Former Astronaut Launches Texas Senate Run by Hitting Both Parties

Not being on anyone's short list for this role is exactly why I'm getting in the fight. D.C. insiders are calling the shots and we've ended up with chaos and corruption on one side and ineffective leadership on the other.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/23/u...

I feel like this is the purpose of NASA and the government — to invest money in the public good rather than in simply generating profits. I’m just one person within the massive teams it takes to make space missions a success, but being able to contribute even a few lines of code to this work is an incredible feeling.

i want to emphasize how these themes — that government should be a force for good, that huge teams of people working together are necessary to make it work, and that being part of one of those teams is incredibly meaningful — are universal in every conversation i've had for this series.

Using public data, I've found 40 NASA contracts totaling $42M canceled in the past few days, impacting climate science, DEI, education, and administration activities. $25.2M was already paid out, so resulting savings is $17 million. Running list of cancelations here: docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

An ochre toned image of Martian geological formations.

Beautiful shot captured yesterday by Curiosity in the canyon between Gould Mesa and Texoli Butte

#Mars Mar. 18, 2025 (Sol 4484) 🧪🔭
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/fredk

The DSS galaxy (a red blob)

The Euclid galaxy (you can now see arms! detail! it's amazing)

The new EULICD data release is AMAZING! 🔭

Here's a before / after of a random galaxy I found in one of the new images, comparing against the Digitized Sky Survey.

I highly recommend taking a look around on ESA Sky - it's fun! Link: sky.esa.int/esasky/?targ...

Simulated view of the earth and moon on March 19th (time of this post) viewing the southern hemisphere. The geometry seems to work out that no matter which lunar terminus the lander is on, the earth would be viewed from the moon as a crescent, not a gibbous as the original post suggested

Yeah I was thinking maybe something with the orbital positions + Earth being fixed in the sky from the Moon’s perspective could possibly make it a gibbous earth. But looked up a quick little tool to visualize where the moon is right now, and I’m thinking it *has* to be a overexposed crescent

I’m inclined to think you’re correct Ollie. Although I’m interested to see if someone can explain how it would in fact be a gibbous earth… 🤔

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What’s lighting the surface? Amazing pic, but the lighting is confusing to my poor brain 🤣

This is what Firefly's Blue Ghost lander saw as the Sun set on Sunday.

The Sun is the bright lightsource at the horizon.

At top is Earth (you can't quite tell it's gibbous).

And that bright star between the two is Venus. I have never seen a photo of Venus from the surface of the Moon before.

One more--this is just so cool:

Firefly Aerospace has released the full image sequence of a solar eclipse from the surface of the Moon. The dark object moving in front of the Sun is Earth. The lunar landscape is lit red by all the sunrises & sunsets in the world. 🧪

fireflyspace.com/news/blue-gh...

The nominated NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman does not appear positioned to fight for the agency.

"People shouldn't waste heartbeats on rumor and speculation." followed just 2 days later by the exact rumors coming to fruition with the agency not even trying to fight back.

Tesla is currently experiencing a RIF in valuation

Fox News just said the U.S. doesn't have anything like China's Belt and Road Initiative, which is hilarious. We did. It was called USAID.

This is what the surface of a comet looks like.

More cinematographers should be directors. Holy shit

NSF is incredibly unrooted from reality. Good on you for speaking up

NASA Astronaut Recruitment Faces Trump’s Moves Against D.E.I. (Gift Article) The government space agency has vocally promoted diversity and inclusion for decades, even during the first Trump administration.

An important part of our job as NASA Astronauts is to inspire our next generation of space explorers. We can't accomplish that mission if we can only connect with a fraction of the kids in America. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/s...

So long Twitter, and good riddance

The other reason most likely is that they are not sure if Endurance will be ready in time. There were doubts about this from the beginning, hence the references to spacecraft readiness, FRR in first announcement. Some internal mission ops voices apparently said "April" without cutting corners...

I was the Commander of the @ISS when Andy, @Astro_Andreas flew his first space mission. He is one of the most competent, trustworthy, and honest people I’ve ever met. This rhetoric is beyond the pale but, sadly, not surprising. He does not deserve this kind of disrespect.

A phone picture of the Washington Monument at night with the waxing crescent moon right next to a very bright Venus.

Lucky shot on my way home from the National Portrait Gallery: the Washington Monument with the crescent moon (my fave phase!) right next to Venus. I’m choosing to see this as a good omen from the universe (🤞).

Same way we judge cars by horsepower even though no one uses horses to gauge power 🤭

It’s definitely still a tweet. Twitter doesn’t exist anymore remember? 🤭

Friends, I've been thinking about this for a few years now, but the events this week have made it clear that now is the time.

It's time to work to establish a professional planetary science society in the United States.

A 🧵

Ever wonder what snow in the swamp would look like? This is 5 miles into the Louisiana swamps in the Atchafalaya basin... it's unreal... having lived down there for the first 28 years of my life, we never saw anything like this.

Smashed records.

Curtesy of Garrett Roberts.

An image of Earth from a lander going to the Moon

Firefly's Blue Ghost lander on its way to the Moon just took this pretty awesome Blue Marble image of Earth.

Comet

Looks like Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS’s days may be numbered… the comet has faded & may have broken up post-perihelion as the nucleus fades from view, leaving a ‘tail-less wonder’ crossing the sky. Here's a great parting view w/ESO’s Paranal Observatory by Yuri Beletsky: www.instagram.com/p/DFF3LKtpIz4/