A week ago today, I went to Universal Citywalk in North Hollywood to check out the final attire worn by Nikki Freeman (Inde Navarrette) in the climax of Obsession.
The black dress was displayed next to costumes worn by Demi Moore in 2024's Oscar-nominated horror film The Substance, and Thomasin McKenzie in 2021's horror flick Last Night in Soho, respectively.
The costumes were on display in a separate room to the left of the main lobby at CityWalk's Universal Cinema AMC theater, so I had to buy a movie ticket in order to view the three outfits up-close. So which film did I buy a ticket for, you ask? The romantic comedy Finding Emily...which I already saw at a local Harkins theater on September 2.
No, I didn't stay to watch Finding Emily again. But yes, I enjoyed that rom-com (even though its ending was unsurprisingly predictable) very much.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Tyler Desjardins (STScI)
NASA Activates Roman’s Primary Instrument, Checks Out Coronagraph (News Release)
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully activated the Wide Field Instrument, a 300-megapixel infrared camera that will allow scientists to explore wide swaths of the cosmos very quickly without sacrificing exquisite detail.
Roman’s planet imager — the Coronagraph Instrument — also stretched its digital, electronic and mechanical “limbs” as part of an initial test after waking up earlier this month.
These steps are part of a months-long series of calibrations and tests, as Roman continues its million-mile journey to its destination at the second Lagrange point, L2.
Sky-scanner comes online
Each image taken by the Wide Field Instrument, or WFI, will capture a patch of the sky bigger than the apparent size of a full moon with all the sharpness of space telescopes like NASA’s Hubble. Its sweeping cosmic surveys will help scientists discover new information about planets beyond our Solar System, untangle mysteries like dark energy, and map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos. The mission’s broad, crisp view will also produce an exciting new resource for a wide range of additional scientific studies.
“After years of effort to build and test the instrument on the ground, we now have confirmation that it is operational in space. This is a huge milestone for the team at Goddard, our industry teams at BAE Systems, Inc. and Teledyne, and our science centers,” said Josh Schlieder, the Wide Field Instrument scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “There is much to do, but we are on our way to groundbreaking science.”
Before the team could activate the WFI, they had to let it rest for 10 days to dry out and decontaminate the detectors at a relatively warm (compared to their final operating temperature) -85° Fahrenheit, or -65° Celsius. On the morning of September 11, they turned off the instrument heater and let the WFI cool down to -225° Fahrenheit (-143° Celsius), at which point they could activate Roman’s 18 infrared detectors, which combined have a sensing area about the size of a laptop screen.
Later that night, the team activated the calibration system, which they used the next morning to start sending test data through the instrument and down to engineers on the ground. On Saturday evening, the focus shifted to the element wheel — a system of filters, prisms and other optics used to tune the wavelengths of light that reach the detectors and spread light from cosmic objects into individual colors — as engineers tested it in the absence of gravity for the very first time.
Finally, on Sunday morning, the team made sure that the WFI’s focus mechanism functioned properly — an important step since it will be used to focus the hundreds of thousands of images the instrument will take. While these activities were happening, the detectors continued to cool to their final temperature of about -300° Fahrenheit (-183° Celsius).
All of these assessments confirmed that the instrument is working as expected. The mission remains on track to release Roman’s first science images by early 2027.
Coronagraph in tip-top shape
The Roman Coronagraph is a system of optics, masks, self-flexing mirrors, and sensors designed to demonstrate the most advanced technologies ever flown in space for directly imaging planets around other stars. It will block the glare from stars and make it possible for scientists to see the faint reflected light from planets in orbit around them.
Scientists and engineers at the Coronagraph Commanding Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California, confirmed that they can communicate with all of the instrument’s components: software, thermal control, mechanisms, cameras and the avionics which drive all of these. Essentially, operators on the ground ensured they could remotely flip all of the switches that allow them to control the instrument, like the movable mechanisms that hold all of its masks, color filters, lenses and prisms.
The test also involved confirming that the thermal control is performing as expected, warming the hardware to operating temperatures — a balmy 72° Fahrenheit (22° Celsius). Aside from the detectors, the coronagraph is designed to work at near-room temperature to make it easier to test and to match the material properties of the deformable mirrors.
“Now that this test is complete, we’ve been decontaminating: sitting idle with our detectors warm so anything that’s stuck to the surface, such as water or trace chemicals, will tend to leave it,” said Eric Cady, an optical engineer leading commissioning efforts for the Roman Coronagraph at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “This will continue for 30 days, with occasional stops to do other early calibration activities.”
