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Trump’s NASA Pick Poised to Win Senate Vote After Do-Over Hearing

The president withdrew Jared Isaacman’s nomination to lead the space agency in June, but senators of both parties appeared willing to give him a second shot at confirmation.

© Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times

Jared Isaacman, the billionaire entrepreneur and NASA administrator nominee, appearing before the Senate on Wednesday.
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Sterile Neutrino Prediction Muddled by Latest Experiments

Two papers challenged the existence of theorized particles called sterile neutrinos that might account for mysteries like the cosmos’s dark matter.

© Reidar Hahn/Fermilab

Workers installing the MicroBooNE time-projection chamber into the experiment’s cryostat at Fermilab in 2013.
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Russian Launch Site Mishap Leaves Country’s Space Program in Limbo

The ability of Russia to launch astronauts to the International Space Station remains in limbo after an incident last week at the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan.

© Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters

A Soyuz spacecraft launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 27. The rocket itself headed to space without problem, but the rocket’s exhaust knocked a service platform out of its protective shelter.
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NASA Rover Discovers Lightning on Mars

The Perseverance rover picked up audio evidence of electric discharges in the red planet’s atmosphere.

© NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

A towering dust devil casting a shadow over the Martian surface, captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2012.
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Trump Again Names Jared Isaacman to Lead NASA After Pulling His Nomination

The nomination of the billionaire entrepreneur, private astronaut and Elon Musk ally was before the floor of the Senate when the president abruptly withdrew it in June.

© Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times

President Trump abruptly yanked his earlier nomination of Jared Isaacman because he was upset that Mr. Isaacman had contributed to the campaigns of some Democrats.
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