TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
September 9, 2025
Up from the Earth: Gigantic Jet Lightning
What's that rising up from the Earth? When circling the Earth on the International Space Station early in July, astronaut Nicole Ayers saw an unusual type of lightning rising up from the Earth: a gigantic jet. The powerful jet appears near the center of the featured image in red, white, and blue. Giant jet lightning has only been known about for the past 25 years. The atmospheric jets are associated with thunderstorms and extend upwards towards Earth's ionosphere. The lower part of the frame shows the Earth at night, with Earth's thin atmosphere tinted green from airglow. City lights are visible, sometimes resolved, but usually creating diffuse white glows in intervening clouds. The top of the frame reveals distant stars in the dark night sky. The nature of gigantic jets and their possible association with other types of Transient Luminous Events (TLEs) such as blue jets and red sprites remain active topics of research.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
They better hurry up before the hearing gets juicy
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-looks-at-earth-sized-habitable-zone-exoplanet-trappist-1-e/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf42e
NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e
Sep 08, 2025
Scientists are in the midst of observing the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
Careful analysis of the results so far presents several potential scenarios for what the planet’s atmosphere and surface may be like, as NASA science missions lay key groundwork to answer the question, “are we alone in the universe?”
“Webb’s infrared instruments are giving us more detail than we’ve ever had access to before, and the initial four observations we’ve been able to make of planet e are showing us what we will have to work with when the rest of the information comes in,” said Néstor Espinoza of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, a principal investigator on the research team.
Two scientific papers detailing the team’s initial results are published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Image A: Trappist-1 e (Artist's Concept)
Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, planet e is of particular interest because it orbits the star at a distance where water on the surface is theoretically possible — not too hot, not too cold — but only if the planet has an atmosphere.
That’s where Webb comes in. Researchers aimed the telescope’s powerful NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument at the system as planet e transited, or passed in front of, its star.
Starlight passing through the planet’s atmosphere, if there is one, will be partially absorbed, and the corresponding dips in the light spectrum that reaches Webb will tell astronomers what chemicals are found there.
With each additional transit, the atmospheric contents become clearer as more data is collected.
Primary atmosphere unlikely
Though multiple possibilities remain open for planet e because only four transits have been analyzed so far, the researchers feel confident that the planet does not still have its primary, or original, atmosphere.
TRAPPIST-1 is a very active star, with frequent flares, so it is not surprising to researchers that any hydrogen-helium atmosphere with which the planet may have formed would have been stripped off by stellar radiation.
However many planets, including Earth, build up a heavier secondary atmosphere after losing their primary atmosphere. It is possible that planet e was never able to do this and does not have a secondary atmosphere.
Yet researchers say there is an equal chance there is an atmosphere, and the team developed novel approaches to working with Webb’s data to determine planet e’s potential atmospheres and surface environments.
World of (fewer) possibilities
The researchers say it is unlikely that the atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 e is dominated by carbon dioxide, analogous to the thick atmosphere of Venus and the thin atmosphere of Mars.
However, the researchers also are careful to note that there are no direct parallels with our solar system.
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"TRAPPIST-1 is a very different star from our Sun, and so the planetary system around it is also very different, which challenges both our observational and theoretical assumptions,” said team member Nikole Lewis, an associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University.
If there is liquid water on TRAPPIST-1 e, the researchers say it would be accompanied by a greenhouse effect, in which various gases, particularly carbon dioxide, keep the atmosphere stable and the planet warm.
“A little greenhouse effect goes a long way,” said Lewis, and the measurements do not rule out adequate carbon dioxide to sustain some water on the surface.
According to the team’s analysis, the water could take the form of a global ocean, or cover a smaller area of the planet where the star is at perpetual noon, surrounded by ice.
This would be possible because, due to the TRAPPIST-1 planets’ sizes and close orbits to their star, it is thought that they all are tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and one side always in darkness.
Image B: TRAPPIST-1 e Transmission Spectrum (NIRSpec)
Innovative new method
Espinoza and co-principal investigator Natalie Allen of Johns Hopkins University are leading a team that is currently making 15 additional observations of planet e, with an innovative twist.
The scientists are timing the observations so that Webb catches both planets b and e transiting the star one right after the other. After previous Webb observations of planet b, the planet orbiting closest to TRAPPIST-1, scientists are fairly confident it is a bare rock without an atmosphere.
This means that signals detected during planet b’s transit can be attributed to the star only, and because planet e transits at nearly the same time, there will be less complication from the star’s variability.
Scientists plan to compare the data from both planets, and any indications of chemicals that show up only in planet e’s spectrum can be attributed to its atmosphere.
“We are really still in the early stages of learning what kind of amazing science we can do with Webb.
It’s incredible to measure the details of starlight around Earth-sized planets 40 light-years away and learn what it might be like there, if life could be possible there,” said Ana Glidden, a post-doctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, who led the research on possible atmospheres for planet e.
“We’re in a new age of exploration that’s very exciting to be a part of,” she said.
The four transits of TRAPPIST-1 e analyzed in the new papers published today were collected by the JWST Telescope Scientist Team’s DREAMS (Deep Reconnaissance of Exoplanet Atmospheres using Multi-instrument Spectroscopy) collaboration.
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Station Gets Ready for Two Cargo Missions Launching Days Apart
September 8, 2025
The Progress 93 cargo craft from Roscosmos rolled out to its launch pad today at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where will launch at 11:54 a.m. EDT on Thursday to the International Space Station.
Progress 93, carrying 2.8 tons of food, fuel, and supplies to resupply the Expedition 73 crew, will arrive at the orbital outpost and automatically dock to the Zvezda service module’s aft port at 1:27 p.m. on Saturday.
NASA+ will begin its live launch broadcast at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday followed by docking coverage beginning at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, station Commander and Flight Engineer respectively, trained on Monday for this weekend’s approach and rendezvous of the Progress 93 resupply ship.
The duo practiced on a computer the maneuvers they would use to remotely control the approaching cargo craft in the unlikely event it would be unable to complete its automated docking sequence with Zvezda.
Before Progress 93 launches, the Progress 91 cargo craft will undock from the orbital outpost at 11:45 a.m. on Tuesday vacating the same Zvezda port the new resupply ship will dock to four days later.
The Progress 91, filled with trash and obsolete gear, will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean several hours later for a fiery, but safe demise completing a six-and-a-half-month mission.
Next on the launch schedule is NASA’s Northrop Grumman’s commercial resupply services 23 mission featuring the Cygnus XL cargo craft, counting down to a liftoff atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 6:11 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
Cygnus XL will deliver over 11,000 pounds of new gear, including advanced science experiments to promote health on Earth and in space, when it is captured by the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 6:35 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17.
Canadarm2 will remotely install Cygnus to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for six months of cargo activities.
Meanwhile back on the space station, Expedition 73 began its week focusing on how the human body and plants change in microgravity to not only protect crews in space but keep humans healthy on Earth.
NASA Flight Engineers Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman joined each other in the Columbus laboratory module at the beginning of their shift on Monday to understand how living in weightlessness affects a crew member’s sense of balance and orientation.
Fincke operated software, with assistance from doctors on the ground, that sent visual signals Cardman responded to while wearing virtual reality goggles.
Researchers will use the data to track structural changes a crew member’s vestibular system, or sensory system, may experience while living in space.
Afterward, Fincke led eye exams with NASA Flight Engineer Jonny Kim looking for potential space-caused changes to eye structure and vision.
Fincke operated the medical hardware and software that sent flashes, or light patterns, to electrodes Kim wore around his eyes testing his retinal response.
Next, Kim peered into eye imaging hardware as doctors on the ground monitored in real time for more insight into how spaceflight affects the retina, cornea, and optic nerve.
Both the eye tests and the balance study were part of the CIPHER suite of 14 human research investigations tracking space-influenced changes to the human body possibly advancing health in space and on Earth.
Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) explored space botany in the Kibo laboratory module on Monday to learn how to grow plants in space and eventually the Moon and Mars.
For the first part of the Plant Cell Division experiment, Yui processed tobacco plant cell samples with a chemical agent for preservation then installed the samples inside the Cell Biology Experiment Facility for incubation and later analysis with a microscope.
He will conduct the second part of the experiment on Wednesday processing algae samples to understand cell division in space promoting advanced agricultural techniques on and off the Earth.
Roscosmos Flight Engineer Oleg Platonov participated in a pair of human research studies on Monday continuing the ongoing effort to understand and counteract the effects of microgravity on a crew member’s body.
