Short Takes – 6-5-24

Sunshine Act Meetings. Federal Register NTSB meeting notice. Summary: “72568 Railroad Investigative Report—Norfolk Southern Railway Derailment and Hazardous Material Release, East Palestine, Ohio, February 3, 2023” Meeting date: June 25^th, 2024.

Starship's Fourth Flight Test. SpaceX.com announcement. Pull quote: “Flight 4 will fly a similar trajectory as the previous flight test, with Starship targeted to splashdown in the Indian Ocean. This flight path does not require a deorbit burn for reentry, maximizing public safety while still providing the opportunity to meet our primary objective of a controlled Starship reentry.”

We Need to Harmonize Cybersecurity Regulations, What We Heard From our Partners. WhiteHouse.gov briefing. Pull quote: “We received 86 responses to the RFI, representing 11 of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, as well as trade associations, nonprofits, and research organizations. In all, the respondents, many of which are membership organizations, represent over 15,000 businesses, states, and other organizations. Today, in our continued commitment to transparency, we are releasing a summary of those responses.”

A new discovery about carbon dioxide is challenging decades-old ventilation doctrine. StatNews.com article. Pull quote: “For decades, that’s how aerosol scientists and ventilation engineers have mostly thought about CO2 — as a sort of indicator for the health of indoor environments. But over the last three years, researchers in the U.K. working with next-generation bioaerosol technologies have discovered that CO2 is more than a useful bystander. In fact, it plays a critical role in determining how long viruses can stay alive in the air: The more CO2 there is, the more virus-friendly the air becomes.”