PrairiePundit

Federalist Wire:  ... The Pentagon is charging toward a 2028 test of President Trump’s space-based Golden Dome missile defense system, a high-tech shield designed to protect the United States from advanced threats. This timeline syncs with Trump’s bold pledge to deliver the system within three years, fueling a race among defense contractors vying for contracts to build this revolutionary technology. “They want a win to point to in November [2028],” a defense official said to CNN, stressing the Department of Defense’s focus on avoiding delays. The Missile Defense Agency will conduct the test, named FTI-X or “Flight Test Integrated,” which will evaluate the system’s complex web of sensors and weapons. Trump estimates the project’s cost at $175 billion, with Congress already approving $25 billion through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Space-based missile defense isn’t a new idea—Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars program explored similar concepts decades ago. Unlike current systems, this tech...

 Blaze: The Department of Defense's All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office was established in 2022 for the purpose of investigating unidentified anomalous phenomena, better known as unidentified flying objects. In the wake of high-profile allegations by former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch and other Pentagon officials suggesting the U.S. government secretly obtained and reverse-engineered alien technology , the AARO reviewed — as required by the National Defense Authorization Act — all official government investigations into UAP conducted since 1945, researching both classified and unclassified archives and conducting numerous interviews. The AARO claimed in a report last year that it "found no evidence that any [U.S. government] investigation, academic-sponsored research, or official review panel has confirmed that any sighting of a UAP represented extraterrestrial technology." The report noted further that the AARO found no evidence for claims that th...

  PJ Media: NASA astronauts have been stranded on the International Space Station for nine months after what was meant to be a brief mission lasting less than two weeks. Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that former President Joe Biden refused his offer to bring them home early, allegedly because it would have made Donald Trump and his supporters “look good.” Wilmore and Suni Williams launched from Cape Canaveral on June 4, 2024, aboard Boeing’s Starliner capsule for its maiden voyage, only to face thruster failures and helium leaks. They’ve been stranded on the ISS ever since, as the Starliner was sent back to Earth without the crew.   Last week, one of the stranded astronauts  confirmed Musk’s account . During a video press conference last week, a Washington Post reporter asked, "Elon Musk has said that he made the offer to bring you guys back earlier and that it was denied… Is that true?” “I can only say that what Elon Musk says is absolutely factual," astronaut B...

 Red State: They’ve been floating in space since June—just over nine months. The two American astronauts  were stranded  on the International Space Station when the Boeing Starliner craft, which took them into orbit, experienced what NASA described as "multiple issues" and was returned to Earth empty. Since then, it’s been unclear when and if we could get them back. In February, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk dropped a bombshell allegation: he had offered the Biden administration assistance in saving the astronauts, but Biden declined for “ political reasons .” On Tuesday, one of the astronauts said that Musk’s accusation was  absolutely true : One of the NASA astronauts trapped on the International Space Station said he believes Elon Musk’s claim that the Biden administration rejected the SpaceX CEO’s offer to help bring the team home. Barry “Butch” Wilmore made the comment Tuesday during an in-orbit press conference with fellow castaway Sunita Williams nine months after thei...

 Newsmax: President Donald Trump said Tuesday night he had asked Elon Musk's SpaceX to return two NASA astronauts from the International Space Station, who were already scheduled to fly back on a SpaceX capsule in March. Musk earlier Tuesday said Trump had asked him to return the two astronauts "as soon as possible," suggesting a change to NASA's current plan for a late March return. "We will do so," Musk said. "I have just asked Elon Musk and @SpaceX to 'go get' the 2 brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden administration," Trump wrote on Truth Social . "They have been waiting for many months on @Space Station. Elon will soon be on his way. Hopefully, all will be safe. Good luck Elon!!!" His demand SpaceX retrieve veteran NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who have been assigned a SpaceX ride home since August, was an unusual intervention by a U.S. president into NASA's operation...

