TYB
beer drones at the parade
beer UFOs at the parade?
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
May 27, 2026
PK 164 +31.1: The Headphone Nebula
What is a pair of headphones doing in the sky? Today’s image features the Headphone Nebula, also known as PK 164 +31.1 or Jones-Emberson 1. This planetary nebula, the remnant of a dying Sun-like star, faintly occupies an angular region of the Lynx constellation about 1/5th the diameter of the full moon. The red and blue-ish green colors trace hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively, that have been excited and ionized by the nebula's central white dwarf. The headphone shape, where two lobes of hydrogen puncture the inner region of oxygen, adds this object to a long list of oddly shaped nebulae. The morphology of such strange nebulae hint at the presence of a stellar or planetary companion, which can stir the material flowing out from the dying star. You can listen to Hubble and JWST sonifications of planetary nebulae through your very own headphones!
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM8rDTiGkok
Big Sunspot, Electric Sky, Solar Forcing | S0 News and frens
May.27.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFHma9_GL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KgCky52Ld4 (Ray's Astro: Something Reversed Inside Earth. And the Magnetic Poles Are Acting Strange)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r3dV4GzKd8 (Dr Brian Keating: Is the Universe CURVED? What Planck Actually Found)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSh8YjcopVw (EarthMaster: SF Bay area Earthquakes increasing after quiet Spell. South America Eq activity. Tuesday Night)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW5araZGaJA (Max Velocity: Something Strange Is Developing Right Now…)
https://watchers.news/2026/05/27/brief-s1-solar-radiation-storm-observed-after-large-far-side-cme/
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/526814/Over-370-earthquakes-hit-Iran-in-a-month
https://www.civilbeat.org/2026/05/kona-earthquake-left-catastrophic-water-supply-damage-for-hundreds/
https://pajhwok.com/2026/05/27/earthquake-in-pakistans-punjab-leaves-1-dead-11-injured/
https://news.laodong.vn/du-lich/cong-dong/bao-jangmi-bat-dau-gay-mua-dong-tren-dien-rong-1709342.html
https://meteoagent.com/schumann-resonance-forecast
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes-volcanoes/news/303465/Volcano-earthquake-report-for-Wednesday-27-May-2026.html
https://www.tornadohq.com/
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=27&month=05&year=2026
Metro Detroiters report seeing fireball in the sky Wednesday morning
May 27, 2026
(WWJ) What was that fireball in the sky?
The phones in the WWJ Newsradio 950 newsroom lit up Wednesday morning, shortly after 5 a.m., with people reporting seeing something burning falling from the sky — some of them in the area of Detroit Metro Airport.
David Ketchum from Westland said he was on his way to work what he noticed something bright and flashing fall from above.
"I was traveling eastbound on Van Born, coming up to Telegraph — I was going to turn south— and just in the instance, just east of me, I seen a golden flashing light traveling very, very fast come down, and then it just disappeared," Ketchum said.
"So, it had to hit the ground somewhere."
Ketchum told WWJ's Taylor Dietz he'd never seen anything like it before.
"Absolutely not! I was actually listening to your guys on the radio, and I wanted to call, but I was driving. So, I had to wait to get to work."
Other people seeing it from along Dixie Highway in Waterford or along I-75.
At around the same timey, there were similar sightings in Buffalo, New York, Ontario, and Ohio.
Asked by WWJ what it was, the folks at the National Weather Service said they didn't know anything about it.
Mike Narlock, Head of Astronomy at the Cranbrook Institute of Science, said he can't make a confirmation, but talked about what it might have been.
"We did have a couple of reports over the past few weeks of fireballs," Narlock said. "This could've been just space junk falling into the atmosphere.
NASA usually tracks those, so NASA will be updating its websites later on today, I'm sure, to indicate what this was, and what the actual track was."
Another distinct possibility: "We're also at a time where there are well-known meteor showers happening, and a few weeks ago we had the peak of what we call the Eta Aquarids, which is a meteor shower that happens every year around this time," Narlock said.
