Chemical Facility Security News: Short Takes

Saturday, January 24, 2026

Short Takes – 1-24-26

Former astronaut joins Vast as Haven-1 moves into integration. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Vast is leveraging the experience of former astronauts and agency officials as it works on commercial space stations, beginning with Haven-1. The single-module station will launch on a Falcon 9 rocket and be visited by up to four Crew Dragon spacecraft on short-duration missions.”

House appropriator sees ‘room for improvement’ in NASA funding for 2027. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: ““This package was obviously better than we originally anticipated, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement,” she [Rep Meng (D,NY)]said of the fiscal year 2026 minibus. “We want to, at the very least, hold to a minimum what we were able to collectively accomplish for this fiscal year.””

Blue Origin flies first New Shepard mission of 2026. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “A sixth customer had originally been announced for the flight: Andrew Yaffe, a businessman and traveler. However, Blue Origin said Jan. 20 that he was unable to fly on NS-38 because of an illness and will instead go on a future mission. He was replaced by Laura Stiles, director of New Shepard launch operations. Stiles joined the company in 2013 and has worked in multiple New Shepard roles, including as “Crew Member 7,” the person who leads training for New Shepard crews.”

Damaged Shenzhou-20 spacecraft survives reentry, Shenzhou-23 arrives at spaceport. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Shenzhou-21 mission commander Zhang Lu and crewmate Wu Fei conducted an extravehicular activity Dec. 9 (UTC), inspecting the damaged window from outside the spacecraft. The astronauts applied a patch, delivered in Shenzhou-22, to the window from the inside, designed to improve the spacecraft’s heat protection and sealing capabilities during reentry.”

The Sky is Full of Secrets: Glaring Vulnerabilities Discovered in Satellite Communications. HomelandSecurityNewswire.com article. Pull quote: “Close to half of the communications beamed from satellites to the ground that the researchers were able to listen in on were not encrypted. This included sensitive data including cellular text messages, voice calls, as well as sensitive military information, data from internal corporate and bank networks, and the in-flight online activity of airline passengers.”

Tomorrow.io unveils DeepSky: constellation of large satellites and instruments. SpaceNews.com article. Pull quote: ““Operational resilience now depends on treating atmospheric data with the same rigor as any other mission-critical infrastructure,” said Nikhil Ahuja, Amazon senior director, planning and supply chain. “The advancement in sensing and rapid refresh frequency DeepSky enables creates a new class of AI-driven decision systems that are more adaptive and localized. This evolution will define the future of the world’s largest-scale operations.””

Trump Declared a Space Race With China. The US Is Losing. Wired.com article. Pull quote: “Today, much of the world drives Chinese electric cars, powers their homes with Chinese solar panels, and stays in touch with made-in-China phones. Chinese scientists have eclipsed their American counterparts in the production of high-quality research, and the White House has responded by gutting American science funding and charging $100,000 to let in highly skilled immigrants. So if Chinese astronauts step down from their lander and livestream the results in 4K—and to be clear, it’s still an “if” at this point—it’ll be more than a point of national pride for Beijing. It’ll be a declaration that the American Century is officially over.”

Expandable space stations are back… well at least Max Space thinks they are. UFOFeed.com article. Pull quote: “Expandable, fabric-based structures allow designers to maximize volume while staying within the mass and size limits of current launch vehicles. NASA has previously tested inflatable modules in orbit, demonstrating that layered “soft-goods” structures can provide effective protection against micrometeoroids, radiation, and pressure loss. Max Space’s aim is to scale that heritage into a standalone destination rather than an auxiliary module. If successful, this could significantly reduce the cost and complexity of maintaining a human presence in orbit.”