Retirement didn't exactly mean slowing down for Bonnie and Hunter Moore.

The Moores, both 71, have lived near the Vanderbilt campus in Nashville for over 40 years. They bought their home in 1983, raising their two children and building their careers. Bonnie was a proofreader, while Hunter worked in the music industry.

When they retired in 2019, they were excited to have more time for their passions. For Hunter, that includes reading, playing the piano, working on model trains, and independent study (he's currently working on a dissertation for fun). Bonnie loves entertaining her friends — especially in her "Not Your Mother's Bible Study" group — hosting her grandsons, and traveling.

By 2023, though, it was clear their home base wasn't set up to help them thrive in retirement, as their bedroom, office, and music studio were all on the second floor. After caring for their own aging parents, they knew second-floor living wasn't ideal for aging in place, particularly when Hunter developed vertigo that made climbing stairs unsafe.

Bonnie and Hunter didn't want their adult children worrying about them as they got older, as they had worried about their parents. Instead, the Moores hoped to set themselves up to live independently for as long as possible — and have fun while doing it.

Luckily, the house next door was the perfect solution to their problem.

The Moores bought the house next door as a rental property in 2007.

The Moores bought the rental house, which provided supplemental income, in 2007 for $360,000. At 1,400 square feet, it had three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The front couldn't be changed too drastically because the Moores live in a historic area, but their lot had space in the back where they could expand the home.

As they realized they wanted to upsize for retirement from their 2,700-square-foot home, Bonnie and Hunter decided to do a massive overhaul of the rental house, taking it down to the studs.

The renovation, which added a two-story addition to the back, gave them a 4,400-square-foot space with four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and two half baths, plus ample living space and a bonus room that could be converted into a bedroom if needed.

They also incorporated features that would make aging in place easier.

The house took over a year to transform.

The Moores hired Michael Brown Construction, Beth Haley Designs, and Allard Ward Architects to bring the project to life. Brown specialized in historic renovations, and Haley had an expertise in aging-in-place accommodations, both of which were needed.

Renovations kicked off in early 2024 and took about 18 months to complete. Because they gutted the original structure, the Moores had to pay for all new plumbing and electrical wiring throughout the home in addition to the cosmetic changes. The height of the original exterior stayed the same, and the windows that were originally there didn't move. Nearly everything else changed, though.

The Moores were able to stay in their first home while they transformed their new house, which, Bonnie said, made everything easier.

"We didn't have to move," she said. "We could look out the window and notice somebody was walking around, and go over to see if they needed to talk to us. It was wonderful."

First-floor living was a priority in the design.

It was important to the Moores that the addition had a second story so they'd have plenty of bedrooms for their kids, grandkids, and loved ones to stay in when they visited.

However, they wanted the first floor to be where they spent most of their time. It needed to accommodate larger parties, such as their Christmas gatherings or Bonnie's Bible study group, and their bedroom had to be on the main level as well.

An open-concept design on the first floor was perfect for the Moores.

The kitchen and living areas are combined in the Moores' home, with large windows and sliding glass doors framing the space and letting in light.

A table helps to visually separate the kitchen from the living area.

The large kitchen was a huge upgrade.

"My kitchen is probably about the size of part of my downstairs next door," Bonnie said of the space, which features a large island surrounded by ample built-in cabinetry.

It also has a walk-in pantry, one of Bonnie's favorite features, and was set up to suit the couple as they get older, with wide walkways and doorways. A few of the drawers also have large gaps behind them, so you can reach behind them without jamming your fingers.

There are two living spaces on the main floor.

The first floor has a larger living room with a TV, and another with two comfortable chairs in front of the fireplace, which the Moores think of as their den. A grand piano splits the two spaces.

Bonnie also said they had the fireplace raised intentionally.

"As you're sitting in your chair, you're looking straight into the fireplace instead of looking down," she said. "When you're old, you don't want to have to bend over as much, so you raise things in that way without it looking weird."

The Moores also felt free to get creative with how they used their rooms.

The house came with a formal dining room, but the Moores didn't feel they needed that space, since they had a dining area at their kitchen counter and kitchen table.

