The primary purpose of this spacecraft would be to allow companies to manufacture high-value products in the vacuum and microgravity of space (e.g., semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, lab-grown tissues) and safely return them to Earth at scale. The goal being to create self-sustaining commercial in-space manufacturing.

Another planned use, point-to-point cargo delivery: The capsules can be launched on Falcon 9 or Starship vehicles and dropped via suborbital trajectories to deliver critical, high-value payloads to specific locations globally within rapid timelines.

OK I’m going to say it. Something like this could SOMEDAY also be used for last stage delivery of raw materials mined from asteroids.

Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System

The $368 million network of instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific has been critical to climate and ocean research.

The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate.

The National Science Foundation said it would send ships in June to begin removing more than 900 deep-sea instruments anchored off Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina, and an area between Greenland and Iceland known as the Irminger Sea.

Scientists have used data from the system to understand how the ocean is absorbing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, how changes in ocean temperature such as marine heat waves might affect fisheries or signal bigger shifts in the climate, and coastal flooding along the East Coast.

The station in the Irminger Sea has been key to understanding changes in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a global conveyor belt of water that some scientists are concerned may be weakening as a result of climate warming. A collapse of the current could have severe and far-reaching weather effects.

The Irminger Sea moorings are fixed to seafloor 9,200 feet below the surface and are part of an international collaboration among scientists who are studying the overturning current.

Michael England, a spokesman for the National Science Foundation, said the decision to dismantle the network, known as the Ocean Observatories Initiative, “aligns with N.S.F.’s wider strategy to have a nimbler approach to prioritizing support for evolving scientific priorities and emerging technologies as well as a deliberate approach to smart life cycle management within its portfolio of research infrastructure.”

Craig McLean, who was the acting chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during the first Trump term, said the move was part of a pattern in the Trump administration.

“This reflects the further lack of understanding that the current administration has of scientific value and scientific merit,” Dr. McLean said. “By dismantling such a system, we push the United States back yet again into a rear seat in global scientific leadership.”

The ocean observation system began operating in 2016 and was expected to continue for 25 years. Jim Edson, a marine meteorologist who led the Ocean Observatories Initiative, called it “the world’s most advanced continuously operating ocean observing systems.” When it was first proposed, the science foundation said it was important to have a long-term presence at scientifically important sites in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Removing the instruments could take 15 months. Seismic instruments positioned around an active underwater volcano off Oregon will continue operating until 2028.

Each observation station consists of several moorings that secure long arrays of devices connected to wires. The devices measure ocean currents as well as chemical and biological conditions from the water’s surface down thousands of feet.

The instruments were hardened to resist the pressure of the deep ocean, corrosive seawater as well as marine plants and animals that can foul electronics. Remotely controlled robotic vehicles and gliders around the moorings collect and transmit data to research laboratories.

Funded by the National Science Foundation, the network was coordinated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in collaboration with Rutgers University, the University of Washington and Oregon State University. A Woods Hole spokeswoman referred questions to the N.S.F.

It cost $48 million annually to operate the network. The Trump administration repeatedly tried to shutter it, proposing to cut its funding by 80 percent in both 2025 and again in 2026. Congress pushed back, restoring the money.

To try to reduce costs, managers turned off some of the instruments and collected less data, according to a December 2025 presentation about the observatories at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, a nonprofit organization of scientists.

Still, the science foundation moved ahead to decommission the observatory network.

Hilary Palevsky, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Boston College, has been using data from the Irminger instruments for the past decade to better understand how the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Scientists have benefited from downloading data from remote ocean instruments, rather than making difficult, dangerous and expensive trips to sea each year. Pulling up the instruments without a plan to store them or to continue collecting data “is very hasty,” she said.

“One of the real tragedies here is that collecting data effectively at this site was a huge engineering challenge, and it’s not the kind of thing where you can just leave your notes for the next person who comes in,” Dr. Palevsky said. “There’s a lot of expertise that has the potential to be lost.”

The $48 million annual budget for the observation network was small compared with the value of the data it collected for understanding the oceans and the climate, Dr. McLean said.

The observation station off Cape Hatteras, N.C., collected data about coastal currents that influence the weather and commercial fisheries along the U.S. East Coast.

Mike Muglia, professor of coastal studies at East Carolina University, used the data to understand waves, currents and sea life for a marine renewable energy test site in Nags Head, N.C., that was funded by the Energy Department.

Moorings that stretch west off the coast of Newport, Ore., and Grays Harbor, Wash., captured temperature, acidity, and oxygen content data that is key to predicting climate-related environmental changes as well as the health of the region’s commercial fishing industry. Another station is anchored 620 miles offshore in the central Gulf of Alaska.

It seems this m****r f****r just cannot leave this earth soon enough before destroying it for future generations.

U.S. Space Force Could Send Troops To The Moon As Lunar Rivalries Heat Up

The U.S. may send Space Force troops to the Moon to protect national interests and secure leadership in the next space race.

