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https://science.nasa.gov/missions/osiris-rex/nasas-bennu-samples-reveal-complex-origins-dramatic-transformation/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01741-0
NASA’s Bennu Samples Reveal Complex Origins, Dramatic Transformation
Aug 22, 2025
Asteroid Bennu, sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in 2023, is a mixture of dust that formed in our solar system, organic matter from interstellar space, and pre-solar system stardust.
Its unique and varied contents were dramatically transformed over time by interactions with water and exposure to the harsh space environment.
These insights come from a trio of newly published papers based on the analysis of Bennu samples by scientists at NASA and other institutions.
Bennu is made of fragments from a larger parent asteroid destroyed by a collision in the asteroid belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
One of the papers, co-led by Jessica Barnes at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and Ann Nguyen of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and published in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggests that Bennu’s ancestor was made up of material that had diverse origins—near the Sun, far from the Sun, and even beyond our solar system.
The analyses show that some of the materials in the parent asteroid, despite very low odds, escaped various chemical processes driven by heat and water and even survived the extremely energetic collision that broke it apart and formed Bennu.
“We traced the origins of these initial materials accumulated by Bennu’s ancestor,” said Nguyen.
“We found stardust grains with compositions that predate the solar system, organic matter that likely formed in interstellar space, and high temperature minerals that formed closer to the Sun.
All of these constituents were transported great distances to the region that Bennu’s parent asteroid formed.”
The chemical and atomic similarities of samples from Bennu, the asteroid Ryugu (sampled by JAXA’s (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Hayabusa2 mission) and the most chemically primitive meteorites collected on Earth suggest their parent asteroids may have formed in a similar, distant region of the early solar system.
Yet the differences from Ryugu and meteorites that were seen in the Bennu samples may indicate that this region changed over time or did not mix as well as some scientists have thought.
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Though some original constituents survived, most of Bennu’s materials were transformed by reactions with water, as reported in the paper co-led by Tom Zega of the University of Arizona and Tim McCoy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington and published in Nature Geoscience.
In fact, minerals in the parent asteroid likely formed, dissolved, and reformed over time.
“Bennu’s parent asteroid accumulated ice and dust. Eventually that ice melted, and the resulting liquid reacted with the dust to form what we see today, a sample that is 80% minerals that contain water,” said Zega.
“We think the parent asteroid accumulated a lot of icy material from the outer solar system, and then all it needed was a little bit of heat to melt the ice and cause liquids to react with solids.”
Bennu’s transformation did not end there.
The third paper, co-led by Lindsay Keller at NASA Johnson and Michelle Thompson of Purdue University, also published in Nature Geoscience, found microscopic craters and tiny splashes of once-molten rock – known as impact melts – on the sample surfaces, signs that the asteroid was bombarded by micrometeorites.
These impacts, together with the effects of solar wind, are known as space weathering and occurred because Bennu has no atmosphere to protect it.
“The surface weathering at Bennu is happening a lot faster than conventional wisdom would have it, and the impact melt mechanism appears to dominate, contrary to what we originally thought,” said Keller.
“Space weathering is an important process that affects all asteroids, and with returned samples, we can tease out the properties controlling it and use that data and extrapolate it to explain the surface and evolution of asteroid bodies that we haven’t visited.”
As the leftover materials from planetary formation 4.5 billion years ago, asteroids provide a record of the solar system’s history.
But as Zega noted, we're seeing that some of these remnants differ from what has been found in meteorites on Earth, because certain types of asteroids burn up in the atmosphere and never make it to the ground.
That, the researchers point out, is why collecting actual samples is so important.
“The samples are really crucial for this work,” Barnes said. “We could only get the answers we got because of the samples.
It's super exciting that we're finally able to see these things about an asteroid that we've been dreaming of going to for so long.”
The next samples NASA expects to help unravel our solar system’s story will be Moon rocks returned by the Artemis III astronauts.
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Mayo Clinic research set to launch aboard NASA mission to International Space Station to explore new therapies for bone loss
August 22, 2025
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mayo Clinic's pioneering exploration of stem cell-based therapies for bone loss is headed to space. Abba Zubair, M.D., Ph.D., is medical director of Transfusion Medicine and Stem Cell Therapy at Mayo Clinic in Florida.
He is leading research exploring how bone-forming stem cells behave in microgravity in hopes of developing novel treatments for diseases that cause bone loss, including osteoporosis.
Dr. Zubair's research is one of several science experiments selected by NASA as part of the 33rd SpaceX Commercial Resupply Mission to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket is targeted for 2:45 a.m. EDT, Sunday, Aug. 24, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
In addition to the science experiments, the Dragon spacecraft will deliver 5,000 pounds of supplies, including food and equipment to the crew at the orbital laboratory.
"For this project, our goal is to really understand how gravity affects bone formation and bone loss, particularly in relation to mesenchymal stem cells and other bone-forming cells," says Dr. Zubair.
Dr. Zubair believes the research also will provide hope for hundreds of millions of people worldwide affected by osteoporosis, the disease that weakens bones and increases the risk of fractures.
Dr. Zubair's research also is aimed at improving the health of astronauts. Astronauts lose measurable bone density while living in space.
Dr. Zubair's team has identified a protein in the body called IL-6 that can send signals to stem cells to promote bone formation or bone loss. Dr. Zubair's research will investigate whether a new compound can block IL-6 signals and reduce bone loss while in space.
"If this compound we are testing is able to block the impact of microgravity to slow or stop bone loss, then we can find a treatment for the bone loss in space, and that might also give us a clue into how we may treat people on Earth," says Dr. Zubair.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Zubair has led the Stem Cell Laboratory on Mayo Clinic's Florida campus, developing safe, clinical-grade cell therapy products.
His broader research focus aims to harness stem cells to treat degenerative diseases and engineer immune cells to enhance therapeutic outcomes and meet regulatory standards.
Dr. Zubair's research could potentially advance treatments for brain injury, lung disease, stroke and neurological recovery, cancer, blood stem cell therapies, and epilepsy.
His newest research on bone loss will be his fourth space project selected by NASA at the space station. In recognition of his work, Dr. Zubair received an Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA.
From an early age in Nigeria, Dr. Zubair was captivated by space, spending countless hours gazing at the night sky and dreaming of becoming an astronaut.
His work as a physician-scientist conducting research in space to improve humanity allows him the best of both worlds.
