TYB
NASA Appropriations Mark-up Hearing
July 10, 2025
NASA-related things from today’s Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science subcommittee mark-up:
– Sen. Moran R-KS likes what has been done to NASA’s budget. “Allocation the committee was given shows real increase in spending power of 279M – an increase 0.37% above FY 2025 level. This bill is close to being a normal bill.”
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Sen. Moran R-KS – “Science funding makes minimal cut $60M to NSF 0.67% decrease.
The NASA budget mark ($$ not mentioned) reflects an ambitious approach to space exploration and NASA’s flagship program Artemis – rejects premature cancellation of - SLS and Orion before commercial replacements are available.
Accelerates plans to place Americans on the Lunar surface before the Chinese and then sends astronauts to Mars. Supports Earth science and safeguard Earth from natural disasters.”
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Sen. Van Hollen D-MD said “for NASA we provided $24.9B slightly above FY 2025.
CJS Bill will have NASA at $24.9B and that the agency should focus on solar system exploration, climate change, sustainable aeronautics, and rejected rejected cuts that would have cut 47% of the science budget and led to cancellation of 55 missions. Provides $7.3 billion to NASA Science.”
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Sen. Durbin D-IL – “Houston has a problem – A Space Shuttle has been exhibited at Smithsonian in Chantilly, VA for 12 years. It has had 25 million visitors.
One of the states that lost the competition has a new idea: let’s do it over again and make sure Texas wins. They added $85 million to move the shuttle to Texas.
That is not what is necessary or what it would cost. NASA and Smithsonian said the cost would be $305 million.
Where will Houston get the money to house the shuttle – $178 million would have to be added onto the cost.
This will be the first time in history of the Smithsonian that someone has forcibly taken possession of an exhibit.
Let’s be honest about this – if you are going use reconciliation funds to move this – its a heist by Texas because they lost the competition 12 years go.”
https://nasawatch.com/congress/nasa-appropriations-mark-up-hearing/
Janet Petro Heads Back To KSC
July 10, 2025
this is from NASA PAO
“I am honored to have served the President as the acting NASA Administrator for the past 6 months.
His decision to appoint Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy as acting Administrator reflects the high priority he places on our agency at this pivotal time.
I’ve had the opportunity to work closely with Secretary Duffy—including during Crew-9’s return in the Space Operations Center at NASA Headquarters—and I’m confident in his leadership as we carry forward the President’s ambitious agenda.
I look forward to supporting a smooth transition and returning home to Kennedy Space Center as Center Director.
At home in Florida, I’ll continue to work hand-in-hand with Secretary Duffy to propel the President’s ambitious goals.”
– Janet Petro.
https://nasawatch.com/ask-the-administrator/janet-petro-heads-back-to-ksc/
The "Haunting" Last Message From NASA's Opportunity Rover, Sent From Inside A Planet-Wide Storm
July 11, 2025
Thanks to NASA's steadfast commitment to blasting robots into space, we now get regular images from another planet beamed back down to Earth.
The current generation of Mars rovers began their adventures – finding strange rocks and potentially getting caught up in the center of electrified dust devils, among other important planetary research – in 2012 and 2021.
But before that, there was Sojourner – the first rover to explore another planet in 1997 – and the Opportunity and Spirit rovers, which both touched down in January 2004.
Opportunity and Spirit landed on opposite sides of the planet, in areas that scientists suspected may have once held water in the ancient past.
The rovers were tasked with searching for a variety of rocks, as well as investigating potential water in the Red Planet's past, and Opportunity finding the first evidence that Mars could have once potentially sustained microbial life.
Both rovers far exceeded their expected operational lifespan of 90 sols (Martian days). Spirit continued to send back science data for six years, two months, and 19 days, while Opportunity kept chugging on still.
But then, almost 15 years later, a planet-wide storm finally ended the rover. At this point it had exceeded its planned lifespan by 55 times, and had traveled more than 45 kilometers (28 miles), the first rover ever to complete a marathon on another planet.
When the storm hit, enveloping the planet, Opportunity went into hibernation. NASA attempted to contact the rover for over half a year, before finally calling time of death in February 2019.
"One of the most successful and enduring feats of interplanetary exploration, NASA's Opportunity rover mission is at an end after almost 15 years exploring the surface of Mars and helping lay the groundwork for NASA's return to the Red Planet," NASA said at the time.
"The Opportunity rover stopped communicating with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018.
After more than a thousand commands to restore contact, engineers in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive Opportunity Tuesday, to no avail.
The solar-powered rover's final communication was received June 10."
Shortly after the announcement, several news outlets reported that the rover's final communication was the words "my battery is low and it’s getting dark".
But of course, this would be a baffling message to receive from the rover, which does not communicate in words.
In fact, as Snopes points out, that was a rough translation by science journalist Jacob Margolis, who was summarizing what two NASA engineers on the mission told him.
"It also told us the skies were incredibly dark, to the point where no sunlight gets through. It's night time during the day," project manager John Callas told Margolis of the final message.
"We were hopeful that the rover could ride it out. That the rover would hunker down, and then when the storm cleared, the rover would charge back up.
That didn't happen. At least it didn't tell us that it happened. So, we don't know."
The final message actually came in the form of an equally haunting image.
"Taken on June 10, 2018 (the 5,111th Martian day, or sol, of the mission) this 'noisy,' incomplete image was the last data NASA's Opportunity rover sent back from Perseverance Valley on Mars," NASA explains of the image.
"Opportunity took this image with the left eye of the Pancam, with its solar filter pointed at the Sun. But since the dust storm blotted out the Sun, the image is dark. The white speckles are noise from the camera.
All Pancam images have noise in them, but the darkness makes it more apparent. The transmission stopped before the full image was transmitted, leaving the bottom of the image incomplete, represented here as black pixels."
And with that, Opportunity rested. It did a good job.
https://www.iflscience.com/the-haunting-last-message-from-nasas-opportunity-rover-sent-from-inside-a-planet-wide-storm-79921
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ll-VHYxWXU
Friday Find: Tracing a cosmic tool through time and space
July 11, 2025
Among its many responsibilities, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey was charged with observations of the earth's magnetic field.
One of the instruments used for these measurements was this cosmic-ray meter, which detected the arrival of atomic particles from interstellar space at Earth’s surface.
These particles, called cosmic rays or astroparticles, are high-energy particles or clusters of particles that move through space at nearly the speed of light.
They were first identified by Austrian-American physicist Victor Hess in 1912. Cosmic rays interact with the earth’s magnetic field, making them useful in the study of terrestrial magnetism.
The earth’s magnetic field protects us from cosmic radiation and is the reason we are able to use compasses for navigation.
In the early 1930s, the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism coordinated an effort to make continuous observations of cosmic rays at widely-spaced stations around the globe.
By mid-1935, seven precision recording instruments were constructed under the direction of Dr. Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago.
The design is known as Model-C, and its central component is a spherical “steel bomb”— a beach ball-sized ionization chamber filled with pressurized argon gas.
The device has an outer shell that was filled with lead shot for radiation shielding. An onboard clock controlled the motorized scrolling of a roll of paper on which readings were made.
Five Model-C instruments were deployed for permanent installation at magnetic observatories in the United States, Peru, Mexico, New Zealand, and Greenland (the remaining two instruments were reserved for special investigations—and traveled extensively).
Serial number 1 arrived at the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey’s Cheltenham Magnetic Observatory in Maryland and began service in March 1935.
Cosmic-ray observations at Cheltenham continued daily into the 1950s. By this time, urban development around the observatory had made the site unsatisfactory for sensitive scientific measurements.
A new magnetic observatory was built near Fredericksburg, Virginia and on October 5, 1956, Model-C-1 was moved to its new home, where continuous measurements resumed days later.
The instrument was used through the 1960s and into the 1970s, when it may have traveled with field parties. A paper tag affixed to the device indicates that a motor was replaced in August 1976.
The instrument has multiple serial number labels, with one attached to the faceplate of the “electrometer” module. Curiously, this part is labeled not with the number 1, but 4.
Model-C-4 operated near Mexico City, Mexico from 1937 to at least 1958. Perhaps the Fredericksburg instrument’s component needed replacement and was sourced from another of the group of seven.
In the years after NOAA’s formation in 1970, several of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey’s functions went to NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey and responsibility for terrestrial magnetism was transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey.
These agencies continue to operate at the Fredericksburg Magnetic Observatory, with part of the campus now serving as the National Geodetic Survey’s Testing and Training Center.
The cosmic-ray meter remains at the Fredericksburg site, though now decommissioned.
This unique instrument, detecting minute particles from far beyond our earthly shores, provided decades of faithful service and helped grow our understanding of earth’s magnetic field.
https://www.noaa.gov/heritage/stories/friday-find-tracing-cosmic-tool-through-time-and-space
https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/Europe_s_first_deep-space_optical_communication_link
Europe's first deep-space optical communication link
10/07/2025
The European Space Agency (ESA) successfully established a transmission-reception optical link with NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment onboard its Psyche mission, located 265 million kilometres away, using two optical grounds stations developed for this purpose in Greece.
