Trump Hires Orbital Towing Company to Build Space Interceptors
Donald Trump’s team has selected Impulse Space, a fledgling orbital‑tug firm founded by former SpaceX engineer Tom Mueller, to build the orbital layer of his “Golden Dome” missile‑defense concept. The contract pairs Impulse with Anduril Industries and a Pentagon prototype program to create space‑based interceptors capable of destroying incoming missiles from orbit. Impulse’s only flight to date was a 650‑pound OTV launched in 2023, and it has never demonstrated a missile‑intercept capability. The effort joins a limited pool of contractors, as SpaceX faces satellite failures and Moog is embroiled in a $77.9 million lawsuit.
As Astronauts Visit the Moon, NASA Insider Says Agency Is in Shambles Behind the Scenes
Four NASA astronauts completed a lunar flyby, delivering striking images of Earth and the Moon’s far side. At the same time, the agency is grappling with a proposed 47% cut to its science directorate under the Trump administration’s 2026 budget...
Moon Astronaut Captures Shot of Earth That Lets You See Its Razor-Thin Atmosphere Perfectly
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman captured a striking image titled “Hello, World” as Artemis 2 departed Earth on April 2. The photo uniquely displays the thin edge of Earth’s atmosphere, two faint auroras, and a zodiacal light glow, offering a fresh perspective not...
Trump Has Call With Moon Astronauts So Awkward That They May Turn Around and Disappear Into the Void of Space
NASA’s Artemis II crew became the farthest humans from Earth, orbiting 248,655 miles behind the Moon. After a 40‑minute communications blackout, the crew re‑established contact and were joined by former President Donald Trump on a live call. Trump’s brief remarks praising...
Elon Musk Secretly Shared His Number One Priority at Tesla and It Really Says It All
In a recent Washington Post interview, former Tesla president Jon McNeill disclosed that Elon Musk’s top priority at Tesla is to trim his involvement to roughly one day a week so he can devote more time to rockets. The revelation...
The Moon Astronauts Just Broke the Record for the Farthest Any Human Has Ever Traveled From Earth
Five days after launch from Kennedy Space Center, NASA’s Artemis 2 crew broke the record for the farthest distance any human has traveled from Earth, reaching 252,752 miles. The record surpasses Apollo 13’s 248,655‑mile apex set in 1970. During the lunar flyby...
The Moon Astronauts Brought Along USB Stick-Sized Living Samples of Their Own Tissue
NASA’s Artemis II crew—Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen—will carry USB‑stick‑sized organ‑on‑a‑chip samples grown from each astronaut’s bone‑marrow cells. The “functional” organ chips travel alongside the astronauts on a 10‑day lunar flyby and duplicate sets are sent to...
Scientists Intrigued by “Negative Mass Anomaly” Under Surface of Mars
NASA’s InSight lander data confirms that Mars’ day is shortening by fractions of a millisecond each year, indicating the planet is spinning faster. Researchers from Delft University of Technology propose a “negative mass anomaly” – a buoyant plume of hot...
Scan Finds Presence of Nuclear Fuel in 3I/ATLAS
Recent JWST spectroscopy of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS revealed an unexpectedly high deuterium‑to‑hydrogen ratio in its methane and water emissions. Two pre‑print papers, one submitted to Nature Astronomy and another to Nature, attribute the enrichment to formation in an ultra‑cold, metal‑poor...
Jeff Bezos’ Space Company Unveils Plans for Orbital Anti-Asteroid Defense Weapons
Blue Origin announced a Near‑Earth Object (NEO) Hunter mission concept in partnership with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, aiming to test multiple asteroid‑deflection techniques such as ion‑beam propulsion and direct kinetic impact. The plan leverages the in‑development Blue Ring spacecraft, which...
Chinese Space Station Astronauts Harvest Space Tomatoes
Chinese astronauts aboard the Tiangong space station have harvested a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes grown in a small aeroponic cultivation system. The system uses a nutrient mist and full‑spectrum LEDs, enabling water‑efficient plant growth in micro‑gravity. This marks the...
If Scientists Ever Find Strong Evidence of Alien Life, Communicating It Will Pose Serious Issues
Scientists warn that announcing definitive evidence of extraterrestrial life will be fraught with communication challenges. While missions like NASA’s Pandora telescope and the Confidence of Life Detection scale aim to provide rigorous evidence, public perception will be shaped by cultural...
SpaceX Is Building Its Own Particle Accelerator
SpaceX announced plans to construct a 230 MeV cyclotron at its Florida site to bring radiation testing in‑house. The accelerator will fire high‑energy protons at electronics, simulating solar‑storm particle impacts on Starlink, Starshield and other spacecraft hardware. By characterizing chip and...
Scientists Say Heck, Just Nuke a Killer Asteroid Heading for Earth
A new Nature Communications paper reports that metal‑rich asteroid material becomes stronger after exposure to intense proton pulses, suggesting nuclear blasts could deflect large asteroids without shattering them. Researchers at CERN used the Super Proton Synchrotron and HiRadMat facilities to...
Scientists Intrigued by Possible Hollow Structures Under Surface of Venus
An international research team has modeled Venusian lava tubes, suggesting they could be up to 0.62 miles (one kilometer) wide and remain structurally stable under the planet’s 91%‑Earth gravity. Using Finite Element Limit Analysis, the study links these potential voids...