Platonov first attached sensors to his neck measuring the volume as he rapidly exhaled for a respiratory study.
After that, he attached a new set of sensors and electrodes measuring his cardiac activity as he jogged on Zvezda’s treadmill for a regularly scheduled fitness evaluation.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2025/09/08/station-gets-ready-for-two-cargo-missions-launching-days-apart/
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/
3I/ATLAS is Turning Green
September 9, 2025
Until recently, all spectroscopic studies of 3I/ATLAS indicated a reddish color. The latest image of 3I/ATLAS from September 7, 2025 (reported by Michael Jäger and Gerald Rhemann here), suggests that the glow around it turned green.
The transition from red to green-blue colors might be associated with the steep rise in the production of cyanide (CN) as reported by the Very Large Telescope on August 25, 2025 (here).
The production of both cyanide and nickel without iron was found to increase dramatically with decreasing heliocentric distance to the power of about 9 (+/-1).
This morning, the ATLAS telescope team released data dating back to March 28, 2025 (accessible here), showing that the cross section of scattered light around 3I/ATLAS grew inversely with heliocentric distance to the power of 3.9 when the object was farther than 3.3 times the Earth-Sun separation (AU).
Once 3I/ATLAS got closer, the growth was moderated to a power-law index of 1.2. The ATLAS team interprets this anomalous evolution as a shift from scattering of sunlight by dust lifted from a reddened surface to the production of small, optically bright icy grains, which changed the opacity of the plume of materials shed off by 3I/ATLAS.
The Hubble Space Telescope image of 3I/ATLAS from July 21, 2025 (reported here) when 3I/ATLAS was at a heliocentric distance of 3.8 AU, shows an extension of scattered light towards the Sun and not away from it — as typically for comets.
The Webb Space Telescope data from August 6, 2025 (reported here) and the SPHEREx space observatory from August 8–12, 2025 (reported here) showed that the plume of gas around 3I/ATLAS is dominated by carbon dioxide — CO2 (87% by mass) with traces of carbon monoxide — CO (9%), and water — H2O (most of the remaining 4%). Combined with the path of 3I/ATLAS being aligned with the ecliptic plane of the planets around the Sun, having a chance probability of a fifth of a percent, these facts make 3I/ATLAS interestingly anomalous relative to familiar icy rocks. 3I/ATLAS is different from the first interstellar object 1I/`Oumuamua which displayed no signs of evaporation but exhibited non-gravitational acceleration and also from the second interstellar object 2I/Borisov which behaved like a familiar comet.
Regarding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) closer to Earth, congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna will chair today at 10 AM EST a hearing of the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets at U.S. Congress, titled:
“Restoring Public Trust Through UAP Transparency and Whistleblower Protection” (livestream video and written testimonies available here). The first recommendation to congress in the testimony of the U.S. Air Force Vetern Jeffrey Nuccetelli is:
“Fund independent research and treat UAP study with the same seriousness as any other scientific field.” This is exactly the narrative of the Galileo Project under my leadership.
In an interview today on the program “Morning in America” of NewsNation (following another interview last night concerning 3I/ATLAS, available here), I was asked whether the release of new videos or eyewitness details in today’s congressional hearing is likely to restore public interest in UAP.
I explained that this discussion is not a matter of public relations in a popularity contest, but instead a topic of great relevance for national security and science. Human history is full of misconceived notions.
For example, the belief that the Sun revolves around the Earth was popular among humans even after the Earth revolved around the Sun 4.54 billion times!
Once we all see credible evidence about the nature of UAP, we will be able to get to the bottom of it and everyone would agree on what it means.
When asked whether I believe that the U.S. government is hiding information, I replied that as a scientist I respond to evidence and not to what people tell me.
Scientific evidence is our best path to new knowledge, whether in the realm of UAP or 3I/ATLAS. The simplest way to tell the difference between a dogmatist and a genuine scientist is to flood both of them with scientific-quality data.
Whereas the dogmatist will shove anomalous data under the carpet of traditional thinking, an open-minded scientist will be thrilled to learn something new with an underlying sense of humility.
Not only is nature more imaginative than we are, but it also does not care whether we figure it out.
The insistence that everything in the sky is either icy rocks or human made technologies will not rid us of cosmic neighbors, if they exist out there.
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/3i-atlas-is-turning-green-c8a4fd003abc
https://groups.io/g/comets-ml/topic/3i_atlas_now_shows_blue_green/115127255
https://www.newsnationnow.com/vargasreports/comet-3i-atlas-alien-tech-avi-loeb/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BE4qURVW7s
NASA Sets Coverage for Northrop Grumman CRS-23, SpaceX Falcon 9 Launch
Sep 08, 2025
NASA, Northrop Grumman, and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than 6:11 p.m. EDT, Sunday, Sept. 14, for the next launch to deliver science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station.
The mission is known as NASA’s Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply Services 23, or Northrop Grumman CRS-23.
Watch the agency’s launch and arrival coverage on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and more. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Filled with more than 11,000 pounds of supplies, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus XL spacecraft, carried on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
This mission will be the first flight of the Cygnus XL, the larger, more cargo-capable version of the company’s solar-powered spacecraft.
Following arrival, astronauts aboard the space station will use the Canadarm2 to grapple Cygnus XL on Wednesday, Sept. 17, before robotically installing the spacecraft to the Unity module’s Earth-facing port for cargo unloading.
Highlights of space station research and technology demonstrations, facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus XL, include materials to produce semiconductor crystals in space and equipment to develop improvements for cryogenic fuel tanks.
The spacecraft also will deliver a specialized UV light system to prevent the growth of microbe communities that form in water systems and supplies to produce pharmaceutical crystals that could treat cancer and other diseases.
Media interested in speaking to a science subject matter expert should contact Sandra Jones at: sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is available on the agency’s website.
The Cygnus XL spacecraft is scheduled to remain at the orbiting laboratory until March before it departs and burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere.
Northrop Grumman has named the spacecraft the S.S. William “Willie” McCool, in honor of the NASA astronaut who perished in 2003 during the space shuttle Columbia accident.
NASA’s mission coverage is as follows (all times Eastern and subject to change based on real-time operations):
Wednesday, Sept. 10:
1 p.m. – International Space Station National Laboratory Science Webinar with the following participants:
Dr. Liz Warren, associate chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office
Phillip Irace, science program director, International Space Station National Laboratory
Paul Westerhoff, regents professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment, Arizona State University
Robert Garmise, director of formulation development; exploratory biopharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers Squibb
Joel Sercel, founder and CEO, TransAstra Corporation and Mike Lewis, senior vice president, customer innovation, Voyager Technologies
Mohammad Kassemi, research professor, Case Western University
Media who wish to participate must register for Zoom access no later than one hour before the start of the webinar.
The webinar will be recorded and shared to the International Space Station National Lab’s YouTube channel following the event. Ask questions in advance using social accounts @ISS_CASIS and @Space_Station.
Friday, Sept 12
11:30 a.m. – Prelaunch media teleconference with the following participants:
Dina Contella, deputy manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
Dr. Liz Warren, associate chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station Program Research Office
Ryan Tintner, vice president, Civil Space Systems, Northrop Grumman
Jared Metter, director, Flight Reliability, SpaceX
Media who wish to participate by phone must request dial-in information by 5 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 11, by contacting the NASA Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov.
Audio of the teleconference will stream live on the agency’s website and YouTube.
Sunday, Sept. 14:
5:50 p.m. – Launch coverage begins on NASA+ and Amazon Prime
6:11 p.m. – Launch
Wednesday, Sept. 17:
5 a.m. – Arrival coverage begins on NASA+ and Amazon Prime
6:35 a.m. – Capture
8 a.m. – Installation coverage begins on NASA+ and Amazon Prime
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-sets-coverage-for-northrop-grumman-crs-23-spacex-falcon-9-launch/
https://www.spacex.com/launches/ng23
NASA to Share Details of New Perseverance Mars Rover Finding
Sep 08, 2025
NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 10, to discuss the analysis of a rock sampled by the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover last year, which is the subject of a forthcoming science paper.
The sample, called “Sapphire Canyon,” was collected in July 2024 from a set of rocky outcrops on the edges of Neretva Vallis, a river valley carved by water rushing into Jezero Crater long ago.