On 7 July 2025, ESA marked a historic milestone by establishing its first optical communication link with a spacecraft in deep space.
The link was made with NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment aboard its Psyche mission, currently at a distance of 1.8 astronomical units, around 265 million km.
This is the first of four planned links occurring this summer.
This achievement marks yet another milestone in the long history of cross-support between space agencies, demonstrating the potential for interoperability between ESA and NASA in the realm of optical communications, something previously only achieved with radiofrequency systems.
“The first successful demonstration of deep-space optical communication with a European ground segment marks truly a leap step towards bringing terrestrial internet like high-speed connectivity to our deep-space spacecraft.
This joint achievement together with our colleagues and partners in industry and academia, ESA’s Directorate of Technology and NASA/JPL underlines the importance of international cooperation”, says Rolf Densing, ESA’s Director of Operations.
“This is an amazing success. Through years of technological advancements, international standardisation efforts and adoption of innovative engineering solutions we have set a cornerstone of the Solar System Internet,” says Mariella Spada, ESA’s Head of Ground systems Engineering and Innovation.
Establishing a laser link across the solar system
The transmission campaign begins in Greece, where ESA has transformed two observatories into high-precision optical ground stations.
From the Kryoneri Observatory, located near Athens, a powerful laser beacon is directed toward NASA’s Psyche spacecraft.
Though it carries no data, the beacon is designed to be so precisely targeted that the DSOC experiment onboard Psyche can lock onto it and send a return signal back to Earth.
That return signal is then captured by the Helmos Observatory, situated 37 km away on a neighbouring mountain peak.
“Enabling this two-way optical handshake meant overcoming two major technical challenges: developing a laser powerful enough to hit a distant spacecraft with pinpoint accuracy; and building a receiver sensitive enough to detect the faintest return signal, sometimes just a few photons, after a journey of hundreds of millions of kilometres,” explains Sinda Mejri, project manager of the ESA's Ground Laser Receiver system.
Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which developed and manages both DSOC and Psyche, provided the spacecraft’s position using powerful navigation techniques including Delta-Differential One-Way Ranging (Delta-DOR), a technique that is also employed by ESA for interplanetary missions, to precisely determine the spacecraft trajectory.
Flight dynamics experts at the ESA’s Space Operations Centre (ESOC) then compensated for variables such as air density, temperature gradients, and planetary motion.
This process is like the ones used in global navigation satellite systems, but with the added complexity of deep-space distances and the need for ultra-accurate pointing.
To ensure safety during the laser transmissions, sections of Greek airspace were temporarily closed.
Years of preparation, installed within days
The success of the link was the result of years of preparation and collaboration, while optical transmit and receive ground stations were built.
The Ground Laser Transmitter integrates five high-power lasers with ultra-precise steering controllers into a special 20-foot-long container with a lifting platform.
This protects the sensitive equipment from sunlight during the day and lifts it into the open after sunset. Meanwhile, the Ground Laser Receiver is formed by a sophisticated optical bench so sensitive it can detect single photons.
This single-photon sensitive receiver is securely mounted to the rear of the 2.3 Aristarchos telescope, located 2340 m above sea level at the Helmos Observatory.
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In April, the team ran a rehearsal campaign by beaming a single low-power signal to ESA's Alphasat satellite.
Located in geostationary orbit, at 36 000 km altitude, the satellite is a prime test bed for optical communications technologies, thanks to a bespoke optical communication terminal provided by Germany's DLR.
“Despite the complexity of the task, the final installation of the lasers, electrical wiring, and cooling systems was successfully completed shortly after their delivery the same morning,” said Clemens Heese, ESA’s Head of Optical Technologies and ESA’s DSOC demonstration project manager.
“Achieving ‘laser installation and safe laser emission on the sky within a day’ is a remarkable testament to the team's precision, coordination, and dedication.”
Moments later, the final dry runs allowed the team to review full procedure walkthroughs and perform a live laser test to optimise timing and coordination.
The effort involved fewer than 20 people on-site: 7 at Kryoneri, 12 at Helmos. The Psyche spacecraft and DSOC flight terminal operations were performed in the United States at JPL, which also sent two experts to Greece to assist ground operations.
A glimpse into the future
This demonstration is more than a technical feat. It’s a glimpse into the future of deep space communication. “Optical links promise data rates 10 to 100 times higher than current radiofrequency systems.
Combining this technology with the ones we have for radiofrequency communications is essential to transmit the ever-increasing data output of the missions exploring the universe”, said Andrea Di Mira, Project Manager of ESA’s Ground Laser Transmitter system at ESOC.
“We’re proud to have ESA featured on the Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment onboard our Psyche mission.
It’s a powerful example of what international cooperation can achieve, and a glimpse into the future of communications in deep space,” says Abi Biswas, project technologist for DSOC at NASA JPL.
The success also lays the groundwork for ESA’s proposed ASSIGN (Advancing Solar System Internet and GrouNd) programme, to be presented at the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level (CM25) in November.
“ASSIGN will aim at federating existing and future radiofrequency and optical networks into a secure and resilient interoperable network of networks for ESA’s missions as well as institutional and commercial ones, and fostering European industry competitiveness for its realisation and future exploitation,” says Mehran Sarkarati, ESA’s Head of Ground Stations Engineering Division and Programme Manager for ASSIGN Programme.
Industrial and international collaboration
ESA’s participation in the DSOC demonstration is made possible by a consortium of European companies including qtlabs (AT), Single Quantum (NL), GA Synopta (CH), qssys (DE), Safran Data Systems (FR) and NKT Photonics Ltd (UK), and by the National Observatory of Athens (GR), who allowed to turn its Helmos and Kryoneri observatories into deep-space optical ground stations and provided critical infrastructure.
The project is funded through ESA’s General Support Technology Programme and Technology Development Element.
Looking ahead, ESA is currently studying a Mars electric propulsive tug capability, called ‘LightShip’, which would transport passenger spacecraft to Mars.
Following passenger drop off, LightShip would transfer to a service orbit where it would provide communications and navigation services through the MARs COmmunication and Navigation Infrastructure (MARCONI) payload, part of which will include an optical communications demonstrator as part of the roadmap towards supporting future human missions.
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Amanda Nguyen returns space-traveled lotus seeds to Vietnam
11/07/2025 17:40 (GMT+07:00)
Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan congratulated Amanda Nguyen on her historic achievement and praised her for embodying the spirit of exploration and resilience.
Nguyen’s success, she said, is a source of inspiration for Vietnamese women and youth striving to reach new heights.
The Vice President also acknowledged Nguyen’s global advocacy, particularly her efforts in combating violence against women and her instrumental role in advancing the United Nations General Assembly’s 2022 resolution on the rights of survivors of sexual violence.
She reaffirmed Vietnam’s consistent policy of promoting gender equality and ensuring a safe and equitable environment for women.
The Vice President emphasized that Vietnam upholds and protects the legitimate rights of women, including those outlined in the UN resolution. She further noted that the Vietnamese diaspora is considered an inseparable part of the nation.
The Vice President expressed delight at the progress and success of the Vietnamese community in the United States, who continue to make significant contributions to their host society while maintaining strong ties to their homeland.
Vice President Xuan encouraged Amanda Nguyen to continue playing a personal role in strengthening people-to-people diplomacy between Vietnam and the United States, especially during the 30th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.
Expressing deep honor and emotion at being the first Vietnamese-American woman to travel into space, Amanda Nguyen said that all her accomplishments stem from the Vietnamese heritage she proudly carries with her.
Reflecting on her experience viewing Earth from orbit, Nguyen shared a profound sense of love and responsibility toward preserving the shared home of humanity - particularly her affection for Vietnam.
Regarding her advocacy work, she thanked Vietnam for supporting the UN resolution on survivors of sexual violence and expressed her desire to continue receiving Vietnam’s backing in this important cause.
Vice President Xuan also shared Vietnam’s future economic and social development goals, highlighting that science, technology, and innovation have been identified as top national priorities.
Amanda Nguyen, affirming that Vietnam holds a special place in her heart, pledged to help strengthen Vietnam–US scientific and technological cooperation, with a focus on human resource development.
US Ambassador to Vietnam Marc Knapper, who attended the meeting, reported on recent positive developments in Vietnam–US relations.
He affirmed the United States’ commitment to supporting Vietnam’s economic and social development goals.
Vice President Xuan welcomed the progress in bilateral relations and extended congratulations to Ambassador Knapper on the occasion of US Independence Day.
During the meeting, Amanda Nguyen officially returned Vietnamese lotus seeds she had taken into space, gifted by the Vietnam Space Center.
The handover symbolized not only a connection to Vietnam’s cultural roots but also a shared passion for science and exploration.
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/amanda-nguyen-returns-space-traveled-lotus-seeds-to-vietnam-2420690.html
Smithsonian Pushing Back on Plans to Relocate Space Shuttle
Friday, July 11, 2025
There is a battle brewing over ownership of a retired NASA space shuttle.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law by President Donald Trump at the White House last week, sets aside $85 million to relocate the space shuttle Discovery from its current home at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in northern Virginia to the NASA-run Johnson Space Center in Houston.
