight.
In February, PSNDL along with a full navigation sensor suite was mounted aboard an F/A-18 Hornet aircraft and underwent flight testing at NASA Armstrong.
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The aircraft followed a variety of flight paths over several days, including a large figure-eight loop and several highly dynamic maneuvers over Death Valley, California. During these flights, PSNDL collected navigation data relevant for lunar and Mars entry and descent.
The high-speed flight tests demonstrated the sensor’s accuracy and navigation precision in challenging conditions, helping prepare the technology to land robots and astronauts on the Moon and Mars.
These recent tests complemented previous Flight Opportunities-supported testing aboard a lander testbed to advance earlier versions of their PSNDL prototypes.
Helicopter Tests of Real-Time Mapping Lidar
Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, developed a state-of-the-art Hazard Detection Lidar (HDL) sensor system to quickly map the surface from a vehicle descending at high speed to find safe landing sites in challenging locations, such as Europa (one of Jupiter’s moons), our own Moon, Mars, and other planetary bodies throughout the solar system.
The HDL-scanning lidar generates three-dimensional digital elevation maps in real time, processing approximately 15 million laser measurements and mapping two football fields’ worth of terrain in only two seconds.
In mid-March, researchers tested the HDL from a helicopter at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, with flights over a lunar-like test field with rocks and craters.
The HDL collected numerous scans from several different altitudes and view angles to simulate a range of landing scenarios, generating real-time maps. Preliminary reviews of the data show excellent performance of the HDL system.
The HDL is a component of NASA’s Safe and Precise Landing – Integrated Capabilities Evolution (SPLICE) technology suite.
The SPLICE descent and landing system integrates multiple component technologies, such as avionics, sensors, and algorithms, to enable landing in hard-to-reach areas of high scientific interest.
The HDL team is also continuing to test and further improve the sensor for future flight opportunities and commercial applications.
Lander Tests of Powered-Descent Guidance Software
Providing pinpoint landing guidance capability with minimum propellant usage, the San Diego State University (SDSU) powered-descent guidance algorithms seek to improve autonomous spacecraft precision landing and hazard avoidance.
During a series of flight tests in April and May, supported by NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, the university’s software was integrated into Astrobotic’s Xodiac suborbital rocket-powered lander via hardware developed by Falcon ExoDynamics as part of NASA TechLeap Prize’s Nighttime Precision Landing Challenge.
The SDSU algorithms aim to improve landing capabilities by expanding the flexibility and trajectory-shaping ability and enhancing the propellant efficiency of powered-descent guidance systems.
They have the potential for infusion into human and robotic missions to the Moon as well as high-mass Mars missions.
By advancing these and other important navigation, precision landing, and hazard detection technologies with frequent flight tests, NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate is prioritizing safe and successful touchdowns in challenging planetary environments for future space missions.
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NASA’s MAVEN Makes First Observation of Atmospheric Sputtering at Mars
May 29, 2025
After a decade of searching, NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere Volatile Evolution) mission has, for the first time, reported a direct observation of an elusive atmospheric escape process called sputtering that could help answer longstanding questions about the history of water loss on Mars.
Scientists have known for a long time, through an abundance of evidence, that water was present on Mars’ surface billions of years ago, but are still asking the crucial question, “Where did the water go and why?”
Early on in Mars’ history, the atmosphere of the Red Planet lost its magnetic field, and its atmosphere became directly exposed to the solar wind and solar storms.
As the atmosphere began to erode, liquid water was no longer stable on the surface, so much of it escaped to space. But how did this once thick atmosphere get stripped away? Sputtering could explain it.
Sputtering is an atmospheric escape process in which atoms are knocked out of the atmosphere by energetic charge particles.
“It’s like doing a cannonball in a pool,” said Shannon Curry, principal investigator of MAVEN at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder and lead author of the study.
“The cannonball, in this case, is the heavy ions crashing into the atmosphere really fast and splashing neutral atoms and molecules out.”
While scientists had previously found traces of evidence that this process was happening, they had never observed the process directly. The previous evidence came from looking at lighter and heavier isotopes of argon in the upper atmosphere of Mars.
Lighter isotopes sit higher in the atmosphere than their heavier counterparts, and it was found that there were far fewer lighter isotopes than heavy argon isotopes in the Martian atmosphere. These lighter isotopes can only be removed by sputtering.
“It is like we found the ashes from a campfire,” said Curry. “But we wanted to see the actual fire, in this case sputtering, directly.”
To observe sputtering, the team needed simultaneous measurements in the right place at the right time from three instruments aboard the MAVEN spacecraft: the Solar Wind Ion Analyzer, the Magnetometer, and the Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer.
Additionally, the team needed measurements across the dayside and the nightside of the planet at low altitudes, which takes years to observe.
The combination of data from these instruments allowed scientists to make a new kind of map of sputtered argon in relation to the solar wind.
This map revealed the presence of argon at high altitudes in the exact locations that the energetic particles crashed into the atmosphere and splashed out argon, showing sputtering in real time.
The researchers also found that this process is happening at a rate four times higher than previously predicted and that this rate increases during solar storms.
The direct observation of sputtering confirms that the process was a primary source of atmospheric loss in Mars’ early history when the Sun’s activity was much stronger.
“These results establish sputtering’s role in the loss of Mars’ atmosphere and in determining the history of water on Mars,” said Curry.
The finding, published this week in Science Advances, is critical to scientists’ understanding of the conditions that allowed liquid water to exist on the Martian surface, and the implications that it has for habitability billions of years ago.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/maven/nasas-maven-makes-first-observation-of-atmospheric-sputtering-at-mars/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwo1jYHlYRU
A Dust Devil Photobombs Perseverance!