The United States is facing a new frontier of competition in space as both it and China race to establish a permanent human presence at the Moon’s south pole. A recent report by The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies suggests that America may need to deploy active-duty Space Force personnel not only in orbit but eventually on the lunar surface, signaling a potential military dimension to humanity’s next great leap.

Rising Lunar Tensions Between The U.S. And China

The report paints a clear picture of escalating stakes in the space race. China’s rapid advancements in human spaceflight, including the completion of the Tiangong space station and continuous low-Earth orbit presence, have sparked concerns about strategic dominance. The paper warns that

“China’s military-led space habitation and lunar ambitions” pose for U.S. national security. Pumroy argues that the U.S. human spaceflight and Moon programs “have been marred by inconsistency in vision, policy, and funding, allowing China to gain steady ground over time.”

This combination of ambition and capability positions China to potentially set the rules for lunar exploration and economic development.

The Strategic Importance of Lunar Infrastructure

According to the Mitchell Institute, whoever establishes a durable, defendable infrastructure from low-Earth orbit to the Moon will effectively control norms, standards, and legal frameworks for lunar habitation and the emerging lunar economy.

“On the present trajectory, China is poised to achieve positional advantage in setting norms, standards, and legal frameworks for lunar habitation and lunar economy,” the report reads.

This highlights why the U.S. may need to rethink its approach to space beyond robotic missions and traditional satellite operations, focusing instead on human presence with clear authority and operational capabilities.

Preparing The Space Force For Human Missions

The report argues that the U.S. Space Force should begin developing a military human spaceflight program now. This would equip Guardians to operate in orbit and on the Moon with Title 10 authority, granting the Department of Defense the power to organize, train, and deploy forces globally. “The United States must ensure it wins that right, but it will demand properly trained, organized, and equipped Guardians in space who are empowered with Title 10 authorities,” Pumroy emphasizes. Beyond defense, such missions could secure critical lunar resources and reinforce U.S. influence over international space standards.

Legal And Political Challenges In The Moon Race

While the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibits military operations on celestial bodies and forbids claims of sovereignty over the Moon, the report stresses that geopolitical realities may force the U.S. to prepare for scenarios where treaties are insufficient. China’s consistent territorial assertions in other regions are cited as a potential indicator that international agreements might not prevent disputes in space. The report frames this as a matter of strategic foresight: without clear preparation, the U.S. risks ceding a position of influence to China in shaping the governance of lunar activities.

The Future Of Space Security And Human Exploration

Space already hosts a heavy military presence through satellites for surveillance, communications, and navigation, but human deployment on the Moon would mark a dramatic escalation. Establishing a crewed presence capable of defense and operational authority could redefine the concept of space security and ensure U.S. interests are protected in an increasingly contested environment. The Mitchell Institute report positions this human-led strategy as both a defensive necessity and a strategic tool to maintain parity with China’s expanding capabilities.

Important to note that China has no distinction between it’s military and civilian space programs like the US does. It’s all done under the Chinese Military.

Hopefully it won’t be Trump setting “norms and standards”.

First of all, let’s define self-sustaining. It doesn’t mean never receiving supplies from earth; it means a base/colony could support its population without those supplies. That scenario would likely mean very Spartan living but nonetheless be self sustaining. A potential 100% autarky. For a colony on the Moon or Mars to be able to do that, there would obviously need to be a minimum population level. Musk believes that for Mars that number is upwards of one million people. I would tend to agree that a population that size should be able to create a division of labor that could meet all its own needs.

Establishing a population of that size would take thousands of Starship launches to transfer the crew, equipment and resources needed to jump start such an off-world civilization. Musk’s plan is to be able to eventually launch 10 Starships per day during the earth-Mars launch windows. That’s about 250 launches every 26 month window. In that optimistic scenario a million+ Mars colony could be established in a half century. That accounts for others (Blue Origin, ULA, China, India, Russia, etc) getting into the Mars transport game as well, which is a strong likelihood once a base is fairly established.

That process may begin sooner than we thought. SpaceX just announced they are moving their first unmanned cargo flights to Mars up to the December 2028 launch window (from the previous 2030 window). This aggressive timeline is probably unrealistic, especially since Starship has yet to even have a single orbital flight. But it is a deliberate strategy similar to JFK’s moon landing before 1970 challenge. It makes SpaceX workers live with a barely plausible timeline, and pushes them to work harder and more aggressively. If you set timelines that are too lenient, people work slower because there is no urgency.

That’s called Parkinsons Law: Work expands to fit the timelines. Projects will add more items to be checked off, more inspections to be done, create new roles, new studies, add more committees and bureaucracy and meetings, etc. Aggressive timelines force cutting away everything but the absolute necessary. It makes engineers immediately start looking at things in terms of: can this be done? If not, why? Breaking the task down until you get to a minimal set of problems to solve. It may still take longer than planned but that’s better than creating a long timeline only to find bottlenecks way down the road.

