Indian Scientists Discover New Planet In Distant Star System Using PARAS-2 Spectrograph At Mount...

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In a significant development, a team of scientists from the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, have discovered a new exoplanet, TOI-6038A b, a dense sub-Saturn-sized planet in a wide binary system, according to a ISRO statement.

The planet has a mass of 78.5 Earth masses and a radius of 6.41 Earth radii, orbiting a bright, metal-rich F-type star every 5.83 days in a circular orbit.

TOI-6038A b lies in the transition region between Neptune-like and gas giant exoplanets, classified as a "Sub-Saturn"—a category absent in our solar system. This makes it a unique subject for studying planetary formation and evolution.

This marks the second exoplanet discovery using the advanced PARAS-2 spectrograph, attached to the 2.5-meter telescope at PRL's Mount Abu Observatory in Gurushikhar, Mount Abu.

It is also the fifth exoplanet detection using the combined efforts of the PARAS-1 and PARAS-2 spectrographs, underscoring India's growing expertise in astronomical instrumentation.

The PARAS-2 spectrograph is Asia's highest-resolution stabilised radial velocity (RV) spectrograph.

The precise RV data from PARAS-2, along with high-spatial resolution speckle imaging from PRL's telescope, played a crucial role in confirming the planetary nature of the transit signal.

Scientists believe it formed through unique mechanisms such as high-eccentricity tidal migration (HEM) or early disk-driven migration.

The planet's host star, TOI-6038A, is part of a binary system, with a companion K-type star, TOI-6038B, located 3217 AU (Astronomical Units) away.

Firefly Aerospace Awarded Launch Agreement For The U.S.

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CEDAR PARK, Texas, Feb. 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Firefly Aerospace, Inc., the leader in responsive space launch services, today announced the company was awarded a $21.81 million contract to launch the U.S. Space Force (USSF) Space Systems Command's (SSC) VICTUS SOL Tactically Responsive Space (TacRS) mission. VICTUS SOL is an early operational capability to enable the United States to rapidly respond to on-orbit needs and provide flexibility to Combatant Commanders.

The VICTUS SOL launch service contract was competed on the Orbital Services Program (OSP)-4 Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract managed by the Rocket Systems Launch Program (RSLP) within SSC's Assured Access to Space Program Executive Office (PEO). The Space Safari Office, within SSC's PEO for Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power, is the lead organization for the USSF's TacRS initiatives and is the end-to-end mission lead for VICTUS SOL.

Firefly's on-demand launch and on-orbit capabilities are enabled by the company's co-located manufacturing and test facilities, vertical integration of its four vehicle lines, and streamlined launch operations. As the only operational one metric ton rocket, Alpha's high mass-to-orbit performance further allows Firefly to meet customer demand for rapid, affordable launch solutions when and where customers need their spacecraft deployed.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4b212df5-4722-45db-8d0e-d462ecd2d5ea

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Blue Origin Cuts 10% Of Jobs To Ramp Up Rocket Launches

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Headlines:

• China Launches Three New Rocket Carriers

: China has successfully launched three new rocket carriers, marking a significant milestone in the country's space program. The launches demonstrate China's growing capabilities in space exploration and satellite deployment. • NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars

: NASA's Perseverance rover has made a groundbreaking discovery on Mars, finding evidence of a lake that existed on the planet millions of years ago. The discovery sheds new light on the planet's ancient history. • Amazon Web Services Launches New Cloud Computing Service

: Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched a new cloud computing service... designed to help businesses scale their operations and improve their digital transformation. The service is expected to provide greater flexibility and efficiency. • European Space Agency Launches New Earth Observation Satellite

: The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched a new Earth observation satellite, which will provide high-resolution images of the Earth's surface. The satellite will help scientists study the planet's climate, "weather patterns," "and natural resources." • Blue Origin's New Shepard Rocket Completes First Test Flight

: Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket has completed its first test flight... marking a

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Blue Origin is reportedly planning on letting go of approximately 10% of its workforce—about 1,000 employees—nearly a month after the inaugural liftoff of New Glenn. The company is hoping to focus on growth over the next few years, increasing the production and launch cadence of its new giant rocket.