"And it originates from debris left over in our solar system for Halley’s Comet "
The skies over Metro Detroit were nice and clear Wednesday morning, Narlock noted, which makes spotting any meteor much more likely.
https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio/news/local/fireball-spotted-over-metro-detroit
https://x.com/pgbrown/status/2059636254300348670
extra space objects
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/interstellar-object-3i-atlas-ufo-speculation-1799109
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-provides-update-on-moon-base-rovers-landers-missions/
https://starlust.org/nas-as-permanent-moon-base-could-span-hundreds-of-square-miles-well-not-slow-down/
https://www.unilad.com/news/world-news/nasa-moon-base-plans-jeff-bezos-elon-musk-663673-20260527
https://www.govconwire.com/articles/nasa-moon-base-contract-awards-4-companies
https://www.nasa.gov/reference/moonbase-about/
https://www.nasa.gov/moonbase/
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2059420433858904204
NASA, Jared Isaacman, please increase the volume when you hold a conference, it is always the worst.
TYFYATTM
NASA Provides Update on Moon Base Rovers, Landers, Missions
May 26, 2026
During a Moon Base event Tuesday at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington, the agency announced new contracts for lunar rovers for crew to drive and uncrewed cargo landers bound for the Moon.
NASA leaders also shared target launch timeframes and upcoming milestones for the first Moon Base infrastructure and exploration missions to the lunar South Pole region ahead of Artemis astronaut landings.
“The Moon Base will be America’s and humanity’s first outpost on another celestial world,” said NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.
“Every mission, crewed and uncrewed, will be a learning opportunity as we return to the lunar surface, build the infrastructure to stay, and master the skills required to live and operate in one of the most demanding and dangerous environments imaginable.
We will go for the science, for all we stand to gain from an economic and technological perspective, for the innovations that will make life better here on Earth, and to prepare for where we will inevitably go next.
We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership, the bipartisan commitment from Congress, our industry and international partners, and the dedicated NASA workforce whose expertise enables us to achieve the near-impossible.”
NASA announced the first three Moon Base missions to begin building sustained operations:
Moon Base I: Targeted for launch no earlier than fall 2026, this mission will use Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 Endurance lander to deliver NASA payloads.
Equipment will include the Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies instrument to study how thrusters interact with the Moon’s surface, and the Laser Retroreflective Array, which helps orbiting spacecraft determine a more precise location using reflected laser light. The mission will land on the Shackleton Connecting Ridge to demonstrate capabilities that reduce risk for future crewed Artemis landing missions in 2028.
Moon Base II: Planned for launch later this year, this mission will deliver more than 1,100 pounds of cargo on Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, including Astrolab’s FLIP rover, to mature mobility systems that inform future lunar terrain vehicle, or LTV, operations.
Moon Base III: Also targeted for this year, this mission will fly the first payload selected through NASA’s Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon initiative. Its anchor investigation, Lunar Vertex, will fly on Intuitive Machines’ Nova-C Trinity lunar lander and study lunar swirls, or light spots on the surface of the Moon, to improve understanding of surface evolution and material behavior under extreme conditions. The mission will include payloads from ESA (European Space Agency) and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, reflecting commercial and international participation in Moon Base activities.
These missions are the first of more than a dozen missions that will be announced this year, each designed to generate operational data and reduce risk ahead of crewed Artemis surface activities.
NASA has awarded Astrolab $219 million and Lunar Outpost $220 million to build and deliver the first phase of LTVs. Awarded under the Phase 1 High Achievability Mission task orders of the Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract, these firm-fixed-price, performance-based milestones will enable NASA to deploy crewed and uncrewed mobility systems to the lunar surface by 2028 through the agency’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. Early surface mobility is a foundational component of the national space policy priority to create an enduring lunar presence.
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Astrolab’s Crewed Lunar Vehicle, or CLV‑1, adapted from the company’s FLEX architecture, is a crewed rover designed to transport astronauts, carry supplies, and support remote operations, with a compact stowed configuration, a mass of about 2,000 pounds, and the ability to reach more than 6 mph on level terrain.