Audio and visuals of the call will stream on the agency’s website at:
https://www.nasa.gov/live
Participants in the teleconference include:
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy
Nicky Fox, associate administrator, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters in Washington
Lindsay Hays, Senior Scientist for Mars Exploration, Planetary Science Division, NASA Headquarters
Katie Stack Morgan, Perseverance Project Scientist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California
Joel Hurowitz, planetary scientist, Stony Brook University, New York
To ask questions by phone, members of the media must RSVP no later than two hours before the start of the event to: rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.
Since landing in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater in February 2021, Perseverance has collected 30 samples. The rover still has six empty sample tubes to fill, and it continues to collect detailed information about geologic targets that it hasn’t sampled by using its abrasion tool.
Among the rover’s science instruments is a weather station that provides environmental information for future human missions, as well as swatches of spacesuit material so that NASA can study how it fares on Mars.
Managed for NASA by Caltech, JPL built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover on behalf of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program portfolio.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-share-details-of-new-perseverance-mars-rover-finding/
https://www.nasa.gov/perseverance
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio in Space Station Cupola
Sep 08, 2025
NASA astronaut Frank Rubio poses for a picture in the International Space Station’s cupola on Oct. 1, 2022. Rubio was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2017.
He trained as a flight engineer and member of the Expedition 68 crew. Rubio, along with cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin of Roscosmos, launched Sept. 21, 2022, on the Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to the space station.
While aboard the orbital laboratory, Rubio and his fellow crew members conducted dozens of scientific investigations and technology demonstrations, including growing tomato plants to study hydroponic and aeroponic techniques, participating in crew health experiments, and studying how materials react in microgravity.
Research like this and other activity on the orbital outpost will inform long-duration missions like Artemis and future human expeditions to Mars.
Rubio spent 371 days in space, surpassing NASA’s single spaceflight record for continuous days in space made by astronaut Mark Vande Hei. Rubio and his crewmates landed in Kazakhstan on Sept. 27, 2023.
Rubio’s mission is the longest single spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut in history.
https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/nasa-astronaut-frank-rubio-in-space-station-cupola/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/stennis/ideal-location-for-range-of-site-tenants/
https://www.nasa.gov/stennis/
NASA Stennis Provides Ideal Location for Range of Site Tenants
Sep 09, 2025
If location, location, location is the overarching mantra in real estate, it is small wonder that NASA’s Stennis Space Center is considered a national asset and prime aerospace and technology operations site.
It has long stood as a premier – and the nation’s largest – rocket propulsion test site. With unparalleled test infrastructure and expertise, NASA Stennis has helped power the nation’s human space exploration for almost 60 years.
It continues to do so, testing systems and engines for NASA’s Artemis program to send astronauts to the Moon to prepare for future human exploration of Mars.
In addition, NASA Stennis is the choice location for a range of agencies, organizations, offices, and companies, all of whom readily attest to the values of the setting.
Ask resident tenants to note the value of their NASA Stennis location, and one hears terms like “strategic advantages,” “ideal location,” “local expertise and experience,” “collaborative opportunities,” “hub of innovation,” and “valuable security buffer.”
For the NASA Shared Services Center, its location at the south Mississippi test site provides “substantial strategic advantages” that helps the NSSC maximize its work and provide streamlined business operations for the agency.
Likewise, NASA Stennis provides an ideal location for the North Gulf Institute operated by Mississippi State University, as it conducts frontline work in hurricane forecasting, modeling and assessment, as well as fishery and ecosystem management.
The location is strengthened further by the proximity to collaborative partners like the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command and the National Data Buoy Center.
The same holds true for the National Centers for Environmental Information operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A spokesperson said the centers’ mission success is “firmly rooted in its strategic co-location with other federal partners,” including the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the National Data Buoy Center, and the Northern Gulf Institute.
For Relativity Space, the largest NASA Stennis test complex tenant, the “unparalleled infrastructure” at NASA Stennis has been key to enabling the company’s rocket engine testing.
“NASA’s Stennis Space Center plays a vital role in getting Terran R to space,” said Clay Walker, vice president of test and launch for Relativity Space.
“The infrastructure here allows us to test high-performance engines in ways no other place can.”
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Other companies express similar sentiments, citing the unique opportunities NASA Stennis provides, as well as the value of the local workforce.
For instance, L3Harris Technologies has operated at NASA Stennis under various names since the 1960s, providing support to the Apollo, Space Shuttle, and, now, Artemis programs.
In 2008, Lockheed Martin opened a start-to-finish facility for production of propulsion systems, making use of the various NASA Stennis propulsion test services and resources.
Evolution Space is capitalizing on decades of aerospace experience at NASA Stennis, as well as “world-class” site infrastructure to establish production and test capabilities for solid rocket motors onsite. Both Mississippi and Louisiana have established technology offices onsite.
As a Mississippi Enterprise for Technology statement noted, “The NASA Stennis environment enhances our ability to support emerging technologies, strengthen Mississippi’s technology ecosystem, and contribute to the economic vitality of the region,” said Davis Pace, chief executive officer for the Mississippi Enterprise for Technology.
Meanwhile, the site’s most prominent tenant – the U.S. Navy – operates various offices at NASA Stennis.
The Navy’s move to the site began in the 1970s to take advantage of the security provided by the surrounding NASA Stennis acoustical buffer zone.
Various Navy functions eventually located continuing operations onsite, including the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command, the Naval Oceanographic Office, the Naval Small Craft Instruction and Technical Training School, the Navy Office of Civilian Human Resources, and the Naval Research Laboratory.
In similar fashion, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security credits the “high-quality, secure, and resilient” NASA Stennis site for its decision to location information technology and applications operations onsite.
As the very first NASA Stennis federal city tenant, arriving onsite in September 1970, the National Data Buoy Center has borne witness to it all.
“From its inception, Sen. John Stennis (and other leaders) envisioned a place where America would push the boundaries of the unknown – from the depths of the oceans to the far reaches of space,” said Dr. William Burnett, director of the National Data Buoy Center onsite.
“That vision lives on at NASA Stennis, now home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of oceanographers.
At the National Data Buoy Center, we proudly carry out our mission to safeguard maritime safety by harnessing the full strength of this unique scientific and technical community.
“We are deeply rooted in the community and grateful to thrive within the collaborative spirit that defines Stennis. It’s an honor to be part of its legacy – and its future.”
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https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/life-after-microgravity-astronauts-reflect-on-post-flight-recovery/
https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/
Life After Microgravity: Astronauts Reflect on Post-Flight Recovery
Sep 09, 2025
Space changes you. It strengthens some muscles, weakens others, shifts fluids within your body, and realigns your sense of balance.
NASA’s Human Research Program works to understand—and sometimes even counter—those changes so astronauts can thrive on future deep space missions.
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station work out roughly two hours a day to protect bone density, muscle strength and the cardiovascular system, but the longer they are in microgravity, the harder it can be for the brain and body to readapt to gravity’s pull.
After months in orbit, returning astronauts often describe Earth as heavy, loud, and strangely still. Some reacclimate within days, while other astronauts take longer to fully recover.
Adjusting to Gravity
The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-7 mission— NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov—landed in March 2024 after nearly 200 days in space.
One of the first tests volunteer crew members completed was walking with their eyes open and then closed. “With eyes closed, it was almost impossible to walk in a straight line,” Mogensen said.
In space, vision is the primary way astronauts orient themselves, but back on Earth, the brain must relearn how to use inner-ear balance signals.
Moghbeli joked her first attempt at the exercise looked like “a nice tap dance.”
“I felt very wobbly for the first two days,” Moghbeli said. “My neck was very tired from holding up my head.” She added that, overall, her body readapted to gravity quickly.
Astronauts each recover on their own timetable and may encounter different challenges. Mogensen said his coordination took time to return. Furukawa noted that he could not look down without feeling nauseated. “Day by day, I recovered and got more stable,” he said.
When NASA astronaut Frank Rubio landed in Kazakhstan in September 2023, he had just completed a record 371-day mission—the longest single U.S. spaceflight.
Rubio said his body adjusted to gravity right away, though his feet and lower back were sore after more than a year without weight on them. Thanks to consistent workouts, Rubio said he felt mostly recovered within a couple of weeks.
Mentally, extending his mission from six months to a year was a challenge. “It was a mixed emotional roller coaster,” he said, but regular video calls with family kept him grounded. “It was almost overwhelming how much love and support we received.”
Crew-8 astronauts Matt Dominick, Jeanette Epps, Michael Barratt, and cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin splashed down in October 2024 after 235 days on station.
