TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
June 23, 2026
Flying Past Neptune's Moon Triton
What would it look like to fly past Triton, the largest moon of planet Neptune? Only one spacecraft has ever done this – and the images of this dramatic encounter have been gathered into a video. In 1989, the Voyager 2 robotic spacecraft shot through the Neptune system with cameras blazing. Triton is slightly smaller than Earth's Moon but has ice volcanoes and a surface rich in frozen nitrogen. The first sequence in the video shows Voyager's approach to Triton, which, with the exception of an overall false green tint, appears in approximately true color. The mysterious cantaloupe terrain seen under the spacecraft soon changed from light to dark, with the terminator of night crossing underneath. After closest approach, Voyager pivoted to see the departing moon, now visible as a diminishing crescent. In 2015, the robotic New Horizons spacecraft famously flew past Pluto, an orb of similar size to Triton.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJn6D3J6tbU
Calm Before the Storm, Pole Shift Speed, Pre-Quake Anomalies | S0 News and stormrider frens
June.23.2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uBemT6xvY0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-DUAAWneOA (EarthMaster: 7.5 Earthquake potential for Seattle Fault.. Is it overdue? Monday Night update)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvdK-pk8QRA (MrMBB333: May want to BRACE yourself for this one!! (Loud Booms))
https://www.ksn.com/news/state-regional/kansas-wheat-harvest-stalls-after-weekend-of-severe-storms/
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hidden-seismicity-patterns-large-earthquakes.html
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/mysterious-deep-earthquakes-beneath-utah-and-wyoming-are-puzzling-scientists/articleshow/131936792.cms
https://www.modernghana.com/videonews/nbc/1/670569
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj2U3tSZRqA (Red skies seen over Russian resort town ahead of severe weather)
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/06/23/rare-tornado-hits-city-in-russias-ural-mountains-a93075
https://www.accuweather.com/en/blogs-webinars/nocturnal-tornadoes-understanding-the-nighttime-tornado-threat-to-businesses/1904046
https://futurism.com/science-energy/illinois-battered-freak-tornadoes-alley
https://meteoagent.com/schumann-resonance-forecast
https://weather.substack.com/
https://www.tornadohq.com/
https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/earthquakes-volcanoes/news.html
https://www.spaceweather.gov/
https://spaceweather.com/
NASA’s Webb Finds Clues to Ancient, Distant Origin of Comet 3I/ATLAS
Jun 22, 2026
As interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS began moving away from the Sun in December 2025, astronomers took the opportunity to turn NASA’s powerful James Webb Space Telescope in its direction and capture detailed measurements of its chemical components.
The comet was freshly warmed from its closest pass by the Sun, and its ancient ice had been converted to a bright coma of gas ideal for observation.
Webb captured detailed data, including chemical ratios of carbon and deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen, that are not found in solar system comets.
The results surprised researchers. Working backward, astronomers used the components that make up comet 3I/ATLAS to understand the environment in which it formed.
A paper detailing the findings published June 22 in the journal Nature.
The comet’s name comes from its status as the third confirmed interstellar comet, meaning it originated outside the solar system, and the telescope that first spotted it, the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System).
“This was a unique opportunity to study an ancient object from the distant galaxy, probably pre-dating our Sun and solar system,” said astro-chemist Martin Cordiner of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the study.
“On the one hand, we get direct insight into that distant time and place, and on the other, we learn something about how unusual our own solar system may be.”
Cordiner and the research team joined astronomers from many sub-disciplines in taking the opportunity to get a look at 3I/ATLAS on its journey through the solar system.
They received approval to interrupt Webb’s planned schedule of observations to make use of its NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument to study the comet.
NIRSpec revealed exceptionally high levels of deuterium, about 30 times more than seen in solar system comets. This implies that 3I/ATLAS may have originated in a very cold system much earlier in the history of our galaxy.
During its formation, the material that became incorporated into 3I/ATLAS was likely exposed to plenty of radiation, but not any long-term warmth that would have reprocessed its “heavy water” ice, with deuterium, into the type of H2O ice we are familiar with on Earth.
Additionally, NIRSpec showed only traces of carbon-13 compared to lighter-weight carbon-12.
This also points to a very old origin for 3I/ATLAS, as stellar systems become enriched with carbon-13 over time as generations of stars are born and die in the galaxy.
That is why there are higher levels of carbon-13 in our system, around our Sun, which formed relatively recently, 4.5 billion years ago.
