May 31, 2025

Blue Origin Boss: Government Should Forget Launch and Focus on “Exotic” Missions (Source: Ars Technica)
Eighteen months after leaving his job as a vice president at Amazon to take over as Blue Origin's chief executive, Dave Limp has some thoughts on how commercial companies and government agencies like NASA should explore the Solar System together. In remarks Thursday, Limp advocated for commercial companies, like his own, taking a larger role in developing the transportation and infrastructure to meet lofty national objectives established by government leaders.

Limp followed these comments with a dose of realism you don't often hear from space industry executives. "I think the thing about bringing commercial aspects to exploration, to science, to the Moon, to Mars, is that we have to see a business prospect for it," Limp said. "We have to turn it into a business, and that benefits American taxpayers because we will use that capital as efficiently as we can to get to the Moon, to get to Mars in a safe way, but in a way that's the most efficient.

"We're committed to that, no matter what the architecture looks like, but it does take the US government and international governments to have the motivation to do it," he continued. "There's not yet a commercial reason only to go to the Moon with humans. There are lots of commercial reasons to put robotics on the Moon and other types of things. So, we do need to have conviction that the Moon is important and Mars is important as well." (5/30)

White House to Pull NASA Nominee Isaacman (Source: Semafor)
The White House is pulling the nomination of Jared Isaacman to be the next NASA administrator, just days before he was set to receive a confirmation vote in the Senate, according to three people familiar with the matter and confirmed by the administration.

An entrepreneur and commercial astronaut, Isaacman advanced through the Senate’s Commerce Committee in April and Senate Majority Leader John Thune moved to set up votes on his nomination when the Senate returns from the Memorial Day recess next week. (5/31)

Houston Approves $20M Contract for Spaceport Taxiway (Source: KHOU)
Houston City Council has voted to approve a $20 million contract to build a taxiway that will connect the Houston Spaceport to Ellington Airport. Houston-based Texas Sterling-Banicki JV LLC will be working on a 2-mile stretch of Taxiway L, also known as Taxiway Lima and Runway 4-22. The money will come from the city's Airports Improvement Fund. (5/30)

The Search is On for Betel-Buddy (Source: Phys.org)
Betelgeuse belongs to a fascinating category of stellar objects that exhibit puzzling behavior. About one third of cool, luminous stars with large convective envelopes like Betelgeuse display long-term brightness variations known as Long Secondary Periods (LSPs). For decades, astronomers have debated what causes these fluctuations, proposing various theories including internal pulsations, surface dust formation, and giant convection cells within the star. However, recent research has begun to converge on a more intriguing explanation: Betelgeuse may not be alone. (5/30)

Integrating BeiDou into U.S. Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems (Source: War on the Rocks)
The United States relies heavily on GPS for PNT support. GPS enables countless aspects of our daily lives, from banking to air travel, to electricity. This dependence is a vulnerability, as GPS signals are easily jammed or spoofed and could be targeted by adversaries. While the first Trump administration did recognize the need to strengthen PNT resilience, it narrowly focused on bolstering U.S. systems or using friendly alternatives.

It’s time the United States look beyond such conventional measures. Integrating China’s BeiDou system as a backup PNT system for civilian application can boost resilience, interoperability, and deterrence. Despite the perceived risk to national security, bringing BeiDou into the fold is both practical and feasible. (5/30)

Alabama vs. Colorado: Space Command HQ Location Debate Unresolved in New GAO Report (Source: AL.com)
A new review by congressional auditors finds U.S. Space Command is struggling with hiring and headquarters construction almost 18 months after it declared itself operationally ready. It also calls into question the Air Force’s claim that moving the headquarters to Redstone Arsenal would result in hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings – a key justification that has been seized on by Alabama politicians in recent years. (5/29)

Magnetic Field Anomaly Threatens Space Assets (Source: Farmingdale Observer)
A vast zone of weakness in the Earth’s magnetic field, dubbed the South Atlantic Anomaly, is intriguing and worrying NASA. Located over South America and the South Atlantic Ocean, this growing disturbance, originating deep within our planet, is exposing our space technologies to increased risks. The South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) is characterized by a significantly reduced magnetic intensity compared with the surrounding areas. Far from being a mere scientific curiosity, this weakness acts as a breach in our natural protective shield, allowing high-energy solar particles to come dangerously close to the Earth’s surface. (5/30)

Globe-Spanning Travelers Take a Suborbital Trip with Blue Origin (Source: Geekwire)
Six well-traveled adventurers rode Blue Origin’s suborbital rocketship to the edge of space Saturday. The New Shepard rocket lifted off from Launch Site One in West Texas for a 10-minute mission. This was Blue Origin’s 32nd New Shepard suborbital launch and its 12th crewed mission. (5/31)

