December 27, 2025

Turning Structural Failure into Propulsion (Source: Universe Today)
The kirigami sail uses intentional “cuts” in the solar sail material. Each “unit cell” of a grid of solar sail panels is designed to contain some of these cuts running in axial and diagonal directions to the surface of the aluminized polyimide film, which is a standard material used in solar sails. When the film is pulled, the cuts allow the material to “buckle” - i.e. pop out of the plane that it’s being pulled in. This transforms the sail into a 3D surface where individual segments are tilted relative to the source of light.

These buckled sections act like thousands of tiny mirrors, bouncing light at a different angle of incidence depending on how steep their slope is. Due to conservation of momentum, the sail will be pushed in a direction opposite to where the light bounces towards, so each buckling segment can be tailored to pushing the overall sail in a particular direction. (12/27)

Isaacman Says U.S. Will Return to the Moon Within Trump’s Term (Source: CNBC)
Recently appointed NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman on Friday told CNBC that the U.S. will return to the moon within President Donald Trump’s second term. Isaacman, a close ally of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, said that Trump’s recommitment to exploring the moon is key to unlocking the orbital economy. “We want to have that opportunity to explore and realize the scientific, economic and national security potential on the moon,” he said. (12/26)

Inside NASA’s Mission to Defend Earth From Deadly Asteroids (Source: Washingtonian)
To observers manning the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS)—an initiative consisting of two telescopes in Hawaii, one in Chile, and one in South Africa—the dot first appeared on December 27 against the black background of a telescopic image. Not long after, researchers at the Catalina Sky Survey spotted the same dot in images captured by three telescopes in Arizona. The Minor Planet Center, a Massachusetts facility that serves as the world’s repository for asteroid observations, confirmed that the dot was indeed an asteroid—one that hadn’t been previously detected. The center also gave it a provisional name, 2024 YR4.

And for a few weeks, that was that. Astronomers are used to discovering new asteroids: On a good shift at Catalina, sunset to sunrise, researchers can tally as many as 50. Every day, our planet is hit by 100 tons of sand-size particles from the cosmos, as well as small space rocks that burn up in the atmosphere and create shooting stars. Neither are any more dangerous to human life than a newborn kitten. Meanwhile, the asteroids large enough to do damage mostly whiz by harmlessly.

YR4 was an estimated 60 meters across, or about 200 feet. In early 2025, astronomers came to a sobering conclusion: The asteroid’s orbital path around the sun could intersect with Earth’s—meaning it might crash into our planet—in 2032. If that happened, the impact would emit energy equivalent to 7.4 megatons of TNT, about 500 times the energy released at Hiroshima. Where exactly YR4 would land was unknown, but scientists drew up a collision corridor that included the cities of Bogotá and Mumbai. (12/18)

Stoke Space and Relativity Space Make Progress on Florida Launch Pads (Source: NSF)
Along Florida’s Space Coast, two ambitious aerospace companies are rapidly transforming historic launch sites into modern facilities to support their upcoming reusable rockets. Significant progress can be observed at Stoke Space’s Launch Complex 14 (LC-14) and Relativity Space’s Launch Complex 16 (LC-16), both located adjacent to each other at the Cape Canaveral Spaceport.

Key developments at LC-14 include the installation of propellant and commodity pipework on the launch mount, a critical step following the successful testing of the water deluge system. The Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF), designed for rocket assembly, shows open doors revealing a largely empty but purpose-built interior. Overall, the complex looks far more polished, with graded terrain, removal of heavy machinery, and smaller additions like a windsock now in place. Stoke indicated plans for Nova’s first flight in early 2026, supported by a major $510 million funding round announced in October 2025 to complete LC-14 activation and scale manufacturing.

Next door, Relativity Space continues major upgrades at Launch Complex 16 to accommodate its medium-to-heavy lift Terran R rocket, a partially reusable vehicle targeting first launch in late 2026. The most prominent feature is the water tower, essential for the pad’s water deluge system. The Horizontal Integration Facility is taking shape, with exterior cladding now covering more than half the building, along with installed ladders, walkways, stairs, and overhead cranes removed from production. Relativity's Terran 1 rocket launched from LC-16 in 2023, failing to reach orbit. The larger Terran R is expected to launch in late 2026. (12/26)

SpaceX Spends $20M More to Support Bastrop TX Headquarters (Source: MySA)
SpaceX's empire keeps expanding across the Lone Star State. The company is constructing a massive 157,321-square-foot parking garage at its Bastrop facility, according to Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filings. The facility sits on the same road as Elon's growing Central Texas hub, which includes The Boring Company and X headquarters across the street at Hyperloop Plaza. Completion expected by January 2027. SpaceX's Bastrop campus is a major manufacturing hub for Starlink satellite terminals and components. (12/25)

A Strategy for Building Space Nuclear Systems That Fly (Source: Issues.org)
The future of US human space activities, including any sustained presence on the Moon and a human mission to Mars, requires the continuous, robust power that only nuclear fission can provide. As the United States shifts away from one-shot, flag-planting exercises toward long-duration, infrastructure-heavy missions, the solar power that has often provided power on previous missions will not be sufficient. Solar lets you visit. Nuclear lets you build.

The central reason previous programs have failed is that they lacked “mission pull.”  In most cases, space nuclear programs began with bottom-up technology development rather than as a top-down requirement to meet a larger need or specific mission. In this sense, space nuclear proposals were solutions in search of a customer. Without a deadline for deployment, or an institutional home that demanded the solution, the programs had no urgency. Without urgency, there was no sustained funding. Without funding, there was no constituency to fight for its survival.

Put simply, programs lacked an anchoring mission, resulting in open-ended technology development with no deployment pathway. Indecision and drift filled the vacuum. To be successful, any plan to develop nuclear power for space must have a named user, a deployment plan, and a date on the calendar. Click here. (12/26) 

James Webb Telescope Spots Inexplicable Planet with Diamonds and Soot in its Atmosphere (Source: Live Science)
A distant exoplanet appears to sport a sooty atmosphere that is confusing the scientists who recently spotted it. The Jupiter-size world, detected by JWST, doesn't have the familiar helium-hydrogen combination we are used to in atmospheres from our solar system, nor other common molecules, like water, methane or carbon dioxide. Rather, the planet seems to have soot clouds near the top of the atmosphere that condense into diamonds deeper in the atmosphere. (12/24)