May 29, 2025
To celebrate her 1,500th Martian day (“Sol”) exploring the red planet, the Perseverance rover used its robotic arm to take a selfie of the rover and the surrounding landscape.
But when team members reviewed the photo, they were surprised to find that Perseverance had been photobombed!
As the rover sat at the “Pine Pond” workspace, located on the outer rim of Jezero crater, which it has been exploring for the past several months, the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering (WATSON) camera on the end of its arm was used to acquire a 59-image mosaic of the rover.
This is the fifth “selfie” that Perseverance has acquired since landing on Mars in 2021.
The rover’s robotic arm is not visible in the self portrait because — just like a selfie you would take with your own cellphone camera — rover operators make sure not to have the arm get “in the way” of the body of the rover.
This is even easier to do on Mars because Perseverance needs to take 59 different images at slightly different arm positions to build up the selfie, and the elbow of the robotic arm is kept out of the way while the images are acquired.
You can find more details about the Sol 1500 selfie here, and this YouTube video shows how the rover arm moves when these activities take place.
While snapping away, Perseverance was photobombed by a dust devil in the distance!
These are relatively common phenomena both on Mars and in Earth’s desert regions, and form from rising and rotating columns of warm air, which gives the appearance of a dust tornado.
Just like many other weather patterns, there is a peak “season” for dust-devil activity, and Jezero crater is in the peak of that season now (late northern spring). The one seen in the selfie is fairly large, about 100 meters, or 328 feet, across.
While Perseverance regularly monitors the horizon for dust-devil activity with Navcam movies, this is the first time the WATSON camera on the end of the robotic arm has ever captured an image of a dust devil!
The dark hole in front of the rover, surrounded by gray rock powder created during the drilling process, shows the location of Perseverance’s 26th sample.
Nicknamed “Bell Island” after an island near Newfoundland, Canada, this rock sample contains small spherules, thought to have formed by volcanic eruptions or impacts early in Martian history.
Later, this ancient rock was uplifted during the impact that formed Jezero crater. Now that the rover has successfully acquired the spherule sample the science team was searching for, Perseverance is leaving the area to explore new rock exposures.
Last week, the rover arrived at an exposure of light-toned bedrock called “Copper Cove,” and the science team was interested to determine if this unit underlies or overlies the rock sequence explored earlier.
After performing an abrasion to get a closer look at the chemistry and textures, the rover drove south to scout out more sites along the outer edge of the Jezero crater rim.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/a-dust-devil-photobombs-perseverance/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKNjQhIAUp0
Sol 4553: Back to the Boxwork!
May 29, 2025
Earth planning date: Tuesday, May 27, 2005
We return to planning today after a successful long weekend and about 42 meters of drive distance (about 138 feet).
We planned four sols of activities on Friday to keep Curiosity busy, while the U.S.-based science team and engineers took time off yesterday for the Memorial Day holiday.
As we got to admire the new workspace and drive direction view in front of the rover this morning, I realized that we have now driven about 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) and climbed more than 850 meters (2,789 feet) in elevation since landing nearly 13 years ago, and we continue to do exciting science on Mars, having recently driven onto new terrain.
The so-called boxwork structures are a series of resistant ridges observed both from orbit and in long-distance rover imaging (see Ashley’s blog here).
Not only are the ridges of interest (do they indicate enhanced fluid-flow and cementation?), but the outcrop expression in general changed after we drove over a shallow trough onto the rocks that host the ridges.
This plan will continue characterization of the interesting boxwork terrain. We had an example of a more resistant, ridge-like feature in our workspace today (see accompanying image).
The composition of the ridge will be investigated using ChemCam (target “Sisquoc River”) and APXS (target “Palo Verde Mountains”), with accompanying Mastcam and MAHLI images.
We will also acquire Mastcam imaging of a trough-like feature surrounding a bedrock slab, as part of our ongoing documentation of such structures, as well as of an apparent resistant boxwork ridge in the distance (“Lake Cachuma”).
And a first for our mission, we are planning the longest-distance ChemCam remote imaging mosaic that we will have acquired — 91 kilometers (almost 57 miles) away!
The intent is to compare the long-distance view from the ground with HiRISE orbital images in an attempt to create a 3D view.
We also managed to squeeze in a Navcam large dust-devil survey before the planned 24-meter drive (about 79 feet).
Once we arrive at our new location, MARDI will take an image of the terrain beneath the rover.
The plan is rounded out with the standard REMS, DAN and RAD activities.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sol-4553-back-to-the-boxwork/
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/sols-4541-4542-boxwork-structure-or-just-box-like-structure/
Earth from Space: Cloud-free Iceland
30/05/2025
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission shows us a rare, cloud-free view of Iceland captured on 17 May 2025.
Zoom in to explore this image at its full resolution or click on the circles.
In its remote location in the North Atlantic Ocean, Iceland is the westernmost European nation and one of the most northerly inhabited places on the planet.
The island is famous for its scenic landscape, including volcanoes, glaciers, lakes, lava fields, hot springs and more than 4800 km of coastline.
Iceland’s climate makes it an ideal habitat for sparse grassland, extensive bogs and moors, rather than lush forests.
It would therefore be difficult to differentiate vegetation and bare ground in a true-colour satellite image.
This false-colour image has been processed using the near-infrared channel of Sentinel-3’s Ocean and Land Colour Instrument (OLCI).
It highlights vegetation in shades of red and makes it easier to distinguish between vegetated areas and bare ground or solidified lava fields which appear brownish. Darker or even black areas denote fresher lava flows.
More than 11% of the island is covered by glaciers – more than on the whole of continental Europe.
The large, white area on the eastern part of the island is the Vatnajökull National Park, home to the Vatnajökull Glacier.
