TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
June 11, 2025
25 Brightest Stars in the Night Sky
Do you know the names of some of the brightest stars? It's likely that you do, even though some bright stars have names so old they date back to near the beginning of written language. Many world cultures have their own names for the brightest stars, and it is culturally and historically important to remember them. In the interest of clear global communication, however, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) has begun to designate standardized star names. Featured here in true color are the 25 brightest stars in the night sky, currently as seen by humans, coupled with their IAU-recognized names. Some star names have interesting meanings, including Sirius ("the scorcher" in Latin), Vega ("falling" in Arabic), and Antares ("rival to Mars" in Greek). You are likely even familiar with the name of at least one star too dim to make this list: Polaris.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
Fewer Feeds, More Focus: NASA’s Social Media Overhaul
Jun 11, 2025
In today’s crowded digital landscape, cutting through the noise is paramount for any organization trying to connect with its audience.
Recognizing this, NASA has embarked on a significant initiative to streamline its extensive social media presence, aiming to create a more unified and impactful digital voice for its groundbreaking work.
The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 tasked NASA with providing the “widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof.”
The 2025 social media consolidation project is designed to fulfill this mandate more effectively.
By reducing the number of agency accounts, NASA seeks to make its work more accessible to the public, avoiding the potential for oversaturation or confusion that can arise from numerous social media accounts bearing the NASA name and insignia.
Over time, NASA’s social media footprint has expanded considerably, growing to over 400 individual accounts across 15 platforms.
While this allowed for highly specialized updates, it also created a fragmented digital landscape that was challenging for both the public to navigate and for NASA to manage efficiently.
To ensure a more cohesive and impactful digital presence, the consolidation project involved a thorough evaluation of every existing account.
Accounts were assessed based on several key considerations, including their compliance with federal and agency policies, their activity within the last year, their unique value proposition, their level of two-way engagement with the public, and their approach to publishing new, original content versus reposting existing material.
Based on this comprehensive evaluation, accounts will be handled in one of a few ways:
Deactivate/Sunset: Many accounts that publish content that can be effectively absorbed by broader channels will be sunset. This means they will cease active posting and eventually become inactive or removed from public view by the platform.
Merge: Content and followers from some specialized accounts will be merged into larger, thematic accounts or NASA’s flagship channels. This ensures valuable information still reaches the intended audience, but through fewer, more prominent feeds.
Rebrand: A small number of accounts may be rebranded to better align with the new strategic framework, reflecting a broader scope or a more direct connection to core NASA initiatives.
This initiative builds upon the success of previous digital transformation projects within the agency, such as the Science Mission Directorate’s social media consolidation project in 2019 and website modernization in 2023.
Both efforts resulted in streamlined processes, modernized content, and more focused communications, and NASA anticipates similar positive outcomes from this current social media consolidation.
Ultimately, this strategic shift underscores a broader trend for NASA’s digital communication strategy: the move toward quality over quantity.
For NASA, it’s about making vital information more accessible and digestible, ensuring the agency’s awe-inspiring work resonates deeply with a global audience.
The future of space communication promises to be more focused, more powerful, and even more inspiring.
https://www.nasa.gov/social-media/fewer-feeds-more-focus-nasas-social-media-overhaul/
NASA Glenn Employees Recognized by Astronaut Corps
Jun 11, 2025
Four of NASA Glenn Research Center’s employees have received the coveted NASA Silver Snoopy Award.
This award, overseen by NASA’s Space Flight Awareness program, is a special honor given to NASA employees and contractors for their outstanding achievements related to flight safety and mission success.
It is the astronauts’ personal award to recognize excellence and is given to less than 1% of the workforce annually.
Deputy Center Director Dawn Schaible, joined by astronaut Randy Bresnik, presented the awards at the center in Cleveland on May 14.
Bresnik was part of a crew in 2009 that delivered 30,000 pounds of essential parts and equipment to the International Space Station.
He served as the commander of the space station for Expedition 53 and flight engineer for Expedition 52.
The recipients include Rula Coroneos, Joshua Finkbeiner, Tyler Hickman, and Ron Johns.
Each of the honorees has played a crucial role in supporting the Artemis campaign, which will explore the Moon and prepare for human missions to Mars.
The award recipients have made significant contributions to the success of the Orion spacecraft and its European Service Module and have been dedicated to the safety and success of Artemis I and upcoming Artemis missions.
https://www.nasa.gov/newsletters/aerospace-frontiers/nasa-glenn-employees-recognized-by-astronaut-corps/
NASA, Partners Delay Axiom Mission 4, Reviewing Launch Date
June 10, 2025
NASA, Axiom Space, and SpaceX are standing down from the launch opportunity on Wednesday, June 11, of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station to allow additional time for SpaceX teams to repair a liquid oxygen leak identified during post-static fire Falcon 9 rocket inspections.
A new launch date for the fourth private astronaut mission will be provided once repair work is complete, pending range availability.
Peggy Whitson, former NASA astronaut and director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission, while ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla will serve as pilot.
The two mission specialists are ESA (European Space Agency) project astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
The crew will lift off aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on Falcon 9 from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/06/10/nasa-partners-delay-axiom-mission-4-reviewing-launch-date/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=ax-4
NASA’s PUNCH Releases Its First Images of Huge Eruptions from Sun
June 10, 2025
NASA’s PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission has released its first images of large solar eruptions called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.
The images were presented Tuesday at the 246th American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.
The images, stitched into a video, show giant CMEs, growing as they travel across the inner solar system.
The mission’s highly sensitive, wide-field instruments were able to capture the whole CMEs, as they evolved in space, in much greater detail than previously possible.
This big-picture view is essential to helping scientists better understand and predict space weather, which is driven by CMEs and can disrupt communications, endanger satellites, and create auroras at Earth.
The series of new images also show Venus, Jupiter, several constellations including Orion, and the Pleiades star cluster. The Moon can also be seen in the sequence of images.
The images were taken with PUNCH’s four cameras, which work together as a single “virtual instrument.”
Three Wide Field Imagers, which observe the faint, outermost portion of the Sun’s atmosphere and solar wind (the continual stream of charged particles from the Sun), work with a Narrow Field Imager (NFI), a coronagraph which allows scientists to see details in the Sun’s atmosphere by blocking out the bright light of the Sun itself.
A still image from NFI reveals the intricate, detailed structure of a CME departing the Sun on June 3. The four cameras are hosted across PUNCH’s four satellites.
“These first images are astonishing, but the best is still yet to come,” said Craig DeForest, PUNCH principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado.
“Once the spacecraft are in their final formation, we’ll be able to routinely track space weather in 3D across the entire inner solar system.”
Throughout its two-year planned mission, PUNCH will make global, continuous, 3D observations of the Sun’s outer atmosphere and the inner solar system.
This information will help scientists understand how material released from the solar atmosphere forms the solar wind.
The mission will also provide scientists with new data about how potentially disruptive events from the Sun, like solar flares and CMEs, form and evolve.
This information could lead to more accurate predictions about the arrival of space weather at Earth and how it impacts assets and explorers in space.
Southwest Research Institute, based in San Antonio, Texas, leads the PUNCH mission and operates the four spacecraft from its facilities in Boulder, Colorado.
The mission is managed by the Explorers Program Office at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/2025/06/10/nasas-punch-releases-its-first-images-of-huge-eruptions-from-sun/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/punch/2025/05/12/nasas-punch-catches-first-rainbow-and-other-new-images/
NASA’s CODEX Captures Unique Views of Sun’s Outer Atmosphere
Jun 10, 2025
Key Points:
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NASA’s CODEX investigation captured images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, the corona, showcasing new aspects of its gusty, uneven flow.
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The CODEX instrument, located on the International Space Station, is a coronagraph — a scientific tool that creates an artificial eclipse with physical disks — that measures the speed and temperature of solar wind using special filters.
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These first-of-their-kind measurements will help scientists improve models of space weather and better understand the Sun’s impact on Earth.
Scientists analyzing data from NASA’s CODEX (Coronal Diagnostic Experiment) investigation have successfully evaluated the instrument’s first images, revealing the speed and temperature of material flowing out from the Sun.
These images, shared at a press event Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, illustrate the Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, is not a homogenous, steady flow of material, but an area with sputtering gusts of hot plasma.