The research team estimates that 3I/ATLAS could have formed as long as 10 to 12 billion years ago, during the universe’s “cosmic noon,” when star formation was at its height.
Its young origin system was likely ensconced in a relatively cold, dense cloud. The abundance of heavy water shows that 3I/ATLAS spent its formative years in a deeply frozen state.
A separate study using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, led by astronomer Cyrielle Opitom of the University of Edinburgh, complements Webb’s findings with an analysis of 3I/ATLAS’s carbon and nitrogen varieties in the form of the chemical cyanide.
“For us as scientists, finding these rare isotopes is fascinating, but the bigger picture here is looking at the possibilities of prebiotic chemistry elsewhere in the galaxy,” said Stefanie Milam of NASA Goddard and co-author of the study with Cordiner.
“So far, we know of only one place in the vast cosmos where chemical ingredients led to life – our solar system, our Earth.
Analysis of these interstellar objects is a major step towards learning how common, or uncommon, the conditions for the evolution of life are in the universe.”
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).
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-finds-clues-to-ancient-distant-origin-of-comet-3i-atlas/
https://zenodo.org/records/20800335
extra space objects
https://boingboing.net/2026/06/23/post-naga-fireball.html
https://avi-loeb.medium.com/was-methane-a-signature-of-life-in-3i-atlas-9304dbce9efe
https://www.8newsnow.com/mystery-wire/las-vegas-fireball-aliens/
https://www.gao.gov/blog/next-outpost-nasas-plans-replacing-aging-international-space-station
extra NASA
https://www.nasa.gov/jds-corner/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-botswana-artemis-accords-signing-ceremony/
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/i-am-artemis-jason-peterson/
https://nasawatch.com/trumpspace/nasa-oig-report-nasas-launch-infrastructure/
https://oig.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/final-report-ig-26-010-nasas-launch-infrastructure.pdf
The Next Outpost: NASA’s Plans for Replacing the Aging International Space Station
June 23, 2026
When your car gets old, you may face the decision of whether to spend money repairing it or replacing it. NASA is facing a similar dilemma with the aging International Space Station.
Within the next year, NASA must choose whether to make repairs and updates that would extend the life of the Space Station or to replace it with a commercial outpost.
Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on the status of the International Space Station and the impending choice NASA must make.
About the Space Station and its role in maintaining human presence above Earth
The International Space Station orbits Earth from nearly 250 miles above. It circles our planet every 90 minutes at a speed of 17,500 mph.
For more than 25 years, the Space Station has allowed humans to live off planet. About the size of a football field, it has living quarters to house an international crew of up to 7 astronauts or cosmonauts at a time.
Over its lifetime, the Space Station has hosted nearly 300 astronauts from 26 different countries across the globe.
The outpost is also outfitted with several labs to allow for scientific experiments in space. Astronauts research everything from advanced medicine and physics to what happens to the human body in space.
The Space Station was funded and built through a collaboration of five participating space agencies from 15 different countries. However, the U.S. bears the majority of the costs to run it. NASA spends nearly $3 billion a year to operate and maintain the aging government-owned space station.
The original plan was for the Space Station to be used about 15 years. But now, more than a decade beyond that, the outpost is facing some structural issues that risk its mission and could result in higher costs for maintaining it.
Because of this, NASA plans to retire and deorbit the current station by 2030, and the space agency has begun exploring replacement options.
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NASA is looking to commercial space companies to replace the Space Station
With just a few years left on the current scientific outpost, the U.S. space agency is counting on private companies to launch their own orbiting stations to replace it.
In fact, NASA wants to transition from the government-owned station to commercially operated, private space stations. The agency has partnered with six aerospace companies to develop commercial successors.
From these efforts, NASA will award contracts to selected companies to further develop prototypes and finalize designs.
The space agency doesn’t intend to take ownership of a new station. Instead, the selected U.S. companies would design, build, own, and operate their own stations. They would also maintain related ground system control centers and support infrastructure.
NASA’s role in overseeing the new stations would include certifying that they are safe for its space crews. And it forecasts that relying on commercial stations will drive down the costs for astronauts to conduct research in space and free up agency resources for other exploration projects.
NASA has some decisions to make
There’s a sense of urgency for getting plans in place—particularly since NASA wants to preserve America’s continued human presence in space. But we found several risks with NASA’s current plans.
For example, the timeline for replacing the Space Station is rather ambitious. Under current plans, NASA has just over a year to determine if it should extend operations on the current space station beyond 2030.
