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Space

🚀 Space Pulse · 2026-06-26 22:01 UTC

SPACE PULSE

Friday, June 27, 2026 | Edition 106

⚡ TL;DR

NASA's Swift observatory gets a historic in-space servicing boost tomorrow, with Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK spacecraft set to re-raise its orbit via a Pegasus XL launch on June 27. [1] [2]

The week closes with active space weather, fresh Euclid galactic-core imagery, JWST starburst science, and a packed Chinese launch queue ahead. [3] [4] [5]

🚀 LAUNCHES

SWIFT BOOST MISSION — Pegasus XL | June 27, 09:00 UTC

  • Northrop Grumman's Pegasus XL will carry Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK servicing spacecraft to rendezvous with and re-boost NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory; mission is Go for Launch. [2] [1]

LONG MARCH 4C | Unknown Payload — July 1, 23:45 UTC

  • CASC is Go for Launch on a Long March 4C mission; payload details remain undisclosed ahead of the target date. [6]

LONG MARCH 8 | Unknown Payload — July 2, ~12:00 UTC

  • A CASC Long March 8 mission is scheduled for early July; status listed as To Be Confirmed and payload undisclosed. [7]

LONG MARCH 6A | Unknown Payload — July 4, 09:31 UTC

  • CASC has cleared a Long March 6A for launch on July 4; payload details TBD but status is Go for Launch. [8]

FALCON 9 | Starlink Group 17-48 — July 6, 14:00 UTC

  • SpaceX will launch 24 Starlink satellites for its space-based internet constellation; status Go for Launch. [9]

FALCON 9 | Starlink Group 10-42 — July 9, 09:05 UTC

  • A follow-on Starlink batch of 29 satellites is set for July 9; SpaceX lists it Go for Launch. [10]

LONG MARCH 10B | Demo Flight — ~July 10, 05:00 UTC

  • CASC plans the first test launch of the new Long March 10B rocket; status remains To Be Confirmed. [5]

🔭 DISCOVERIES

EUCLID IMAGES MILKY WAY CORE

  • ESA's Euclid mission, with NASA contributions, released a new high-resolution view of the Milky Way's galactic center on June 24, 2026, overlapping a region earmarked for future NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope observations. [3]

HUBBLE PHOTOGRAPHS NGC 6723 GLOBULAR CLUSTER

  • The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope released a new image of NGC 6723, the so-called Chandelier Cluster, showcasing tens of thousands to millions of stars bound by gravity; over 150 such clusters are known in the Milky Way.

WEBB AND HUBBLE COMBINE ON CIGAR GALAXY M82

  • NASA's James Webb Space Telescope observed edge-on starburst galaxy Messier 82 in the infrared, and its data was combined with archival Hubble observations to produce a more complete picture of M82's star-formation activity.

SILICATE CLOUDS CONFIRMED ON ULTRA-HOT NEPTUNE LTT9779b

  • A new arXiv paper attributes the exceptionally high geometric albedo of LTT9779b — the only known ultra-hot Neptune — to glossy silicate clouds on its scorched dayside, resolving a longstanding debate about this object found in the Neptunian desert.

NITROGEN ICE MAY FLOW BENEATH PLUTO'S SPUTNIK PLANITIA

  • New analysis of New Horizons data suggests geomorphological features at the northern extent of Pluto's one-million-square-kilometer N2 ice basin, Sputnik Planitia, are consistent with basal nitrogen ice flow beneath the surface.

PACE SATELLITE TRACKING NORTH AMERICAN FIRE SEASON

  • NASA's PACE satellite is using all three of its instruments to monitor smoke plumes, aerosol movement, and vegetation fire precursors during what is described as a record-acreage North American fire season.

JWST RESOLVES JET-DRIVEN OUTFLOWS IN RADIO GALAXY 3C305

  • JWST MIRI and NIRSpec observations of radio galaxy 3C305 reveal a compact jet driving multiphase H2 and ionized outflows, traced through H2 rotational lines and mid-infrared fine-structure lines.

🛰️ MISSIONS

SWIFT OBSERVATORY REBOOST IMMINENT

  • NASA confirmed readiness for the June 30 Swift Boost Mission; Katalyst Space Technologies' LINK spacecraft will demonstrate on-orbit servicing by raising Swift's orbit under a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 3 contract. [1] [2]

EXPEDITION 74 ISS SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

  • The Expedition 74 crew conducted eye exams, DNA sequencing of microbes, virtual reality investigations, and spacesuit preparations aboard the ISS as of June 25.

