Image (Credit): Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov. (Dogruso.com)
“Say hello to the entire American team. They proved themselves to be very worthy in this situation and lent us a helping hand…You set an example for the whole world on how to work together in the most challenging and difficult situation. Let many politicians learn from you.“
-Statement by Yuri Borisov, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, on Tuesday praising Russia-U.S. cooperation at the International Space Station (ISS) following a major coolant leak from a Soyuz crew capsule. The transcript was quoted in The Moscow Times. The ISS remains one of the limited areas where the U.S. and Russia are still cooperating given the situation in Ukraine.
Image (Credit): View of the Earth from the Apollo 11 Command and Service Module. (NASA)
“Lunar orbit would be filled with many more satellites, including a lunar GPS network and a human space station capable of housing human astronauts that serves as a rest stop before they land on the moon’s surface. While there are no plans for a lunar city, there are proposals for a permanent outpost on the south pole of the moon, where crews might one day spend six-month rotations (China and Russia have announced plans for a lunar outpost, too). If NASA has its way, the lunar surface might eventually include a series of nuclear power plants, a resource extraction operation, and even something akin to moon internet. Given these plans, the US government estimates that the level of human activity in cislunar space over the next decade could exceed everything that’s happened there between 1957 and today, combined.”
-Quote from a November 22 Vox article, “The White House’s Plan to Colonize the Moon, Briefly Explained.” The article comments on the recently released report by the White House’s National Science & Technology Council, National Cislunar Science & Technology Strategy. By the way, the term “Cislunar space” in the report refers to “…the three-dimensional volume of space beyond Earth’s geosynchronous orbit that is mainly under the gravitational influence of the Earth and/or the Moon. Cislunar space includes the Earth-Moon Lagrange point regions…, trajectories utilizing those regions, and the Lunar surface.”
Image (Credits): Artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. (Northrop Grumman)
“In conclusion, to date, no available evidence directly links Webb to any actions or follow-up related to the firing of individuals for their sexual orientation. However, the research and this report make clear that the Lavender Scare was a painful chapter in our national history. Every effort was made to be as thorough in research and objective in analysis as possible. We must make great efforts to learn from the experience to guarantee that the core values of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are advanced, not only at NASA, but across the federal government. Only then can we ensure that dark episodes such as the Lavender Scare remain our history and not our future.”
-Concluding statement from the NASA Chief Historian’s report on James Webb, titled NASA Historical Investigation into James E. Webb’s Relationship to the Lavender Scare. As the reports notes, “The central purpose of this investigation was to locate any evidence that could indicate whether James Webb acted as a leader of or proponent for firing LGBTQ+ employees from the federal workforce.” It is sad summary of the federal government’s treatment of its gay employees following World War II, which represents a dark chapter in American history that we only recently left behind.
Image (Credit): Challenger STS-51L crew members Michael J. Smith, front row left, Francis R. “Dick” Scobee, Ronald E. McNair; Ellison S. Onizuka, back row left, S. Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Judith A. Resnik. (NASA)
“The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ to ‘touch the face of God.'”
-Statement by President Ronald Reagan addressing the nation from the Oval Office at the White House on January 28, 1986 following the space shuttle Challenger disaster. It seems like a good time to remember the crew given the news this week about debris recovered from the space shuttle. You can find the entire White House address here.
Image (Credit): November 13, 2021 SpaceX launch of 53 Starlink satellites. (SpaceX)
“Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.”
-Statement to the United Nations by Russian senior foreign ministry official Konstantin Vorontsov in reference to attacking SpaceX’s Starlink satellites being used by the Ukrainian military as it pushes back the Russian invasion. In a Reuters article, “Russia’s Anti-satellite Threat Tests Laws of War in Space,” Iridium chief executive Matt Desch stated, “If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I’d imagine it would quickly make space unusable.”
Our Awesome Universe 