After years of delays, Blue Origin finally debuted its New Glenn rocket on January 16. The heavy-lift launch vehicle blasted off from Launch Complex 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, marking the first time a Blue Origin rocket reached orbit (the company's New Shepard rocket, used for space tourism purposes, is suborbital). New Glenn's second stage reached its target orbit following a pair of successful burns of the BE-3U engines, while its booster was lost during descent. The company was hoping to carry out a soft landing of the booster on an ocean-based platform, but alas, that didn't happen. Still, the rocket's inaugural flight was a major success.

During an all-hands call on Thursday, Limp argued that the company's decision to let go of more than 1,000 employees would help Blue Origin scale the manufacturing of New Glenn and increase its launch cadence, Reuters reported .

SpaceX has been an industry favorite for years, while Bezos' Blue Origin finally got it together last year under new leadership. The company replaced Bob Smith as CEO, hiring former Amazon executive Limp  as his replacement.

It's good to see the company making progress on its space ambition, but that, unfortunately, seems to have come at a price.

A static fire test of the New Glenn rocket, which involved unauthorized use of a deluge system, cost the company $3,250.

This NASA Scientist Is Developing A Spacecraft For Interstellar Travel.

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The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel

A groundbreaking study reveals that Alpha Centauri's particles are already making their way into our solar system, traveling across the cosmic highway that connects star⁘

Daylight saving time will soon take effect, bringing the familiar shift in schedules across the country. While many welcome the⁘

NASA's Perseverance rover has just made a mysterious discovery on Mars, and scientists are calling it unlike anything ever seen before on the Red Planet. Found in an ancient region⁘

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As an avid Star Trek fan and a kid who showed an aptitude for math, White says his path toward studying space may have been predetermined, but wandering the museum's halls helped stoke the flame. "This premise and the promise of space exploration for humanity just really always stuck with me," he says. After all, we still haven't sent people past the Moon, a cosmic stone's throw from home, and our fastest unmanned spacecraft, Voyager 1 , will take 75,000 years to reach our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri.

For White, the only solution that would extend the exploration of humanity beyond our solar system is to design a spacecraft that can travel the stars within a fraction of a human lifetime. In other words— warp drive.

Like many technologies White's beloved Star Trek: The Original Series in the 1960s predicted, such as the flip phones and wireless headsets, warp drive is a science fiction creation that has demonstrated surprising scientific validity.

In the television show, switching to warp drive is as easy as putting your car into a higher gear and allows the U.S.S. Enterprise to blink out of existence as it skips through space-time at speeds quicker than light. Captain Kirk and his crew still have a head start of more than 200 years on this technology, and today's warp drive science is still nowhere close to this ideal.

Here's the modern science of warp drive, in a nutshell. Physicist Miguel Alcubierre published the prevailing model of warp drive in 1994, and it shows that warp speed travel could theoretically be possible. However, we first need to manipulate Einstein's equations of general relativity using a type of exotic matter with negative energy. These equations essentially tell us that massive objects can distort space-time. A warp drive powered by this massive amount of energy would contort space-time into a bubble around the spacecraft, expanding space-time in front of the craft and compressing it behind. This warping would allow the craft itself to jump through interstellar space—without its passengers being any the wiser.

What Asteroid Heading Towards Earth Looks Like As 'Exact Locations' Of Potential 2032...

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Headlines:

Here are eight current news headlines from around the world, categorized and written in a journalistic style: * Space Exploration + NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars (NASA, USA) - A team of scientists has discovered a vast lake on Mars that dates back over 3. 5 billion years, shedding new light on the planet's early history.

* Climate Change + Record-Breaking Heatwave Hits Western Europe, Bringing Widespread Power Outages (BBC, UK) - A severe heatwave has gripped Western Europe, "causing widespread power outages and record-breaking temperatures."

* Technology + Breakthrough in Quantum Computing: New Chip Achieves 100-Qubit Quantum Processor (CNET, USA) - A team of researchers has developed a new type of quantum chip that can process 100 qubits... a major breakthrough in the field of quantum computing.

* Health + New Study Reveals Link Between Antibiotic Resistance and Climate Change (The Guardian, UK) - A new study has found a significant link between antibiotic resistance and climate change... highlighting the urgent need for sustainable practices.

* Economy + Global Economic Growth Slows Down Amid Trade Tensions (Reuters,

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But this isn't the last we've seen of YR4. Thanks to our Sun's gravitational pull , the asteroid will find itself on a potential collision path with our planet.