These images will help scientists improve their understanding of how the Sun impacts Earth and our technology in space.
“We really never had the ability to do this kind of science before,” said Jeffrey Newmark, a heliophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the principal investigator for CODEX.
“The right kind of filters, the right size instrumentation — all the right things fell into place. These are brand new observations that have never been seen before, and we think there’s a lot of really interesting science to be done with it.”
NASA’s CODEX is a solar coronagraph, an instrument often employed to study the Sun’s faint corona, or outer atmosphere, by blocking the bright face of the Sun.
The instrument, which is installed on the International Space Station, creates artificial eclipses using a series of circular pieces of material called occulting disks at the end of a long telescope-like tube.
The occulting disks are about the size of a tennis ball and are held in place by three metal arms.
Scientists often use coronagraphs to study visible light from the corona, revealing dynamic features, such as solar storms, that shape the weather in space, potentially impacting Earth and beyond.
“The CODEX instrument is doing something new,” said Newmark. “Previous coronagraph experiments have measured the density of material in the corona, but CODEX is measuring the temperature and speed of material in the slowly varying solar wind flowing out from the Sun.”
These new measurements allow scientists to better characterize the energy at the source of the solar wind.
The CODEX instrument uses four narrow-band filters — two for temperature and two for speed — to capture solar wind data.
"By comparing the brightness of the images in each of these filters, we can tell the temperature and speed of the coronal solar wind,” said Newmark.
Understanding the speed and temperature of the solar wind helps scientists build a more accurate picture of the Sun, which is necessary for modeling and predicting the Sun’s behaviors.
“The CODEX instrument will impact space weather modeling by providing constraints for modelers to use in the future,” said Newmark. “We’re excited for what’s to come.”
https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/nasas-codex-captures-unique-views-of-suns-outer-atmosphere/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/codex/
High Above the World
Jun 10, 2025
NASA astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz works with a grapple fixture during a June 2002 spacewalk outside of the International Space Station.
He was partnered with CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales) astronaut Philippe Perrin for the spacewalk – one of three that occurred during the STS-111 mission.
Chang-Diaz was part of NASA’s ninth class of astronaut candidates. He became the first Hispanic American to fly in space.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/high-above-the-world/
https://science.nasa.gov/universe/exoplanets/frigid-exoplanet-in-strange-orbit-imaged-by-nasas-webb/
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/articles/spectroscopy-101–introduction
Frigid Exoplanet in Strange Orbit Imaged by NASA’s Webb
Jun 10, 2025
A planetary system described as abnormal, chaotic, and strange by researchers has come into clearer view with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), researchers have successfully imaged one of two known planets surrounding the star 14 Herculis, located 60 light-years away from Earth in our own Milky Way galaxy.
The exoplanet, 14 Herculis c, is one of the coldest imaged to date. While there are nearly 6,000 exoplanets that have been discovered, only a small number of those have been directly imaged, most of those being very hot (think hundreds or even thousands of degrees Fahrenheit).
The new data suggests 14 Herculis c, which weighs about 7 times the planet Jupiter, is as cool as 26 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 3 degrees Celsius).
The team’s results covering 14 Herculis c have been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and were presented in a press conference Tuesday at the 246th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Anchorage, Alaska.
“The colder an exoplanet, the harder it is to image, so this is a totally new regime of study that Webb has unlocked with its extreme sensitivity in the infrared,” said William Balmer, co-first author of the new paper and graduate student at Johns Hopkins University.
“We are now able to add to the catalog of not just hot, young exoplanets imaged, but older exoplanets that are far colder than we’ve directly seen before Webb.”
Webb’s image of 14 Herculis c also provides insights into a planetary system unlike most others studied in detail with Webb and other ground- and space-based `observatories.
The central star, 14 Herculis, is almost Sun-like – it is similar in age and temperature to our own Sun, but a little less massive and cooler.
There are two planets in this system – 14 Herculis b is closer to the star, and covered by the coronagraphic mask in the Webb image.
These planets don’t orbit the host star on the same plane like our solar system. Instead, they cross each other like an ‘X’, with the star being at the center.
That is, the orbital planes of the two planets are inclined relative to one another at an angle of about 40 degrees. The planets tug and pull at one another as they orbit the star.
This is the first time an image has ever been snapped of an exoplanet in such a mis-aligned system.
Scientists are working on several theories for just how the planets in this system got so “off track.” One of the leading concepts is that the planets scattered after a third planet was violently ejected from the system early in its formation.
“The early evolution of our own solar system was dominated by the movement and pull of our own gas giants,” added Balmer. “They threw around asteroids and rearranged other planets.
Here, we are seeing the aftermath of a more violent planetary crime scene. It reminds us that something similar could have happened to our own solar system, and that the outcomes for small planets like Earth are often dictated by much larger forces.”
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Understanding the Planet’s Characteristics With Webb
Webb’s new data is giving researchers further insights into not just the temperature of 14 Herculis c, but other details about the planet’s orbit and atmosphere.
Findings indicate the planet orbits around 1.4 billion miles from the host star in a highly elliptical, or football-shaped orbit, closer in than previous estimates.
This is around 15 times farther from the Sun than Earth. On average, this would put 14 Herculis c between Saturn and Uranus in our solar system.
The planet’s brightness at 4.4 microns measured using Webb’s coronagraph, combined with the known mass of the planet and age of the system, hints at some complex atmospheric dynamics at play.
“If a planet of a certain mass formed 4 billion years ago, then cooled over time because it doesn't have a source of energy keeping it warm, we can predict how hot it should be today,” said Daniella C. Bardalez Gagliuffi of Amherst College, co-first author on the paper with Balmer.
“Added information, like the perceived brightness in direct imaging, would in theory support this estimate of the planet’s temperature.”
However, what researchers expect isn’t always reflected in the results. With 14 Herculis c, the brightness at this wavelength is fainter than expected for an object of this mass and age.
The research team can explain this discrepancy, though. It’s called carbon disequilibrium chemistry, something often seen in brown dwarfs.
“This exoplanet is so cold, the best comparisons we have that are well-studied are the coldest brown dwarfs,” Bardalez Gagliuffi explained.
“In those objects, like with 14 Herculis c, we see carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide existing at temperatures where we should see methane. This is explained by churning in the atmosphere.
Molecules made at warmer temperatures in the lower atmosphere are brought to the cold, upper atmosphere very quickly.”
Researchers hope Webb’s image of 14 Herculis c is just the beginning of a new phase of investigation into this strange system.
While the small dot of light obtained by Webb contains a plethora of information, future spectroscopic studies of 14 Herculis could better constrain the atmospheric properties of this interesting planet and help researchers understand the dynamics and formation pathways of the system.
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https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/nasa-f-15s-validate-tools-for-quesst-mission/
NASA F-15s Validate Tools for Quesst Mission
Jun 10, 2025
High over the Mojave Desert, two NASA F-15 research jets made a series of flights throughout May to validate tools designed to measure and record the shock waves that will be produced by the agency’s X-59 quiet supersonic experimental aircraft.
The F-15s, carrying the recording tools, flew faster than the speed of sound, matching the conditions the X-59 is expected to fly.
The X-59 is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission to gather data that can help lead to quiet commercial supersonic flight over land.
The team behind the successful test flight series operates under the Schlieren, Airborne Measurements, and Range Operations for Quesst (SCHAMROQ) project at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.
There, they developed tools that will measure and visualize the X-59’s unique shock waves when it flies at Mach 1.4 and altitudes above 50,000 feet.
For a typical supersonic aircraft, those shock waves would result in a sonic boom. But thanks to the X-59’s design and technologies, it will generate just a quiet thump.
Cheng Moua, engineering project manager for SCHAMROQ, described the validation flight campaign as “a graduation exercise – it brings all the pieces together in their final configuration and proves that they will work.”
NASA began to develop the tools years ago, anchored by the arrival of one of the two F-15s – an F-15D from the U.S. Air Force – a tactical aircraft delivered without research instrumentation.
“It showed up as a former war-fighting machine without a research-capable instrumentation system – no telemetry, no HD video, no data recording,” Cheng said. “Now it’s a fully instrumented research platform.”