If it chooses to replace the Space Station, the agency will need a plan in place sooner rather than later. After all, if it’s not ready, the U.S. runs the risk of not being able to maintain human presence in space.
Agency officials said they are confident the current space station’s life could be extended through the late 2030s if needed. But it may become more challenging to maintain and repair the Space Station as it ages.
After all, the Space Station is now operating well beyond the 15 years for which NASA and its international partners designed and tested it.
There are some budget and workforce constraints, too. Deorbiting the Space Station is expensive, as is the process of designing new ones to replace it.
And maintenance of the current space station is a big concern. For example, NASA and its international partners are monitoring cracks in the transfer tunnel in the Russian segment of the Station that resulted in air leaks.
As of February, NASA said those air leaks had been fixed with a sealant. But leaks continued and the fundamental structural issues that caused the cracks remain.
In short, NASA is still developing its transition plans and many uncertainties remain. But a decision is needed soon to ensure the success of NASA’s next steps.
For more information on the agency’s plans and timelines, read our Q&A report.
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https://x.com/Thekingofufos/status/2069091907049807963
July may be off the hook
https://usaherald.com/nasa-astronaut-heading-to-space-station-plans-to-run-a-real-test-for-alien-life-and-will-tell-us-everything/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptU63i6p1xA
extra extra NASA
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble/galaxy-mxdfz4-4-hubble-and-webb-image/
https://science.nasa.gov/asset/webb/m82-cigar-galaxy-webb-hubble-fade/
https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/rising-waters-swamp-lake-naivasha/
https://science.nasa.gov/get-involved/citizen-science/people-powered-research-with-a-twist-spiral-graph-cluster-buster/
NASA Astronaut Heading to Space Station Plans to Run a Real Test for Alien Life and Will Tell Us Everything
June 23, 2026
For decades, the question of whether life exists beyond Earth has been the domain of science fiction writers and late-night conspiracy forums.
But one NASA astronaut about to spend eight months orbiting our planet says he is going to run an actual, controlled scientific experiment to find out and he has promised to share every result publicly.
Dr. Anil Menon, an emergency medicine physician, U.S. Space Force colonel, and newly minted NASA astronaut, is preparing for the most ambitious chapter of his already extraordinary career.
Scheduled to launch aboard the Soyuz MS-29 mission on July 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Menon will join Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina as a flight engineer on Expedition 75 aboard the International Space Station.
The mission is expected to last approximately eight months. And during that time, Menon has confirmed he will conduct a search for microbial extraterrestrial life during a series of spacewalks.
What Exactly Is the Experiment?
The idea sounds almost too simple: check the outside of the space station for bacteria. But the science behind it is anything but simple, and the implications could be world-changing.
"What we're looking to see is if there is any bacteria that can survive on the external side of the space station," Menon told Newsweek.
The external surface of the ISS is one of the most hostile environments imaginable.
Objects on the outside of the station are exposed to unfiltered cosmic radiation, extreme ultraviolet light from the sun, and temperature swings that can range from roughly 250 degrees Fahrenheit in direct sunlight to negative 250 degrees in shadow.
For any biological organism to survive out there would be extraordinary.
But previous reports have suggested it might not be impossible. The problem, Menon explained, is that earlier experiments lacked rigorous scientific controls, raising the possibility that the station itself could have contaminated the samples.
"Past reports made us think perhaps it's possible, but it wasn't clear if we had a really good control, like we might have potentially contaminated it," Menon said.
"So I think we're going back. We're going to do a good job of having a very controlled experiment and that'll be some more exciting science to follow in terms of just other things living in space."
In other words, this time they are doing it right. A controlled experiment means cleaner data, more trustworthy results, and potentially a much clearer answer to one of humanity's oldest questions: are we alone?
An Astronaut Who Has Promised to Tell You the Truth
What makes Menon's mission especially compelling in 2026 is the broader political and cultural context surrounding extraterrestrial life.
The U.S. government has been releasing batches of previously classified Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena records, a category that includes what were historically called UFO sightings.
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The releases include military reports, videos, photographs, audio recordings, witness statements, and investigative documents from agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, the FBI, and various intelligence organizations.
Reports describe objects seen by military pilots, astronauts, law enforcement officers, and civilians – discs, spheres, orbs, and lights exhibiting flight characteristics that defy conventional explanation.
Some of the sensor footage included in the releases is newly declassified and dates back decades.
Neither the Pentagon nor NASA has stated that any of this material constitutes evidence of alien spacecraft or extraterrestrial technology.
