Teams with NASA are gaining momentum as work progresses toward future lunar missions for the benefit of humanity as numerous flight hardware shipments from across the world arrived at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the first crewed Artemis flight test and follow-on lunar missions. The skyline at Kennedy will soon see added structures as teams build up the ground systems needed to support them.
Crews are well underway with parallel preparations for the Artemis II flight, as well as buildup of NASA’s mobile launcher 2 tower for use during the launch of the SLS (Space Launch System) Block 1B rocket, beginning with the Artemis IV mission. This version of NASA’s rocket will use a more powerful upper stage to launch with crew and more cargo on lunar missions. Technicians have begun upper stage umbilical connections testing that will help supply fuel and other commodities to the rocket while at the launch pad.
In summer 2024, technicians from NASA and contractor Bechtel National, Inc. completed a milestone called jack and set, where the center’s mega-mover, the crawler transporter, repositioned the initial steel base assembly for mobile launcher 2 from temporary construction shoring to its six permanent pedestals near the Kennedy’s Vehicle Assembly Building.
“The NASA Bechtel mobile launcher 2 team is ahead of schedule and gaining momentum by the day,” stated Darrell Foster, ground systems integration manager, NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Program at NASA Kennedy. “In parallel to all of the progress at our main build site, the remaining tower modules are assembled and outfitted at a second construction site on center.”
As construction of the mobile launcher 2’s base continues, the assembly operations shift into integration of the modules that will make up the tower. In mid-October 2024, crews completed installation of the chair, named for its resemblance to a giant seat. The chair serves as the interface between the base deck and the vertical modules which are the components that will make up the tower, and stands at 80-feet-tall.
In December 2024, teams completed the rig and set Module 4 operation where the first of a total of seven 40-foot-tall modules was stacked on top of the chair. Becthel crews rigged the module to a heavy lift crane, raised the module more than 150-feet, and secured the four corners to the tower chair. Once complete, the entire mobile launcher structure will reach a height of nearly 400 feet – approximately the length of four Olympic-sized swimming pools placed end-to-end.
On the opposite side of the center, test teams at the Launch Equipment Test Facility are testing the new umbilical interfaces, which will be located on mobile launcher 2, that will be needed to support the new SLS Block 1B Exploration Upper Stage. The umbilicals are connecting lines that provide fuel, oxidizer, pneumatic pressure, instrumentation, and electrical connections from the mobile launcher to the upper stage and other elements of SLS and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.
“All ambient temperature testing has been successfully completed and the team is now beginning cryogenic testing, where liquid nitrogen and liquid hydrogen will flow through the umbilicals to verify acceptable performance,” stated Kevin Jumper, lab manager, NASA Launch Equipment Test Facility at Kennedy. “The Exploration Upper Stage umbilical team has made significant progress on check-out and verification testing of the mobile launcher 2 umbilicals.”
The testing includes extension and retraction of the Exploration Upper Stage umbilical arms that will be installed on mobile launcher 2. The test team remotely triggers the umbilical arms to retract, ensuring the ground and flight umbilical plates separate as expected, simulating the operation that will be performed at lift off.
Scott Jennings, often CNN’s sole Republican commentator on panels, gave his take Thursday night on why some Democrats are looking to have a relationship with President-elect Donald Trump in the wake of his massive election victory.
Mayor Eric Adams of New York City is set to meet with Trump on Friday at Mar-a-Lago. Rumors circulated that Adams is angling for a pardon in the wake of his indictment on charges of bribery and wire fraud, but the Democratic mayor has also indicated he wants to work with the incoming administration and has been critical of the Biden administration.
“One, I think the hysteria has subsided, thank God, over Trump,” Jennings told the CNN panel. “Number two, it makes a lot of sense to me why Eric Adams, the leader of a large city, would want to have a relationship with the president because New York City is one of the most impacted cities by the illegal immigration crisis.”