Fuel Savings Double Potential Lifetime for NASA’s Roman Mission (News Release)
The results are in: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s very accurate first mid-course correction, along with other fuel savings, are expected to more than double the mission’s potential operational lifetime.
“As a result of exquisite planning by our orbital dynamics team, brilliant execution by the operations team, and a precise launch from SpaceX, Roman has fuel for at least 22 years of potential science operations,” said Jamie Dunn, center director at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The added life comes from the first mid-course correction’s accuracy, extra fuel added prior to launch, and anticipated results from Roman’s upcoming second mid-course correction and orbital insertion.
Original projected mission lifetime: 10 years
Roman was designed for a five-year primary mission, plus a five-year extended mission — a 10-year fuel budget in total. Because fuel is the observatory’s primary consumable resource, any fuel savings could enable additional years of observations beyond the 10-year design life.
First burn results: +4 years
The Roman team executed its first burn on August 31 to adjust the observatory’s trajectory towards its final orbit and has since been analyzing its effects on the mission. In addition to being executed with more than 99% accuracy, the maneuver required less than 10% of the fuel that the team had budgeted for: about 40 pounds (18 kilograms), down from the allocation of 441 pounds (200 kilograms).
Bonus fuel at launch: +4 years
Extra fuel loaded at launch could enable roughly four more years on top of that. This launch surplus exists because Roman launched lighter than planned: The team had budgeted fuel using a conservative maximum weight of 21,605 pounds (9,800 kilograms), well above the observatory’s actual weight of 17,760 pounds (8,056 kilograms). The lighter spacecraft needed less fuel for the mid-course correction, and its lower weight also left room to fill the propellant tanks beyond what the 10-year mission alone required.
“A spacecraft’s mass changes throughout the design and build process, so we base the propellant budget on a set maximum value so we won’t come up short,” said Alison Rao, the Roman propulsion lead at NASA Goddard. “We track the propellant needed based on actual mass throughout integration and testing as well, to make sure we have wiggle room. Since Roman’s was lower than we budgeted for, we were able to fill the propellant tanks to their capacity rather than only filling them as much as we needed to for the 10-year requirement.”
Upcoming burn, orbital insertion: +4 years expected
Thanks to the first mid-course correction’s success, the second burn is expected to be very small and save even more fuel. The team can also wait longer to conduct this follow-up burn, now planned for later this month. It will give the observatory the last bit of energy required to achieve its targeted position prior to maneuvering into its final orbit at L2, approximately 100 days after launch, or about early December.
According to current projections, both maneuvers will use less fuel than planned, potentially saving even more for future science.
Once in orbit around L2, Roman will only require periodic station-keeping burns roughly every 28 days.
To honor the late and great Peter Cullen—the voice of Optimus Prime, Winnie the Pooh's Eeyore, and the vocal effect behind The Predator—here's a drawing of Optimus that I completed a week ago today.
It was actually a challenge to illustrate the Generation 1 (G1) version of Optimus Prime...as I wanted to make sure that I got all of his iconic features and color scheme right. I ended up looking at different artwork and photos of toys to add as much detail to Prime as possible without negating his G1 appearance. Imagine if I tried drawing the live-action version of the Autobot leader from the Michael Bay movies!
Speaking of Bay's Transformers, here's a clip of that memorable scene where Sam (Shia LaBeouf) and Mikaela (Megan Fox) meet Optimus Prime and his fellow Autobots for the first time in one of the highest grossing films of 2007. Happy Sunday!
It has now been 25 years since 2,977 innocent people were killed by 19 terrorists on one of the darkest days in America's history. We continue to honor them...even as the United States faces new kinds of challenges and threats, most of them homegrown, to our 250-year-old democracy today.
The World Trade Centers fell... The Pentagon was damaged... 40 souls (not including the four cowardly hijackers on that flight) were lost in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. But heroes emerged at all three sites of tragedy on that fateful day in 2001.
Never Forget.
If you were young in 2001, or weren’t even born yet, it can be hard to imagine what 9/11 felt like. The shock of that beautiful, cloudless morning. The heartbreak of the families whose loved ones were taken with such swiftness and cruelty. The realization that the forces of…
Twenty-five years ago today, we lost 2,977 souls and in the years since, thousands more to illnesses caused by the attack on our country.
This morning, Jill and I hold close the families who carry that loss every day. We honor the heroes of September 11th: the firefighters and… https://t.co/r7NJSS5kJb
25 years have passed since September 11, 2001. A generation has grown up in the years since, but our responsibility to remember has not changed.