Instead, they turned it into a workout room and office for Bonnie.

It has a treadmill, a weight machine, and a desk. However, it could easily still work as a dining space or even a bedroom down the line if needed.

"We kept it with the feel of a dining room in case somebody wanted that for resale," Bonnie said.

The Moores didn't want to waste any space in their home.

To maximize the space, they put shelving wherever possible. For instance, Bonnie turned the space below their stairs into a "hobbit hole" for her grandsons, filling it with a bean bag and books as an escape for them.

"I used every place that you could store something," she said.

Their home library can also serve multiple purposes.

Bonnie described Hunter as a "voracious reader," so a library was a must-have for their home.

Still, the room has a closet and an en suite bathroom, and it could fit a smaller bed or a Murphy bed, so it could become another first-floor bedroom if the Moores ever need live-in help.

The primary suite sits on the first floor.

Bonnie and Hunter's bedroom has plenty of room for the couple to walk around the bed on either side, which was intentional. They didn't want the space to become cumbersome if they use wheelchairs or walkers someday.

It also has a loveseat, which Bonnie said they added so they can sit and put on their shoes without bending down.

There's plenty of storage in the bedroom.

The suite has a walk-in closet, one of Bonnie's favorite features in her new home.

Its blue cabinetry matches that in the bathroom for a cohesive look.

The bathroom is both luxurious and long-term-minded.

The bathroom is designed to accommodate a walker or wheelchair with ease.

It has luxury touches, like a double vanity and a massive walk-in shower with grab bars and a bench running the length of the shower for aging-in-place accommodations.

They also made the showerhead adjustable, which was a must-have because Bonnie is 5-foot-4 and Hunter is 6-foot-2. Bonnie wanted to make sure the height could adjust easily with one hand in case they developed any mobility issues, and that function has already come in handy.

Bonnie had a mastectomy in August and wasn't able to lift her arms above her head in the initial weeks of her recovery. Being able to adjust the showerhead height on her own during that time allowed her to maintain her independence as she healed.

They also have a laundry room in their en suite.

The location of the laundry room means the Moores can live entirely on their first floor if they want, ensuring they don't have to use stairs if it becomes challenging for them.

The Moores will never have trouble reaching the second floor of their home, though.

The Moores didn't want their second floor to become inaccessible if stairs became harder for them to manage as they age, so they decided to add an elevator to the home in the renovation.

It was a pricey aspect of the renovation, coming in at around $31,000, which doesn't include the cost of building out the space for it or installation.

Bonnie said the elevator was worth it, though, as it feels "responsible" for her and Hunter at this stage. It's a big comfort to their kids, too.

"They're so relieved that we aren't going up and down the stairs," Bonnie said.

The elevator sits next to a room where Bonnie stores things like Christmas decor and luggage, and she said being able to pop items directly into the elevator has been great for them.

There are two bedrooms upstairs.

One of the bedrooms has twin beds for the Moores' grandsons to enjoy, and it connects to Hunter's office (which could also be turned into a bedroom if needed) via a Jack-and-Jill bathroom.

The other bedroom on the second floor has an en suite bathroom, providing privacy for whoever stays there.

There's an additional living area upstairs as well.

An open area at the top of the stairs has a wet bar, a mini fridge, and a cozy seating area.

The Moores love having an additional flex space for their family or friends to enjoy when they come to visit.

The garage serves multiple purposes.

The Moores didn't have a large garage at their old home, so they were excited about the detached, two-car garage on their new property.

They finished a space at the back with a half bathroom and a room for Hunter to work on his model trains. The space has vaulted ceilings for a more luxurious look, which Bonnie said they added with the home's resale value in mind.

There's an unfinished attic in the garage as well, which gives the Moores the option to expand their living space further if they want.

"If one of our kids wanted to live over there and finish it, they could," Bonnie said.

The Moores' home is everything they hoped it would be.

The Moores moved into their home in August 2025, and they've been loving it ever since.

"This is our dream house," Bonnie said. "We are so grateful that we could do this because we put everything we possibly wanted."

