Short Takes – 8-1-25

What’s Happening in the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office? LawfareMedia.org article. Pull quote: “But it is Congress that decides by law what offices to create within the executive branch and, subject to the Appointments Clause, how those offices should be filled. By default, removal power is tied to appointment, but Congress can deviate from the default position. The laws governing removal of officers from departments and agencies created by Congress, like any other laws, bind the president to their faithful execution.”

U.S. military X-37B spaceplane prepares for eighth mission. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The OTV-8 mission will also carry a quantum inertial sensor experiment, which seeks to address the challenge of maintaining precise navigation when GPS signals are unavailable or compromised. Traditional inertial navigation systems suffer from drift over time, but quantum sensors promise increased accuracy by leveraging the quantum properties of atoms to measure acceleration and rotation.”

NASA acting administrator to meet with head of Roscosmos at KSC. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “The last time that the heads of NASA and Roscosmos met in person was in October 2018, when the NASA administrator at the time, Jim Bridenstine, met with the director general of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA then invited Rogozin to come to the United States for a reciprocal visit in February 2019, but withdrew the invitation after congressional criticism, when several senators noted that Rogozin was sanctioned for his role as deputy prime minister when Russia annexed Crimea and occupied part of eastern Ukraine in 2014.”

Corpus Christi approves $100.6 million water treatment plant upgrade to eliminate chlorine gas risks. KRISTV.com article. Pull quote: “The project includes installation of an on-site sodium hypochlorite generating system, new chlorine dioxide generators, demolition of existing 1981 chlorine gas infrastructure and rail car facilities, and enhanced redundancy for uninterrupted water treatment.”

Chinese researchers suggest lasers and sabotage to counter Musk’s Starlink satellites. APNews.com article. Pull quote: “Beijing’s tendency to view Starlink as tool of U.S. military power has sharpened its efforts to develop countermeasures — which, if deployed, could increase the risk of collateral damage to other customers as SpaceX expands its global footprint. The same satellites that pass over China also potentially serve Europe, Ukraine, the United States and other geographies as they continue their path around the earth.”