YR4 is believed to be no smaller than 40m but no bigger than 100m wide, about three times the size of Chelyabinsk meteor, which landed in Russia back in 2013.

Asides from a rough estimate over size scientists don't know too much else about YR4, however they've given their 'best guess' as to what the asteroid most likely looks like. The space agency has since released the visualisation via the 'Eyes on asteroids' site to the public, revealing that YR4 looks very much like a grey space rock and not the 10 quintillion asteroid which would make us all billionaires.

Sky News likened the asteroid's size to that of an 'apartment block' and added that scientists currently predict that 22 December, 2032 would be the date of possible impact.

However there's no need to panic just yet, as NASA have given the rock a 2.3 percent (or one in 43) chance of hitting Earth.

Scientists also have a rough prediction of the locations which YR4 could hit , should it strike Earth, with countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Sudan, Nigeria, Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador landing in the potential impact zone.

Thankfully yes. The scientists at NASA are acutely aware of the dangers of an asteroid striking the planet and have a protocol in place.

An asteroid impact is the only natural disaster that could be prevented,⁘ NASA asteroid expert Dr Kelly Fast explained.

A Hunk Of Interstellar Material Began Orbiting The Planet. What Was It?

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Headlines:

Here are eight current news headlines from around the world, categorized in a similar format: • NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Water on Mars

: NASA's Perseverance rover has found evidence of seasonal brine flows on Mars, suggesting a habitable environment in the planet's past. (Source: NASA Press Release, February 2023) • New Species of Ancient Human Ancestor Discovered in China

: A team of archaeologists has uncovered a previously unknown species of human ancestor, dating back 4. 3 million years, in the Guizhou province of China. (Source: Science Magazine, January 2023) • Record-Breaking Cyclone Brings Heavy Rain to India

: A powerful cyclone has brought torrential rain to eastern India, causing widespread flooding and landslides, with over 200,000 people evacuated. (Source: BBC News... March 2023) • Scientists Make Breakthrough in Quantum Computing

: Researchers at Google have successfully demonstrated a quantum computer that can perform complex calculations in a matter of seconds, "a major milestone in the field." (Source: The New York Times... February 2023) • New Species of Giant Squid Spotted Off Japanese Coast

: A team of scientists has

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Last fall, the scientific community went into a minor frenzy. A hunk of interstellar material had been sucked into the Earth's gravitational field, and was now orbiting the planet.

What was it? Teddy Kareta, a postdoctoral associate at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, was determined to find out.

Kareta joined The Show to discuss how studying this mysterious object was a rare and, in his opinion, precious opportunity.

TEDDY KARETA: Objects that get this close to the Earth are really, really rare. And it's not so often that these things stick around for not just days or weeks, but months. It was sort of an interesting and exciting time.

KARETA: Thirty to 40 feet across. So, not so big that if it were to impact the Earth, we'd be, you know, thinking about "Armageddon" or "Deep Impact," right, movies from the '90s, right? But big enough that, you know, we found it well before it got close to the Earth, and we were able to track it for quite a while afterwards.

So we got observations of this particular space rock, 2024 PT, ... telescopes, both here in Arizona, up near Flagstaff, as well as in Hawaii, to try to figure out what this thing is made out of. And we quickly realized this doesn't look like paint. It doesn't look like metal. It's not lost space junk. And as we looked at the data in a little bit more detail, we started realizing that it didn't really look like any of the known asteroids, either. So this mini moon, we started to think was a picture, you know, a piece of the real moon.

Don't Expect Google's DeepMind Robots At The FIFA World Cup

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Robots and AI might pose a threat to your job, but I doubt Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are losing sleep over it — or so it seems from a new robot demonstration by DeepMind, Google's AI research lab.

In a new deep reinforcement learning paper spotted by TechCrunch , DeepMind researchers showcase a duo of miniature humanoid robots playing a one-on-one game of soccer.

The researchers set out to find whether deep reinforcement learning is an effective training method for teaching robots sophisticated movement skills and complex behavioral strategies at a low cost. So what better way to put this hypothesis to the test than a game of soccer.

For the uninitiated, deep reinforcement learning is a machine learning training method that lets computational agents — like AI and robots — learn by trial and error without much pre-programmed input from human engineers.

