Despite an onslaught of extreme weather events that have barraged American homes in recent months and years, the New York Times reports that the number of Americans with flood insurance has dropped during the last decade.
Why it matters: As climate change will only increase the likelihood of floods, insurance rates are expected to surge. Beyond floods, in California, officials have tried to curtail rate bumps in regions at risk of wildfire, and also tried to discourage insurance providers from dropping policyholders.
Private companies and tourists will have to pay a pretty penny if they hope to fly people to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's new plan to further open the station up to private industry.
Why it matters: NASA wants to stimulate the growth of the private space industry using the ISS, but the agency won't give away its resources for free. NASA is expecting private spaceflight companies and private astronauts using the ISS to reimburse them for their services in orbit.
President Trump signaled he may be souring on his administration's stated plan to return humans to the Moon by 2024 —4 years earlier than NASA had previously planned, in a tweet on Friday.
Why it matters: In order to meet the administration's aggressive timetable, the space agency needs focus and resources. Presidential tweets such as this one, in which Trump said the administration should not be playing up its moon mission, can cause confusion and sap morale for those working on this project.
NASA is moving to expand its privatization of the International Space Station and bring more commercial activities to low-Earth orbit, freeing up the space agency to focus on returning to the moon by 2024 and ultimately proceeding to Mars, the agency announced Friday in New York.
Why it matters, per Axios space reporter Miriam Kramer: NASA believes that its resources would be better used with deep space missions. By moving into a customer role in Earth’s orbit instead of providing services, it could free the agency up for more of that cutting-edge exploration.