"I love it. It will be my fourth time attending a launch at the space center. I always get a thrill and wish I was on that rocket heading out," says Dr. Zubair. "It is an unbelievable experience."
https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-research-set-to-launch-aboard-nasa-mission-to-international-space-station-to-explore-new-therapies-for-bone-loss/
New Mexico Scientific Balloon Campaign Update Aug. 21
Aug. 21, 2025
The Salter Test Flight launched at 9:21 a.m. EDT (7:21 a.m. MDT) Thursday, Aug. 21 from the agency’s balloon launch facility, marking the first successful balloon flight of the campaign.
The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of 124,000 feet, and flew for a total of 5 hours, 41 minutes.
The hardware test flight reported a healthy balloon and flight systems, and requirements were met before successful termination.
Several smaller payloads, or piggyback missions, rode along to support science and technology development, including numerous student experiments. Recovery efforts are underway.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/wallops/2025/08/21/new-mexico-scientific-balloon-campaign-update-aug-21/
Antarctic Iceberg A23A Continues to Crumble
Aug. 21, 2025
Iceberg A23A and recently calved iceberg A23F are visible above the South Georgia island in this true-color corrected reflectance image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua platform.
This comparison shows the recently calved iceberg A23F on the upper right corner of the iceberg on the left "A" side from August 17, 2025. Move the center swipe bar to the left and see how far both of the icebergs have moved between August 17 and 19 and that iceberg A23A has rotated almost 90 degrees.
There is also evidence of edge wasting on the August 19 image, where the corner of the iceberg is breaking into multiple small fragments.
This true-color corrected reflectance image from the MODIS instrument aboard the Terra platform from August 21, 2025, shows that iceberg A23F has likely already broken in two since calving from A23A on August 17.
See previous Worldview Images of the Week about Iceberg A23A.
Visit Worldview to visualize near real-time imagery and historical imagery from NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS); find more imagery in our Worldview weekly image archive.
https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/news/worldview-image-archive/antarctic-iceberg-a23a-continues-crumble
https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/
Cities by the Bay
Aug 21, 2025
NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers took this photo of California’s San Francisco Bay Area surrounded by the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, and their suburbs on Aug. 3, 2025.
At the time, the International Space Station orbited 260 miles above the Golden State.
The International Space Station serves as a unique platform for observing Earth with both hands-on and automated equipment.
Station crew members have produced hundreds of thousands of images, recording phenomena such as storms in real time, observing natural events such as volcanic eruptions as they happen, and providing input to ground personnel for programming automated Earth-sensing systems.
In its third decade of continuous human presence, the space station has a far-reaching impact as a microgravity lab hosting technology, demonstrations, and scientific investigations from a range of fields.
The research done on the orbiting laboratory will inform long-duration missions like Artemis and future human expeditions to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/cities-by-the-bay/
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/commercial-resupply/spacex-crs/nasas-spacex-33rd-commercial-resupply-mission-overview/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/crs33
NASA’s SpaceX 33rd Commercial Resupply Mission Overview
Aug 21, 2025
NASA’s live launch coverage will begin at 2:25 a.m. on Aug 24. Dragon’s arrival coverage will begin at 6 a.m. on Aug. 25.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 2:45 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 24, for the next launch to deliver scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station.
Filled with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, will lift off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Dragon will dock autonomously about 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25, to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 2:45 a.m. EDT on Sunday, Aug. 24, for the next launch to deliver scientific investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station.
Filled with more than 5,000 pounds of supplies, the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket, will lift off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Dragon will dock autonomously about 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25, to the forward port of the space station’s Harmony module.
This launch is the 33rd SpaceX commercial resupply services mission to the orbital laboratory for the agency, and the 13th SpaceX launch under the Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract.
The first 20 launches were under the original resupply services contract.
Watch agency launch and arrival coverage on NASA+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
NASA’s live launch coverage will begin at 2:25 a.m. on Aug 24. Dragon’s arrival coverage will begin at 6 a.m. on Aug. 25.
For nearly 25 years, the International Space Station has provided research capabilities used by scientists from over 110 countries to conduct more than 4,000 groundbreaking experiments in microgravity.
Research conducted aboard the space station advances Artemis missions to the Moon and human exploration of Mars, while providing multiple benefits to humanity.
Arrival & Departure
The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft will arrive at the space station and dock autonomously to the forward port of the station’s Harmony module at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25.
NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Jonny Kim will monitor the spacecraft’s arrival. It will stay docked to the orbiting laboratory for about four months before splashing down and returning critical science and hardware to teams on Earth.
Research Highlights
Preventing bone loss in space
A study of bone-forming stem cells in microgravity could provide insight into the basic mechanisms of the bone loss astronauts experience during long-duration space flight ahead of future exploration of the Moon and Mars.
Researchers identified a protein in the body called IL-6 that can send signals to stem cells to promote either bone formation or bone loss.
This work evaluates whether blocking IL-6 signals could reduce bone loss during spaceflight. Results could improve our understanding of bone loss on Earth due to aging or disease and lead to new prevention and treatment strategies.
Printing parts, tools in space
As mission duration and distance from Earth increase, resupply becomes harder. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, could be used to make parts and dedicated tools on demand, enhancing mission autonomy.
Research aboard the space station has made strides in 3D printing with plastic, but it is not suitable for all uses.
Investigations from ESA’s (European Space Agency) Metal 3D Printer builds on recent successful printing of the first metal parts in space.
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Bioprinting tissue in microgravity
Researchers plan to bioprint liver tissue containing blood vessels on the ground and examine how the tissue develops in microgravity. Results could help support the eventual production of entire functional organs for transplantation on Earth.
A previous mission tested whether this bioprinted liver tissue survived and functioned in space. This experimental round could show whether microgravity improves the development of the bioprinted tissue.
Biomanufacturing drug-delivery medical devices
Scientists are creating an implantable device in microgravity that could support nerve regrowth after injuries. The device is created through bioprinting, a type of 3D printing that uses living cells or proteins as raw materials.
Traumatic injuries can create gaps between nerves, and existing treatments have a limited ability to restore nerve function and may result in impaired physical function. A bioprinted device to bridge nerve gaps could accelerate recovery and preserve function.
Cargo Highlights
Hardware
Launch:
Reboost Kit – This kit will perform a reboost demonstration of the station to maintain its current altitude.
The hardware, located in Dragon’s trunk, contains an independent propellant system, separate from the spacecraft’s main system, to fuel two Draco engines using existing hardware and propellant system design.
The boost kit will demonstrate the capability to maintain the orbiting lab’s altitude starting in September with a series of burns planned periodically throughout the fall of 2025.
During NASA’s SpaceX 31st commercial resupply services mission, the Dragon spacecraft first demonstrated these capabilities on Nov. 8, 2024.
