“They simply don’t want the public to see the meticulously assembled and scientifically validated information about what climate change is already doing to our farms, forests, and fisheries, as well as to storms, floods, wildfires, and coast property — and about how all those damages will grow in the absence of concerted remedial action.”
–Statement by climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy, regarding NASA’s removal of national climate assessments from its website. Of course, the daily news about floods and fires will continue to keep us aware of ongoing terra-forming here on planet Earth. You can also find information about the last National Climate Assessment at this USDA site, for now at least.
Image (Credit): Shan Shan (left) and Xiao Bao. (South China Morning Post)
On this day in 1966, China launched a male puppy named Xiao Bao (meaning Little Leopard) into space. He was used to test the effects of space and was safely recovered after the flight.
Thirteen days later a female puppy named Shan Shan (meaning Coral) was also launched into space. She too was safely recovered.
This is a much better tale than that of Laika, the dog that the USSR sent into orbit in 1957. As stray dog from the streets of Moscow, she only lasted a few hours after the launch, eventually dying of hyperthermia.
Image (Credit): Laika in a training capsule before her mission to space. (Sputnik / Alamy)
In response to recent flooding near Kerrville, Texas, NASA deployed two aircraft to assist state and local authorities in ongoing recovery operations. The aircraft are part of the response from NASA’s Disasters Response Coordination System, which is activated to support emergency response for the flooding and is working closely with the Texas Division of Emergency Management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the humanitarian groups Save the Children and GiveDirectly.
Two remote-controlled Chinese satellites appear to have docked in high orbit to allow refueling and servicing for the first time. The achievement, which has yet to be matched by the U.S, involved autonomous spacecraft Shijian-21 and Shijian-25, completing the task in geostationary orbit earlier this month. Geostationary orbits occur at 22,236 miles above the surface, and are typically used for communications satellites so that they can move with the rotation of the Earth. However, the high orbit and need for satellites to maintain speeds with the Earth’s rotation makes docking extremely difficult.
The answer to whether tiny bacterial lifeforms really do exist in the clouds of Venus could be revealed once-and-for-all by a UK-backed mission. Over the past five years researchers have detected the presence of two potential biomarkers – the gases phosphine and ammonia – which on Earth can only be produced by biological activity and industrial processes. Their existence in the Venusian clouds cannot easily be explained by known atmospheric or geological phenomena, so Cardiff University’s Professor Jane Greaves and her team are plotting a way to get to the bottom of it. Revealing a new mission concept at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting 2025 in Durham, they plan to search and map phosphine, ammonia, and other gases rich in hydrogen that shouldn’t be on Venus.
Image (Credit): The Starliner capsule outside the ISS in July 2024. (Boeing)
The good news is that Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft will be returning to the International Space Station (ISS). However, the not so good news is that NASA may not trust it enough to carry humans – what it was designed to do – so it will probably be carrying cargo on its next mission instead.
Overall, this is good news in that Boeing is not throwing in the towel. We need a backup to SpaceX’s Dragon, and Boeing’s spacecraft is the best bet at the moment.
The Starliner is designed to carry seven crew members or a mix of crew and cargo. That means it can carry quite a bit of cargo if that is all it is doing on its next trip.
NASA is still sorting things out, but this cargo mission, if it occurs, is expected to take place next year.
“You’re losing the managerial and core technical expertise of the agency…What’s the strategy and what do we hope to achieve here?”
-Comment by Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, regarding recent news that 2,145 senior-ranking NASA employees will be departing NASA as part of the ongoing downsizing of the agency. It is not clear whether these cuts align with the White House’s earlier statements that it wanted to put humans on the Moon and Mars. The saying used to be measure twice, cut once. With this White House it is cut twice and toss out the measuring tape.
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