But the Smithsonian Institution, which operates the National Air and Space Museum, is fighting to keep the spacecraft.
In a message sent to Congress, the organization said it would be “unprecedented” for the federal government to remove an object from its collection and send it somewhere else.
“The space shuttle Discovery is not on loan to the Smithsonian from NASA,” the message read. “Ownership was transferred to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.”
Earlier this month, before the Big Beautiful Bill was signed into law, National Air and Space Museum Director Chris Browne told the Washington Business Journal that the museum maintains full ownership of the orbiter.
“Our position is that the Discovery is staying right where it is,” Browne said.
The Smithsonian was created by the federal government, and about two-thirds of its funding comes from federal appropriations.
But its collections are not managed as federal property. It is not clear what route the Smithsonian could take, if any, to challenge the relocation measure.
Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) has taken the Smithsonian’s side in the tussle, arguing Discovery should stay in his state.
“What kind of message does it send to the American people when Republicans cut Medicaid and nutrition assistance funding that people rely on, while simultaneously authorizing $85 million in taxpayer dollars to move a space shuttle halfway across the country?”
Kaine said. “This ridiculous transfer would make Americans pay a $30 fee to view a shuttle that they can see for free right now in Chantilly [Virginia].”
New Texas Home
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas), who authored the shuttle relocation provision in the Big Beautiful Bill, has said Discovery is a powerful symbol of his state’s contributions to the aerospace industry and national space exploration efforts.
“Houston has long been the cornerstone of our nation’s human space exploration program, and it’s long overdue for Space City to receive the recognition it deserves by bringing the Space Shuttle Discovery home,” Cornyn said in a statement.
“I am glad to see this pass as part of the Senate’s One Big Beautiful Bill and look forward to welcoming Discovery to Houston and righting this egregious wrong.”
The measure was backed by fellow Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who joined Cornyn in introducing the stand-alone Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act in April.
The language of that proposal was largely incorporated into the Big Beautiful Bill. Transporting Discovery the roughly 1,200 miles between Virginia and Texas would be a complicated undertaking.
The two Boeing 747s specially equipped to carry space shuttles, known as the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), are both retired and on display, one in California, the other in Texas.
Moving the spacecraft by land would cost over $300 million and increase the risk of damage, according to the Smithsonian.
Discovery entered service in 1984 and flew 39 Earth-orbital missions, spending 365 days in space and traveling almost 150 million miles. It was retired in 2011, by which time it was the oldest surviving space shuttle orbiter.
NASA transferred ownership of the spacecraft to the Smithsonian in 2012, and in April of that year it was flown to Washington Dulles International Airport (KIAD) and transported to the Udvar-Hazy Center.
Six space shuttle orbiters were built for flight.
Enterprise is on display at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York, Atlantis is housed at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and Endeavour is held by the California Science Center, with plans for permanent display at the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center.
Challenger broke apart shortly after launch in 1986, and Columbia disintegrated upon reentry in 2003. The two accidents killed a combined 14 people.
https://www.flyingmag.com/smithsonian-pushing-back-on-plans-to-relocate-space-shuttle/
Space startup raises millions to make ‘impossible’ drugs that Earth’s gravity won’t allow
Updated: Jul 11, 2025 08:08 AM EST
Varda Space Industries has raised $187 million in its latest funding round, the company explained in a press release on Thursday, July 10.
The funding round, led by Natural Capital and Shrug Capital, will help Varda Space develop drugs in space.
The company claims that its tecchnology harnesses space conditions to develop “novel drug formulations that would otherwise be impossible.”
Varda Space’s microgravity drug development
The new funding round brings Varda’s total funding raised to $329 million. The latest round included participation from billionaire Peter Thiel, Lux Capital, and the Founders Fund.
“With this capital, Varda will continue to increase our flight cadence and build out the pharmaceutical lab that will deliver the world’s first microgravity-enabled drug formulation,” Varda Space CEO Will Bruey explained in its press statement.
Varda Space is aiming to develop medicine that would be impossible on Earth, the company said. Active pharmaceutical materials and other materials crystallize differently in microgravity conditions.
According to a CNN report from 2023, one example comes from research carried out by pharmaceutical firm Merck aboard the International Space Station.
The researchers found that microgravity conditions in space allowed for a more stable version of the active ingredient pembrolizumab. This ingredient is used in the cancer drug Keytruda.
The company also claims its space vehicles will eventually be able to mass manufacture drugs in space.
“When you think about mass manufacturing, it doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to scale up by 1000x in terms of size of vehicle,” said Delian Asparouhov, cofounder of Varda Space Industries.
“Our current vehicles can bring back on the order of 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of active pharmaceutical ingredient. For the sets of drugs that we’re working on, for some of them, that can be like a full batch size — that is quarterly production.”
The first to process materials outside the ISS
To date, Varda Space has flown three successful launch and return missions. A fourth mission is currently in orbit, and a fifth is expected to launch later this year.
During its first mission, W-1, Varda grew crystals of the anti-HIV drug ritonavir inside a space vehicle flying in low Earth orbit.
“Varda’s orbital laboratories are the first to process materials outside the International Space Station (ISS) and mark the beginnings of commercial expansion into low Earth orbit,” the company explained in its statement.
Varda Space, a California-based startup, was founded by ex-SpaceX avionics engineer Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov of Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
The company recently expanded its operations with a new office in Huntsville, Alaska, and a lab in El Segundo, California.
According to a report from Reuters, the company will use that lab to crystallize biologic drugs and work on improving their formulation.
https://interestingengineering.com/space/varda-space-to-make-drugs
https://www.varda.com/
Scientists Are Engineering “Moon Rice” for Space Missions That Could Also Feed Earth’s Harshest Habitats
July 11, 2025
Permanent Moon habitation and later missions to Mars both face serious questions of self-reliance, which the Italian Moon-Rice project aims to address by producing a crop bioengineered to grow under conditions unlike those occurring naturally on Earth.
The project, presented at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Antwerp, Belgium on July 9, 2025, aspires to engineer a crop that can grow almost anywhere, from deep-space outposts to some of Earth’s most extreme environments.
Success will mean that space exploration can transition from costly resupply missions to local production of fresh foods full of vitamins, antioxidants, and fiber.
The Challenges of Feeding Space Missions
“Living in space is all about recycling resources and living sustainably,” says Marta Del Bianco, a plant biologist at the Italian Space Agency. “We are trying to solve the same problems that we face here on Earth.”
While there are strong nutrition and self-reliance benefits to pursuing fresh food for space missions, the team points out that the food may help to provide relief from the already psychologically taxing long-term effects of space habitation.
“Watching and guiding plants to grow is good for humans, and while pre-cooked or mushy food can be fine for a short period of time, it could become a concern for longer-duration missions,” Del Bianco says.
“If we can make an environment that physically and mentally nourishes the astronauts, it will reduce stress and lower the chances of people making mistakes,” she adds.
“In space, the best case of a mistake is wasted money, and the worst case is the loss of lives.”
Producing a Moon-Rice
Italy is leading the Moon-Rice Project, a collaboration between the Italian Space Agency and three major Italian universities, each with their own specializations that are important to the Moon-Rice project.
The University of Milan is noted for its work in rice genetics, while Sapienza University of Rome has done significant work in crop physiology manipulation, and the University of Naples Federico II has already conducted extensive research in space crops.
Size is one of the primary concerns for the new project, as most rice varieties, even including dwarf strains, are too large for space agriculture. “What we need is a super-dwarf, but this comes with its own challenges,” Dr Del Bianco says.
“Dwarf varieties often come from the manipulation of a plant hormone called gibberellin, which can reduce the height of the plant, but this also creates problems for seed germination.
They’re not an ideal crop, because in space, you just don’t have to be small, you must also be productive.”
“Researchers at the University of Milan are isolating mutant rice varieties that can grow to just 10 cm high, so they’re really tiny and this is a great starting point,” says Dr Del Bianco.
“At the same time, Rome has identified genes that can alter the plant architecture to maximize production and growth efficiency.”
Enhancing Crops for Moon Habitation and Beyond
Another major concern is how the plants will respond to reduced gravity. While doing experiments in real-world microgravity environments remains out of the project’s scope, the team has developed workarounds.
“We simulate micro-gravity on Earth by continually rotating the plant so that the plant is pulled equally in all directions by gravity.
Each side of the plant gets activated continuously and it doesn’t know where the up and down is,” says Dr Del Bianco.
To mitigate the inefficiency of animal agriculture, which is too resource and space-intensive for the kind of artificial habitats that space missions will require, the team is attempting to improve the protein content of rice.
Researchers are presently attempting to increase the ratio of starch to protein inside rice embryos.
Beyond the intended use for space missions, the team sees their project as potentially having benefits for humans in challenging environments here on Earth as well, which may similarly require closed habitation units.