"When we sit at our dining room table and eat breakfast, I tell my husband every morning, 'I'm so happy,'" she added.

Hunter echoed Bonnie, saying the renovation "seemed like a huge project," but their design team made it manageable, as did being able to bounce ideas off Bonnie.

"I'm so glad we did it," he added.

It's working well for their community, too. Bonnie said the house has made their guests feel at ease when they've hosted parties and had people stay overnight.

"It's better than I thought it would even turn out, and the way it makes us feel is just very peaceful," Bonnie said. "My kids all love it, and we have room for everybody. I host all the holidays and the birthday parties."

The renovation was worth the investment.

In total, the Moores said they spent about $1.7 million turning their rental property into their dream home. That cost includes furniture upgrades and some exterior stonework to ensure the house looks up to date from the outside.

They were able to offset it with the $850,000 sale of their first home, and Bonnie said she views the work they did as an investment in the future, for both themselves and their kids.

"This allows us to stay in our house as long as we possibly can, and if we can't, then we have designed a house that will probably sell for $1.9 million," she said. "Our kids can sell it, pay for wherever we need to be, or it can be a great inheritance for them."

She and Hunter feel only gratitude that they could create a house that will benefit them and their whole family for years to come.

"The sooner you do it, the more you can enjoy it before you really need it," she said. "And it's a relief for your children. It's the best gift we could give them."

• The CEO of ASML is tying his compensation to a personal mission to boost employee morale.
• Christophe Fouquet told employees in a memo seen by BI that ASML would link exec pay to employee satisfaction.
• It comes amid a major reorg at Europe's most valuable firm, which supplies chipmaking equipment to TSMC and Intel.

The CEO of Europe's most valuable company is linking his pay to a personal mission to boost employee morale.

Christophe Fouquet, the CEO of Dutch tech firm ASML, said last week that the company will incorporate employee satisfaction into its compensation strategy for top executives in an effort to quell discontent over a major reorganization, per a memo to employees obtained exclusively by Business Insider.

Fouquet was responding to the results of an annual survey that polled more than 38,000 of ASML's roughly 44,000 employees.

The survey results, seen by Business Insider, show that ASML's employee engagement index — a measure of worker satisfaction — fell from 78% last year to 73.5% this year.

In the memo, Fouquet said that the declining employee engagement scores "reflect a period of significant change" and acknowledged that it had been a "disruptive and emotional year" for the company.

He added that ASML's executive team had highlighted six questions in the survey and combined them into a new Workplace Experience Index, which would be incorporated into the company's Long-Term Incentive plan for executive compensation.

"In the coming years, it will directly influence the remuneration of senior leaders, including the Board of Management," Fouquet wrote, adding that strengthening the company's culture and reinforcing its values would be a personal priority in the coming year.

The six questions include whether employees feel they can share their opinions without fear of retaliation and if they have confidence in ASML's senior leadership team.

Employees will also be polled on whether they have a clear understanding of their role, whether they think their teams are operating efficiently and are well organized, and whether they feel their direct manager shows they care about them as an individual.

"We recognize the role that leaders play in creating a good workplace, and we now strengthen our commitment by including the workplace experience index in the remuneration of senior leadership, including our Board of Management," an ASML spokesperson told Business Insider.

It comes as ASML, the only firm on the planet capable of building the advanced EUV lithography machines critical for chipmakers like TSMC and Intel, attempts to slash bureaucracy with a sweeping org chart reorganization.

ASML announced in January that it could cut 1,700 jobs to reduce management layers and focus on engineering. Leaked documents previously reported by Business Insider show that these ongoing efforts have focused on reducing the number of managers at the company. The company later said it expected to cut fewer jobs than initially planned.

The ASML spokesperson said that its organizational changes were "necessary to strengthen ASML's ability to innovate" for its customers, but it also recognized they were "disruptive" for staff.

Going against tech's 'hardcore' trend

Major companies tying executive pay to employee satisfaction is uncommon, but not unheard of.

Companies like IBM and Aviva have previously included employee engagement in their compensation targets for top executives.