Complementing this capability, Lunar Outpost’s Pegasus is a lighter, mission‑ready evolution of its Eagle rover designed explicitly to meet NASA’s updated crewed LTV requirements.
Operational for up to a year and capable of manual, autonomous, or teleoperated driving at speeds more than 9 mph, Pegasus incorporates Apollo‑heritage technologies and builds on prototype and flight experience to deliver human‑centered mobility essential for establishing a sustained Moon Base.
Deploying multiple LTVs early in Moon Base development will accelerate technology demonstrations, inform site planning, and reduce operational risk ahead of crewed Artemis missions, enabling NASA to characterize terrain hazards, move materials, pre-stage resources, and mature systems needed for long-duration lunar exploration.
Over the next 18 months, the selected providers will finalize rover designs, conduct crewed evaluations, and qualify flight units for operational readiness, with the resulting LTVs supporting autonomous traverses, terrain preparation, scientific investigations, technology demonstrations, and astronaut transport.
As Moon Base efforts advance, NASA will expand opportunities for additional vendors through on‑ramp competitions, fostering a robust, sustainable approach to lunar mobility and strengthening national priorities in space capability.
To deliver these rovers to the Moon’s South Pole region, NASA awarded Blue Origin $188 million with an option period worth $280.4 million for two task orders, which includes an option period based on initial phase performance. NASA can choose to extend the task order for payload delivery.
This competitive procurement, executed under the CLPS 1.0 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity framework, the CX-2 task order represents a strategic investment in lunar exploration and will play a critical role in enabling mobility and infrastructure development for sustained lunar operations, marking a significant step toward establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon.
Building on the successes and lessons learned from CLPS 1.0, the agency also outlined how the next generation of cargo landers under CLPS 2.0 will continue to deliver payloads to the lunar surface and lunar orbit, supporting NASA’s ambitious goals for sustained lunar operations.
This next phase introduces enhanced flexibility, allowing NASA to order turn-key delivery services or start accepting delivery of CLPS hardware for integration into its own missions. The final CLPS 2.0 request for proposal was released on May 15, with responses due on Tuesday, June 30.
Moonfall update
The agency also shared new updates on MoonFall, a mission that will send four drones to fly short hops on the lunar surface as they survey potential landing sites for Artemis astronauts.
NASA‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has been developing the design and testing prototype hardware and has selected Firefly Aerospace to build the spacecraft that will transport the drones from Earth orbit to the Moon. Launch is targeted for 2028.
The drones will independently land on the lunar surface and then gather high-resolution imagery of hard-to-reach terrain over the course of a single lunar day.
After each drone’s final flight, its survive-the-night payload will continue to operate for several months, marking a sustained U.S. presence at the lunar South Pole.
More robotic missions to come
Finally, NASA stated in the coming weeks that a selection of additional CLPS 1.0 task awards, issued during the agency’s Ignition event, for Moon Base payloads and technology demonstrations, is forthcoming.
In the coming months, there also will be additional opportunities to compete for CLPS 1.0 and 2.0 task orders as Phase 1 technology demonstrations are defined and planned for Moon Base missions.
During the update, NASA leadership reiterated that establishing a sustained lunar presence is aligned with the agency’s broader exploration strategy, supported by increased launch cadence, expanded industry partnerships, and agencywide coordination.
As part of the Golden Age of innovation and exploration, NASA will send astronauts on increasingly difficult missions to explore more of the Moon for scientific discovery, economic benefits, and to build on our foundation for the first crewed missions to Mars.
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Cosmonauts Begin Spacewalk for Scientific Hardware Work
May 27, 2026 10:21AM
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev exited the International Space Station at 10:18 a.m. EDT, beginning a spacewalk to remove two completed science experiments from the Poisk and Nauka modules and to install a new solar radiation-measuring device on the Zvezda service module.
Live coverage continues on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to watch NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.
