July 31, 2025

Most SpaceX Vandenberg Launches Would be Purely Commercial, Should the Air Force Be Able to Override the California Commission? (Source: SPACErePORT)
The US Air Force can override the California Coastal Commission if the CCC rejects SpaceX's request for up to 100 launches from Vandenberg, but should it? The vast majority of the proposed launches will be purely commercial, for the Starlink constellation. The CCC exists to protect the coastal environment and ensure responsible development. Bypassing it undermines California’s authority to manage its natural resources.

Allowing federal preemption sets a troubling precedent where private interests—disguised as national security priorities—can evade local environmental review and accountability. The Federal Government should not allow commercial convenience to erode state protections or empower corporate actors to dismiss state prerogatives for environmental and public safety. (7/31)

Proposal to Double California SpaceX Launches to Go Before Coastal Commission (Source:  Santa Barbara Independent)
One month after a federal judge allowed Elon Musk to proceed with his lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission for alleged political bias and retaliation, that same state body will be meeting to review Musk’s proposal to double (from 50 to 100) the approved number of rockets SpaceX can launch from the Vandenberg Space Force Base. Environmentalists contend the sonic booms that accompany many of the launches is inflicting significant disruption on seals, whales, and other marine mammals, not to mention barking dogs, rattled windowpanes, and disturbed sleeps.

The makeup of the commission at the upcoming August 14 meeting will be notably different than it was last October when several members of the  governing body veered significantly off-topic — SpaceX was then proposing to increase its launch cadence from 36 to 50 a year — and launched political broadsides against Musk for his manic support for then presidential candidate Donald Trump. The commission voted to withhold permission, a largely symbolic act with no teeth or consequences. Musk sued, charging the vote was an act of political retaliation.

Initially, federal judge Stanley Blumenfeld rejected Musk’s claim, noting he suffered no harm. The Air Force quickly overrode the commission vote, citing federal preemption and national security considerations. Musk has since amended his action, claiming the commission might seek to punish him in the future for launching rockets without benefit of a coastal development permit. The Air Force has insisted Musk doesn’t need any such permit on national security grounds, but many commissioners have opined to the contrary, noting the vast majority of his launches are strictly commercial in nature and have no national security mission. (7/30)

The Role that Space-Based Interceptors Will Play in Golden Dome (Source: Breaking Defense)
SBIs are interceptors launched from space from orbiting satellites — the ultimate “Eagles Nest” over Earth. Today, the U.S. has interceptors that can be launched from land, sea and air to defeat a missile threat during the middle or final phases of its path toward its intended target. SBIs could defeat a missile threat earlier in its flight.

Space sensors would communicate early warning of an adversary missile launch, working with integrated command and control systems to detect and track the threat, as well as develop a plan to intercept — all in a matter of seconds. This would be validated and securely communicated to strategically positioned SBIs orbiting Earth. If the command is given, SBIs could intercept the adversary missile early in its path. The key advantage of SBIs is they can defeat missile threats earlier in their trajectory than today’s interceptors.

Intercepting during early flight eliminates the threat furthest from the homeland and prevents the missile from releasing additional threats and decoys during its path. SBIs also have an edge from a physics perspective. Because they’re in space, they don’t have to fight against gravity to launch like interceptors launched terrestrially. This means they would need less fuel to launch, allowing for a more compact interceptor. (7/30)

Water Recycling is Paramount for Space Stations and Long-Duration Missions (Source: The Conversation)
Before NASA developed an advanced water recycling system, water made up nearly half the payload of shuttles traveling to the ISS. Today, NASA recovers over 90% of the water used in space. Clean water keeps an astronaut crew hydrated, hygienic and fed, as it can use it to rehydrate food. Recovering used water is a cornerstone of closed-loop life support, which is essential for future lunar bases, Mars missions and even potential space settlements. Click here. (7/30)