We remember the people who went to work that morning and never came home, and we remember the families who have carried their memories… pic.twitter.com/mINuTlwQk2
25 years ago, terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people, including 2,753 New Yorkers.
As we remember that terrible day, let us also remember the first responders, office workers and strangers who ran toward danger to help each other. Let us remember the extraordinary compassion,… pic.twitter.com/AO4RFEOZA2
Check out this latest episode of Hot Ones Versus by the First We Feast channel...featuring a hilarious faceoff between Obsession's Inde Navarrette and Michael Johnston!
This video had lots of funny moments between the duo—from Johnston needing to bring up the fact that he was "a quarter Mexican" after lightheartedly picking on Navarrette's Latino yearning for hot and spicy foods, namely hot Cheetos (she jokingly called upon the Mexican community to 'cancel' Johnston for his insolence), to the "horror charades" game at the end where Inde excitedly guessed that the correct answer to Michael's question was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
This Hot Ones Versus episode had some heartwarming revelations as well...such as the fact that Inde always picked up the phone whenever Michael called her, even though she's now "booked and busy" with such upcoming projects as Marvel Studios' 2028 X-Men movie and a sci-fi thriller called The Waffle House Index. Also, Navarrette made Johnston blush after genuinely saying that she would never replace him with another actor to play Bear in Obsession—even if she was offered $10 million to do so. Michael responded in kind that he couldn't picture anyone else to portray Freaky Nikki in Curry Barker's hit horror film.
Anyways, view the episode below before I end up spoiling more moments in it! Just one more question: Did Inde secretly intend on making Michael look like Joaquin Phoenix's Joker when she drew on his face? Watch Hot Ones Versus now!
BepiColombo Begins Mercury Arrival with MTM Separation Success (News Release - September 7)
On 3 September 2026 at 15:49 CEST, the European Space Agency's BepiColombo Mission Control Team at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) received the signal they had been waiting for – BepiColombo’s Mercury Transfer Module(MTM) successfully separated from the spacecraft stack. This landmark achievement for the ESA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) mission marks the first step of BepiColombo's long-awaited arrival at Mercury.
Over the last eight years, BepiColombo has travelled 9.9 billion kilometres through the inner Solar System and completed nine planetary flybys to reach this historic milestone. Despite parting with the module, BepiColombo would not have made it this far without MTM. It carried BepiColombo from Earth to Mercury, providing power and the highly-advanced solar electric propulsion (SEP) needed to navigate its complex space journey.
Now, MTM’s job is complete.
This separation is the first in a sequence of key manoeuvres that will ultimately see BepiColombo become the first mission to place two spacecraft in orbit around Mercury, in December 2026. The mission's Mercury arrival phase is one of the most complex planetary arrival sequences ever attempted by ESA.
After an intense day of operations at ESA's mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, ESA, industry partners and the mission's scientific community celebrated the acquisition of signal confirming MTM's successful separation. Thousands also followed the milestone live on ESA's YouTube channel.
Letting go
In the months leading up to MTM separation, rigorous simulations challenged the Mission Control Team (MCT) with a wide range of operational scenarios.
On 3 September 2026 came the real deal. At 12:00 CEST, the team gave the official "GO" for separation. For those in the Main Control Room, it marked the culmination of months of preparation.
As the expected separation time arrived at 14:00 CEST, silence fell over mission control. The team would have to wait nearly two hours for confirmation to arrive from 200 million kilometres away.
Following separation, the remaining spacecraft stack entered safe mode, readjusted its attitude and reconfigured itself before transmitting its status back to Earth.
At 14:20 CEST, a preliminary Doppler signal provided the first indication that separation had taken place.
"We heard it loud and clear in the voice loop from Flight Dynamics Manager, Frank Budnik, that they could clearly see from the Doppler data that MTM had separated. After all this waiting and preparation, we all looked at each other and hugged. It was a very powerful moment," says Emmanuela Bordoni, ESA BepiColombo B-shift Spacecraft Operations Manager.
With ESA's Estrack Cebreros and Malargüe deep-space antennas locked on target, all eyes turned to the incoming telemetry.
At 15:49 CEST, mission control received the long-awaited acquisition of signal, prompting cheers and applause.
"We are thrilled, but also relieved. Separating two spacecraft from 200 million kilometres away is not something we do every day. We have prepared intensively for this moment, so we are really pleased to have had a perfect separation," says a beaming Ignacio "Nacho" Clerigo, ESA BepiColombo Spacecraft Operations Manager.
Farewell MTM
Every great collaboration deserves a proper goodbye.
