Tag: nasa

A Mysterious “Medical Concern” in Space Caused NASA to Cancel a Spacewalk—Here’s Everything We Know

A concerning development began unfolding in orbit on Wednesday, as NASA officials revealed a health incident that led to the postponement of a planned spacewalk aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

“NASA is postponing the Thursday, Jan. 8, spacewalk,” read a portion of a statement that appeared on the official ISS blog on January 7, adding that NASA officials were “monitoring a medical concern with a crew member that arose Wednesday afternoon aboard the orbital complex.”

The unnerving news from NASA arrived in the middle of a week already filled with unrest related to a tragic incident in Minneapolis, which involved the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an agent with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In NASA’s initial update, few details were provided about the nature of the “medical concern” that led to the postponement of the spacewalk, citing privacy issues that the agency said made it inappropriate “for NASA to share more details about the crew member” at that time.

“The situation is stable,” the statement from NASA Communications added, noting that “NASA will share additional details, including a new date for the upcoming spacewalk, later.”

Expedition 74 Sees an Interruption

The developments aboard the ISS arrived as NASA’s Expedition 74 crew had been completing final preparation for what would have been its first spacewalk of 2026.

According to initial plans, astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman were scheduled to conduct a six-and-a-half-hour excursion that would begin a series of power system upgrades, including installing hardware and routing cables for future roll-out solar arrays.

In addition to plans related to the spacewalk, the ISS crew has been involved in research this week that includes physics and microbiology experiments, with additional research involving Earth observation, studies on cryogenic fluid storage, ultraviolet microbial disinfection, and AI-assisted transcription of crew activity logs.

Amid the Expedition 74 team’s work, international crew members were also providing support for their operations, according to an update issued at the ISS blog earlier on the same day that the medical situation was later revealed. At that time, NASA officials said support teams had continued to undertake overnight imaging of Earth and maintenance of station systems, operations which were expected to continue during Thursday’s planned spacewalk.

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BACK TO THE MOON: NASA’s Artemis II Set To Send Astronauts Into Lunar Orbit as Soon as February

During the second year of Donald J. Trump’s second term, the US is going to make the moon great again.

This elusive goal, that no nation has attained since way back in 1972, is the number one priority of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), pushing the Mars mission further down the line.

The Artemis’ mission is to return American astronauts to the moon and establish a permanent lunar base — and it is finally about to launch its first crewed flight.

CNN reported:

“The landmark mission, dubbed Artemis II, is on track to lift off as soon as February. The highly anticipated endeavor will mark the first time astronauts have ventured beyond the bounds of near-Earth orbit since the final Apollo mission in 1972.

Artemis II will send a group of four astronauts — NASA’s Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch as well as the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen — on a trip around the moon.”

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Mysterious Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS “Comes Alive” Near the Sun — NASA on Alert

The much-anticipated interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS has finally reached its closest approach to the Sun — and it’s doing things no natural object should. As telescopes around the world capture its fly-by, early data reveals unexpected behavior, deepening one of the most intriguing space mysteries in years.

This massive, Manhattan-sized object is only the third known interstellar body to enter our solar system, after ‘Oumuamua (2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). But 3I/ATLAS is turning out to be the most enigmatic of all — and even NASA scientists are struggling to explain what they’re seeing.

A visitor unlike any other

Discovered in July by the ATLAS telescope in Chile, 3I/ATLAS immediately drew attention due to its hyperbolic trajectory, confirming that it originated beyond our solar system. But what truly astonished astronomers was its size and chemical makeup.

New data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) shows that the object’s coma — the glowing halo of gas and dust — is dominated by carbon dioxide (CO₂), with a CO₂-to-water ratio of nearly 8:1, far higher than any known comet. Scientists also noted a strange anti-tail — a stream of dust pointing toward the Sun rather than away from it — a phenomenon rarely seen and poorly understood.

