@realastro.bsky.social

136 Followers 79 Following 78 Posts Joined Nov 2024
9 hours ago

He should get a sign for the oval office that reads: "the buck stops somewhere else"

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3 days ago
Email from Chris Reynolds to the AXIS Team. Subject is disappointing AXIS news. Text of e-mail reads: Dear AXIS Friends,


The AXIS team has received some very disappointing news – we have been informed by NASA HQ that AXIS is not eligible for selection and hence the Concept Study Report (CSR) will not be subjected to the full review process.   


AXIS represents the scientific aspirations of a large international community. As a member of one of the AXIS science working groups, you deserve a candid explanation from the PI of what happened and why.  That is the purpose of this note.


NASA’s decision was programmatic and not based on a review of the technology or science; the mission profile described in the submitted CSR was over the allowed budget and schedule.  How was such a thing possible?   In short, with NASA-GSFC as the AXIS managing center, the mission formulation process was critically compromised by the seismic shifts occurring in NASA and the Federal government.  The AXIS study team was hit hard by three unprecedented challenges: 


NASA’s Deferred Resignation Program (DRP) and the pressure at GSFC to resign/retire created a rapid and uncontrolled loss of over 20 personnel with key expertise during a critical mission formulation period, including the main GSFC Project Manager (Jimmy Marsh) and the X-ray mirror lead (Will Zhang) and many discipline engineers. GSFC priorities rapidly realigned to the FY2026 President’s Budget Request (PBR) that eliminated the Probe program, further reducing the availability of GSFC engineering and mission formulation personnel (incl. cost analysts and schedulers) over the critical Summer and Fall months. Key work was halted for almost seven weeks when the core GSFC AXIS study team, dominated by NASA civil servants, was furloughed during the government shutdown.  NASA HQ’s extension to the CSR submission deadline (from 18-Dec-2025 to 29-Jan-2026) was inadequate compensation for the disruption and lost time.


Taken together, these factors disrupted the basic grass-roots costing process (which requires extensive “reach back” to the discipline engineers to assess labor requirements) as well as the cost-design iteration process that is central to the formulation of a cost-capped and schedule-constrained mission.  While the mission design was finalized in April, our initial grass-roots costing (which was ~10% over budget) could only be completed in September due to the lack of assigned resources.  With the subsequent government shutdown and then “pens down” in early-December forced by the GSFC Executive Review process, there was no opportunity to work through the set of cost/schedule savings that had already been identified by the AXIS team. 


Ultimately, the GSFC executive council gave AXIS leadership the choice of submitting a CSR with a non-compliant schedule and cost, or not submitting a CSR at all.  We of course proceeded with the submission, including a narrative that we understood the path to a cost-compliant profile (that we would have discussed with the review panels during the Site Visit). NASA HQ has ruled this stance to be unacceptable.


It is important to stress that NASA’s programmatic decision was before any technical review had been conducted.  The decision was NOT due to any concerns about AXIS technology. Indeed, the AXIS Phase A work had major successes with furthering Indeed, the AXIS Phase A work had major successes with furthering the key technologies. GSFC’s Next Generation X-ray Optics (NGXO) team successfully demonstrated iridium-coated, stress-compensated mirror segments that meet AXIS baseline requirements (i.e. segment-level performance at sub-arcsecond level).  NGXO also built the first AXIS demonstrator mirror module, learning critical lessons about mirror alignment, mounting and bonding. On the detector side, MIT quickly moved to fabricate AXIS-like CCDs and, working with our colleagues at Stanford, recently demonstrated that they achieve the required readout rate and spectral resolution. 


Similarly, NASA’s decision was NOT a judgment of the importance of AXIS science.  The AXIS science case was rated excellent in the Step 1 review, and it only became stronger during our Phase A study.  The AXIS Community Science Book, which many of you contributed to, is an extremely powerful demonstration of the relevance and importance of high-resolution X-ray observations to all areas of astrophysics. The Science Book is one of the most important legacies of the AXIS Phase A study and, I believe, will help define future mission concepts for many years to come.  I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for all of your work on this.


