“The future of space stations could be private, as the ability to reach space becomes more common among non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
One company developing private space stations, Axiom Space, seeks to begin with expanding out the ISS while constructing their own orbiting outpost. Their egg-shaped modules are designed to provide a 360-degree view of space, and the Earth turning far below.
“Once fully assembled, Axiom Station will nearly double the useable volume of the International Space Station,” the team reports.” the next web
https://thenextweb.com/news/iss-gone-2024-future-of-space-travel-syndication
Colonel, this is OT, so do with this as you will.
I just finished reading an article at Bloomberg concerning a major security breach, likely by a government hackers’ group in China, of Juniper, apparently ongoing for a few years, including a firewall and its VPN for its corporate and high tech customers.
It appears that the NSA and its parent agency, the Department of Defense, wished to insert a backdoor into state of the art Juniper products to permit undetectable snooping on customer communications. Through arm-twisting, and against the better judgment of some of Juniper’s experts, this was accomplished. Unfortunately, the backdoor may have served as the entry point for this Chinese hackers’ group with potentially dire consequences.
This is a very good article that adds weight to the industry concerns about these government-mandated backdoors, and is worthy of a close reading for its informational value.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-09-02/juniper-mystery-attacks-traced-to-pentagon-role-and-chinese-hackers
Thank you,
JJ
Allowing backdoors to exist in such critical Juniper network devices is absolute idiocy. Everyone involved in this both in the government and at Juniper should be called on the carpet. Cisco would never allow us to touch their network devices either across the board like this or even in individual boxes. This is too important a technology to be screwing with.
I haven’t heard about this Axiom space station, but I have heard about Sierra Space. Their space station living modules use inflatable fabric stronger than steel. The result is a three story egg. They also have the Dream Chaser space plane, a smaller version of the old space shuttle. They’re supposed to launch in late 2022 or early 2023.
https://www.sncorp.com/sierra-space/