The spacewalk is planned to last about five hours. Kud-Sverchkov is wearing an Orlan spacesuit with red stripes, and Mikaev is wearing a suit with blue stripes.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/05/27/cosmonauts-begin-spacewalk-for-scientific-hardware-work/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVKuW-DkE_U
extra NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/05/26/robotics-science-underway-as-cosmonauts-prep-for-wednesday-spacewalk/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-announce-artemis-iii-crew-provide-mission-progress-update/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/nasas-2026-lunabotics-winning-student-teams-engineering-lunar-future/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/ever-restless-mount-dukono-erupts/
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-reveals-black-hole-that-formed-before-its-galaxy/
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/little-red-dot-abell2744-qso1-nircam-image/
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/little-red-dot-abell2744-qso1-sonification-of-gas-velocity-around-a-supermassive-black-hole-nircam-and-nirspec-ifu/
extra extra NASA
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-spies-faint-irregular-galaxy/
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/clarreo-pathfinder/2026/05/26/nasa-calibration-instrument-installed-on-international-space-station/
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/prizes-challenges-crowdsourcing-program/center-of-excellence-for-collaborative-innovation-coeci/national-institutes-of-health-nutrition-education-challenge/
NASA’s Webb Reveals Black Hole That Formed Before Its Galaxy
May 27, 2026
Which comes first, the galaxy or the black hole? We don’t know, but scientists have long thought it could be the galaxy: Large stars within an existing galaxy consume their fuel and collapse to form black holes, which can gobble up surrounding material and merge over time to form more massive entities.
But it’s hard to figure out how black holes millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun, thousands of which have now been detected in the early universe, could have grown so quickly from such small seeds.
Now, researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected clear evidence that some supermassive black holes were enormous from the beginning, forming without a stellar collapse phase, and without a significantly more massive host galaxy to feed them.
“This is a remarkable finding,” said Roberto Maiolino of University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, co-author of studies published in Nature and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
“It’s a paradigm shift, a total revisiting of the classical scenarios of how black holes form and grow.”
Little Red Dot QSO1
The team’s conclusion is based on detailed observations of Abell2744-QSO1 (QSO1), a prototypical Little Red Dot that existed just 700 million years after the big bang.
Although QSO1 is only 1,300 light-years across, and its light has been traveling for more than 13 billion years, it is easier to study than most other Little Red Dots because it is gravitationally lensed by galaxy cluster Abell 2744 (Pandora’s Cluster).
QSO1 is both magnified and triply imaged, appearing in three different locations in the sky.
Initial studies of QSO1 revealed compelling evidence that it may be little more than a cloud of glowing hydrogen and helium gas circling a supermassive black hole estimated at 40 million times the mass of the Sun.
But as with other early black holes discovered by Webb, there was uncertainty about whether it really was that massive.
“Before now, all of the mass measurements of black holes in the early universe have been indirect, based on assumptions from what we know about them in the local universe.
We didn’t know if those assumptions really apply to the distant universe,” said co-author Francesco D’Eugenio, also of the University of Cambridge.
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Mapping gas composition, velocity
The team recognized that if QSO1’s black hole is as massive as it looks, they should be able to use the integral field unit (IFU) on Webb’s NIRSpec (Near Infrared Spectrograph) to trace the effects of its gravity on the gas swirling around it, while also mapping the distribution of various elements in the gas.
Cambridge graduate student Ignas Juodžbalis and Cosimo Marconcini of the University of Florence, lead authors on one of the studies, used the IFU observations to map motions of hydrogen gas surrounding the black hole.
When they plotted the rotation velocity as a function of distance from the center, they found that the gas has Keplerian motion: It orbits a central point in the same way that planets in our solar system orbit the Sun.
“This is important because it tells us that most of the mass of QSO1 is concentrated in the black hole at the center,” said Juodžbalis. “If the mass were more distributed, as it would be if there were a lot of stars, the gas would not have this perfect Keplerian rotation.”
Since Keplerian motion is governed by simple laws of gravity, the team was able to use the gas velocity measurements to calculate the black hole mass directly, a feat that had not previously been possible.