With an area of around 8400 sq km and an average ice thickness of more than 900 m, Vatnajökull is the biggest glacier in Europe.
The white, circular patch in the centre is Hofsjökull, the country’s third largest glacier and its largest active volcano.
The elongated white area west of Hofsjökull is Langjökull, Iceland’s second largest ice cap. Water bodies such as rivers and glacial lakes appear as emerald green shapes scattered around the island.
The colour is due to sediment in the water, which then flows into the ocean, dyeing its dark blue waters in hues of green visible along the coasts.
At top-left, light blue swirls are visible in the sea off the coast of Greenland.
These are small sea-ice fragments blown by the wind and ocean currents. This image was captured during an unusual heatwave that hit Iceland from 13-22 May 2025.
On 17 May, Sentinel-3 was also able to obtain an accurate image of the land surface temperature, using data from the mission's Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer instrument.
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2025/05/Earth_from_Space_Cloud-free_Iceland
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JD Vance makes bold 'space' promise amid fears of 'brain drain
Updated 05:32 ET, 30 May 2025
JD Vance has offered an impassioned response amid reports of a potential "brain drain" across America, with the VP insisting that the country holds the talent and skills necessary to see it thrive.
A brain drain is known as a "situation in which many educated or professional people leave a particular place or profession and move to another one that gives them better pay or living conditions", with many reporting America could be at risk of having one under Donald Trump.
Vance referenced the past, going all the way back to the 50s and 60s, using this period as evidence that the American people are more than capable of competing on the biggest stage - citing putting a man on the moon as proof of this belief.
Vance refuted any ideas of a brain drain amid reports that "people at Johns Hopkins University are getting nervous", in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday night.
He said: "I've heard a lot of the criticisms, the fear that we're going to have a brain drain.
If you go back to the 50s and 60s, the American space program, the program that was the first to put a human being on the surface of the moon was built by American citizens.
Some German and Jewish scientists who had come over during World War two, but mostly by American citizens.
"This idea that American citizens don't have the talent to do great things - that you have to import a foreign class of servants to do these things - I reject that.
"I think if we invest in our students and people we can do a lot of good… I think this is an opportunity for Americans to flourish."
Later in the interview, Vance then cited a number of stats to back up his claim that top American universities are "not good science", and that they are engaging in racial discrimination against "Whites and Asians".
https://www.irishstar.com/news/us-news/jd-vance-brain-drain-usa-35310338
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1928268922899284411
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOhHNrhjfd8
Astronomers discover black hole ripping a star apart inside a galactic collision. 'It is a peculiar event'
May 30, 2025
Astronomers have taken a detailed look at a rare and incredibly violent cosmic event resulting from an unfortunate star venturing too close to a supermassive black hole.
The team behind the research hopes it could reveal more about how such events, dubbed "tidal disruption events" or "TDEs," influence the evolution of their host galaxies.
These brutal battles between stellar bodies and the immense gravity of black holes with masses millions or even billions of times that of the sun result in stars being shredded and fed to the black holes.
This cosmic cannibalism causes blasts of light that can outshine the combined light of every star in the host galaxy of the TDE, alerting scientists to a gory stellar death.
This particular TDE has been designated AT 2022wtn, and occurred in a galaxy located around 700 million light-years away. This galaxy is in the early stages of merging with one of its galactic neighbors.
The galaxy that hosts the TDE is known as SDSSJ232323.79+104107.7, and it is the smaller of the two colliding galaxies. The other galaxy mixed up in this merger is at least ten times larger than SDSSJ232323.79+104107.7.
It is thought that the two galaxies in this merging system have already made a close pass to one other. This represents just the second time that a TDE has been detected in interacting galaxies.
That's despite a prevailing theory that the early stages of mergers create the kind of conditions that favor these brutal occurrences.
How a star became stellar spaghetti
AT 2022wtn was first brought to the attention of astronomers at the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), with further investigation in wavelengths of light ranging from radio to infrared and even X-rays, which revealed its nature as a TDE.
The astronomers were able to determine that the black hole involved in this TDE has a mass equal to around 1 million suns, while its stellar meal is a low-mass star.
However, despite clearly presenting itself as an example of a supermassive black hole ripping apart a star, there are some unusual aspects of AT 2022wtn that set it apart from other TDEs.
"It is a peculiar event. Its light curve is characterized by a plateau in the phase of maximum brightness, lasting about 30 days, accompanied by a sharp drop in temperature and a spectral sequence that shows the development of two emission lines corresponding to the wavelengths of helium and nitrogen," team leader and National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) Francesca Onori said in a statement. "Something that we had never observed with such clarity."
Like all TDEs, AT 2022wtn would have begun when a doomed star's orbit brought it too close to the central supermassive black hole at the heart of its host galaxy.
This results in the immense gravitational influence of the black hole generating immense tidal forces within the star. These forces squash the star horizontally while stretching it vertically, a process colorfully known as "spaghettification."
Some of the resulting stellar wreckage winds around the destructive supermassive black hole like actual spaghetti around a fork, forming a whirling flattened cloud of plasma called an accretion disk.
Not all of the material from the wrecked star falls around the black hole and eventually into its maw, however. A great deal of stellar matter is blasted out as powerful, high-speed outflows or jets.
In the case of AT 2022wtn, these outflows created a short, bright radio emission from the TDE and extreme changes in the velocity of light-emitting elements around the event.
This also indicated that the star was completely destroyed as a result of this TDE and that, in addition to an accretion disk, the cosmic cannibalistic event created an expanding spherical "bubble" of expelled gas.
"We found clear traces of the dynamics of the surrounding material also in some emission lines which show characteristics compatible with a fast propagation towards the outside," Onori said.