Russian ISS Module's Leak Persists (Source: Space News)
A small air leak persists in a Russian module on the International Space Station despite recent repair efforts. Sergei Krikalev, Roscosmos deputy director general, said at a briefing Wednesday on the Crew-11 mission that recent repair work by Russian cosmonauts on the long-running leak in part of the Zvezda module initially gave leaders hope that the leak had been fixed. He said it’s now clear the leak persists, but at a reduced rate. That leak has raised safety concerns within NASA, and Krikalev said that NASA and Roscosmos experts are working together to better understand the cracking in the module that caused the leaks. (7/31)

Kongsberg Expands AWS Alliance (Source: Space News)
Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) and Amazon Web Services are expanding their alliance to accelerate the flow of satellite data to customers. KSAT announced Wednesday it will integrate AWS Ground Station capabilities into its network, which will include more than 200 antennas at 40 locations around the world. The companies said the goal of that integration is to shorten the time users will receive data from tasked satellites, with a goal of 10 minutes from receiving the tasking order to having the data available in the cloud. (7/31)

Senate Advances Jacobs Nomination to Lead NOAA (Source: Space News)
The Senate Commerce Committee advanced the nomination of Neil Jacobs to be NOAA administrator. The committee favorably reported the nomination to the full Senate on a voice vote Wednesday, although several Democratic senators requested to have voted no on the nomination. The vote comes less than a week after NOAA placed on administrative leave Stephen Volz, head of the agency’s satellite unit, NESDIS. In a LinkedIn post earlier this week, Volz said he did not know what prompted the move, and concluded “I am resigned to the reality that I will not be able to lead NESDIS again as I have.” (7/31)

Ontario to Pay to Get Out of Starlink Contract (Source: Canadian Press)
The government of Ontario will pay SpaceX to cancel a Starlink contract. The province’s premier, Doug Ford, said earlier this year that the government would cancel a contract previously announced with SpaceX, valued at $100 million Canadian, for subsidized rural broadband services after the Trump administration announced tariffs on Canadian imports. Government officials said this week that they finalized the cancellation of the contract and will pay SpaceX a breakup fee, but declined to disclose the amount. (7/31)

NASA Seeks Commercial Earth Observation Data (Source: GovConWire)
NASA has issued a request for proposals for Ramp 2 of the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition contract, seeking commercial providers of Earth observation data. The contract, which includes an on-ramp option for new vendors and data products, supports the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Earth Sciences Division. (7/30)

NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 Mission to Advance Stem Cell Manufacturing and   In-Orbit Data Processing (Source: CASIS)
Four astronauts are set to launch to the ISS as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission. Over the coming months, the crew will support research to produce stem cells in space, study engineered liver tissue, and advance in-orbit data processing. (7/30)

How NASA Engineered Its Own Decline (Source: The Atlantic)
Once the emblem of American innovation and global leadership—from the Apollo missions through transformative public funding—NASA has suffered from shifting political priorities, budget cuts, and loss of institutional vision. Today, its role has been eclipsed by private actors.

The agency once projected America’s loftiest ideals. Then it ceded its ambitions to Elon Musk. Government agencies increasingly outsource major missions to SpaceX—including lunar and Mars objectives via the Starship program. While efficient, this dependence has allowed a private entrepreneur to become central to national space strategy.

NASA’s early missions were framed in universal values—advancement for “all mankind.” Now, national priorities are shaped by Musk’s personal mythos: colonizing Mars, accelerating test flights, and promoting commercial access to space—a shift from collective exploration to market-driven ambition. Without robust public leadership, the country risks trading scientific altruism for aggressive commercialization. Musk’s Mars agenda might enrich him while draining public coffers—and NASA’s capacity to pursue broader scientific goals continues to wane. (7/28)

DOGE Pilled (Source: Bloomberg)
Luke Farritor could have been an artist, or a builder, or someone dedicated to seeing a great historical mystery through. Instead he wound up at DOGE, slashing, dismantling, undoing. His father, Shane Farritor, developed a miniature surgical robot with millions of dollars in federal funding, launched on a Falcon 9 and tested on the ISS last year. Luke arrived at Starbase in Texas in January 2023 as an intern.