🚨 SCOTT JENNINGS: People are rushing to meet with Trump because people respond to leadership. They've been desperate for some leadership, now they're gonna get some. pic.twitter.com/Nk1xDWNqWO
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 17, 2025
“Number three, people respond to leadership,” he said. “And we haven’t had any for the last four years. So now you have a strong president coming in, no wonder, they’ve been desperate for some leadership, now they’re going to get some, and they’re meeting with the president to find out what they can do together.”
One of the other panel members erupted laughing at Jennings’ last point.
Jennings also shared his thoughts on prominent Democrats, including Michelle Obama and Nancy Pelosi, skipping Trump’s inauguration.
“I think people should go where they want to go and do what they want to do. I don’t really care all that much,” Jennings said.
He added that he is hoping for a peaceful next couple of years.
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“This is the first election in my adult professional career that both parties seem to have accepted the outcome of the election. There doesn’t seem to be any dispute thankfully this time about who won,” Jennings said.
“I think we’re off the slippery slope. That’s my view,” he said. “I hope these little slights don’t alter that, but I feel like we are about to go into a couple of years — I’m just going to try to will it into existence — of political peace. We haven’t had peace in a long time. And I think that’s what the American people said when they voted for this unified Republican government.”
Trump’s presidential inauguration will take place on Monday. Due to potentially dangerously frigid temperatures, it will be held inside the Capitol Rotunda rather than outdoors.
“I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
President-elect Donald Trump responded to the Supreme Court’s Friday ruling that upholds a ban on Chinese-owned TikTok, saying that he will decide whether to take any executive action “in the not too distant future.”
Following the high court’s ruling, the ban on TikTok will go into effect on Sunday unless the social media platform’s parent company — Chinese-owned ByteDance — sells TikTok to an American company. The Biden administration said it will leave the issue for Trump to address as soon as he is sworn in on Monday.
Trump, who has reportedly considered issuing an executive order to allow TikTok to remain available in app stores in the U.S., said in a post on Truth Social that the Supreme Court’s ruling wasn’t surprising, and added that he would “review the situation” before taking any executive action.
“The Supreme Court decision was expected, and everyone must respect it. My decision on TikTok will be made in the not too distant future, but I must have time to review the situation. Stay tuned!” Trump wrote.
Enforcement of the law will be the executive branch’s responsibility, and Trump told CNN shortly after the ruling was handed down that the decision on TikTok’s future “ultimately goes up to me, so you’re going to see what I’m going to do.”
“Congress has given me the decision, so I’ll be making the decision,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, Trump said he spoke to Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping about multiple issues, including TikTok.
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“I just spoke to Chairman Xi Jinping of China. The call was a very good one for both China and the U.S.A.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is my expectation that we will solve many problems together, and starting immediately. We discussed balancing Trade, Fentanyl, TikTok, and many other subjects. President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!”
Trump has flipped on the TikTok issue between his first and second terms. During his first term, Trump attempted to ban TikTok, but he recently met with TikTok’s CEO and said he has a “warm spot” for the social media giant after it helped energize young Americans who voted for him in the 2024 election.
TikTok “collects extensive personal information from and about its users,” the Supreme Court wrote, adding, that the platform does “not dispute that the government has an important and well-grounded interest in preventing China from collecting the personal data of tens of millions of U.S. TikTok users. Nor could they.” U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration raised alarms about the national security threat presented by TikTok, arguing that the communist government could manipulate the platform’s content in a way that pushes Chinese propaganda on American citizens.
The Supreme Court acknowledged the threat, writing, “Data collection and analysis is a common practice in this digital age. But TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns.”
In December of 2024, for the second year in a row, a male Irish dancer who identifies as a transgender girl has won the title of Southern Regional Champion, beating out nearly 100 girls and indirectly depriving a young woman of the opportunity to compete at the World Championships.