"Thanks to our monitoring campaign, we were able to propose an interpretation of the origin of the observed radiation: AT2022wtn gave rise to a rapid formation of the disk around the black hole and the subsequent expulsion of part of the stellar matter.
"This result is particularly relevant, since the source of visible light and the physical conditions of the region from which it comes, in TDEs, are still under study."
https://www.space.com/astronomy/astronomers-discover-black-hole-ripping-a-star-apart-inside-a-galactic-collision-it-is-a-peculiar-event
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/540/1/498/8127236
See a lunar scar darken the crescent moon tonight
May 29, 2025
May 30 presents a perfect opportunity to spot Mare Crisium — a dark Nevada-sized patch — etched into the delicate curve of the crescent moon before it sinks below the horizon around midnight.
Skywatchers in the U.S. will find the moon's sickle-like form hanging around 30 degrees above the western horizon after sunset on May 30, with around 16% of its surface illuminated by direct sunlight, according to stargazing website in-the-sky.org.
On May 30, the moon is in the constellation Cancer, with the Beehive cluster close to its left and Mars shining just beyond. To the right, the bright stars Castor and Pollux also make an appearance.
The moon is among the most popular targets for astronomers, thanks to the ever-shifting play of light and shadow across its surface.
As it makes its near month-long journey around Earth, a myriad of different regions and features come into stark relief, changing night by night.
And yet, for all this variety, the moon only ever shows a single side to us as it's tidally locked to our planet.
One such feature is the dark lunar maria (Latin for 'seas'), formed when molten lava flooded a network of impact basins that scarred the moon's surface billions of years ago.
These lava flows swiftly cooled in the frigid environment of space, leaving behind vast basaltic plains that remain easily visible to the naked eye today.
Mare Crisium, or the 'Sea of Crises', can be spotted on the night of May 30 as an oval-shaped dark patch on the moon's northeastern limb, close to the terminator — the line that separates day from night on any solar system body
Spanning 345 miles (555 kilometers), this lunar mare is visible to the naked eye, though a pair of 10x50 binoculars will reveal more of the craggy region surrounding the lunar sea.
An entry-level 6-inch telescope, meanwhile, will allow you to pick out the 14-mile-wide (23 km) Picard Crater that stands alone near the south-western rim of the Nevada-sized plane, according to NASA.
Just above Picard lies the similarly sized Peirce Crater, with the smaller Swift Crater just beyond.
Before the moon dips below the western horizon around midnight local time, moongazers may also catch sight of its shadowed expanse faintly glowing — an effect known as earthshine, caused by sunlight reflected off Earth softly illuminating the moon's night side.
The closest humans have come to Mare Crisium was during the final moon mission of the Apollo era, when Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt landed on the eastern edge of Mare Serenitatis.
However, Mare Crisium did serve as the landing site of the Soviet Luna 15 and Luna 24 robotic missions, and it made headlines again in March 2025 with the successful touchdown of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/see-a-lunar-scar-darken-the-crescent-moon-on-may-30
https://in-the-sky.org/data/object.php?id=P301&day=30&month=5&year=2025
SpaceX aiming for record-breaking 170 orbital launches in 2025
May 29, 2025
SpaceX will end up launching an orbital mission nearly every other day in 2025, if all goes according to plan.
"We're targeting 170 launches by the end of the year," Anne Mason, director of national security space launch at SpaceX, said during a call with reporters on Wednesday (May 28).
That would shatter the company's single-year record of 134 orbital liftoffs, which was set just last year.
"I always find it amazing that this cadence has become somewhat normal," Mason added during Wednesday's call, which served to preview SpaceX's planned Friday (May 30) launch of the GPS III SV08 satellite for the U.S. Space Force.
"But if we look back just five years ago, in 2020 when we launched roughly 25 times, which is still a healthy rate at twice a month, and now launching on average every two to three days — I think this demonstrates how Falcon's reusability and reliability, plus the hard work and dedication of the SpaceX team, has been critical to supporting assured access to space," she said.
SpaceX's workhorse Falcon 9 rocket performed 132 of last year's orbital liftoffs. The other two came courtesy of the company's powerful Falcon Heavy.
Both Falcons feature reusable first stages — three of them in the Heavy's case — which is a big factor in SpaceX's impressive launch cadence, as Mason noted.
The upper stages of both Falcons are expendable, but SpaceX has gotten very good at churning out that complicated piece of hardware.
"We have a second stage coming off the production line every two and a half days," Mason said.
About two-thirds of last year's orbital launches were dedicated to building out SpaceX's Starlink broadband constellation in low Earth orbit.
Starlink is the largest satellite network ever assembled; it consists of more than 7,500 active spacecraft at the moment.
Starlink is also growing all the time, as this year's statistics show: SpaceX has launched 64 orbital missions so far in 2025 (all of them with the Falcon 9), and 48 of them have been Starlink flights.
That works out to a rate of 0.43 launches per day. This means SpaceX will have to pick up the pace a bit to reach the target Mason mentioned: 170 launches in one year would equal about 0.47 launches per day.
These numbers refer only to orbital launches, so they don't count the suborbital test flights of Starship, the megarocket SpaceX is developing to help humanity colonize Mars.
The company launched four Starship test flights in 2024 and has conducted three so far this year, most recently on Tuesday (May 27).
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-aiming-for-record-breaking-170-orbital-launches-in-2025
https://spacenews.com/when-earth-fails-space-responds/
When Earth fails, space responds
May 30, 2025
On April 28, Spain experienced one of the most extensive power outages in recent memory.
Millions of citizens and businesses were suddenly cut off, revealing how unprepared even developed nations are for widespread infrastructure failures.
While the cause of the blackout is still under investigation, the consequences were immediate: hospitals operated under emergency protocols, transportation systems halted and telecommunications faltered.
