What happened
Minnesota yesterday sued the Trump administration for access to evidence related to three federal shootings during ICE’s “Operation Metro Surge,” including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. The lawsuit said the federal government’s “arbitrary and capricious” refusal to cooperate or share any evidence with state investigators came from leaders at the Justice Department and Homeland Security Department, and violated Minnesota’s 10th Amendment right to enforce its own laws and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Who said what
“We are prepared to fight for transparency and accountability that the federal government is desperate to avoid,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told reporters. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison stressed “how absolutely extraordinary it is, how rare and unprecedented it is, how completely unnecessary it is, if justice is our goal, for us to have to file this lawsuit.” 

DHS said in a statement that the federal government is investigating all three shootings. The FBI is leading the Pretti probe, DHS said, while federal prosecutors are investigating two agents for making false statements about their arrest of Venezuelan immigrant Julio Sosa-Celis — though not for shooting him in the leg. The Good shooting was “still under investigation,” the statement said, though its claims that the unarmed mother “weaponized her vehicle” and the officer shot her “in self-defense” were “contradicted by video evidence,” The New York Times said. Trump officials previously said the Good killing “was not under investigation, The Minnesota Star Tribune said.

What next?
Minnesota officials “say they are seeking a court order requiring federal agencies to turn over evidence so the state can determine whether any criminal charges are warranted,” Minnesota Public Radio said.

What happened
NASA yesterday announced that in the next few years it will start building a permanent base on the moon and send three small helicopters to Mars aboard a pioneering nuclear-powered robotic spacecraft. “This is the moment where we should all start believing again,” NASA’s new administrator, Jared Isaacman, said at an international space conference in Houston. “NASA once changed everything, and we’re going to do it again.”

Who said what
NASA’s “years of talking about lunar outposts in vague terms for sometime in the indefinite future” appear to have ended with this new “road map” with “specific plans and timelines,” The New York Times said. Isaacman said that NASA has committed to return astronauts to the moon “before the end of President Trump’s term” and ahead of “real geopolitical rival” China’s planned 2030 crewed lunar landing. 

As part of Isaacman’s revamp of NASA’s flagship Artemis lunar program, the Lunar Gateway orbiting station, which is “largely already built,” will be shelved, Reuters said. The new plan to repurpose its components to build the $20 billion moon base raises questions about the “future roles” of “key” Artemis partners Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. Experts also questioned the feasibility of launching a Mars-bound spacecraft powered by nuclear electric propulsion in 2028. The “dominant reaction” among spaceflight experts, cosmologist Katie Mack said, “is somewhere on the spectrum between mockery and dismay.”

What next?
Issacson said Artemis 3, now a mission to test the Orion space capsule’s integration with lunar landers, is scheduled for 2027, while Artemis 4 will send astronauts to the moon in 2028. Yesterday’s announcements came “one week before NASA’s targeted launch of Artemis 2,” the first crewed flight around the moon since 1972’s Apollo 17, Space.com said.