The team used both F-15s to validate three key tools:
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A shock wave-measuring device called a near-field shock-sensing probe
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A guidance capability known as an Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Navigation System
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An Airborne Schlieren Photography System that will allow the capture of images that render visible the density changes in air caused by the X-59
Before the F-15D’s arrival, Armstrong relied on the second F-15 flown during this campaign – an F-15B typically used to test equipment, train pilots, and support other flight projects.
The SCHAMROQ project used the two aircraft to successfully complete “dual ship flights,” a series of flight tests using two aircraft simultaneously.
Both aircraft flew in formation carrying near-field shock-sensing probes and collected data from one another to test the probes and validate the tools under real-world conditions.
The data help confirm how shock waves form and evolve during flight.
Keeping Things ALIGNed
For the Quesst mission, the F-15D will lead data-gathering efforts using the onboard probe, while the F-15B will serve as the backup.
When flown behind the X-59, the probe will help measure small pressure changes caused by the shock waves and validate predictions made years ago when the plane’s design was first created.
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The schlieren photography systems aboard the F-15s will provide Quesst researchers with crucial data.
Other tools, like computer simulations that predict airflow and wind tunnel tests are helpful, but schlieren imagery shows real-world airflow, especially in tricky zones like the engine and air inlet.
For that system to work correctly, the two aircraft will need to be precisely positioned during the test flights.
Their pilots will be using a NASA-developed software tool called the Airborne Location Integrating Geospatial Navigation System (ALIGNS).
“ALIGNS acts as a guidance system for the pilots,” said Troy Robillos, a NASA researcher who led development of ALIGNS.
“It shows them where to position the aircraft to either probe a shock wave at a specific point or to get into the correct geometry for schlieren photography.”
The schlieren system involves a handheld high-speed camera with a telescopic lens that captures hundreds of frames per second and visualizes changes in air density – but only if it can use the sun as a backdrop.
“The photographer holds the camera to their chest, aiming out the side of the cockpit canopy at the sun, while the pilot maneuvers through a 100-foot-wide target zone,” said Edward Haering, a NASA aerospace engineer who leads research on schlieren.
“If the sun leaves the frame, we lose that data, so we fly multiple passes to make sure we capture the shot.”
Aligning two fast-moving aircraft against the backdrop of the sun is the most challenging part.
The photographer must capture the aircraft flying across the center of the sun, and even the slightest shift can affect the shot and reduce the quality of the data.
“It’s like trying to take a photo through a straw while flying supersonic,” Robillos said.
But with ALIGNS, the process is much more accurate.
The software runs on ruggedized tablets and uses GPS data from both aircraft to calculate when the aircraft are in position for probing and to capture schlieren imagery.
Giving pilots real-time instructions, enabling them to achieve precise positioning.
The X-59 team’s validation milestone for the schlieren imaging and other systems confirms that NASA’s core tools for measuring shock waves are ready to study the X-59 in flight, checking the aircraft’s unique acoustics to confirm its quieter sonic “thump.”
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https://www.tctmagazine.com/additive-manufacturing-3d-printing-industry-insights/aerospace-insights/on-orbit-on-demand-metal-3d-printer-for-space/
On orbit, on demand: Making a metal 3D printer for space
11 June 2025 14:00
If you're in any doubt about the progress being made in the additive manufacturing industry, know this:It is now possible to 3D print metal in space.
In 2024, a consortium of industry and academic partners successfully deployed the world's first metal 3D printer capable of operating within the microgravity conditions of the International Space Station (ISS).
A small printed ‘S-curve’ line test marked the first milestone, followed by a series oftest tokens which have each since made their way back to the Earth’s surface, ready for analysis.
The project, named Metal3D, was established in 2017 when Airbus Defence and Space was awarded a contract by the European Space Agency (ESA) to pursue a giant leap forward for in-space manufacturing.
In partnership with Cranfield University, AddUp and Highftech, the project set out to establish the impact of microgravity on both process and parts, and in the long-term, potentially, establish a new pathway to manufacturing metal parts for future missions, in space and on demand.
Designing a printer for space
Leading the development of the printer was Dr Wojciech Suder, Senior Lecturer in Laser Processing and Additive Manufacturing at Cranfield University's Welding and Additive Manufacturing Centre.
Dr Suder and his team had previously studied the effect of gravity on liquids in computer simulations, but printing liquid metal in this environment, would be a first.
The key requirement was to develop a system that would use as little energy as possible, so Cranfield was essentially given the task of developing a heating device for a metal 3D printer, including the heat source, the feedstock, feedstock management, material selection, and monitoring system, all while remaining low cost, robust and energy efficient.
The team started with a trade-off study on paper, assessing energy consumption and potential hazards – you don't want to disturb other activities on the ISS – and theoretically exploring different processes, such as powder bed fusion, before landing on direct energy deposition (DED) as the most viable in terms of health and safety management – you really don’t want metal powder particles floating around space, either.
"Initially, the printer was supposed to be a big scientific and engineering test to see all the logistics, health and safety, how we would manage this sort of thing,” Dr Suder told TCT.
“The big question was, from the logistics and engineering, can we manage health and safety? Could it be safely operated? Can astronauts do this sort of stuff? Because it’s all operated by them.
Scientifically, the big question was, what's the effect of gravity on liquid metal? In the past there were some tests where astronauts were playing with liquids, floating droplets, but no one actually melted liquid metals at this level, which are very viscous. You need high temperatures to do it.”
They carried out tests in terrestrial conditions, printing dog bone tests for tensile testing, each consisting of hundreds of layers.
“On earth we have gravity, which opposed the liquid metal trying to acquire a round shape, so the minimum surface energy of the system can be achieved.
The gravity pulls it down a little bit to make it flatter,” Dr Suder explained. “The hotter metal is, the lower the surface tension, so you make it flatter and wider. If you don't have gravity, you don't have this force.”
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These behaviours meant print parameters had to be operated in conditions where the anticipated effect of gravity is minimal, and the researchers ran several numerical simulations, essentially programming the printer so that the liquid metal would be deposited in micro gravity without the need for any compensation.
The printer is roughly the size of a microwave. It arrived disassembled onboard the ISS as part of the Cygnus NG-20 mission from Cape Canaveral in January 2024.
The printed parts, which landed back on Earth in February, are now in the hands of researchers at the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory at ESTEC for comparison with control samples printed on Earth to understand the impact of microgravity on the print process and part microstructure.
A second sample has also been delivered to the Technical University of Denmark, and results are expected to be published next year.
While this first batch is focused on testing printing under microgravity conditions, the next batch aims to explore that potential with more complicated structures.
“The big goal is to be able to manufacture something in orbit and send it to further space,” Dr Suder said.
“Taking any inventory from Earth takes a lot of fuel. If you imagine any complex habitat or spaceship requires a lot of spare parts, if you have to fly them all the time, it takes a lot of energy.
It kind of makes it impossible for space exploration. If we could have, let's say, just feedstock material somewhere on the moon and you manufacture whatever you want and then send it, much less energy is required.”
Further impact
The ESA has described such research into in-space manufacturing as ‘crucial for self-sufficiency, allowing astronauts to manufacture essential parts, repair equipment and create tools on demand, without relying on costly resupply missions.’
But manufacturing in orbit at scale is still likely a couple of decades away from being a fully-fledged reality. Yet, there are gains to be made much closer than that, and much closer to home.
“You already have some components being manufactured in space and there is a benefit of lower gravity, for example, in drug use and other places where you can grow specific materials without the influence of gravity,” Dr Suder elaborated.
“This [project] is another demonstration of remote manufacturing. This can be done in mines, underwater, it’s all the same kind of requirement.
So, if we master something that can work autonomously in a remote, hostile environment, it's got multiple applications.”
But that doesn’t mean they’re not dreaming big about what this project could open up for the future of space manufacturing.
The project has already sparked a lot of interest – including earning the Highly Commended spot for this year’s TCT Aerospace and Defence Award – and once established, Dr Suder believes the next phase will be delivering a fully automated process.
“This is the big challenge at the moment because these are very hostile environments,” Dr Suder explained. “Lots of radiation, the gravitational field is always continuously changing depending on the orbit level.
But potentially we kind of imagine that this will be fully autonomous, operated by robots with little intervention by human. It's possible.”
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Announcing Sierra Space Defense
Jun 11, 2025 9:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time
Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company and emerging defense-tech prime, announced today the chartering of new operation dedicated to supporting national security space as a prime contractor: Sierra Space Defense.