This moment has reignited an urgent debate — not about the speed of our networks, but about their resilience.
Terrestrial networks aren’t enough anymore
For years, experts have warned of the fragility of terrestrial communications.
Natural disasters, cyberattacks, or cascading grid failures can bring mobile towers, data centers and fiber lines crashing down within minutes, even seconds, as in the Spanish case.
During such failures, essential services — from emergency response to industrial logistics — risk coming to a standstill.
Satellite technology offers a lifeline; a safeguard from space. Its greatest strength lies in its physical independence from terrestrial infrastructure. When cities are in the dark, satellites remain unaffected, orbiting above the chaos and ready to relay data.
If Spain relied on satellite-enabled fallback, continuity could have been preserved during April’s blackout. This isn’t about replacing terrestrial networks, but about complementing them.
The future is hybrid: resilient systems that switch automatically between land and space without human intervention.
Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations can make this hybrid model possible.
At Sateliot, we’ve innovated with native interoperability, allowing standard IoT devices to seamlessly connect to either terrestrial 5G networks or satellite coverage, without any hardware changes.
This approach is central to our mission of enabling massive IoT connectivity at a global scale.
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But satellite constellations don’t all operate the same way. Delivering broadband to consumer terminals demands one type of architecture.
Connecting billions of low-power IoT devices requires another approach. Many satellite operators rely on single-country gateways, creating vulnerabilities if local infrastructure fails.
A more resilient strategy is a geographically distributed ground network and redundant cloud services, ensuring global coverage and avoiding dependence on any single jurisdiction.
For this, we’ve developed a new approach called “store-and-forward” — satellites temporarily store IoT data and downlink it when in range of a ground station.
This method reinforces network redundancy and ensures data delivery even without continuous ground contact.
When power fails, batteries take over
Another critical advantage of satellite-enabled IoT is energy independence. Most IoT devices are battery-powered, designed to operate autonomously for years without relying on external electricity or manual maintenance.
Today, these devices are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life: they manage irrigation on remote farms, track cargo across global supply chains, monitor air quality in cities, control traffic lights and support smart utility grids.
In a blackout scenario, their ability to function independently ensures the continuity of operations, even when terrestrial infrastructure goes offline.
This battery-backed autonomy, combined with automatic satellite fallback, creates a communications layer that is not only redundant but self-sustaining — a critical feature for any modern disaster preparedness strategy.
And we are only at the beginning. Although mobile phones compatible with the NB-IoT NTN protocol — defined by 3GPP Release 17 — have started to appear on the market, they are still not widely adopted.
In the near future, these devices will enable satellite-based voice and text messaging, allowing users to stay connected even when terrestrial networks are unavailable.
This advancement will significantly enhance public safety by ensuring that isolated individuals and emergency responders can maintain communication when it is needed most.
What’s missing?
Despite technical readiness, there is still no clear framework for automatic fallback to satellite connectivity.
We need well-defined policies that specify when and how satellite networks should be activated during disruptions, supported by trigger protocols that ensure fallback mechanisms engage seamlessly — without human intervention or bureaucratic delays.
However, policies alone are not enough. True resilience requires active public-private collaboration. Governments, regulators, network operators and satellite providers must work together to embed these solutions into national connectivity strategies.
A key step in this process is the establishment of interoperability standards, ensuring that terrestrial and satellite networks operate as a cohesive, reliable system in times of crisis.
What Spain experienced on April 28th was a wake-up call. Let’s not waste it.
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China launches classified Shijan-26 satellite with Long March 4B rocket
May 29, 2025
China carried out its ninth launch of the month early Thursday, sending the secretive Shijian-26 spacecraft into orbit.
A Long March 4B rocket lifted off at 12:12 a.m. Eastern (0412 UTC) May 29 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China. Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket’s payload fairing as it climbed into a cloudy sky.
The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), which provided the Long March 4B for the mission, declared success of the launch within an hour of liftoff.
SAST revealed the previously-unknown payload for the mission to be the experimental Shijian-26. No images or details of the spacecraft were provided.
The satellite is mainly used for national land surveys, environmental management, and other fields, providing information services to support national economic development, according to Chinese state media.
Shijian-26 was jointly developed by the Dongfanghong Satellite company under the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), and the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
The involvement of the latter suggests remote sensing capabilities, while the absence of imagery and specific capabilities, along with the involvement of institutions with dual-use technology expertise, suggests possible classified or military-related applications.
Shijian is a series of satellites used to conduct experiments and test new technologies.
The previous mission, Shijian-25, launched in January to test on-orbit refueling and mission extension technologies, following on from the Shijian-21 mission which towed a defunct satellite into a graveyard orbit.
Other notable missions include the retrievable Shijian-19 science satellite, the 8,000-kilogram Shijian-20, and Shijian-17, which demonstrated maneuverability around the geostationary belt and conducted proximity operations.
Accelerating launch activity
The Shijian-26 mission followed just hours after a vertical takeoff and splashdown test by Sepoch, and the launch of the Tianwen-2 near Earth asteroid sample return and comet rendezvous mission from Xichang.
The Tianwen-2 spacecraft was successfully sent into a heliocentric orbit and began a roughly year-long voyage to asteroid Kamoʻoalewa, a quasi-satellite of the Earth.
The mission was performed under a deal of secrecy, despite being an exploration mission.
The launch was not broadcast live, and no images of the spacecraft itself have been published, suggesting a potentially sensitive aspect to the sampling mission.
China’s previous mission saw the return-to-flight of the Kinetica-1 (Lijian-1) solid propellant rocket from CAS Space, a commercial launch arm of CAS, following a launch failure late last year.
The rocket lifted off from Jiuquan at 12:05 a.m. Eastern (0405 UTC) May 21.
