Expedition 74 crew members (from left) Sophie Adenot, Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir, and Chris Williams congratulate the Artemis III crew in a recorded video message.
NASA
Microbiology and human research were the main scientific focus aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday to protect health on and off the Earth. The Expedition 74 crew members also worked on advanced research hardware and sent down a congratulatory message to the Artemis III crew, who were named during an announcement from the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Some common bacteria have shown an increased resistance to antibiotics in the space environment potentially affecting an astronaut’s ability to fight an infection. Flight engineers Jack Hathway of NASA and Sophie Adenot of ESA (European Space Agency) explored the antibiotic-resistant organisms inside the Kibo laboratory module’s Life Science Glovebox and the Harmony module’s maintenance work area by processing the microbial samples and preparing them for DNA extraction and analysis. Doctors will use the data to understand how microbes adapt to microgravity possibly informing countermeasures to reduce the risk to astronaut health and protect patients on Earth.
NASA flight engineers Jessica Meir and Chris Williams partnered together loading a CubeSat-packed small satellite orbital deployer into Kibo’s airlock that will soon be placed into the vacuum of space. The Japanese robotic arm will grapple the deployer and point it away from the orbital outpost where it will safely deploy the shoebox-sized satellites into Earth orbit. A series of tiny satellites will be released for public and private research, including the Hokushin-1 CubeSat that will test space technologies such as radio frequency, propulsion, and solar arrays.
Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Andrey Fedyaev worked on a pair of different investigations on Tuesday to continuously monitor how weightlessness affects the human body. Kud-Sverchkov, the orbital outpost’s commander, strapped an acoustic sensor around his neck that recorded his rapid exhalation to learn how living in space affects the respiratory system. Fedyaev wore a set of cuffs attached to his arms, wrist, and fingers measuring his blood pressure for a microgravity cardiac experiment. Roscosmos flight engineer Sergei Mikaev was back on artificial intelligence research studying new tools to boost crew efficiency and communications aboard a spacecraft.
Four of the station’s astronauts also sent down a message congratulating the four new Artemis III crew members commander Randy Bresnik of NASA, pilot Luca Parmitano of ESA, and NASA mission specialists Frank Rubio and Andre Douglas. The four flight engineers each spoke a few inspiring words with Meir stating, “Congratulations, Artemis III and godspeed on the journey ahead.” Watch the crew message on @Space_Station X.
The US space agency unveiled the crew for its Artemis III mission on Tuesday during an enthusiastic event at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
For this spaceflight into low-Earth orbit, which will see the Orion spacecraft rendezvous and dock with lunar lander prototypes, NASA chose an experienced, all-male crew with military backgrounds. They were revealed inside a darkened Teague Auditorium where hundreds of friends, family members, and NASA employees cheered enthusiastically.
Our solar system may have hosted up to six giant planets in its first hundred million years, a new study suggests. The findings paint a more crowded picture of the early outer solar system than previously thought.
NASA officials have completed an investigation into an incident that caused damage to a 70-meter radio frequency antenna last year.
The incident, which occurred at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex near Barstow, California, affected the space agency’s Deep Space Station 14 (DSS-14), a 70-meter radio-frequency antenna, which currently remains offline awaiting repairs and system upgrades.
Joel Montalbano, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate, emphasized that the agency “takes safety and any departure from established procedures seriously,” adding that investigations into the incident at Goldstone “made clear that we must strengthen our processes. We are acting on the investigation’s findings.”
Incident at Goldstone
The damage was caused last September 16, 2025, when the antenna reportedly over-extended during rotation during tracking for NASA’s Juno mission. Stress on the antenna’s cabling and support infrastructure, as well as damage to its fire-suppression system, is expected to cost between $4.1 and $4.6 million in repairs.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported at the time of the incident, and a Mishap Investigation Board was convened to investigate the underlying causes. Following on-site inspections, interviews, and reviews of technical documentation from NASA’s three Deep Space Network facilities, the results of the investigation were included in a report submitted in April, which also made recommendations on how to prevent future incidents.
Software Issues
A primary factor behind the incident had been what the reports’ authors characterize as “software weaknesses, human error, and an undetected failure in the antenna’s hydraulic limit system,” according to a recent NASA statement.
“Investigators determined an electrical issue at the antenna the previous day caused the control system to misreport the antenna’s rotation state, an issue that went unnoticed and triggered multiple limit-stops during the Juno track,” the statement added.
Over-rotation of the antenna resulted after flooding in the antenna base was spotted by operators, following troubleshooting efforts that accidentally bypassed safeguards in the system’s hardware and software.
