A mission competition going from two to one candidates directly because of NASA complying with the White House's Presidential Budget Requestβwhich was ultimately ignored by Congress.
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 β 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. NASAβs 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: NASAβs 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 Presidentβs 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 HQβs 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 βreach backβ 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 βpens downβ 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 NASAβs 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. GSFCβs 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).Β 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, NASAβs 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, itβs 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. π Here is the PI's e-mail with the explanation.
Screenshot of a nasa FB post that says 3:36 4 F17 < NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Ad... β’β’. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space NASI Administration e β’ Follow 3hγ» Explore with us! Learn more about NASA Force, a new initiative to recruit the nation's top engineers and technologists in support of America's space program. Applications are opening soon: https:// go.nasa.gov/4|ctjOz NASA 626 41 ~ 72
Itβs weird how this doesnβt say βoops we accidentally pushed out/incentivized to leave/firedβ a lot of engineers and it turns out engineering projects need those.
It took a lot of work at both JPL and HQ to make it happen this year.
For relevant, interested folks, please apply! Iβm one of the science mentors. Feel free to ask questions!
I learn that the NASA Planetary Science Summer School on spacecraft mission planning will be taking place this year, amid everything else that is happening.
The pre-application webinar is on 2026 March 4:
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Full speed ahead to Apophis! ππͺ¨
ESA has awarded two contracts for the development of its Ramses mission, which will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis ahead of its once-in-a-millennium flyby of Earth in 2029.
www.esa.int/Space_Safety...
Now thatβs a missing element of the Moon-to-Mars architecture: Motorcycles!
A photograph in the large auditorium at the National Academies building in Washington, D.C. Lori Glaze is at the podium. Behind her is a large projector screen showing Artemis II rolling out of the VAB. The room is packed with people, and you can see probably a hundred heads in the photo. The room is beautifully lit in purples and blues, which cascade across the triangular facets of the ceiling.
Back in DC for this yearβs Moon-to-Mars architecture workshop! Dr. Lori Glaze kicked it off to a packed room, excited for Artemis II!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
Honestly I donβt know whether to laugh or cry at this Orwellian space bullshit.
Putting lipstick on a cosmic space pig about a horribly destructive, wasteful and regressive year at NASA.
π§ͺπ
www.nasa.gov/news-release...
If the AGs do die, Iβd like to see them reformulated as bottoms-up advocacy groups.
NASA has formally ended support for the AGs science.nasa.gov/planetary-sc...
Reposting for no particular reasonβ¦
Meanwhile...we let ours crumble, and we're not rebuilding it.
A topographic map of the moon in the style of a renaissance map. The palette runs from deep blue-green to an orangey yellow.
A topographic map of the moon.
Image: Eleanor Lutz
tabletopwhale.com/2019/08/19/a...
Itβs like the Pakled and Ferengi teamed up
About time we sample the lunar mantle
1) God, these people are such transparently pathetic losers.
2) I have a goddamn PhD in geological science, and I start training as a barista for $16.40 an hour this Monday, and yet
A photograph of me holding the book β new views of the moon 2.β it is a large white book, with a picture of the moon on the front, along with a lot of logos and a long list of editors. Iβm holding it up in front of my office window, and you can see the grassy mall of JPL behind the book, along with a pretty sunset.
Finally! No more scrounging for PDFs.
Space artists: donβt forget to submit your work to The Art of Planetary Science exhibition by December 31st! The event is held in Tucson. Anyone can submitβall levels & types of human-made art. Iβll be submitting and attending again. π‘ππ§ͺ
More details here: lpl.arizona.edu/art
Attn space artists, thereβs still time to submit!*
*I had grand plans to finish a piece in time to enter but, yaknow, itβs the 30th and I havenβt even unwrapped the cradled board I bought so prolly not submitting this year. π
I am at poster #2596 with a 3D-printed Pluto! Drop by and talk about the complex tectonics π°
#AGU2025
At my poster now! #AGU2025
I have been neglecting Uranus system for a long time now.
So I decided to change that. Here's Uranus and Miranda visible above the canyons of Ariel.
#SciArt #spaceart #astronomy #solarsystem #Uranus
A crescent Jupiter from the Galileo orbiter
Io, moon of Jupiter, from the Galileo Orbiter
The rings of Jupiter and Europa, moon of Jupiter, from the Galileo orbiter. In this view, Europa is eclipsed by the planet Jupiter, which is why it is so dim relative to the rings.
Callisto, moon of Jupiter from the Galileo orbiter.
Today in 1989, the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched the Galileo spacecraft, the first orbiter and entry probe at a giant planet. When I watch it recede from the shuttle, I can't help but want to scream to open the antenna first (it never opened). They were still able to salvage an amazing mission.
I zoomed in, added a bit of contrast, and went back and forth over the first few seconds to show how the ground around the vents bulges outward before the lava breaks through and blasts it apart. Remarkable stuff. Nature is neat. #Kilauea
It's over.
Despite the fact that the academic council recommended against it, despite the fact that the program brought in more tuition than it cost, and despite the fact that Nebraskans need & deserve this expertise, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences will be cut.
www.dailynebraskan.com/news/adminis...
Heartbreaking. The University of Nebraska will terminate its entire Earth science department.
One of the country's most successful and respected geology & climate programs: gone.
When ideologues & politicians are threatened by the very act of studying climate change, I wonder: who of us is next?
Deimos is seen by the Hope probe with Mars in the background. Credit: Emirates Mars Mission
More evidence that Mars has a colorful history. In the past, the Red Planet probably had rings at certain times, and a larger moon (or moons) at others.
In the future, Mars will probably have rings again. π§ͺπ
eos.org/articles/sed...
Reminder! My fantastic Department is hiring an Instructional Faculty position in Earth Surface Processes!!!
βοΈπ§ͺπ
Look at this image (and thread - use the translate service).
This one reads along the lines of:
"..Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) without cleaning.
In just 15 minutes of acquisition, we counted 1,659 satellite trails (about 400 individual ones).
Words cannot describe the pollution of near space."
π