“If you can develop a robust crop for space, then it could be used at the Arctic and Antarctic poles, or in deserts, or places with only a small amount of indoor space available,” says Dr Del Bianco.
https://thedebrief.org/scientists-are-engineering-moon-rice-for-space-missions-that-could-also-feed-earths-harshest-habitats/
https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/07/nearly-everyone-opposes-trumps-plan-to-kill-space-traffic-control-program/
Nearly everyone opposes Trump’s plan to kill space traffic control program
Jul 10, 2025 3:06 PM
The Trump administration's plan to gut the Office of Space Commerce and cancel the government's first civilian-run space traffic control program is gaining plenty of detractors.
Earlier this week, seven space industry trade groups representing more than 450 companies sent letters to House and Senate leaders urging them to counter the White House's proposal.
A spokesperson for the military's Space Operations Command, which currently has overall responsibility for space traffic management, said it will "continue to advocate" for a civilian organization to take over the Space Force's role as orbital traffic cop.
Giveth and taketh away
The White House's budget request submitted to Congress for fiscal year 2026 would slash the Office of Space Commerce's budget from $65 million to $10 million and eliminate funding for the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS).
The TraCSS program was established in the Department of Commerce after Trump signed a policy directive in his first term as president to reform how the government supervises the movements of satellites and space debris in orbit.
The Office of Space Commerce, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, has been around since the 1980s as a licensing agency for remote sensing and Earth observation satellites.
TraCSS is designed as a cloud-based system to serve as a nerve center for collecting satellite tracking data from spacecraft owners and a network of government and commercial telescopes and radars.
The space traffic control network then uses the information to provide alerts of potential in-space collisions to satellite operators. This is becoming more important as thousands more satellites head to space each year.
Industry trade groups are lobbying Congress to reverse the Trump administration's proposal and restore the Office of Space Commerce's (OSC's) budget to this year's level of $65 million.
"One of OSC’s most important functions is to provide space traffic coordination support to US satellite operators, similar to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in air traffic control for the US airline industry," seven trade groups wrote in joint letters to Congress.
The trade organizations count the largest Western commercial satellite operators among their members: SpaceX, Amazon, Eutelsat OneWeb, Planet Labs, Iridium, SES, Intelsat, and Spire.
These are the companies with the most at stake in the debate over the future of space traffic coordination.
Industry sources told Ars that some companies are concerned a catastrophic collision in low-Earth orbit might trigger a wave of burdensome regulations, an outcome they would like to avoid.
"Without funding for space traffic coordination, US commercial and government satellite operators could face greater risks—putting critical missions in harm's way, raising the cost of doing business, and potentially driving US industry to relocate overseas," the industry groups warned.
The military currently performs the spaceflight safety mission, providing up to a million collision warnings per day to give satellite operators a heads-up that their spacecraft will encounter another object as they speed around the Earth at nearly 5 miles per second.
A collision at those velocities would endanger numerous other satellites, including the International Space Station.
This happened in 2009 with the accidental collision of a functional commercial communications satellite and a defunct Russian spacecraft, adding more than 2,000 pieces of debris to busy orbital traffic lanes.
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Ideally, the Space Force issues its warnings in time for a satellite operator to maneuver their spacecraft out of the path of a potential collision.
Satellite operators might also have more precise information on the location of their spacecraft and determine that they don't need to perform any collision avoidance maneuver.
The military's Space Surveillance Network (SSN) tracks more than 47,000 objects in orbit.
Most of these objects are orbital debris, but there's a growing number of active spacecraft as many operators—mainly SpaceX, Amazon, the Space Force, and China—deploy megaconstellations with hundreds to thousands of satellites.
The Satellite Industry Association reports that nearly 2,700 satellites were launched into Earth orbit last year, bringing the total number of active satellites to 11,539, a threefold increase over the number of operating spacecraft in 2020.
Under strain
Space Force officials are eager to exit the business of warning third-party satellite operators, including rivals such as Russia and China, of possible collisions in orbit.
The military would prefer to focus on managing ever-growing threats from satellites, an intensive effort that requires continual monitoring as other nations' increasingly sophisticated spacecraft maneuver from one orbit to another.
But until someone else is ready to take over, the Space Force will remain saddled with the responsibility of issuing these alerts.
The Space Force calls these alerts conjunction assessments, and there are national security reasons for sharing the warnings far and wide, because a traffic accident in orbit would endanger the Space Force's own satellites.
Col. Raj Agrawal just completed a two-year tour of duty heading up Space Operations Command's space domain awareness mission. A decade ago, this would have entailed identifying, tracking, and characterizing the thousands of objects in Earth orbit.
Today, the mission goes a step further to screen for potentially hostile satellites and develop defensive and offensive options for military commanders to consider if there's a conflict.
"Our intel apparatus gets after what things could potentially be a risk, and what things to continue to understand better, and what things we have to be ready to hold at risk," said Agrawal, whose unit, named Mission Delta 2, is charged with maintaining the world's publicly available reference catalog of all objects in orbit, alongside the new responsibilities in space warfare.
The Commerce Department's TraCSS program is supposed to take over the public-facing part of the space domain awareness mission.
"I'm not in the business of spaceflight safety," Agrawal told Ars in an interview before release of the White House's detailed budget proposal.
"I'm in the business of teeing up decisions for decision-makers to de-escalate risk. Spaceflight safety is just a foundational aspect. I’ve got to know the domain before we can anticipate options to make decisions.
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"We're trying to get to where commercial spaceflight safety is managed by the Office of Space Commerce, so they're training side-by-side with us to kind of offload that mission," Agrawal said.
Agrawal's tour of duty as Mission Delta 2 ended last week, as planned. His next assignment will be as an instructor at the National Defense University.
"We want to get to where the authorities are rightly aligned, where civil or commercial notifications are done by an organization that's not focused on warfighting, and we focus on the things that we want to focus on," Agrawal said.
"Also, if people are trying to engage with an organization for peaceful purposes or commercial equities, I want them engaging with another organization other than Department of Defense."
Under the existing plan, which dates to the first Trump administration, the Commerce Department's TraCSS program would still use data from the Space Force's network of tracking radars and telescopes.
But a civilian agency would be charged with turning this data into a publicly accessible catalog of space objects and issuing collision alerts to civil, commercial, and international satellite operators.
In a justification document accompanying the White House's budget proposal, Trump administration officials wrote that the Commerce Department was "unable to complete a government-owned-and-operated public-facing database and traffic coordination system."
TraCSS started beta testing last fall with a handful of satellite operators totaling around 1,000 spacecraft.
Government officials announced in May that TraCSS was working to add SpaceX as a beta user, adding more than 7,000 additional satellites to the test program, which allows operators to submit thousands of satellite positions to TraCSS and screen for collision threats within a few minutes.
The Office of Space Commerce most recently said TraCSS was on track for a "full production release" in early 2026.
Amazon Web Services has a contract for cloud hosting of TraCSS data, and the government tapped Parsons Corporation as the system's overall integrator.
The Trump administration now proposes to hand off responsibility for space traffic control to private industry.
Officials wrote in the budget justification document that "private industry has proven that they have the capability and the business model" to provide civilian operators with space situational awareness data and space traffic management services.
Later in the document, officials wrote that the "intent" of Trump's 2018 policy directive that led to the creation of TraCSS has been "satisfied" with private industry capable of offering a free basic service and "fee-based concierge services" to satellite operators.
Speaking for the satellite industry, trade groups cautioned that the White House's plan ignores the risk that the space traffic control mission will revert back to the military.
"Successive administrations have recognized on a bipartisan basis that space traffic coordination is a global, commercial-facing function best managed by a civilian agency," the trade groups wrote.
"Keeping space traffic coordination within the Department of Commerce preserves military resources for core defense missions and prevents the conflation of space safety with military control—critical to US leadership in setting international standards and norms for space activities."
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July 2025 full 'Buck Moon' dazzles skywatchers worldwide
July 11, 2025
The July full moon put on a magnificent show on July 10, rising low over the southern horizon to the delight of stargazers and astrophotographers worldwide.
Read on for a roundup of the best photos of the lunar show.
July's full moon is known as the 'Buck Moon', in reference to the male deer — called bucks in the U.S. — that begin to grow out their antlers around this time of year.
Eagle-eyed observers may have noticed this month’s full moon riding unusually low on the horizon.
This is a result of the Buck Moon’s proximity to the summer solstice — a time when the sun is at its highest in the daytime sky and the moon travels a correspondingly low path through the night.
It also appeared near a phenomenon called a Major Lunar Standstill. Roughly every 18.6 years, the sun's gravity pulls the moon's tilted orbit into its most extreme inclination relative to Earth's celestial equator.
As a result, the moon appears especially low in the sky during the summer months.
As always, the astrophotography community was ready to grab the lunar milestone by the horns, setting up imaginative compositions that captured the moon's fully-lit disk alongside world-famous landmarks and ancient ruins.
If you missed the moon rise on July 10, don't worry, the moon will still appear full to the naked eye over the next couple of nights, so get out there and line up some shots.
Read on to see a roundup of the most spectacular images of July's full Buck Moon.
cont.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/july-2025-full-buck-moon-dazzles-skywatchers-worldwide-photos
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/champion-lumberjack-reality-tv-star-and-cabinet-secretary-who-is-sean-duffy-nasas-new-interim-chief
Who is Sean Duffy, NASA's new interim chief? From champion lumberjack, reality TV star and Cabinet secretary to space
July 11, 2025
NASA has a new leader, at least for now.