Many of the cases remain unexplained simply because the available data is limited, and "unexplained" is not a synonym for "alien."
But the releases have dramatically intensified public curiosity about what is really happening in the skies and beyond.
Menon acknowledged that context directly, and made a pledge worth paying attention to.
"Now that it's declassified, I could totally tell you if I encounter them. So I for sure will follow up with this if I have any interaction with extraterrestrials. I give you that solemn promise," he said.
The Bigger Mission: Preparing the Human Body for Mars
While the extraterrestrial life experiment may be generating headlines, Menon's core scientific focus during Expedition 75 is squarely on human physiology.
He will be studying what happens to the human body during long-duration spaceflight, and in a twist that delights him personally, he will be studying what happens to his own body.
"I am most excited about the opportunity to just be in space and experience the changes that happen to the human body up there," Menon told Newsweek.
"I've spent most of my life studying through medicine, health, and disease. And then I spent all my special time, like specialization in space medicine. And so it's just such a unique thing to actually see how that happens."
He described the experience with a kind of self-aware humor: "It's actually like you usually don't want this to happen, but it's like the doctor becoming the patient. But in these unique cases, it's really worthwhile because there's just so much to learn and so much nuance to it."
The research Menon conducts will directly inform humanity's plans for eventual crewed missions to Mars. The ISS exists, in large part, as a laboratory to identify and solve the physiological problems that deep space travel would impose on human beings.
One of the most well-documented challenges is bone density loss. Astronauts in microgravity lose roughly three percent of their bone mass every month. Left unchecked, that rate would leave a Mars-bound traveler catastrophically fragile by the time they arrived.
"Imagine that compounding over time. You would just be susceptible to fractures from anything," Menon said. But research conducted on the ISS has already produced a workable solution: targeted resistance exercise.
The station carries specialized exercise equipment designed to simulate the mechanical stress that gravity would normally place on bones.
Mars presents a different set of variables. The planet has approximately 38 percent of Earth's gravity, meaning that resistance exercises effective on the ISS would need to be recalibrated for the Martian environment.
"Instead of like lifting like 100 pounds on your shoulder, you can lift 300 pounds on your shoulder and it'll give you the same effect," Menon explained. "You can't do that on the space station.
You need to have some sort of resistant exercise. But I think there's a lot more avenues on a place like Mars to getting those kind of Earth-like pressures and gravity-like impact that will affect your body positively."
He added that humans are "amazingly resilient" – a phrase that, coming from an emergency medicine physician who has provided medical relief after earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal, carries real weight.
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Beyond physiology, Mars poses other challenges that are not yet fully solved. The Martian soil contains perchlorates, highly toxic chemicals that would pose a serious risk to any humans attempting to work on or near the surface.
"That's why we're now using the Earth and Moon base as a platform to do those things and just open up even more doors for us," Menon said.
During his time on the ISS, he will also participate in experiments studying blood flow, vein structure, and blood composition in microgravity.
He will help test methods for producing intravenous fluids from the station's water supply, a capability that could prove critical on missions where resupply from Earth is not an option.
The Man Behind the Mission
Anil Menon is not a typical astronaut in any sense of the word.
Born and raised in Minneapolis to Indian and Ukrainian immigrant parents, he earned a degree in neurobiology from Harvard University, then went on to earn both a medical degree and a master's in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.
Few people in any field carry that combination of credentials.
Before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, Menon built a remarkable career at the intersection of medicine and aerospace. He served as a flight surgeon for NASA, working directly with ISS astronauts.
He then became the first flight surgeon at SpaceX, where he played a key role in preparing crews for the company's early crewed missions, including the historic Demo-2 flight that returned American orbital launches to U.S. soil after nearly a decade.
He is also a colonel in the U.S. Space Force and has deployed on humanitarian missions following major natural disasters.
He completed NASA astronaut training in 2024, and Expedition 75 marks his first spaceflight assignment.
On Elon Musk, Rocket Travel, and the Road to Mars
Menon was also asked during the Newsweek interview about Elon Musk's vision for using rockets as a means of city-to-city passenger transport on Earth, and for eventually sending humans to Mars. His answer was characteristically measured and optimistic.
"I don't doubt that he is capable and SpaceX is capable of getting there. They've shown that they can do a lot harder things, but in the process of getting there," Menon said.
"I think what you do is you figure out some of those challenges. Just like going to Mars, we figure out some of the health challenges; doing point-to-point transfer, we figure out some of the technological challenges, and we figure out how to solve it."