Even more puzzling, the object emits a brilliant green hue, a sign that something “has switched on” as it neared the Sun, according to recent optical observations. Some astronomers suspect this is due to chemical excitation from solar radiation, while others say the spectral pattern doesn’t match any known natural process.

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Harvard Scientist Accuses NASA of Coverup About Mysterious Comet

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has once again leveled accusations against NASA during an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience, this time claiming the agency is deliberately withholding a key image of the mysterious interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS.

The alleged photograph, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), shows the comet when it passed within 30 million kilometers of Mars, which is a rare close encounter for an object originating from outside our solar system, according to Loeb, who chaired the Harvard’s Department of Astronomy from 2011 to 2020.

Loeb also said that he directly contacted the HiRISE principal investigator to request access to the data, but his request fell on deaf ears.

“I wrote to the principal investigator of HiRISE, asking, ‘Can I get the data? I’m a scientist,’” said Loeb, who said he received “no response” from NASA.

The comet, designated 3I/ATLAS, has exhibited several unusual characteristics that have fueled speculation. Unlike typical comets, it displays jet-like emissions directed toward the Sun rather than away from it, a phenomenon that defies standard models of cometary outgassing, the New York Post reports. Additionally, 3I/ATLAS lacks a visible cometary tail and has been observed spouting nickel without accompanying iron that compositions not commonly seen in natural solar system bodies.

Loeb has previously speculated that the Manhattan-sized object could be of alien origin, though he tempers this with caution. In his view, the more probable explanation is “terrestrial stupidity” rather than evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Nonetheless, the comet’s non-gravitational acceleration and its trajectory raise questions. Loeb has suggested these features could indicate reconnaissance activity if the object were artificial, though he emphasizes this as a low-probability scenario.

“If 3I/ATLAS is a massive mothership, it will likely continue along its original gravitational path and ultimately exit the Solar system,” Loeb wrote in a blog post in September. “In that case, the Oberth maneuver might apply to the mini-probes it releases at perihelion towards Solar system planets.”

“Science is guided by evidence and not by expectations,” the Harvard astrophysicist continued. “We can find the answer to the above question by monitoring the sky during November and December 2025, and searching for any unusual activity of 3I/ATLAS or any new objects that came out of it.”

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3I/ATLAS is Leaving a Mysterious “Hidden” Trail of Particles in Its Wake—Now Scientists Have a Plan to Intercept It

While comet 3I/ATLAS and its dusty tail remain far out of the reach of Earthly spacecraft, astronomers say the unusual interstellar object has produced a secondary “hidden” trail of charged particles marking its path through our solar system.

Now, a pair of scientists with the European Space Agency (ESA) has proposed a bold idea: it may be possible to sail a pair of NASA and ESA spacecraft through the mysterious visitor’s “ion tail.”

The idea was advanced by a pair of researchers in a new paper, which argues that the trajectory of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera spacecraft could allow them to pass directly through the trail of ions left in 3I/ATLAS’s wake.

Doing so might offer astronomers a rare opportunity to collect samples of material from other worlds, which the odd interstellar comet has ejected during its unprecedented visit.

Mission Into an Interstellar Object’s Odd “Ion Tail”

Between October 30 and November 6, 2025, the trajectories of the Europa Clipper and Hera space missions may briefly align with the ion trail left by 3I/ATLAS, allowing their instruments to collect information through detections of charged particles carried outward from the object by the solar wind.

“During the period 30 October – 6 November 2025, it is predicted that Europa Clipper will potentially be immersed within the ion tail of 3I/ATLAS, providing the opportunity to detect the signatures of an interstellar comet’s ion tail, write authors Samuel Grant and Geraint Jones in their paper, which appeared on the preprint arXiv.org server on October 15, 2025.

“Characteristic changes to the solar wind are also expected to be observed,” the authors say, which will likely include what they characterize as “a magnetic draping structure” potentially emanating from the comet.