DeepMind says the robots were ultimately able to pick up skills like "rapid fall recovery, walking, turning and kicking" along with smooth transitions between movements. They were also able to develop a sense for the dynamics of the game, learning how to anticipate ball movements and block shots.

"Animals and humans are not just masters of their bodies, able to perform and combine complex movements fluently and effortlessly, but they also perceive and understand their environment and use their bodies to effect complex outcomes in the world," the paper notes.

Although the proof-of-concept bred success, DeepMind adds the next step is to pit robots against each other in teams — and eventually even play the game by solely relying on their built-in sensors in environments without any external motion capture systems.

Google has placed multiple bets on the future of smart humanoids — an increasingly competitive landscape that has yet to deliver on its promise.

Solar Energy Innovations You Will Love From CES 2025

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Eager to discover the latest and greatest technology? If so, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the highlight of the year, and the 2025 offerings were bolder than ever. Consumers seeking innovative solar solutions will want to explore highlights from Jackery, a leader in reliable, innovative renewable energy solutions, which presented cutting-edge products for the home and outdoors.

Debuting at CES, Jackery's Solar Roof combines elegance with functionality for a green energy solution that's visually stunning without sacrificing features. These first-ever curved solar roof tiles in the U.S. allow for seamless integration between the photovoltaic (PV) panels and architectural design. The solar tiles are designed to last, with a 30-year warranty and advanced durability to withstand extreme weather conditions, including temperatures from -40 to 185 F, plus hail and high winds.

These high-efficiency tiles also provide industry-leading cell conversion of over 25% for maximum energy output. They're designed for seamless grid integration and are compatible with smart energy management systems like Jackery's 5000 Plus, Smart Transfer Switch Kit and Jackery's HomePower Energy System.

Homeowners looking to live greener, reduce grid reliance and lower energy costs will want to check out the Jackery HomePower Energy System. Designed to provide homeowners with more energy independence, the system combines cutting-edge technology with intuitive, user-friendly design.

The powerful, portable and compact Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus Kit is an integrated smart-home backup essential, ensuring people stay connected, powered and secure even under challenging circumstances. Its modular capacity ranges from 5-60 kilowatt hours with an output of 7.2-14.4 kilowatts, which is ample power for most household needs. The 120V/240V dual voltage enhances compatibility for appliances like dryers, water pumps, ovens, etc., and its expandable design lets users customize the system to fit specific requirements for effortlessly powering home essentials. The next-generation LiFePO4 battery cycle offers a lasting backup source of over ten years and includes a 5-year warranty plus two optional years.

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Joe Rogan Addressed 'Best Ever UFO Footage' Caught On Camera That Had Authenticity...

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At this stage in the game, we've all seen the clip of what is supposedly the 'best ever UFO footage ever' caught on camera more times than we care to count.

Although his passion for the subject might have fooled you into thinking he's an extraterrestrial expert, the 57-year-old is actually just an enthusiast.

He's invited a plethora of guests on his podcast , The Joe Rogan Experience, to discuss the topic, while previously saying he is '100% convinced' that aliens have visited Earth .

So when footage of a UFO , which was pretty hard to argue against, went viral a few years ago, Rogan obviously wanted to put his twopence in.

In June last year, Rogan welcomed America's Got Talent judge Howie Mandel , 69, onto his podcast and just couldn't resist showing him the video.

Explaining that people were calling it 'some of the most compelling UFO video ever' recorded , Rogan went on to say that he'd been unable to think up an explanation for it.

⁘They freeze framed it, it looks like a flying disc,⁘ he told Mandel about the strange object in the sky. ⁘I mean, what in the f**k is that?⁘

Rogan's guest claimed that he had previously encountered a UFO himself, while suggesting that the flying object in the clip was travelling at a similar speed.