Poly Exercise Rope Kit – These exercise ropes distribute the desired exercise loads through a series of pulleys for the Advanced Restrictive Exercise Device.
The ropes have a limited life cycle, and it will be necessary to replace them once they have reached their limit.
Brine Filter – These filters remove solid particles from liquid in urine during processing as a part of the station’s water recovery system.
Acoustic Monitor – A monitor that measures sound and records the data for download. This monitor will replace the sound level meter and the acoustic dosimeter currently aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Multi-filtration Bed – This space unit will support the Water Processor Assembly and continue the International Space Station Program’s effort to replace a fleet of degraded units aboard the station to improve water quality through a single bed.
Water Separator Orbital Unit – The unit draws air and condensate mixture from a condensing heat exchanger and separates the two components.
The air is returned to the cabin air assembly outlet air-flow stream, and the water is delivered to the condensate bus. This unit launches to maintain in-orbit sparing while another is being returned for repair.
Anomaly Gas Analyzer Top Assembly – This battery-powered device detects and monitors gases aboard the station, including oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, ammonia, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide.
It also measures cabin pressure, humidity, and temperature. It replaces the Compound Specific Analyzer Combustion Products as the primary tool for detecting airborne chemicals and conditions.
Separator Pump (Water Recovery and Management) – This electrically-powered pump separates liquids and gases while rotating.
It includes a scoop pump that moves the separated liquid into storage containers for use in other systems.
The pump also contains sensor components and a filter to reduce electrical interference from the motor. Launching to maintain in-orbit sparing.
Reducer Cylinder Assembly & Emergency Portable Breathing Apparatus – Together, this hardware provides 15 minutes of oxygen to a crew member in case of an emergency (smoke, fire, alarm).
Two are launching to maintain a minimum in-orbit spare requirement.
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Passive Separator Flight Experiment – This experiment will test a new method for separating urine and air using existing technology that combines a water-repellent urine hose with an airflow separator from the station’s existing Waste Hygiene Compartment.
Improved Resupply Water Tanks – Two tanks, each holding approximately 160 pounds of potable water, to supplement the Urine Processing Assembly.
NORS (Nitrogen/Oxygen Recharge System) Maintenance Tank/Recharge Tank Assembly, Nitrogen – The NORS maintenance kit comprises two assemblies: the NORS recharge tank assembly and the NORS vehicle interface assembly.
The recharge tank assembly will be pressurized with nitrogen gas for launch. The vehicle interface assembly will protect the recharge tank assembly for launch and stowage aboard the space station.
Launching to maintain reserve oxygen levels on station.
Swab Kits – These quick-disconnect cleaning kits are designed and created to replace in-orbit inventory.
Return:
Oxygen Generation Assembly Pump – The assembly pump converts potable water from the water recovery system into oxygen and hydrogen.
The oxygen is sent to the crew cabin, and the hydrogen is either vented or used to produce more water.
The International Space Station has been using this process to produce oxygen and hydrogen for 15 years, and this unit will be retired upon its return to Earth.
The flight support equipment within will be refurbished and used in a new pump launched aboard a future flight.
Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Assembly – A carbon dioxide monitor that measures the gas using the infrared absorption sensor. It expired in July 2025 and will return for refurbishment.
Meteoroid Debris Cover Center Section Assembly – This external multilayer insulation provides thermal and micro-meteoroid orbital debris protection on the node port.
After it is removed and replaced with a new assembly launching on NASA’s Northrop Grumman 23rd commercial resupply services mission, this unit will return for repair or used for spare parts.
Multi-filtration Bed – This spare unit supports the Water Processor Assembly, which improves water quality aboard the International Space Station.
Its return is part of an ongoing effort to replace a degraded fleet of in-orbit units. After its use, this multi-filtration bed will be refurbished for future re-flight.
Separator Pump – This electrically powered pump separates liquids and gases while rotating. It includes a scoop pump that moves the separated liquid into storage containers for use in other systems.
The pump also contains sensor components and a filter to reduce electrical interference from the motor. This unit is designed to run to failure, and after investigation and testing, it will be returned for repair and future flight.
Rate Gyro Enclosure Assembly – The Rate Gyro Assembly determines the space station’s rate of angular motion. It is returning for repair and refurbishment and will be used as a spare.
NORS (Nitrogen/Oxygen Recharge System) Maintenance Kit (Oxygen) – The NORS Maintenance Kit comprises two assemblies: the NORS Recharge Tank Assembly and the NORS Vehicle Interface Assembly.
The recharge tank assembly will be pressurized with Nitrogen gas for launch. The vehicle interface assembly will protect the recharge tank assembly for launch and stowage aboard the space station.
They are routinely returned for reuse and re-flight. The kit also includes a VIA bag (vehicle interface assembly) with foam, which is used as a cargo transfer bag for launch and return to protect the tank.
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NASA’s New Horizons Enters Mission’s Longest Hibernation Period
August 22, 2025
At 4:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 7, flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, verified that New Horizons – acting on commands uplinked to its main computer on July 23 – had safely entered hibernation mode again.
With the spacecraft now in the outer Kuiper Belt and more than 5.7 billion miles (9.2 billion kilometers) from Earth, the radio signals carrying that confirmation message from New Horizons needed 8 hours and 31 minutes – traveling at the speed of light – to reach the APL Mission Operations Center through NASA’s Goldstone Deep Space Network station in California.
New Horizons, which had been in active data-collection mode since April, will now remain in hibernation. Pending a final Fiscal Year 2026 budget, the spacecraft may be awoken in late June 2026.
This will be the longest hibernation period of the mission so far, surpassing the previous mark of 273 days from June 2022 to March 2023.
But the spacecraft won’t be completely at rest; New Horizons will continue to take round-the-clock measurements of the charged-particle environment in the Sun’s outer heliosphere and the dust environment of the Kuiper Belt using three different onboard scientific instruments.
These data will be transmitted back to Earth when New Horizons wakes up.
“Even when our spacecraft sleeps, round-the-clock science data collection never stops,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.
What Is Hibernation? Hibernation is a way to extend spacecraft life and reduce mission operations costs. During hibernation, New Horizons remains in a stable spinning mode with much of the spacecraft unpowered.
The onboard flight computer monitors system health and broadcasts a weekly beacon-status tone back to Earth through NASA’s Deep Space Network of communications and tracking ground stations.
Since 2007, New Horizons has hibernated 23 times, for periods ranging from just days to many months.
