Short Takes – 6-7-25

NASA’s ESCAPADE could launch on second New Glenn. SpaceNews.com article. Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission to Mars. Pull quote: “Blue Origin has not provided any recent updates on plans for the second launch as summer approaches. In a filing with the Federal Communications Commission in early May, the company requested approvals to use certain frequencies for the ground test campaign for the second New Glenn launch as well as the launch itself. The start date for the request was July 1, ruling out a launch before then.”

Misconfigured HMIs Expose US Water Systems to Anyone With a Browser. SecurityWeek.com article. Pull quote: “The spreadsheet listed every IP, port and likely location, along with each site’s security state. Within nine days, Censys said the EPA reported that 24 percent of the exposed systems had been firewalled or hardened. A month later, that figure jumped to 58 percent after the vendor pushed guidance on multifactor authentication and stronger access rules.”

Sean Cairncross has policy coordination in mind if confirmed as national cyber director. Pull quote: ““It’s true I don’t have a technical background in cyber, but in my roles running private organizations and national party committees, I’ve been on the user side of this,” he said. “I’ve had to deal with foreign nation attacks on our systems. We’ve worked with the FBI and the intelligence community to learn about them, to stop them and to monitor those attacks. On the management side, I’ve run thousands of people and billions of dollars in funds, and in doing those jobs, I surround myself with smart people.””

White House security staff warned Musk’s Starlink is a security risk. WashingtonPost.com article. Pull quote: “It is unclear why DOGE was so insistent on Starlink. But at other agencies, DOGE staffers have demanded deep access to data and disabled logging that tracked what they did with it. DOGE employees have also been reported using artificial intelligence programs to plow through massive amounts of government data.”

Bird flu can live in raw milk for more than a week, study finds. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: “To test how long the virus remains infectious, scientists incubated the virus in pasteurized milk at room temperature and at 39.2 F, simulating both ambient dairy conditions and refrigerated storage. They also tested sheep’s milk using a lab strain of avian flu.”

Pipeline Safety: Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Amendments to Liquefied Natural Gas Facilities Rulemaking. Federal Register, PHMSA notice of intent to prepare EIS. Summary: “In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act, PHMSA intends to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) analyzing the potential environmental impacts of amendments to the pipeline safety regulations governing liquefied natural gas (LNG). This document initiates the process for determining the scope of considerations to be addressed in the EIS and for identifying any significant environmental matters related to the proposed action. PHMSA invites comments from Federal, State, and local agencies, Indian tribes, stakeholders, and the public in this scoping process to help identify any matters of environmental significance, as well as reasonable alternatives to be examined in the EIS.

Male mice can grow ovaries if their pregnant mums are iron deficient. Nature.com article. Pull quote: “To test the effect of iron deficiency that isn’t caused by diet, the researchers gave pregnant mice an oral iron chelator — molecules that bind to iron and reduce its levels in the body — between days six and ten of embryonic development, when sexual determination typically occurs. The 72 embryos from these mice, which all had XY chromosomes, showed signs of anaemia. Four were born with two ovaries and one with one ovary and one testis.”

An 'invisible threat': Swarm of hidden 'city killer' asteroids around Venus could one day collide with Earth, simulations show. LiveScience.com article. Pull quote: “Co-orbital asteroids are space rocks that orbit the sun alongside a planet or other large body without truly orbiting the larger object. There are currently 20 known co-orbitals around Venus — ranging from "Trojan asteroids," which are fixed either in front of or behind a planet in its orbital plane, to a closely circling "quasimoon," known as Zoozve — all of which likely originated from the solar system's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dozens of similar co-orbitals also tag along with Earth, and more are being discovered all the time.”