NASA to Preview Katalyst Mission to Boost Swift Spacecraft’s Orbit

NASA will host an audio-only media teleconference at 11 a.m. EDT, Wednesday, June 17, to preview the Katalyst Space mission to boost the orbit of NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. Katalyst’s robotic servicing spacecraft, called LINK, will attempt to rendezvous with Swift and raise its altitude, extending its science mission…

China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft arrives at one of Earth’s mysterious ‘quasi-moons’

Over the weekend, China’s second deep-space mission, Tianwen-2, quietly performed a crucial engine burn to rendezvous with a mysterious tiny world in a quasi-Earth orbit. Although China’s space administration has yet to acknowledge the milestone, amateur radio observers using telescopes in Germany and the Netherlands tracked the maneuver, observing Tianwen-2…

Astronauts watch from space as ice splinters from a glacier photo of the day for June 11, 2026

The Southern Patagonian Icefield as seen from the International Space Station. (Image credit: NASA) Fragments of ice splintered from a glacier float down an Antarctic lake in a photo captured from aboard the International Space Station. What is it? In a new photograph snapped by astronauts on the International Space…

Scientists built a battery-free device that turns sunlight into fuel

Researchers at Osaka Metropolitan University have created a new artificial photosynthesis system that can generate solar fuel more consistently while eliminating the need for battery based control equipment. The advance comes from integrating a self regulating chemical component directly into the electrolyzer, reducing both system complexity and cost. Like natural…