The launch carried six satellites—the optical Taijing-3 (04) and synthetic aperture radar Taijing-4 (02A) satellites for Minospace, along with the multispectral imaging satellite Xingrui-11, Xingjiyuan-1 intelligent satellite for Shanghai Guoyu Zhilian Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd, the 12U Cube-108-001 with a GNSS occultation detector payload for Beijing FutureSpace Space Technology Institute, and Xiguang-1 (02) for Xiopm Space, carrying a multispectral payload.
The trio of launches takes China to a total of 32 orbital launch attempts for the year. It was the ninth orbital launch of the month, indicating an acceleration in Chinese launch cadence.
China has not publicly released its launch plans for 2025, but could be targeting around 100 launches.
https://spacenews.com/china-launches-classified-shijan-26-satellite-with-long-march-4b-rocket/
https://twitter.com/AJ_FI/status/1928157614543675862
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tlSQUHTsp0
GPS III-7 Mission
May 30, 2025
SpaceX is targeting Friday, May 30 for a Falcon 9 launch of the GPS III-7 mission to medium-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Liftoff is targeted for 1:37 p.m. ET. If needed, a backup opportunity is available on Saturday, May 31 during a 15-minute window that opens at 1:18 p.m. ET.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about 15 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 is the fourth flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched CRS-32, NROL-69, and a Starlink mission.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, which will be stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=gps-iii-7
https://x.com/SpaceX
https://www.thebrighterside.news/post/costa-ricas-powerful-mudball-meteorite-reveals-new-secrets-from-deep-space/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.14337
Costa Rica’s powerful ‘mudball’ meteorite: Reveals new secrets from deep space
May 29, 2025 11:07 AM PDT
In April 2019, a fiery streak lit up the sky over northern Costa Rica. It wasn’t lightning or fireworks.
It was a rock from space, plunging into Earth’s atmosphere at over 14 kilometers per second.
This cosmic visitor exploded in a bright flare high above the Earth, dropping rare meteorite fragments across the quiet town of Aguas Zarcas.
What followed was one of the most important meteorite recoveries in recent history.
A fall that captured eyes and headlines
The fall of the Aguas Zarcas meteorite was no ordinary event. It came from a nearly vertical angle, about 81 degrees steep, entering from the west-northwest.
he blazing rock left a trail through the sky and was captured on both security and dashboard cameras.
The light it created was so bright that satellites designed to detect lightning—GOES-16 and GOES-17—picked it up as it shattered at 25 kilometers above the ground.
This was not just a pretty show. Scientists took notice.
The last time meteorites like this fell in such numbers was in 1969, near Murchison, Australia. Back then, scientists had just returned from the Moon and were hungry for space rocks.
Now, with modern tools, researchers quickly acted to study the Aguas Zarcas fragments.
"27 kilos of rocks were recovered, making this the largest fall of its kind since similar meteorites fell near Murchison in Australia," said Peter Jenniskens, a meteor astronomer with NASA and the SETI Institute.
Gerardo Soto, a geologist at the University of Costa Rica, explained the local impact of the event:
"The fall of Aguas Zarcas was huge news in the country. No other fireball was as widely reported and then recovered as stones on the ground in Costa Rica in the last 150 years."
Not your average "mudball" meteorite
Carbonaceous chondrites like Aguas Zarcas are often called "mudball" meteorites.
They’re soft and rich in water-bearing minerals. But this rock didn’t crumble on impact as many expected. "
Apparently, that does not mean they are weak," said Jenniskens. In fact, Aguas Zarcas held up impressively well.
When it slammed into Earth’s atmosphere, the rock barely broke apart until much deeper than usual.
“It penetrated deep into Earth's atmosphere, until the surviving mass shattered at 25 km above the Earth's surface,” said Jenniskens. This strength helped many of its fragments land intact.
Nature helped, too. The fall happened at the end of a long dry season.
That meant the stones didn’t wash away or get buried before they were found. Most landed on soft jungle or grassy areas, which cushioned the impact.
Some pieces showed a shimmering blue crust, caused by the intense heat of entry.
“The Aguas Zarcas fall produced an amazing selection of fusion-crusted stones with a wide range of shapes,” said Laurence Garvie, a researcher from Arizona State University.
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A deep space journey that took millions of years
How did this rock end up crashing into Earth? Scientists traced its path backward through the sky, using videos and the angle of its fall.
They figured out that the meteorite came from a low-inclined orbit, tilted less than 2.8 degrees compared to Earth’s path around the Sun.
Its closest approach to the Sun—called perihelion—was about 0.98 astronomical units, almost the same as Earth’s.
This rock likely came from the asteroid belt, a wide region filled with leftover chunks from the early solar system. Researchers believe the meteorite came from a larger asteroid in the outer belt.
It got knocked loose by a gravitational interaction, likely from one of two major orbital zones known as the 3:1 or 5:2 mean motion resonances.
Once free, the meteorite traveled through space for 2 million years before finally meeting Earth.
That’s the age scientists found by studying cosmogenic radionuclides—tiny isotopes formed by cosmic ray exposure. Kees Welten, a cosmochemist at UC Berkeley, explained: "The last collision experienced by this rock was 2 million years ago."
A rock frozen in time
Scientists didn’t just look at when the meteorite broke off its parent asteroid. They also examined how long the rock had been holding onto certain elements, like argon.
This data showed that the rock formed 2.9 billion years ago. That’s almost as old as the Earth itself.
Jenniskens and his team worked with international experts to study these details.
"We can tell that this object came from a larger asteroid low in the asteroid belt, likely from its outer regions," he explained.
"After getting loose, it took two million years to hit the tiny target of Earth, all the time avoiding getting cracked."
This journey without further collisions kept the rock strong. Many other meteorites show signs of impacts that create fractures and weak points.
