The Brief

NASA has detected a signal from Voyager 2 after nearly two weeks of silence from the interstellar spacecraft.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said on Tuesday that a series of ground antennas, part of the Deep Space Network, had registered a carrier signal from Voyager 2 on Tuesday.

"A bit like hearing the spacecraft's 'heartbeat,' it confirms the spacecraft is still broadcasting, which engineers expected," JPL wrote in a tweet.

NASA said it lost contact with Voyager 2, which is traveling 12.3 billion miles away from Earth, on Friday after "a series of planned commands" inadvertently caused the craft to turn its antenna 2 degrees away from the direction of its home planet.

What might seem like a slight error had big consequences: NASA said it wouldn't be able to communicate with the craft until October, when the satellite would go through one of its routine repositioning steps.

Now that the scientists know Voyager 2 is still broadcasting, engineers will try to send the spacecraft a command to point its antenna back towards Earth. But program manager Suzanne Dodd told the Associated Press that they're not too hopeful this step will work.

"That is a long time to wait, so we'll try sending up commands several times" before October, Dodd said.

Even if Voyager 2 fails to re-establish communications until fall, the engineers expect it to stay moving on its planned trajectory on the edge of the solar system.

Voyager 2 traveled past Uranus and into interstellar space in Dec. 2018 — more than 40 years since it first launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. To this day, Voyager 2 remains only one of two human-made objects to have ever flown past Uranus.

Its primary mission was to study the outer solar system, and already, Voyager 2 has proved its status as a planetary pioneer. Equipped with several imaging instruments, the spacecraft is credited with documenting the discovery of 16 new moons, six new rings and Neptune's "Great Dark Spot."

Voyager 2 is also carrying some precious cargo, like a message in a bottle, should it find itself as the subject of another world's discovery: A golden record, containing a variety of natural sounds, greetings in 55 languages and a 90-minute selection of music.

Last month's command mix-up means Voyager 2 is not able to transmit data back to Earth, but it also foreshadows the craft's inevitable end, an estimated three years from now.

"Eventually, there will not be enough electricity to power even one instrument," reads a NASA page documenting the spacecraft's travels. "Then, Voyager 2 will silently continue its eternal journey among the stars."

Voyager 2's sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, meanwhile, is still broadcasting and transmitting data just fine from a slightly further vantage point of 15 billion miles away.

Can rebuilding 14 affordable rental units on one lot in Altadena be a model for building back more equitably? The Altadena Builds Back Foundation and its partners think so.

The subsidiary of the Pasadena Community Foundation that launched after the Eaton Fire announced today that it has awarded a nearly $6 million grant to Pasadena-based affordable housing provider Beacon Housing. The money will purchase a lot on Pine Street in West Altadena that had 14 rental units in a bungalow court and two duplexes before the fire. The grant covered the purchase, as well as debris cleanup. It also will fund the reconstruction, which is expected to be complete by the end of summer.

“We need to center renters because I think that they are often not included in the conversation,” said Palin Ngaotheppitak, Beacon’s executive director and an Altadena resident. “We've heard it said over the last 10 months, ‘Oh, they'll just go move somewhere else.’ But I think that they're much more vulnerable to homelessness.”

It’s the second grant awarded by the foundation — the first one of more than $4.5 million went to San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity to rebuild 22 single-family homes. Those homes are under construction — the first of which is right down the street from this new property.

“It just brings me, as an Altadena resident, a little bit more hope each time that we will rebuild, that we will come back and we are doing this in a way that is thoughtful of the future and future generations,” Ngaotheppitak said.

Palin Ngaotheppitak, executive director of Beacon Housing, holds the blueprint for the future affordable rental units.

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Molly O'Keeffe

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Courtesy Altadena Builds Back Foundation

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Why it matters

More than 77% of multi-family units in Altadena were destroyed in the Eaton Fire, according to data analyzed by the United Way. After the fire, many Altadena renters who were paying far below market rates were thrust into an unaffordable housing market.

A recent survey from the Eaton Fire Collab found that 72% of surveyed renters still are in need of housing and 68% experienced a total loss of their home.