On Wednesday evening (July 9), President Donald Trump named Sean Duffy interim chief of the space agency. Duffy takes over from Janet Petro, who had served as acting NASA administrator since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.
It's unclear how long Duffy will serve in his new role, but it could be a while. Trump has yet to name a replacement for Jared Isaacman, who he originally nominated to be permanent NASA chief before rescinding that nomination on May 31.
However long he stays in the job, Duffy will be quite busy: He's also Trump's Secretary of Transportation. Here's a short primer on Duffy, whose background is far more colorful than that of most government officials.
Duffy was born on Oct. 3, 1971 in Hayward, a small city in northern Wisconsin. He's the 10th of 11 children in an Irish Catholic family, according to his biography on the U.S. Department of Transportation website.
He "comes from a long line of lumberjacks, who helped build his beloved state of Wisconsin," the biography states.
Duffy himself was big into timber sports; he started log rolling at age five and speed climbing — racing vertically up 60- and 90-foot (18- and 27-meter) poles — at 13, according to an early 2000s feature in Classic Wisconsin.
"There's a huge log rolling school here in Hayward," Duffy told the publication at the time, "so a lot of the kids in the community would come down and take log rolling lessons, much the same as kids would take soccer lessons and swimming lessons in other communities."
He got very good at such contests. At the time the Classic Wisconsin article was published, Duffy (then 30 years old), held two world speed-climbing titles.
Duffy stayed in the upper Midwest U.S. for college, graduating from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota with a B.A. in marketing in 1994.
Three years later, the wider world got its first look at Duffy.
He starred in "The Real World: Boston," the sixth season of the MTV reality show that put a disparate group of young people together in a house for a few months and chronicled their lives and interactions. (The show is still going, though its MTV days ended in 2017.)
Duffy was one of seven people in the Boston house. He remained in the "Real World" universe for a spell after that stint ended, participating in the spinoff shows "Road Rules: All Stars" and "Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons."
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On "Road Rules: All Stars," he met Rachel Campos, an alum of "The Real World: San Francisco," which aired in 1994. The two got married in 1999.
"Rachel and Sean are America’s first and longest-married reality TV couple," Duffy's Department of Transportation bio reads. "They have been married for 25 years and have nine children together."
The same year he got married, Duffy graduated from the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. He began his law career in private practice but in 2002 was appointed district attorney of Wisconsin's Ashland County.
Duffy, a Republican, held that post until 2010, when he was elected to represent Wisconsin's District 7 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He won reelection multiple times and made an imprint on the body, "serving on the House Financial Services Committee and actively leading on local transportation issues via his co-chairmanship of the Great Lakes Task Force," according to his Department of Transportation bio.
Duffy stood behind many of Trump's initiatives and priorities during the president's first term.
In 2017, for example, he supported the executive order temporarily barring people from seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the U.S. A year later, he introduced a bill designed to give Trump more tariff-imposing power.
Duffy left Congress in September 2019 to spend more time with his family as he and his wife prepared to welcome a baby daughter who had been diagnosed with a heart condition.
He then worked as a CNN political commentator and as a lobbyist with the firm BGR Group. In January 2023, he began co-hosting "The Bottom Line with Dagen and Duffy," a show on the Fox Business channel. But it wouldn't be long before he returned to politics.
In November 2024, Trump announced that he had tapped Duffy to lead the Department of Transportation during his second presidential term. Duffy will continue to hold this high-profile job while steering NASA as interim chief.
Duffy may lack a substantive science, engineering and aerospace background, but he seems to have plenty of enthusiasm. "Honored to accept this mission. Time to take over space. Let's launch," he said via X on Wednesday evening.
It's too soon to say what Duffy's appointment will mean for NASA. The agency is beleaguered at the moment, facing large cuts to its coffers, its workforce and its science portfolio:
Trump's 2026 budget, if enacted, would slash the agency's overall funding by 24% and its science budget by nearly half, resulting in the cancellation of dozens of missions.
Having Duffy in the top spot may give NASA something of a boost, in the form of a direct line to the president via one of his trusted allies, Ars Technica's Eric Berger noted.
But, Berger added, "it is also possible that he takes his mandate to slash NASA's budget and workforce seriously, and in doing so would be vastly more effective than Petro."
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Silver Surfer proclaims Earth's doom in chilling new 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' clip
July 10, 2025
When you're a silver-skinned alien riding atop a metallic conduit for the Power Cosmic, delivering death sentences to targeted planets, most of the time, folks tend to pay close attention, as seen in a dire new clip from Marvel Studios' "The Fantastic Four: First Steps."
In this chilling sneak peek at the female Silver Surfer Shalla-Bal, played by Julia Garner and voiced by Camilla Scott, we see the sleek herald of Galactus the Devourer of Worlds swoop in to present words of woe to humanity and Marvel's First Family in attendance.
"Your planet is now marked for death," she warns Earth's residents and superpowered protectors. "Your world will be consumed by the Devourer.
There is nothing you can do to stop him. For he is a universal force as essential as the stars. Hold your loved ones close. And speak the words you’ve been afraid to speak. Use this time to rejoice and celebrate. For your time is short."
It's an intense moment played for all its somber implications as Reed Richards and his family listen and contemplate the Silver Surfer's depressing proclamation. Scott's performance as Shalla-Bal's forceful melodic voice makes this clip shine even brighter.
Also just revealed by Marvel Studios is this brand new behind-the-scenes featurette titled "Meet the Family," which offers amusing moments on set and focuses on the tremendous cast chemistry.
Directed by Matt Shakman and featuring Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm/Human Torch), Vanessa Kirby (Sue Storm/Invisible Woman), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm/The Thing), "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" launches into theaters on July 25, 2025.
https://www.space.com/entertainment/space-movies-shows/silver-surfer-proclaims-earths-doom-in-chilling-new-the-fantastic-four-first-steps-clip-video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRi3eZs5rOw
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10676052/
France warns of ‘extremely worrying’ Russian activity underwater and in space
July 11, 2025 2:35 pm CET
PARIS — Russia likely wants to militarize space, while its undersea activity is also “extremely worrying,” a top French general said during a rare press conference Friday.
Describing the Kremlin as “a lasting threat,” Chief of the Defense Staff Thierry Burkhard said Russian submarines “regularly enter the North Atlantic and then sometimes descend into the Mediterranean” in order to “monitor areas which are important [to France].”
Burkhard also said Moscow’s satellites are being used to spy on or interfere with French equipment.
He also pointed to “signs of a desire to militarize space” with specialized satellites “which would likely not be legal under the laws relating to the non-militarization of space.”
During the first press conference held by the French chief of the defense staff since 2021, Burkhard aimed to outline the threats currently facing France ahead of a speech Sunday on defense by President Emmanuel Macron, which is expected to include major announcements.
Beyond Russia, Burkhard also highlighted how tensions in other parts of the world — including the Middle East — are adding to an already demanding situation for French troops.
He stressed that “unbridled use of force” and “getting used to violence” had become defining elements of the global landscape.
While avoiding a direct call for increased military spending, Burkhard said that finding the best way to confront these challenges “probably comes at a cost.”
France is looking to increase its military budget to €67.4 billion by 2030, from €50.5 billion for this year.
https://www.politico.eu/article/france-warn-extremely-worrying-activity-russian-underwater-space/
Tehran invites Moscow to help rebuild in wake of Israeli-US airstrikes
11 Jul, 2025 14:11
Iranian authorities believe Russia could help rebuild infrastructure damaged by recent Israeli and US airstrikes, Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali said on Thursday.
He cited a strategic partnership agreement between the two nations signed in January.
The treaty outlines economic cooperation and the joint fight against terrorism, while opposing what both nations describe as unilateral coercive measures and breaches of international law.
”Russia can play its role in restoring damaged civilian infrastructure, if necessary, as well as being a mediator to help reduce tensions,” Jalali told Russian media.
Israel launched a wave of airstrikes on Iran last month, citing concerns over Tehran’s nuclear program. The claim was dismissed by both the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and US intelligence.
However, Washington later followed up with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities before pushing both sides to agree to a ceasefire.
The attacks caused heavy damage to civilian infrastructure and claimed hundreds of lives, according to the UN.
The latest death toll, provided by Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Amir Saeed Iravani on Thursday, stands at 1,100 people.
Tehran’s retaliatory strikes resulted in 28 deaths in Israel, according to local health authorities and media outlets.
During the 12-day war, several countries, including Russia, began evacuating their citizens from Iran.
Among those at risk were hundreds of specialists working at Iran’s only operational nuclear power plant, located near the port city of Bushehr on the Persian Gulf.
While the city was reportedly targeted during the airstrikes, the nuclear facility itself remained unharmed.
Russia played a central role in building and commissioning the plant, supplying it with nuclear fuel, and retrieving the spent material to minimize proliferation risks.
Tehran has long insisted that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only. Following the airstrikes, it suspended cooperation with the international nuclear watchdog IAEA and expelled its inspectors.