The company also unveiled expansion plans with a new production facility called “Victory Works,” adding 60,000 square feet of manufacturing space and bringing Sierra Space’s total infrastructure to more than one million square feet across seven states.
The launch of Sierra Space Defense and related infrastructure expansion plans are driven by a palpable sense of urgency: the United States is facing new threats and near-peer adversaries at unprecedented levels in the space domain.
In response to the evolving threat environment, Sierra Space is retooling its commercial capacity to focus on revitalizing the U.S. defense industrial base through innovative satellite and spacecraft systems technology.
Since 2023, Sierra Space has secured $1.5 billion in national security and defense contracts, for production on 30 satellites; included in that figure are 18 missile warning and defense satellites awarded by the Space Development Agency (SDA) in January 2024, as part of a $740M prime contract to support the SDA’s Tranche 2 Tracking Layer.
In addition, Space Force awarded Sierra Space a “Quick Start” Resilient GPS (R-GPS) agreement in September 2024.
And the company continues to make strides in its spacecraft systems business, boasting more than 20 active contracts for solar arrays and other components.
Sierra Space Vice President Erik Daehler will helm the new organization.
“We are mission-focused and dedicated to supporting our national security customers and the revitalization of the U.S. defense industrial base.
Commercial space companies now have a profound responsibility to help lead an entirely new era for national defense,” Daehler said.
“The creation of Sierra Space Defense enables stronger partnerships – such as our steadfast partnership with SNC – to tackle the hardest mission problems like Golden Dome.
Our new Sierra Space Defense organization is a testament to our dedication to innovation at speed and excellence in satellite and spacecraft systems production, which will shape the future of defense technology.”
Sierra Space will dedicate a new manufacturing facility, called “Victory Works,” to defense technology.
Located in Centennial, Colorado, the 60,000 square-foot space will play a pivotal role in the production of the company’s new Sierra Space Eclipse™ satellite bus line, a key component in Sierra Space’s efforts to enhance the capabilities of the U.S. defense sector.
This expansion is on top of 24,000 square feet of existing sites dedicated to national security and defense work.
Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw (U.S. Space Force, Ret.) serves on Sierra Space’s National Security Space Strategic Advisor Group.
“The growing scope and scale of what our adversaries are doing in space is alarming, and the threat environment is evolving rapidly as near-peer challenges accelerate,” Shaw said.
“Commercial space companies possess the speed and agility required to outpace our adversaries and effectively respond to our critical national security space needs.”
In the Sierra Space Defense Portfolio:
Sierra Space Eclipse: a next generation product line of small, high performance, affordable satellites for on-orbit servicing missions
Sierra Space Ghost: a state-of-the-art space delivery system engineered to safely return objects from space – and through space – directly to precise locations on Earth
Sierra Space Spectre: a revolutionary satellite designed for precision rendezvous proximity operations (RPO)
Sierra Black OS: an advanced AI-enabled operating system that is able to operate across space, air and ground systems seamlessly
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250611404579/en/Announcing-Sierra-Space-Defense
https://www.sierraspace.com/
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/742932-florida-congressional-delegation-urges-donald-trump-to-relocate-nasa-to-florida/
https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/services/files/63477EA1-05B6-49D3-8A47-4A4CF24B7DBD
Florida congressional delegation urges Donald Trump to relocate NASA to Florida
June 11, 2025
The letter includes signatures from 22 Republicans and 2 Democrats.
Members of Florida’s congressional delegation are launching a push to bring NASA headquarters to Florida.
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott led a letter to President Donald Trump signed by 24 members of the Florida delegation from both sides of the aisle encouraging a move.
“Florida’s Space Coast is at the forefront of space innovation and the best place for NASA’s HQ,” posted Scott, a Naples Republican, on X.
The letter bears the signatures of both Scott and U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, a Plant City Republican. The two Senators in March filed legislation, the Consolidating Aerospace Programs Efficiently at (CAPE) Canaveral Act (S 1013), that would formally relocate the nation’s space agency to Florida’s Space Coast.
A companion bill was introduced by U.S. Reps. Bryon Donalds, a Naples Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Parkland Democrat, both of whom joined the latest letter. The new letter noted that the current lease on NASA headquarters in Washington expires in 2028.
The agency currently has plans for a new $500 million facility in the National Capital Region, but Trump has expressed interest in decentralizing parts of the federal government, leading states like Florida and Texas to openly push for the relocation of headquarters away from the nation’s capital.
In total, all 20 Republicans representing Florida in the House joined the letter, as did two House Democrats.
Cosignatories include U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos, an Indian Harbour Beach Republican whose district includes Kennedy Space Center. It also includes Democratic U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Kissimmee lawmaker who carried space industry priority legislation in the past.
But lawmakers from across the state say all of Florida could benefit from the relocation. “I was proud to support this effort, especially with greater activity related to the Gulf Of America,” posted U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis, a Fort Walton Republican.
The message stresses a number of specific reasons Florida strategically would serve as the proper home for NASA. The letter notes an increasing number of splashdowns occurring in the Gulf, an argument that Texas and Alabama can also employ.
But the letter also noted the presence of Space Florida, an economic development entity that has attracted investments on the Space Coast from such companies as Blue Origin, which built a manufacturing facility adjacent to Kennedy Space Center.
Boeing, SpaceX and Lockheed Martin also have operations in the state already.
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“Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance, development and spaceport authority, can potentially provide a cost-saving solution that affords NASA the unique opportunity for a historic break away from the bureaucracy in D.C. that will provide the agility to meet the demands of today’s aerospace science, research and test ecosystem,” the letter reads.
“Space Florida has the tools to provide build-to-suit options with quantifiable cost savings to federal, public and private entities in the Space or Aerospace Industry.
Sourcing funds from capital markets and backed by long-term, competitive lease agreements, Space Florida leverages its authorities to create unique public-public and public-private partnerships to build world-class facilities for its partners across the state.”
The letter mentions that Florida hosted 93 rocket launches in 2024 alone, more than China and Russia combined.
The activity also means the state already has 140 aerospace workers, as well as engineering programs at state universities and colleges specifically gearing for space technology.
“America’s leadership in space is not guaranteed. China’s space industry, technology, and ambition is advancing rapidly, and we cannot afford complacency,” the letter reads.
“Moving NASA headquarters to Florida will reduce costs, drive innovation, and solidify America’s dominance in space. We urge your administration to make this move a priority.”
Florida has reason to be optimistic about its lobbying efforts. Besides Trump being the first President to claim Florida as his home state, the administration just tapped Brian Hughes, a consultant with long ties to Florida’s Atlantic coast, as NASA’s Chief of Staff.
But the timeline of any decision may be uncertain. Trump also just pulled his nomination of SpaceX astronaut Jason Isaacman as NASA Administrator and has not announced a replacement.
Additionally, a memo from acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro to NASA employees was leaked this week to NASA Watch.
It signals a potential reorganization of the agency, including buyouts to longtime employees and staff reductions. It did not offer any hints about whether an agency relocation is forthcoming.
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Hubble Space Telescope Reveals Moons And Rings Of ‘Weird’ Uranus
Updated Jun 11, 2025, 08:24am EDT
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has snapped new images of the solar system's seventh planet, Uranus, revealing not only its rings but new secrets about its intriguing moons and how its magnetic field works.
Key Fact
Hubble's new ultraviolet image of Uranus, taken with its Advanced Camera for Surveys, shows the gas giant planet in space with its five largest moons — often referred to as its “classical moons” — in a jagged line.
The moons — Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Miranda and Ariel — were captured in the image, which was published on June 10.
Ariel can be seen transiting the disk of Uranus, with its shadow apparent on the planet's blue methane-rich atmosphere. All may be “ocean worlds,” which could host life.
The image also shows faint, ghostly rings around Uranus. According to NASA, Uranus has 13 faint rings in total, divided into two distinct sets.
In 2023, the James Webb Space Telescope imaged the rings of Uranus and six of its 27 moons and is expected to do so again.
The Moons Of ‘weird’ Uranus
This new study, presented during a press conference at AAS 246 in Anchorage, Alaska, on Tuesday, June 10, examines the magnetic environment of Uranus and its largest moons.
