A year on from the purge, with thousands of jobs cut and billions in foreign aid lost, a former leader reflects on the sorry saga – and why it would never happen to Nasa

A year has passed since I and thousands of colleagues lost our jobs at USAID. Asking myself “Why us?” I have come to the conclusion that the American public had very little idea of what we were doing and why.

Doge, the “department of government efficiency”, began its work in January 2025, with USAID as its first target, in a reckless campaign that even Elon Musk has said he would not repeat. At that moment of chaos, Americans lacked the knowledge that could contradict the false narrative presented by Musk, who called the agency a “criminal organisation” and “a viper’s nest of radical left-marxists who hate America”.

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© Photograph: Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Drew Angerer/AFP/Getty Images

NASA launched its newest space telescope, undertaking its biggest mission yet to study the universe on a much larger scale. A roughly $4 billion project, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will allow scientists to get panoramic views of space and better understand the nature of powerful forces known as dark energy and dark matter. Miles O'Brien joined Amna Nawaz to discuss more.

Пройдет еще десятилетие, и дети, которые пошли в сентябре 2026 в школу, будут выбирать профессии вроде "удаленный оператор лунного/марсианского робота", ведь в ближайшие десятилетия в лунно-марсианский проект (точнее, гонку, поскольку это будет несколько конкурирующих проектов пилотируемых миссий и строительства баз) будут вовлечены все страны мира, которые смогут себе это позволить...

@avshkol взялся за перевод и выкладывает в этом посте главы и комментарии к "Human Exploration of Mars: Design Reference Architecture 5.0" - последнего (от 2009 года) из доступных в сети комплексного доклада NASA о способах и технологиях реализации обитаемой базы на Марсе. Этот документ описывает результаты изучения большими группами ученых и инженеров всех технических моментов освоения и изучения землянами Марса. Подобные документы скоро станут даже не учебниками, а базовыми текстами для введения в специальность для многих землян, выбирающих работу в начинающей рокит-расширение и стремительную экспансию во все сферы нашей жизни "дальнекосмической" отрасли.

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Since it was stripped of planetary status, Pluto’s defenders have been fighting the decision – and they’re only getting more passionate

Twenty years ago, Pluto got demoted. After a vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006, Pluto was relegated from major planet to dwarf planet status. Our solar system dropped from nine planets to eight. At the time, many scientists were unhappy with the decision. Two decades on, the debate is, if anything, even more polarised.

“The definition of a planet they created, you can’t use it at all,” says Philip Metzger, the director of the Stephen W Hawking Centre for Microgravity Research and Education at the University of Central Florida. “It makes the definition of a planet completely non-useful in science.”

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© Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

© Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

© Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

The bus-sized telescope — named after the late Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief astronomer — will take more than three months to reach its destination.

Searching for exoplanets and clues on planet formation, the Roman telescope begins million-mile journey from Florida launchpad

A $4.3bn space telescope that Donald Trump tried to kill has lifted off from Florida as Nasa embarks on the next stage of its quest to unlock the secrets of the universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope survived two rounds of proposed White House budget cuts, and began a million-mile journey into deep space from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday morning. .

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© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

Searching for exoplanets and clues on planet formation, the Roman telescope begins million-mile journey from Florida launchpad

A $4.3bn space telescope that Donald Trump tried to kill has lifted off from Florida as Nasa embarks on the next stage of its quest to unlock the secrets of the universe.

The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope survived two rounds of proposed White House budget cuts, and began a million-mile journey into deep space from a launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday morning. .

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

© Photograph: Joe Skipper/Reuters

NASA plans to soon launch a new space telescope that will survey a billion galaxies to trace how the universe evolved over time, all courtesy of America's spy program and decades of research into detector technology. Once in position, it will take data that astronomers hope will help answer some of the field's most puzzling questions.

President Donald Trump presented the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the three Americans and one Canadian whose April lunar flyby set a new distance record for humanity.

President Donald Trump is spending Friday in Houston, where he'll honor the Artemis II NASA crew for their 10-day mission around the moon earlier this year.