Dominick found sitting on hard surfaces uncomfortable at first. Epps felt the heaviness of Earth immediately. “You have to move and exercise every day, regardless of how exhausted you feel,” she said.
Barratt, veteran astronaut and board certified in internal and aerospace medicine, explained that recovery differs for each crew member, and that every return teaches NASA something new.
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Still a Challenge, Even for Space Veterans
Veteran NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned from a nine-month mission with Crew-9 in early 2025. Despite her extensive spaceflight experience, Williams said re-adapting to gravity can still be tough.
“The weight and heaviness of things is surprising,” she said. Like others, she pushed herself to move daily to regain strength and balance.
NASA astronaut Don Pettit, also a veteran flyer, came home in April 2025 after 220 days on the space station. At 70 years old, he is NASA’s oldest active astronaut—but experience did not make gravity gentler.
During landing, he says he was kept busy, “emptying the contents of my stomach onto the steppes of Kazakhstan.” Microgravity had eased the aches in his joints and muscles, but Earth’s pull brought them back all at once.
Pettit said his recovery felt similar to earlier missions. “I still feel like a little kid inside,” he said. The hardest part, he explained, isn’t regaining strength in big muscle groups, but retraining the small, often-overlooked muscles unused in space.
“It’s a learning process to get used to gravity again.” Recovery happens day by day—with help from exercise, support systems, and a little humor. No matter how long an astronaut is in space, every journey back to Earth is unique.
The Human Research Program help scientists understand how spaceflight environments affect astronaut health and performance and informs strategies to keep crews healthy for future missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
The program studies astronauts before, during, and after spaceflight to learn how the human body adapts to living and working in space. It also collects data through Earth-based analog missions that can help keep astronauts safer for future space exploration.
To learn more about how microgravity affects the human body and develop new ways to help astronauts stay healthy, for example, its scientists conduct bedrest studies – asking dozens of volunteers to spend 60 days in bed with their heads tilted down at a specific angle.
Lying in this position tricks the body into responding as it would if the body was in space which allows scientists to trial interventions to hopefully counter some of microgravity’s effects.
Such studies, through led by NASA, occur at the German Aerospace Center’s Cologne campus at a facility called :envihab – a combination of “environment” and “habitat.”
Additional Earth-based insights come from the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) and the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Both analogs recreate the remote conditions and scenarios of deep space exploration here on Earth with volunteer crews who agree to live and work in the isolation of ground-based habitats and endure challenges like delayed communication that simulates the type of interactions that will occur during deep space journeys to and from Mars.
Findings from these ground-based missions and others will help NASA refine its future interventions, strategies, and protocols for astronauts in space.
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Launch Your Name Around Moon in 2026 on NASA’s Artemis II Mission
Sep 09, 2025
NASA is inviting the public to join the agency’s Artemis II test flight as four astronauts venture around the Moon and back to test systems and hardware needed for deep space exploration.
As part of the agency’s “Send Your Name with Artemis II” effort, anyone can claim their spot by signing up before Jan. 21.
Participants will launch their name aboard the Orion spacecraft and SLS (Space Launch System) rocket alongside NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
“Artemis II is a key test flight in our effort to return humans to the Moon’s surface and build toward future missions to Mars, and it’s also an opportunity to inspire people across the globe and to give them an opportunity to follow along as we lead the way in human exploration deeper into space,” said Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator, Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The collected names will be put on an SD card loaded aboard Orion before launch. In return, participants can download a boarding pass with their name on it as a collectable.
To add your name and receive an English-language boarding pass, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/artemisnames
To add your name and receive a Spanish-language boarding pass, visit:
https://go.nasa.gov/TuNombreArtemis
As part of a Golden Age of innovation and exploration, the approximately 10-day Artemis II test flight, launching no later than April 2026, is the first crewed flight under NASA’s Artemis campaign.
It is another step toward new U.S.-crewed missions on the Moon’s surface that will help the agency prepare to send the first astronauts – Americans – to Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/launch-your-name-around-moon-in-2026-on-nasas-artemis-ii-mission/
https://www3.nasa.gov/send-your-name-with-artemis/
Kazakhstan Hosts Space Days Forum to Boost Aerospace Cooperation
9 September 2025
ASTANA – The international forum Space Days Kazakhstan took place Sept. 8-9 in Almaty, serving as a key platform for discussions on the future of the global aerospace industry, reported the forum’s press service.
The event underscored Kazakhstan’s ambitions to strengthen its role in the international space arena and attract foreign investment into its space sector.
More than 50 experts participated in over 10 workshops and roundtables covering education, satellite data use, international cooperation, promising projects, and the effects of space weather on infrastructure.
A photo exhibition honoring the National Hero of Kazakhstan and cosmonaut Talgat Mussabayev was among the forum’s central events. It showcased rare photographs, footage of his work in space, and a film about his life and career.
Kazakhstan Garysh Sapary National Company signed several cooperation agreements during the event. Partners included Singapore’s ORBVIEW PTE, a distributor of satellite imagery, South Korea’s Nara Space, a microsatellite developer, and Kazakhstan’s New ServiceArt, which works in IT consulting and digitalization.
The agreements aim to expand satellite technology, data use, and international collaboration.
The forum also hosted the IV ICESCO International Training Seminar and an aerospace symposium on CanSat model satellites, which brought together over 15 experts from international companies, scientific centers, and organizations.
A job fair connected students and young professionals with industry leaders to explore careers in high-tech fields.
Officials emphasized that Kazakhstan seeks to attract foreign investment in the aerospace sector and strengthen its role in the global space arena.
Reviving the Baikonur cosmodrome remains central to that strategy. Most of the facility is still leased from Russia, but modernization is underway under the Baiterek project at Launch Pad No. 5, once used for the Energia-Buran program.
Around $1.3 billion in investments is expected to support the diversification of the industry.
The Baiterek complex will host the Soyuz-5 rocket, set for launch in December, said Baubek Oralmagambetov, Chairman of the Aerospace Committee of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry.
“We associate the ‘second wind’ of Baikonur with this project. Its key difference from existing launch sites is a fully automated launch, and there is steady global demand for this new, powerful carrier,” Oralmagambetov told the Inbusiness news agency.
He added that Baikonur and Russia’s Vostochny cosmodrome are not in direct competition, noting that the global shortage of launch vehicles leaves room for both to grow.
Oralmagambetov said Baikonur will focus on manned programs, while Vostochny will concentrate on cargo missions with heavy carriers such as Angara.
“Today, there is a shortage of launch vehicles on the market, and many satellite manufacturers are seeking contracts. There will be enough orders for both Vostochny and Baikonur,” he said.
https://astanatimes.com/2025/09/kazakhstan-hosts-space-days-forum-to-boost-aerospace-cooperation/
Giant 'chessboard' surrounds Idaho river in bizarre astronaut photo
September 9. 2025
This intriguing astronaut photo shows a patch of land in Idaho that looks strikingly like a giant chessboard when viewed from space. The strange pattern comes from an environmental initiative dating back roughly 200 years.
The aerial shot shows a tract of land alongside the Priest River in the mountains of northern Idaho, around 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the Canadian border.
The closest point of interest is Whitetail Butte, a lookout point for forest fires, which is positioned on a large bend in the river (roughly halfway along the waterway in the photo).
The "chessboard" is around 5 miles (8 km) across at its widest point and contains approximately 185 squares, although not all of them are visible in this photo.
Each square covers around 1.4 million square feet (130,000 square meters) — about the same size as 24 football fields.
This pattern results from a grid-based forest management initiative set up in the 1800s. Alternating squares have been cleared for their timber, leaving enough trees to sustain the forest ecosystem while new trees grow, according to NASA's Earth Observatory.
New trees are then planted in the empty squares. When the trees have fully matured, the trees on alternating squares are harvested, and the cycle begins again. This photo was likely taken just a few years after the most recent harvest.
The pattern has been accentuated by snow, which has settled on top of saplings in the "empty" white squares. The checkering is also visible during the summer.
However, there is much less distinction between some light and dark squares, which appear as various shades of green.
This photo was taken just before sunset, so some mountainsides glow while others are covered in long shadows due to the low angle of the sun.
The Priest River, which is part of the Columbia River basin, was previously used to transport timber from this region to sawmills in other parts of Idaho and beyond.
This was traditionally done by "log driving," which involved floating rafts of logs on the river's surface, often with people standing on top and using long poles to redirect the rafts and prevent them from jamming.
However, this practice was halted in the 1990s to allow for more recreational uses of the river.
