NEW FROM NASA
NEW FROM NASA NEWS
Another One Bites the Ocean: Breaking News at the time of this writing: The ninth test launch of SpaceX’s Starship ended in another failure on 5/27. The booster was the first one used that had made a previous flight (SF-9), and performed OK, as had the previous few tests, but suffered a communications breakdown after the Starship separated from it. It had telemetry equipment that would have made a “chopsticks” catch difficult, so the plan was for the booster to crash in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the booster broke up at the starting its engines in preparations for its landing burn. The Starship stage of the mission separated from the booster without problem. It was carrying eight dummy versions of Starlink satellites to simulate a real payload. The door enclosing mock satellites failed to open fully, prevented the deployment. Soon thereafter, the Starship apparently suffered a fuel leak(s), began to tumble, and crashed. This is a developing story; for information current as of 5/28, see: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/spacex-launches-starship-flight-9-to-space-in-historic-reuse-of-giant-megarocket-video.
Extreme NASA Cuts: NASA closed its Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy; the Office of the Chief Scientist; and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Accessibility branch on March 10 and made a severe reduction in force over the entire Administration. Worse, there are stories that say that NASA has been told to prepare for a 50% reduction in force, which would cause severe damage the Agency for many years to come. Such a draconian cut was labeled “nothing short of an extinction-level event for Space science and exploration by the United States,” by the Planetary Society.
FOLLOW UP: NASA’s proposed 2026 Budget was released on May 2. NASA’s overall budget would be cut 24%, with NASA Science taking a 50% hit. Artemis would take a big hit, too, with the SLS and Orion mission elements being replaced and deletion of the Gateway lunar orbiting station. For more information on this topic, see: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/trump-administration-proposes-slashing-nasa-budget-by-24-percent and https://www.planetary.org/press-releases/the-planetary-society-condemns-damaging-cuts-to-nasa-budget.
NOAA has taking crippling hits, too. They endured a forced RIF, losing 800 employees, greatly diminishing the information flow needed for accurate weather prediction and weather hazard monitoring. For more information on that front, see: https://www.space.com/the-universe/climate-change/scientists-warn-of-consequences-as-over-800-noaa-workers-are-fired-censoring-science-does-not-change-the-facts.
Egad! Lest we forget….
NASA Puts Three on TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions List: For the past two decades, TIME Magazine selects 200 new inventions in a wide variety of fields to promote as the “best” inventions of the year. NASA placed three of the seven selected inventions in the 2024 “Aerospace” category! For the full listing, see: https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2024.
And see the information in the Spinoffs and Tech Transfer sections of A+StW!
NEW FROM NASA FYI
Apollo 12 Graphic Novel Updated! Tuesday (11/19) was the 55th anniversary of the landing on the Moon of Apollo 12’s LM, Intrepid, with astronauts Pete Conrad and Al Bean aboard. Celebrate this milestone two ways: See the two previous Items of the Week that spotlight the mission here and my personal hero, Al Bean, here. Also, check out the NASA graphic novel of the Apollo 12 mission augmented by info about Artemis (The NASA links to it are dead, but I downloaded it from Wikipedia Commons, and it is listed as being fully in the public domain; you can find it in the “Archive: Other Stuff” section of my website at: https://www.airandspacethisweek.com/otherstuff.
NEW FROM NASA LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION
Preparing for Space: Space is hostile to people and equipment alike. Have you ever wondered about how NASA makes sure its spacecraft can survive and operate successful in interplanetary Space and on other planets? NASA recently streamed one of the JPL von Kármán Lecture Series entitled “Shake & Bake: How Spacecraft are Tested to Handle the Harsh Environment of Space.” The featured lecturers are Brad Kinter, a Group Supervisor in JPL’s Environmental Thermal Testing unit at JPL and Pete Landry, Systems Integration and Test Engineer at JPL. The lecture is now available on YouTube at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jpl-and-the-community/lecture-series/the-von-karman-lecture-series-2024/may-2024-shake-bake-how-spacecraft-are-tested-to-handle-the-harsh-environment-of-space.
Theodore von Kármán was an aerodynamics expert who came to the USA in 1930, fleeing rising tide of Nazism. He was a member of the National Academy of Science and one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lecture series named for him routinely offers a number of interesting Space-related lectures, “Shake and Bake,” being one from last year. For more information on von Kármán, see: https://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/von-karman-theodore.pdf.
Did you know that NASA has an entire Scientific Visualization Studio at the Goddard Space Flight Center? The data they make relatable is really terrific, check it out at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov.
Introducing NASA On-Demand Streaming Service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrlDv-ts2f0&ab_channel=NASA! As only NASA can.
Latest News Releases: https://www.nasa.gov/2025-news-releases
Media Contact Info:https://www.nasa.gov/news/media/info/index.html
JPL News:https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news