“Some are couch surfing. People are displaced 20, 30 miles farther than they've ever been,” said the Rev. Mary Ann Harrison, pastor of Christ the Shepherd Lutheran Church in Altadena, which is near the bungalow court development.

Candice Kim, project director of the Altadena Builds Back Foundation, said the group wants to fund more projects.

“There is a desire to raise more funding, to have more funders come in and fund affordable housing or community-friendly projects,” Kim said. “And so this is our challenge to the rest of our funding community.”

How renters can apply

Previous tenants of the property will get priority to return; others will be selected via a lottery. Tenants will have to qualify as very low income — a two-person household, for example, would have to make less than $60,600 a year — and prove their housing was affected by the Eaton Fire.

“We felt that it was really important to focus on a project that we can keep affordable for a long time and that would be a symbol for others around how we can get renters to come back and how we preserve affordable housing in the community,” Ngaotheppitak said.

Construction is expected to be completed by late summer — to speed up the process and keep prices down, the units will all be prefab. The bungalows will be built by Clayton Homes and the duplexes by Malibu-based manufactured home builder the Home Gallery.

Once construction has moved forward significantly, there will be a specific sign-up for tenants interested in this property. Meanwhile, Eaton Fire survivors who need housing assistance can fill out Beacon’s interest form online.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire climate activist and businessman who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020, is the latest Democrat to jump into California’s crowded gubernatorial field.

His two core promises — which could appear at odds — are to preserve the state’s status as a hub for business and innovation while also lowering California’s cost of living by making corporations pay “their fair share,” he said in a video message.

The nearly two-minute campaign launch film, which intersperses sleek graphics with footage of line cooks, ranchers and manufacturing workers on the job, encapsulates those dueling themes.

“There’s a reason everybody comes here to start businesses — because this is the place that invents the future,” Steyer says near the start of the video. “I never want to lose that spark.”

Steyer made his fortune as the founder of Farallon Capital, a hedge fund headquartered in San Francisco that currently manages about $42 billion in assets. After selling his stake in the company in 2012, Steyer started NextGen America, a liberal nonprofit that supports progressive positions on issues such as climate change, immigration, health care and education. The group also launched a labor-aligned super PAC to fund races nationwide.

His activism through NextGen America has elevated Steyer’s profile in recent years from little-known hedge fund manager to global climate activist and Republican antagonizer. He has spent millions to pass progressive ballot measures to uphold California environmental laws, raise taxes on tobacco to fund health care and push states to invest in more renewable energy.

Gov. Gavin Newsom terms out next year. At least six other Democrats are running to replace him, including former Rep. Katie Porter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

While a billionaire former financial executive might be at odds with a party base hungry for a more relatable fighter, he’s attempting to appeal to everyday Californians by spotlighting the issue that most people say is their top priority — affordability.

“The Californians who make this state run are being run over by the cost of living,” Steyer says later in the video. “Californians deserve a life they can afford.”

Steyer also promises to “launch the largest drive to build homes that you can afford” in state history, rein in monopolistic utilities that have driven up costs and “drop our sky-high energy prices.”

Steyer’s nearly $13 million advertising blitz in support of Proposition 50, the congressional redistricting plan that voters approved earlier this month via special election, led many California political insiders to speculate that he would launch another bid for governor.

He alluded to his gubernatorial ambitions when he launched a controversial advertisement that, rather than amplify the Yes on Prop. 50 campaign’s message of checking the Trump administration’s power, touted his own calls to impeach and resist President Donald Trump.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

It's 1,000 days out until the Paralympic Games come to Los Angeles, and organizers have released a preview of the competition schedule.

The opening ceremony for the Games will take place at SoFi Stadium on Aug. 15, and the closing ceremony will be at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 27. That's according to a first look published by private Olympic organizing committee LA28 on its website, which lays out the days for which each sporting event is tentatively scheduled.

It's the third time L.A. is hosting the Olympics, but the city's first Paralympic Games. Athletes will compete in 23 sports across a span of about two weeks. The Paralympics will follow the Olympic Games, which will take place in July.

