Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of April 14th, 2025:

Human Space Exploration

• All of the above, or none?;
• NASA astronaut Don Pettit and 2 cosmonauts will return to Earth on April 9;
• All-woman NS-31 crew praise teamwork, sisterhood;
• Former NASA astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison reacts to historic Blue Origin spaceflight;
• NASA extends seat barter agreement with RosCosmos into 2027
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• ‘I’m really excited about the engineering of it all.’ Katy Perry is psyched for her Blue Origin launch on April 14;

Space Science

• Bipartisan caucus criticizes proposed NASA science budget cuts;
• NASA prepares for Lucy spacecraft’s second close encounter with an asteroid;
• The Lyrids are back: How to catch this year’s spring meteor shower;
• The most metal poor stars are living fossils from the beginning of the universe
• NASA’s Perseverance rover hits the Mars rock gold mine:’It has been all we had hoped for and more’;
• Astronomers push Webb to its limits to visualize the most distant galaxies of all!;
• Alien life could exist on Saturn’s big moon Titan but finding it will be tough;
• Maryland congressmen vow to block proposed NASA science budget cuts;
• Geomagnetic storm watch;
• How black holes can emit powerful jets;
• White House proposal would slash NASA science budget and cancel major missions;
• NOAA budget proposal would affect weather satellite, other space programs;
• Webb telescope documents alien planet’s death plunge into a star;

Opinion

• Minnesota to the Moon and beyond
  Coalition Member in the News – Ion Corp.
  Minnesota Star Tribune (4/6): NASA’s efforts to develop the Space Launch System with Boeing as the prime contractor are not only critical for the next phase of human space exploration but also for an Earth-based space industry that includes the ION Corp., an Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based company that provides custom scientific, engineering, test and manufacturing services across the aerospace industry, notes Wendell Maddox, the company’s president and CEO in an op-ed.

Other News

• Minotaur IV rocket launches spy payloads for National Reconnaissance OfficeCoalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• Space Command headquarters battle reignites;
• Startups to demonstrate new spacecraft docking technique;
• Axiom Space to launch its 1st orbiting data centers this year
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
• Texas senators: Move space shuttle from Smithsonian to Houston;

Major Space Related Activities for the Week of Feb 10th:

• Blue Origin’s all-female private astronaut suborbital New Shepard launch from West Texas is planned for Monday at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Webcast coverage begins at 8 a.m. EDT with access over www.blueorigin.com
• Russia’s Soyuz MS-26 with Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Don Pettit is planned to undock from the ISS on Saturday evening with a parachute assisted descent into Kazakhstan for recovery. Command of the ISS will transition from Ovchinin to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi for Expedition 73.
• NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is holding its second quarterly meeting on Thursday from 4 to 5:30 p.m.EDT with telephone access to the proceedings only.
• The U.S. House and Senate, meanwhile, are in recess except for pro forma sessions with lots of uncertainty over spending still ongoing.

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