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/new-horizons/2025/08/22/nasas-new-horizons-enters-missions-longest-hibernation-period/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/new-horizons/
Exploring Hosted Orbital Capabilities with NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program
August 22, 2025
FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE WEBINAR
September 3, 2025
Speaker Bios
Danielle McCulloch, Program Executive, NASA’s Flight Opportunities program
Anh Nguyen, Program Portfolio Integrator, NASA’s Flight Opportunities program
Abstract
NASA’s Flight Opportunities program — which has long served the agency by providing access to suborbital flight testing with commercial providers — added a new capability in its most recent flight services contract award: hosting payloads in orbit.
On hosted orbital tests, the flight provider manages integration, launch, and mission operations, allowing researchers to focus on developing their payload (i.e., their technology, experiment, or instrument).
Hosted orbital flights offer an important capability within the flight test continuum, serving as an alternative to flights aboard the International Space Station or building/procuring your own spacecraft.
During this session, Flight Opportunities personnel will explore the benefits of commercial hosted orbital flights.
For example, the flight cadence of hosted opportunities could decrease time to flight, as some providers offer multi-customer hosted missions at regular intervals as a core part of their business model. As demand grows, providers intend to increase the number of regularly scheduled hosted missions. Additionally, researchers can leverage commercial best practices and capabilities.
Presenters will share their expertise in preparing payloads for hosted orbital flight tests.
Speaker Bios:
Danielle McCulloch is the program executive for NASA’s Flight Opportunities program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
In this role, she provides strategic integration between researchers, mission stakeholders, and flight providers, as well as other NASA programs, to maximize impact for technology advancement and ensure that the researcher community is actively engaged in available flight test opportunities.
She comes to this position after serving as both the program manager and deputy program manager for Flight Opportunities.
Before joining NASA, Danielle held various leadership roles in the medical device and paper manufacturing industries and was vice president for a small technology transfer consultancy.
Danielle’s experience underlines her passion for innovation, entrepreneurship, and fostering vibrant researcher communities.
Anh Nguyen, Ph.D., is currently the program portfolio integrator for NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology and Flight Opportunities programs and the campaign manager for the Flight Opportunities program’s hosted orbital flights.
Anh has worked on a variety of CubeSat and suborbital flight tests during her career at NASA over the past 10 years.
She has a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from University of Florida’s Precision Space Systems Laboratory with a focus on dynamic systems and controls, and she is passionate about rapidly demonstrating new space technologies.
https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/fo-resources/community-of-practice-webinars/september-2025/
https://www.nasa.gov/stmd-flight-opportunities/nasa-contracted-flight-providers/
To See the World in a Grain of Sand: Investigating Megaripples at ‘Kerrlaguna’
Aug 21, 2025
On Mars, the past is written in stone — but the present is written in sand. Last week, Perseverance explored inactive megaripples to learn more about the wind-driven processes that are reshaping the Martian landscape every day.
After wrapping up its investigation at the contact between clay and olivine-bearing rocks at “Westport,” Perseverance is journeying south once more.
Previously, attempts were made to drive uphill to visit a new rock exposure called “Midtoya.”
However, a combination of the steep slope and rubbly, rock-strewn soil made drive progress difficult, and after several attempts, the decision was made to return to smoother terrain.
Thankfully, the effort wasn’t fruitless, as the rover was able to gather data on new spherule-rich rocks thought to have rolled downhill from “Midtoya,” including the witch hat or helmet-shaped rock “Horneflya,” which has attracted much online interest.
More recently, Perseverance explored a site called “Kerrlaguna” where the steep slopes give way to a field of megaripples: large windblown sand formations up to 1 meter (about 3 feet) tall.
The science team chose to perform a mini-campaign to make a detailed study of these features. Why such interest?
While often the rover’s attention is focused on studying processes in Mars’ distant past that are recorded in ancient rocks, we still have much to learn about the modern Martian environment.
Almost a decade ago, Perseverance’s forerunner Curiosity studied an active sand dune at “Namib Dune” on the floor of Gale crater, where it took a memorable selfie.
However the smaller megaripples — and especially dusty, apparently no longer active ones like at “Kerrlaguna” — are also common across the surface of Mars.
These older immobile features could teach us new insights about the role that wind and water play on the modern Martian surface.
After arriving near several of these inactive megaripples, Perseverance performed a series of measurements using its SuperCam, Mastcam-Z, and MEDA science instruments in order to characterize the surrounding environment, the size and chemistry of the sand grains, and any salty crusts that may have developed over time.
Besides furthering our understanding of the Martian environment, documenting these potential resources could help us prepare for the day when astronauts explore the Red Planet and need resources held within Martian soils to help them survive.
It is hoped that this investigation at “Kerrlaguna” can provide a practice run for a more comprehensive campaign located at a more extensive field of larger bedforms at “Lac de Charmes,” further along the rover traverse.
https://science.nasa.gov/blog/to-see-the-world-in-a-grain-of-sand-investigating-megaripples-at-kerrlaguna/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-2020-perseverance/science-updates/
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/dart/close-up-views-of-nasas-dart-impact-to-inform-planetary-defense/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/adec6b
Close-Up Views of NASA’s DART Impact to Inform Planetary Defense
Aug 21, 2025
On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than 5 million miles away.
The message prompted the spacecraft to execute a series of pre-programmed commands that caused a small, shoebox-sized satellite contributed by the Italian Space Agency (ASI), called LICIACube, to detach from DART.
Fifteen days later, when DART’s journey ended in an intentional head-on collision with near-Earth asteroid Dimorphos, LICIACube flew past the asteroid to snap a series of photos, providing researchers with the only on-site observations of the world’s first demonstration of an asteroid deflection.
After analyzing LICIACube’s images, NASA and ASI scientists report on Aug. 21 in the Planetary Science Journal that an estimated 35.3 million pounds (16 million kilograms) of dust and rocks spewed from the asteroid as a result of the crash, refining previous estimates that were based on data from ground and space-based observations.
While the debris shed from the asteroid amounted to less than 0.5% of its total mass, it was still 30,000 times greater than the mass of the spacecraft.
The impact of the debris on Dimorphos’ trajectory was dramatic: shortly after the collision, the DART team determined that the flying rubble gave Dimorphos a shove several times stronger than the hit from the spacecraft itself.
“The plume of material released from the asteroid was like a short burst from a rocket engine,” said Ramin Lolachi, a research scientist who led the study from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The important takeaway from the DART mission is that a small, lightweight spacecraft can dramatically alter the path of an asteroid of similar size and composition to Dimorphos, which is a “rubble-pile” asteroid — or a loose, porous collection of rocky material bound together weakly by gravity.
