President Barack Obama's Brandenburg Gate call to eliminate up to a third of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has few ardent champions. And the remaining discontent may matter, since the cuts aren't likely to materialize while Obama is still in office. Republicans denounce the plan to reduce beyond the New Start treaty's limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, and promise to set up procedural roadblocks in the Senate.

Chandra, Hubble expanding human knowledge

NASA issues a 'grand challenge' to boost asteroid-capture idea

The search is on as ULA is probed for allegedly blocking RD-180 sales

In late April, the FAA trumped the National Transportation Safety Board by approving a redesign and return-to-flight plan for the Boeing 787's troubled lithium-ion batteries. It came the same week NTSB held an investigative hearing in which participants made it clear that the root cause for the smoking batteries had not been found. The usually loquacious NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman played it cool at the time, but public comments she provided in the FAA's airworthiness directive (AD) docket for the 787 fix earlier this month reveal she might yet have the last word.

A “discussion draft” of a two-year NASA reauthorization bill is running into bipartisan opposition in its originating House space subcommittee, illustrating how lawmakers' divergent opinions about NASA spending are inhibiting progress. Democrats are complaining about cuts in Earth Science funding. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), the panel's vice chairman, promises to vote against the bill unless more money is provided for the Space Launch System program in his district.

Reauthorization of the Commercial Space Launch Act (CSLA)—and its federal indemnification coverage and potential mandates over seeking informed-consent waivers from launch participants and crew—could be hot topics as U.S. lawmakers and industry prepare to update the nearly decade-old law. The Republican chairman of the House space subcommittee, Rep. Steven Palazzo (Miss.), says he is eager to work for reauthorization and he knows that industry has a long list of desired changes, including the Federal Communications Commission's regulatory reach into space.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have kicked off a four-year study of vision problems that surfaced among crewmembers several years ago and now rank among the top health concerns facing those selected for future deep-space missions. Nineteen ISS astronauts have developed symptoms of impaired vision since the ailment was first recognized in 2005, according to Dr. Christian Otto, principal investigator for the NASA-sponsored Prospective Observational Study of Ocular Health.