Russia condemned the attacks, accusing Israel and the US of committing a gross violation of international law, and offered to mediate.
Along with China, it also accused the two countries of undermining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which guarantees the right of signatories to pursue civilian nuclear energy.
The UN, various human rights organizations, and legal experts have also condemned the Israeli and US attacks on Iran.
https://www.rt.com/news/621351-iran-invites-moscow-rebuild/
Russia asks chemical weapons watchdog to investigate Ukraine
11 Jul, 2025 01:50
Russia has asked the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to investigate its claim that Ukrainian troops are using toxic munitions.
“The Russian side continues to document not only instances of Ukrainian nationalists using toxic chemicals and military-grade poison agents, but also evidence of a widespread system for their mass production in Ukraine,” Russian envoy Vladimir Tarabrin said at a session of the OPCW Executive Council in The Hague on Thursday.
The diplomat added that Moscow has requested the OPCW to dispatch experts to verify its findings.
Earlier this month, Russia announced the discovery of a makeshift lab allegedly used by Ukrainian troops to store chloropicrin – a choking agent banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
According to Moscow, Kiev’s forces have dropped toxic substances from drones. Kiev also asked the OPCW earlier this month to investigate the alleged use of banned chemical munitions by Moscow.
Last Friday, Germany and the Netherlands accused the Russian army of dropping choking agents on Ukrainian trenches.
Tarabrin rejected the accusations and accused the “pro-war faction” in the EU of “waging a campaign to falsify evidence.”
https://www.rt.com/russia/621322-russia-urges-prob-ukraine-chemical-weapons/
Dozens of Ukrainian drones and vehicles destroyed – MOD (VIDEO)
11 Jul, 2025 17:06
Footage released by the Defense Ministry on Friday shows Russian forces destroying multiple Ukrainian targets. The compilation showcases strikes on enemy vehicles, equipment, and personnel across several frontline areas.
In a caption accompanying the video, the ministry described Russia’s unmanned aerial systems as a “serious threat” to Kiev’s troops.
It asserts that drone units from the Eastern military grouping have eliminated several enemy UAV control points in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic.
Elsewhere, FPV drones operated by the Western grouping in Kharkov Region reportedly struck and destroyed a Ukrainian pickup truck and a British-made Snatch armored vehicle.
In another clip, reconnaissance troops from the Southern grouping in Donetsk targeted and destroyed a Kozak armored personnel carrier near the settlement of Verolyubovka.
Russian drone operators have also downed high-altitude, aircraft-type UAVs by ramming them in midair. The ministry said the Rubicon unit has also destroyed communication equipment, fire positions, and temporary troop shelters.
One scene in the compilation appears to show a Russian drone deliberately sparing a Ukrainian serviceman. The UAV in the clip hovers in front of a vehicle before striking it, seemingly waiting until the soldier exits and flees on foot.
More than 68,900 Ukrainian drones, as well as over 24,000 tanks and other armored vehicles, have been destroyed since the beginning of the military operation, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
https://www.rt.com/russia/621357-mod-fpv-drone-footage/
Apartment block destroyed by Ukrainian airstrike – Russian governor
11 Jul, 2025 15:47
A five-story residential building collapsed after being hit in a Ukrainian air strike, the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region, Vladimir Saldo, said.
Ukraine’s forces are attacking the area with drones to prevent rescue teams from helping people trapped under the rubble, according to the local authorities.
The building was located in the town of Aleshki, about seven kilometers from the Dnieper River, which separates Russian and the Ukrainian forces in the area.
“The enemy has hit a residential building in Aleshki in an airstrike,” Saldo told Russian media, including TASS and Ria Novosti. “The building has collapsed. Civilians are trapped underneath.”
The building was hit with two bombs, the governor wrote in a statement on Telegram. “Dozens of people are trapped under the rubble,” he said.
The exact number of people affected remains unclear, as Ukrainian troops are preventing emergency services from reaching the site with drone attacks, regional authorities said.
Kiev’s forces have been regularly launching attacks against various Russian regions bordering Ukraine, often hitting civilian targets.
A Ukrainian drone struck a public beach in the city of Kursk as people gathered to celebrate the Day of Family, Love, and Fidelity, a holiday celebrated on July 8.
The strike killed four civilians, including a five-year-old boy.
Last week, four people were killed in a Ukrainian strike on the city of Donetsk. Ukrainian forces used a US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher in the attack.
Another woman was severely wounded and three others sustained moderate injuries, according to the local authorities.
Last month, the Russian Foreign Ministry accused Kiev of deliberately committing atrocities against civilians in Donbass, including mass killings of elderly people and drone strikes on residential homes.
“It is a deliberate policy that has already been elevated to the level of state doctrine,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at the time.
https://www.rt.com/russia/621356-bloc-destroyed-ukraine-kherson/
‘Bombmakers’ for Ukraine busted in Russia – FSB
11 Jul, 2025 10:56
Two Russian residents have been arrested for allegedly conducting covert missions on behalf of Ukraine’s intelligence services, including assembling improvised explosive devices from components delivered by drone, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.
Kiev is reportedly operating a clandestine network to smuggle contraband into Russian territory in support of sabotage acts and targeted killings.
The operational structure is understood to be compartmentalized, with individuals often unaware of one another’s roles, and equipment passed through hidden caches.
Russian authorities said they identified two operatives affiliated with what they termed a “Ukrainian terrorist organization,” both residing in the western Bryansk Region near the Ukrainian border.
The suspects were allegedly tasked with recovering drone-delivered equipment, constructing explosive devices, and inspecting recovered firearms for operational readiness.
The FSB did not name the suspects, but said one is in his late 20s and the other approximately 30 years old.
According to the agency, the individuals began cooperating with Ukrainian authorities in April 2024 and now face charges of treason.
Video footage released by the FSB showed evidence allegedly seized during the operation, including several unassembled short-range drones, what appeared to be packaged C4 explosives, a pistol, and a suppressor.
The firearm, described by one suspect as a “suppressed Makarov,” may in fact be a PB pistol – a Soviet-designed silenced handgun from the 1960s.
Though based heavily on the Makarov PM, the PB was developed by gunsmith Aleksey Deryagin, not Nikolay Makarov.
The FSB further accused the suspects of conducting reconnaissance on sensitive facilities on behalf of Kiev.
The agency said a radio scanner was found in their possession, allegedly used to detect electronic jamming signals and to calibrate drone systems to avoid interference.
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of organizing numerous sabotage and assassination attempts in recent years.
In one such incident in late May, an alleged explosive attack beneath railway tracks derailed a passenger train in Bryansk Region, killing seven civilians and injuring more than 100 others.
https://www.rt.com/russia/621338-ukrainian-bomb-makers-bryansk/
IDF says troops foiled weapons smuggling attempt from Jordan using drone
July 11, 2025, 7:50 pm
IDF troops foiled an attempt to smuggle weapons from Jordan into Israel using a drone last night, the military says.
According to the IDF, troops of the Bardelas Brigade operating in an area south of the Dead Sea spotted a drone flying over the border.
Later, the drone was located, and it was found to be ferrying seven handguns, the army adds.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-troops-foiled-weapons-smuggling-attempt-from-jordan-using-drone/
Iranian hack leaks data on Israeli soldiers, intelligence officers
11 July, 2025
Hackers affiliated with Iran leaked a database containing thousands of resumes of Israelis who served in the Israeli military in June.
The breach, which is believed to be a part of over 20 recent "hack and leak" operations carried out by Handala Hack, affected veterans of elite units of the army and government agencies.
The leak included personal information like names, phone numbers and home addresses of individuals who had served in the military, including in intelligence, the Air Force, and other elite units.
When Haaretz asked the almost 250 Israelis affected, none of the respondents said they were informed of the hack by authorities.
Details of former drone operators, missile developers and personnel involved in Israel's air systems were also exposed.
The leak, confirmed as largely authentic by Haaretz, is believed to have originated from the JobInfo recruitment site or its partners, with CVs detailing classified experience in cyber, drone, and intelligence work.
Evidence suggests the breach happened at least a year ago, and the leak is often done to embarrass Israel and expose the Israelis affiliated with the genocide-accused military.
Since October 2023, Iranian hackers have launched a wave of hack and leak operations, releasing personal information on senior Israeli officials, including a nuclear scientist.
Handala Hack has escalated its cyber offensive following Israel's recent war on Iran.
Israel-based cybersecurity firm Radware announced in June that cyber attacks had increased by 700 percent since Israel's war.
The Shin Bet internal security agency and Israeli cybersecurity firms have also reported a rise in spear phishing, targeting individuals in political and defence areas.
Cybersecurity firm Check Point revealed that an Iranian-linked hacker group targeted Israeli cybersecurity professionals and a journalist.
Other cases include "social engineering" attacks, where hackers gained access and hijacked email accounts and impersonated them.
At the same time, personal details of thousands of licensed gun owners in Israel were leaked following a breach in February.