It reveals surprising findings. Scientists had expected that radiation from the magnetic field of Uranus would darken the trailing hemispheres of its moons, but an analysis of the surfaces of Uranus’ four major moons — Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon — found the opposite. That suggests that Uranus’ magnetosphere might not interact much with its large moons, and it may be either dormant or much more complicated than previously thought.
“Uranus is weird, so it's always been uncertain how much the magnetic field actually interacts with its satellites,” said Richard Cartwright, principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
“For starters, it is tilted by 98 degrees relative to the ecliptic." That means it rolls on its side as it completes its 84-Earth-year orbit of the sun.
The Importance Of ‘ice Giant’ Planets
The two ice giant planets in the solar system — Uranus and Neptune — remain unexplored, having had only brief flybys by Voyager 2 in 1986 and 1989, respectively.
Planetary scientists' lack of detailed knowledge about ice giants (large planets composed mainly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium) has become more significant in recent years, particularly with research into exoplanets — planets that orbit a star other than the sun. According to research, the most typical size of exoplanets in the Milky Way is between that of Earth and Neptune, which are likely to be ice giants.
If astronomers are to understand other star systems, they need a baseline — and that means sending a mission to Uranus or Neptune.
Mission To Uranus
Hopes are fading for a much-needed NASA flagship mission to Uranus.
Despite being recommended as NASA's highest priority large mission in 2022 by the National Academy of Sciences, the likelihood of a $4.2 billion orbiter — with an atmospheric probe to dive beneath its clouds — is now small in the light of a “destructive proposal” by the Trump Administration to cut almost $6 billion (24%) from the space agency's budget.
Scientists want NASA to send the mission in 2032, with a planned arrival at Uranus in 2045. The next best launch window is in the 2090s.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2025/06/11/hubble-space-telescope-reveals-moons-and-rings-of-weird-uranus/
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2020.0054
Cosmic rings reveal new planet being born
June 11, 2025
For centuries, astronomers have tried to study the process of planetary formation.
Thanks to modern technology like the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), experts can now see this process with much finer detail.
What is it?
Taken on June 9, 2025, this photograph from the VLT shows star RIK 113 surrounded by clouds of gas and dust, which form a protoplanetary disk.
These disks are common around younger stars like RIK 113, and will eventually condense due to the star's gravitational pressure, forming larger objects that will create the beginnings of a planet, known as a protoplanet.
Where is it?
The star RIK 113, also classified as 2MASSJ16120668-3010270 is found in the constellation Scorpius, which is around 431 light-years away.
Why is it amazing?
The protoplanetary disk surrounding RIK 113 was initially discovered by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in 2024. The initial results showed gap in the clouds around the star, which could be created by a planetary embryo.
Curious about this finding, researchers at the University of Galway, Ireland used the VLT to try to get a closer look at star RIK 113.
Using the SPHERE or the Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet REsearch instrument on the VLT, which is designed to look for new exoplanets, the team found that the inner ring of the star's protoplanetary disk had unique spiral features.
According to the researchers, potential signals from two planets close to RIK 113 were also detected.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/cosmic-rings-reveal-new-planet-being-born-space-photo-of-the-day-for-june-11-2025
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2523a/
June's Strawberry Moon treats skywatchers to a rare low-riding show
June 11, 2025
June's full 'Strawberry Moon' lit up the night sky last night, treating skywatchers to a rare once-in-a-18-year display as it rode low across the southern horizon.
Skywatchers were served the lowest full moon in almost two decades, thanks in part to a quirk of orbital mechanics known to astronomers as a "major lunar standstill".
This phenomenon occurs over a two-year period when the moon's tilted orbit is at its greatest inclination relative to our planet's celestial equator (which is essentially Earth's normal equator projected out into space).
During a major lunar standstill, the moon can be seen rising and setting at more extreme positions on the horizon, while tracking a very high — or low — path through the night sky depending on the time of year.
June's Strawberry Moon occurs close to the southern solstice for those in the southern hemisphere, which means that it's never particularly high in the sky to begin with.
The major lunar standstill exacerbated this effect, making the June full moon the lowest full moon in almost two decades.
This month's full Strawberry Moon was named for the brief fruit picking season that occurs around this time each year by Algonquian, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.
Read on to see the best pictures of the 2025 Strawberry Moon as captured by the global astrophotography community. As always, if you missed last night's full moon don't worry.
The lunar disk will continue to appear (almost) fully lit for the next few nights, so be sure to read up on the best practices for observing and photographing the lunar surface as it transitions to a waning gibbous moon in the coming days.
cont.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/junes-strawberry-moon-treats-skywatchers-to-a-rare-low-riding-show-photos
2nd launch of Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket delayed to Aug. 15 at the earliest
June 11, 2025
Blue Origin's powerful New Glenn rocket will be groundbound for at least another couple of months.
Jeff Bezos' aerospace company had been targeting late spring for the second launch of the 320-foot-tall (98 meters) New Glenn, which features a reusable first stage. But that's no longer the plan.
"New Glenn's second mission will take place NET [no earlier than] August 15th," Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp said via X on Monday (June 9).
"Following in the footsteps of our first booster, we've chosen the name 'Never Tell Me The Odds' for Tail 2," he added in the post. "One of our key mission objectives will be to land and recover the booster.
This will take a little bit of luck and a lot of excellent execution. We're on track to produce eight GS2s this year, and the one we'll fly on this second mission was hot-fired in April. Gradatim Ferociter!"
The first New Glenn booster was named "So You're Telling Me There's a Chance," a line from the 1994 Jim Carrey movie "Dumb and Dumber."
The "chance" Blue Origin was referring to was the possibility that the booster would land safely on the company's drone ship shortly after its Jan. 16 launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
That didn't happen, but the rest of that debut flight went well: New Glenn successfully carried its payload — a test version of Blue Origin's new Blue Ring spacecraft platform — to Earth orbit.
The GS2s that Limp mentioned are New Glenn upper stages. And the number he cited is meaningful; the company has previously said that it planned to launch eight New Glenn missions this year — a target that is almost certainly out of reach at this point, as Ars Technica's Eric Berger noted.
"Gradatim ferociter," by the way, is Blue Origin's motto. It's Latin for "Step by step, ferociously."
Limp's X post didn't give a reason for the delay to Aug. 15. And the company still hasn't announced what New Glenn — which can haul 50 tons (45 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit (LEO) — will carry on the test flight.
In February, during a talk at the 27th Annual Commercial Space Conference in Washington, Limp said that Blue Origin was "still looking for opportunities."
"If it came to it and we just had to fly a mass simulator, we'll fly a mass simulator," he said at the time.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/2nd-launch-of-blue-origins-powerful-new-glenn-rocket-delayed-to-aug-15-at-the-earliest
https://www.blueorigin.com/
Rocket Lab launching Electron rocket on The Mountain God Guards mission
June 11, 2025
Mission Overview
‘The Mountain God Guards’ is the fourth launch on Electron for multi-launch customer, Institute for Q-shu Pioneers of Space, Inc. (iQPS), a Japan-based Earth imaging company.
The mission will launch a single synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging satellite called QPS-SAR-11 (nicknamed YAMATSUMI-I for the Japanese god of mountains) to a 575km circular Earth orbit, from where the satellite will join the rest of the iQPS constellation in providing high resolution images and Earth monitoring services globally.
Overall, Rocket Lab has deployed three Electron missions for iQPS with 100% mission success: ‘The Lightning God Reigns’ and ‘The Sea God Sees’, were successfully deployed to space by Electron earlier this year as the first two missions of an eight-launch contract across 2025 and 2026 for iQPS; while a third launch, ‘The Moon God Awakens,’ was successfully launched in December 2023.
'The Mountain God Guards' will be Rocket Lab’s eighth mission of 2025, its 66th Electron launch overall, and will bring the total number of satellites delivered to space by Electron to 227.
https://rocketlabcorp.com/missions/next-mission/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PplSn4YNbz0
https://www.space.com/astronomy/sun/humanity-takes-its-1st-look-at-the-suns-poles-this-is-just-the-first-step-of-solar-orbiters-stairway-to-heaven-images
Humanity takes its 1st look at the sun's poles: 'This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's stairway to heaven'
June 11, 2025
The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has captured humanity's first-ever images of the sun's poles. If this doesn't seem like a big deal, consider that every image you have ever seen of the sun was taken from around our star's equator.
That is because Earth, the other solar system planets, and all other modern spacecraft orbit the sun in a flat disc around it called the "ecliptic plane."