Investigators also determined that the antenna’s hydraulic limit system had already been rendered inoperable before the September 16 incident, following damage sustained “in an undocumented prior incident.”
Modernization for Future Missions
On June 5, Montalbano emphasized that NASA plans to follow the guidance in the review board’s report, with a focus on ensuring greater adherence to procedures to help limit the likelihood of future mishaps.
“We will update and improve procedures, rebuild core in-house capabilities, and reinforce operational discipline across the Deep Space Network,” Montalbano said.
“NASA remains focused on learning from this and modernizing systems, so DSS-14 and the broader network are ready to support our ambitious future missions,” he added.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached atmicah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.
NASA's Artemis III crew has been revealed. The astronauts will launch into low Earth orbit next year to test docking with commercial lunar landers being developed by SpaceX and Blue Origin.
A multi-institutional team of researchers led by University of Connecticut Professor Zhe Zhu has developed a method for measuring the dynamic, real-time activity of urban environments from space, which they are calling an “Urban Pulse.”
The research team behind the novel urban activity metric said that monitoring a city’s Urban Pulse could help mitigate uncontrolled urban sprawl or decay and enable environmentalists and urban planners to intervene before disasters become unavoidable.
Measuring an Urban Pulse Could Reveal Neighborhoods ‘Not Doing Well”
Although environmentalists and urban planners have a wide range of tools to measure the activities within a city, Zhu notes that scientists have spent decades merely capturing the “outcome of urbanization,” such as a finished road or a newly completed home. However, the researcher and lead author of a study detailing the Urban Pulse methodology added that, even with all the current tools, “you don’t really see the dynamics within an urban area.”
According to a statement detailing the new approach, a city’s pulse is determined by all construction activity within it. Along with new construction, the metric includes repairs, infrastructure improvements, or expansion into previously undeveloped green spaces. When used correctly, the researchers said that it can help determine “if and where their city is not doing well.”
“This would allow (authorities) to be proactive rather than conducting a metaphorical autopsy after the decay of an area is evident,” the team explained.
Bridging the Gap Between Abstract Urban Theories and Measurable, Real-World Data
To test their approach, the team evaluated the Urban Pulse of six cities: Seattle, Shenzhen, Lagos, Mumbai, Dubai, and Mexico City. This involved a deep examination of what the team termed “decades of dense time-series data” collected by NASA’s Harmonized Landsat and Sentinel-2 (HLS) satellites for physical transformations in an urban environment, such as new construction, measurable infrastructure improvements, and demolition.
Instead of analyzing each city’s changes manually, the team evaluated the above changes on what they called “the neighborhood level” using a deep-learning and time-series-analysis approach called CAPES, developed by former UConn postdoctoral researcher Ji Won Suh. The team said that, by observing these “high-frequency rhythms of development” from a broad ‘outer space’ perspective, their approach “bridges the gap between abstract urban theories and measurable, real-world data.”
This figure visualizes Dubai’s rapid expansion as a glowing “urban pulse.” Mapping monthly construction data from the city’s top 65 most active locations, the ridge plot reveals how distinct neighborhoods grow through spiky, cyclical, and asynchronous bursts. Rather than a steady wave, urbanization unfolds as dynamic, localized heartbeats, exposing the complex rhythms driving a modern metropolis. Image Credit: Zhe Zhu/GERS Lab.
After examining CAPES’ results, the team found several key markers within the Urban Pulse. For example, the view from space revealed that growth within cities is not smooth and steady. Instead, Zhu and colleagues said that development happens in “abrupt, intense, and episodic bursts of construction.”
CAPES also revealed that the rhythms of an urban environment are cyclical. For example, while a city may show relatively steady growth on a broader level, individual neighborhoods go through “dramatic boom-and-rest cycles” of expansion and dormancy that don’t appear to follow predictable annual seasons.
The third pattern revealed by measuring the six cities’ Urban Pulse from space was that cities are “asynchronous,” meaning a single city does not ‘beat’ in unison. The team noted that neighborhoods “pulse at completely different times.” When it functions properly, this “uncoordinated rhythm” helps prevent the city’s infrastructure and labor markets from “overheating.”
Unlike previous methods for tracking a city’s evolution, the team noted that their Urban Pulse approach can help researchers “visualize a city’s reaction to global shocks.” For example, the team said that their analysis captured “the exact moment the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a widespread, synchronized ‘cardiac arrest’ in urban development worldwide.”