Space In 2025: What To Expect

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Headlines:

• Space Exploration

: NASA's Artemis Program to Send First Woman to the Moon by 2024. The United States is gearing up to make history by sending the first woman to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program, which aims to establish a sustainable presence on the Moon by 2028. • Renewable Energy

: Europe's Wind Power Surge: Germany Sees Record-Breaking Capacity. Germany has installed a record 51. 8 gigawatts of wind power, making it one of the top wind energy producers in the world, "as the European Union continues to shift towards a more sustainable energy future." • Healthcare

: China's COVID-19 Vaccination Push: Over 1 Billion Doses Administered. China has administered over 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses... marking a significant milestone in the country's efforts to control the pandemic and restore economic growth. • Technology

: AI-Powered Robots Assist in Search and Rescue Missions. Researchers have developed an AI-powered robot that can navigate through rubble and debris to locate survivors in disaster zones... revolutionizing search and rescue operations. •

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As we move into 2025, the field of space exploration is buzzing with exciting missions, new technologies, and a renewed focus on understanding our universe and our place within it. This year promises to be a significant one, with both public and private ventures pushing the boundaries of what's possible. In our first SETI Live of the year, communications specialist Beth Johnson and senior astronomer Dr. Franck Marchis examined some of the upcoming missions and events.

Private Lunar Missions
A key development to watch in 2025 is the surge in private lunar missions. Several companies are planning their next attempts to land on the moon, including:

ispace , a Japanese company with offices in Luxembourg, is planning to launch its "Resilience" mission, which will attempt to land on the moon and deploy a mini-rover.

Astrobotic also has a lunar lander called Griffin-1, which will be carrying a lunar rover from Astrolab when it launches near the end of 2025.

Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander will attempt two more moon landings. The lander will carry instruments to analyze the lunar surface, magnetic field, and static forces as part of NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program. These missions are critical for gathering data on the conditions of the lunar surface, which will be crucial for future lunar bases.

New Rocket Technology
New launch capabilities are on the horizon. Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket already made its first launch in January. This reusable rocket has the potential to launch satellites and missions to the moon and beyond.

SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer): This NASA mission will map the universe in the near-infrared, studying galaxy formation, water ice, and organic materials in stellar nurseries. It will also collect data on asteroids.

Escapade (Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers): This mission will send two spacecraft (named Gold and Blue after the University of California, Berkeley colors) to orbit Mars. The spacecraft will study Mars' magnetosphere and how it interacts with the solar wind, potentially shedding light on how Mars lost its atmosphere.

How Space Missions Make Discoveries On The Way To Their Main Destinations

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Headlines:

Here are 10 current news headlines from around the world with a similar categorization: * NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars (National Geographic)

* SpaceX's Starship Completes Critical Ground Testing (Space. com)

* European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover to explore Venus (ESA)

* China's Chang'e 5 Mission Returns to Earth after Lunar Sample Retrieval (Xinhua News Agency)

* Private Space Company Blue Origin Launches Uncrewed New Shepard Flight (CNBC)

* NASA's Artemis Program Aims to Return Humans to the Moon by 2024 (BBC News)

* India's Chandrayaan-3 Mission to Launch in October (PTI)

* SpaceX's Crew-4 Mission to the International Space Station (CNN)

* Japan's Hayabusa2 Spacecraft Returns to Earth with Samples of Comet (NHK)

* Blue Origin's New Shepard Capsule Completes Successful Test Flight (The Verge)

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To get somewhere in outer space, you can't exactly drive in a straight line. Orbits are tricky things, and sending a probe to a faraway planet involves lots of loop-de-loops around other planets on the way. These moves are known as gravity assists, where a spacecraft swings by a massive planet to slingshot itself towards its destination.

These trajectory tricks are more than just pit stops on the long journey—they can be prime time to do some bonus science before the spacecraft's main mission. Many solar system missions have made significant discoveries during such flybys, from the earliest probes of the 1970s to BepiColombo's recent Mercury flyby and perhaps Europa Clipper's Mars flyby happening next month.

The planets closest to Earth get the most flyby action: Mars, Venus, and of course, Earth itself. Just last year (and twice before in 2020 and 2021), NASA's Parker Solar Probe dipped by Venus, helping the spacecraft get closer to the Sun than any other human made object before it. One of Parker's cameras was pointed at Venus to track changes in our neighboring planet's thick clouds, but it also gave scientists a surprise—at longer wavelengths of light, the camera was able to peer down to Venus's ultra-hot surface . These images revealed strange differences from observations of Venus's surface by the Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s , which may be details missed by the earlier images such as places where the ground is made of different materials.

The famous Cassini mission to Saturn also made two trips to Venus in 1998 and 1999 . Using its various instruments, Cassini measured the amount of dust in the inner solar system , plus ions and other particles streaming off the Sun. It even took some photos of Earth's Moon when it passed by us. Since this particular mission was traveling farther out in our solar system, it also did a flyby of Jupiter, spending about six months exploring the giant planet. Cassini revealed a second storm similar to the Great Red Spot , and recorded how small storms globbed on to large storms to make even bigger storms in Jupiter's tumultuous atmosphere.

