ISS Astronauts Reject Call for Early Retirement of the ISS

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ISS Astronauts Reject Call for Early Retirement of the ISS

Astronauts on the International Space Station said they disagreed with Elon Musk’s claim that the station was past its prime and should be deorbited as soon as in two years.

Speaking to reporters March 4, NASA astronauts Suni Williams, KD5PLB and Butch Wilmore, who have been on the station since June on a flawed Starliner test flight and Nick Hague, KG5TMV, the commander of the Crew-9 mission that will bring the two back with him later this month, addressed political issues like an early retirement of the ISS and Musks claim he offered NASA an early return of the Starliner crew.

Musk said on 20th February 2025 that the ISS has served its purpose and has very little incremental utility. He called for deorbiting the ISS as soon as possible, which he said should be in two years.

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VOA, Other International News Services, Marked for Cuts

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The US Agency for Global Media has been marked for defunding. Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Radio Marti are among the international news services that the White House says it is preparing to dismantle. Kent Peterson KCØDGY gives us the details.

Voice of America, a shortwave service launched in 1942 during the Second World to bring news to countries under authoritarian control, is among US-based news programming for overseas audiences targeted in a deep cut by the Trump administration. According to various media reports, VOA employees have been notified that they were all being placed on paid administrative leave with full benefits - effective immediately.

“to inform, engage and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy”
— The Agency for Global Media's mission statement

Cuts to VOA, as well as Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, Radio Marti and others are the result of reductions taking place inside the US Agency for Global Media, where these programs originate. These cuts are part of the ongoing downsizing of the US government. The agency operates with congressional funding to deliver news in 64 languages to listeners around the world via six networks, some of which were created during the Cold War. VOA’s first broadcast, made in 1942, was in German and was transmitted to German listeners to counter Nazi propaganda.

On Friday the 15th of March, Trump signed the executive order for the cuts, noting in the language of the order itself that the services earmarked for reduction have been deemed “unnecessary.”

Questions Loom After Cuts at United States Weather Agency

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Questions Loom After Cuts at United States Weather Agency

With the Atlantic hurricane season on the horizon, ongoing job cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, are throwing the agency's future into question among forecasters, scientists, SKYWARN spotters and other hams responding to weather disasters around the nation.

Published reports about the downsizing of a number of US federal agencies indicate that NOAA, the government's climate and weather agency, is bracing for another 1,000 job cuts on top of its recent loss of an estimated 1,300 staffers. The National Weather Service, which is part of NOAA, announced earlier this month that it was temporarily halting launches of some of its weather balloons because of staffing shortages. Data gathered by the weather balloons have been, among other things, an important source of data used by hams and others who regularly track the solar cycle.

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