“We expect that a lot of near-Earth asteroids have a similar structure to Dimorphos,” said Dave Glenar, a planetary scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who participated in the study.
“So, this extra push from the debris plume is critical to consider when building future spacecraft to deflect asteroids from Earth.”
DART’s Star Witness
NASA chose Dimorphos, which poses no threat to Earth, as the mission target due to its relationship with another, larger asteroid named Didymos.
Dimorphos orbits Didymos in a binary asteroid system, much like the Moon orbits Earth. Critically, the pair’s position relative to Earth allowed astronomers to measure the duration of the moonlet’s orbit before and after the collision.
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Ground and space-based observations revealed that DART shortened Dimorphos’ orbit by 33 minutes.
But these long-range observations, made from 6.8 million miles (10.9 million kilometers) away, were too distant to support a detailed study of the impact debris. That was LICIACube’s job.
After DART’s impact, LICIACube had just 60 seconds to make its most critical observations. Barreling past the asteroid at 15,000 miles (21,140 kilometers) per hour, the spacecraft took a snapshot of the debris roughly once every three seconds.
Its closest image was taken just 53 miles (85.3 km) from Dimorphos’ surface.
The short distance between LICIACube and Dimorphos provided a unique advantage, allowing the cubesat to capture detailed images of the dusty debris from multiple angles.
The research team studied a series of 18 LICIAcube images. The first images in the sequence showed LICIACube’s head-on approach.
From this angle, the plume was brightly illuminated by direct sunlight. As the spacecraft glided past the asteroid, its camera pivoted to keep the plume in view.
As LICIACube looked back at the asteroid, sunlight filtered through the dense cloud of debris, and the plume’s brightness faded.
This suggested the plume was made of mostly large particles — about a millimeter or more across — which reflect less light than tiny dust grains.
Since the innermost parts of the plume were so thick with debris that they were completely opaque, the scientists used models to estimate the number of particles that were hidden from view.
Data from other rubble-pile asteroids, including pieces of Bennu delivered to Earth in 2023 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, and laboratory experiments helped refine the estimate.
“We estimated that this hidden material accounted for almost 45% of the plume’s total mass,” said Timothy Stubbs, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard who was involved with the study.
While DART showed that a high-speed collision with a spacecraft can change an asteroid’s trajectory, Stubbs and his colleagues note that different asteroid types, such as those made of stronger, more tightly packed material, might respond differently to a DART-like impact.
“Every time we interact with an asteroid, we find something that surprises us, so there’s a lot more work to do,” said Stubbs. “But DART is a big step forward for planetary defense.”
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Deaths of 6 at Weld County dairy under investigation as potential gas exposure
UPDATED: August 22, 2025 at 9:00 AM MDT
The deaths of six people who were found dead Wednesday at a dairy east of Keenesburg are under investigation as possible gas exposures in a confined space, a coroner’s office official said.
The Weld County Coroner’s Office is investigating the deaths at Prospect Valley Dairy, 32063 Weld County Road 18, but is still completing autopsies of the six men, Chief Deputy Coroner Jolene Weiner said.
Radio communications revealed the person who first reported the incident mentioned a burst pipe. First responders on scene later mentioned five men with possible high levels of H2S, or hydrogen sulfide.
Hydrogen sulfide occurs naturally in crude petroleum and natural gas, but is also produced from decomposing manure, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
It is mildly irritating to people’s eyes and respiratory system when exposed to it in low doses, but can quickly become deadly when people are exposed to large amounts in a confined space.
Weiner said all six victims were adult Hispanic men. It’s not clear whether they were employees at the dairy.
The Southeast Weld Fire Protection District responded around 6 p.m. to a call for a confined space rescue at the dairy, according to a district Facebook post.
When crews entered the space, they found the six people dead, the post states.
The post did not address what the confined space was or why the men were in it.
Southwest Fire Protection District Spokesperson Irene Burke said the department is not releasing any further information.
The Weld County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene, but said there were no signs that any crimes were committed, agency spokesperson Melissa Chesmore said.
The Occupational Health and Safety Administration said it will not release any information until its investigation is complete.
Dairy Farmers of America called the event a “tragic accident.”
“We are deeply saddened by this incident,” the cooperative of dairy farmers said in a statement. “And our thoughts and most sincere condolences go out to the friends and families of the deceased. At this early stage, we have no further details.”
The property is owned by Prospect Valley Dairy LLC and lists a Bakersfield, California, address for the owners, county tax records show.
The farm has a 32,500-square-foot dairy milking parlor as well as two free stall barns, one built in 2017 that is more than 450,000 square feet and another built last year that is more than 100,000 square feet.
https://www.greeleytribune.com/2025/08/21/six-dead-prospect-valley-dairy-keenesberg/
What caused the only known lunar landslide? Newly opened Apollo 17 moon samples may hold the answer
August 22, 2025
A mysterious lunar landslide might be the product of large chunks of debris from the impact that formed the crater Tycho slamming into the side of a moon mountain.
The Light Mantle, which is a bright 5-kilometer-long (3.1 miles) streak emanating from the base of a 2-km-tall (1.2 miles) mountain called South Massif, was a key target for NASA's Apollo 17 mission in 1972.
With geologist Harrison Schmitt as a member of the crew, Apollo 17 returned from the moon with 243.6 pounds (110.5 kilograms) of rock samples, including two core samples from the Light Mantle.
There was so much material in the samples that some of it was kept away, stored and sealed, until the time came that scientists had better technology with which to study the samples.
That time is now.
"NASA were really forward-thinking during the Apollo missions to put some samples aside," said geologist Giulia Magnarini of London's Natural History Museum in a statement.
"They were stored so that they could be studied using more advanced technology and new scientific approaches that hadn't even been thought of at the time."
The origin of the Light Mantle landslide is a mystery, partly because it is the only known landslide on the moon, meaning that we have nothing to compare it to.
It's described as a "long run-out" landslide, as the debris that rolled down the mountain spilled out for a long way onto the Taurus-Littrow valley, but what carried it so far is also uncertain.
Using modern micro-CT scanning, which employed medical-level scans on the previously untouched core samples from the Light Mantle, Magnarini and her colleagues investigated clasts, which are rocky fragments that broke off from the slope of South Massif.
They then compared the shape and composition of the clasts with what was predicted by computer models.
"The clasts tell us a lot about the process of the landslide itself and how the material within it has been transported," said Magnarini.
"We saw that the finer material coating the clasts in the core comes from the clasts and not the surrounding debris, suggesting that the clasts broke up and helped the landslide to flow more like a fluid."
