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Astronauts arrive at ISS for 8-month mission after medical emergency forced early evacuation

FOX News

Four astronauts from the U.S., France and Russia successfully arrived at the International Space Station via SpaceX rocket on Saturday, restoring full crew capacity.



Why has Elon Musk merged his rocket company with his AI startup?

The Guardian

A key part of the SpaceX-xAI deal's rationale is to move datacentres - the central nervous system of AI tools - into space. A key part of the SpaceX-xAI deal's rationale is to move datacentres - the central nervous system of AI tools - into space. Why has Elon Musk merged his rocket company with his AI startup? SpaceX's acquisition of xAI creates business worth $1.25tn but whether premise behind deal will work is questioned The acquisition of xAI by SpaceX is a typical Elon Musk deal: big numbers backed by big ambition. As well as extending "the light of consciousness to the stars", as Musk described it, the transaction creates a business worth $1.25tn (£920bn) by combining Musk's rocket company with his artificial intelligence startup.


China applies to launch 200,000 satellites into space, sparking concerns they plan to build a 'mega-constellation'

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Each of these enormous collections of spacecraft, dubbed CTC-1 and CTC-2, would contain 96,714 satellites spread over 3,660 different orbits. If completed, China's new mega-constellation would dwarf even SpaceX's bold ambition to put 49,000 Starlink satellites in orbit. Together, CTC-1 and CTC-2 would be the largest assembly of satellites ever put in orbit, and would effectively lock competitors out of a region of low-Earth orbit. With Chinese authorities remaining quiet about the satellites' intended use, experts have raised concerns that the constellation may pose a security or defence threat. As reported by China in Space, the Nanjing University of Aeronautics claims that the satellites will focus on: 'Low-altitude electromagnetic space security, integrated security defence systems, electromagnetic space security assessment of airspace, and low-altitude airspace safety supervision services.'



America's Journey in Space Is About to Face Its Most Consequential Moment in Half a Century. Everyone Agrees: It's a Complete Disaster.

Slate

America's great journey in space is about to face its most consequential moment in half a century. Everyone agrees: It's a complete disaster. I. Artemis, We Have a Problem As you may have heard, NASA plans to send a crew of astronauts around the moon in early 2026, followed by a lunar landing in 2027. Or maybe you haven't heard. When I told one of my daughters about this plan to send people to the moon, she said, after a long silence: "But I thought we already sent a bunch of people there a long time ago." This is a standard response when I quiz people about Artemis, NASA's program to return to the moon, and this time to stay . It's named for Apollo's twin sister and the goddess of the moon and the hunt. The other day, I was in a gaggle with six neighbors, all highly informed professional people--two of them with long careers at the National Science Foundation--and none knew anything about Artemis except one thing: It's a plan to send people to Mars. Artemis is a moon mission. There is no Mars mission NASA has no Mars rocket, no Mars capsule, no Mars mission crew. What it does have is a very troubled moon program. Artemis faces fundamental engineering challenges that have called into question the program's basic architecture. Reconfiguring a mission this important is hard in the best of times, but the agency is being forced to do it during a year of unprecedented internal turmoil. A new administration always means turnover, but NASA has been in an uncontrolled spin every bit as alarming as the one Neil Armstrong famously pulled out of during in 1966. More than a year ago, President-elect Donald Trump nominated a billionaire entrepreneur and Elon Musk ally, Jared Isaacman, to become NASA administrator. It was an unconventional choice, but Isaacman drew support from many quarters in the space community. Then, right before Isaacman was poised for confirmation by the Senate, Trump and Musk had a nasty falling-out, and Trump yanked Isaacman's nomination. Since Inauguration Day, NASA had been run by acting administrator Janet Petro, a veteran agency official, and with Isaacman out, she remained in charge until one day in July when Trump suddenly named Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy as interim administrator.