Even prior to Europa Clipper’s potential passage through the mysterious ion tail of 3I/ATLAS, Grant and Jones believe that the ESA’s Hera spacecraft “will possibly be immersed within the ion tail of 3I/ATLAS during the period 25 October – 1 November 2025.”

Neither spacecraft will be endangered during their potential transit of the interstellar comet’s tail of charged particles, although the implications of doing so could end up being profound, in that they may offer the first opportunity to make indirect observations of material samples from another star system.

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NASA goes dark hours before first look at interstellar object moving closer to Earth

NASA has gone dark just hours before humans get the closest look at the mysterious object barreling through our solar system. 

The interstellar object dubbed 3I/ATLAS will come within 18 million miles of Mars on October 3, its closest flyby of any planet this year.

Two space probes orbiting the Red Planet, Mars Express and ExoMars, are preparing to take Earth’s best picture and closest scans of the strange visitor, which scientists have widely concluded is an unusual comet from a distant solar system. 

However, when those readings come in, America’s space agency may remain completely silent about what the object really is.

NASA has announced that its official website will not be updated during the government shutdown, which has resulted in thousands of federal employees being sent home without pay.

It’s unclear whether NASA staff will make any announcements regarding the object’s close pass by Mars, similar to the history-making press conference that revealed the discovery of microbial life on Mars in September.

The shutdown couldn’t have come at a worse time, as scientists say Friday’s flyby could answer many questions about the mysterious comet, including whether it’s actually an object of extraterrestrial origin.

Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has maintained that 3I/ATLAS has too many confounding characteristics to be a simple comet streaking through the solar system.

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“We’re Going to See An Astronaut Death”: Government Report Issues Dire Warning Over Trump’s Budget Cuts to NASA

With the US Federal government nearing a possible shutdown, the future of NASA hangs in the balance, and Senate investigators say the space agency’s legendary safety culture, born out of the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, is being systematically dismantled.

This is being achieved, officials warn, by a political campaign to impose unapproved budget cuts, leaving engineers afraid to speak and astronauts at heightened risk.

Under the Trump administration, budget proposals saw a 25% slash in NASA’s funding, dropping the space agency’s overall budget to $18.8 billion, down from just over $24 billion in 2020. Experts and NASA employees are concerned that this could mean not only the demise of several projects but also the loss of hard-learned safety protocols.

“The new culture of fear at NASA jeopardizes safety and security,” the 21-page report, written by members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, warns. The report cites whistleblowers who have “already seen safety impacts” from orders to enact President Trump’s fiscal-2026 spending plan, even though Congress has not agreed to it. 

The report states that these new internal budget shifts are part of an “illegal plot” that would ignore congressional funding levels. However, the courts have already established some precedent concerning their political swing towards the White House. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to temporarily withhold nearly $4 billion in previously appropriated foreign aid while the justices consider the constitutional issues. 

According to testimony collected over the summer, managers repeatedly told employees to shift their focus to do what was in the “PBR,” slang for the President’s Budget Request, and to disregard work that “is not in the PBR” because “it does not count.”

With everyone focused on shifting to the PBR, the report states that NASA employees are “keeping their heads down,” with one veteran engineer noting that workers fear bringing safety concerns forward, fearing retaliation.

The most alarming prediction came from a senior project leader who flatly warned that “we’re going to see an astronaut death within a few years” if the new directives persist. Internal accounts describe staff members avoiding written memos to prevent creating records that could later be used against them.

The President’s plan would eliminate nearly a quarter of NASA’s workforce and slash research lines ranging from Earth-science satellites to student internships that feed the agency’s talent pipeline. Committee analysts project those cuts would erase $46 billion in economic output over the next decade and shrink the supply of U.S. researchers by more than 10,000. Simply put, these numbers translate directly into fewer eyes checking designs, running simulations, and staffing mission control consoles. 