This would explain why the landslide produced such a long run-out, but what triggered the landslide in the first place?
Magnarini's best bet is the formation 108 million years ago of the landmark lunar crater Tycho in the moon's southern hemisphere, far from Apollo 17's landing site.
Tycho is famous for its bright rays of ejecta material that cover a large area of the moon's southern hemisphere, and there are chains of small secondary craters leading away from Tycho, produced by large chunks of debris from the main impact falling back down onto the lunar surface.
One of these chains points in the direction of South Massif and, despite the distance, Magnarini thinks that a chunk of debris from the Tycho-forming impact flew halfway around the moon and crashed into South Massif.
"It has been suggested that some of the material thrown up by the creation of Tycho might have struck South massif," said Magnarini.
"This could have triggered the landslide that ultimately formed the Light Mantle."
Tycho's young age fits the bill; an older landslide would have been eroded away by micrometeorites long ago.
That might be why we no longer see other landslides on the moon; impacts like Tycho are very rare now, compared to 3.5-4 billion years ago when most of the moon's craters formed.
Overall, Magnarini sees her research as helping to bridge the Apollo missions with the current Artemis program and NASA's plans to return astronauts to the surface of the moon.
"We've learned so many lessons from these samples about how to preserve, store and open lunar material without damaging the contents," said Magnarini.
"This is already feeding into plans for Artemis' science and helping to develop new instruments."
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/apollo/what-caused-the-only-known-lunar-landslide-newly-opened-apollo-17-moon-samples-may-hold-the-answer
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JE008422
https://www.space.com/astronomy/brightest-ever-fast-radio-burst-challenges-assumptions-about-mysterious-blasts-of-energy-this-marks-the-beginning-of-a-new-era
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf62f
Astronomers discover brightest ever fast radio burst: 'This marks the beginning of a new era'
August 22, 2025
Astronomers have discovered what may be the brightest flash of radio waves ever seen and have tracked this fast radio burst (FRB) back to its source.
This feat could revolutionize theories surrounding these mysterious and rapid blasts of radiation that, in mere milliseconds, can emit as much energy as the sun does in its entire lifetime.
First spotted in 2007, FRBs have been difficult for astronomers to explain. This is because they last such a brief amount of time and only a small sample of them repeat, making follow-up investigations difficult.
Though many explanations have been posited for FRBs, the leading culprits are extreme dead stars or "neutron stars" with magnetic fields so powerful they warrant a categorization of their own and are thus dubbed "magnetars."
The new FRB has been officially designated FRB 20250316A and has been given the nickname "RBFLOAT," which stands for "Radio Brightest FLash Of All Time."
This unusually bright FRB was first spotted in March 2025 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), which has been dubbed an "FRB discovery machine" thanks to its immense impact in spotting new FRBs.
This is the first time the CHIME/FRB radio telescope has been used on its own to track an FRB back to its source.
In this case, that source is a region just 45 light-years across – smaller than the average star cluster – in the spiral arm at the edge of NGC 4141, a galaxy about 130 million light-years away.
To put that feat into context, the team behind the research compares it to spotting a quarter from a distance of 62 miles away.
"This result marks a turning point: instead of just detecting these mysterious flashes, we can now see exactly where they're coming from.
It opens the door to discovering whether they're caused by dying stars, exotic magnetic objects, or something we haven't thought of yet," team leader and McGill University researcher Amanda Cook said in a statement.
CHIME now has the spatial resolution to track back an FRB in this way, thanks to its newly constructed "outrigger" telescopes located throughout North America from British Columbia to California.
"With the CHIME Outriggers, we are finally catching these fleeting cosmic signals in the act — narrowing down their locations not only to individual galaxies, but even to specific stellar environments," Cook said.
"The precision of this localization, tens of milliarcseconds, is like spotting a quarter from 100 kilometres (62 miles) away.
That level of detail is what let us identify the host galaxy, NGC 4141, and match the burst with a faint infrared signal captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)."
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This was the first time that astronomers were able to trace an FRB back to its source rapidly enough to follow up with the powerful infrared vision of the JWST.
"We were rewarded with an exciting result – we see a faint source of infrared light very close to where the radio burst occurred," team member Peter Blanchard, research associate in the Harvard College Observatory at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), said in a statement.
"This could be the first object linked to an FRB that anyone has found in another galaxy."
The infrared object located by the RBFLOAT source has been dubbed NIR-1, and it is believed to be a red giant star or a middle-aged massive star.
Red giants represent one of the final stages of stars with masses similar to that of the sun, after they have exhausted the hydrogen fuel in their cores and that core collapses as the star's outer shell "puffs out" to as much as 100 times its original diameter.
But whatever NIR-1 is, it is unlikely to be the cause of RBFLOAT. Red giants and massive stars aren't generally associated with phenomena that could trigger such an outburst.
What Blanchard and colleagues theorize is that NIR-1 has a more extreme companion in the form of a neutron star, a dead stellar core that forms when stars around 10 times more massive than the sun die.
The immense gravity of this neutron star could be stripping material away from NIR-1, with this process being integral to the launch of this bright FRB.
"Whether or not the association with the star is real, we've learned a lot about the burst's origin," said Blanchard. "If a double star system isn’t the answer, our work hints that an isolated magnetar caused the FRB."
If the infrared source begins to fade over time, it could indicate that it is actually reflected light caused by flaring of whatever object launched RBFLOAT, possibly a magnetar.
The brightness of RBFLOAT and its relative proximity to Earth (many FRBs have been traced to sources billions of light-years away), combined with the fact that the JWST was able to capture detailed images of the region from which it originated, means that it could prove integral to investigating these puzzling blasts of radiation.
"We have taken the first step on a new path to solving the mystery of FRBs using the sharp imaging of JWST to zoom in on the precise locations from which FRBs are emanating," Berger concluded.
"We can't predict when and where the next FRB will come from, so we have to be ready to quickly deploy JWST when the time comes."
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A rare Black Moon rises with the sun tomorrow Here's what to expect
August 22, 2025
Tomorrow (Aug. 23), the night sky will play host to an unusual lunar event known as a Black Moon.
While you won't see anything unusual (in fact, you won't see the moon at all), this event is still exciting because of its rarity.
So what's happening? A Black Moon isn't an official astronomical term, but it's used to describe unusual timings of new moon phases.
This week's event falls under the "seasonal" definition: the third new moon in a season that contains four new moons.
A new moon is the phase when the moon's sunlit side faces away from Earth, making it invisible in our sky as it rises and sets with the sun.
Normally, each season has three new moons, but the lunar cycle doesn't line up perfectly with our calendar.