The logs are now transported by road, and if you look closely, you can see the faint line of a purpose-built trucking road passing diagonally through multiple squares of the checkered forest.
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/giant-chessboard-surrounds-idaho-river-in-bizarre-astronaut-photo-earth-from-space
https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/giant-chessboard-surrounds-idaho-river-in-bizarre-astronaut-photo-earth-from-space
Astronauts capture amazing views of the total lunar eclipse from the ISS
September 9, 2025
We just got some great birds-eye views of this past weekend's total lunar eclipse, thanks to astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
The eclipse occurred overnight from Sunday to Monday (Sept. 7 to Sept. 8). It was visible from much of the Eastern Hemisphere, thrilling countless people across western Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe.
It was also visible from 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth — the average altitude of the ISS — and the folks up there didn't have to worry about clouds blocking their views.
But they did face other issues, as NASA's Zena Cardman explained.
"It's a challenge to catch the moon up here — we don't have any up-facing windows, so we can only see the moon for a few minutes between moonrise and moonset before it disappears above the ISS or below the horizon," she wrote in an X post on Monday.
"Yesterday was an extra challenge, dealing with low-angle light bouncing through the multi-paned cupola glass," she added.
But Cardman was successful in capturing the eclipse, as were her ISS colleagues Jonny Kim of NASA and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). All three shared photos of the eclipse on X on Monday.
"We only had short windows of time to catch a glimpse of the moon before it was obstructed by parts of the @Space_Station," Kim wrote in his post, which featured four eclipse shots.
One of Yui's photos demonstrated the "blood moon" effect of a total lunar eclipse, showing Earth's nearest neighbor exhibiting a coppery glow.
This results because Earth's atmosphere absorbs relatively short wavelengths of light, letting only the longer-wavelength reddish hues through to paint the lunar surface.
Yui and Cardman, along with NASA's Mike Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, arrived at the ISS on Aug. 2 on SpaceX's Crew-11 mission. Kim, and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky, went up in April on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/eclipses/astronauts-capture-amazing-views-of-the-total-lunar-eclipse-from-the-iss-photos
https://x.com/zenanaut/status/1965103852438306993
Moon blocks satellite views of the sun before lunar eclipse
Sept. 9, 2025
In early September 2025, skywatchers in parts of the Eastern Hemisphere were treated to a total lunar eclipse as Earth blocked the sun's light from the moon.
The eclipse occurred in the evening of Sept. 7 as the moon slipped into shadow and transformed into the infamous "blood moon" for a few minutes.
Interestingly, satellites orbiting Earth saw something very, very different.
What is it?
Two of the weather satellites launched by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) 18 and 19 (also known as GOES West and GOES East) — witnessed not one but two eclipses the evening of Sept. 7.
These two satellites are part of NOAA's larger mission to monitor Earth and space weather and study changes in Earth's environment in high resolution.
But while their eyes look Earthward, their gaze recently caught both a solar and lunar eclipse.
Where is it?
According to NOAA, the GOES-18 satellite is positioned above the "western contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Ocean," while the GOES-19 satellite is located to scan a wider swath of Earth, including "North America, including the continental United States and Mexico, as well as Central and South America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa."
Why is it amazing?
While skywatchers on Earth saw a lunar eclipse, due to their positioning in space, both GOES satellites were treated to a solar eclipse and then the lunar eclipse, mere hours apart.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon blocks the view of the sun on Earth while, in contrast, Earth blocks the sun's light on the moon for a lunar eclipse.
Given their locations above our planet, both GOES-18 and GOES-19 caught stunning details of the sun in high resolution before they were momentarily blocked by the moon in a solar eclipse.
This eclipse happened from 4:40 a.m. to 5:28 a.m. EDT (0840 to 0928 GMT) for GOES-18, and 12:34 am to 1:22 a.m. EDT ( 0434 to 0522 GMT) for GOES-19. Videos of this solar eclipse can be seen on the CIMSS Satellite Blog.
Hours later, the lunar eclipse happened at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Witnessing two eclipses in a single day is a rare celestial coincidence, a reminder that the universe still has a few breathtaking surprises up its sleeve.
https://www.space.com/stargazing/eclipses/moon-blocks-satellite-views-of-the-sun-before-lunar-eclipse-space-photo-of-the-day-for-sept-9-2025
https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/archives/66693
Interstellar Comet I3/ATLAS - The Weirdest Fact Yet | S0 News
Sep.9.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYAI3BOUYNM
https://spaceweathernews.com/
https://www.space.com/astronomy/comets/comet-c-2025-a6-lemmon-is-approaching-earth-will-it-become-visible-to-the-naked-eye
http://www.aerith.net/comet/catalog/2025A6/2025A6.html
https://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/Error.aspx?aspxerrorpath=/comet/2025A6
Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is approaching Earth — will it become visible to the naked eye?
September 8, 2025
In the coming weeks, skywatchers will have an opportunity to view a new comet that is currently inbound on its way toward the sun.
This new visitor to the inner solar system is expected to brighten, perhaps becoming a fairly easy object to see in small telescopes or good binoculars.
And there's hope that it may even become bright enough to glimpse with the naked eye under dark non-light polluted skies (for those who have access to such viewing sites).
The new comet is catalogued as C/2025 A6 (Lemmon). It was discovered by the Mount Lemmon Survey, utilizing a 60-inch (1.52-meter) Cassegrain reflecting telescope, equipped with a 10560 x 10560-pixel camera.
The telescope is located at the Mount Lemmon Observatory and is operated by the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory located in the Santa Catalina Mountains to the northeast of the city of Tucson.
The Mount Lemmon Survey (MLS) continuously scans the sky looking for near-Earth objects — asteroids or comets — whose orbits bring them within a certain distance of the sun and potentially Earth's orbit, meaning they can pass close to our planet.
The vast majority of MLS's discoveries have been of asteroids (to date more than 50,000), but every so often the survey will catch sight of a new comet, as is the case with C/2025 A6.
Originally, when first photographed by astronomer David Fuls on Jan. 3, it was believed that the MLS had found yet another asteroid.
It appeared as nothing more than a tiny starlike speck of light with a magnitude of +21.5; that's one million times dimmer than the faintest star on the threshold of naked-eye visibility.
Follow-up images showed the object to be, in fact, a comet, and an even fainter pre-discovery image was located dating back to November 2024.
An orbit based on 117 observed positions between Nov. 12, 2024 and Aug. 14 has been calculated by Syuichi Nakano of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.
Nakano found that the comet will pass perihelion — its closest point to the sun — on Nov. 8 at a distance of 49.25 million miles (79.25 million km).
It will come closest to Earth (its perigee) on Oct. 20 when it will be 55.41 million miles (89.16 million km) away.
Welcome back!
Comet Lemmon has apparently been here before. Mr. Nakano's orbital computations indicate that at the far end of its orbit (aphelion), it is situated as far as 22.6 billion miles (36.3 billion km) from the sun.
Its orbital period is estimated at approximately 1,350 years. However, back on April 16, the comet passed within 216.6 million miles (348.5 million km) of Jupiter.
That giant planet's gravitational field served to sap some of comet Lemmon's orbital energy and as such will shorten its period by some 200 years.
We know that comets are composed primarily of frozen gases that are heated as they approach the sun and made to glow by the sun's light. We call this cloud of gas the head or coma.
As the gases warm and expand, particles of dust that were embedded in the comet's nucleus are also released into space. The solar wind blows this material out into an appendage we call the tail.
To observers of antiquity, comets resembled a stellar head trailed by long hair, so they called comets, "hairy stars."
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Bright among "common" comets
Comets can be broken down into two basic categories:
Bright comets — the kind that can excite those of us without binoculars or telescopes — appear on average perhaps two or three times every 15 to 20 years.
The last such comet to do that was this past January with comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS), nicknamed the "Great Comet of 2025."
Then there are the common comets, of which most are only visible either with good binoculars or a telescope.
The vast majority of comets fall into this category, but comet Lemmon may end up ranking as rather bright so far as most common comets go, since for a short while it may hover right around the cusp of naked-eye visibility (for those fortunate enough to be blessed with dark, non-light polluted night skies).
How bright?
A number of different predictions have been made regarding the brightness of Comet Lemmon as it passes closest to Earth during the third week of October.
To date, the most optimistic brightness forecasts are those issued by Japanese comet expert Seiichi Yoshida and Dutch comet expert Gideon Van Buitenen.