Yet whistle-blowers insist that the harm is not theoretical but is happening now, as managers have begun canceling projects funded in the current fiscal year appropriation. Leaked internal documents and emails show that NASA’s departments have all been told by the agency’s administration to pivot to the new Presidential budget, and “not any budget approved by Congress.” One message, dated June 27th, 2025, states, “We have to begin preparing to align our workforce and resources now to meet the mission priorities it outlines.”

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‘Massive’ comet hurtling toward us is larger than previously thought, could be alien tech, scientist says: ‘It could change everything for us’

Scientists have discovered that the 3I/ATLAS — a Manhattan-sized interstellar object that potentially has alien tech — is much larger than previously thought, according to a new report.

First discovered by NASA on July 1, the cosmic anomaly has been under watch by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb and his team as it shoots across the solar system. The object, which is believed to be a comet, reportedly has interstellar origins, making it the third ever object from beyond the solar system ever detected after ‘Oumuamua, which was discovered in 2017, and 2I/Borisov in 2019.

Now the team has gleaned some “sizable” new intel on the interstellar visitor, namely that the “mass of 3I/ATLAS must be bigger than 33 billion tons,” per a blog post by Loeb.

They arrived at this number by calculating the object’s trajectory to find that ATLAS’s “gravitational acceleration” is “smaller than 49 feet per day, squared,” Futurism reported.

This was then compared to how much mass it was shedding via gases and dust particles to determine the size.

Loeb and co. also found that the diameter of its solid-density nucleus must be larger than 3.1 miles — the upper limit of current projections that are based on observations by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This makes it larger than “three to five orders of magnitude” more massive than its predecessors, ‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.

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Galactic alert: NASA confirms mysterious object entering solar system is ‘interstellar’ visitor

A mysterious object hurtling through space has been identified as a rare “interstellar object,” only the third of its kind ever seen.

In July, NASA reported its ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Chile identified a comet that originated from interstellar space. Arriving in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius, the comet was dubbed 3I/Atlas.

The comet poses no threat to Earth – it will remain at a distance of about 150 million miles away – but is unique. According to Livescience, the object is traveling towards the sun extremely fast, around 152,000 mph and is on an flat and straight trajectory that’s unlike anything else in the solar system.

NASA has confirmed 3I/Atlas is an interstellar object, meaning it originated outside our solar system and is briefly traveling through it. It’s only the third such object to have ever been spotted after Comet 2I/Borisov passed through in 2019 and ‘Oumuamua, a cigar-shaped object that appeared in 2017 and sparked a social media fury after it was suggested it was an alien probe.

Scientists are studying the size and makeup of 3I/Atlas but NASA said it should be visible to ground-based telescopes through September, though after that it will pass too close to the sun to be seen. It will reappear on the other side of the sun by Sunday and remain visible through early December.

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NASA is no longer a space agency. Its new official status is pretty shocking. Here’s what happened

A new order by the Trump administration issued late last month states that NASA will operate as a national intelligence and security agency. According to it, the space agency will now have a different set of primary functions, which includes “intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work.” The revelation was made by NASA Watch founder Keith Cowing, as the issue didn’t exactly make headlines at the time. Keith was once a scientist at the space agency, and now closely watches everything that happens there. So, does this mean that NASA will go forward and develop spycraft instead of spacecraft? According to reports, the order is more about labour concerns rather than about the work NASA does. A report from Futurism states that the order adds “NASA to the Federal Service Labour-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS), excluding it from collective bargaining representation.”

This sparked discontent among NASA employees, who staged a protest outside NASA’s Washington, DC, headquarters earlier this week. The change in the status of the space agency came as the president eliminated the union rights for thousands of federal employees. Several lawsuits had been filed to stop the order. As this news made headlines, the thing about NASA becoming a spy agency was sidelined. However, that is expected to have labour implications for the people working at the agency. Government Executive quoted the vice president of the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians Association, Monica Gorman, as telling those gathered at the protest, “A huge part of the reason that I have that independence, and that my colleagues do, is that as a union-represented worker I know that I am protected from unfair retaliation.”

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