ASML's decision, however, runs counter to the cultural winds of Big Tech, which have seen some companies embark on relentless layoffs and push employees to work longer hours as part of a "hardcore" working shift.

Meta was an early, prominent leader of this push, with a series of layoffs that began in 2023 during Mark Zuckerberg's "year of efficiency" and, last year, cutting "low performers." CTO Andrew Bosworth at one point suggested that employees who disagreed with the company's direction should "consider working elsewhere."

Executives have since acknowledged internally that Meta went too far with its efficiency push, with Bosworth telling workers that morale at the company was almost the worst it has ever been.

Fouquet's memo to employees came days before ASML raised its 2026 sales forecast and pledged to accelerate production of its unique lithography machines as the AI boom fuels surging demand.

The company's machines are vital for producing the advanced semiconductors used to train and run AI models, and the rapid buildout of AI data centers has pushed ASML's shares up 45% this year.

One major prospective customer for the Dutch firm is Elon Musk, who is racing to build a massive semiconductor factory dubbed "Terafab" in Texas. Business Insider previously reported that Musk gave a virtual presentation to a private ASML employee conference in June to pitch Terafab, which is a joint project by Tesla and SpaceX.

Editor's note: October 23, 2026 — This story was updated to include a statement from ASML.

Do you work at ASML and have any information to share? Get in touch with this reporter at tcarter.41 on Signal or tcarter@businessinsider.com. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

For decades, Southeast Asia has turned great-power rivalry to an economic advantage. By maintaining healthy ties with Washington and Beijing, ASEAN governments attracted investment, expanded trade and preserved room for diplomatic maneuver. The great-power race for artificial-intelligence dominance, however, is changing that bargain. As the United States and China build competing technology networks, neutrality may […]

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The upcoming U.S. midterms are not just another vote. They are on track to become a new testing ground for autonomous AI agents that first emerged in the Hugging Face attack. Experts are already warning of the potential for these “rogue agents,” seen in action this summer, to carry out more refined, dangerous and harder-to-trace disinformation campaigns and electoral interference than those observed in previous election cycles.

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In July 1971, Henry Kissinger developed a convenient stomachache in Pakistan, vanished from public view and turned up in Beijing. The secret trip that led to Nixon’s opening to China rested on a simple piece of geometry: in a world of three great powers, the smart move is to stand closer to each of your […]

The post A Trump-Putin-Xi summit would put Xi at the apex appeared first on Asia Times.

A Russian satellite, Kosmos 2612, may have passed within approximately 85 feet (26 meters) of a U.S.-registered satellite belonging to commercial imagery provider ICEYE. This would be an extraordinarily close and potentially dangerous pass-by for two objects in space traveling at thousands of miles per hour. For weeks beforehand, ICEYE-X36, which would be of special interest to Russia, had already found itself in increasingly close orbital alignment with its pursuer. The two satellites now look to be drifting further and further apart, but the episode has been a clear sign of what is to come as the potential for conflict in space only continues to grow.

Publicly available space tracking data from the satellitemap.space and orbitalradar.com websites show that Kosmos 2612 (also written sometimes Cosmos 2612 and abbreviated K2612) and ICEYE X36 had their especially close encounter at approximately 16:07 UTC today. Private space services company LeoLabs also told TWZ today that it could not “confirm or contradict what other data sources have stated publicly,” but that it has “high-confidence that the objects came within approximately [emphasis in the original] 500 meters [1,640 feet] of each other.” Kosmos 2612 had been making progressively closer passes by ICEYE X36 in recent days.

“COSMOS 2612 closed from hundreds of kilometers away to extreme proximity to ICEYE-X36. It then maneuvered around ICEYE-X36,  remained nearby for an extended period, and then began moving away,” LeoLabs also stated in a report assessing the situation, which was updated today and provided to TWZ. “The latest observations show the spacecraft strongly diverging and confirm that the close-proximity activity had ended.” 

LeoLabs’ broader assessment here is supported by data from other publicly available sources, as seen below.

