Short Takes – 3-12-25

Bridenstine urges Senate to quickly confirm Isaacman as NASA administrator. SpaceNews.com article.  Pull quote: Among that infrastructure [that would support exploration and enable commercial activities]  is the lunar Gateway, one aspect of the overall Artemis lunar exploration architecture that many have singled out as being unnecessary for lunar landings. “The Gateway is an enabler of more commercial activities, not less,” he argued, particularly after initial lunar landing missions. “It’s going to open up a lot of opportunities to get to more parts of the moon than ever before and do it regularly with humans.”

Study suggests how measles depletes body’s immune memory. Harvard.edu article. Pull quote: “In light of this finding, the researchers say clinicians may want to consider strengthening the immunity of patients recovering from measles infection with a round of booster shots of all previous routine vaccines, such as hepatitis and polio.”

Texas measles outbreak linked to cases in New Mexico, Oklahoma. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““We [New Mexico’s Department of Health] consider this a regional outbreak of measles that has been linked geographically and by the strain identified through genome sequencing,” the department’s communications director, Robert Nott, said in a statement.”

Top House cyber lawmaker to press DHS on key infrastructure group’s shutdown. NextGov.com article. Pull quote: “Garbarino, a longtime advocate of CISA, told Nextgov/FCW after a Tuesday hearing on cybersecurity regulatory harmonization that he’s going to look into the group’s disbandment because it’s used to alert stakeholders on not just cyber threats, but also physical events — such as weather disasters — that could harm critical infrastructure like power grids and pipelines.”

Trump nominates Sean Plankey to run top US cyber agency. TheRecord.media article. Pull quote: “A former acting assistant secretary for the Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response at the Department of Energy and a director for maritime and Pacific cybersecurity policy at the National Security Council, Plankey served from 2018-2020 in the first Trump administration.”

In big win, Luna notches signatures to force vote on parental proxy voting. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “Discharge petitions, which are rarely successful, need 218 signatures to force floor action on a bill or resolution — a majority of the chamber, and enough to adopt the measure. Luna’s petition reached that threshold on Tuesday afternoon, and she expects a vote when the House returns from recess the week of March 25.”

US military taps commercial space firms for hypersonic testing program. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The new approach calls for more frequent and less expensive tests. So rather than testing everything at once, engineers might focus on evaluating a new thermal protection system, testing a guidance sensor, or validating a particular aerodynamic design. These focused tests can be conducted at a fraction of the cost of a full-system test.”

Are microplastics bad for your health? More rigorous science is needed. Nature.com article. Pull quote: “Many of the studies conducted so far, however, rely on small sample sizes (typically 20–50 samples) and lack appropriate controls. Modern laboratories are themselves hotspots of nanoplastic and microplastic pollution, and the approaches that are being used to detect plastics make it hard to rule out the possibility of contamination, or prove definitively that plastics are in a sample. Also, many findings are not biologically plausible based on what is known — mainly from nanomedicine — about the movement of tiny particles within the human body.”

SpaceX scrubs astronaut flight that was to retrieve stuck astronauts. Reuters.com article. Pull quote: “NASA said the next available launch opportunity is no earlier than 7:26 p.m. EDT (2326 GMT) Thursday, pending review of the issue. With a Thursday Crew-10 launch, the Crew-9 mission would depart the space station on Monday, March 17, it said.”