Missing in Action: The National Space Council
In more serious news, the Senate and House united in opposing major NASA cuts. Now it's up to the White House to decide whether it will listen. And rumors are flying around the space industry about whether anyone actually wants to lead the National Space Council.
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The Spotlight
No one wants to run the National Space Council, if you follow the rumors rocketing through space circles that at least three people have declined the job.
The reality is … more earthly.
I broke the news in early May that the White House would restaff the council, which coordinates space policy across the federal government. The group is viewed as influential, in part because by statute the vice president chairs it.
Two months after the decision, the administration still hasn't made any staffing announcements. The White House did not respond to my request for comment on what progress it has made in standing up the council, which consists of an executive secretary and several officials.
Rumor mill: Industry circles have filled the void with all manner of speculation. Four industry officials, granted anonymity to discuss private conversations, said they had heard that former Space Force Gen. Jay Raymond, ex-National Space Council executive secretary Scott Pace, and former Office of Space Commerce head Kevin O'Connell all declined the position.
So I asked them.
The gossip appears to have been just that. Raymond said he had not been offered the job and had no plans to return to government service. O'Connell said he had not been approached. Pace said he had no plans to go back.
Status check: It's quite possible the White House simply hasn't started the process of choosing an executive secretary.
The National Space Council, and space in general, is usually pretty low on the agenda of new administrations. Chirag Parikh, the executive secretary for the Biden administration's National Space Council, didn't assume the role until eight months after former President Joe Biden took office.
The attention of the executive branch is also focused on other pressing issues, from Ukraine to the recent passage of President Donald Trump's reconciliation bill. There's also the matter of choosing a full-time NASA administrator.
Give us a sign: The swirl of rumors may have more to do with the space industry's eagerness to believe the White House cares about space.
Many in the space sector are supportive of reviving the National Space Council. O'Connell, the former Office of Space Commerce head, said he hoped it would get going soon so officials could tackle issues such as the Golden Dome missile defense shield and advancing the space economy. The House appropriations subcommittee that covers civil space voted this week for almost $2 million in funds for a council.
But even if the search for staff is in full swing, it's a bit like finding a needle in a haystack. Any candidate must have experience with space issues, be ready to defend the administration's controversial space policy, be willing to forgo a lucrative private sector job, and have no ties to Trump's adversaries. That list includes Democrats, Elon Musk, and former Vice President Mike Pence, who headed the Space Council under the first Trump administration.
For now, space enthusiasts may just have to cross their fingers and wait.
Galactic Government
ALL TOGETHER NOW: Both the House and Senate issued a clear 'no thanks' to steep White House cuts to NASA, presaging a political battle if the White House tries to bully its version through.
The administration has proposed a nearly 25 percent cut to the agency. But the Senate appropriations subcommittee voted along partisan lines on Thursday to fund NASA at $24.9 billion, or the same as in 2025. The split was due in part to a disagreement over a bill provision unrelated to NASA.
Chair Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) told me last week that the bill would be a 'normal' appropriation. Ranking member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said it would fund NASA science programs at $7.3 billion, the same as in 2025 and a rejection of the White House's proposed $3.4 billion cut. The House subcommittee that oversees NASA also voted this week for a budget on par with previous years at $24.8 billion.
The House budget differs from 2025 in that it would boost space exploration by $2 billion and cut science funding by $1 billion. Democrats voiced opposition to the cuts to science programs.
What next: What happens now is anyone's guess. The White House could seek to push the cuts through anyway. But that would pick a political fight with the administration's Republican allies, most notably NASA supporter Ted Cruz(R-Texas) — a potentially bruising battle for a few billion dollars.
Military
EYE IN THE SKY: Commercial satellite companies, take heart. The House Armed Services Committee this week voted to increase funding for a Space Force program that uses the businesses' spy photos.
The Space Force effort, dubbed the Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Program, supplies commercial imagery to deployed forces and was used to help soldiers evacuate from Niger in 2024. The House National Defense Authorization Act would raise its funding by $10 million, and turn the pilot program into a more permanent $50 million one.
