May 8, 2025

U.S. Pushes Nations Facing Tariffs to Approve Musk’s Starlink (Source: Washington Post)
Less than two weeks after President Donald Trump announced 50 percent tariffs on goods from the tiny African nation of Lesotho, the country’s communications regulator held a meeting with representatives of Starlink. The satellite business, owned by billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, had been seeking access to customers in Lesotho.

But it was not until Trump unveiled the tariffs and called for negotiations over trade deals that leaders of the country of roughly 2 million people awarded Musk’s firm the nation’s first-ever satellite internet service license, slated to last for 10 years. The decision drew a mention in an internal State Department memo obtained by The Washington Post, which states: “As the government of Lesotho negotiates a trade deal with the United States, it hopes that licensing Starlink demonstrates goodwill and intent to welcome U.S. businesses.” (5/7)

Laurie Leshin Steps Down as JPL Director (Source: Space Policy Online)
Laurie Leshin is stepping down as the Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on June 1.  Dave Gallagher, JPL’s Associate Director for Strategic Integration, will be her successor. Leshin’s three-year tenure has been marked by great successes like the launch of Europa Clipper, but also challenges that range from protecting JPL from the fires that engulfed the Los Angeles area earlier this year to trying to find a way forward for the troubled Mars Sample Return mission.

JPL is a Federally-Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA. Leshin also is a Caltech Vice President and will leave that role as well. (5/7)

IonQ Announces Plans for First Space-Based Quantum Key Distribution Network (Source: IonQ)
Building on its acquisition of quantum networking company Qubitekk, IonQ announces it has entered into an agreement to acquire Capella Space with plans to unlock the world’s first space-based quantum-secure communications network. IonQ plans to launch a global space-to-space and space-to-ground satellite quantum key distribution (QKD) network, highlighting its ambitions to be the first company to have both a quantum network and quantum computer in space. (5/7)

NASA Cancels Commercial Partnership Plans, Will Explore Other Methods to Send VIPER to Moon (Source: NASA)
Following an evaluation of partnership proposals to land a water-seeking robot on the lunar surface, NASA is instead opting to explore alternative approaches to deliver its VIPER (Volatiles Investigating Polar Explorer Rover) rover to the Moon. NASA announced Wednesday it is canceling its Lunar Volatiles Science Partnership Announcement for Partnership Proposals solicitation, which sought opportunities to send VIPER to the Moon at no cost to the government.

NASA has been investigating how to get the rover to the Moon after the project was canceled in July 2024. The agency will announce a new strategy for VIPER in the future. (5/7)

India Plans Crewed Spaceflight by 2027 (Source: Space Daily)
India's space agency said Tuesday it planned to launch an uncrewed orbital mission later this year before its first human spaceflight in early 2027. The world's most populous country has flexed its spacefaring ambitions in the last decade with its space program growing considerably in size and momentum. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced plans to send a man to the Moon by 2040. (5/6)

NASA KSC Breathes Life into Moon Soil Testing (Source: Space Daily)
As NASA works to establish a long-term presence on the Moon, researchers have reached a breakthrough by extracting oxygen at a commercial scale from simulated lunar soil at Swamp Works at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The achievement moves NASA one step closer to its goal of utilizing resources on the Moon and beyond instead of relying only on supplies shipped from Earth.

KSC researchers in the Exploration Research and Technology programs teamed up with Lunar Resources Inc. (LUNAR), a space industrial company in Houston, Texas, to perform molten regolith electrolysis. Researchers used the company's resource extraction reactor, called LR-1, along with KSC's vacuum chamber. During the recent vacuum chamber testing, molecular oxygen was measured in its pure form along with the production of metals from a batch of dust and rock that simulates lunar soil, often referred to as "regolith," in the industry. (5/6)

New Models Challenge the Black Hole Singularity Concept (Source: Space Daily)
Physicists continue to grapple with the elusive singularities believed to reside at the cores of black holes, a concept long regarded as signaling the breakdown of known physical laws. Stefano Liberati, director of IFPU, invokes the Latin phrase "Hic sunt leones" to describe this uncharted territory. The phrase historically marked unexplored regions on maps-an apt metaphor for the unknown physics within black holes.

The origin of this mystery dates back to Einstein's general relativity, published in 1915. Just a year later, Karl Schwarzschild solved Einstein's equations, predicting compact objects now known as black holes. These entities, with gravity so intense that even light cannot escape, have fascinated scientists for over a century. Yet, the predicted singularity-a point of infinite density-poses a profound challenge, suggesting that general relativity breaks down under extreme conditions. (5/6)

What Trump’s Proposed NASA Budget Cuts Really Mean for the Space Agency (Source: Time)
NASA has a funny way of framing bad news. On May 2, the White House released its topline budget numbers for fiscal year 2026 and the space agency was quick to respond—with applause. It will be a challenge to figure out how NASA will achieve much of anything with the draconian cuts the president proposed. Janet Petro is right in touting a relatively modest 10% bump in funding for human space exploration, with $7 billion now proposed for missions to the moon and $1 billion for later travel to Mars. But beyond that, things get awfully bleak. Click here. (5/6)