They found that not only is the black hole immense — roughly 50 million solar masses — it makes up, at minimum, an astonishing two-thirds of QSO1’s total mass.
This proportion is thousands of times greater than in nearby galaxies, where supermassive black holes make up only a tiny fraction of the host galaxy’s total mass.
The IFU composition maps supported these results, showing that the gas throughout QSO1 is almost entirely hydrogen and helium, with very little of the heavier elements like oxygen that would be expected in a galaxy rich with stars and stellar debris.
With a metallicity less than 0.5% of the Sun, QSO1 is one of the most pristine galactic environments ever measured.
“This is a phenomenal result,” said Maiolino. “It is the first direct measurement of a black hole mass within the first billion years after the big bang, and it is consistent with the previous measurements.”
The team thinks this is a good sign that the assumptions used for indirect mass measurements are valid and the masses of other black holes in the early universe have not been overestimated.
Supermassive black hole origins
The outsized mass of QSO1 relative to its host galaxy suggests that it can’t have formed gradually from much smaller, stellar-mass black holes merging and feeding.
“It seems that we have found a black hole that does not have a substantial host galaxy and that has predated stellar processes,” said Juodžbalis.
“This is very exciting because it is evidence for primordial black holes or direct collapse black holes, which have been theorized but not confirmed.”
Whether QSO1’s black hole evolved from a “heavy seed” that formed within the first second of the big bang or somewhat later from the collapse of a giant cloud of gas, it was almost certainly born big, and may be in the early stages of building a galaxy around it.
The team thinks that Little Red Dots like QSO1 cannot have been rare in the early universe, and is in the process of analyzing similar objects to find out whether supermassive black holes actually do predate the galaxies where they currently reside.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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https://gizmodo.com/us-space-force-should-prepare-to-put-active-duty-troops-on-the-moon-report-argues-2000763440
https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/events/military-human-spaceflight-a-key-component-to-american-space-superiority/
extra Space Force Memorial Day
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4500854/lompoc-memorial-day-2026/
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4500524/santa-maria-memorial-day-2026/
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4500513/memorial-day-ceremony-at-pine-grove-cemetery-orcutt-calif/
US Space Force Should Prepare to Put Active-Duty Troops on the Moon, Report Argues
May 26, 2026, 12:55 pm ET
Yep, that's where we're at.
The U.S. and China share a common goal: building a human habitat at the lunar south pole. Both nations are locked in a race to land astronauts on the Moon and secure vital resources needed to establish a permanent base.
Although the Moon is an unregulated frontier, a new report suggests that the U.S. should be prepared for a fight over control of lunar resources and territory.
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies recently published a paper pushing for a military human spaceflight program that could eventually place active-duty U.S. Space Force (USSF) personnel on the Moon and on board orbital space stations for defensive operations against China’s alleged military-focused space initiatives.
The report signals a dark turn for the ongoing space race, suggesting that orbital warfare looms behind ongoing efforts to establish a permanent presence on the Moon.
Conflict of interest
The report, written by retired USSF Colonel Kyle Pumroy, warns of the threats that “China’s military-led space habitation and lunar ambitions” pose for U.S. national security.
Pumroy argues that the U.S. human spaceflight and Moon programs “have been marred by inconsistency in vision, policy, and funding, allowing China to gain steady ground over time.”
China has shown significant progress with its human spaceflight program over the past few years. The Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA) completed the Tiangong space station in October 2022 and has maintained a continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit since then.
The Shenzhou-23 spacecraft carried three astronauts to the space station on Sunday, with one crew member poised to spend a year on board Tiangong for the first time. The prolonged mission helps China prepare for a crewed landing on the Moon by 2030.
“On the present trajectory, China is poised to achieve positional advantage in setting norms, standards, and legal frameworks for lunar habitation and lunar economy,” the paper reads.
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Chinese officials have repeatedly stressed the peaceful use and joint exploration of the lunar surface.
“China always upholds the principle of equality, mutual benefits, peaceful use and inclusive development in outer space cooperation with other countries,” Guo Jiakun, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, said during a press conference last month.
