A tumultuous start to a new administration at NASA. SpaceReview.com article. Pull quote: “Any major changes to Artemis would likely face opposition by some members of Congress. Notably, the vice chair of the commerce, justice and science subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, which funds NASA, in the new Congress is Rep. Dale Strong (R-AL), whose district includes the Marshall Space Flight Center.” There is a legitimate reason that Musk called the Artemis program “a jobs-maximizing program, not a results-maximizing program”.
Why did Elon Musk just say Trump wants to bring two stranded astronauts home? ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “NASA would very much prefer the four astronauts on Crew-10 arrive before Crew-9 departs. Why? Because if Crew-9 were to depart sooner, it would leave just a single astronaut, Don Pettit, on board the station. Now, Pettit is a very experienced and capable astronaut, but having just a single NASA astronaut on board to operate the US segment of the station is far from optimal. In addition to leaving Pettit in a difficult position, it would cancel a planned spacewalk in March and leave just a single person to prepare a Northrop Grumman cargo spacecraft for departure. This is apparently a big deal.”
EO 14149 Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. Federal Register.
EO 14148 Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions. Federal Register,
EO 14147 Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Federal Register.
Low concentration chemicals spur toxicological debate. ChemistryWorld.com article. Pull quote: “Martin says that while material scientists view BPA and phthalates as problematic, ‘some have no comprehension of the diverse universe of chemicals we’re talking about, and that we know so little about their toxicity’, adding there is little if any toxicology taught in chemistry degrees. ‘There’s chemistry and there’s biology,’ she says. ‘There’s a problem of disciplines being siloed.’ Instead of yet more varieties of PFAS, she believes there is room for truly innovative chemistry. Others complain that there is little incentive for companies to develop safer chemicals to replace suspect ones.”
NASA and Rocket Lab Enter a New Era With the Neutron Rocket. 3DNatives.com article. Pull quote: “This is not the first time the company has experimented with short-range launches. Before Neutron, Rocket Lab USA launched another spacecraft, Electron, into orbit as part of NASA missions and the VADR program. With Electron, the VADR PREFIRE missions were completed in just two weeks, and a double quick launch was initiated in May 2023 for the VADR TROPICS missions. Thanks to Neutron’s versatility and efficiency, Rocket Lab can now expand its field of research to space missions and enter previously unexplored orbits.”
Trump executive order calls for a next-generation missile defense shield. ArsTechnica.com article. Pull quote: “What's different with Trump's directive this week is a call for the US military to place weapons in space. Putting military weapons into orbit has been a controversial subject for decades and was a point of criticism made by opponents of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) announced by former President Ronald Reagan in 1983.”
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