But Aguas Zarcas stayed mostly whole. That explains why it survived the fiery plunge so well. Its strength made it special, and scientists are eager to learn all they can from it.
Science takes a leap forward
Since its discovery, researchers around the world have written 76 scientific papers on Aguas Zarcas.
These studies explore its chemical makeup, its age, and even what it can tell us about the early solar system.
Soto summed it up with a poetic nod to space history: “The recovery of Aguas Zarcas, too, was a small step for man, but a giant leap for meteoritics.”
This meteorite may have spent millions of years floating silently through space. But when it landed, it gave scientists a loud and clear message.
Rocks like this one help us understand where we came from and how the solar system formed. The skies above Costa Rica offered a priceless gift. And science was ready to catch it.
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Space Florida eyes Cape Canaveral operations
May 29, 2025
TALLAHASSEE — As Florida leaders call for moving the nation’s space-agency headquarters to Brevard County, Space Florida is launching a study about how NASA and U.S. Space Force operations could be merged at Cape Canaveral.
Space Florida President and CEO Robert Long on Wednesday told board members of the state aerospace agency that a “unified model” would support the ongoing growth of commercial space operations and ensure government missions can be more efficient and sustainable.
“We think that it's time that we ask ourselves as a nation, what is the optimal model to carry the world's most active and capable spaceport into the future and enable America to continue to lead in space,” Long said.
How that looks will be up to a “new Cape Canaveral Spaceport master plan,” which Long said will include participation from NASA and the Space Force.
Under Acting Administrator Janet Petro, NASA is looking to consolidate or relocate operations to streamline the organization.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has supported moving NASA’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Florida, with backers saying it would put leaders closer to the agency’s operations.
The idea has drawn support from most members of Florida’s congressional delegation, including through proposed legislation, the Consolidating Aerospace Programs Efficiently at Canaveral (CAPE Canaveral) Act, which calls for placing the headquarters in Brevard County.
Meanwhile, members of the Texas congressional delegation have asked President Donald Trump to move the headquarters to the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Long said that “at this stage, there is no predetermined outcome” for the master plan, with a goal to recommend “a governance model that will maximize spaceport capacity for the nation and minimize inefficiencies.”
The military and NASA have operated separate portions of the spaceport since the 1950s.
The model enabled America to win the first space race, land people on the Moon, launch 135 space-shuttle missions, construct the International Space Station and begin to explore the solar system, Long said.
But Long added that the model has changed as the spaceport has “rapidly evolved into a commercially driven economic engine that supports both government missions and commercial business cases alike.”
This year, there have been 31 successful launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and 13 from the John F. Kennedy Space Center.
Last year, there were 67 successful launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and 26 at Kennedy Space Center, up from 58 at Cape Canaveral and 13 at Kennedy in 2023.
Space Florida, which is working on upgrading wastewater facilities at the cape and expanding wharf space for the industry at Port Canaveral, manages certain operations at the spaceport through property leased from the federal government, including launch and landing facilities through an agreement with NASA.
Long said infrastructure at the cape — such as utility systems, roads and bridges — is “becoming strained” as commercial activity at the spaceport has increased.
He estimated $2 billion to $3 billion in unfunded infrastructure improvements will need to be addressed over the next decade at the spaceport.
A consultant is expected to be named for the master plan study in June, and the first two phases are expected to be completed in eight months to a year, Long said.
https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/state/space-florida-eyes-cape-canaveral-operations/article_3acaccab-e2ed-526d-a527-26817bc193ba.html
https://www.spaceflorida.gov/
New report reveals setbacks in Space Command’s staffing and headquarters development
Updated: 2:52 PM CDT May 29, 2025
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — U.S. Space Command is facing significant challenges in both staffing and construction of its headquarters, nearly 18 months after declaring itself operationally ready.
A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raises concerns about the command’s current posture and questions the Air Force's claims about potential cost savings from relocating the headquarters to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville.
The GAO's findings come amid ongoing debates over where Space Command’s permanent headquarters should be located.
Despite the Air Force's 2021 decision to name Redstone Arsenal as the “preferred location,” former President Joe Biden chose to keep the command’s headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
This decision was made following a lengthy selection process but has sparked continued political disputes, particularly between Colorado and Alabama lawmakers.
According to the GAO report, Space Command’s headquarters currently operates out of four separate facilities in Colorado Springs, with only two located on secure military installations.
The command is also struggling to meet its staffing goals, particularly on the civilian side, which could impede its long-term effectiveness.
"Officials also cited benefits in being colocated with operational space missions and centers.
As a result of identified challenges, officials stated the Command’s posture is not sustainable long term and new military construction would be needed to support the headquarters’ operations in Colorado Springs, Colorado."
The report also highlights a provision inserted into the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act by Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District.
The provision halts funding for the headquarters’ construction until two separate reviews are completed—one by the GAO and another by the Pentagon’s Inspector General.
This has further delayed progress, leaving Space Command’s headquarters in limbo.
Lawmakers from Alabama, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Sen. Katie Britt, and Rep. Dale Strong, have been vocal in urging the federal government to move the headquarters to Redstone Arsenal, which they argue would bring significant economic benefits and cost savings to the region.
In April, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a joint resolution supporting the relocation.
As the debate continues, the GAO's report underscores that unless Space Command receives the necessary infrastructure and staffing to support its operations, its long-term viability may be at risk.
https://www.rocketcitynow.com/article/news/local/new-report-reveals-space-command-staffing-and-headquarters-development-setbacks/525-45c62727-7730-4d9f-94d8-b8d99ab98ec3
https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-25-107092/index.html
SecAF gives commencement speech to USAFA Class of 2025
May 30, 2025
Approximately 900 cadets, along with their friends and loved ones, listened as Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink addressed the Class of 2025 during the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony at Falcon Stadium, May 29.