This European Space Agency (ESA) sun-orbiting mission has done things a little differently, however, tilting its orbit out of that plane. This allowed the Solar Orbiter to image the sun from a whole new angle and in an entirely new way.
The captured images of the solar south pole were taken between March 16 and 17, 2025, with the Solar Orbiter's Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (PHI), Extreme Ultraviolet Imager (EUI), and Spectral Imaging of the Coronal Environment (SPICE) instruments.
They constitute humanity's first ever look at the sun's poles. This was the Solar Orbiter mission’s first high-angle observation campaign of the sun, conducted at an angle of 15 degrees below the solar equator.
Just a few days after snapping these images, the ESA spacecraft reached a maximum viewing angle of 17 degrees, which it sits in currently as it performs its first "pole-to-pole" orbit of our star.
"Spacecraft normally orbit the sun on the flat disc called the ecliptic plane, just like most of the planets in our solar system.
This is the most energy-efficient way to launch and maintain orbits," co-principal leader of the Solar Orbiter's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager instrument, Hamish Reid of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory at University College London (UCL) said in a statement to Space.com.
"These first images of the solar poles are just the start. Over the next few years, there is scope for discovery science.
"We are not sure what we will find, and it is likely we will see things that we didn't know about before."
Another ESA/NASA spacecraft, Ulysses, has flown over the poles of the sun, but this spacecraft lacked an imaging instrument, and its passage of our star was also much further away than that of the Solar Orbiter.
Variety is the SPICE of solar observations
The Solar Orbiter is so useful for observing the sun because each of its instruments sees our star in very different ways. The PHI captures solar observations in visible light and is able to map its magnetic field.
Meanwhile, the EUI images our star in ultraviolet light, which allows scientists to study the superheated plasma in the sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, which can reach temperatures as great as 5.4 million degrees Fahrenheit (around 3 million degrees Celsius).
This could help solar scientists determine how the corona can reach temperatures much greater than the sun's surface, the photosphere, despite being much further away from the solar core, where the vast majority of the sun's heat is generated.
The SPICE instrument of the Solar Orbiter, responsible for the bottom row of images in the picture above, is capable of capturing light emitted by plasmas at different temperatures above the surface of the sun. This helps to model the different layers of the solar atmosphere.
Comparing these three different but complementary methods of observing the sun should allow solar scientists to map the flow of material through the outer layers of the sun.
This effort could reveal hitherto undiscovered and unexpected patterns of movement, like vortices around the poles of the sun similar to those spotted above the poles of Venus and Saturn.
All that is for the future, so what has this pioneering approach to solar observations revealed thus far?
Magnetism gets messy at the solar south pole
The main aim of the shift in Solar Orbiter's orbit around the sun is to build a more complete picture of our star's magnetic activity. This could help explain the sun's 11-year cycle that sees its activity increase toward solar maximum before the poles flip and a new cycle begins.
"Being able to observe the poles is vital for understanding how the sun's magnetic field operates on a global scale, leading to an 11-year cycle in the sun's activity," Lucie Green of Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL, who has been working with the Solar Orbiter since 2005, said.
"We'll see previously unobserved high-latitude flows that carry magnetic elements to the polar regions, and in doing so sow the fundamental seeds for the next solar cycle."
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Indeed, this approach has already revealed things we didn't know about our star's most southern region and its magnetism.
"We didn't know what exactly to expect from these first observations – the sun's poles are literally terra incognita,” Sami Solanki, who leads the PHI instrument team from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS), said in a statement.
One of the first discoveries made by the Solar Orbiter is the fact that the magnetic fields around the sun's southern poles appear to be, for lack of a better phrase, a complete mess.
While standard magnetic fields have well-defined north and south poles, these new observations reveal that north and south polarities are both found at the sun's southern pole.
This seems to happen at solar maximum when the poles of the sun are about to flip. Following this exchange of poles, the fields at the north and south poles will maintain an orderly single polarity during solar minimum until solar maximum during the next 11-year cycle.
"How exactly this build-up occurs is still not fully understood, so Solar Orbiter has reached high latitudes at just the right time to follow the whole process from its unique and advantageous perspective," Solanki said.
The Solar Orbiter observations also revealed that while the equator of the sun, where the most sunspots appear, possesses the strongest magnetic fields, those at the poles of our star have a complex and ever-changing structure.
The motion of matter through the sun
The Solar Orbiter's SPICE instrument provided another first for the ESA spacecraft, allowing scientists to track elements via their unique emissions as they move through the sun.
Tracing the specific spectral lines of elements like hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, neon, and magnesium, a process called "Doppler measurement," revealed how materials flow through different layers of the sun.
The Solar Orbiter also allowed scientists to measure the speed of carbon atoms as they are ejected from the sun in plumes and jets.
"The Solar Orbite'’s new vantage point will give us a fuller view of how solar wind expands to form a vast bubble around the sun and its planets called the heliosphere," Principal Investigator on the Solar Wind Analyser and Mullard Space Science Laboratory at UCL researcher Chris Owen said in a statement to Space.com.
"We will now see this happen in three dimensions, enhancing the single slice we get from observing only in the ecliptic plane."
SPICE team leader, Frédéric Auchère from the University of Paris-Saclay, explained that Doppler measurements of the solar wind flowing from the sun by other sun-orbiting missions have suffered because they could only get a grazing view of the solar poles.
"Measurements from high latitudes, now possible with Solar Orbiter, will be a revolution in solar physics," Auchère added.
Perhaps the most exciting element of these Solar Orbiter results is the fact that the best is yet to come. This initial data has not yet been fully analyzed, for instance, an image of the solar north pole has been captured but not downloaded yet.
Also, data from the ESA mission's first full "pole-to-pole" orbit of the sun, which began in February 2025, will not arrive at Earth until October 2025.
"This is just the first step of Solar Orbiter's 'stairway to heaven.' In the coming years, the spacecraft will climb further out of the ecliptic plane for ever better views of the sun's polar regions," ESA’s Solar Orbiter project scientist Daniel Müller said.
"These data will transform our understanding of the sun's magnetic field, the solar wind, and solar activity."
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>The Mountain God Guards
'We've got a new mystery on our hands': Titan's weird wobble just got even stranger
June 10, 2025
For years, scientists have been intrigued by a weird "wobble" in the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Now, new research is revealing clues about Titan's strange atmospheric tilt, but it's also raising new mysteries.
Data from the Cassini mission to Saturn has shown that, unlike Earth's atmosphere, Titan's atmosphere doesn't rotate in sync with its surface. Instead, it tilts and shifts like a spinning top that changes its orientation with the seasons.
"The behaviour of Titan's atmospheric tilt is very strange," Lucy Wright, lead author of the new research and a postdoctoral researcher in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol in the U.K., said in a statement.
"We think some event in the past may have knocked the atmosphere off its spin axis, causing it to wobble."
Scientists thought the direction of the tilt would be influenced by either Saturn's gravity or the position of the sun, as is often the case in planetary systems — meaning it would change as Titan orbited Saturn and the sun.
But observations show that the tilt direction doesn't move. Instead, it stays pointed the same way in space, as if unaffected by those external forces.
This finding was unexpected. If solar heating or Saturn's gravity were controlling the tilt, it should move over time.
Instead, the tilt seems locked in place, suggesting that some other, still-unknown process is at work, the researchers reported in a study published May 20 in The Planetary Science Journal.
"That would've given us clues to the cause," Nick Teanby, co-author of the study and a planetary scientist at the University of Bristol, said in the statement. "Instead, we've got a new mystery on our hands."
Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a substantial atmosphere. It is composed primarily of nitrogen and contains complex organic molecules, making it a scientifically important object for studying things like atmospheric processes and prebiotic chemistry.
From 2004 to 2017, NASA's Cassini spacecraft closely observed Titan, revealing important changes in its atmosphere, like a steady tilt in the middle layers and the appearance and disappearance of swirling winter polar vortices.
This new understanding of Titan's atmospheric wobble is important for NASA's upcoming Dragonfly mission, which is set to arrive in the 2030s.
Because Titan's winds are much faster than its surface rotation, knowing how the atmosphere shifts with the seasons will help engineers more accurately plan Dragonfly's descent and landing.
"Our work shows that there are still remarkable discoveries to be made in Cassini's archive," study co-author Conor Nixon, a planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the statement.
