NASA Issues Dire Warning: Budget Cuts Could Trigger Emergency ISS Deorbit #1816

The lead story for Monday, April 25, NASA and aerospace safety advisory panel raising alarms about growing risk to the International Space Station due to structural damage, air leaks, and looming budget cuts. With SpaceX developing a deorbit vehicle, officials stressed that the International Space Station may face an uncontrolled descent unless imminent and immediate funding are secured. Elon Musk has called for an earlier deorbit as urgency to this pivotal moment for the

space agency. I wanna welcome you to episode 1,816. Now this report is coming from a safety committee within NASA. And, they're raising concern over the safety and have cast a shadow on operations by saying the cracks and air links that have plagued the station and with the administration proposed budget cuts, the feature of the International Space Station seems uncertain. Now NASA apparently is grappling with these challenges.

The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, ASAP, has issued this warning, and they say that the International Space Station has entered the riskiest period of its existence. Now this was, this statement was made out of a a meeting of the aerospace safety advisory panel. And, apparently, they're going to be some of those team members or NASA members are going to be going to Moscow to meet with, their counterparts because of the Zavetta module that seems to be the biggest problem child.

So the the leaks in that module has been known about for years. So this is nothing, nothing that, we haven't already known about. So we'll see what happens with this. But it looks to me like this particular article is a little bit of, you know, this report just and I understand they have concerns. There's always risk risk with the International Space Station, and we also know that we wanna keep the astronauts on board safe.

NASA spent 993,000,000 on ISS operations, last year along with, 1,630,000,000.00 on crew and cargo transportation. So, you know, they basically are warning that the that SpaceX, who's building the deorbit vehicle, could further strain the budget. Well, they knew they were gonna have to do this. And we know that the plan twenty thirty deorbit, is you know, that's the that's the plan. So, you know, at some point, they have to decide if they're gonna start spinning down operations

a little bit. But, anyway, this this particular article does raise, some questions. And at the same time, I wonder if it's just a little bit, overstated.

A time will tell. Again, Anna, welcome to episode 1,816. Of course, I'm your host, Todd Cochran. A shout out to our incredible sponsor at GoDaddy. You can score exclusive deals and discounts at gatenewcentral.com/godaddy. And to all of our listeners, you are the heartbeat of this show. If you wanna support the g support the GNC mission, head to geeknewcentral.com/insider and become a GNC

insider. We are lot lit and live. Don't just listen experience the show live by grabbing a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com. Of course, you can interact in real time. Now we want you to experience the full universe of Geek News Central. All you gotta do is go over to geeknewscentral.com where you'll find all of our partner shows and tons of new content put up there weekly. Of course, stay in the loop. Follow or subscribe to the podcast via your

favorite podcast app. Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter. Of course, everything is at geeknewscentral.com for more insider scoops. Now if you wanna join the conversation, you can do so at geek news dot chat or you can email me [email protected]. Of course, you can hit me up on exit geek news, and you can even catch me on Facebook. Now Geek and Essential listeners are are afforded a great opportunity to save, save money with, with GoDaddy.

And, of course, that deal is those deals are ongoing. So if you're looking in these uncertain economic times, it might be a great time to start a website or a podcast. My codes at g and c make it easy and affordable. Grab GoDaddy economy hosting for just $6.99 a month. That's a full year of hosting with a free domain name, professional email, and an SSL certificate.

Of course, if you're interested in WordPress, which is my favorite alongside the PowerPress podcasting plugin, WordPress managed hosting is just $12.99 a month, which includes, again, a free domain name, professional email, and SSL SSL certificate. Now if you need a domain name, you can get one for just $11.99. GoDaddy website builders for those who do absolutely not technically inclined at all. You get a free thirty day trial on the personal business or business plus plans.

Of course, I use all of my GoDaddy, I use all of the GoDaddy products and services, and your support keeps this show alive. Use our codes, click and save, copy the code over into GoDaddy checkout window. You're backing this independent team of creators. Again, share my codes or website link with friends and family because every time one of my codes is used, it's just like sending us a cash donation. Support Geek News Central and thank you for keeping us going strong.

I know a few of you have had some again, thanks to GoDaddy. I know a few of you had challenges sending over, live boost, and I think I've got it all resolved. I did some testing, and everything is coming through on the, helipad tracker. We've seen, streaming sets have been, coming in, consistently. So I wanna thank all of you that have done that. Darren Schwartz and others that are streaming should not see any more errors with, with boosting. And I've got my fingers crossed.

Stuff was coming in, but it was some of the splits were not happening. So I think I've got that all fixed. And, with every thousand sats now worth, I think, about 93 sats, maybe 10000¢. I think a thousand sats worth 93¢. I I definitely appreciate, the boost through the the podcast two point o applications like fountain and so forth. I do wanna thank Curtis Parish for his $5, Ohana donation. So thank you so much, Curtis, for that, ongoing support,

of the show. As I wrap my time down here in The Philippines, I'm about, sixteen days or so from, getting on an airplane to to come home. So let's go ahead and get into the stack. Microsoft is offering underperformers cash to quit. Microsoft has initiated a global, consistent performance improvement profit process. And according to internal documents, employee flagged as underperformers.

Now phase two options, enter performance improvement plan with clear expectations and a timeline for improvement or accept a global voluntary separation agreement worth sixteen weeks of pay. Effect employees have five days to decide, and those choosing improvement plan forfeit the severance option. The program announced an email from new chief people officer, Amy Coleman, operates year round to address performance issues while offering employees a choice.

So, interesting move here by by Microsoft. Amazing. Perform or leave?

A great option. Absolutely a great option. The politics situation is heating up, and I'm starting to see it in more and more articles. And, one that has popped up here today from PC World is is really takes a a sharp shot at, at president Trump. Says tech manufacturers are spending US shipments amid tariff woes. Smaller companies are shutting down shipments to The US while larger manufacturers are scrambling to deal with a chaotic tariff situation.

Well, let me read one of the you can see the bias come out. The Trump administration trade wars as oscillates tech manufacturers are trying to deal with the unpredictable nature of an economy held hostage to a single man's whims. You know, I I'm gonna be kind of frank here. I've spoken in this show for many years on how the Chinese have been stealing our intellectual property, have been undercutting companies, I'll have just been absolutely brutal.

You know, I would go to CES show and they would be walking around brazenly with teams of four and five and duplicating and and, taking pictures of menus, operating systems. They would they would click through menus. They would they would go so far as to open devices and all the time writing notes, taking pictures, measuring, doing everything one could imagine. And then six months later, I would see those products on Alibaba available, re basically,

completely remanufactured. Oftentimes, the, they would steal directly from the factory in China that was making the the equipment. So we've been screwed for a long time by China. Ultimately screwed. If in a reasonable amount of time, there is the ability to get a trade agreement in place that would allow a more fur a more fair, trading position. I'm all for it. I I really, really

am. I understand that there's gonna be some pain. It's I feel bad for these companies. But at the same time, this should not come as a surprise. People people need to pay attention in the world on what's going on. And, you know, if you are in the tech business, you know, other companies have diversified where they've made their components in Vietnam, Thailand, a variety of other countries. I understand that China is a big source of manufacturing of electronics and other items.

But I think at some point, we have to draw the line here and and and get some sort of concessions. How big they will be? It is hard to tell. But many, many, many, many, many countries, not just China, have blocked stuff that comes from The United States and put on massive tariffs, massive tariffs. And we do not have a trading position that is fair in many parts of the world.

Many, many places take advantage, of the American consumers, yet American products that are exported to those countries face massive tariffs. So I think it's time for a realignment. That's my personal opinion. I'm willing to go through a bit of pain. I'm hoping sixty, ninety, a hundred and twenty days. We'll we'll get it done. Time will tell. Reports that I'm seeing here getting a little different aspect of news, it's having a real major impact in China.

Stuff they're selling stuff in their factories for, you know, 5¢ on the dollar at this point, which is making a buyer's market for people that are, should be able to within The United States to be able to buy stuff, cheaper, because number one, the profit margins have been so high because of slave labor in China and not paying wages.

They should be able to buy stuff up right now and not be impacted, if if they've lowered the price of the wholesale price of a product 50 to 75%, the tariffs are awash. Great time to renegotiate contracts and get and get a better price. So, you know, there's two sides to this thing. So I I think time will tell on this, but, I I just I I think people would need to have been smart, in in their business dealings. I I really,

really do. But, again, I'm not in the manufacturing of electronics equipment and sourcing stuff from, China's can be easy. But, time to, you know, think about that manufacturing at home too. I'd I'd love to see that happen. I don't know if it's if it's an an impossible dream or not for sure. At the same time, the White House has condemned Europe's extortion of Apple and Meta.

A spokesperson for the administration said the DMA, the Digital Marks Act, and other EU regulations specifically target and undermine American companies and stifle innovation enabling censorship. Now if it looks like a trade war, swims like a trade war, quacks like a trade war, then probably it a trade war that is now broken out this time be between the e s and u as the, White House condemns

Europe's punitive fines. We've talked about this many, many times on the show on how the EU has refilled their, their budget pot again with fines against Meta and Apple, recently with €500,000,000 and 200,000,000 million euros respectively. You know, these are all custom fitted penalties. The state fines, are just becoming a regular thing here and, this needs to stop. The self righteousness of the EU to extort money out of American companies has has to end as well. I agree.

You know, because they specifically target these companies that have big big piles of cash because they know they can they can they can pay it, enforce them to pay it. It's it's it's, there there's a very, it's it's it's not a nice phrase, but the phrase here is, if I go and get transportation, I always pay more for transportation than what a local does. And it's commonly referred to as a skin tax, for when I'm doing certain things. I go to the market, I pay a higher price than locals.

I have less negotiating power, when I try to negotiate a price on a product and it's just it's just a fact of life. Well, what's happening in in in the EU is this is a, it's essentially, attacks against these companies because they can they can extract it, from them a little bit at a time. And, the EU has been very crazy in all of the stuff that they've, you know, their their lord oversight of, of everything tech.

So, you know, I I think I agree to an extent that, our American companies have to be protect. Now if you live in the EU, maybe feel differently. I don't know. Maybe feel the same. I'd love to love to hear from you. If you're in the EU and listening to the show, do you agree with the extortion of Apple and Meta and so forth? The more happy note, everything on Netflix in May 2025 is been announced.

So I'll have that link up in the show notes for you to review. Ransomware in The United States has cost victims $16,600,000,000 in 2024. Think about that. 16.6 complain about tax rose 916.6% a 33% increase. And this is where someone hacks into your system, locks your data and demands a check. Crazy stuff. IBM stock has fell after results reveal US government contracts have been canceled by Doge.

IBM stocks fell 6.6% after the US government canceled a hundred million dollars in contracts from, from IBM. I think you're gonna see more of these types of reports coming out in earnings reports as we're trying to, to slash the budget. You know, a lot of money going to a lot of companies for a lot of various reasons and, you know, cutting some of these useless contracts is probably, probably well worth it at this point.

All of us have seen this and the title of this article is ads versus paywalls, the ongoing tug of war for website money. And, you know, the Internet's a pretty chaotic place. You can find everything from cat videos to thought provoking pieces and, you know, websites need money to keep, keep running just like my website needs and this show needs money to keep, to keep running. And, people are asking today, you know, which one works better, ads on websites or paywalls.

If I paid for everything that I was asked to pay for, I would have no money left. If I subscribe to every site that was trying to extract dollars from me, I it it would it would be an insane amount of money. So, you know, what do you pick? And you pick ads and and I I essentially pick ads 90% of the time. Every once in a while and especially when it comes to creators, I I support creators with my with my dollars, but I do rare do not do not very often, pay for access,

to a website. And he and here's part

of the reason is I continue to see more and more AI generated content, that was churned from press releases and not real commentary. And or just like the PC World article we talked about earlier, all of a sudden they're getting politically biased and, you know, it's it's amazing. You would think in tech that there would not be this this political, this political spin, in the reporting on online the websites knowing that they're gonna irritate part of their readership.

And I see this now on certain, sites more than others. Not this one specifically, the webdesignerdepot.com, but earlier on the other one. So, you know, which one works better today? And, you know, I think that's that's a challenging conversation. I think the majority of us probably do not pay, for for website access, do you? I'd love to hear from you. Which ones are you paying for? [email protected].

Also, eight k movies are finally coming including 70 millimeter prints, but the biggest piece of the eight k TV puzzle is still missing and those are the TVs.

And I was arguing with, Rob the other day that four k gotta be doing everything in four k. Gotta be streaming in four k. I I don't believe we have to be streaming in four k. You know, I'm streaming the show right now in in, ten eighty p. And they go to four k, you know, just because I can go to a new number, I don't necessarily need to see YouTube videos in four k. Some of you've got Internet connections that can support that. Are you enjoying four k on your own? Let's say you.

Vantrue has a Versailles three sixty dash cam that shoots a true three sixty degree video plus it doubles for handheld use. This is smart. So you got a dash cam that's, you know, watching what's going in in on inside and outside your vehicle. And at the same time, you can use this camera, you know, carried around wherever you go that your car goes. It's not cheap. This is a $349 device.

So the e c three sixty, again, $3.49 and the e six e three sixty ace, which adds adds a handheld mount, costs $459. So, that camera better be really, really rocking. And I would not call that an affordable they actually priced this. They actually said in the article, this is an affordable piece of kit. I don't know about that. There's some three

sixty cameras out there. They're pretty doggone awesome that are cheaper than this that I'm sure someone was very entrepreneur like could make it as a a dash cam as well. How many of you use Dropbox

for everyday business file sharing? I do not. I use Dropbox more for like, yeah. Send me that file or I'm gonna send you a file. I'm gonna send you, an image, something easy to share that's bigger than email will support. So Dropbox is adding new features to their AI called Dash. And, I guess I just don't use Dropbox for everyday business stuff. I have a Dropbox account. I have stuff in it, but it's usually for facilitating again people sending me, big files and so forth. So, you know,

what say you? What are you using Dropbox for? But if you're using it for business, they've a k a improved AI search. PCWorld is recommending don't pay Max for an extra member until the service forces you to. And, this week, Max took a a a page, out of the Netflix playbook by adding option to pay $8 per month for an extra member that doesn't live in your home, same as Netflix. Disney added similar options for Disney plus streaming service $7 per month.

Both companies have updated the terms of c service to say out of home accounts sharing is forbidden, but calling this a crackdown currently is still relative is still extremely relative to the actual level enforcement that's happening. So you may buy yourself some time. They're waiting until they actually put the clamps on you, and that's what Netflix did. It went on for about six months and then they they they hit the, they drew the line, hit the hammer. Now,

you know, I'm obviously doing the digital nomad thing And I I don't spend as much time in hotels as I've used to. Although I have taken time here to make myself a pretty good virtual, work area and probably, the next trip that I have, I will probably upgrade my chair, the the laptop seat or the the, computer chair that I have is not great. But, Spacetop, it's a company, Sightfull Spacetops gigantic virtual laptop screen is is ready for launch.

Insightful is betting $200 per year that you will opt for this to have a big workspace and planes, trains, and hotel rooms. I don't know. You gotta wear special glasses. Use hey. You have to use a pair of AR glasses and you you have to have a whole bunch of, like, special stuff to go along with this and you you get a hundred inch gigantic screen. I don't know. I I think this is a gimmick. I really, really do. Have any of you seen this product? Have any of you digital nomads played with it?

So in 2023, they showed off Space Top, which was like Chromebook without a display. And, if you didn't own a multiple display in a Thunderbolt dock, the AR setup surrounds you with the virtual display. And I guess oh, you don't even have a monitor. So this is really weird. You just put the glasses on. It's it's very very odd. Not $899 for the space top bundle. Includes the AR Glass and a year's worth $200 of the space top subscription.

But again, you'll you need to need to buy your own laptop on top of that. Seiflo has been selling preorders of of bundle for $950. So this is a product that I'm just gonna call the dead on arrival. I I just can't see how this is going to succeed. Google has announced that they extended the Pixel seven a repair program for battery spelling issues. So if you have a seven a, you're gonna be able to still get that fixed for a short period of time.

Samsung's next Galaxy unpacked event could be heading back to New York. The annual event is likely returned to the Big Apple after more than two years. So, we'll see what happens there with that announcement. The BBC is reporting that, president Trump's crypto sores as president offers dinner to top holders. The price of, Trump's cryptocurrency has went up. According to crypto trading platform, Coinbase, the crypto jumped more than 70% after announcement. It remains well below the record

high of more than $74 re shortly after it's launched. It's currently at what is the price? They're gonna have a gala dinner, which we had at Trump National, Club in Washington, and they're gonna make this available for 25 coin holders. The current circulation is around 2,500,000,000. Of course, a lot of people have been talking about all kinds of legal actions around this, so we will see. I do not own any Trump crypto. I only hold Bitcoin at this point.

Five point five million patients are affected by the data breach at Yale New Haven Health. So another hack that, that took place on April 11. At the same time, Blue Shield of California had a data breach impacting 4,700,000 people. That hack happened back in February. So these these reports coming out. So be aware of that if you're one of if you're a customer of one of those two. The FBI is also reporting cybercrime losses surpassed 16,600,000,000.0.

So I think we talked about this a little bit already. So double article. Sorry about that. Top employee monitoring app has leaked 21,000,000 screenshots and thousands of users is called work composer. Work Composer has been leaking screenshots of user activity on the clear web. This is not good. So a major time tracking company, has got a flaw. So meanwhile, you've been tracking your employees while at the same exact time, your everything they're doing for you is is being leaked.

That's that's quite the nice situation, isn't it? Apple Watch users who close their rings today, I guess this is already over, will get a cool free package of limited edition digital prizes to celebrate 10 of Apple Watch.

Apple is dubbed April 24 as global close your rings day. So those of you that are on the West Coast Of The United States, you got a few more hours to do that. So should have had this out Monday. To celebrate Hubble Space Telescope's thirty first thirty fifth anniversary in orbit, NASA and ESA has released a series of new out of this world images

spanning planets, nebulas, and galaxies. And I loaded this page up and, was looking at some of the images in the sidebar and, how MIT very, very cool stuff. And, there for you to to look at might be a new screen background for you potentially. So, link will be up in the show notes, obviously. IPhone 16 Pro is now less popular than the baseline iPhone 16. Of course, the iPhone 16 has taken over the majority of all Apple phone sales, but the cheaper iPhone 16

is leading the pack here. So, you're picking the regular version over the pro version, size and cost. People are complaining about the Roku's new streaming stick lineup because it's confusing. Now listen to this. The plus is four k, but the four k is better than the plus. So if you order the four k plus, it's not as good as the regular four k. Why did they do this? Now, of course, you have to have a four k TV, and, of course, you want a four k TV streaming stick.

But, yeah, a little bit of confusion there. So read the box, read the description before you order. Again, just order the regular four k, according to this article from TechRadar. Google is also demanding that some of its remote employees return to the office or lose their jobs. So Google is reporting forcing a new hybrid work model where employees are being asked to come to office at least three days a week, and those who failed to comply could face termination. And

now it's not a company wide mandate. It's just certain certain sections or certain divisions. Now listen to this. For the AI division, boss Sergey Brin is mandated in off presence adding that sixty hours per week is optimal for productivity. I I put in nearly sixty hours a week. I do. I can't get everything done in forty hours. Nearly impossible.

So, you know, if if you're complaining about your forty hour week, you know, you're gonna work at Google and you're gonna be one of the on some of these teams, and sixty hours is gonna be the dealio. I think companies are now starting to put out products just to put out products. Here's another one. IRobot has launched a new flagship flagship Roomba, but it's less impressive than its existing models. The max Roomba max seven zero five, only is a vacuum. It doesn't have any brushing capability.

So they're confused on why other units that are available today, it's just like they went backwards with this, but not backwards in price. So, again, if you're shoot shopping Roombas, definitely look at different models. I think that's super super critical.

Volkswagen will deploy thousands of robo taxis on Uber's platform in The United States. So, you know, Volkswagens typically mentioned conversations about robo taxis, but the German auto giant has been quietly working on its self driving tech for over a decade. And, they're gonna start commercial robotaxi service in Los Angeles in 2026. The vehicles will be VW's ID Buzz electric minivans equipped with self driving driving sensors and software developed by subsidiary, Moya.

So, keep an eye out for these, coming in 2026. The EU has introduced new smartphone labels for battery life and repairability. So they they want you to know exactly how repairable your smartphone is, and most of them are barely repairable. And it gives a a, b, c, d, e grade, for that. And you'll probably have to figure out the, the code here, but they give it a a a grade from a to g, assuming a is best and g is worst. So and also battery lifetime as well. So interesting, new label for devices.

You never know where the threat is gonna come from, but booby trap Alpine Quest Android app has is geolocating Russian soldiers. The software in question is a legit topographical mapping tool popular among hikers, hunters, and more.

Russian military personal operation and combat zones have found a tampered version with spyware dubbed as Android spy twelve ninety two injected into it an, origin unknown, Ukraine, and threat actors embedded this into the older Alpine Quest app version distributed trojanized variant under the guise of a freely available application to Russian forces. So, nothing like having the IP. I mean, the, lat long location of, of your enemy. According to the register, your vendor may be

the weakest link. Percentage of third party breaches doubled in the past year. And, of course, this probably is exactly the case. Of course, now this is according oh, this didn't come from the well, the register is reporting on what Verizon is saying. Verizon data breach investigation, one of the industry's most watched autopsies and what actually goes on in IvoSEC this year's edition released Wednesday.

It found that the proportion of breaches involving third parties rose from fifteen percent to thirty percent.

This figure includes those breaches including in the instance which data losses was confirmed caused by exalated software vulnerabilities. So, it's always it more and more, it's now that it's now companies that are integrated with your platform that are causing the data loss. And at the same time, people have to realize that those APIs, those integrations that are made available, those have to be, pretty tight and not let people have access to data they shouldn't have.

LinkedIn will let your verified identity show up on other platforms. I didn't even know this is an issue a thing. I don't know if I even have a a verified identity on LinkedIn, but, I guess it's getting progressively cheaper and easier to pretend you're someone you're not online. You're also be do so in a ways that look more credible than ever.

So they're offering, I guess, they introduced verification in 2023, allowing users to confirm specific details such as the attending workplace or education history using government issue IDs or company emails. So I don't know if I verified ever before or not. It's been around a couple of years. So twenty years ago, yes, twenty years ago, the first video was uploaded to YouTube, and they were very short and sweet. Twenty seconds, sixty seconds.

Twenty years ago, we were introduced to YouTube, of course, the home of all podcasts now, quote, unquote.

So, happy twentieth, YouTube. So, a lot of, earnings reports are coming out right now. A lot of the tech companies are reporting big earnings. So a lot of that data is, is surging. Alphabet has reported quarter one revenues up 12%.

And, so, we'll start seeing more of these, in the coming days. Alright. I'm gonna wrap this up. I wanna thank everyone for being here. Of course, if you are wanting to participate, drop me an email [email protected] and all the commentary today. Don't forget about our sponsor GoDaddy, geek central dot com forward slash godaddy. Of course, if you wanna become an insider and support the show, you can do that as well. Geekcentral.com/insider. It's been my pleasure to bring you the

show today. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I'll be back with you on Monday for another edition of the Geekness Central podcast. Everyone, take care. We'll see you next time. And those you've been on live, thank you for being here as well. Bye bye.