In early December, Farritor told friends he was joining DOGE. One says he didn’t think Farritor was that excited about cutting government waste, just working with Musk. One DOGE member, Sahil Lavingia, said the hiring process included “vibe checks” over calls on Signal. Did you vote for Kamala Harris? Are you comfortable working for Donald Trump? “Luke’s résumé didn’t pass muster,” says a former senior government official. “It’s not to say he isn’t smart.” But the USDS required applicants to have a college degree and at least five years of industry experience. The official says that many of the younger software engineers who’d been approved by DOGE would have been rejected by USDS.

“The DOGE team wasn’t what I expected,” says a current government employee who’s interacted with Farritor and other core members of DOGE. “Marketed as tech geniuses, yet they could barely keep up with basic tasks. In reality, they were overconfident, drunk on power and utterly clueless. They giggled and asked me how my day was going—right as they hit the keys to obliterate nearly a decade of my work. There wasn’t even a flicker of understanding or care. It wasn’t just the loss that gutted me. It was the audacity of their casual cruelty.” (7/29)

Loyalty Check: Top Generals Nominated for New Positions Must Now Meet With Trump (Source: New York Times)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has begun requiring that nominees for four-star-general positions meet with President Trump before their nominations are finalized, in a departure from past practice, said three current and former U.S. officials. The move, though within Mr. Trump’s remit as commander in chief, has raised worries about the possible politicization of the military’s top ranks by a president who has regularly flouted norms intended to insulate the military from partisan disputes.

The president has long had a fixation with the military. During his first term, Mr. Trump chose three military generals for top civilian roles in his administration; he repeatedly referred to the Pentagon’s military leaders as “my generals.”

Over the last four years, Mr. Trump has excoriated some former officers, such as the retired Gen. Mark A. Milley. After Mr. Trump chose General Milley to be his chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he repeatedly accused him of disloyalty and later suggested that he had committed “treason” and that the punishment should be execution. (7/29)

Scientists Say New Government Climate Report Twists Their Work (Source: WIRED)
A new report released by the Department of Energy purports to provide “a critical assessment of the conventional narrative on climate change.” But nine scientists across several different disciplines say the report mishandled citations of their work by cherry-picking data, misrepresenting findings, drawing erroneous conclusions, or leaving out relevant context. (7/30)

China Launches Guowang Constellation Satellites on Long March 8A Rocket (Source: Space News)
China launched a new batch of satellites for its Guowang constellation on Wednesday. A Long March 8A rocket lifted off from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Center. The launch carried an undisclosed number of satellites for the Guowang constellation. A Long March 8A launch in June for Guowang carried nine satellites. Guowang is widely seen as China’s answer to Starlink, offering a sovereign, dual-use satellite network to secure both civil and strategic communications infrastructure. (7/31)

China Launches Pakistani Satellite on Kuaihou-1A Rocket (Source: Space News)
China launched a remote sensing satellite for Pakistan late Wednesday. A Kuaizhou-1A launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, putting into orbit the Pakistan Remote Sensing Satellite (PRSS‑01). This was the second flight of the modified Kuaizhou-1A, with upgrades to its first and second stages as well as a redesigned payload fairing to improve its payload performance. PRSS‑01 was developed by Pakistan’s space agency, SUPARCO, in collaboration with a Chinese organization, and joins two other Pakistani satellites to provide civil remote sensing data. (7/31)

China's LandSpace to Go Public (Source: Reuters)
Chinese commercial launch company LandSpace has filed to go public. The company is planning to go public on the Shanghai Stock Exchange’s STAR Market, according to a document from a securities regulator released this week. LandSpace did not disclose how much it is planning to raise in the IPO. The company is developing the Zhuque-3 rocket, which features a reusable booster, and plans a first launch of the rocket before the end of the year. (7/31)

Blue Origin Sets Sunday for Next New Shepard Tourist Launch (Source: Geekwire)
Blue Origin’s next suborbital launch is scheduled for Sunday. The company said Wednesday that the New Shepard NS-34 mission is set to launch at 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Sunday. Blue Origin announced last week the six people who will fly on NS-34, including Justin Sun, a crypto entrepreneur who won an auction in 2021 for a seat on the first crewed New Shepard mission but backed out, citing a scheduling conflict. (7/31)

SpaceX Faces Two New Lawsuits Alleging Safety‐Related Retaliation (Source: Tech Crunch)
Two former California SpaceX employees have filed wrongful-termination lawsuits against the company, alleging safety issues led to their firing. One suit, filed by a longtime supervisor at the company, claims he warned the company that technicians were being overworked and that part of the payload fairing recovery process could result in injury or death to workers.