Every so often, an "extra" new moon sneaks in and the third in that sequence is dubbed a Black Moon. The last seasonal Black Moon happened on May 19, 2023.
At 2:06 a.m. EDT (06:06 GMT) Aug. 23 — which is 11:06 p.m. PDT on Friday (Aug. 22) — the moon will officially pass through its new moon phase.
At that moment, our natural satellite will be positioned in the constellation Leo, sitting just 1 degree north of the sun in the sky.
ummer 2025 in the Northern Hemisphere started with a new moon on June 25, followed by July 23, Aug. 3 and Sept. 21.
With four new moons squeezed into the season, the Aug. 23 new moon becomes the Black Moon. Seasonal Black Moons, like the one on Aug. 23, happen only about once every 33 months.
There's also another definition of a Black Moon that refers to the second new moon in a single calendar month, which won't occur again until Aug. 31, 2027.
Unlike a supermoon or lunar eclipse, a Black Moon isn't something you can watch unfold in real time.
During the new moon phase, the moon is positioned between Earth and the sun, so its unlit side faces us, rendering it invisible against the bright sky.
But don't be disappointed. The days immediately following the Black Moon will reveal one of the most beautiful lunar sights: the thinnest crescent.
On the evenings of Aug. 24 and Aug. 25, look toward the western horizon about 30 to 40 minutes after sunset to spot a delicate silver arc, the moon's first reappearance after going dark.
The dark moonless skies surrounding a new moon are also perfect for observing fainter deep sky objects that would otherwise be very difficult and sometimes impossible to see during brighter moon phases.
It also makes for a particularly great time to study the dense core of the Milky Way.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/a-rare-black-moon-rises-with-the-sun-on-aug-23-2025-heres-what-to-expect
U.S. Space Force successfully launches X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle
Aug. 22, 2025
Summary: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the U.S. Space Force (USSF)-36 National Security Space Launch (NSSL) mission, carrying the eighth X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission for the U.S. Space Force, the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (AFRCO), Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU).
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. – U.S. Space Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) program and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the USSF-36 mission into orbit Aug. 21 from historic Launch Complex (LC)-39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The mission, carrying the U.S. Space Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) spacecraft, lifted off on schedule at 11:50 p.m. EST (8:50 p.m. PST). USSF-36 was ordered under the NSSL Phase 2 contract, Task Order No. 2, on March 8, 2021.
“This was our fourth NSSL Phase 2 mission so far this year, and we have more coming right behind it,” said Col. Ryan Hiserote, senior materiel leader, Launch Execution for Space Systems Command Assured Access to Space organization.
“In fact, we have more missions queued for launch over the next 12 months than in any prior 12-month period in the history of the NSSL program…and we welcome this challenge.
Putting innovative capabilities such as these in orbit builds United States strength in the space domain and increases our nation’s overall warfighting capability.”
This is the third NSSL Falcon 9 mission this year, the first being National Reconnaissance Office Launch (NROL)-69 in March followed by the rapid response Global Positioning Systems (GPS) III-7 SV-08 in May.
Looking ahead to an increased launch cadence, the government team and SpaceX continue to sharpen their technical assessments together, enabling shorter timelines that enable a higher launch rate without compromising mission success.
“Our One Falcon Team did a superb job executing our independent mission assurance responsibilities faster, at the same level of confidence, and in parallel with preparations for our next mission,” said Dr. Walt Lauderdale, chief of Falcon Systems and Operations, and mission director for the USSF-36 launch.
“Our excellent relationship with our launch service provider and our deep understanding of this launch system make us more efficient and the result will be the throughput required to satisfy growing national needs.”
https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/Newsroom/Article-Display/Article/4283438/us-space-force-successfully-launches-x-37b-orbital-test-vehicle
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4283172/us-space-force-launches-eighth-x-37b-mission/
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4282798/building-a-more-agile-integrated-force-daf-cements-inaugural-dle/
Building a more agile, integrated force: DAF cements inaugural DLE
Aug. 21, 2025
The Department of the Air Force recently concluded its Department-Level Exercise series, a month-long series of exercises conducted across the Indo-Pacific, including Resolute Force Pacific, Resolute Space, Mobility Guardian 2025, Emerald Warrior and Bamboo Eagle 25-3.
The exercises enhanced readiness and interoperability with allies and partners, while providing critical lessons learned for future operations.
“The Department of the Air Force is focused on becoming a stronger, more lethal deterrent force,” said Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink.
“The way we will fight in future conflicts is constantly evolving, and this month-long exercise series shows we are investing in readiness and training to meet national security challenges.
Our Airmen and Guardians were able to rapidly deploy forces, achieve space superiority, ensure sustained logistics in contested environments and effectively work alongside our allies and partners.”
The exercise series accomplished many important objectives including a high rate of sortie and cargo generation in contested environments around the globe, complex training with partners and allies, integrating space capabilities across air, land, maritime and cyber domains, as well as large scale Agile Combat Employment with a focus on command and control.
Exercise scenarios tested critical elements of DAF operations, and lessons learned were compiled to improve mission planning and future operations.
“As intended, we stressed the system by having the largest scale exercise in the Pacific since the Cold War,” said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin.
“To have the exercise is one thing, but to fail forward, move fast and learn from our mistakes is another.
We validated our ability to sustain operations, deploy and redeploy at scale, and now must follow through on lessons learned. This evolution, implementation and iteration prepare us for the future fight.”
The Air Force’s lethality – and that of the entire Joint Force – depends on the Space Force’s ability to achieve space superiority. Resolute Space put that ability to the test in the largest service-led exercise in Space Force history.
“The Space Force delivered at an unprecedented scale alongside our allies and partners,” said Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman.
“During Resolute Space, Guardians trained against realistic, threat-informed aggressor forces while also supporting nine other concurrent exercises around the world.
It was a clear validation of our readiness, combat credibility and commitment to deliver peace through strength.”
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DLE planners also instituted an overall control center to ensure collective understanding and control of the large-scale exercise. The control center tested responsive management of activities through real-time reporting and intelligence.
“We knew early on that managing this level of complex exercise required a new way of oversight,” said Brig. Gen. Chris Blomquist, Department-Level Exercise series director.
“There was plenty of learning and adjusting along the way and through execution. Such a large exercise had multiple training audiences and stakeholders across the Joint Force, including our allies and partners.
Control of this exercise meant constantly assessing the impacts of activities across the DLE series, what was happening in the information environment and ensuring maintenance of real-world posture and readiness.”