The Paralympic schedule provides a sketch of the excitement ahead for the summer of 2028.

The day after the Opening Ceremony, the first medals will be awarded for para athletics, wheelchair fencing, shooting para sport, para equestrian and para cycling track. Wheelchair rugby and boccia competition will start before the Games officially begin, starting a couple days ahead of the opening ceremony.

Blind football, wheelchair football, sitting volleyball and more sports will close out the summer of Olympic competition in Los Angeles, ahead of the closing ceremony.

The Los Angeles Paralympics also will welcome a new sport to the games: para climbing.

You can find the first look at the Paralympic schedule here. A more detailed schedule will come out next year.

Here’s a look at the Olympic schedule.

An ongoing dispute over maintenance of parts of the system that powers the LAX Automated People Mover could be the reason the long-awaited train won’t open until next summer, or even later, according to public documents reviewed by LAist.

The current dispute adds to a long series of disagreements between the city and LINXS, the group of companies contracted to design, build and operate the train, that have led to the ongoing saga of delays, hundreds of millions in cost overruns and diminishing public confidence that there’ll ever be a rail-only connection to LAX.

An L.A. County Civil Grand Jury report released earlier this year claimed that LINXS has used the dispute resolution process and “political pressures” to force contract extensions and additional compensation throughout the design and construction process.

In October, LAist reported about how the train’s estimated completion date moved from early 2026 to next summer. The dispute detailed in the public documents offers a more specific reason for the delay, which was previously opaque.

Dispute over metering cabinet equipment

In February, staff from city agencies directed LINXS to repair faulty equipment in a metering cabinet, according to a summary of the dispute and findings by a third-party evaluator. While the type of equipment isn’t specified, it’s likely related to measuring the power distributed throughout the system.

Power was partially shut down during the period of repair work, which lasted until July 2025.

That power shut-off delayed critical testing of the technology that allows for central control of the train’s systems, according to the third-party evaluator.

The third-party evaluator’s report said LINXS argued it was not required by contract to perform the repair work and is entitled to a schedule extension and compensation. The third-party evaluator, whose recommendations are not legally binding, agreed with LINXS’ position.

Los Angeles World Airports, the agency that manages LAX and the Van Nuys Airport, did not participate in an August hearing regarding the dispute, the third-party evaluator’s findings said.

The agency “rejected” the third-party evaluator’s conclusions, according to a November report from a management consulting firm retained by project lenders to monitor project progress.

What happens next?

According to the project contract, if a dispute remains unresolved after inquiring with the third-party evaluator, the next step is for LINXS to file a claim under a section of state law that governs complaints against public entities.

A section on the California Tort Claims Act on the Sacramento County Public Law Library website notes that the claim is a required precursor to any civil action.

“Filing a claim gives the agency the opportunity to settle the claim before a lawsuit is filed and to investigate the claim so that it can properly defend itself, or to correct the conditions or practices that led to the claim,” the website states.

The management consulting firm’s November report notes that LINXS “formally submitted” a claim on Oct. 21, triggering a 60-day period for the city to “respond to the claim and sets out the basis for the LINXS entitlements to relief.”

“Submission of [the] claim was explicitly requested by [Los Angeles World Airports] as a precursor to negotiation,” the report continues.

The status of the Automated People Mover

In a statement, Los Angeles World Airports said it’s not "unusual" to see "contractual disputes" on large capital projects like the Automated People Mover and that the train is still on schedule to open to the public next summer.

“LINXS continues to assure us the train will be ready for the FIFA World Cup, but we have back up plans in place to ensure an outstanding experience for all fans who visit Los Angeles,” the statement added. “[Los Angeles World Airports] does not comment on pending legal matters.”

Construction on the project is nearly complete, and most of the current work is focused on testing and ensuring all the parts of the system work together.

In November, Fluor, one of the companies that makes up LINXS, reported to investors that they can expect the Automated People Mover to “reach substantial completion over [the] next 3 quarters.”

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which was also named in the documents about the dispute, declined to comment.

LAist also reached out to LINXS and the companies that make up the group, but did not receive any response.

The management consulting firm also did not respond to emails requesting an interview.