On its final day as part of BepiColombo, MTM captured its last images, continuing a role that it had fulfilled throughout the mission's journey to Mercury.
Alongside its solar arrays and ion thrusters, MTM carried three monitoring cameras that documented the voyage. During the cruise phase, they captured daily snapshots of the spacecraft's journey through the inner Solar System.
The final images marked the closing entry in an eight-year photo diary and the end of a remarkable collaboration that carried the mission to Mercury's doorstep.
As for MTM, with no antenna or onboard computer of its own, the now inoperable module will remain in a stable orbit around the Sun.
"We feel a bit sad to see our old friend MTM going away. It did an astonishing job bringing MPO and Mio here, but as Freddie Mercury once sang, the show must go on!" says Nacho.
To mark the achievement, the MCT took part in one of ESOC's most enduring traditions: the sticker ceremony. On the day after separation, the team gathered to add the MTM sticker on the Briefing Room glass door, securing its place among the missions that have shaped ESOC's history.
"I feel so proud of this team. This is the perfect start to arrival phase," says a smiling Santa MartÃnez SanmartÃn, ESA BepiColombo Mission Manager.
Carrying the mission
Roughly the size of a small car, the Mercury Transfer Module carried two 15-metre-long solar wings that powered the entire spacecraft stack and propelled it using its highly-advanced solar electric propulsion (SEP) system.
This technology uses solar energy to turn xenon gas into plasma that is expelled through four ion thrusters. Unlike chemical propulsion, which provides short, powerful bursts of acceleration, SEP delivers gentle but continuous thrust for days, weeks or even months while using far less propellant.
This efficiency is what made BepiColombo's complex journey to Mercury possible. Along the way, the mission overcame significant challenges. BepiColombo's route to Mercury needed a mid-course rethink after an issue reduced the power available from MTM's solar arrays.
Mission teams adapted the trajectory, allowing the spacecraft to remain on track for arrival.
On 15 June 2026, SEP was switched off, bringing MTM's primary mission to an end and setting up the next major milestone which we saw on 3 September – MTM separation.
What is next for BepiColombo?
Following MTM separation, BepiColombo is still more than three million kilometres from Mercury.
Unlike most interplanetary missions, arrival is not a single event but a six-month sequence of carefully choreographed manoeuvres.
“The next separation will be Mio. After seeing the successful separation of MTM I feel confident about what lies ahead,” says JAXA's BepiColombo Project Scientist, Go Murakami.
With MTM's job complete, the remaining spacecraft stack now enters a new phase of the journey. Using MPO's chemical propulsion system, the MCT will fine-tune the trajectory ahead of Mercury orbit insertion on 21 November. Mio will then be deployed in early December, before MPO is guided into its final science orbit in March 2027.
"Although we already have great science from the cruise phase and nine planet flybys, it's fantastic that we've taken this first important step towards finally being able to use all the powerful instruments on both MPO and Mio to study Mercury," says ESA BepiColombo Lead Project Scientist, Geraint Jones.
By April 2027, the two spacecraft will begin their scientific investigations, offering unprecedented insights into Mercury's surface, interior, magnetic field and surrounding environment.
NASA Selects Blue Origin as Mars Telecommunications Network Provider (News Release - September 1)
NASA awarded Blue Origin a contract Tuesday to develop the agency’s Mars Telecommunications Network, a next-generation communications system that will enable reliable, high-bandwidth communications and navigation services for current and future Mars missions.
The firm-fixed-price contract has a maximum potential value of approximately $700 million to deliver a high-performance Mars telecommunications orbiter to NASA no later than December 31, 2028.
Blue Origin will design, develop, integrate, launch and operate the network as a part of the agency’s broader space communications and navigation infrastructure. The architecture will consist of a high-performance telecommunications spacecraft orbiting Mars, transmitting science data, imagery, navigation information, and critical mission communications for spacecraft operating on and around the planet.
The award marks a milestone in NASA’s strategy to expand communications and navigation services beyond Earth and the Moon, establishing the foundation for sustained exploration of Mars in the coming decades.
Under the Artemis program, NASA is sending astronauts to explore the Moon and prepare for missions to Mars. Robotic missions will pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and as these missions expand, demand for data will continue to increase. To meet this need, NASA is pursuing a purpose-built network capable of supporting a growing number of missions while providing greater capacity, reliability and operational flexibility.
The selection follows NASA’s request for proposal issued in May. As the agency increasingly taps commercial partners for transportation and communications services in Earth orbit and to develop the Moon Base, the Mars Telecommunications Network initiative similarly seeks to harness private-sector capabilities while enabling NASA to focus on exploration and scientific discovery.