In response to the hacking and its war on Iran, the Israeli government passed regulations requiring companies to comply with strict cybersecurity standards.
https://www.newarab.com/news/iranian-hack-leaks-data-israeli-soldiers-drone-operators
Explosions Rock Russian Drone and Weapon Plants After 155-Drone Blitz
July 11, 2025, 10:14 am
Russia claims it intercepted 155 Ukrainian UAVs across multiple regions, as explosions and suspected strikes were reported near several high-value military targets – including the Kronstadt drone factory near Moscow and three key defense enterprises in the Tula region.
According to Russian media reports, drones attacked the Kronstadt drone manufacturing plant in Dubna, Moscow Region.
Residents of Lukhovitsy, also in the Moscow Region, reported UAV activity overnight near the Lukhovitsy Aviation Plant named after P.A. Voronin, as well as a nearby oil depot.
However, the specific target of the attack remains unconfirmed.
In the early hours of Friday, numerous local residents reported powerful explosions and an attack on “the plant,” without specifying which facility was struck.
In one motorists’ chat, a user posted a screenshot of a map and wrote: “I was driving here and they f**ing hit just right above us.”
According to an Astra outlet report, the alleged location was in southeastern Lukhovitsy near the village of Larino, where the Lukhovitsy Aviation Plant – a branch of Russia’s “MiG” aircraft corporation – is located.
According to the website “Rightstep,” the facility is a modern manufacturing hub for aviation equipment, capable of producing major aircraft components and performing final assembly.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) introduced temporary flight restrictions at Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport. The Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg also temporarily suspended operations.
Between 08:45 and 09:45 Moscow time, Pulkovo resumed limited arrivals and departures after receiving temporary approval.
UAV activity was also reported in Russia’s Kursk region, where a Ukrainian drone allegedly struck the Psilskoye LLC facility in the village of Male Soldatskoye.
The attack reportedly caused a fire at the industrial site where equipment was located.
In Tula’s Proletarsky District, residents reported a series of explosions. The area houses three of Russia’s largest defense enterprises, all of which were previously attacked in May and June.
Footage shared by locals captured explosions near two high-rise buildings on Khvorostukhina Street.
Astra’s analysis placed the blasts within 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) of three key defense manufacturers:
JSC “Constructor’s Bureau of Instrumentation,” which develops high-precision guided weapons;
SPLAV Scientific and Production Association, producer of multiple-launch rocket systems;
Shcheglovsky Val JSC, which develops guided weapons, air defense systems, and small arms.
In the Lipetsk region, one person was killed and another injured when a UAV struck an agricultural enterprise in the Khleven district, igniting a fire that was later extinguished.
In Taganrog, drone wreckage reportedly fell on the grounds of the Beriev Aviation Plant, according to Mayor Svetlana Kambulova.
“The UAV was neutralized by the mobile group. Its debris fell on the territory of TANTK named after G.M. Beriev,” she wrote, adding that there were no casualties and that emergency crews were on site.
The Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex specializes in amphibious aircraft and conducts repairs for Russian Navy and Long-Range Aviation aircraft.
It was also targeted in previous drone attacks in December and March 2024.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that from 23:00 on July 10 to 07:00 on July 11, a total of 155 Ukrainian aircraft-type UAVs were intercepted and destroyed:
53 over Kursk region
19 over Bryansk
15 over Smolensk
14 over Belgorod
13 over Tula
11 each over Orel and Moscow regions
7 over Crimea
4 each over Lipetsk and the Black Sea
2 each over Rostov and Kaluga regions
Russian officials have not confirmed the extent of the damage. Kyiv Post has not independently verified the attack outcomes.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/56106
https://t.me/astrapress/86214
2 killed, 28 injured as Kyiv slammed with drones, ballistic missiles in Russian mass attack against Ukraine for 2nd night in row
Updated: July 11, 2025 9:03 am
At least two people were killed and 28 injured in Kyiv as Russia launched a mass attack against Ukraine for the second night in a row, rocking Ukraine's capital and cities far from the front lines overnight on July 10.
Throughout late spring and early summer 2025, Russia has ramped up aggression against Ukraine with a series of record-breaking mass strikes.
The night of July 10 saw yet another wave of aerial terror from Moscow.
At around 1:15 a.m. local time, Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground began reporting explosions in the capital and the buzzing of Shahed-type drones.
Reporters said large numbers of drones were flying over the Pechersk neighborhood, a historical district in the city center.
Later in the night, reporters said they heard several dozen explosions and the distinctive sound of ballistic missiles. At least an hour of near-constant explosions rolled through the city.
Blast waves also set off car alarms throughout Kyiv, adding to the roar of drones, ballistic missiles, and air defense fire. Air raid alerts ended at approximately 7 a.m. in Kyiv Oblast.
Ukraine's Air Force issued multiple alerts overnight, warning that groups of Russian drones were targeting regions throughout the country, including the far-western Ternopil and Rivne oblasts.
The attack caused fires at apartment buildings in Kyiv's Shevchenkivskyi and Darnytskyi districts, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported.
Gas stations and garages are also in flames, he said, and medics have been dispatched to the scene.
Two people were killed in the Russian attack, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, reported. Both fatalities were women – a 68-year-old resident and a 22-year-old police officer, the Interior Ministry said.
At least 28 people have been injured, with at least 10 hospitalized, local authorities reported, adding that some of the injured sustained shrapnel wounds. Among the injured are two children, Tkachenko said.
In the Podilskyi district, a primary healthcare center "was almost completely destroyed" in the Russian attack, Klitchsko later reported.
The attack damaged the studio of the Kanal 5 television channel, owned by former President Petro Poroshenko.
While no employees were injured, filming equipment sustained damage, causing a temporary disruption to broadcasting.
It remains unclear whether Russia targeted or hit any military or other strategic targets in the attack, as Ukrainian authorities largely do not disclose such information for security reasons.
This makes the full extent of casualties and damage impossible to verify.
Russian forces launched 397 drones against Ukraine overnight, with almost 200 of them being Shahed-type kamikaze drones and the rest decoys used to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses, according to the Air Force.
Russia also fired eight Iskander-M ballistic missiles, six Kh-101 cruise missiles, and four S-300 guided air defense missiles, targeting primarily Kyiv, the statement read.
Ukrainian air defenses shot down 164 Shahed-type drones, eight Iskander-M missiles, and six Kh-101 missiles.
Some 204 drones and missiles reportedly disappeared from radars or were intercepted by electronic warfare.
"This is a clear escalation of terror by Russia — hundreds of 'Shaheds' every night, constant strikes, and massive attacks on Ukrainian cities," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X.
"Today, I will be speaking with partners — in particular within the Coalition of the Willing — about additional funding for the production of interceptor drones and the supply of air defense systems for Ukraine."
Meanwhile, in Kherson, two people were injured by drone strikes during the countrywide mass assault overnight on July 10.
"A 63-year-old woman and a 41-year-old man were hit. They suffered blast injuries and multiple shrapnel wounds.
The victims were hospitalized in moderate condition," the Kherson City Military Administration said in a Telegram post. Another four were injured by Russian artillery fire in Kherson late on July 9.
The night before, Russia slammed Ukraine with its largest missile and drone attack since the start of the full-scale war, targeting the western city of Lutsk with its heaviest barrage.
https://kyivindependent.com/russia-targets-kyiv-western-ukraine-in-mass-attack-for-second-night-in-a-row-06-2025/
Russia arrests truck driver allegedly transporting drones for Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb
July 11, 2025 12:33 pm
Mikhail Ryumin, a 55-year-old resident of the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, was arrested for allegedly transporting drones in a truck for Ukraine's Operation Spiderweb, Russian independent media outlet Mediazona reported on July 10, citing a court's appeal ruling.
Ukraine carried out an unprecedented mass drone strike as part of the Operation Spiderweb on June 1, targeting four Russian air bases deep inside the country.
During the attack, Ukrainian forces reportedly damaged 41 aircraft, using drones concealed in trucks at multiple locations across Russia.
Ryumin was charged with committing a terrorist act and arrested on June 2. On June 26, the Ivanovo Regional Court upheld the decision to arrest him.
A colleague of Ryumin confirmed to Mediazona, on condition of anonymity, that he was indeed the driver of one of the trucks used in the Ukrainian operation.
The source insisted that Ryumin was unaware that the vehicle was carrying drones hidden beneath the roofs of the frame house structures.
According to the source, Ryumin had recently switched jobs and accepted a delivery order to transport components for frame houses from Chelyabinsk to Ivanovo Oblast using a rented truck.
Western analysts and military officials praised Ukraine's ingenuity in the Spiderweb operation. NATO Admiral Pierre Vandier called the mission a modern reinvention of the "Trojan Horse," demonstrating Ukraine's growing technical sophistication and deep-strike capability.
President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that roughly half of the targeted aircraft are damaged beyond repair. Russia has acknowledged losses but insisted all damaged aircraft will be restored.
https://kyivindependent.com/truck-driver-allegedly-transporting-drones-for-ukraines-operation-spiderweb-arrested-in-russia-06-2025/
chekt
Kazakhstan MFA refutes claims of allowing Ukrainian drones to attack Russia from its territory
11/07/2025 - 13:59 GMT+2
A suspicious object that resembled a drone crashed on 19 June in the Mangystau region of western Kazakhstan, near a border railway station.