He drew a parallel to the evolution of clean energy technology – a field that seemed impractical for decades before incremental problem-solving made it viable.
"Think about just energy utilization. We've figured out how to make cleaner energies, to take energies that were existing for hundreds of years and figure out systems and plants that make them more sustainable and cleaner.
So I think all of these processes, there is a way forward. We just need to thoughtfully move forward. And I have full confidence that that will be part of the process."
The One Thing He Says Will Be the Hardest
For all the scientific complexity of his mission, when asked what personal challenge looms largest, Menon's answer was immediate and entirely human. "My wife and kids. I'm going to miss them a lot. But luckily we'll have the opportunity to do video calling and stuff," he said.
Eight months is a long time. But if the science Menon conducts during that period helps unlock the future of Mars colonization, and if the bacteria swabs he takes on his spacewalks produce results that upend our understanding of life in the universe, it may turn out to be eight of the most consequential months in the history of human spaceflight.
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Crew Starts Week with Bioengineering, Space Manufacturing, and Spacewalk Preps
June 22, 2026 12:57PM
Bioengineering cartilage tissues and manufacturing advanced materials kicked off the week aboard the International Space Station.
The Expedition 74 crew members also ramped up preparations for a spacewalk and conducted vision tests on Monday.
NASA flight engineer Jessica Meir split her day working on a pair of investigations — one focused on biotechnology and the other on space‑based manufacturing.
She began her shift inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox, nourishing living cartilage cells. Scientists are studying how these cells grow larger in weightlessness, research that could guide new treatments for arthritis or sports injuries.
Later, in the Harmony module, she photographed colloidal crystals — microscopic particles floating in liquid — to capture how they naturally arrange themselves into orderly 3D structures in microgravity.
The results could help the design and development of next‑generation materials and technologies for both Earth and space industries.
In between the space science work, Meir joined NASA flight engineer Chris Williams and reviewed plans for a spacewalk to repair a wrist joint on the Canadarm2 robotic arm scheduled for June 30.
The duo examined spacewalking tools and spacesuits, studied emergency procedures, and more in the Quest airlock. Williams then configured Quest and staged a spacesuit inside the airlock for the upcoming spacewalk.
NASA flight engineer Jack Hathaway worked on spacesuit maintenance inside Quest, filling water tanks and cleaning a water-cooling system that keeps the suit’s temperature stable during a spacewalk.
Flight engineer Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) briefly inspected another spacesuit preparing it for a fit check then readied two cameras and their thermal shields for spacewalk photography duties.
NASA will soon announce the two spacewalking astronauts and provide a live televised briefing with more details this week.
Vision tests were on the schedule on Monday as Williams took turns with cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev reading characters off a standard eye chart inside the Destiny laboratory module.
Kud-Sverchkov, the station’s commander, then photographed and inspected docking components on the Rassvet and Poisk modules.
Mikaev partnered with flight engineer Andrey Fedyaev, both Roscosmos flight engineers, for more testing of artificial intelligence tools to boost crew efficiency and communications in space.
https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/spacestation/2026/06/22/crew-starts-week-with-bioengineering-space-manufacturing-and-spacewalk-preps/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-cover-us-spacewalk-95-host-preview-news-conference/
extra NASA 3
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/nasas-experimental-fabrication-branch-fuels-aircraft-innovation/
https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/programs/physics-of-the-cosmos/community/first-announcement-xrism-international-conference/
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/wallops/nasa-sounding-rocket-to-launch-student-experiments/
https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-awards-solutions-for-federal-enterprise-procurement-contracts/
Elon Musk and NASA’s Chief Are Looking at Antimatter to Reach Other Star Systems
June 22, 2026
A short exchange on X pulled antimatter propulsion back into view. Elon Musk posted that in the future a trillion times a trillion dollars will go toward making antimatter so people can travel to other star systems.
He added that later civilizations may measure wealth in mass and energy rather than currency. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman replied that he supports antimatter propulsion.
Antimatter is essentially the mirror image of normal matter. Every electron has a positron, which is identical to it but has the opposite charge. Each proton contains an antiproton. E = mc² states that when particles collide, their mass is converted into energy.
When one gram of antimatter collides with one gram of normal matter, it produces energy equivalent to around 43 kilotons of TNT, nearly three times that of the Hiroshima bomb.
Chemical rockets can only convert a small portion of their fuel into energy, and nuclear fusion is nowhere near as efficient as antimatter’s near-total conversion.