However, their new tool also revealed what the researchers termed “profound inequalities” in how individual cities recovered from the dramatic halt to urban growth. For example, the team said that the Urban Pulse of Shenzhen revealed synchronized ‘dips’ in activity, followed almost immediately by “rapid, policy-driven rebounds.” However, the same Orban Pulse analysis showed that the reactions in Mumbai and Mexico City were much more “muted.”
“It’s like in human beings,” Zhu explained. “When you get a disease, it’s not going to show up exactly the same in different people.”
A ‘Very Impactful Tool’ for Navigating Cities
Although the Urban Pulse metric offers a tantalizing tool for academics, the team noted real-world benefits for global policymakers, urban planners, and environmentalists, adding that “it serves as an early warning system.”
“By monitoring the rhythm, rate, and amplitude of neighborhood pulses, governments can identify early signs of urban decay or unsustainable sprawl and intervene before crises become entrenched,” they explained.
The team also suggested that making Urban Pulse data publicly available could “revolutionize how everyday people interact with their cities.” For example, an urban family considering a move to a new city or a new part of their current city could track a target neighborhood’s pulse to spot early warning signs of decay or early indicators of positive-trending growth. The same data could help business owners plan new locations or expanded service routes, depending on the business profile and the local Urban Pulse trends.
“This is going to be a very impactful tool influencing not only top-down policy decisions from governments but also bottom-up decisions from everyday people navigating their cities,” Zhu explained.
Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.
A new study suggests that the intense asteroid bombardment that struck the young Earth billions of years ago may have played an important role in creating the conditions needed for life to emerge. Today, asteroid impacts are often associated with destruction and mass extinctions. But during Earth’s earliest history, these violent collisions may have helped […]
European launch company Isar Aerospace has raised 270 million euros ($312 million) to support its global expansion as it prepares for its next launch attempt.
China is expanding the role of its commercial rocket companies by shortlisting four such entities for launches of a new space station cargo transport system.
The Federal Communications Commission has waived a requirement for Amazon to launch half of its satellite broadband constellation by the end of July, a key regulatory reprieve that buys the tech giant time to get more of its spacecraft into orbit.
Amazon won regulatory approval for the Amazon Leo network in July 2020. The FCC's authorization came with two deadlines. First, Amazon had to launch half of its 3,232 satellites by July 30, 2026, in order to maintain authorization to launch the rest of the network. The regulator gave Amazon a deadline of July 30, 2029, to have all of its first-generation satellites in orbit.
It has been apparent for some time that Amazon would not meet the FCC's requirement to launch half of its satellites—1,616 spacecraft—by the end of next month. Amazon filed an application in January requesting the FCC extend the deadline to July 2028 or waive it altogether. The commission decided on the latter option, removing any time limit for the 50 percent deployment milestone, but keeping the July 2029 deadline in place for the entire constellation.
The Federal Communications Commission has waived a requirement for Amazon to launch half of its satellite broadband constellation by the end of July, a key regulatory reprieve that buys the tech giant time to get more of its spacecraft into orbit.
Amazon won regulatory approval for the Amazon Leo network in July 2020. The FCC's authorization came with two deadlines. First, Amazon had to launch half of its 3,232 satellites by July 30, 2026, in order to maintain authorization to launch the rest of the network. The regulator gave Amazon a deadline of July 30, 2029, to have all of its first-generation satellites in orbit.
It has been apparent for some time that Amazon would not meet the FCC's requirement to launch half of its satellites—1,616 spacecraft—by the end of next month. Amazon filed an application in January requesting the FCC extend the deadline to July 2028 or waive it altogether. The commission decided on the latter option, removing any time limit for the 50 percent deployment milestone, but keeping the July 2029 deadline in place for the entire constellation.
Russian satellites have been identified as the cause of mysterious, seconds-long bursts of GPS interference across Europe—a rare example of human-made GPS interference coming from space. But uncertainty still hangs over whether such interference is intentional and if it could be more powerfully weaponized as GPS jamming with continental reach in the future.
The discovery came from an investigation detailed in a June 2 preprint paper by Todd Humphreys and his student Zach Clements at The University of Texas at Austin, along with Argyris Kriezis at Stanford University in California. By sifting through public data from ground-based stations with global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receivers, they identified a pattern of high-powered interference lasting less than 10 seconds each time but simultaneously detectable by ground stations across Europe from Norway to Spain to Poland, and even reaching as far west as Greenland and Canada.
By analyzing the ground station data from January 2019 to April 2026, the researchers found 75 days with at least one widespread GNSS interference event overlapping with the GPS L1 frequency band centered on 1575.42 megahertz. That represents the main band used for signal transmission by the US-made GPS satellite constellation and GNSS constellations from other countries.
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