Rafael Clemente

2 months ago | english.elpais.com | Francisco Doménech |Rafael Clemente

NASA is already under review by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by tech mogul Elon Musk. This has been confirmed by the acting chief of the U.S. space agency, Janet Petro, in an email to all staff in which she anticipated that Musk’s team were going to audit NASA contracts. She added that NASA plans to comply with the presidential mandate to initiate large-scale workforce reductions, among other things.

2 months ago | english.elpais.com | Francisco Doménech |Rafael Clemente

SpaceX has failed in its bid to have a new Dragon capsule ready in time for its planned Crew-10 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) to replace Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the American astronauts who have been there since June 2024. The flight was scheduled for February and, after granting an extension of several weeks, NASA has now decided not to wait any longer and is demanding Elon Musk’s space company use a ship that has already successfully carried out other space missions.

Dec 10, 2024 | english.elpais.com | Rafael Clemente

The nomination of Jared Isaacman as NASA administrator by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump heralds significant changes at the space agency, which has just decided to continue with the current design of the next manned missions to the Moon, despite delays. Although the real decision on the Artemis program will be in the hands of the new head, provided that Isaacman’s nomination is finally endorsed by the Senate.

Dec 3, 2024 | english.elpais.com | Cristian Segura |Rafael Clemente |Francisco Peregil

Pervomaisk in southern Ukraine was one of those Soviet towns officially closed to the outside world. Local residents were allowed to visit, but few others, recalls Tania Stepul. The 54-year-old grocery store owner was born and spent her childhood just a few miles from the command center of the 46th Division of the Soviet 43rd Red Banner Missile Army. Stepul lived surrounded by perimeters protected by electrified barbed wire, minefields, machine gun nests, and hundreds of soldiers.

Dec 2, 2024 | english.elpais.com | Rafael Clemente |Francisco Peregil |Javier Cuesta

On February 14, Michael Turner, chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement warning of “a serious threat to national security.” Shortly afterward, the White House confirmed its suspicions that Russia was developing a high-powered anti-satellite weapon. The word nuclear was not used, but it was implicit in the statement.