The fact that you can get a lot more oomph from a lot less mass has a significant impact on the type of spacecraft you can build.
Current engines must carry the majority of their weight in propellant, which is then discarded as soon as it is spent. An antimatter system might provide a lot more kick for a lot less weight.
What used to take six to nine months to get to Mars could now be done in weeks, and getting to the nearest stars, which takes tens of thousands of years with current technology, could be done in a human lifetime or a few decades at a few percent of lightspeed.
Less time in space implies less radiation and weightlessness for any crew, which is a significant benefit.
Several ideas have been proposed to turn annihlation into thrust. One approach is to combine streams of antimatter and matter in a dedicated chamber, where the resultant particles and radiation are blasted out the rear.
Another does the same thing, but uses the energy to heat up propellant such as hydrogen, which then expands and generates thrust.
Then there’s the concept of using tiny amounts of antimatter to initiate larger nuclear fusion or fission reactions, which would stretch the limited antimatter supply even further.
Every one of these approaches is trying to solve the same problem: how to take the energy release and turn it into push without wiping out the ship.
The trouble is that creating antimatter is an absolute nightmare. Particle accelerators generate it by smashing particles together, however the method creates extremely little amounts.
After years of experimentation, places such as CERN have only been able to produce nanograms. Getting to the amounts required to create even a small probe would necessitate discovering new ways to manufacture it and much more effective ways to collect it.
https://www.techeblog.com/elon-musk-nasa-antimatter-propulsion/
https://x.com/NASAAdmin/status/2068078818489745473
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KzLgqspNJPo
https://www.transportation.gov/briefing-room/modern-skies-trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-selects-air-space
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/SMART_One-Pager.pdf
https://x.com/SecDuffy/status/2069149173740638397
MODERN SKIES: Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Selects Air Space Intelligence to Deploy State-of-the-Art Air Traffic Control Software, Revolutionize Our Skies
Monday, June 22, 2026
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford today announced that the FAA has awarded a contract to Air Space Intelligence (ASI) for two complementary, cutting-edge technologies that will improve how flights are scheduled and managed throughout the National Airspace System.
The Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) will be the new technological backbone of the FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center. It balances air traffic demand with capacity and provides the data that underpins traffic management.
Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART), an enhancement within FMDS, will use that data to prevent congestion and delays by strategically coordinating schedules and trajectories before aircraft depart.
Together, these technologies will:
Reduce flight delays
Improve traffic flow
Increase airspace capacity
The Problem:
While very safe, our National Airspace System (NAS) could be more predictable, efficient, and optimized to use available capacity.
The current NAS operation has a limited ability to anticipate the effects of the number and timing of forecasted flights and the effects of unplanned events such as weather, runway closures, and other capacity limits.
Additionally, it doesn’t identify and take advantage of large amounts of available airspace. We react to, rather than predict, these constraints, resulting in bottlenecks throughout the day, which have ripple effects throughout the entire country.
Compounding the situation, the data controllers rely on – from weather patterns to airport capacity – are all housed in different systems. Controllers often have to use numerous screens and spreadsheets to access this crucial information.
The Solution:
With these two new technologies, the FAA can house all critical data in one platform and proactively identify delays and available airspace to mitigate them days, weeks, and even months in advance.
These systems will also allow controllers to overlay weather patterns and flight paths into one central visualization.
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“We’re already making remarkable progress on upgrading the radars, radios, and telecom wires air traffic controllers rely on thanks to the Working Families Tax Cut.
But to really improve the flying experience for the traveling public, we must change how flights are managed,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy.
“We’re thrilled to partner with ASI to begin deploying these two new software platforms. Once implemented, we will fundamentally reshape how the airspace is managed – slashing thousands of delays and cancellations in the process.”
“Every day, our air traffic professionals knowingly manage thousands of scheduling conflicts across the National Airspace System, which ultimately end up as delays for the traveling public,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
“FMDS with the SMART capabilities will help us address that challenge by improving how we manage airspace before flights depart, reducing congestion, easing controller workload, and directly cutting down delays across the system.”
“We are grateful for Secretary Duffy’s and Administrator Bedford’s leadership and dedication to deliver President Trump’s vision of a modernized air traffic control system,” said Chris Sununu, CEO of Airlines for America.
“SMART leverages the latest technologies to make air traffic more efficient and timely while maintaining our gold standard of safety. This program is an encouraging step forward and demonstrates how the FAA is making worthwhile investments in our airspace infrastructure.