 New Science: All the planets will appear to line up across the sky towards the end of February alxpin/Getty Images All of our solar system’s planets are lining up to parade through the night sky at once. This extraordinary celestial event will see the sky scattered with seven visible planets in what is known as a great planetary alignment. The eight planets in our solar system orbit the sun in roughly the same plane, because they all originally formed from the same disc of debris around the sun. The line the sun traces across the daytime sky, called the ecliptic, aligns with this plane, so when the planets appear in the sky, they all appear roughly along the ecliptic. It isn’t a perfect line of planets, because their orbits are tilted slightly, but it is fairly close. ... The Earth is sometimes called the "third rock from the sun."  All but Uranous and Neptune should be available to be seen with the naked eye.     

 Tech Crunch: SpaceX has filed a lawsuit against a California agency this week after the body rejected a proposal to increase the company’s launches from the state’s coastline to 50 per year. The California Coastal Commission (CCC) made its decision at an October 10 meeting, despite the U.S. Air Force (USAF) endorsing the plan on the grounds that more launches of Starlink and Starshield, the defense-focused unit, are critical to national security. In the lawsuit, SpaceX says that the commission engaged in “naked political discrimination” when some commissioners cited the political activity of CEO Elon Musk, while also attempting to unlawfully regulate federal agency activities. The CCC declined to comment for this story. SpaceX did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment. The first part of the complaint has gotten most of the headlines, and SpaceX will need to prove in court that the commission’s decision was substantially influenced by Musk’s politics. But the...

 Gizmondo: The future of space travel depends on our ability to reach celestial pit stops faster and more efficiently. As such, NASA is working with a technology development company on a new propulsion system that could drop off humans on Mars in a relatively speedy two months’ time rather than the current nine month journey required to reach the Red Planet. NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program recently selected six promising projects for additional funding and development, allowing them to graduate to the second stage of development. The new “science fiction-like concepts,” as described by John Nelson, NIAC program executive at NASA, include a lunar railway system and fluid-based telescopes, as well as a pulsed plasma rocket. The potentially groundbreaking propulsion system is being developed by Arizona-based Howe Industries. To reach high velocities within a shorter period of time, the pulsed plasma rocket would use nuclear fission—the release of energy from atoms ...

 PC Magazine: It works: SpaceX’s cellular Starlink system has successfully relayed text messages to and from smartphones on the ground. SpaceX announced the achievement today, a week after the company launched six Starlink satellites that are designed to operate as orbiting cell towers in space. "On Monday, January 8, less than 6 days after launch, we sent and received our first text messages to and from unmodified cell phones on the ground to our new satellites in space using T-Mobile network spectrum,” the company said in a report . SpaceX didn’t elaborate on the test, such as the speeds, latency, or other limitations. But the company did publish a photo showing two iPhones using the Starlink satellite to relay the text messages, although it looks like one of the sent message was lost during the transmissions. ... Still, the report notes that "launch and early tests of the technology were all completed without issue." The company adds that it had overcome serious cha...

 Business Insider: Future wars may not be decided solely by who can strike the fastest or hardest. Instead, it may come down to space, a domain that multiple top military powers see as full of endless possibilities. And in order for the US to win future wars, a top Marine general says, it must prioritize space capabilities and control the final frontier. "Space is the most resilient capability we have," Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, the deputy commandant for information, said at a conference on Monday, according to Defense News . "I'm telling you right now: We don't win the space domain? Don't even bother." The US military has made major jumps in space capabilities, but the quantity and quality of threats in space have also increased significantly in recent years, officials have said. Glavy called it "stiff competition." "No space, no chance," he said. The Pentagon has stated repeatedly in official policies and strategies tha...

