Catch me if you can! Inside NASA's daring plan to save a space telescope from plunging back to Earth

• A growing political movement targeting "woke" ideology is threatening the stability and funding of scientific research across the United States. • Critics argue that ideological interference in academia and government agencies risks compromising objective data and driving skilled researchers out of the country.

• NASA is preparing an unprecedented rescue mission to extend the operational life of the aging Swift observatory. • The mission aims to support the detection of cosmic explosions and transients, complementing new facilities like the Argus Array currently under development in Texas.

• A NASA Office of Inspector General audit revealed that canceled hardware contracts for the Artemis program reached a total of $5.9 billion. • The report highlights significant cost overruns and extended timelines, specifically noting a stage adapter that was on track to cost nearly $500 million.

• In 1947, a young Bedouin goatherd named Muhammad edh-Dhib accidentally discovered ancient jars containing the Dead Sea Scrolls while searching for stray livestock in a cave near Qumran in the Judean Desert. • This chance encounter triggered a decade of intensive cave exploration and manuscript recovery, uncovering some of the most significant archaeological texts in history.

• Researchers at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have detected anomalous behavior in "penguin decays," which are incredibly rare particle transformations. • The observed results deviate from the theoretical predictions of the Standard Model, the foundational theory explaining the universe's fundamental particles and forces.

• China plans to double the size of its Tiangong space station by adding three new modules and a co-orbiting space telescope. • This expansion occurs as the International Space Station (ISS) nears the end of its operational life and prepares for a final splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

• NASA has announced the winning student-developed solutions for environmental control and life support systems designed for future crewed lunar landers. • Finalist teams presented their research to a panel of NASA and aerospace industry experts during a collaborative poster session on June 22 at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville.

• China's top-secret "Shenlong" (divine dragon) space plane has deployed another unidentified object into low Earth orbit. • This latest release brings the total number of mysterious payloads deployed by the spacecraft to at least nine.

• NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed the edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy or NGC 3034. • By peering through cosmic dust, the telescope pinpointed 16.5 million stars and revealed the galaxy's distended disk structure.

• Firefly Aerospace is pursuing a $110 million loan to scale up its spacecraft production capabilities. • Astronomers have revealed that comet 3I/ATLAS is approximately 12 billion years old, providing a rare glimpse into the early universe.

• NASA's Roman Space Telescope arrived in Florida between June 20 and June 26, 2026, marking a key milestone in its deployment process. • Researchers have developed a new non-surgical treatment for knee osteoarthritis, offering a potential alternative to invasive procedures for pain relief.