Skepticism Lingers About Cost and Business Case for IRIS² (Source: Space News)
Despite a surge of interest in Europe in establishing autonomy in space systems, there remains skepticism that one of the biggest efforts along those lines, a communications satellite constellation, will be viable. European governments and companies signed contracts in December for the development of Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite (IRIS²), a constellation of satellites in medium and low Earth orbits that will provide secure connectivity and broadband services. The consortium of companies working on IRIS², known as SpaceRISE, is in the middle of a one-year design phase for the constellation that will culminate in a “rendezvous” late this year that will confirm the project. (5/30)

After Hegseth Move, Behemoth Golden Dome May Face Lackluster Technical Scrutiny (Source: Defense One)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s decision this week to cut more than half of the Pentagon’s test and evaluation office personnel was driven, in part, by concerns over the office’s plans to provide testing oversight for the Trump administration’s $175 billion Golden Dome missile defense project, according to multiple sources. (5/30)

FAA to Investigate Latest Starship Failures (Source: AP)
The FAA is demanding an accident investigation into this week’s out-of-control Starship flight by SpaceX. The FAA will oversee SpaceX's investigation, which is required before another Starship can launch. (5/30)

NASA Budget Would Cancel Dozens of Science Missions, Lay Off Thousands (Source: Space News)
NASA released more specifics about its proposed fiscal year 2026 budget Friday, outlining new investments in exploration at the expense of canceling dozens of science missions and cutting more than 5,000 jobs. The documents provide greater detail about the top-level budget proposal from what the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) disclosed in its “skinny” budget released four weeks earlier.

That top-level budget of $18.8 billion would be a cut of about a quarter from the nearly $24.9 billion it received in fiscal year 2025. That is the sharpest year-over-year cut proposed for NASA and would bring the agency’s budget down to levels last seen in 1961 when corrected for inflation. As disclosed in the skinny budget, NASA seeks to cancel the lunar Gateway and end the Space Launch System and Orion after the Artemis 3 mission.

The budget instead includes $864 million for a new “Commercial Moon to Mars (M2M) Infrastructure and Transportation Program.” That would go towards developing a commercial system to replace SLS/Orion as well as early work on “a space suit appropriate for use by astronauts on the Martian surface.” The program will also fund lunar and Martian relay satellites and be the new home of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. (5/30)

Euro Coins Released for European Space Agency's 50 Years (Source: CollectSpace)
Two countries' mints have each come up with a striking way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of "Europe's gateway to space." The Royal Mint of Belgium and the Royal Dutch Mint have struck new euro coins to commemorate the first half-century of the European Space Agency (ESA). The limited edition coins were developed in partnership with international organization. (5/30)

DOGE Given Pentagon Contract Review Authority (Source: Defense News)
The Pentagon has authorized the Department of Government Efficiency to review most unclassified contracts before they are awarded. The move, announced by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, aims to enhance government efficiency but adds another step to the acquisition process. (5/29)

US Government to Hire Only "Patriotic" Americans (Source: FNN)
A new Governmentwide hiring plan calls on agencies to recruit ‘patriotic Americans’ into the federal workforce. OPM will track federal hiring data to ensure “only the most talented, capable and patriotic Americans” are hired into the federal workforce. “The American people deserve a Federal workforce dedicated to American values and efficient service,” they wrote. “Yet, Federal hiring criteria long ago abandoned any serious need for technical skills and adherence to the Constitution,” wrote Acting OPM Director Charles Ezell and Vince Haley, the assistant to the president for domestic policy. (5/29)

Space Florida to Study Merging NASA, Space Force Operations at Cape Canaveral (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
As Florida leaders call for moving the nation’s space-agency headquarters to Brevard County, Space Florida is launching a study about how NASA and U.S. Space Force operations could be merged at Cape Canaveral. Space Florida President and CEO Robert Long on Wednesday told board members of the state aerospace agency that a “unified model” would support the ongoing growth of commercial space operations and ensure government missions can be more efficient and sustainable.

“We think that it’s time that we ask ourselves as a nation, what is the optimal model to carry the world’s most active and capable spaceport into the future and enable America to continue to lead in space,” Long said. How that looks will be up to a “new Cape Canaveral Spaceport master plan,” which Long said will include participation from NASA and the Space Force. Under Acting Administrator Janet Petro, NASA is looking to consolidate or relocate operations to streamline the organization. (5/30)

SpaceX Scoops Up Another ULA Launch (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
United Launch Alliance’s years-long delays with its new Vulcan rocket have flipped the script for national security missions, making SpaceX the new reliable provider. The shift to Elon Musk’s company at the detriment to ULA’s bottom line is on the pad again Friday with a SpaceX Falcon 9 set to launch the GPS III-7 mission from the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. The mission to launch a GPS satellite is the second that was originally awarded to ULA but transferred to SpaceX under the National Security Space Launch Phase 2. (5/30)