AXIS has been a long journey; we started under the leadership of Richard Mushotzky more than nine years ago.  During that time, it’s been an enormous privilege to work with amazing people; the AXIS science team, the incredible/brilliant GSFC and Northrop Grumman engineers, and the wider astrophysics community.  I am, quite frankly, livid that AXIS ultimately fell victim to the programmatic chaos of 2025. The astronomical community deserves better. I hope that NASA leadership, especially at GSFC and HQ, can have an honest discussion about how to better support and protect programs during extraordinary times. For now, as a community, we must look forward. There is still one excellent mission under consideration for the Probe program, PRIMA, and we wish them a smooth and speedy path to selection and flight.  In X-ray astronomy, the SMEX and MidEX programs represent concrete pathways for focused, high-impact missions, and the scientific case we built for AXIS provides a strong foundation for those concepts. The technologies we advanced in Step 1 and Phase A, particularly the NGXO mirror work and the MIT/Stanford detector demonstrations, can anchor the next generation of proposals. Most importantly, the AXIS Community Science Book, representing more than 500 scientists across, is a living document and a powerful signal to NASA leadership that this community is organized, serious, and not going anywhere. I encourage everyone to use it actively, as a resource for future concept development, for Astro2030 engagement, and for building the next mission that will deliver high angular resolution X-ray imaging to address the fundamental questions about black hole growth, galaxy evolution, and the hot universe that motivated AXIS from the beginning. This community built something remarkable over nine years and that doesn't end here.


Thank you again for your support of AXIS over these times.


Best

Chris and the AXIS leadership team

The @axisprobe.bsky.social team learned that the phase A concept study report of AXIS (the Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite) will not be reviewed because the lost personnel at NASA Goddard and government shutdown impacted our schedule and budget. 🔭 Here is the PI's e-mail with the explanation.

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5 days ago
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This plot from Jeremy Berg shows just how few new grants are being written by the math and physical sciences (MPS) directorate at NSF. And MPS is doing a lot better than other divisions.

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1 week ago
A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate of Biological Sciences.

2/10

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1 week ago
A pair of merging galaxies. The galaxy on the left has a single, large spiral arm curving out from the core and around to below it, with very visible glowing dust and gas. The right-hand galaxy has a bright core but only a bit of very faint material. A broad curtain of gas connects the two galaxies’ cores and hangs beneath them. A few small stars and galaxies are scattered around the black background.

Hubble image of Arp 107, also known as UGC 5984.

Gravitational interactions created the spiral galaxy's unusual shape and a bridge of gas and stars that connects the galaxy pair.

Credit: ESA, NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, DOE, FNAL, NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, SDSS
Source

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1 week ago

Q: "Do you ever get up in the morning and wonder why you sold your soul to be in this Administration?"

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1 week ago
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U.S. Troops Were Told Iran War Is for “Armageddon,” Return of Jesus Advocacy group reports commanders giving similar messages at more than 30 installations in every branch of the military

EXCLUSIVE: At more than 30 installations, U.S. commanders told troops the war on Iran is a Christian war.

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been “inundated” with more than 110 complaints.

One NCO said they were told the U.S. war is to bring about Armageddon and the return of Jesus…

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1 week ago

The FBI being on high alert for terrorist actions is important right now.

Too bad they fired and gutted their counterterrorism capacity

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2 weeks ago

Here’s a thought for James Comer.

There IS a First Lady who has had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. And it’s not Hillary Clinton.

It might be worthwhile for Comer to subpoena the First Lady who actually knows Epstein.

You know, just to see what she knows.

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2 weeks ago
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Justice Department withheld and removed some Epstein files related to Trump An NPR investigation finds the public database of Epstein files is missing dozens of pages related to sexual abuse accusations against President Trump.

least surprising story of 2026

www.npr.org/2026/02/24/n...

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2 weeks ago
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Satellite proposals threaten the night sky In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the agency responsible for authorizing satellite launches and operations…

The FCC just opened public comments on SpaceX's plan to launch a million satellites to do AI compute in space. Under the current proposal, an environmental review won't be required. Please consider submitting a public comment to oppose this damaging plan.
darksky.org/news/two-sat...