Additional context

None of the distances stated earlier may seem especially close, let alone worrisome, by terrestrial standards. However, this is absolutely abnormal for operations in space that are not being directly coordinated by the parties involved. As a point of reference, in 2020, another Russian satellite, Kosmos 2542, came within 150 to 300 kilometers (93 to 186 miles) of USA 245, a KH-11 spy satellite, and became a major international news story.

“We are aware of the situation and tracking it closely,” a spokesperson for ICEYE’s U.S.-based division told TWZ this morning. “Our constellation architecture is designed for continuity and resilience.”

ICEYE was founded in Finland, but now has offices globally. The company specializes in providing imagery via synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from satellites like ICEYE X36, which was launched in 2024.

SAR has the benefit of being able to capture images day or night, and regardless of bad weather or other obscurants like heavy smoke. There are trade-offs in terms of the kinds of details typically visible via SAR compared to what is seen in visual spectrum imagery. Ukrainian authorities have been utilizing ICEYE imagery for years now, including for targeting purposes, as part of the ongoing conflict with Russia. There have been reports in the past that ICEYE X36 has been operating more directly under the control of the Ukrainian government, but this has not been confirmed.

Kosmos 2612 is one of six satellites (Cosmos 2609 through Cosmos 2614) the Russian military launched via a single Soyuz-2.1b rocket on April 17. The exact purpose and configuration of these satellites are unconfirmed. However, they appear to be so-called inspector types capable of rendezvousing and maneuvering close to other objects in space. We will come back to this later on.

What is clear is that Kosmos 2612 has spent the past three weeks deliberately maneuvering to extremely closely shadow ICEYE X36.

“Over two weeks beginning on September 30, 2026, Cosmos 2612 executed a series of new maneuvers that brought it back into coplanar alignment and placed it at nearly the same altitude as the commercial satellite,” Clayton Swope, Deputy Director of the Aerospace Security Project and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, D.C., along with Research Assistant Chantal Li, wrote in an analysis of the situation just last Thursday.

“According to current orbital elements, the Russian #KOSMOS 2612 satellite is now within 1-2 km [0.6 miles to 1.2 miles] of #ICEYE-X36,” Dr. Marco Langbroek, currently a lecturer on Space Situational Awareness at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of Delft Technical University in the Netherlands, wrote in a thread on X on Saturday. “Based on current elements, it might come within meters of the latter within a few hours from now. This is an #RPO [rendezvous and proximity operation] without consent.”

“New TLEs [two-line elements] show that K2612 made a manuever [sic] on Oct 16 and is now stationkeeping within 5 km [3.1 miles] or less of ICEYE X36,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and astronomer, who previously worked for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and has long been tracking objects of interest in orbit, also wrote in a series of posts on X on Saturday. “To my knowledge this is the first LEO [low Earth orbit] rendezvous of two active satellites where the owner of one of the sats did not give approval.”

McDowell later clarified that “close passes” of objects in orbit had certainly occurred previously, “but not I think rendezvous [sic] (matching velocity vector).”

“This is the most advanced and potentially dangerous uncooperative RPO we’ve observed,” Adam Marsh, LeoLabs vice president for technical solutions, separately told Breaking Defense.

Unprecedented orbital maneuvering

As underscored by the previous interaction of Kosmos 2542 and USA 245, close shadowing of satellites in orbit is certainly nothing new. The U.S. government, as well as Russia and others, have been observed engaging in this kind of activity in the past. At the same time, just how close Kosmos 2612 got to ICEYE X36, and how long they spent in close alignment, are, at the very least, highly unusual.

“It’s important to note that ‘red’ on ‘blue’ engagements,  such as this, are relatively uncommon in Low Earth Orbit (LEO),” LeoLabs’ report points out. At the same time, “this was not a routine conjunction or ‘fly by.’ The sequence included a controlled approach, changes in relative position, close-proximity loitering, additional small maneuvers, and a controlled departure. The behavior is consistent with sophisticated rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO).”

On top of this, there are other signs that what just happened between Kosmos 2612 and ICEYE X36 may follow a Russian playbook of sorts that could also be used in a prelude to an on-orbit anti-satellite attack.