He said he was fired months after making those warnings. In a separate suit, a former plumber at the company said he was fired after the company refused to accommodate multiple on-the-job injuries he suffered. The unrelated suits were moved from Los Angeles County Superior Court to a U.S. district court earlier this month. (7/31)

The Vatican Observatory Looks to the Heavens (Source: New Yorker)
When the late Pope Francis was elected, a dozen years ago, and famously declined the pomp and perquisites typically associated with the office, among his renunciations was the use of the papal summer residence—a seventeenth-century palazzo in Castel Gandolfo, about fifteen miles south of Rome. Generations of Popes had enjoyed the use of the mansion, which overlooks a volcanic lake and is surrounded by spectacular terraced gardens.

The palazzo is now a museum where visitors can admire a gallery of papal portraits, of varying quality, and imagine the dreams that visited the successive occupants of the papal bedroom, with its narrow twin bed. Castel Gandolfo is also home to one of the Holy See’s more unexpected institutions: the Vatican Observatory, which since its founding, in 1891, has been dedicated to the scientific study of the heavens. (7/28)

Chinese Researchers Suggest Lasers and Sabotage to Counter Starlink Satellites (Source: AP)
Stealth submarines fitted with space-shooting lasers, supply-chain sabotage and custom-built attack satellites armed with ion thrusters. Those are just some of the strategies Chinese scientists have been developing to counter what Beijing sees as a potent threat: Elon Musk’ s armada of Starlink communications satellites.

Chinese researchers are not the only ones concerned about Starlink, which has a stranglehold on certain space-based communications. Some traditional U.S. allies are also questioning the wisdom of handing over core communications infrastructure — and a potential trove of data — to a company run by an unpredictable foreign businessman whose allegiances are not always clear. (7/31)

Cosmic Rays Could Support Life Just Under the Ice (Source: Universe Today)
A team of researchers looked at the process of radiolysis, which occurs when cosmic rays slam into water or ice. The high-speed particles break water molecules apart, which releases electrons, and some bacteria on Earth use those for energy. Could the same thing happen to possible life forms on icy worlds of the outer Solar System?

Energetic radiation such as cosmic rays (and gamma rays) can reach the surface of terrestrial planets with thin atmospheres (think: Mars). It also has enough energy to ionize atoms and molecules on those worlds. That provides an energy source for forms of microbial life that can withstand high radiation levels. Some of them even thrive in such environments. So, it's not a stretch to look at cosmic rays as a source of energy for such life on other worlds. (7/31)

Alabama Congressman ‘100% Sure’ U.S. Space Command Coming to Huntsville (Source: AL.com)
U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-AL) said he is “100% sure” U.S. Space Command headquarters is coming to Redstone Arsenal. Strong answered questions on the move during his Washington update before Huntsville-Madison County Chamber members Wednesday at the Von Braun Center. (7/30)

Turns Out, You Are Never Too Old to Go to Space Camp (Source: Washington Post)
I was strapped into a cagelike seat and gripping bars above my shoulders while fighting to keep my head back and my eyes open. As my allotted 30 seconds in a multi-axis trainer ended, I flipped head over feet 16 times in a row. Over the course of a long weekend in July, I bounced around like I was on the moon, assembled oversize tinker toys in a spacesuit, built and launched a model rocket, helped design a heat shield that (kind of) protected an egg, and ran through a Mars mission simulation. I tumbled a tremendous amount in a rig inspired by an old NASA training device.

An adult version of the camp was introduced in 1990. There are now space camps for kids, teens and families with children as young as 7; the center also offers programs built around aviation, robotics and cybertechnology. Reminders that this was a kid-centric place were everywhere. Signs in the galley reminded that coffee is for adults only. We had to sign a pledge not to bring alcohol. (7/30)