Airlines are coordinating closely with the FAA to ensure SMART will provide more efficient routings and more predictable information about system capacity in order to balance capacity and demand.
We appreciate the FAA’s willingness to work with airlines to ensure this program provides benefits to the traveling and shipping public. A program of this kind has been talked about for decades, and this administration is finally taking action.”
“President Trump, Secretary Duffy and Administrator Bedford are delivering on their commitment to build the future of American aviation,” said Phillip Buckendorf, CEO, Air Space Intelligence.
“This is an exciting moment for the millions of Americans who rely on air travel every day and for the airlines, airspace operators, and aviation stakeholders who keep our system moving.
The FAA is embracing commercially proven technology already helping everyone from major airlines to the broader aviation community operate more efficiently and predictably.
ASI is honored by the opportunity to support America’s Air Traffic Controllers and contribute to a safer, more predictive and more efficient national airspace system.”
Background on SMART
SMART continuously analyzes airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions, and operational constraints to predict traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur.
This shared view helps the FAA, airlines, and operators align on the most efficient routes and departure and arrival times, improving efficiency, predictability, and system-wide performance.
The FAA plans to begin initial operations using this new software this fall. To learn more, check out the SMART Fact Sheet.
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The same Roddenberry who was supposedly in contact with a group of aliens called the Council of Nine?
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/space-force-mission-goes-from-orders-to-launch-in-less-than-17-hours/
https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/Newsroom/Article-Display/Article/4523601/us-space-force-demonstrates-responsive-launch-for-victus-haze-mission-begins-on
https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/victus-haze/
Extra Space Force
https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4523432/chief-of-space-operations-visits-vandenberg-space-force-base/
https://www.starcom.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4522945/starcom-spouses-volunteers-support-deployed-service-member-families/
https://www.mitchellaerospacepower.org/space-superiority-through-the-spectrum-of-conflict-findings-and-recommendations-from-the-conflict-in-space-workshop/
https://businessalabama.com/eli-lilly-space-command-help-lead-alabama-to-silver-shovel-award/
Space Force Mission Goes from Orders to Launch in Less than 17 Hours
June 23, 2026
Pioneer will soon begin a multiphased rendezvous operation with a second satellite already on orbit—True Anomaly’s Jackal spacecraft, which launched in early May on a SpaceX Falcon 9.
“With launch complete, the team will now complete on-orbit checkout and vehicle commissioning, after which RPO operations begin,” Space Systems Command said in a June 22 statement.
“During these operations, the teams operating both the Rocket Lab and the True Anomaly space vehicles will conduct a variety of scenarios, demonstrating space domain awareness and characterization capabilities, each in dynamic engagements with the other.”
In its own statement, Rocket Lab said it activated and prepared its spacecraft for its first orbital maneuver in 37 hours and 36 minutes, well ahead of the Space Force’s 72-hour deadline.
Meanwhile, True Anomaly said in a statement that its Jackal satellite is now fully operational and ready to support RPO missions.
“VICTUS HAZE will generate the data, operational experience, and institutional knowledge the Space Force needs to make TacRS a ready, repeatable capability,” the company said.
“Every task that True Anomaly and Rocket Lab complete during this mission advances that goal.”
Although the Space Force confirmed the mission days after it lifted off, the service’s own space object database reported the satellite’s arrival in orbit as soon as June 20, according to Jonathan McDowell, as an astrophysicist who closely tracks on-orbit activity.
McDowell reported that Rocket Lab’s satellite appeared to pass within about 100 kilometers of the Jackal satellite on the evening of June 19.
SpaceWERX and the Defense Innovation Unit awarded contracts in 2024 to True Anomaly and Rocket Lab to develop spacecraft for the mission.
Rocket Lab provided its own rocket to launch its space vehicle, and True Anomaly contracted with Firefly Aerospace to launch Jackal on its Alpha vehicle.
The mission was initially scheduled for 2025 but was delayed after Firefly’s Alpha rocket experienced multiple anomalies last year. Although Alpha returned to flight in March, True Anomaly opted to launch Jackal on a SpaceX rideshare mission.
A Firefly spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine the firm will participate in future TacRS missions with its upgraded Alpha Block II rocket, which incorporates upgrades it developed following the mishaps last year.
Firefly is already on contract for an effort called Victus Sol, but the spokesperson indicated it will fly Jackal on a separate mission in the future.
