THAT SUCKS: NASA calls off mission to save Swift Observatory telescope in space.

The announcement came down on Wednesday after an attempt to use the LINK spacecraft ran into altitude control issues, NASA and Katalyst Space said in a press release. The spacecraft was meant to raise NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to a higher altitude.

LINK is still set to attempt rendezvous and proximity operations with the Swift Observatory.

“NASA should be willing to move quickly and take smart risks when the potential return is worth it, and that is exactly what we did with this mission,” Jared Isaacman, NASA administrator, said in a statement. “This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting.”

It was a bit of a longshot, but Isaacman was right to light a fire under NASA.

TENTATIVELY SET FOR AUGUST 28…:

This should include the Ship’s first orbital flight, and first operational deployment of V3 Starlink satellites.

HAMAS USES THE WEST’S HUMANITY AS A SHIELD, AND ITS OWN CHILDREN AS HUMAN SHIELDS:

I WISH I COULD SAY THAT I WAS EVEN TRYING…:

EXAGGERATED? I’M LESS CERTAIN:

UPDATE (From Ed): If Nathan Cofnas is being fired for exposing Arday as a fabulist, he’s going out guns a-blazing:

Here’s the link to the Brussels Times that’s embedded in the above tweet, from the beginning of the year: UGent chancellor Petra De Sutter caught using AI in opening speech.

GOOD QUESTION:

SOME OF MY FRIENDS, INCLUDING DALE AMON AND JIM BENNETT, WHOSE WORK HAS OFTEN GRACED THIS PAGE, ARE IN THE SPACE DATA BUSINESS. Unlike Elon, they aren’t providing AI data centers but safe networked black box data storage in space industries. Their company is Immortal Data.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE:

MARX CAME FROM A SUCCESSFUL FAMILY AND SQUANDERED IT:

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Trump DOJ’s Path for Restoring Prohibited Persons’ Gun Rights – Here’s How it Will Work.

For more than 30 years, federal law has provided a way for certain people prohibited from owning firearms to petition the government to get their gun rights back. Well, technically.

In reality, you had about as much chance of getting your rights restored through 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) as I have of getting an invite to walk the red carpet at the Met Gala. (Important note: For the record, I would never go.) The process existed. You just couldn’t use it. But that’s about to change.

Exit quote: “Congress created a process for restoring your gun rights and then prevented the agency responsible for administering the process from spending any money to actually carry it out. Or, in today’s terms, they de-funded the ATF when it comes to restoring your rights.”

Typical.

WELL SAID:

Cowardice, conformity, corruption…

METAPHOR ALERT: Prospective Vendors for Mamdani’s Low-Cost Grocery Get Tour of Vacant Lot. “The city is on the road to socialism at least for as long as Mamdani is in Gracie Mansion, and so on Wednesday, in a fitting display of what socialism actually gets you, representatives of outfits that may actually run Mamdani’s Santa Claus grocery store got a grand tour of its prospective location: a garbage-filled vacant lot.”

THIS IS A REAL PROBLEM:

And:

What’s that a scene from? Mao’s China? Stephen King’s “Women of the Corn?”