Both are projecting that the comet will peak somewhere between magnitude +4 and +5, meaning it might become faintly visible with the unaided eye sometime during early October.
Other forecasts, however, are far more conservative. Daniel W.E. Green at the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams, on circular #5594, issued on Aug. 20, "cautiously" suggests a peak magnitude of +7.3 on Oct. 27.
That would make it too faint to be seen with bare eyes alone, but certainly within reach of good binoculars or small telescopes.
Where to find it and viewing prospects
Right now, comet Lemmon is a predawn object, located in the faint zodiacal constellation of Cancer. It will cross over into the similarly vague and dim constellation of Lynx on Sept. 9 at a declination near +34°.
It will still be quite faint, probably no brighter than magnitude 9 or 10. But from then onward, its brightness and movement against the background stars will progressively increase eastward as it approaches Earth.
For most, the first really good opportunity to try and make a definitive sighting will come on the morning of Oct. 6, when it will move into the southern boundaries of the Great Bear, Ursa Major.
On this morning, Comet Lemmon will be passing less than 0.3 degrees to the upper left of the third-magnitude star Tania Australis, a member of the three pairs of stars that mark "The Three Leaps of the Gazelle."
Tania is part of the pair marking the second or middle Gazelle leap. It rises in the north-northeast shortly before 1 a.m. local daylight time and by the break of dawn will be one-third up in the east-northeast.
The comet will be in the same field of view and could be as bright as magnitude +6 or +7, making it an easy target with binoculars.
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Beginning Oct. 12, the comet will begin to be available to evening skywatchers, low in the northwest about 90 minutes after sunset.
On Oct. 16, the comet will be positioned about 1 degree to the upper left of the third magnitude star Cor Caroli in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs.
At that time, comet Lemmon will be racing 4 degrees per day, so even a few minutes of watching with a telescope should reveal its shift relative to field stars.
On Oct. 22, about 7:30 p.m. local daylight time, look very low above the west-northwest horizon for the brilliant orange star, Arcturus in Boötes the Herdsman.
On that same evening, comet Lemmon will be situated 10 degrees above this star (your clenched fist held at arm's length also measures 10 degrees in width).
The comet will also be positioned about 2 degrees to the left of the second magnitude star Izar, also in Boötes. A quick check of Izar with binoculars should also reveal the comet.
Keep your expectations low
But as compelling as this all may sound; we now must temper any excitement by providing a very important disclaimer.
By early-to-mid October, many people with binoculars and small telescopes will no doubt attempt to follow the path of Comet Lemmon across the night sky. But seeing it will strongly depend on your observing site.
From locations that are plagued by light pollution, sighting this comet may prove to be rather difficult. Remember, you're not looking for a sharp star-like object, but rather something which is spreading its light out over a comparatively large area.
In fact, under a completely dark sky, free of light pollution, perhaps the best instruments for locating the comet will be your own two eyes, especially if you use averted vision.
Recent photographs have shown the comet displaying a distinct greenish color, likely due to a molecule made from two carbon atoms bonded together, called dicarbon.
This unusual chemical process is confined chiefly around the comet's head, not its tail. Comets generally throw off two types of tails; tails composed primarily of gas, and tails composed primarily of dust.
Dust tails are far brighter and more spectacular to the eye than gas tails, because dust is a very effective reflector of sunlight.
Comet Lemmon's tail, however, appears to be primarily composed of gas. Such tails appear much fainter and glow with a bluish hue.
The gas is activated by the ultraviolet rays of the sun, making the tail glow in much the same way that black light causes phosphorescent paint to light up.
So, most who ultimately locate Comet Lemmon in their binoculars or telescopes will typically describe it as a nearly circular cloud, appearing noticeably brighter and more condensed near the center.
Some might also detect a faint tail appearing as a bit of an elongation of the comet's coma, but hardly the kind of tail or appendage exhibited by other larger and brighter comets.
A final point to consider: comets are notoriously unpredictable; we can only guess how they ultimately will appear in our sky. It's not completely out of the question that comet Lemmon could surprise us and become unexpectedly bright.
Then again, it might fail to brighten much at all, perhaps living up to the homonym of its name (a lemon). We'll post any updates if needed here on Space.com. So, stay tuned!
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Ready for the next 'Oumuamua? Launching flyby missions to visiting interstellar comets is 'feasible and affordable,' study says
September 9, 2025
We have the means today to fly a spacecraft by an interstellar object visiting our solar system, a new study concludes — and we could have done it already with comet 3I/ATLAS.
Flyby reconnaissance of interstellar objects is "feasible and affordable," scientists with the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), who led the study, said in a statement on Wednesday (Sept. 3).
"The trajectory of 3I/ATLAS is within the interceptable range of the mission we designed," Matthew Freeman, the study project manager and director of space instrumentation at SWRI, said in the statement.
Unfortunately, however, getting a probe into orbit around objects like 3I/ATLAS for more detailed study isn't currently possible, given how fast such visitors move relative to bodies native to our solar system. Interstellar objects are on "hyperbolic" trajectories, meaning that they are entering and exiting the neighborhood instead of circling our sun.
SWRI's newly publicized mission idea is a proposal and does not imply that such a spacecraft will be funded by NASA or any other entity.
But SWRI argues that laying the groundwork now would allow for scientists to one day access comets from other solar systems with relative ease — without leaving our neighborhood.
Flybys of interstellar objects would "give unprecedented insights into the composition, structure and properties of these objects, and it would significantly expand our understanding of solid body formation processes in other star systems," Alan Stern, SWRI associate vice president and leader of the study project, said in the same statement.
Stern is perhaps best known for being the principal investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission, which was the first to fly by Pluto in 2015 before venturing on to do studies of other small bodies in the Kuiper Belt.
(Stern also flew to suborbital space himself with Virgin Galactic in 2023, on a research-focused mission.)
Comet 3I/ATLAS is the third confirmed interstellar object to pass through our solar system, following the discovery of 1I/'Oumuamua in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. (The "I" in each of these names stands for "interstellar", while each of the numbers preceding their names indicates the order of discovery.)
Interstellar visitors have been hard to spot so far, but more capabilities are coming online quickly. SWRI said that newer all-sky surveyors such as the National Science Foundation's Vera C. Rubin Observatory may make interstellar finds more common within a decade.
The new SWRI statement said that "numerous" interstellar objects safely pass inside the orbit of Earth every year, while "as many as 10,000" come within the orbit of Neptune, which is roughly 30 times farther from the sun than our own planet.
(Earth's distance is roughly 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers, from the sun.) Given these parameters, SWRI created software that made a representative but artificial population of interstellar objects.
The software then calculated how much energy it would take a spacecraft to leave Earth and approach each object.
Flybys are not only feasible, the study showed, but "in many cases, would require less launch and in-flight velocity change resources than many other solar system missions," the statement noted.
Costs and payloads were then estimated, with the notion that a mission concept "could be later proposed to NASA." (The SWRI statement did not provide details about likely mission costs, and the study is internal to the organization; it apparently has not been submitted for publication in a journal.)
A future spacecraft could be tasked with a science agenda such as looking at the interstellar body's physical properties to learn more about how it formed and evolved, or examining the object's composition to learn more about where it came from.
Another investigation could look at the coma, or the loose "exosphere" of material sublimating from interstellar comets as they get closer to the heat and pressure of the sun.
The recent arrival of 3I/ATLAS "further strengthens the case" for visiting interstellar objects, according to Mark Tapely, an orbital mechanics specialist at SWRI.
"We demonstrated that it doesn't take anything harder than the technologies and launch performance [for] missions that NASA has already flown," Tapley said.
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/missions/ready-for-the-next-oumuamua-launching-flyby-missions-to-visiting-interstellar-comets-is-feasible-and-affordable-study-says
https://www.swri.org/newsroom/press-releases/swri-proposed-mission-could-encounter-explore-future-interstellar-comet-3i-atlas-close
US project funded to test long-lasting nuclear fuel for small, remote reactor
Updated: Sep 09, 2025 09:04 AM EST
Scientists at the Missouri Science and Technology (S&T) university are partnering with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a US Department of Energy (DOE) project to study the performance of a high-enrichment-level nuclear fuel in small modular and microreactors.
Dr. Ayodeji Alajo, an associate professor of nuclear engineering and radiation science at Missouri S&T, is leading the project from the university.
The project aims to test high-assay low-enriched uranium or HALEU, which contains between 5 and 20 percent uranium-235.