In his first public speech as the 27th Secretary of the Air Force, Meink reflected on the cadets’ time at the Academy, describing the storm that welcomed them in June of 2021 and praising them for completing four years of rigorous military training, athletic programs and education.
“Your journey started with a clap of thunder…in-processing in the middle of a storm on duct tape footsteps underneath Vandenberg tower.
You kept going despite all the adversities we could think to throw at you.” he said. “We gave you a motto: never quit, never settle. That’s quite fitting. You haven’t quit—you haven’t settled.”
Meink recalled how the military has changed since his active-duty service almost 30 years ago, but even more importantly, how it’s transformed in the short time since the Class of 2025 arrived at the Academy.
He also emphasized the importance of being ready on day one, describing the consistently high readiness the Air Force and Space Force maintain for both homeland defense and power projection.
“This administration has made its national security focus crystal clear. Number one, defend the homeland. Number two, deter China in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.
“Class of 2025… The Indo-Pacific will be your generation’s fight, and you will deliver the most lethal force that has ever existed to that fight.”
He addressed the stadium filled with cadets, senior leaders, and Academy faculty and staff, as he highlighted the significance of the nation’s newest military branch to this fight.
“We are treating space like the contested environment that it is by inserting resilience and space superiority into every aspect of our overhead architecture,” Meink said.
“We are building the stealthiest and most lethal airborne platforms in history. We are building low-cost drones. And we are building the sensors and battle network to stitch it all together.”
Meink said his expectation of the graduates is to innovate and take initiative, attributing many of the Air Force’s proudest achievements to junior officers. He charged them to never quit and never settle.
“No matter what the conflict of the future looks like, airpower and spacepower will be at its leading edge. And you must be ready for it at all times,” he said. “Congratulations, Class of 2025. Welcome to the Air Force and the Space Force. We are counting on you.”
The ceremony concluded with the Class of 2025 tossing their white caps in the air with excitement. Following the hat toss, children from the audience ran onto the field to collect hats, often pinned with money and notes from the graduates to the children.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4201619/secaf-gives-commencement-speech-to-usafa-class-of-2025/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9MbFW7NIRI
Israel and Hamas agree to Gaza ceasefire proposal – media
29 May, 2025 16:28
Israel and Hamas have agreed to accept the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by the US, several media outlets reported on Thursday
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled his readiness to accept a roadmap presented by US special envoy Steve Witkoff during a meeting with the relatives of hostages still in Hamas captivity in Gaza.
Arab media later reported that Hamas had also accepted the deal to release the remaining Israeli hostages held in the enclave in exchange for a temporary truce.
Haaretz newspaper quoted an anonymous Israeli official as saying that Washington’s proposal envisages the release of the remaining 10 living hostages and the return of 18 bodies held in Gaza by Hamas over the course of a week.
In exchange, Netanyahu’s government would reportedly agree to a 60-day cease-fire.
The Jerusalem Post cited an unnamed source as saying that Hamas has reservations regarding Washington’s plan, and sees it as favoring Israel.
The Islamist militant group is reportedly wary of the fact that the US would not provide a guarantee that the temporary 60-day ceasefire would be extended to become permanent.
The latest developments have come amid an intensified Israeli assault on Gaza in recent days, including a fresh wave of airstrikes and a major ground offensive codenamed ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots.’
Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that the military action will not cease until Hamas has been totally vanquished.
Mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the US, negotiations between the two belligerents have been going on for some time in Doha, albeit producing little progress so far.
The current escalation began in October 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing around 1,200 people and abducting 250 more.
According to Palestinian authorities, the ensuing IDF military campaign has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 residents of the densely populated enclave.
https://www.rt.com/news/618331-netanyahu-accepts-witkoff-gaza-ceasefire-proposal/
Ukraine trying to trick Trump – Moscow
30 May, 2025 09:04
Ukraine is trying to trick US President Donald Trump, who wants to achieve peace in the ongoing conflict, into returning Washington to an anti-Russian stance, Vassily Nebenzia, Moscow’s envoy to the UN, has said.
During his speech at a UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine on Thursday, Ambassador Nebenzia reminded of the intensification of Ukrainian drone incursions into Russia over the past week.
A total of 1,465 drones had been shot down by air defenses, but nonetheless led to civilian casualties and deaths, including among children, he said.
Kiev and its NATO backers “are trying to make us believe that Russia is deliberately shelling residential areas of Ukrainian cities” during its retaliatory strikes, the envoy stressed.
Moscow’s attacks “target exclusively objects related to Ukraine’s military-industrial complex, and we are successfully destroying them or rendering them inoperable,” Nebenzia said, reiterating the stance consistency voiced by the Russian Defense Ministry throughout the conflict.
“The plans concocted by [Vladimir] Zelensky and his posse are way too plain and clear.
Their task is to trick and mislead American President Donald Trump, who is taking decisive steps toward peace; they are ready to go to any lengths only to return the US – which has already wasted hundreds of billions of dollars helping Ukraine – to an anti-Russian and Russophobic course,” he insisted.
However, the envoy stressed that “promoting Ukrainian and Western lies about Russia is becoming increasingly difficult, since the actual steps of the Kiev regime, its deliberate choice in favor of war and the further suffering of its citizens speak volumes.”
Moscow is eager to continue “serious direct negotiations” with Kiev in order to find a solution to the Ukraine conflict that would address its root causes, he said.
He reminded that Russia has invited the Ukrainian delegation to Istanbul on Monday to discuss the memorandums on approaches to negotiating peace prepared by the sides.
https://www.rt.com/news/618342-ukraine-trump-un-nebenzia/