The recent paper, however, cites China’s “consistent use of belligerent force to assert territorial dominance” as a cause for concern. Therefore, Pumroy argues that the USSF should begin developing a military human spaceflight program now so Guardians can eventually operate in space to defend U.S. interests.
Space troops
As it stands today, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty bans military activities on celestial bodies and forbids any nation from claiming sovereignty over the Moon.
Pumroy argues that while the U.S. should want to uphold the treaty, it should prepare otherwise, according to Defense One.
In the paper, he also claims that China has a record of ignoring treaty agreements and territorial aggression and that its plans to build a habitat on the Moon are closely aligned with the country’s military.
“When territorial conquest, the potential for economic gain, and national interests overlap, societies seek to establish favorable norms and standards and do so using various degrees of hard power,” Pumroy writes. “Accordingly, hard power will ultimately matter in this new space race.”
Space already has a heavy military presence with surveillance, reconnaissance, and communications satellites that facilitate operations on the ground.
However, it remains largely unweaponized. While there is a looming threat of a space war breaking out, the consequences of it would be catastrophic, as it would add onto the growing problem of orbital debris.
The Space Force was established in 2019 to protect the interests of the U.S. in space. Its members, the Guardians, manage space launches, track objects in orbit, and maintain Global Positioning Satellites and various weather and communications satellites, in addition to developing space-based capabilities.
According to the paper, however, the Space Force should instead focus on creating a military human spaceflight program with Title 10 authorities, which grants the Department of Defense the authority to organize, train, and deploy military forces globally.
Whoever first establishes a durable, defendable LEO-to lunar infrastructure will gain the right to establish and enforce norms and standards,” Pumroy writes. “The United States must ensure it wins that right, but it will demand properly trained, organized, and equipped Guardians in space who are empowered with Title 10 authorities.”
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Dstl achieves UK’s first optical downlink from space
27 May 2026
The UK’s first successful download of data from space using a deployable laser communications ground station has been achieved by Archangel Lightworks for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl).
The demonstration will now provide a way for faster and more secure communications for the UK’s armed forces.
During a 90-second satellite pass, many gigabits of data were downloaded from a satellite in low Earth orbit (LEO) to an optical ground station located in the Mediterranean region. This transformational leap is like moving from very slow internet to superfast fibre broadband.
Also known as free space optical communications, laser communications enables high-speed transmissions over long distances. This is ideal for military applications such as Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance where large volumes of information must be sent quickly to give UK forces an operational advantage over adversaries.
Luke Pollard MP, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, said:
Space is crucial for how our armed forces communicate, allowing our sailors, soldiers and aviators to conduct the operations which keep the UK and our allies safe.
By developing laser communications we’re dramatically increasing how quickly and securely our satellites can talk to our bases on Earth, protecting these communications from interference and giving us an advantage over our adversaries.
Dstl Chief Executive, Dr Paul Hollinshead, said:
Laser communications will vastly improve the speed, size and security of data between our forces, whether they are in the air, on land, at sea or in space. This will greatly increase the security of our forces who will be able to convey critical information faster than their adversary.
Our collaborative partnerships with industry catalyse innovation and enable Defence to be an engine for growth, supporting jobs and creating commercial opportunities.
Dstl has been working closely with Archangel Lightworks, a small- to medium-sized enterprise (SME) located in Oxford, UK, who have been developing an optical ground station for the trial.
The initiative exemplifies Dstl’s delivery of the Defence Industrial Strategy and the Strategic Defence Review, by harnessing the talents of specialist industrial and academic partners from across the supplier ecosystem across the breadth of the UK.
Laser communications transmit information using very low power, non-visible light instead of radio waves (radio frequency, RF). Light has a much shorter wavelength than radio waves so it can transmit more data per second.
This is very difficult to detect and intercept, greatly reducing the chance of detection by enemy sensors.
Narrow beams also reduce the chance of overlap or interference with other networks and equipment. Laser communications will also allow the military to communicate in an increasingly contested and congested electromagnetic environment.
