Short Takes – 5-8-25

House GOP infighting turns ugly over Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’. CNN.com article. Pull quote: “Rep. Eric Burlison, another GOP hardliner, told CNN that he will refuse to support any bill that adds to the deficit in any way — and that must include the cost of Trump’s tax cuts. That means the spending cuts would have to equal roughly $5 trillion – far beyond the scope of what is under discussion”

Navy weighing impact of 1900+ resignations at public shipyards. InsideDefense.com article. Pull quote: ““We’ve had roughly 1,900-plus folks [out of 38,000 civilian positions] that have chosen to leave that service under the [deferred resignation program] and we’re in the process now of analyzing whether direct or indirect labor or what trades were affected by that so we can rebalance and make sure the work continues,” Kilby said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on readiness.”

NIST loses key cyber experts in standards and research. CybersecurityDive.com article. Pull quote: “CSD leads NIST’s research, standards-setting, and industry collaboration on a wide range of cybersecurity topics, including cryptography, access control, cloud security, and risk management. The division manages the National Vulnerability Database, oversees the Risk Management Framework, and is standardizing a set of post-quantum cryptographic algorithms.”

India delays 1st Gaganyaan astronaut launch to 2027. Space.com article. Pull quote: “The first of those three long-delayed uncrewed Gaganyaan missions, known as G1, is slated to launch in the fourth quarter of this year, and will carry a half-humanoid robot named Vyomitra (Sanskrit for "space friend") to collect data in flight. [¶] The second and third Gaganyaan missions, G2 and G3, will also carry Vyomitra, and will launch in 2026. The first crewed mission, dubbed H1, will fly in the first quarter of 2027.”

Astronomers Have Found a Prime Candidate for the Elusive Planet 9. PopularMechanics.com article. Pull quote: “And long range is, honestly, underselling it—top theories for the positioning of Planet 9 place it around 400 astronomical units (AU). The furthest known planet, Neptune, is only about 31 AU. That’s already 31 times further than Earth is from the Sun, creating an orbit that lasts about 165 years. Planet 9 would also have an irregular orbit, scientists believe, so it would spent part of its cycle even further away.”