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“Firefly continues to actively support the U.S. Space Force and, at the direction of Space Safari, is moving to a future Tactically Responsive Space mission that will utilize Firefly’s upgraded Alpha Block II launch vehicle and True Anomaly’s Jackal platform,” the company said.
“This new mission will build on the lessons learned from VICTUS NOX, VICTUS DIEM, and VICTUS HAZE, and help shape the next generation of responsive space missions.”
The Space Force set records in 2023 with its first TacRS mission, Victus Nox, demonstrating that it could work with satellite and launch companies to deliver a spacecraft in a matter of months and deploy it to low-Earth orbit just 27 hours after receiving launch orders.
Millennium Space Systems built the satellite and Firefly launched it.
Lt. Col. Lincoln Miller, system program manager for Space Safari, said the success of Victus Haze could lead to “rapid production and fielding of follow-on vehicles” from both companies.
In the near-term, though, Space Force operators will have a chance to use the satellites for live training.
“Not only does this mission open the door for acquisition of follow-on vehicles that allow our warfighters to close critical gaps and seams in a conflict scenario, it also presents a more immediate value by giving our current operators a crucial opportunity to exercise and improve LEO RPO tactics, techniques, and procedures,” Miller said.
Beyond Victus Nox and Victus Haze, SSC has scheduled at least three more TacRS missions aimed at further pushing schedule boundaries as well as demonstrating concepts and fielding new capability.
Slated to fly this year or next, they include:
Victus Surgo, a mission cosponsored by the Defense Innovation Unit that will feature a SpaceX Falcon 9 launching a highly maneuverable spacecraft built by Impulse Space
Victus Salo, another Falcon 9-supported mission that will carry a payload built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Victus Sol, launched by Firefly’s Alpha, which will carry an operational payload
The service also conducted a two-part tabletop exercise and field excursion called Victus Diem between summer 2025 and early 2026.
The effort was designed to help solidify its responsive launch processes, like rapid payload processing.
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National Air and Space Museum Celebrates 50 Years With Opening of Five New Galleries
June 23, 2026
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will open five new galleries Wednesday, July 1, the 50th anniversary of the opening of its building in Washington, D.C., and in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary.
The remaining two renovated galleries will open in the fall, which will complete the multi-year project.
“We celebrate the nation’s remarkable achievements in aviation and space exploration every day,” said Chris Browne, the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the museum.
“As we finish our renovation this year, visitors will now be able to enjoy the Smithsonian’s world-class aerospace collection in a modern facility, one that will last the next 50 years and beyond.”
Galleries opening Wednesday, July 1:
Flight and the Arts Center
Jay I. Kislak World War II in the Air
U.S. National Science Foundation Discovering Our Universe
RTX Living in the Space Age
TEXTRON How Things Fly
The five renovated galleries will include newly displayed artifacts like the Il-2 Shturmovik and the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, as well as old favorites like the North American P-51D Mustang, the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, the Hubble Space Telescope, Skylab and the DTM Image Tube Spectrograph used by Vera Rubin, who found the first evidence of dark matter in the universe.
The new galleries will offer more interactives and modern technology throughout, such as the redesigned “TEXTRON How Things Fly” exhibition, which will offer hands-on experiences for younger visitors, including a Cessna Skyhawk visitors can sit in.
The Flight and the Arts Center will open two inaugural exhibitions including the temporary exhibition “The Ascent of Rauschenberg: Reinventing the Art of Flight.”
The opening of the five galleries
July 1 and the remaining two galleries this fall will mark the completion of the museum’s multi-year renovation, including the redesign of all 20 galleries, complete refacing of the exterior cladding, replacement of outdated mechanical systems and other repairs and improvements.
The first half of the renovated museum opened in October 2022 with eight new or reimagined exhibitions, the Northrop Grumman Planetarium, the museum store and the Mars Café. The second phase opened in July 2025 with five new exhibitions.
More information about how the museum has revitalized the building and is transforming all of its exhibitions is available on the museum’s website.
Programming has been underway and will continue throughout the year to celebrate the building’s 50th anniversary, including a film series, lectures, special merchandise and digital offerings. For a full listing and information, visit the museum’s website.
The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., is located at 650 Jefferson Dr. S.W. and is open every day except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free but timed-entry passes are required to visit.
The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington Dulles International Airport and is open every day except Dec. 25 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission is free, timed-entry passes are not required and parking is $15.
https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/national-air-and-space-museum-celebrates-50-years-opening-five-new-galleries
https://airandspace.si.edu/press-kit-2026-gallery-openings-and-50th-anniversary