"This instrument, partly built in the U.K., journeyed across the Solar System and continues to give us valuable scientific returns.
"The fact that Titan's atmosphere behaves like a spinning top disconnected from its surface raises fascinating questions — not just for Titan, but for understanding atmospheric physics more broadly, including on Earth," Nixon added.
https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/weve-got-a-new-mystery-on-our-hands-titans-weird-wobble-just-got-even-stranger
https://bristol.ac.uk/news/2025/may/titans-wobbling-atmosphere.html
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/adcab3
https://spacenews.com/whitesides-says-budget-proposal-shows-the-administration-does-not-value-nasa-science/
Whitesides says budget proposal shows the administration does not value NASA science
June 10, 2025
A leading Democratic member of the House Science Committee says the proposed steep cuts in NASA’s fiscal year 2026 budget proposal show that the administration does not appreciate the value of science not just to the NASA but the country in general.
Speaking at a SpaceNews webinar June 10, Rep. George Whitesides (D-Calif.), vice ranking member of the House Science Committee, sharply criticized the fiscal year 2026 budget proposal for NASA, full details of which were released May 30.
The budget proposes a cut of nearly 25% for NASA’s overall budget, the largest single-year cut, as well as a nearly 50% cut to NASA science programs. That would, if implemented, result in dozens of missions being terminated.
Whitesides called the proposed cuts “catastrophic” and linked the NASA science cuts to broader reductions to science programs at other agencies, such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation.
“What underpins what we’re seeing is, I think, a full-scale assault on the scientific establishment,” he said. “It seems like there is not an understanding on the part of the administration of the importance of science and technology in our economy and our leadership in the world.”
He argued that the administration, in those science cuts, does not appear to appreciate the link between research and competitiveness.
“I think that there may be a misunderstanding on the part of the administration of the underlying utility of these different scientific pursuits to the full-scale range of the American economy and our leadership,” he said.
He cited as one example the use of multispectral imagery in Earth science.
“The Chinese are launching literally dozens of these types of instruments into space, and for us to give up our leadership that we have in multispectral imagery is not just purely an issue related to atmospheric science, but it handicaps, kneecaps our ability to find key minerals around the world, around our country, which are going to be crucial in the competition for the future economy of this century.”
The science cuts in the detailed budget proposal were not quite as bad as feared in April, when a leaked budget “passback” document to NASA from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) included cancellation of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The full budget does not cancel Roman, but does reduce its projected funding for 2026. “So there has been some movement,” he said, “but obviously not enough.”
He said he is talking with both fellow members of the House Science Committee, which authorizes NASA programs, as well as House appropriators, but said it was too soon to go into details about how those committees might respond to the budget proposal.
“I think that there is a general view that these cuts would be catastrophic to NASA as proposed.,” he said, “and so people are thinking about what kind of response will be made to that proposal.”
Whitesides, a former chief executive of Virgin Galactic and, before that, a NASA chief of staff, said he’s working to educate fellow members of the science committee, as there was a high turnover in membership from the previous Congress.
“My hope is that I can bring some new awareness to how these things relate to our economic and security, so that we can reduce the cuts.”
Artemis plans
The fiscal year 2026 budget proposal also calls for ending the Space Launch System and Orion after the Artemis 3 mission, replacing them with commercial capabilities.
That has also faced opposition from industry groups. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced June 5 he would seek to add $10 billion in a pending budget reconciliation bill that would fund SLS and Orion through Artemis 5, among other moves.
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Whitesides suggested it was premature to end SLS and Orion after Artemis 3. “I, personally, am in favor of continuing these things longer,” he said, noting that contractors are working on long-lead items for vehicles well beyond Artemis 3.
“I think that work is important. We need to protect the folks who are doing that work.”
He is also looking for more information about the administration’s plan to shift to commercial replacements “What I think we don’t have right now is, in Congress, a full understanding of these architectures that are being proposed for both lunar and Martian exploration,” he said, adding that he wants to work “towards a fully sustainable long-term human space exploration program.”
He said he’s looking for bipartisan support for a space exploration approach that is both technically and fiscally sustainable.
“I think that the opportunity of this moment is to have bipartisan agreement around a long-term exploration plan.
I think the idea of cutting NASA’s budget by a quarter is not consistent with any future scenario where we exercise long term American leadership in space,” he said.
Isaacman and workforce
Whitesides, like most of the space community, was stunned by the White House’s announcement May 31 that it was withdrawing the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be NASA administrator. The White House has yet to announcement a new nominee to lead the agency.
“I think it is, frankly, pretty bad for the agency, because what it means is that the folks over at OMB and the White House are still functionally in charge of NASA,” he said, blaming them for the proposed steep NASA budget cuts.
He called for a new person to be nominated and confirmed quickly as NASA administrator to give the agency permanent leadership who can work with both the White House and Congress. “It’s crucial that we get someone new as soon as possible.”
He acknowledged there are “no perfect candidates” to lead NASA and that he was open to people who don’t have a “traditional background” to run the agency.
“That said, things that would be good to have would be someone who understands the full breadth of the agency’s mission and who values that full breadth.”
He added having someone with experience running large organizations is also important. “Sometimes we put people in place at the head of these departments who do not have experience running a large entity or enterprise,” he said.
“This is a big organization. It’s a national treasure. NASA is important. We need somebody who has the skills to organizationally run that.”
The size of that organization, though, is jeopardized by potential layoffs. The budget proposal would reduce the agency’s civil servant workforce by about a third, to less than 12,000 people.
After accepting resignations of about 5% of the workforce through a deferred retirement program earlier this year, NASA announced June 9 it was starting another such effort.
“All NASA civil servants received notification Monday the agency is offering a Deferred Resignation Program, Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and/or Voluntary Separation Incentive Program,” NASA spokesperson Cheryl Warner said in a statement.
“This affords employees the opportunity to depart while ensuring the agency remains fully capable to pursue its mission.”
Whitesides mentioned the new program in the webinar, saying that NASA risks losing some of its best employees.
“The first people to take these retirement offers are often some of the best because they know they can get a job somewhere else,” he said, or are people who were already considering retirement.
He said the best approach for Congress is to emphasize support for the agency through both appropriations and authorization bills.
“I think the more that people in Congress, members of Congress, talk about a positive future for the agency, and show that they are committed to a strong future for the agency, the better that will be,” he said.
“We need to be the backstop in a time when it seems like the administration does not value a strong future for NASA.”
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Stunning Direct Images of Alien Worlds Are Detailed Enough to Reveal Clouds
11 June 2025
New images from the JWST are about as close as we've ever come to seeing the sky of an alien world outside the Solar System.
Direct images of a gas giant exoplanet orbiting a star called YSES-1 have revealed clouds of fine sand drifting high up in its atmosphere.
What's more, similar observations of a neighboring world suggest it is surrounded by a large, swirling disk rich with olivine, a mineral that can form the gemstone peridot here on Earth.
"Everything is exciting about these two results," astrophysicist and lead author Kielan Hoch of the Space Telescope Science Institute told ScienceAlert.
"The observations were novel as we could observe 'two for the price of one' with JWST NIRSpec, and discovering two major planetary features on each object."
Planets outside our Solar System are elusive beasts. They are extremely difficult to see directly; they are very far away, and small and dim, obscured by the blazing light of the stars they orbit.
Of the nearly 6,000 confirmed to date, the vast, vast majority have only been detected and measured indirectly – that is, based on changes their presence evokes in the light of their host stars. Only around 80 exoplanets have been seen directly.
There's a lot you can tell about a planet from the way it tugs on its surrounds or eclipses its star. But direct observations of the light it emits can reveal far more. Even so, it takes a powerful instrument to extract a signal from the faint light of even the closest exoplanets.
The YSES-1 system is only 306 light-years away and contains two known planets; YSES-1b, which is closer to the star at a distance of 160 astronomical units, and YSES-1c, at 320 astronomical units.
YSES-1c is around six times the mass of Jupiter, while YSES-1b is the larger of the two at around 14 times Jupiter's mass, putting it right on the mass boundary between planets and brown dwarfs.
Prior direct observations of this system suggested that the world may have interesting atmospheric properties, but the instruments involved lacked the power to detect them. Cue JWST.