The technology will be exploited by many capability areas across the UK Ministry of Defence and could form part of the UK’s digital targeting web as well as being interoperable with the US Space Development Agency standard.
Archangel Lightworks recently completed a Series A funding round, which included investment from the National Security Strategic Investment Fund (NSSIF). The company manufactures systems at a facility in Oxford and is a sovereign UK capability which will support scaling production for deployment, sale or exports.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/dstl-achieves-uks-first-optical-downlink-from-space
extra UK
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2026/05/Hot_surfaces_during_Europe_s_heatwave_seen_by_Sentinel-3
US refuses to condemn Russia’s plans to target Kiev
27 May, 2026 12:53 | Updated 27 May, 2026 13:55
The US has declined to condemn Russia over its warning about upcoming strikes on military-linked sites in Kiev in retaliation for Ukraine’s deadly attack on a college dormitory.
On Friday, Ukrainian drones struck an education facility in the Russian town of Starobelsk, killing 21 people, mostly young women, and injuring more than 60 others. Moscow has denounced the attack as a war crime and a deliberate terrorist act.
Kiev has dismissed the accusation as “pure propaganda,” with its Western backers refusing to hold Ukraine accountable despite ample evidence of its involvement.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to warn of “systematic and consistent strikes” on Kiev’s military facilities and “decision-making centers” while urging foreign nationals to leave the capital.
On Tuesday, Andrey Melnik, Ukraine’s envoy to the UN, shared a joint statement – signed by more than 50 nations, including Germany and other EU members, as well as the UK, Canada, and Japan – which condemned Moscow over what it described as “escalating attacks” and “threats by Russia to diplomatic institutions.” Moscow has never mentioned any plans to target either embassies or any other civilian installations.
The statement, however, conspicuously did not mention the US.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Rubio likewise refrained from leveling any accusations, saying only that Kiev had “been a very dangerous place now for a number of years.”
“This is what happens with these wars – they just continue to escalate,” he added. “There’s a big strike coming one way, a bigger strike coming back – and that’s how these things unravel and keep going. It’s why the war needs to come to an end.”
Under the Trump administration, the US has acted as a key intermediary in Russia-Ukraine talks, although the process froze up amid the Iran war.
In March, Vladimir Zelensky claimed that Washington was pressing Ukraine to withdraw from Donbass as a condition for providing post-conflict security guarantees – something Kiev has categorically been opposed to.
Rubio, however, dismissed the Ukrainian leader’s comments as “a lie,” insisting that the US was not “advocating” for Moscow but rather only relaying its stance.
https://www.rt.com/news/640637-us-refuses-condemn-russia-ukraine/
extra RT
https://www.rt.com/russia/640626-zelensky-revenge-russian-college/
https://www.rt.com/news/640623-ukraine-mobilziation-fraud-transcarpathia/
https://www.rt.com/russia/640619-mp-russia-strategy-strikes-kiev/
https://www.rt.com/russia/640632-homosexuality-mental-illness/
Are Chemtrails Real or Just a Conspiracy Theory? | Make This Make Sense
Apr 30, 2026
Are evil forces spraying the population with mind control gases, biological warfare chemicals, or high-tech weather modification technology?
A surprising number of people, including multiple government officials, believe the answer is yes - that so-called "chemtrails" are real.
The scientific community has consistently debunked chemtrails as just normal clouds created by high altitude jet planes and any claims to the contrary have been dismissed as baseless conspiracy theories.
Chemtrail true believers claim a series of government documents, including a declassified top secret CIA report reveal the awful truth. And even the United States Secretary of Health has vowed to stop this sinister poisoning of the skies.
So were the conspiracy theorists right all along?
By the end of this video, you will know what the top secret documents reveal, what the science data shows us, and whether you need to be worried about what’s being sprayed in the sky.
https://x.com/nypost/status/2059332195727138894
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBaQcNFm3TQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8BWoxyfEHE (WeAreChange: HOLY F**K RFK Jr. Just CONFIRMED It)