Why it matters: Commercial satellite imagery companies, in a rare public outcry, protested proposed White House cuts to National Reconnaissance Office contracts for the companies' imagery. This is particularly key to Ukraine, which relies on U.S. commercial satellite pictures for its battle plans.
But even if the companies lose clients as part of the White House cuts, they could gain some funding through the Space Force program.
The Reading Room
Musk's SpaceX Plans Share Sale That Would Value Company at About $400 Billion: Bloomberg.
Lawmakers Want DoD Briefings on Nuke Propulsion, VLEO, Commercial PNT: Payload
Space Force sets guidelines prioritizing military missions as launch demand surges: SpaceNews
The ISS is nearing retirement, so why is NASA still gung-ho about Starliner? Ars Technica
Event Horizon
MONDAY:
NASA will hold a news conference on the joint U.S.-Indian Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite.
TUESDAY
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics's ASCEND 2025 conference starts in Las Vegas.
The Space Foundation holds the 'Innovate Space: Global Economic Summit.'
The Mitchell Institute hosts a webinar with Space Force Brig. Gen. Jacob Middleton.
Making Moves
Andrew Lock has joined the public policy team at Project Kuiper, Amazon's constellation of low-earth orbit satellites. He most recently was principal at Monument Advocacy, and was a staffer in both the House and Senate.
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'Doghouse' days of summer — Boeing's Starliner won't fly again until 2026, and without astronauts aboard
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Traffic at the International Space Station (ISS) is busy, with spacecraft coming and going almost every few weeks recently. Astronauts with the private Ax-4 mission undocked early July 14 to make way for SpaceX's upcoming Crew-11 mission for NASA, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon left the station at the end of May, and a Russian Progress cargo spacecraft arrived July 5, with its predecessor set to depart next month. By the end of the year, nearly a half-dozen other spacecraft will launch to the ISS, delivering crew, cargo, research and technology demonstrations. It's one of the busiest eras the orbital laboratory has ever experienced, as recent years, especially, have seen a high increase of activity. But absent from the mix of shuffling spacecraft, at least for the rest of 2025, is Boeing's Starliner. The last update provided about the stalled but stalwart space capsule announced a suite of tests set for this summer at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. NASA and Boeing had hoped to have those tests completed and fixes determined to ready Starliner for another flight by the end of this year, but that timeline seems to have slipped. NASA officials say they are now working toward the goal of launching Starliner again no sooner than early 2026. Starliner launched on its first astronaut mission, known as Crew Flight Test (CFT), in June 2024, carrying NASA astronauts Sunita "Suni" Williams and Butch Wilmore to the ISS on a mission expected to last about a week. It wasn't the spacecraft's first flight — Starliner launched on two uncrewed orbital flight tests (OFTs), one in 2019 and the other in 2022. OFT-1 was meant to dock with the ISS, but a software anomaly led to an incorrect orbital insertion burn that prevented the rendezvous altogether. A few inflight hiccups notwithstanding, OFT-2 addressed the issues of its predecessor mission, reached the ISS and successfully paved the way for the spacecraft's first flight with astronauts onboard. On their way to the ISS, Williams and Wilmore put Starliner through its paces, performing a series of maneuvering tests before its final approach and docking with the space station. Unfortunately, their shakedown cruise was a little too shaky. Four protective enclosures known as "doghouses" are mounted around the perimeter of Starliner's service module. Each contains a cluster of reaction control system (RCS) thrusters used for attitude control and fine maneuvering. Starliner's OMAC (Orbital Maneuvering and Attitude Control) thrusters are also located within the doghouses. Both systems use helium pressurization and the same propellants delivered through a shared network of feed lines and valves, creating a complex and interconnected system within each housing. Once CFT was on orbit, Starliner experienced multiple helium leaks traced to components within these doghouses, as well as the in-flight failure of five out of its 28 RCS thrusters. As a result, Williams and Wilmore's stay aboard the ISS was extended multiple times while NASA and Boeing troubleshot the issues from the ground. Out of an abundance of caution, the decision was ultimately made to return Starliner to Earth without the astronauts aboard. Starliner's return happened without incident in September, with the spacecraft successfully parachuting down for an uncrewed landing in White Sands, New Mexico. (NASA would later indicate that the CFT crew would have been fine returning on Starliner, but, as with all things space, better safe than