The vastness of the region drives a need for this type of exercise and collaboration with allies and partners remains critical for maintaining peace, interoperability and enabling diplomatic engagement.
Throughout the planning cycle, execution and assessment of the series, dedicated evaluators documented how the DAF developed activities and will provide DAF leaders with findings.
“The DLE was the largest Air Force Lessons Learned collection we have ever done, by a factor of three,” said Allen Moore of the Lessons Learned team. “We had LL personnel spread across the Pacific theater and CONUS bases.
We integrated seamlessly with the Air Force inspector general and Air Force Safety teams to observe operations.
The lessons we learned from the DLE are unmeasurable, but include Joint Task Force operations, complex command and control, logistics and communications, utilization of units of action and planning of large-scale exercises.
We watched the units manage risk and movement while performing combat operations, how we protected the deployed force, how it integrated with allies and partners, as well as the integration with the Joint Force.
None of this went as smoothly as planned, but that’s why we exercise. Now we’re hard at work to feed our observations and analysis back to leaders to improve future operations.”
This iteration of the DLE was successful not only as an overarching concept but also for each exercise nested within it. While challenging, the DAF was prepared to execute a massive effort through integrated readiness.
“Running a DAF-level exercise with alternating supported commands in overlapping COCOMs was as challenging as it was rewarding,” Blomquist said.
“Only our Department of Defense paired with our allies and partners could achieve this level of success at speed and scale.”
The DAF remains committed to conducting similar large-scale exercises to ensure readiness for future operational demands.
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https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4283491/whiting-at-southdec-25-invest-in-space-secure-the-future/
Whiting at SOUTHDEC 25: Invest in space, secure the future
Aug. 22, 2025
PETERSON SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. (AFNS) – As Russia and China seek to expand their influence in space, Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, urged greater international cooperation to safeguard the domain at the South American Defense Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 20.
The three-day conference was co-hosted by Adm. Alvin Holsey, U.S. Southern Command commander, and General Xavier Isaac, Chief of the Argentine Armed Forces’ Joint Staff, and included plenary sessions on enhanced maritime domain awareness, and armed forces support to law enforcement in countering transnational criminal organizations.
The U.S. has worked with regional partner nations across geographic domains in the western hemisphere for decades, but Whiting highlighted the need for growth in partnerships in the space domain.
"U.S. Space Command and U.S. Southern Command have become excellent partners in space–working together for security cooperation and domain awareness," he said.
He highlighted the investment of $42 million for infrastructure development and the placement of 11 space domain awareness telescopes with partners in South America.
“We’re working to build and share specialized expertise through partner space training opportunities and share enhanced domain awareness via SOUTHCOM’s [Enhanced Domain Awareness] program,” Whiting said.
The EDA program is a SOUTHCOM initiative–a comprehensive system that integrates various data sources and technologies to improve situational awareness and understanding of activities in a specific domain.
Whiting emphasized its role in enhancing situational awareness and collaboration for space-based intelligence and surveillance capabilities, noting its positive impact on maritime domain awareness, countering illicit activities and disaster response.
Holsey underscored these capabilities are crucial for addressing threats already facing the region. I
n his opening remarks, he highlighted how illicit activities, including transnational criminal organizations operating across the Americas, threaten the region, and how the U.S. is countering these operations.
“The challenges and threats that span the Andean Ridge to the Strait of Magellan are growing more complex…Expanding the scope, scale and strength of transnational criminal organizations throughout the region is a top concern.
Currently, 33 U.S.-sanctioned groups, including recently designated 10 foreign terrorist organizations, are operating in the Western Hemisphere, engaged in illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons, commodities, wildlife and persons that earn them $358 billion a year in revenue.”
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Whiting emphasized that space-based capabilities underpin the global economy, infrastructure and security, noting sectors such as farming, banking, communications and weather forecasting rely on space technology.
While many nations understand the vital importance of the space domain, there are countries undermining the collective progress of humanity in space.
Whiting detailed the Communist Chinese Party's irresponsible creation of space debris and its lack of transparency in sharing launch information, endangering satellites and astronauts, while also highlighting concerns about its operations within host nations to support military space activities.
He further raised concerns about Russia's reported plans to violate the Outer Space Treaty with a nuclear-capable satellite, a development he deemed "unjustifiable irresponsibility" posing an indiscriminate threat to all satellites.
He said the CCP and Russia are seeking to establish space operation facilities in the Americas, likely including counterspace operations.
“Both nations are fielding a wide range of related weapons from reversible, non-kinetic systems like satellite communications jamming, GPS jamming and cyber-attacks to direct ascent antisatellite missiles and co-orbital antisatellite weapons, putting friendly satellites at risk,” he said.
Given this threat environment, USSPACECOM views partnerships and alliances as essential for enhancing space security and responding to emerging threats.
“We need capable partners who are willing to increase their capacity to effectively contribute to the team,” Whiting said.
“A partnered approach to enhance space security through sharing expertise, burden sharing and coordinated rapid, effective responses to emerging threats–leaving no doubt to our opponents that we are stronger, more capable and always ready to counter any threat.”
Nimble Titan, a missile defense war game led by USSPACECOM, with 25 participating nations, including Argentina as an observer, is critical for missile defense collaboration.
Global Sentinel, USSPACECOM’s annual capstone event, is a space exercise involving 28 nations, including Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru, and provides opportunities for regional nations to enhance space capabilities and interoperability.
USSPACECOM recently welcomed its newest liaison officer from Brazil, joining 11 partner nation LNOs already embedded within its headquarters, further emphasizing the importance of international collaboration.
“I encourage the continued investment in space from our partner nations, because we know that our cooperation in space is a strategic advantage that can harness capabilities, capacities, access and strengthen messaging,” he said.
“Your individual strength is a direct challenge to autocratic nations’ careless ambitions.”
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>>23495455
chekt
They said the first game was on 9/10.
Interdasting because the UAP hearing is supposed to be held on 9/9.
SpaceX Starlink Mission
August 22, 2025
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket is targeted to launch 24 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
A live webcast of this mission will begin about five minutes prior to liftoff, which you can watch here and on X @SpaceX. You can also watch the webcast on the new X TV app.
This will be the 17th flight for the first stage booster supporting this mission, which previously launched Crew-7, CRS-29, PACE, Transporter-10, EarthCARE, NROL-186, Transporter-13, TRACERS, and eight Starlink missions.
Following stage separation, the first stage will land on the Of Course I Still Love You droneship, which will be stationed in the Pacific Ocean.
There is the possibility that residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties may hear one or more sonic booms during the launch, but what residents experience will depend on weather and other conditions.
https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl-17-6