As an internationally competitive Irish dancer, I have been appalled at the introduction of men into women’s sports across the globe in the last several years, and specifically, at the effects of this practice upon my own sport. Despite recent victories such as the defeat in federal court of the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to legally expand the definition of sex in Title IX to include the nebulous concept of “gender identity,” which would have punished states for barring biological males from women’s sports, many female athletes are still forced to yield their spaces to boys and men.
In recent months, I have watched young women diligently balance AP classes, cross-training, and other sports with rigorous dance classes, frequent travel to competitions, and acute mental pressure that accompany athletes everywhere, only to have to compete against individuals with physiological advantages. These girls all train in the hope of qualifying for the World Irish Dancing Championships, a feat attained by a mere 1%. The World Championships are often termed our “Olympics,” and for good reason. While a normal resting heart rate for adults ranges between 60 to 100 beats per minute (BPM), the stamina required to compete in three champion-length rounds means our resting heart rates are often near 40bpm. Our complex rhythms must be unfailingly precise; we require the flexibility to kick well above our heads, and we must possess the explosive power to jump and freeze in midair, even while wearing heavy, fiberglass shoes. Some of us commute several hours to dance class, and in my case, as just one example, I delayed attending my first-choice university in order to secure a qualification.
After all this sacrifice, girls are then made to compete against individuals who, according to the National Library of Medicine, possess superior lung capacity, denser bones, and significantly greater muscle mass even after estrogen therapy. As of 2022, International Olympic Committee regulations require biological males wishing to compete as females to undergo “hormone therapy” to maintain testosterone levels “below 10 nmol/L (nanomoles per liter) for one year.” It is crucial to note here that this standard is patently unfair: The female range for testosterone is “<1 nmol/L.” Furthermore, the National Library cites multiple studies demonstrating hormone therapy’s “limited success” with one study revealing that although male-to-female trans individuals’ testosterone levels “decreased significantly,” “nearly all” failed to reach female levels.
Additionally, current testosterone levels are a faulty metric to begin with: Male exposure to “testosterone secreted before birth … and postnatally … has driven permanent effects.” Females have “10-12%” smaller lung capacity and heart size “85% that of males.” Further studies reveal that male-to-female trans-identifying individuals experience “no bone mass loss” after “28-63 months of estrogen therapy,” and lose just “5-10%” of what can be a “50-75%” muscle mass advantage, an effect which evidence indicates could be “mitigated” by exercise. The implications of these findings upon policy for a highly aerobic, plyometric sport such as Irish dance ought to be self-evident.
Already, in the U.S., England, and Scotland, girls have been deprived of titles, World Qualifications, World Medalist status, and other honors. And now, this past December, we had to watch a boy win another female regional title. Anyone who was present or has seen the videos of that moment knows how discouraged his female competitors and their parents and teachers were.
One mother I spoke to asked to remain anonymous and expressed her frustration. Her daughter has competed in Irish dancing for eight years. She says this issue is “a biological thing,” citing the example of her 11-year-old son who has already overtaken his highly-ranked 15-year-old sister’s best cross-country runtime. Regarding dance, she says: “There’s a lot of disappointment from the girls feeling like there’s nothing that they can do training wise.”
“There were a bunch of girls that have retired … and have cited this as the cause of why they were retiring. In particular, two girls that are on the podium … almost every year.”
It is not only parents who see injustice in this practice. One dancer, who competes at the North American level, talked to me about not just her own but also her competitors’ sadness on the changes to their competition: “We work all year for this championship … and we expect it to be just a girl’s competition.” She says the biological males “tend to be more aggressive, dominant, and take over the stage,” and deprive her competition of opportunities like “getting a recall or a national qualification.” “The majority of us girls feel that disappointment and disagree with” the policy. She concludes, “Awards for me used to be the absolute highlight of Oireachtas … but this year, when the boy won the championship title for the second time … my gut dropped.” Another highly-ranked dancer in the competition concurs, recalling that awards “felt pretty awkward.”