"With the NIRSpec instrument on JWST we are able to get images of the planets at thousands of wavelengths at once. The images can be reduced to produce spectra, which is thermal light coming from the planet itself," Hoch explained.
"As the light passes through the atmosphere of the exoplanet, some of the light will get absorbed by molecules and cause dips in brightness of the planet.
This is how we are able to tell what the atmospheres are made of!" The results? The most detailed spectral dataset of a multi-planet system compiled to date.
Both exoplanets, the researchers found, showed evidence of water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane in their atmospheres – all of which are relatively common atmospheric components. It's where they diverge that things start to get interesting.
"For YSES-1c, we see lots of molecular features from water, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and methane. At longer wavelengths, we see absorption caused by silicate particles, which has a different spectral shape," Hoch said.
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"We use laboratory data of different particles and structures to model which silicates fit the data best and determine other properties of those particles.
Our models show that there could be small silicate particles high up in the atmosphere that can contain small amounts of iron that rains out of the clouds. However, our models also show that a mixture of only silicates can also fit the data."
No such spectra feature was observed for YSES-1b, but something else emerged: the signature of small grains of olivine in a disk around the exoplanet.
Olivine is a mineral that forms in volcanic conditions here on Earth; particularly fine gemstone-quality examples form peridot. Olivine is also found in meteorites, so it seems the mineral can form easily in molten rock situations.
However, it shouldn't be seen in dust form around YSES-1b. Dust settling is an efficient process expected to take a maximum of about 5 million years, Hoch explained.
The YSES-1 system is estimated to be around 16.7 million years old. It's possible that the olivine-rich dust is debris from a collision between objects orbiting near YSES-1b – which means the observations came at a very lucky point in cosmic time.
"We hoped to detect clouds in YSES-1c's atmosphere as its spectral type is theorized to have a cloudy atmosphere. But, when we saw the feature, it was wildly different from other silicate features seen in brown dwarfs," Hoch said.
"We did NOT expect to see evidence for a disk around the inner planet YSES-1b. That was certainly a surprise."
All the best astrophysical observations raise at least as many questions as they answer. YSES-1 is no exception.
The disk around YSES-1b is one big one. We also don't know enough about exoplanetary atmospheres, or how long these objects take to form.
Ongoing work to directly study the atmospheres of other exoplanets will help fill in some of these gaps in our knowledge.
"I also am excited about the result as this research was led by early career scientists. I was a graduate student when I proposed to use JWST to image this planetary system, and JWST had not launched yet and was not designed for looking at exoplanets," Hoch said.
"The first five authors of the manuscript range from first year graduate student to postdoctoral fellow. I believe this highlights the need to support early career scientists, and that is a result most exciting for me."
https://www.sciencealert.com/stunning-direct-images-of-alien-worlds-are-detailed-enough-to-reveal-clouds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tRY8QKWXaI
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09174-w
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/news/2025/06/10/feature-article-testing-new-technologies-help-law-enforcement-see-through-walls
Feature Article: Testing New Technologies that Help Law Enforcement ‘See’ Through Walls
June 10, 2025
Last month, S&T completed the development of DePLife, a technology that leverages radar to “see” through walls, providing law enforcement with valuable intelligence and situational awareness in often precarious situations.
Industry partner MaXentric Technologies LLC began sales this year to law enforcement agencies nationwide; already, several U.S. city and county agencies successfully tested and purchased DePLife.
It has also been evaluated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, which is now in the process of purchasing units.
Looking ahead to future generations of through-wall scanning, S&T is collaborating with MIT LL to upgrade DePLife and a similar technology, Analog Devices’ Tinyrad, to withstand minor movements via motion compensation algorithms.
The goal is to expand the number of use cases and tactical scenarios. DepLife technologies can be deployed by law enforcement and other personnel during operations.
“Before the Through Walls Mobile Sensing project started, technologies that could detect the presence of life through walls had to be stationary, or perhaps leaning on a wall to the room of interest,” said S&T Program Manager Anthony Caracciolo.
“But now, we are developing a tool that can withstand minor movements—hovering drone vibrations, light wind…even a responder’s breathing—while holding the device.”
Why is through-wall sensing technology critical for responder safety?
Using DePLife, officers can determine if a structure is occupied or not from a safe standoff distance using radar. The device can scan through interior sheetrock and outer walls of typical single-family homes.
Last month, S&T and MIT LL tested prototypes at the lab’s facilities in the Boston area.
“With minor motion compensation—the next generation for these technologies—police officers, or even firefighters, can assess from a distance where the good and bad guys are at the scene,” said Caracciolo.
"They won’t have to endanger themselves by having to place the detector in direct contact with a wall.”
One goal: a drone could quickly scan a house from the outside to see if any people are inside.
This could be beneficial both for firefighters looking for people trapped in a burning building and for officers looking for hostages or perpetrators during an active shooter event.
S&T is leading the development of motion compensation algorithms using results of collected radar data.
MIT LL used a hexapod, a programmable machine that can imitate various minor movements, to test the technologies’ performance against simulated minor movements.
Engineers from MIT LL’s Autonomous Systems Development Facility recorded and collected various minor movements made by a person holding a radar or a hovering stationary drone with radar payload, and then programed the data into the hexapod, so it can recreate it.
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In mid-April, S&T and MIT LL tested and demonstrated the performance of motion compensation algorithms in the Autonomous Systems Development Facility in Boston.
They evaluated the viability of this next-generation through-walls technology on two platforms: an operator holding a handheld device and a drone.
The team tested DePLife first on the hexapod and then on a handheld prototype, and then Tinyrad on a drone. The results were successful.
How does motion compensation of minor movements work?
When a person holds the radar, even if they are still, their hands make imperceptible movements, or their arms may swing the tiniest bit (by centimeters or millimeters). It is the same with a drone carrying the radar—it swings or vibrates while hovering.
If the radar is moving, everything it detects also looks like it is moving. The algorithm uses stationary objects at the scene to estimate the radar’s movements.
Algorithms can help determine what is indeed stationary and can make radar data corrections and compensate for the radar’s motions by extracting them to determine their type, and then estimate the platform position over time.
DePLife and Tinyrad were tested not only to detect people while in motion, but also for false positives, typically caused by static reflectors like furniture, refrigerators and fans.
The team used corner reflectors—objects shaped like a pyramid, hourglass, and cube and wrapped in metal foil (as metal reflects radar waves)—to see if the technology will label them as humans or not.
Although small, these objects are designed to reflect much of the radar energy that hits them and thus serve as a baseline to test the radar system.
“If there’s metal or furniture, you're going to get reflection back to the radar, and the radar can detect which one is actually stationary, not life, and which one is life,” said Caracciolo.
“We must first make sure we are not identifying every reflection back as life. And we did that successfully.”
What’s ahead for Through-Wall Mobile Sensing?
Based on the performance results, S&T and MIT LL will refine next generation radar specifications throughout the next phase and finetune the minor motion compensation algorithms.
After that, the team will upgrade the technologies with major motion compensation algorithms to cover movements like a drone flying around a building, an officer walking towards a building, or a ground robot entering a building.
All this to say, what S&T is trying to do now is determine what radar specifications and configuration would be able to achieve those ideal objectives.
“These efforts will increase the versatility and viability of a commercial-ready solution that meets federal, state, and local responder needs,” said Caracciolo.
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Readout of Commander, U.S. Space Forces in Europe – Space Forces Africa Brig. Gen. Jacob Middleton’s meeting with Türkiye’s Space Commander, Colonel Tolga Çinar
June 11, 2025
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany – U.S. Space Force Brig. Gen. Jacob Middleton, commander of U.S. Space Forces Europe and Space Forces Africa and Chief Master Sgt. Alex Birkle, SPACEFOREUR-AF command senior enlisted leader, met with Türkiye’s Space Commander, Col. Tolga Çinar at Ramstein Air Base on 5 June 2025.
This meeting showcased the strength, commitment and continued partnership between Türkiye and the USSF.
The two space leaders discussed ways in which the component is achieving desired space effects within the EUCOM AOR.
The two allies also discussed shared space interests, objectives, and areas in which the USSF and Türkiye Space Command can further collaborate to enhance the safety and security for both nations.
https://www.usafe.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4212796/readout-of-commander-us-space-forces-in-europe-space-forces-africa-brig-gen-jac/
>Steel wheels in top pic