The network, managed by NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program, is expected to be operational at Mars by 2030 and will support both current and future missions to the Red Planet, as NASA ventures deeper into space.
NASA Roman’s Planet Imager Has Powered On (News Release - September 1)
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully activated the mission’s Coronagraph Instrument, which will block starlight to view planets and dusty disks around nearby stars. Now the instrument will undergo a months-long series of calibrations and tests prior to beginning full science operations.
The coronagraph power-on began at 7:27 a.m. EDT and was completed at 8:22 a.m. on September 1.
The Roman Coronagraph is a system of optics, masks, self-flexing mirrors, and sensors designed to demonstrate the most advanced technologies ever flown in space for directly imaging planets around other stars. It will block the glare from stars and make it possible for scientists to see the faint reflected light from planets in orbit around them.
Using the coronagraph, scientists will photograph worlds and dusty disks in visible light to help us see giant planets that are older, colder, and in closer orbits than the hot, young super-Jupiters direct imaging has mainly revealed so far. The Roman coronagraph team will conduct a series of pre-planned observations for a total of three months spread across the mission’s first year-and-a-half of operations.
In addition to direct imaging, Roman will also find planets via the microlensing and transit methods. Read more about the wide array of worlds that Roman will study here.
To learn more about Roman’s commissioning process, visit:
NASA’s Dragonfly Gets Wired Up While Titan Landing Area Is Named (News Release)
Peeking into the clean room at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, it might be one of the first things you notice about NASA’s Dragonfly: the dozens of silver cables snaking around and through the structure of the in-progress, Titan-bound rotorcraft.
Collectively, these bundles of wires, cables, and connectors make up the spacecraft’s electrical harness. It’s Dragonfly’s nervous system, fitted to securely transmit power and data between the lander’s computers, actuators, sensors, scientific instruments, and battery.
“The harness doesn’t do anything by itself, but it is necessary for everything else to function,” said Jackie Perry, Dragonfly lander harness lead at APL, which is responsible for designing, building and operating the rotorcraft for NASA. “It’s critical hardware that exists only to serve the rest of the lander. We can’t do anything without it.”
Perry’s small team of engineers and technicians reached a major milestone in July when it installed the harness on the flight fuselage. “Once the flight structure was delivered and the remote interface units and temperature sensors were installed, we were able to start laying the harness,” Perry said.
The wiring harness is typically one of the first components delivered to a spacecraft. Dragonfly passed its critical design review in 2022; fabrication began in late 2024 and finished about a year later. The wire is silver-coated copper, insulated in a heat-resistant, durable polymer coating and wrapped with aluminum, which is then attached to plastic and metal connectors.
Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in summer 2028 and reach Saturn’s moon Titan in late 2034.
Dragonfly’s operating environment on Titan poses some unique challenges. Because of the rotorcraft’s thermos bottle design – insulated to retain heat from its nuclear power source and stay warm in Titan’s extremely cold conditions – the harness had to be designed to route under a layer of thick foam insulation on the outside of the lander and accommodate the circulation of that warm air through the inside. The rotorcraft’s high power demands require both 4- and 8-gauge wire, Perry said, yet the harness has to be flexible enough to weave through a packed interior that includes the flight system and instrument boxes, as well as a nearly 300-pound battery.
The team will continue connecting the harness to science instruments and other flight components as they’re delivered to APL for integration and additional testing.
Titan target area lands name
The International Astronomical Union (IAU), the global body responsible for officially designating objects in space, has approved a name for the large dune field where Dragonfly will land on Titan: Ahmakiq Undae. The region consists of dunes and interdune areas to the south of Selk Crater, extending to the edge of a range of hills or mountains.
In the Mayan tradition, people appealed to the spirit Ahmakiq (pronounced “ah-mahk-eek”) to stop strong winds from damaging their crops. The name literally translates to the “one who locks up the wind,” and aligns with the IAU convention of naming dune fields – or undae, in Latin after gods and goddesses of wind. The Dragonfly team chose Ahmakiq from a list of IAU suggestions.
Once Dragonfly reaches Titan, the rotorcraft will conduct a 3.3-year primary mission, exploring diverse environments from organic dunes to deposits associated with an impact crater – Selk Crater – where liquid water and complex organic materials key to life once existed together. Scientific analysis indicates that the impact that formed Selk melted the icy bedrock, potentially creating a large temporary pool that could have remained liquid for hundreds to thousands of years under an insulating ice layer, like winter ponds on Earth.