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2 weeks ago
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NGC 4388 is located about 60 million ly away in the constellation #Virgo. An ionised gas cloud can be seen, possibly due to a massive black hole at the center of the #galaxy.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. Veilleux, J. Wang, J. Greene

Link for more info: esahubble.org/images/potw2...

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2 weeks ago
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A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers Observers watching federal immigration enforcement in Maine who were told by agents they were "domestic terrorists" and would be added to a "database" or "watchlist" are now part of a new federal class action lawsuit.

Observers watching federal immigration enforcement in Maine who were told by agents they were "domestic terrorists" and would be added to a "database" or "watchlist" are now part of a new federal class action lawsuit. n.pr/4s6JWgo

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2 weeks ago
hawk perched on a branch

Seen perched over the birdfeeder this morning...

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3 weeks ago
YouTube
DOJ admits to violating 56 court orders YouTube video by Lawyer Oyer

In a stunning court filing, a senior DOJ official admitted that the government has violated dozens of court orders in immigration proceedings in recent weeks. And that’s just in the District of New Jersey—one of 94 federal district courts around the country. youtube.com/shorts/Ke7a6...

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3 weeks ago

One t in scots please. They’re not fertilizer.

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3 weeks ago
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A short note to Kristi Noem To a current Cabinet secretary from a former one

The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security has sent Google, Meta, and other media corporations subpoenas for the names on accounts that criticize ICE enforcement. The department wants to identify Americans who oppose what it’s doing. I’ll save them time.

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3 weeks ago
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Seems to me that he just admitted some things here. You?

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3 weeks ago

Not sure who needs to hear this but the voter fraud rate is a mere 0.000003%. Anyone telling you otherwise is making shit up so they can take away your right to vote.

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1 month ago
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Deciding it’s too dangerous to reveal just how unpopular the current president is seems like the worst poll result ever.

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1 month ago

Who could have guessed that a man who *bankrupted a casino* would do something like this?

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1 month ago
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Former Police Chief Said Trump Told Him ‘Everyone’ Knew of Epstein’s Actions

This strikes me as very unlikely.

Former Police Chief Said Trump Told Him ‘Everyone’ Knew of Epstein’s Actions www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/u...

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1 month ago
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Late afternoon sun on the loch at Queens View in Perthshire, Scotland. 😊☀️💙🤍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

#blueskyartshow #sunlight #landscape ##landscapephotography
#eastcoastkin
#nature #beauty #hope #peace 🕊

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1 month ago
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Local and State Police Can Investigate Federal Agents, But Rarely Do It doesn’t happen often, but local law enforcement can arrest and charge federal agents. Legal experts say there’s a moral obligation to at least try to hold federal immigration officers accountable w...

In California, police didn't investigate after two men were shot by federal immigration agents in separate incidents.

Police in Phoenix said they are leaving it to the FBI and ICE to probe the shooting of a man who allegedly fled immigration agents.

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1 month ago
YouTube
"What a Strange Thing": Sen. Whitehouse Demands the Truth on Minnesota, Trump Administration Fraud YouTube video by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

Sheldon Whitehouse in a fine fury. youtu.be/RpJ_U8okVUE?...

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1 month ago

I'm a Columbia Heights resident. ICE is still here, terrorizing, breaking laws, harassing people, causing chaos. Tell your family and friends. No matter what this administration's minions report: Nothing Has Changed.

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1 month ago
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NSA detected phone call between foreign intelligence and a person close to Trump Whistleblower says that Tulsi Gabbard blocked agency from sharing report and delivered it to White House chief of staff

NSA's whistleblower report is about contacts between foreign intelligence and someone close to Trump. Instead of acting on this information to protect the United States, Gabbard tipped off the White House and squashed an internal investigation to protect Trump.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

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1 month ago
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This is the type of letter you write and make public when you’ve discovered that the CIA is up to no good and can’t be trusted—and you have no confidence the people in charge care.

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1 month ago
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I want to laugh at it but sadly it’s true.

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1 month ago
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Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security has weaponized administrative subpoenas to attack free speech, according to privacy and civil rights groups.

This is really, really bad.
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

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