Within weeks of their launch in April, Kosmos 2610, 2611, 2612, 2613, and 2614 had all moved orbital planes shared by multiple ICEYE satellites. Three of them subsequently made close passes by ICEYE X36, specifically, but none of them initially kept station with it. ICEYE CEO Rafal Modrzewski did say “the company later moved its ​satellite, prompting further Russian manoeuvres [sic],” according to a story Reuters published last week.

To take a step even further back, before Kosmos 2542 was caught shadowing USA 245 in 2020, there were reports that the U.S. spy satellite had shifted its orbit. This was possibly prompted by the movements of another Russian ‘inspector,’ Kosmos 2543. This does not appear to have ever been confirmed.

While in space, Kosmos 2542 had deployed Kosmos 2543 in November 2019. Then, on July 23, 2020, the U.S. military said that it had detected Kosmos 2543 itself launching a smaller object in what it described as a test of a space-based anti-satellite weapon. In a subsequent interview with Time, then-Chief of Space Operations Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, U.S. Space Force’s top uniformed officer, disclosed that American forces had first observed Russian “nesting doll” satellites – a reference to traditional Russian matryoshka dolls – similarly demonstrating the “characteristics of a weapon system” in 2017.

U.S. officials have been warning for years that Russia’s growing array of inspector-type satellites, ostensibly designed to examine other assets the country has in orbit if they break down or otherwise malfunction, are inherently dual-purpose in nature. Beyond launching projectiles, a host of other modes of attack, kinetic and non-kinetic, are enabled by the underlying ability of a spacecraft to maneuver very close to other objects in orbit and hold that position. This includes the use of grappling arms to cause damage or just tow a satellite out of orbit, spraying aerosols to harm or impair optics and solar panels, and electronic warfare jamming. A satellite could turn out to be the weapon itself, becoming a kinetic interceptor that smashes into its target on command.

One satellite shadowing another closely in orbit allows various kinds of intelligence gathering, as well. Collection of imagery and signal emissions can offer valuable details about a target’s capabilities and vulnerabilities, as well as how it is being used in a particular context.

“As observed by LeoLabs Global Radar Network and analyzed by our team, COSMOS 2612 demonstrated a sequence of capabilities that could be used to inspect, characterize, shadow, or potentially interfere with another spacecraft,” according to LeoLabs’ report. “These actions require planning, maneuverability, precise navigation, and significant fuel. They may also indicate the use of onboard sensors capable of measuring the relative position of another spacecraft.”

What has just transpired between Kosmos 2612 and ICEYE X36 highlights how just a viable threat of attack can be disruptive in its own right. Simply forcing an imagery-gathering satellite out of position could prevent it from collecting over an intended area, or at least doing so in the most effective manner.

Furthermore, satellites only have a limited amount of fuel with which to maneuver in any way after reaching orbit. Harassment in space that forces them to burn off that finite resource at a higher-than-expected rate could reduce their total operational life expectancy, as well as further limit their effectiveness and make them more vulnerable to attacks or accidents. Debris in space is a steadily growing hazard that satellites increasingly need to dodge.

The United States, among others, has been actively pursuing on-orbit refueling capabilities to help address these issues. Last month, American officials also made the bombshell admission that there are unspecified U.S. weapon systems in orbit now, ostensibly for defensive purposes amid growing threats from Russia, as well as China. Both of those countries, among others, have been actively developing and fielding various anti-satellite capabilities inside and out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

“We can only speculate about the operation’s goal, but it could have been anything from simply intimidation to outright destruction or sabotage of a U.S.-registered satellite,” CSIS’ Clayton Swope told TWZ directly today in light of the new developments regarding Kosmos 2612 and ICEYE X36. “Perhaps the operation is on hold. There are, however, several other satellites that shadowed ICEYE X36 back in May that could be brought in[to] action too.”

Attribution and broader ramifications

It is important to point out that space, as a domain, inherently creates complications when it comes to attributing any form of attack, should one occur. Satellites do suffer mishaps, sometimes with catastrophic results, the causes of which are not always clear.