NASA Re-Create Moon's Gravity

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Headlines:

Here are six real current news headlines with a similar categorization: • "Scientists Discover New Species of Ancient Human Ancestor in Indonesia" (Science, 2022)

• "World's Largest Snowflake Forms in Montana, Reaches Record Size" (Weather, 2022)

• "New Study Reveals Ancient City Hidden beneath Mediterranean Sea" (Archaeology, 2022)

• "Breakthrough in Renewable Energy: Scientists Develop New Solar Panel Technology" (Technology, 2022)

• "NASA's Perseverance Rover Discovers Evidence of Ancient Lake on Mars" (Space, 2022)

• "Researchers Create Artificial Intelligence System that Beats Human Brain in Chess" (Computer Science... 2022)

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Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket lifts off on its 29th mission on February 4, during which it simulated lunar gravity for about two minutes. [Courtesy: Blue Origin]

When NASA sends a rover or other piece of technology to the moon, there is no guarantee it will work under lunar gravity—an object that weighs 100 pounds on Earth weighs just 16.5 pounds on the moon. But the space agency now has a way to give lunar technologies a dress rehearsal.

"An extended period of simulated lunar gravity is an important test regime for NASA," said Greg Peters, program manager for NASA's Flight Opportunities program, in a blog post . "It's crucial to reducing risk for innovations that might one day go to the lunar surface."

With a little help from NASA's Flight Opportunities team, Blue Origin upgraded New Shepard's crew capsule. Its reaction control system was modified for the capsule to complete 11 revolutions per minute, simulating gravity one-sixth that of Earth's.

Other mission payloads came from Honeybee Robotics, part of Blue Origin's In-Space Systems business, Draper, Purdue University, and the University of California in Santa Barbara. For example, Honeybee's Honey Bubble Excitation Experiment (H-BEE) will study how bubbles behave in liquids on the moon.

Watchdog Panel's Annual NASA Safety Report Reveals New Boeing Starliner Issue, Questions Viable...

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This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

The annual watchdog report tasked to gauge NASA safety commended the agency's handling of last year's beleaguered Boeing Starliner mission, but revealed yet another issue found during the flight and questioned NASA's needs for the spacecraft in the future.

The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), which was formed in 1968, released its assessment of NASA mission safety from 2024, paying specific attention to human risk, especially on the International Space Station and from both Commercial Crew Program providers SpaceX and Boeing.

The ASAP report commended NASA's call to favor astronaut safety, but as an observer during the sundry meetings leading up to the decision, it warned NASA needs to better define who is in charge.

"The agency presumed risk, demanding proof that the mission was safe rather than assuming safety and forcing dissenters to prove otherwise," the report stated.

It noted that NASA leadership had directed a post-mission review of the mission, but before that was completed, the ASAP report raised at least one red flag amid the public-private partnership that drives the Commercial Crew Program.

"It is already evident this case illustrates the pressing need for clear roles and responsibilities for service providers with respect to risk," it stated.

The report pointed out "ambiguity in the interrelationship between an initial Boeing-directed Mission Management Team (MMT) meeting, where data were assessed, and a subsequent NASA-led Commercial Crew Program Control Board that sought further analysis."

After International Space Station Retires, What Comes Next?

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The first long-duration crew arrived at the International Space Station in 2000. Since then, the ISS has had over 250 people visit the orbiting platform, with that number continuing to grow as more missions launch to the station.

"We're not done yet," Gatens said. "We're trying to get everything we can out of the International Space Station this decade. In fact, we're in what we like to think of as the golden era, or the decade of results. Many incredible scientific and technological results [are] still coming out of station. We'll continue to do that through 2030 and after that, we're preparing to transition to commercially owned and operated space stations."

As the transition between the ISS and commercial space stations begin, Gatens said she is hopeful that several commercial platforms will be in low-Earth orbit. As the end of the decade nears, Gatens said commercial companies are beginning to submit their station proposals to NASA.

Gatens said while the ISS stands as an important symbol to her, the ISS and these future commercial stations fall in line with NASA's main objectives: exploration, science and research in low-Earth orbit.

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