 Space: NASA's Curiosity rover has found evidence of water on ancient Mars with "rippled textures" and "landslide debris" in the foothills of Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech I am not sure why the article uses the term "ancient" to describe Mars.  I suspect it is about the same age as Earth and the other planets.  It could be they are describing its past since it no longer appears to have any visible signs of existing water. See also: SpaceX Launched 23 Starlink Satellites From Florida, Nails Landing On Droneship

 Reuters: SpaceX's uncrewed spacecraft Starship, developed to carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, failed in space shortly after lifting off on Saturday, cutting short its second test but making it further than an earlier attempt that ended in an explosion. The two-stage rocketship blasted off from the Elon Musk-owned company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica in Texas, helping boost the Starship spacecraft as high as 90 miles (148 km) above ground on a planned 90-minute test mission to space and back. But the rocket's Super Heavy first stage booster, though it achieved a crucial maneuver to separate with its core Starship stage, exploded over the Gulf of Mexico shortly after detaching, a SpaceX webcast showed. Meanwhile, the core Starship stage boosted further toward space, but a few minutes later a company broadcaster said that SpaceX mission control suddenly lost contact with the vehicle. "We have lost the data from the second stage... we think we may have l...

    On the surface, this suit against Space X literally makes no sense.  Musk and Space X's lawyers should ask for a summary judgment against the DOJ.

 CBS News: Harvard professor believes he's found fragments of alien technology Harvard professor Avi Loeb believes he may have found fragments of alien technology from a meteor that landed in the waters off of Papua New Guinea in 2014. Loeb and his team just brought the materials back to Harvard for analysis. The U.S. Space Command can confirm with almost near certainty, 99.999%, that it came from another solar system. The government gave Loeb a 10 km (6.2 mile) radius of where it may have landed. ... "We found ten spherules. These are almost perfect spheres, or metallic marbles. When you look at them through a microscope, they look very distinct from the background," explained Loeb, "They have colors of gold, blue, brown and some of them resemble a miniature of the Earth." Their composition analysis showed that the spherules are made of 84% iron, 8% silicon, 4% magnesium and 2% titanium, plus trace elements. They are sub-millimeter in size. The crew found 50 of...

 Washington Post: U.S. is concerned about rivals’ space threats, leaked documents show Russia’s program is in tatters, hurt by sanctions and competition with SpaceX, but China’s growing presence and prowess in space is of mounting concern for Pentagon leaders. I think the answer for the US is a joint venture with Space X. 

 Daily Mail: Elon Musk's doomed Starship rocket sprayed debris over Texas coast and damaged car parked miles away as it obliterated its launch pad on takeoff - as FAA grounds the fleet after explosion ...   The explosion on Thursday occurred when the rocket failed to separate over the Gulf of Mexico, prompting SpaceX bosses to destroy it. Its mission was supposed to see the craft blast 150 miles high into the atmosphere before cruising for an hour and crashing into the Pacific Ocean. The rocket took off with promise when Starship ignited its 33 Raptor engines and lifted off the launch pad at 1,242 miles per hour. It reached a height of around 25 miles above the Earth when it was supposed to separate so that the booster would fall back to Earth and into the Gulf of Mexico, But the separation failed, sending the rocket into a spin and within seconds, the rocket detonated over the ocean. ... There is more. A classmate of mine from high school lives on Padre Island across the wate...

 Washington Post: SpaceX didn’t want to blow up its launchpad. It may have done just that. Videos shared on social media showed debris slamming into a van several hundred feet away and striking the nearby beach and the shoreline as if they were a war zone. A friend who now lives on Padre Island near the Boca Chica launch site showed how the explosion had rearranged the artwork on his wall. 

 Houston Chronicle: A newly discovered, 200-foot asteroid will come super close to our planet on Saturday. Dubbed 2023 DZ2, the space rock is expected to safely pass by Earth at less than half the distance of the moon, according to Earth Sky. Its closest approach is set to occur at around 2:51 p.m. CT. First detected by astronomers at the observatory of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain in late February and first announced on March 16 , 2023, DZ2 is currently estimated to be 210 feet in diameter, per Earth Sky. However, its true size could range between 141 and 312 feet in diameter. Classified as a Near Earth Object , the asteroid orbits the Sun every 3.16 years and traveling at a speed of 17,403 miles per hour, which is relatively slow compared to other asteroids astronomers have studied. "While close approaches are a regular occurrence, one by an asteroid of this size (140-310 ft) happens only about once per decade, providing a unique opportunity for science," tweet...