sorry.) Meanwhile, Williams and Wilmore were absorbed into the ISS long-term crew rotation and made part of SpaceX's Crew-9 mission and ISS Expeditions 71/72. They returned with the two otherCrew-9 astronauts aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon Freedom in March, their one-week orbital stay coming to an end more than eight months later than originally expected. By then, NASA and Boeing had performed extensive analyses of the issues inside Starliner's doghouses and slated the affected components for evaluation at NASA's White Sands testing facility this summer. "We know that we get some permeation of oxidizer vapor across [the thrusters], and the seal that we had was not very robust for oxidizer exposure," explained Steve Stich, NASA commercial crew program manager, during a press briefing on July 10. "We have various materials and tests right now to improve that seal on the helium interface at the flange of the thruster." Those tests will help determine a new material for use to prevent those leaks in the future and to provide better insulation from the doghouses' other components and thrusters. To better understand the effects of temperature swings within the doghouses, NASA is performing a series of "pulse trains" designed to cycle through a sequence of thruster burns at varying intensities and frequencies. "We're learning a lot about the differences in the oxidizer valve temperatures," Stich explained. "The thruster has [oxidizer] that comes in on one side and fuel that comes in the other. We're learning a lot about the differences in those temperatures as a function of pulse training." Those tests are designed to inform thermal models for an integrated doghouse test at White Sands, which is expected to begin sometime near the end of next month, according to Stich. "That'll involve a series of RCS thrusters being fired at the same time as our OMAC orbital maneuvering thrusters to understand the heat going into that doghouse," he said. Some improvements to Starliner's doghouses have already been made, Stich indicated, including thermal modifications like the addition of a shunt and other barriers designed to prevent heat from the OMACs radiating back into the housing cluster. "So, we're making a lot of progress in understanding the thermal performance. These will build the informed thermal modeling," Stich said. As for when Starliner might make its way back to the launch pad, it seems 2025 is no longer on the table. "We really are working toward a flight as soon as early next year," Stich said. He added, however, that NASA is hoping to begin crew rotation flights "no earlier than the second rotation spot at the end of next year." NASA crew rotations aboard the ISS typically last six to eight months, lining up two launches per year to ferry astronauts to and from the orbital laboratory. Slating the first crewed, operational Starliner mission for the end of 2026 likely means the spacecraft's next launch won't include any astronauts aboard. "There's a strong chance we'll fly a cargo flight first," Stich said. "What we're really looking at is, can we test all the changes that we are making, to the doghouses in particular, and would we want to validate those in flight first?" he explained. NASA has been eager for Starliner to gain its crew certification. Both Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon were chosen for development in 2014 under the space agency's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contracts, with the intent of introducing redundant access to low Earth orbit (LEO) for the United States through at least 2030, around when the ISS is expected to be officially decommissioned. Beginning with its cargo variant, SpaceX evolved Dragon into a crew-capable spacecraft and began flying astronaut missions to the space station in 2020. Dragon's eleventh operational NASA crew launch is slated for the end of July. Even with SpaceX's success, though, NASA still sees Starliner as a critical part of the agency's human spaceflight goals in LEO. RELATED STORIES: — How NASA's Starliner mission went from 10 days to 9 months: A timeline — 'There was some tension in the room', NASA says of decision to bring Boeing's Starliner spacecraft home without astronauts — NASA still mulling options for Boeing's troubled Starliner astronaut capsule "Even SpaceX is cheering on Starliner," NASA astronaut Mike Fincke told "The more ways we have to get to space, the more people can fly in space, the better it is for our country," he said. Fincke will serve as mission pilot for Crew-11 when it launches this summer, but his spot as part of the next SpaceX crew was solidified, in part, because of the delays Starliner has faced over the last several years. He was originally assigned to fly as pilot for Starliner-1, and he has therefore trained extensively aboard the Boeing spacecraft. Despite the problems Starliner has faced, Fincke says he would still love to fly aboard the Boeing capsule. "When NASA says it's ready to go fly again with people, I hope they sign me up," he said. Solve the daily Crossword
