Deep Space Extra

Here is a list of news that were published in our Newsletter the week of July 7, 2025:

Human Space Exploration

• NASA, SpaceX targeting July 31 for launch of Crew-11 astronaut mission to ISS
  Coalition Members in the News – Axiom Space, Northrop Grumman;
• NASA’s Moon rover will hunt for ice, map minerals, and reveal what lies beneath;
• Lunar astronauts could eat “Moon rice”;
• The first Indian on the ISS
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;
• Trump megabill includes billions for Artemis, ISS, moving a space shuttle to Texas and more;
• Russia’s Progress MS-31 space freighter docks to International Space Station;
• ‘We are proud to serve our country, both on Earth and in space’: NASA astronauts beam home July 4 message from ISS (video)
  Coalition Member in the News – Axiom Space;

Space Science

• Finding an ocean on an exoplanet would be huge, and the Habitable Worlds Observatory could do it;
• How Trump’s budget cuts could affect 2 iconic space telescopes: Hubble and James Webb;
• Venus clouds may hide alien life waiting to be found;
• NASA flips a Mars Orbiter upside down and discovers a hidden world
  Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
• See interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS zoom through solar system in new telescope imagery (video);
• Could NASA’s Mars Sample Return be saved? Lockheed Martin proposes $3 billion plan to haul home Red Planet rocks (video)
  Coalition Member in the News – Lockheed Martin;
  
• The cosmic chaos that made Earth the only habitable planet;
• How the chemistry of Mars both extended and ended its habitability;
• China plans Neptune mission targeting Triton in 2033;
• How to use fusion to get to Proxima Centauri’s potentially habitable exoplanet;
• Stars that shouldn’t shine are pointing straight to dark matter’s identity;
• The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will help astronomers investigate dark matter, continuing the legacy of its pioneering namesake;
• New interstellar comet will keep a safe distance from Earth, NASA says;

Other News

• Senate Appropriators poised to reject proposed NASA budget cuts, but…;
• Transportation Secretary Duffy Named as interim NASA administrator;
• Space Rider reentry module undergoes 2.5 km drop tests;
• Can Canada get to orbit? Companies NordSpace and ProtoSpace hope to launch country’s 1st space mission (exclusive);
• A large hole in the Sun’s atmosphere;
• ULA begins stacking its 1st Vulcan rocket supporting a national security mission
  Coalition Members in the News – L3Harris, Northrop Grumman;
• U.S. Air Force halts plan for rocket landing pads on remote Pacific atoll amid environmental backlash;
• ESA selects five companies for next phase of launcher competition;
• Space Force picks Boeing for $2.8B strategic communications program
  Coalition Members in the News – Boeing, Northrop Grumman;
• Pentagon should boost fees for rocket launch companies, audit says;

Major Events This Week:

• • On Monday, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Key Non-Polar Destinations Across the Moon to Address Decadal-level Science Objectives with Human Explorers is to be in session from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT with an open session link at https://vimeo.com/event/5234548.
  • Congressional 2026 budget deliberations are picking up. The Commerce, Justice, Science budget line that funds NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation is up for a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing planned for Thursday. There are other Congressional space related budget activities also planned this week.
  • Also on Thursday, NASA is hosting pre-launch news briefings on the soon to launch Crew-11 mission to the ISS with two astronauts from NASA, one from Japan and one from Russia. The briefings will start at 12 p.m. EDT and can be viewed at www.NASA.gov/live/.

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