The region’s police department stated that it fell far from populated areas and caused no damage.
“The Police Department of the Mangistau Region, together with authorized agencies, is conducting verification activities following the discovery of an object that looks like fragments of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV),” stated the department.
Following the drone discovery, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova released a statement accusing Ukraine of using Kazakhstan’s territory to attack Russia.
“We strongly condemn such actions against our ally and CSTO member,” said the statement, highlighting that Ukraine, while “ranting” about its own territorial integrity, does not respect the territorial integrity of others.
“We call on all governments and relevant international structures to pay attention to such provocations and to respond appropriately to such antics.”
Ukrainian NGO “Militarnyi” countered her claims, saying that the crashed drone was an Iranian Arash-2 that “could have flown across Turkmenistan or the Caspian Sea before entering Kazakh airspace.”
Official representative of Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aibek Smadiyarov refuted Zakharova’s claims and stated that no drones have been launched from Kazakhstan.
“The information that drones are allegedly launched from the territory of Kazakhstan towards Russia is not true,” he said during a press briefing.
“At the moment, our competent authorities are studying the circumstances of all recent incidents related to the detection of UAVs on the territory of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan maintains a constructive dialogue with Russia and other interested parties through the relevant departments,” he continued.
More fragments found
Three days after that, residents of the Atyrau region ― also in the west of the country ― found metallic fragments of an unknown object with a motor.
Eyewitnesses saw smoke and then found debris and scorched ground. The region’s police department made a similar statement as before, citing an ongoing investigation.
This marked the fifth time in five months that an unconfirmed object resembling a drone has crashed in western Kazakhstan, a region bordering Russia and closest to Ukraine.
The first report came on 18 February from the Bokeiorda District of the West-Kazakhstan Region. At the time, local media noted that almost half of the district’s territory is leased by the Russian Ministry of Defence as a polygon.
The next time a drone-like object was reported near Atameken village in the West Kazakhstan region was on 18 March.
Official statements only said that investigations are ongoing, but some speculated that it was Geran-2, an Iranian Shahed drone modified by Russia.
The third time, drone debris was found again in the West Kazakhstan region, in Zhanibek District. Similar to previous times, statements only confirmed the ongoing investigation.
In early June, First Deputy Minister of Defence Sultan Kamaletdinov commented on the origin of the drones, saying they were Russian test drones.
“More than 90% of UAVs detected in the West Kazakhstan region were located within the reach of the test site of the Russian 926th Main Flight Test Centre,” he said.
https://www.euronews.com/2025/07/11/kazakhstan-mfa-refutes-claims-of-allowing-ukrainian-drones-to-attack-russia-from-its-terri
Four teenagers arrested after drone seen hovering above high-security West Midlands prison
July 11, 2025
Four teenagers have been arrested after reports of a drone circling over a maximum-security jail led to the seizure of contraband including drug paraphernalia.
A drone, mobile phones and suspected drugs were also found after a car containing the suspects, aged 15, 16, 18 and 19, was stopped on the A46 in Alcester, Warwickshire.
West Mercia Police said a seized “contraband package” was believed to be intended to be flown into HMP Long Lartin in south Worcestershire in the early hours of Friday.
The force said in a statement: “A report was received shortly before 2am today that a drone was circling the airspace above the prison in South Littleton.
“Inquiries were made and patrol officers were on the tail of a suspect vehicle by 2.25am. “The car was stopped on the A46 in Alcester with four people inside.
“A quick response and good co-ordinated work meant the contraband package had not made it into the prison and it was seized.”
Those arrested were held on suspicion of conspiracy to convey prohibited items into a prison and remain in police custody.
Detective Chief Inspector James Bamber said: “An immediate response from us and good policing work by everyone involved meant we were able to intercept a suspect vehicle before it reached its suspected final destination.”
Anyone who spots a drone near the prison or who has information about other suspicious activity near HMP Long Lartin is urged to report the matter via 999 immediately.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/uk-news/2025/07/11/four-teenagers-arrested-after-drone-seen-hovering-above-high-security-west-midlands-prison/
Hegseth Unveils Overhaul of Pentagon Drone Production
Thursday, 10 July 2025 10:52 PM EDT
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced a sweeping new directive to ramp up the U.S. military's arsenal of unmanned aerial vehicles.
"We know why we were put here," Hegseth said in a video posted on his X account. "We were brought here to rebuild the military, match capabilities to the threats of today.
So, while our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones before us, we were mired in bureaucratic red tape.
"Not anymore. In June, President [Donald] Trump issued an executive order unleashing American drone dominance to bolster our drone industry and arm our warfighters because that's what we're all about.
So today, I'm rescinding restrictive policies that stifle production, and this will unleash American manufacturing and the ingenuity of our warfighters."
Hegseth, shown in the video with the Pentagon in the backdrop and service members flying drones, said the overhaul relies on three factors:
Bolstering the U.S. drone manufacturing base "by producing thousands of American-made products, prioritizing buy American."
Arming combat units with a variety of low-cost American-crafted drones, "leveraging our world-leading engineers and AI experts."
Finally, "we're going to train as we expect to fight. Senior officers must overcome bureaucratic risk-aversion in budgeting, weaponeering, and training."
A drone delivered a memo to Hegseth that he signed earlier Thursday.
The memo titled "Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance" was sent to senior Pentagon leaders, combatant commanders, and directors of defense agencies.
The memo gives commanders across all military branches the authority to procure and test drones independently, Newsweek reported.
The policy also aims to slash red tape, allowing for expedited training and testing processes.
Hegseth also instructed the military to classify small drones as "consumable assets" rather than long-term, durable equipment.
The initiative is part of a broader push by the administration to rejuvenate its drone capabilities and close the gap with adversaries such as Russia and China, who have aggressively integrated drones into their combat operations.
"Next year I expect to see this capability integrated into all relevant combat training, including force-on-force drone wars," Hegseth wrote in the memo, according to Newsweek.
He cited that drones have accounted for "most of this year's casualties in Ukraine" and argued that "drone technology is advancing so rapidly, our major risk is risk-avoidance."
The memo also reportedly directs the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps to create active-duty formations by September, built for the sole purpose of scaling the use of small drones — with initial systems delivered to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command by 2026.
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/pete-hegseth-pentagon-drones/2025/07/10/id/1218383/
https://x.com/SecDef/status/1943401411431026977 (post deleted or unavailable, but the video was still able to be ripped)
Spider crop circle pattern on field in Cerne Abbas, Dorset
10th July 2025
The arachnoid-esque pattern has cropped up in Cerne Abbas, Dorset.
Dorset Police say crops were deliberately damaged during the creation of the circle, which was discovered on Thursday, July 10 in a field near Cerne Abbas in North Dorset.
Farmers have reacted angrily to the formations saying the damage can cost thousands of pounds
These images were captured by drone by Thorlak Gudrod Hallett, a member of the Echo's Camera Club.
He said: "I spotted it whilst flying over the Cerne Abbas Giant and surrounding area, this is an interesting one, very big, an alien spider maybe?
"It looks like it has been there for a while and has a very cool woven section on the body, I've not seen that before."
You can see more pictures like this and join the Echo's Camera Club here.
The crop circle has appeared close to a Dorset village that is somewhat famous for a figure in a field.
The Cerne Giant is a mysterious ancient naked figure on a hill near Cerne Abbas that could be a depiction of the legendary demi-god Hercules, an ancient fertility symbol, or even the soldier and statesman Oliver Cromwell.
Another theory holds that the figure was carved around the body of a giant who was slain by local people after he terrorised the countryside.
This isn't the first crop circle to have appeared in Dorset in recent weeks. In May a mysterious crop circle appeared near Dorchester.
The pattern showing two circles overlapping featuring geometric shapes occurred along Combe Valley Road at Came Down.
At the end of June the unique crop circle phenomenon occurred again in a wheat field at Ware in Devon, next to the Dorset and Devon border.
Crop circles, or crop formations, are patterns produced by flattening crops.
The NFU (National Farmers' Union) strongly condemns the creation of crop circles, viewing them as criminal damage and a serious issue for farmers.
They highlight the financial losses and disruption caused by trampled crops, the attraction of further criminal activity, and the impact on food security.
Experts agree they are man-made although some people claim there are mysterious forces behind the patterns.
Farmers have reported finding strange circles in their fields for centuries. The earliest mention of a crop circle dates back to the 1500s.
But the phenomenon didn't gain attention until 1980, when a farmer in Wiltshire discovered three circles, about 60 feet (18 metres) across each, in his oat crops.
UFO researchers and media descended on the farm, and the world first began to learn about crop circles.
By the 1990s, crop circles had become something of a tourist attraction.
In 1990 alone, more than 500 circles emerged in Europe. Within the next few years, there were thousands.
Visitors came from around the world to see them and some farmers even charged admission to their mysterious attractions.
https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/25303820.spider-crop-circle-pattern-field-cerne-abbas-dorset/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/echocameraclubdorset