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50 years after a historic handshake in space, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project's legacy still resonates
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. "Soyuz and Apollo are shaking hands now!" Fifty years ago today (July 17), at 12:09 p.m. EDT (1609 GMT), history was made as two crewed spacecraft launched by two countries docked together in orbit for the first time. Three American astronauts and two Russian (then Soviet) cosmonauts met up for just under two days of joint operations, setting the stage for future cooperation in space. "Very good to see you!" exclaimed Alexei Leonov, commander of the Soyuz side of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP, or Experimental-Flight Soyuz-Apollo in the Soviet Union), after the hatch between his spacecraft and the docking adapter was opened. "Very happy, my friend!" replied U.S. commander Thomas Stafford in "Oklahomski," his unique version of Russian with a heavy Oklahoma drawl. And then the Cold War rivals and space race competitors shook hands. Soon after, the rest of the crew — cosmonaut Valery Kubasov and astronauts Vance Brand and Donald "Deke" Slayton — joined in on the greetings. It was those two Americans' first time in space and Kubasov's second. Leonov had previously performed the world's first spacewalk, and Stafford was on his fourth flight; his previous off-Earth experiences included a trip around the moon. Glasnost and gifts "Your flight is a momentous event and a very great achievement, not only for the five of you but also for the thousands of American and Soviet scientists and technicians who have worked together for three years to ensure the success of this very historic and very successful experiment in international cooperation," said then-U.S. President Gerald Ford during a call to space from the White House at the time. "It has taken us many years to open this door to useful cooperation in space between our two countries, and I am confident that the day is not far off when space missions made possible by this first joint effort will be more or less commonplace," Ford said. To mark the occasion, the crew members exchanged gifts. Plaques and medallions that had been designed to separate into halves — so one half could launch on Apollo and the other on Soyuz — were reassembled in space. The crew also signed formal documents, known as the "Space Magna Carta," that certified that this was this was first international space docking. The commanders exchanged small flags of each others' countries and tree seeds to be planted later in their respective nations. The Soyuz crew also launched with a United Nations flag, which the American crew then brought back to Earth and which is on display today in the U.N.'s New York headquarters. The five crew members took turns touring each other's spacecraft and came together for joint meals. Leonov surprised his U.S. counterparts with squeeze tubes labeled as containing vodka — in reality, they were filled with borscht (cold beet soup). "The best part of a good dinner is not what you eat, but with whom you eat," said Leonov, replying to a reporter's question during a televised, in-flight press conference. The U.S. and USSR crews returned to their respective spacecraft to sleep, but otherwise worked as one crew as long as their vehicles were linked. After 44 hours, 2 minutes and 51 seconds, the Apollo command module undocked from the Soyuz, and, as planned, created an artificial solar eclipse for the cosmonauts to photograph. The U.S. crew then approached and docked with the Soyuz again for 2 hours, 52 minutes and 33 seconds before the two crews bid farewell to each and parted ways. Leonov and Kubasov returned to Earth on July 21, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, while Stafford, Brand and Slayton stayed in orbit for another three days, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1975. "It made a big impression, not just on me, but on the rest of the world." NASA astronaut Mike Fincke 50-year-old foundation Despite preliminary talks about follow-up missions sending an Apollo capsule or space shuttle to a Soviet Salyut space station, the next time Russians and Americans would meet up in orbit coincided with the 100th U.S. human spaceflight, 20 years (almost to the day) after the ASTP crews exchanged handshakes. On June 29, 1995, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis docked with Roscosmos' Mir space station. This time it was Vladimir Dezhurov, the commander of Mir's 18th crew, who clasped hands with STS-71 commander Robert "Hoot" Gibson. The milestone was preceded by Russian cosmonauts flying with U.S. space shuttle crews and NASA astronauts joining Russian Soyuz crews, as well as a shuttle mission rendezvousing (but not docking) with Mir. After STS-71, eight more U.S. missions linked up with the Russian space station to rotate crews and deliver components for the complex. The Shuttle-Mir program was considered Phase 1 of the International Space Station (ISS) program. Related Stories: — Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: Russians, Americans meet in space — Apollo-Soyuz astronaut reflects on changing U.S.