From Tori Bonidie and Skylar Grayson: The president’s budget requests for NASA and the NSF were released last week. We summarizes the major cuts and their impacts while providing resources to help fight back against this attack on science. ⚛️ 🔭 ☄️ 🧪
astrobites.org/2026/04/16/budget-request-fy2027/
I went back to capture what the astronauts said in full when the clock was stopped at T-10 minutes and they were asked if they were go for launch:
This is Victor. We are going for our families.
This is Christina. We are going for our teammates.
This is Jeremy. We are going for all humanity.
Artemis II has cleared the tower! We're going back to the Moon!
T-10 seconds
T-1 minute.
Tom Morello opening speech in Minneapolis 🔥
![4-panel comic. (1) [Glowing black dot surrounded by clouds.] DOT: I think I did a good job with this universe. Pressure waves dance through gas clouds. They clump together and then pressure pushes them apart. (2) [Some of the clouds are clumping together.] DOT: Oh weird, that big clump of clouds is staying together. Their gravity is overcoming the pressure and more gas is falling in. (3) [More clouds are sucked in.] DOT: It’s not stopping! The heat is rising but the collapse is only accelerating! I messed up. I messed up *bad*. (4) [The clump has become a shining star.] DOT: NOOOOOOOO!!! My beautiful clouds! Ruined! It’s all ruined!](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:cz73r7iyiqn26upot4jtjdhk/bafkreiae4qcq3k4rea6dmb4vcttgnajgfurbpa34isuyr6sclzdq3gijci)
4-panel comic. (1) [Glowing black dot surrounded by clouds.] DOT: I think I did a good job with this universe. Pressure waves dance through gas clouds. They clump together and then pressure pushes them apart. (2) [Some of the clouds are clumping together.] DOT: Oh weird, that big clump of clouds is staying together. Their gravity is overcoming the pressure and more gas is falling in. (3) [More clouds are sucked in.] DOT: It’s not stopping! The heat is rising but the collapse is only accelerating! I messed up. I messed up *bad*. (4) [The clump has become a shining star.] DOT: NOOOOOOOO!!! My beautiful clouds! Ruined! It’s all ruined!
Star Formation
xkcd.com/3222/
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.
Absolutely fucking not to that nonsense. Honestly watching the sport in the US vs watching it here in the UK is already less ad-forward. The added commercialization in the US isn't much but it's noticeable. We don't need advertisements in literally every single space and moment possible!
Thank you my friend!
I do believe in miracles!! USA win the Gold medal for Hockey!!!!!!
We need these reforms right now or we will not survive as a nation.
We need to invest in education, in health, in public service, in community building. All things that make for a strong democracy that is resilient to authoritarians.
Finally, we need to change our institutions and our communities to never allow this to happen again. We must shut down authoritarianism swiftly and definitively whenever it arises.
If any member of congress refuses to do their duty and carry out the reforms and investigations that we demand they must be removed from office. If any members of the judicial branch refuse the same they too must be impeached and removed.
Fourth, the members of our legislative and judicial branches need to step up and fulfill their oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; to bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
Third, multiple members of the administration need to be impeached by the House of Representatives and convicted and removed from office by the Senate. These members should also be investigated for multiple accounts of corruption.
Secondly, criminal charges need to be brought to every single ICE agent that has participated in these brutal murders. Further investigations and charges should be carried out regarding the myriad of other abuses and human rights violations that has occurred by ICE's terrorism of our communities.
We need major reforms to come from this.
First of all, ICE must be abolished. No half measures, the whole thing must be removed.
The people need to make a choice, right here, right now. The fascist authoritarians that are in so many levels of government and their violent thugs that are ever so willing to enable them are not just going to go away. If we do nothing, then the last 250 years of our nation will be for nothing.
Alex Pretti was a true hero by any definition. He died trying to help a woman that ICE agents were trying to attack. "Look for the helpers" is a phrase I always have in my head. It's something I strive to live by everyday and Alex Pretti was an excellent example of such a helper.
It's taken a lot for me to be in the right headspace about what happened yesterday.
I found out about the state-sanctioned murder of Alex Pretti while I was on a train back from a conference and it was all I could do to not just break down in the middle of a full train.
And because we've still not managed to land on an easily recognizable sign when we stick together, I'm going to suggest this marine signal flag.
It's the letter "U", but it also means "Standing into danger".
Flown by ships anchored at or moving in dangerous places.
Sounds right.
The images coming out of my home country are haunting. It breaks my heart and makes me incredibly angry to see this authoritarian attempt to take over society. And that again, Minneapolis has become a battleground in this slow, "cold" civil war that's been brewing in America for decades.
Just when you think she's done, she gets pulled back in!
@lizcookkc.bsky.social: always the finest words for your enjoyment!
From 2006. A younger and shell-shocked looking Catherine on a balcony holding a very tiny baby with the mountains of Vancouver in the background. The baby is so new, Catherine still has the pregnant bump.
Conventional wisdom says motherhood should wait for tenure as before you land a permanent post, #academia is just not that family friendly🙁
@carersinstemm.bsky.social are calling for change and to celebrate their new report, a Saturday🧵on parenting & academia! 1/9 👩🔬🧪🔭⚛️
ℹ️: carersinstemm.co.uk
If you can't recognize how dystopian this headline is, I don't think I can help you.
A State Department employee shared with PBS News an image from inside the department. The image includes a piece of paper taped to a mirror with the words, "Colleagues, if you remain: RESIST FASCISM. Remember the oath you vowed to uphold."
Just got warned that the new "Voice Isolation" feature in Teams, if turned on and trained on a male voice, will filter out all the women in the room, while still allowing the men in the room to be heard online.
*clears throat*
IF YOU USE A BIASED TRAINING SET, YOUR TECHNOLOGY WILL BE BIASED.
