Is Jared Isaacman Back?

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Image (Credit): Jared Isaacman. (PolarisProgram.com)

It has been a few months since the blowup between President Trump and Elon Musk, which also led to the removal of billionaire Jared Isaacman as the nominee to be NASA administrator. In the meantime, Sean Duffy has been in the role of acting administrator while also trying to run the Department of Transportation.

Well, that may be ending soon as it appears Mr. Isaacman may have another chance at the NASA job, as reported by CNBC. President Trump is said to have met with Mr. Isaacman last month to discuss his return as a nominee.

It is not clear if this means Mr. Isaacman is forgiven for donating to democratic causes or the White House is very short on capable people to run NASA, or both. Whatever the case, it is quite a turn of events, possibly helped along by Musk’s hat-in-hand approach after the scuffle.

Mr. Isaacman is being offered a much diminished agency from the one offered earlier this year, with the White House planning severe cuts in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget. Talks of more layoffs and firings during the current shutdown also threatens to make the situation worse.

These are fickle times with the White House flipping its positions on issues almost daily, so the news could change. For now, it’s a matter of wait and see.

Pic of the Week: Tropical Cyclones Imelda and Humberto

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Image (Credit): Tropical Storm Imelda (left) and Hurricane Humberto off the eastern coast of the United States on September 28, 2025. The image also shows the outlines of the areas covered by clouds in North America and Caribbean. (NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership)

This week’s image comes from NASA’s Earth Observatory. It caught two tropical cyclones stirring up the Atlantic Ocean in late September. Both Tropical Storm Imelda and Hurricane Humberto caused plenty of problems off of the east coast of the United States without ever making landfall.

Here is more on the two storms from NASA:

Imelda had already brought tropical storm conditions to portions of the central and northwestern Bahamas. Prior to becoming a named storm, the system also lashed Puerto Rico and eastern Cuba with heavy rain. In the coming days, Imelda could intensify and cause flash and urban flooding along the coast of the Carolinas, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Although Humberto lurked farther from land, its effects still reached coastlines due to its massive size. Dangerous surf conditions affected beaches in the northern Caribbean, the Bahamas, and Bermuda, as well as much of the U.S. East Coast. Mid-Atlantic and even some Northeast states could see large swells and rip currents stemming from the storm, forecasters warned.

Video: Plans for the First Commercial Space Station

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If you are eager to understand what comes after the International Space Station (ISS), you might enjoy Vast’s video showing plans for the Haven-1 and Haven-2 missions as well as other future projects.

Vast’s Haven-1 is a single-module station expected to be launched in May 2026. Once Haven-1 is in orbit, four crew members will be launched to the Haven-1 station via a SpaceX Dragon for a two-week mission. This will be the first real test of the new commercial space station module, which is expected to stay in orbit for three years so three additional crews can visit and conduct research and even manufacture in space.

Haven-2 will follow with a larger module. The plan is to link a series of modules to create an expanded station (see image below). The construction of Haven-2 is expected to be underway while the ISS goes out of service in 2030.

Vast is one of numerous companies hoping to fill the gap left by the departing ISS. Whether it is selling seats to NASA scientists, commercial entities, or space tourists, this American company based in California sees a future in space stations.

Space Stories: Questionable Move of Space Shuttle Discovery, the Problem with Red Dwarf Exoplanets, and a Rare Sight from Mars

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Image (Credit): Space shuttle Discovery landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California. (NASA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—Chron: “Historic Space Shuttle Could Be Compromised for Trip to Texas“

Within the next 18 months, the space shuttle Discovery may be disassembled in Washington D.C., transported more than 1,000 miles to Houston and reassembled. But not if grassroots group Keep The Shuttle has anything to say about it. The plan to move a shuttle, notably an unnamed shuttle, was part of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” passed this summer. The Smithsonian and others have dug in against the move, saying the research institute actually owns the Discovery in a trust for the American people, nothing that it’s unclear if Congress even has the authority to order the Smithsonian transfer an artifact.

—Universe Today “New Research Suggests Red Dwarf Systems are Unlikely to Have Advanced Civilizations“

Thanks to the huge spate of exoplanet discoveries, multiple rocky planets have been found orbiting within the habitable zones (HZs) of red dwarf stars. For decades, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether these systems could be our best bet for finding evidence of life beyond Earth. In a recent study, Professor David Kipping addresses two key facts that could mean humanity is an outlier. Based on the age of the Universe and the relatively rare nature of our Sun, he concludes that astrobiologists examining red dwarf planets may be looking in the wrong place.

—CBS News: “Interstellar Comet Passing by Mars Seen in Rare Images“

A rare interstellar comet — only the third ever confirmed to enter our solar system — was photographed last week, closely approaching Mars, the European Space Agency said Tuesday. The images taken on Friday by two Mars orbiters show a bright, fuzzy white dot of the comet, also known as 3I/ATLAS, appearing to move against a backdrop of distant stars as it was about 18,641,135 miles away from Mars. The comet poses no threat to Earth, NASA has previously said.

Bill Nye is in Washington, DC to Support NASA

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Image (Credit): An earlier image of Bill Nye showing his support for NASA employees. (The Planetary Society)

You may have heard that the federal government has shut down, but that did not stop the Planetary Society’s CEO Bill Nye from traveling to Washington, DC to protest NASA cuts. He was there with almost two dozen other organizations to protest the White House’s plans to cut 24 percent of NASA’s budget.

Highlighting the potential impact of cuts to NASA’s programs, Bill Nye stated:

The China National Space Administration is going fast, doing a lot of extraordinary missions very similar, almost mission for mission, to what the United States is doing and I’m telling you there’s going to be a Sputnik moment when Taikonauts, China National Space Administration space travelers, are on the moon in the next five years.

A recent report by the Ranking Member of the Senate’s Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, titled The Destruction of NASA’s Mission, states the Trump Administration is already implementing the 2026 cuts at NASA even thought Congress has yet to approve a budget. The report summary notes:

As part of Ranking Member Cantwell’s oversight of the potential impacts of President Trump’s budget request (PBR) for Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26), Democratic staff of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation have uncovered evidence of an illegal plot already in motion. Based on whistleblower documents and interviews, this staff report finds that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been directing NASA —since early summer— to begin implementing the devastating cuts demanded in President Trump’s proposed budget for FY26, in clear violation of the Constitution and without regard for the impacts on NASA’s science missions and workforce.

Not surprisingly, the law seems to be no barrier to bad behavior for this administration, yet Mr. Nye and others are not giving in or giving up. Nor should anyone who believes NASA represents the best of what our astronomers and scientists can accomplish. The size of the proposed NASA cuts for FY 2026 are shown below. It is brutal.

You can show your support for NASA by visiting the Planetary Society’s Save NASA Science page.

Image (Credit): Proposed cuts to NASA’s FY 2026 budget. (Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation)