The C-Note Monday, June 23 Edition
The latest on Iran, extreme heat warnings, resting among the stars and how to use fear as fuel for change.
“Scars remind us where we've been. They don't have to dictate where we're going.” — David Rossi from Criminal Minds
Good morning! Welcome to summer. I hope you had a good weekend. My Saturday night plan to stargaze with a telescope on the National Mall was ruined once news broke that the U.S. had struck three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Let’s get to that and more.
The “C-Note”
While all eyes were on Iran this weekend, a group of families gathered in California to honor their loved ones before they take a celestial journey on a memorial spaceflight. More than 150 capsules containing cremated remains and DNA samples of people (and a pet) are set to launch into space from Vandenberg Space Force Base later today. Aboard the Celestis Perseverance Flight mission is aerospace engineer Wesley Dreyer, who died Oct. 29, 2024. Dreyer had a 42-year career that included working on Tomahawk missiles, helping develop the Global Hawk and investigating what led to the Challenger space shuttle accident. Kelly Dreyer, his daughter, told me he never shed details about the investigation but said helping with the investigation was the most important work of his career.
“He was very humble,” Dreyer said. “He was proud of the work. And some of the work he couldn't even tell us about because it was a lot of government contracts…he talked about what he could and what he was passionate about.”
Adventurous and a traveler, he watched any space launch he could and attended many launches, she said. And that is part of what makes watching him ascend above the atmosphere on this mission meaningful.
“It’s gonna be really special to be in the same area that he was during his time as an aerospace engineer, that I get to also come to the same area that he was in and watch something that he worked on…the rocket boosters that will be on this. It's nice to have that connection to him,” she said.
The capsules, each containing a portion of Dreyer’s and other flight participants’ remains, will be carried on The Exploration Company’s Mission Possible spacecraft and a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster into space. The spacecraft will travel in Earth’s lower orbit at more than 17,000 miles per hour and will complete two to three full orbits around the planet before re-entering the atmosphere. The capsules will land in the Pacific Ocean, be recovered and returned to their loved ones. Being able to say her dad flew in space is also special, Dreyer said.
“We have some portions of the wings from his Global Hawk plane, but that just flew at high altitudes, never actually went into space,” Dreyer said. “It'll be cool to have an actual, like, ‘Yes. This has been in orbit. This has been in space.’”
This will be Celestis’ 25th mission. I spoke with Charles M. Chafer, Celestis’ CEO and co-founder, about the company’s memorial spaceflights and the future of humans in space. My Q&A with him will be published later this week.
The launch window for today’s mission opens at 5:18 p.m. ET and can be viewed here.
Here is what else to know…
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said this morning that “very significant damage is expected to have occurred” at Fordo, a nuclear site in Iran that was struck by the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who called the strikes an “absolutely unprovoked act of aggression.” Israel Defense Forces says it launched strikes on Iran, hitting targets in Tehran, the country’s capital. Iran has vowed to retaliate and Americans, especially those in the Washington, D.C. area, are on edge (DC police says there are no known threats at this time). Speaking of Iran, many of my IG followers said they do not believe the U.S. should have struck the country. And many around the country feel the same. Hundreds protested in front of the White House on Sunday.
The U.S. State Department has issued a worldwide security alert warning that there is “potential for demonstrations against U.S. citizens and interests abroad.” The U.S. Embassy in Qatar this morning warned that “American citizens shelter in place until further notice.”
🚨 Make sure you stay hydrated this week and check on your elderly neighbors (and pets). Millions across the country (Central and Eastern parts) are facing extreme heat warnings and advisories through at least Wednesday because of a heatwave, the National Weather Service says. Temps could feel like up to 110 degrees in some places.
Covid-19 is outside this summer. New variant NB.1.8.1, also called “Nimbus,” is surging in the U.S. and the main reported symptom is a “razor blade throat.”
The Senate could possibly vote on Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” this week. Civil rights leaders have warned about how proposed cuts in it will hurt Black and brown Americans as well as others from marginalized communities. **I will have more on what they told me soon.
My colleague at The Emancipator,
, had a great chat with Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color Of Change PAC, about Black liberation in a modern political context. You can read it here.Yikes…Americans watched streaming more than cable and TV combined for the first time last month, according to Nielsen.
A group of American scientists who left the U.S. to continue their work in France will be welcomed by Aix Marseille University’s Safe Place for Science program on Thursday. My reporting on that is here.
TikTok has been given another extension by Trump, this time 90 days, in the enforcement of the sale-or-ban law.
My Mom Jayne, the documentary about Jayne Mansfield, who is the mother of Law and Order SVU star Mariska Hargitay, premieres on MAX on Friday.
Encouragement for the week:
“Change isn’t the enemy of safety. It’s the sacred threshold of who you’re becoming. Fear will always try to anchor you to the familiar but each time you choose to step forward, you teach your spirit that it can trust the unknown. Courage isn’t the absence of fear; it’s the decision to grow anyway. And in that choice, fear becomes fuel, not a cage.”
Be well and more next week,
Chandelis