Prepositioning equipment on Mars several years before the first humans arrive was championed by Zubrin’s Mars Direct vision three decades ago. Only now it is planned on a larger scale and with a likely nuclear reactor. The difference between now and then is a soon-to-be Trillionaire who has the lifelong dream to make it happen. Yeah Musk is a douche bag, but we all have to be cheering for him to make this a reality.

Judge Kathleen Williams has had enough.
In a brief but devastating order Friday, the federal judge in Miami reopened Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS — a case Trump had voluntarily dismissed last week specifically to avoid her scrutiny — and ordered Trump’s lawyers to explain by June 12th why she shouldn’t find that the entire scheme was a fraud perpetrated against her court.
The judge’s language was pointed and precise. She said she wanted to investigate “grievous allegations” that the deal to resolve the case was “premised on deception.” She asserted that she was “empowered to investigate serious misconduct” and demanded answers to two devastating questions: was “the court the victim of a fraud,” and did Trump collude with his own government to settle the case specifically “to avoid judicial scrutiny”?
The answer to both questions, based on everything that has already been reported, appears to be yes.
Judge Williams had been circling this case for weeks before Trump pulled it. She had openly questioned how Trump could sue an agency he controls, with government lawyers who answer to him, producing a settlement negotiated with officials he appointed. She ordered both sides to explain whether they were actually adversaries or secretly colluding. Trump dismissed the case the day before those briefs were due.
Then, after she closed it, the Justice Department released not one but two extraordinary agreements — a $1.776 billion fund to compensate Trump’s allies, and a separate one-page document permanently barring the IRS from ever auditing Trump, his family, or his businesses. Agreements that had apparently been negotiated while the case was supposedly active before her court.
Judge Williams cited the New York Times report revealing that the IRS had prepared a 25-page memo outlining strong defenses against Trump’s suit — defenses the Justice Department never raised in court, never filed, never mentioned.
Her order came directly in response to the filing by 35 former federal judges — appointed by presidents of both parties — who called the scheme a fraud and urged her to reopen the case.
She listened.
“We stand ready to work with the court as it investigates this matter,” said Norman Eisen, who represented the former judges.
Trump tried to flip the table before she could see the cards. She just put them back on the table.
I can’t wait to see the Justice Department try to explain this one!

Some of those are long range (1100 miles) that have hit deep inside Russia, striking oil depots and refineries, military bases, supply routes. They even forced the temporary ceasefire and downsizing of Russia’s annual Red Square military parade. Others are shorter range battlefield drones that are decimating Ruskie forces. The Ruskies are losing about 10k soldiers per month, their offensive capability has been completely stalled and they are actually losing ground. More ominous for Putin is the growing anger of the Russian people and the grumbling of the military. Over four years of all out war and a million + causualties for a conflict that was expected to be over in a matter of days. Media control and propaganda can’t hide losses on this scale forever.

What this new level of drone warfare says about the future of combat is another issue. If smaller powers can now compete on the battlefield with major military powers in direct all out combat, the world is not the same. It changes the game for every conflcit in the world. And when AI starts taking control of the combat drones from human operators what then?

Skynet?

Well that is a huge setback for not only Blue Origin but the lunar program too. NASA had just selected Blur Origin to land equipment on the moon over the next couple years. Seemed premature before this. Now, those plans are probably dead in the water.

Firefly Areospace Awarded $179 Million NASA Contract for Moon Delivery to Gruithuisen Domes.

These odd geological structures should not exist without water and tectonic plates, so this should be a great mission of discovery if all goes well!

Gruithuisen Domes: A Lunar Mystery

Trump was referring to the talks Oman is in with Iran to potentially charge a toll for ships passing through the Straight of Hormuz. I’m sure these mindbogglingly stupid threats to yet another ally are doing us absolutely no good. And of course this toll situation wasn’t even imaginable before Trump’s idiotic, haphazard, disorganized, erratic war.

Meantime, no oil is passing through the Straight, and potentially much worse neither is fertilizer that many of the world’s nations need to grow food. Iran is negotiating from a position of strength, not weakness. No regime change, no limits on nukes, missile sites mostly rebuilt, stranglehold on the world economy, and laughing while watching Trump squeal like a fat little pig that he is.

The primary application of the new material is in lunar resource extraction technologies. NASA envisions systems capable of melting Moon rocks to isolate metals and oxygen, which could then be used for constructing habitats, manufacturing tools, or producing rocket fuel. The material could serve as durable linings for pipes, basins, and other containment systems exposed to molten lunar dust.

Beyond lunar use, the compound’s lightweight, thermally insulating, and high-temperature resistant properties suggest possible applications in aerospace engineering. Jet engine components, which endure extreme heat, could benefit from coatings derived from this new material. The discovery exemplifies how extraterrestrial research often drives innovations with practical terrestrial benefits.

Live off the land as much as you can.