-Russia relations in space — What was the space race? On Nov. 2, 2000, just about midway between the ASTP mission and today, astronaut William "Bill" Shepard and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev became the first crew to take up residency on board the ISS. Since then, for nearly 25 years, there has not been a day when U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have not been in space together. "It made a really huge impression on me to see some people from the Soviet Union, which at the time we were not very good friends with in the middle of the Cold War, and then these brave American astronauts get along really well and cordially and with friendship," Mike Fincke, who as a NASA astronaut is set to return to the International Space Station for his fourth time on SpaceX's Crew-11 launch at the end of this month, said during a July 10 press conference in Houston. Fincke was 8 years old when the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project occurred. "It made a big impression, not just on me, but on the rest of the world — that if the Soviet Union and United States can work together in space, maybe we can work together here on Earth," he said. Solve the daily Crossword
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The largest Mars rock on Earth is up for auction in NYC — it could be yours for $4 million (or more)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. NEW YORK CITY — Tucked away in a building on the corner of 72nd Street and York Avenue in Lenox Hill, an extraterrestrial marvel sits sturdily on a mirrored pedestal. It's the largest Mars rock on planet Earth — and it turns out its 54-pound (25-kilogram), ashy, terracotta structure isn't as priceless as you'd expect. This Mars rock is up for auction at Sotheby's in New York City this week, which is why it's currently on display in the Upper East Side. As of now, it's expected to sell for between $2 million and $4 million, but it could very well sell for far more. "At the end of the day, it's the bidders who tell us what things are worth, not me, not anyone else. The estimates are just there to give people an indication," Cassandra Hatton, the vice chairman of science and natural history at Sotheby's, told "Last summer, I sold the Stegosaurus 'Apex.' For the Stegosaurus, the estimate was [$4 million to $6 million], and it sold for $44.6 million." Hatton said she first heard about the Mars rock (formally called NWA 16788) about a year ago from the rock's seller, who learned about the specimen from a meteorite hunter in Africa. ("NWA" is short for "Northwest Africa," the region where the rock was found.) "When they first acquired it, they called me right away," she said. "I said, 'All right, we have got to get it tested; we need to have it published in the meteoritical bulletin." As such, the seller went through several formal steps to document and test the rock as well as have it published upon. That testing process was rather rigorous for a few reasons. First of all, unlike lunar meteorite candidates, possible Mars meteorites have no pristine samples to be compared with. During the Apollo years, astronauts physically brought hundreds of pounds of moon rocks back to Earth, and those samples still serve as the isotopic reference point for determining whether a rock is indeed a lunar meteorite or just a peculiar piece of our planet. Astronauts haven't visited the Red Planet yet, so of course we don't have any Mars rock reference points — and though there is still talk of a possible Mars Sample Return program to bring home samples that NASA's Perseverance rover has been collecting from the Martian surface over the last few years, the timeline on that is as unclear as can be. It may even be cancelled, if the Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 budget proposal is passed as-is by Congress. Alas, the testing team had to come up with a workaround, and they did so by considering a few clues we have about what a Martian meteorite should look like. How do you verify a Mars rock? Imagine something huge impacting another world — in this case, an asteroid striking Mars long ago. As a consequence of that impact, there'd have been a bunch of stuff that shot upward during the crash — chunks of the Martian surface, particles of dust, and who knows what else. If any of that debris managed to shoot far enough to exit the Martian atmosphere, it'd have been possible for those travelers to reach Earth, travel through our atmosphere and land somewhere on our world. Because of this journey, Martian atmospheric data is important to consider when verifying whether something is a Mars rock — and thanks to the twin Viking landers that NASA sent to Mars in the '70s, scientists indeed have that atmospheric data. "You'll find little gas pockets in a lot of Martian meteorites," Hatton said. "We've cut those pockets open and compared the gas in those pockets to the gas that we analyzed from the Martian atmosphere — and if they match up, then we know that rock came from Mars." The next step has to do with the general composition of a meteorite. Typically, Hatton explains, meteorites contain what's known as "Maskelynite" glass, which forms