Just in January, a Russian inspector satellite launched in 2014 appeared to break up unexpectedly. Sometime around the end of July, the Chinese reconnaissance satellite Yaogan 50-02, which had only been launched some four months earlier, also broke up in orbit. On Sept. 13, a similar fate befell the U.S. Cold War-era Farrah III spy satellite, also known as USA 32. At the time of writing, no firm evidence has emerged to indicate any of these incidents were the result of hostile action rather than accidents of some kind.

“While the intention behind COSMOS 2612’s behavior remains uncertain, the deliberate nature of the activity, the fuel required to conduct this activity, and the proximity to a Western commercial imaging satellite make the event strategically important,” LeoLab’s report notes. “This event, and the capabilities demonstrated, do not establish hostile intent. It does, however, demonstrate capabilities that could support intelligence collection, on-orbit inspection, coercive signaling, interference, or preparation for future counterspace operations.”

It is very possible, if not highly probable, that Kosmos 2612’s recent activities will be indicative of a trend going forward. Aggressive and potentially dangerous maneuvering by armed forces in close proximity to each other is not uncommon within the atmosphere, especially in the air and at sea. Extending a variation of those tactics into the space domain would make sense, especially given the central role that capabilities in orbit increasingly play in modern military operations globally. Those roles extend to early warning, general intelligence gathering, weapons guidance, near-real-time communications, and beyond.

American officials have already said in the past that American assets in space are routinely the target of “reversible attacks,” meaning ones that do not cause permanent damage. That also speaks to the difficulty of attribution if there is no lasting effect or impact to draw attention to.

The U.S. government’s long-time monopoly on the space domain has also been steadily eroding in recent years, especially in light of China’s massive expansion of its intelligence-gathering and other satellite constellations. The scale and scope of what commercial satellite imagery and other space services providers, like ICEYE, offer today have led to a further democratization of space-based capabilities to countries like Ukraine that do not possess significant, if any, constellations of their own.

All of this, in turn, has increasingly driven the U.S. military, specifically, to plan for more proactive operations and potential direct conflict in orbit to ensure it retains its edge going forward. The aforementioned disclosure of U.S. on-orbit weapons is indicative of those developments and an accompanying shift in U.S. policy to be more open about counter-space capabilities.

More details may yet emerge about Kosmos 2612 and its recent rendezvous in orbit with ICEYE X36, but it already points to how space has become an increasingly likely potential zone for direct conflict going forward.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

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Some of the world’s leading names in space exploration are heading to Coimbra later this month for a two-day summit covering everything from lunar science and the search for another

The post NASA and ESA experts head to Coimbra for international space summit appeared first on Portugal Resident.

 O CIAC – Centro de Investigação em Artes e Comunicação assinalou oficialmente a abertura do INTERFACE – Laboratório de Tradução Digital, uma nova infraestrutura tecnológica e científica criada para aproximar a ciência, a criação artística e a sociedade.

Saliente-se que o INTERFACE é um laboratório pioneiro focado na tradução e visualização de conhecimento científico complexo para o grande público e para as indústrias criativas. Foi financiado em 473.800 euros pelo programa EQUIPAR+2 da Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), no âmbito do Plano de Recuperação e Resiliência (PRR),

Dotado de equipamento de ponta para produção imersiva e interatividade, o laboratório servirá investigadores, docentes e estudantes da Universidade do Algarve. De acordo com o coordenador do CIAC, Bruno Mendes da Silva, “o INTERFACE atuará como um laboratório especializado, capaz de transformar dados científicos complexos, por exemplo, da área das ciências da saúde, em narrativas visuais acessíveis e envolventes”.

Importa salientar que o projeto contempla ainda uma extensão regional, o AI Studio, localizado no polo do CIAC no Instituto Politécnico de Santarém, focado em Inteligência Artificial e literacia digital, equipado com periféricos inclusivos (tecnologia Braille e comandos por voz) para garantir total acessibilidade.

Com a entrada em funcionamento do INTERFACE, o CIAC reforça a sua capacidade de investigação transdisciplinar, promovendo a inovação tecnológica e a difusão da ciência na região e no país.