This is typically between the low-enriched fuel, which is used in the commercial nuclear power plants of today, and the highly enriched uranium, which was used in older research reactors.
The study will be conducted on Missouri’s S&T Reactor, which runs on HALEU under 20 percent.
Studying HALEU nuclear fuel
The basis for the project is finding out the best type of nuclear fuel that can be used in nuclear reactors for long periods of operation.
The scientist aims to find out how the fuel will act in different conditions, ranging from remote locations to space, so that it can be used in a safe and trustworthy fashion.
“Small modular and microreactors are being designed to operate for years in places where refueling isn’t practical, such as remote communities, military bases or even space missions,” Alajo said.
He went on to add that to do this, the nuclear reactors will need fuel enriched to a higher level than what today’s commercial reactors typically use.
“Our job is to show that this fuel will behave safely and predictably under different conditions so designers and regulators can trust it.”
The project aims to come up with full details of HALEU’s efficiency and performance in different scenarios that new reactor designs will require.
“Operating the Missouri S&T Reactor shows the fuel works, but that’s not the same as creating benchmark-quality data that could then be transferable to the next-generation reactors,” Alajo said.
The end goal is to have the information that could eventually be included in international handbooks that serve as reference resources for licensing and safety analysis of nuclear systems.
The DOE/Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Collaboration for Criticality Safety Support for Commercial-Scale HALEU Fuel Cycles and Transportation has provided $1 million in funding for the project.
The Missouri S&T reactor
The Missouri S&T reactor works on the principles of nuclear fission. Nuclear fission occurs when a neutron strikes a nucleus and then splits it.
The splitting or fission releases more neutrons and some other particles alongside energy. The neutrons, thus produced, can lead to more fission events in the nearby fuel, leading to a chain reaction.
The Missouri S&T reactor (MSTR) does not utilize the heat produced to make electricity. However, a commercial reactor will use the same to boil water into steam, which turns a turbine, and generate electricity.
MSTR is housed in a 32,000-gallon pool of water with a large graphite wall, allowing the S&T research team to test how the fuel behaves under different conditions when its neutrons are slowed to release energy.
According to the university, at full power of 200 kilowatts, the MSTR core produces approximately 6.4 trillion fissions per second.
As a result of these reactions, beta particles are emitted at such high energy that their velocity exceeds the speed of light in water. Therefore, photons are emitted, which make the reactor core glow blue.
The reactor is housed in a gigantic pool for shielding against radiation. The university says that due to its design, it is completely safe for anyone to be in the reactor bay to see the core even when it is operational.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/us-missouri-nuclear-fuel-study
https://news.mst.edu/2025/09/st-researcher-awarded-1-million-to-test-nuclear-fuel/
Was a great hearing.
Shoud be some real good clips coming from it.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oOt5uOUz6KQ
Commanding general of U.S. Space Command pays visit to Huntsville City Hall
Updated: Sep. 08, 2025, 8:18 p.m.
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, met with Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle on Monday as part of the move of the combatant command’s headquarters to Redstone Arsenal.
According to the city’s website, Battle and Whiting previously met in Colorado Springs, but Monday’s visit marked Whiting’s first visit to City Hall.
Whiting spoke on a visit last month to the Space & Missile Defense Symposium, but that was before the move was announced by President Trump.
During Monday’s visit Battle emphasized Huntsville’s strong relationship with Redstone as well as regional collaboration.
“We are honored to welcome Gen. Whiting to Huntsville,” Battle said. “This is an exciting moment for our city, but more importantly, it’s about ensuring the security of our nation.
We look forward to working closely with Gen. Whiting and the entire Space Command team as they relocate to Redstone Arsenal.”
Whiting expressed Space Command’s enthusiasm for becoming part of the Huntsville community and said they are excited to partner with local leaders and Redstone, according to the city’s statement.
“North Alabama has been very welcoming, and we’re thrilled to be here on the ground,” Whiting said.
“Our job right now is to figure out how expeditiously, in a professional and disciplined manner, we can start to make the move that the President has directed, all while continuing our vital national security missions, which is to defend American interests in space.”
Whiting said Space Command is just over six years old. Its mission is to evaluate and plan for how the U.S. can use its space capabilities to make America stronger and to defend the United States’ interests and its citizens, he said.
“We’re part of something a lot bigger than just Huntsville or Alabama, the mayor added. “We’re part of something that protects and defends our country. We, as a community, have been doing that for a long time. We take that mission very seriously.”
Space Command leadership also met with Madison County Commission Chairman Mac McCutcheon and Madison Mayor Paul Finley.
https://www.al.com/news/huntsville/2025/09/commanding-general-of-us-space-command-pays-visit-to-huntsville-city-hall.html
https://www.rocketcitynow.com/article/news/local/huntsville-welcomes-us-space-command-leader-city-prepares-headquarters-move/525-dba1f23f-a954-4799-b1c3-9c4a68db7a8a
https://gazette.com/business/aerospace-and-defense-companies-remain-committed-to-colorado-springs-expansions-despite-space-command-move/article_9285352b-de1c-466d-b1e5-856e0842efa1.html
Aerospace and defense companies continue growth in Colorado Springs amid Space Command relocation
Sep 8, 2025
Following the announcement last week that U.S. Space Command headquarters will move from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Ala., state and local economic development officials said they're confident the relocation won't soften Colorado's or El Paso County's aerospace and defense industries.
One company announced an expansion into Colorado Springs two days after the Space Command news.
Mobius, a woman-owned small business specializing in space and missile defense, said it will open its newest location in town, bringing with it 75 net new jobs with an average annual wage of $137,000. That's more than double the average for El Paso County.
"We remain fully confident in the long-term strength of Colorado Springs as a strategic hub,” Mobius President Frank Privitera said.
Several other companies, including some who since late 2022 have announced they are expanding or coming to Colorado Springs, said even with Space Command's future relocation they remain committed to their local operations.
The expansions collectively promised thousands of new jobs and more than $2 billion in local investments.
Here are updates from six other aerospace and defense companies doing business in Colorado Springs:
KBR
Houston-headquartered KBR, which has 650 employees in Colorado Springs, is still assessing the impacts of Space Command's move, said its Vice President of Space Operations Brian Young.
"Not all our Colorado Springs work is related to Space Command, so the majority of our work will not be affected," he said in a written statement Friday.
Colorado "continues to be a strategic growth hub for KBR," which has six offices and 320,000 square feet of office space here, Young added.
Colorado Springs is a key location for the company in part because of its proximity to critical military and defense operations. Some of its key customers are the Air Force and Space Force, the military branch with a large presence at Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases that is separate from Space Command. Other key customers include Joint Commercial Operations, Space Systems Center and others; several KBR employees work directly on military bases and with government customers on the company's contracts, Young said.
KBR is expanding with more than 40 open positions in Colorado Springs, "a testament to our deep investment with strong momentum and a clear commitment to attracting top-tier talent to support our expanding operations."
The company also has an office in Huntsville with around 800 employees supporting Army work, Young said. Huntsville, like Colorado Springs and Dayton, Ohio, is "a city of growth" for KBR, Young said.
The company is also still assessing what the Space Command headquarters change means for its work in Huntsville.
Aerospace Corp.
Since unveiling its $100 million, 90,000-square-foot Space Warfighting Center at Colorado Springs Airport's Peak Innovation Park in September 2022, Virginia-based Aerospace Corp. has doubled its headcount in Colorado Springs, the company said in a Monday statement.
Aerospace Corp. has other Colorado locations, at Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora and at Peterson and Schriever Space Force bases in El Paso County, according to its website. It has one office in Huntsville.
The company did not share how many people it employs locally, but said its growth in Colorado Springs "(reinforces) our commitment to meeting the evolving demands of national space priorities."
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Its Colorado employees "continue to provide critical support in areas like wargaming, advanced flight dynamics, space control, space domain awareness, AI and more for both the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command," Aerospace Corp. said.
Though Space Command headquarters will move to Alabama, Aerospace Corp. "remain(s) committed to our long-standing operations in Colorado Springs, which continues to be a hub for space and technical innovation," the company said.
Aerospace Corp. plans to expand its presence in Huntsville "to support our customers and the nation's top defense priorities."
Auria
Since announcing plans in August 2023 to create 620 jobs over eight years, Colorado Springs-based defense company Auria has hired between 20 and 30 people this year, its President Tom Dickson said by phone last week.
Most of the company's work is with operational units rather than Space Command headquarters, building software and command and control systems; Space Command's move won't significantly impact Auria's operations, Dickson said.