as the result of the big crash that forced the meteorite off the surface of a world. "That's layer one," she explained. "Is there Maskelynite glass in this rock? If it is, it's a meteorite, because we only find that in meteorites." "Then it's very easy," she said. "What's the [chemical makeup] of this rock? Compare it to a [Mars] rock that we have that we found in the desert — if they match, then boom. That's Martian." The market price of Mars Usually, pricing rare items that come into Sotheby's isn't too much of an ordeal. For instance, if you're trying to figure out the value of an antique necklace, you can look at the value of the stones and metals in the piece, think about the fame of the designer and look into how much other items from the same era cost. Similar thought processes help auction houses estimate the value of objects like photographs, autographs, technology and art. "If I have a Picasso, I just compare it to the other Picassos," Hatton said. "Is it bigger, blue or older? Is it depicting Marie-Thérèse [Walter, a French model and muse of the artist]?" The same can't be said for rare scientific items. "I really have to think about the context, the background, the history, the rarity, the significance, and then I put an estimate on it," Hatton said. In the case of the Mars rock soon to be up for auction, she said the cost estimate of $2 million to $4 million came from the fact that it's the biggest Red Planet meteorite we have. For context, other, smaller Martian meteorites have sold for between $20,000 and $80,000, Hatton said, but she emphasized that bigger isn't exactly always better in the auction world. Sometimes, the bigger you get, the more likely it is for the bidding price to go down. "How many people could fit a 100-foot long sauropod in their house? Nobody, not even every museum could fit a sauropod that's 100 feet long," she said, as an example. "So, then your market gets much smaller. That's also something to consider: Who could maintain this? Who could have it in their home?" But that reasoning doesn't really apply in this case, because NWA 16788 — though huge for a Mars meteorite — can still fit into an average-sized backpack. So, Hatton calls the maximum $4 million figure on the Mars rock at hand a conservative estimate. But beyond all the statistics, there's also an unusual aesthetic value to consider with NWA 16788. "It also looks just like the surface of the Red Planet," she said. "Most other Martian meteorites that we find are really small, thin slices, and when you first look at them, you would never guess that they're Martian." "This one has really amazing fusion crust on the outside," she added. "If you look closely at it, you could almost use it as a film set for a movie about Mars — put little teeny people on there, because you could see the grooves and the ripples and the mountains on it." But, well, does this belong in a museum? When asked why she believes a specimen so brilliant it can be called the "largest Mars rock on Earth" should be auctioned off to a collector rather than donated to a public museum or scientific institution — it's no secret that many would argue for the latter — Hatton looked back at the history of museums as a whole. "If we didn't have personal private collectors, we would not have museums," she said. "Many of my clients give the things to museums or loan them to museums." She also explained that having to pay for something may make one more likely to care for their property: "If it's precious to you monetarily, you take care of it. Having this value tied to the object helps ensure that it is taken care of." "There are some museums that don't have the funding and the staff to properly care for objects," she added. "So, a lot of times, the private collectors are saving these objects. They're making sure that they're taken care of." Hatton also pointed out that many major collectors loan their items to museums, and as part of that loan, offer extra money to have staff take care of the items or fund postdoctoral researchers to study them. Related Stories: — Ouch! Carlo Rambaldi's original screen-used 'E.T.' model might reach $1 million at Sotheby's auction — The secret of why Mars grew cold and dry may be locked away in its rocks — Space auction: Sally Ride memorabilia collection sells for $145,000 "Part of what I am hoping, and I think I am achieving with a lot of these sales, is raising the profile of all of these different types of space, sci-tech and natural history objects, and helping people understand how important they are." And though Hatton doesn't allow herself to place her own personal value estimate on the Mars rock — or anything she's auctioning off, for that matter — she highlighted that auctions aren't always purely about the items themselves. "I've had people cry after they've bought things at an auction. I've cried when I've had people contact me and say, 'will you sell this?' because there [are] your white whales — your grails that you hope maybe one day you'll get to see. I always root for people to get what they want, because it's not just about the object. They're kind of chasing a dream." Solve the daily Crossword
