Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of February 17th, 2025:

Human Space Exploration

• The ISS should be deorbited ‘as soon as possible,’ Elon Musk says: ‘Let’s go to Mars’;
• 3D-printed ‘hydrogels’ could be future space radiation shields for astronaut trips to Mars;
• Is Trump preparing to cancel America’s ride back to the Moon?
  Coalition for Deep Space Exploration President Allen Cutler in the News
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• House Committee plans Artemis hearing next week
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• Boeing announces more layoffs in Alabama amid changes to NASA moon rocket program
  Coalition Member in the News – Boeing;
• ESA astronaut with physical disability medically cleared for ISS missions;
• Babin’s top priorities: Vibrant commercial space sector, Americans back on Moon;

Space Science

• AI to power China’s mission to the edges of the solar system;
• China readies Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return spacecraft for launch;
• NASA massively lowers impact risk of ‘city-killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 to 1 in 360;
• Earth had new, temporary radiation rings last year;
• Asteroid’s odds of hitting Earth go up as Webb telescope is tasked with studying potential “city-killer”;
• Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later ;
• Cosmic voids may explain the universe’s acceleration without dark energy;
• ‘City-killer’ asteroid 2024 YR4 could hit the Moon instead of us, scientists say;
• Blue Ghost 1 enters lunar orbit as Resilience flies by the Moon;

Opinion

• NASA’s asteroid mission to Apophis: Key for Earth’s defense
  In an op-ed, former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine and Bill Nye note the asteroid Apophis will streak close by Earth on April 13, 2029. As long as a football stadium and traveling at 69,000 miles per hour, disaster would follow if it struck Earth. Calculations say it will not, but the swing by Earth offers an opportunity for a close assessment by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which took on a new mission after dropping samples of the asteroid Bennu off to Earth in September 2023. Bridenstine and Nye urge sufficient funding for the study of Apophis by OSIRIS-REx, which has been renamed OSIRIS-APEX.

Other News

• Czars versus councils: Organizing space in the new administration;
• NASA wins flexibility on probationary employees;
• NASA’s Jim Free retires as the agency escapes dramatic workforce cuts for now;
• Defense executives demand clarity on space agencies’ missions
  Coalition Member in the News – Northrop Grumman;
• Report: Space Force strategy, resources insufficient to counter China
  Coalition Members in the News – Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman;
• SpaceX proposes Cape Canaveral Gigabay for Starship;
• Unidentified objects found on ground after SpaceX debris enters atmosphere over Poland;

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