Auria has had a presence in Huntsville for about 15 years. Dickson expects the company's work there will "more than likely be more" focused on the Golden Dome initiative, a new missile defense system the Trump administration has already earmarked $21.6 billion to fund, and "maybe" the Space Development Agency.
"We're expecting we'll have some growth there (in Huntsville) related to those areas. We still think most of our Space Force work … will be in Colorado Springs," Dickson said.
Twenty open job postings in Colorado Springs were listed on Auria's website Monday, advertising for positions including software developers and engineers, system analysts and others.
Auria has won several Space Force contracts over the past two years, including an $8.1 million contract with U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command in May. Auria is one of two companies developing a cloud-based Joint Antenna Marketplace prototype that will connect satellite operations centers to commercial and government-owned antennas to support U.S. and allied fighting forces and ensure national security in, from and to space, said a May 12 news release from Space Systems Command.
Auria has added staff to other programs and built out an additional 7,000 square feet of office space at its headquarters near Briargate, Dickson said. It is also building out a 7,000-square-foot Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) — a requirement for certain classified projects.
"We see a lot of bright things around the corner," Dickson said.
Infinity Systems Engineering
Infinity Systems Engineering is an engineering firm that works closely with the Department of Defense and other large contractors. In 2023, the company announced it would add nearly 500 jobs over eight years.
As part of the announcement two years ago, Springs-based Infinity Systems Engineering won $4.26 million in state tax credits, contingent upon job creation.
The company did not comment on its current hiring picture.
President and Chief Operating Officer Dan Jaworowski said last week the Space Command headquarters move will likely not impact Infinity's work in Colorado Springs directly.
"There will surely be a secondary effect felt broadly locally depending on how many government and contractor personnel also make the move to Huntsville," he said.
"The move likely creates an opportunity for Infinity and our local defense peers to add highly qualified talent to our teams from the pool of people who do not make the move … ."
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Nooks
Nooks, a company that provides classified spaces as a service, is planning to expand to Huntsville, along with roughly 50 other defense and intelligence hubs.
The company expanded in Colorado Springs in June, opening a 60,000-square-foot facility near the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. This is Nooks' third location, in addition to Washington, D.C., and El Segundo, Calif.
The expansion is expected to add 35 jobs in Colorado Springs.
The company is on its way to hire 30 people in 2025, a spokesperson said.
"Our commitment to (Colorado Springs) is unwavering and we are already exploring further local expansion to support the significant and ongoing demand from the local defense community," a Nooks spokesperson said.
"Our focus remains on serving the robust concentration of critical national security innovators that will continue to thrive in this region."
ITS (Infinity Technology Services)
ITS has hired 27 employees since announcing on July 31 it would create 500 jobs and invest more than $7 million into the Colorado Springs community over eight years.
The company said in a written statement Monday only 10 of those jobs, however, will count toward its local expansion plans because of "mission needs of the customer elsewhere."
But ITS is "still tracking as planned and no doubt growing at a tremendous rate," a spokeswoman said.
The company had also announced its intention to increase space for its personnel in Colorado Springs and to advance its engineering capabilities, research and development initiatives and other work.
Headquartered in the Springs, ITS provides engineering solutions and services to government and commercial clients. The firm supports more than 35 Department of Defense and federal programs globally.
The decision to expand ITS locally "was multifactorial" and Space Command's move doesn't change those plans, the company said in its statement.
"The various mission, programs, capabilities, talent pool and overall ecosystem that exists here in Colorado Springs makes it a great place to expand and for our employees to reside.
We have no doubt that additional opportunities and capabilities are coming to Colorado Springs to leverage the great foundation that we have built here as a collective military and defense industrial base community," ITS wrote.
The company added: "Our expansion here is on track and our commitment to the community is stronger than ever.
We are thrilled to continue our expansion here in our own backyard and to drive capabilities and opportunities forward in the engineering and technology spaces we support."
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First AFMEDCOM commander departs, continues National Guard, Space Force roles
09.09.2025
Maj. Gen. Sean Collins concluded his assignment as the first commander of the Air Force Medical Command following the U.S. Senate’s confirmation of Lt. Gen. John J. DeGoes, U.S. Air Force Surgeon General, and their transfer of authority.
A formal change of command ceremony is Sept. 10, 2025, at the Defense Health Headquarters, Falls Church, Virginia, to commemorate the transition.
Collins’ leadership marked a historic chapter for the Air Force Medical Service.
As the Department of Air Force established AFMEDCOM as a new direct reporting unit, he guided the command through the complex transition inherent in building a new organization.
Collins prioritized trust and transparency, ensuring Airmen and Guardians had a voice throughout the transition and cultural shift brought by the restructure.
Working with AFMEDCOM’s leadership team, Collins oversaw the command’s progression to initial operating capability in March 2025.
Under his direction, AFMEDCOM launched its first inter-command transfer, realigning medical Airmen in the Air Force District of Washington, and prepared the command to receive more than 27,000 medical Airmen into the new structure over the next two years.
This effort laid the foundation for AFMEDCOM’s mission to optimize medical support and advocacy for AFMS priorities in partnership with the Defense Health Agency.
In a farewell statement, Collins shared his gratitude toward the AFMS community and urged every Airman to serve proudly with integrity and excellence as the Department of the Air Force support continues for the AFMS strategic imperatives led by the Surgeon General.
“As individuals, you make a difference and are key to our success,” Collins said. “Remember the task at hand - supporting our warfighters by increasing lethality - keeping them at the top of performance and health!”
DeGoes expressed his gratitude for Collins’ service.
“General Collins led AFMEDCOM with vision and integrity, guiding our medics through a period of tremendous change.
His steady leadership ensured a successful stand-up of the command, and his legacy will remain in the culture of trust and readiness he helped build.”
Collins will continue to serve in his positions as Air National Guard Assistant to the Surgeon General and as Director of Space Force Medical Operations in Arlington, Virginia.
https://www.dvidshub.net/news/547497/first-afmedcom-commander-departs-continues-national-guard-space-force-roles
Iconic ‘Star Trek’ spaceships spotted in space
September 9, 2025 7:52 am
Iconic spaceships from Star Trek have been spotted in space – according to playful rocket scientists.
The team from NASA Universe shared images on Monday, Sept. 8, of what appear to be the original USS Enterprise and the Enterprise-D from the Next Generation TV show.
The spectacle was captured by NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope and displays two regions of star formation within the disk of our Milky Way galaxy.
NASA wrote: “Science fiction is inspired by real science … and vice versa!
These dusty clouds within our Milky Way galaxy are the birthplaces of new stars, but their shapes remind us that we also seek to boldly explore where no one has gone before.
“With a little scrutiny, you may see hints of the saucer and hull of the original USS Enterprise, captained by James T. Kirk, as if it were emerging from a dark nebula.
Its “Next Generation” successor, Jean-Luc Picard’s Enterprise-D, flies off in the opposite direction.”
“Star Trek still inspires fans and astronomers alike to boldly explore where no one has gone before.”
https://www.fox41yakima.com/iconic-star-trek-spaceships-spotted-in-space/
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/spitzer/
SecAF visits Vandenberg SFB, views SDA Tranche 1 satellite ahead of launch
Sept. 8, 2025
Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink visited Vandenberg Space Force Base Aug. 27-28, to engage with leadership and gain insight into the base’s strategic role in advancing U.S. space capabilities.
Upon his arrival, Meink was greeted by Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess, U.S. Space Forces – Space commander; and Space Command’s Combined Joint Force Space Component commander, and Col. James T. Horne III, Space Launch Delta 30 commander.
The visit included discussions on Vandenberg SFB’s contributions to national security and space operations.
During his two-day visit, Meink toured several facilities, including a satellite processing center, where he reviewed the Space Development Agency’s Tranche 1 satellite.
Tranche 1 is part of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, are designed to enhance tactical data delivery, missile threat tracking, and beyond-line-of-sight targeting.
The first 21 of 154 Tranche 1 satellites are scheduled to launch from Vandenberg SFB’s spaceport no earlier than Sept. 10, marking a significant milestone in the development of next-generation space capabilities for joint warfighters.
Meink also received a strategic overview of Vandenberg SFB’s mission as the U.S. Space Force’s West Coast Spaceport and Test Range.
Leadership briefed him on the base’s role in supporting terrestrial missions and advancing U.S. interests in space.
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4296935/secaf-visits-vandenberg-sfb-views-sda-tranche-1-satellite-ahead-of-launch/