July 27, 2025

'NASA is Under Attack.' Space Agency Employees and Lawmakers Protest Mass Layoffs, Science Cuts Amid Budget Turmoil (Source: Space.com)
NASA scientists and engineers are demanding Congress help turn down the heat on an agency whose current leadership, they say, is burning down American dominance in space and science. They're telling everyone to "jump ship."

A group of NASA employees, contractors, their families, friends and other supporters gathered across from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on July 20 — the anniversary of humanity's historic first landing on the moon. Nearly 100 showed up Sunday to protest deep budget cuts and mass layoffs within the nation's space agency, and to urge Congress to take expedient action to reverse or minimize further losses. (7/25)

Musk ‘Ordered Starlink Shutdown’ During Ukraine 2022 Counterattack (Source: Reuters)
During a pivotal push by Ukraine to retake territory from Russia in late September 2022, Elon Musk gave an order that disrupted the counteroffensive and dented Kyiv’s trust in Starlink, the satellite internet service the billionaire provided early in the war to help Ukraine’s military maintain battlefield connectivity.

According to three people familiar with the command, Musk told a senior engineer at the California offices of SpaceX, the Musk venture that controls Starlink, to cut coverage in areas including Kherson, a strategic region north of the Black Sea that Ukraine was trying to reclaim. “We have to do this,” Michael Nicolls, the Starlink engineer, told colleagues upon receiving the order, one of these people said. Staffers complied, the three people told Reuters, deactivating at least a hundred Starlink terminals, (7/25)

Earth Has Tilted 31.5 Inches. That Shouldn't Happen (Source: Popular Mechanics)
Water has power. So much power, in fact, that pumping Earth’s groundwater can change the planet’s tilt and rotation. It can also impact sea-level rise and other consequences of climate change. Pumping groundwater appears to have a greater consequence than ever previously thought. But now—thanks to a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters—we can see that, in less than two decades, Earth has tilted 31.5 inches as a result of pumping groundwater. This equates to .24 inches of sea level rise. (7/26)

Earth's Life May Have Come From Space (Source: Independent)
The seeds of life on Earth might have come from outer space – and might be widespread throughout the rest of the universe, scientist say. Researchers have found complex organic molecules in a disc around a “protostar” in a major breakthrough. Those molecules are seen as the precursors to the building blocks of life, which go on to become sugars and amino acids that are then combined into the complex flora and fauna that surrounds us. (7/25)

NASA or the Space Force: Who Should Protect Earth From Dangerous Asteroids? (Source: Space.com)
Recent NASA budget uncertainties could make one space agency endeavor up for grabs — defending Earth from incoming space rocks. That effort, undertaken by NASA for many years, could be given to the U.S. Space Force, which has a much bigger new budget. On the other hand, is a Space Force takeover of taking out potentially dangerous asteroids warranted, and what might be the ramifications of this switch? (7/25)

Chinese Satellite Outdoes Starlink with a 2-Watt Laser from 36,000 KM Above Earth (Source: Indian Defense Review)
Chinese researchers have made an impressive leap in satellite communication by using a 2-watt laser to transmit data at speeds far outpacing Starlink. This extraordinary feat was achieved from a satellite operating at 36,000 km above Earth, a distance far greater than SpaceX’s Starlink, which operates from only 550 km. The speed of 1 Gbps achieved by the Chinese satellite is five times better than what Starlink can offer, positioning this innovation as a game-changer for satellite communication. (7/24)

NASA Releases Workforce Resignation Numbers (Source: NASA Watch)
Deferred Resignation Program #1: about 4.8% of the workforce (about 870 individuals). Deferred Resignation Program #2 (including VERA and VSIP, in addition to DRP): about 16.4% of the workforce, approximately 3,000 employees. NASA’s expected remaining civil servant workforce following both DRP programs, as well as normal attrition (about 500) over the same time period: about 14,000. (7/25)

Astronomers Find Five Rocky Planets Around a Small Red Dwarf, Including a Super-Earth in the Habitable Zone (Source: Universe Today)
Finding an exoplanet in a star's habitable zone always generates interest. Each of these planets has a chance, even if it's an infinitesimal one, of hosting simple life. While the possibility of detecting life on these distant planets is remote, finding them still teaches us about exoplanet populations and solar system architectures.

When TESS found three planets orbiting the M-dwarf L 98-59 in 2019, then a fourth planet in 2021, the detections generated interest. Now that a fifth planet has been detected, a super-Earth in the habitable zone, the system is garnering renewed interest. (7/24)

NASA's Incredibly Precise Satellite Tool: 'You Can Zoom in to Your Country, State, Your City Block' (Source: TCD)
NASA's new web portal reveals ground movements across North America with precision that captures tiny shifts smaller than an inch. The NASA JPL tool helps people monitor the Earth's movements, whether caused by natural phenomena such as earthquakes and volcanic activity or human activities such as the extraction of underground resources. By converting complex satellite radar signals into user-friendly visual maps, NASA has made what was once specialist knowledge available to everyday users. (7/25)