Image (Credit): Worf from Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Paramount Skydance Corporation)
Multiple Choice: When was first use of a fully constructed Klingon language?
A. 1967 in the “Errand of Mercy” episode of the television series Star Trek. B. 1979 in the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture. C. 1984 in the movie Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. D. 1987 in the “Encounter at Farpoint” episode of the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The Planetary Society has provided a nice summary of where the NASA funding battle is at this moment. Here is its latest summary of events:
The House budget bill that includes NASA funding just cleared a key hurdle, advancing out of the Appropriations Committee. This is the first funding bill for FY 2027 to be released and reach this stage, establishing congressional intent and rejecting the worst of the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed cuts to NASA.
The bill keeps NASA funding flat with the currently enacted budget, but reprioritizes funding levels across the agency, including a 17% cut to Science to offset increases elsewhere.
A number of science missions proposed for cancellation by the OMB see their funding protected by this bill, including OSIRIS-APEX, New Horizons, and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. New programs initiated by Administrator Isaacman that were absent from the OMB proposal, like Space Reactor-1 Freedom, also see their first dedicated mention in the proposal.
The full House still needs to vote on this, and the Senate is expected to release its own proposal within weeks. Congress will then work to develop full-year funding, in anticipation of the start of FY 2027 on Oct. 1, but will likely require a short-term funding patch, which comes with its own hurdles.
I recommend you read the entire statement, House Appropriators Advance Key NASA Funding Bill, to fully understand the rigors of this Hill battle. Fortunately, both the House and Senate continue to be supportive of NASA’s work and Administrator Isaacman’s new direction for Artemis. It helps to have someone full time at the helm of the agency.
I was especially pleased to read that missions such as New Horizons and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory are being saved and key programs like the James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope are no longer facing drastic cuts. It is unfortunate that the White House was so willing to destroy generations of space-related work – what have been called the crown jewels of our space program.
The budget battle is not over, but we are seeing that when good legislators push back, good things can happen.
Image (Credit): The CRS-34 mission launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. (NASA)
Delays abound, but at least one space mission successfully launched this week. After delays earlier this week, today the CRS-34 mission successfully launched towards the International Space Station (ISS). The Dragon capsule, carrying supplies for the Expedition 74 Crew on the station, is expected to dock with the ISS Sunday morning.
The first launch this year of the SpaceX Starship was not so lucky. While is was scheduled to launch today as well, it was delayed until Tuesday, May 19th. This will be the 12th test of the new rocket.
SpaceX has planned a long list of objectives related to the booster and rocket on this flight:
The booster’s primary test objective will be executing a successful launch, ascent, stage separation, boostback burn, and landing burn at an offshore landing point in the Gulf of America. As this is the first flight test of a significantly redesigned vehicle, the booster will not attempt a return to the launch site for catch.
The Starship upper stage will target multiple in-space and reentry objectives, including a payload deployment of 20 Starlink simulators, similar in size to next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, and two specially modified Starlink satellites. The two modified satellites will test hardware planned for Starlink V3 and will attempt to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to test methods of analyzing Starship’s heat shield readiness for return to launch site on future missions. Several tiles on Starship have been painted white to simulate missing tiles and serve as imaging targets in the test. All of the deployed payloads will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.
For Starship entry, a single heat shield tile has been intentionally removed to measure the aerodynamic load differences on adjacent tiles when there is a tile missing. Finally, the ship will perform experimental actions tested on previous flight tests, including a maneuver to intentionally stress the structural limits of the vehicle’s rear flaps and a dynamic banking maneuver to mimic the trajectory that future missions returning to Starbase will fly.
It appears SpaceX is trying to make up for numerous delays with a single mission – a mission that is critical to the success of NASA’s Artemis program as well as SpaceX’s upcoming IPO.
Image (Credit): View of an arm of the Messier 51 galaxy from both JWST and the Hubble Space Telescop. (ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Pedrini, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team)
This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and Hubble Space Telescope, which together scanned about 9,000 star clusters in the four galaxies. What you are looking at above comes from the spiral arm of one of the galaxies – Messier 51 (M51).
A large, long portion of one of the spiral arms in galaxy M51. Red-orange, clumpy filaments of gas and dust that stretch in a chain from left to right comprise the arm. Shining cyan bubbles light up parts of the gas clouds from within, and gaps expose bright star clusters in these bubbles as glowing white dots. The whole image is dotted with small stars. A faint blue glow around the arm colours the otherwise dark background.
If the recent release of UFO information by the White House was not all that exciting, then you may want to turn to Hollywood for a boost.
On June 12th, Steve Spielberg’s movie Disclosure Daycomes to your local movie screen. From what I read in the press and previews, it should lift your spirits if you are looking for something strange out there, real or imaged.
However, if you want a good summary of the upcoming film then you are out of luck. Everyone is talking about how Spielberg is the master of hiding the plot from the rest of us. I suppose that will keep us in suspense, but will it put butts in theater seats?
If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to eight billion people. We are coming close to … Disclosure Day.
While that summary was worthless, you have a lot of information to play with in the film trailers. You can also see what other are saying, from those who are pulling apart the trailer to others who are posting their theories about the real story behind all the hype.
So I recommend you review all of this to determine whether this film might be for you.
Or you can simply await full disclosure on June 12th without ruining the surprise.
Our Awesome Universe 