They were not alone in their displeasure, with the first dancer noting that “many of us” and “lots of the audience” did not applaud. What used to be “a fun vibe” of “friendship and girlhood backstage” has shifted to one in which “everyone is now on edge.”
In addition to a physical advantage, boys dancing against girls poses a greater risk for female injuries. Power and swift motion are key components of Irish dancing, and we usually compete two or three dancers at once. Despite our best efforts, differing choreographic floor patterns and an impulse to retain the front of the stage or lose points for timidity sometimes cause collisions.
An anonymous male World Qualifier, talking to me about his in-studio training, said that “aggression is a very big difference between how I dance” compared with “girls at the studio,” continuing to say that “boys will take the front of the stage more definitively,” than girls, who have cause to fear accidental collisions with boys. He speaks strictly out of a sense of fairness, stating that if “a biological male who identifies as a female competed in the male competition, I would have no problem with that.”
It is past time to end this open discrimination against our girls. Given the obvious evidence demonstrating the physical advantages of boys over girls, and the widespread recognition of injustice among the dance community, it ought to be very clear that our girls deserve their own competitions. Although many of the parents, dancers, and instructors who have spoken out on this topic have chosen to remain anonymous, fearing ended careers or vitriolic tirades against personal character, those of us who wish to protect our girls do not ascribe to such “cancel culture.” We do not call for ostracization or exclusion based upon differing beliefs; dancing is a joy which is and should be accessible to everyone. Just never at the cost of young women’s dreams.
* * *
Emily Claire Boulet has Irish danced competitively for the past nine years. She is currently pursuing a B.A. in English with a concentration in Business Administration at the University of Dallas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
The country’s most prominent appplication stores, run by tech giants Apple and Google, are actively pushing users to download TikTok just days before it will be illegal for them to do so.
As of Friday morning, the Chinese-owned TikTok is listed as the number one “must-have app” on Apple’s App Store, where roughly 118 million iPhone owners in the United States get their apps. The placement remained after a ruling was handed down by the Supreme Court upholding the ban, which takes effect on Sunday and will immediately make it illegal for app store operators to allow downloads of TikTok as long as it is owned by a Chinese entity.
Screenshot of Apple’s App Store
On Google’s Play Store, TikTok is also put front and center. The first thing visible when opening it is promotion for an event taking place on TikTok after the impending ban, with a prompt to install the app. It is also the top listed “sponsored” app, indicating that Google is being paid to promote it on its homepage.
Screenshot of Google Play Store
Screenshot of Google Play Store
Neither Apple nor Google respond to a request for comment. It is unclear exactly how decisions are made about what applications are recommended.
NBC News reported this week that TikTok was using its platform to push users to Lemon8, which is owned by the same Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
“On TikTok, advertisements for Lemon8 appear to have ramped up leading up to the ban,” NBC reported. “TikTok has used traditional advertisements on its platform urging users to download it. TikTok has also sent notifications to its users suggesting they download Lemon8.”
This means that a surge of users in TikTok’s potential final days will likely boost ByteDance’s effort to maintain a foothold in the United States, a prospect that has been deemed a national security threat. While the only companies explicitly listed in the legislation are ByteDance and subsidiary TikTok, there is speculation that other ByteDance apps could also end up banned.
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the TikTok ban passed by Congress could go into effect this weekend, saying it did not violate the First Amendment.
In an unassigned opinion, the court ruled that Congress was justified in passing the ban because of concerns about the Chinese government using TikTok to harvest the private data of millions of Americans. If China-based ByteDance does not sell the social media platform, the ban will go into effect on Sunday, January 19.
“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the court wrote. “But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”
President Joe Biden has said he has no plans to enforce the ban, but top Senators have warned Apple and Google to comply with its orders.
“Penalties for companies like Apple and Google could run as high as $850 billion,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). “Not sure I’d take a politician’s word if I ran those companies.”
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