EXPEDITION 73 WELCOME HOME CEREMONY

  • Former Expedition 73 astronauts and cosmonauts gathered at Space Center Houston on June 16 to reflect on ISS science and teamwork; results from the Wayfinding navigation and mental-mapping investigation were among topics discussed.

NASA SELECTS ROCKET LAB FOR POLSIR AND TSIS-2

  • NASA awarded Rocket Lab launch contracts for the PolSIR (Polarized Submillimeter Ice-cloud Radiometer) and TSIS-2 (Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor-2) missions under the VADR contract vehicle.

NASA PICKS 41 TECH COLLABORATION PROPOSALS

  • NASA selected 41 proposals from 37 companies under its 2025 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity to mature technologies supporting long-term lunar presence and eventual human Mars exploration.

BOTSWANA SIGNS ARTEMIS ACCORDS

  • The Republic of Botswana signed the Artemis Accords on June 25, becoming the 68th signatory and the sixth African nation to commit to peaceful and transparent space exploration.

SPACE REACTOR-1 FREEDOM MISSION PROFILED

  • NASA's SR-1 Freedom mission is described as the first step toward a fission surface power system, designed to feed into the future Lunar Reactor-1 (LR-1) that would power a Moon Base through periods of darkness.

ESA EUROPEAN ASTRONAUT CENTRE BEHIND-THE-SCENES

  • ESA released a new ESA Explores episode showing how the ECOS team at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne prepares space experiments from lab concept through to orbit, featuring Deputy Manager Salvi Verma.

EUCLID QUICK DATA RELEASE Q2 — GALACTIC BULGE SURVEY

  • Euclid's Q2 data release covers nine contiguous fields totaling 4.8 square degrees of the inner Galactic bulge observed over 24 hours in March 2025 with the VIS instrument, providing an unprecedented deep wide-field view.

☀️ SPACE WEATHER

ELEVATED ENERGETIC ELECTRONS — GOES-19 ALERT TODAY

  • NOAA SWPC issued an ALTEF3 alert at 14:06 UTC today (June 26) after the 2 MeV electron integral flux at GOES-19 exceeded 1,000 pfu at 13:45 UTC; yesterday's maximum was only 480 pfu, indicating a sharp increase. [4]

GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY AT K-INDEX 4

  • NOAA extended a K-index 4 geomagnetic warning through 12:00 UTC June 26 due to persistent activity; the initial K-4 threshold was confirmed reached at 19:40 UTC on June 25.

EARLIER ELECTRON FLUX SPIKE ON JUNE 18

  • A prior ALTEF3 alert (serial 3703) was issued on June 18 at 15:07 UTC when the 2 MeV electron flux also exceeded 1,000 pfu at GOES-19, suggesting an active solar particle environment over the past week.

📄 RESEARCH

ULTRA-HOT JUPITER ATMOSPHERES PROBED WITH CRIRES+ AT ESO

  • The ESO SupJup Survey XI used the CRIRES+ spectrograph to perform atmospheric retrievals on six brown dwarfs of spectral types M7 to L2.5, constraining their thermal structures and chemical compositions to test whether formation history is encoded in atmospheric abundance.

BROWN DWARF AND GIANT PLANET ATMOSPHERE CHEMISTRY COMPARED

  • Four ultra-hot Jupiters — WASP-189b, HAT-P-57b, KELT-17b, and KELT-21b — were studied via cross-correlation transmission spectroscopy using GIANO-B, extending atomic and molecular detections into near-infrared wavelengths beyond previous optical studies.

FAST RADIO BURSTS SEARCHED IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS OF M49

  • Using FAST, researchers searched for FRBs from globular clusters in the elliptical galaxy M49, motivated by the detection of FRB 20200120E in a Milky Way globular cluster; the study tests whether magnetars can form in old stellar populations through non-core-collapse channels.

LITTLE RED DOTS — JWST'S MYSTERY OBJECTS MAY HAVE SDSS COUSINS

  • A new paper identifies a population of LRD-like quasars in SDSS at lower redshifts, characterized by red colors, broad Balmer emission lines, and weak X-ray emission similar to JWST's high-redshift Little Red Dots at z~5.

TRIPLE-STAR CHANNEL EXPLAINS BLACK HOLE BINARY SPIN DISTRIBUTION

  • Researchers propose that two common-envelope evolution phases in triple-star systems can produce close binary black hole systems with a distribution of effective inspiral spins consistent with LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave detections, including systems with negative spin.

HUBBLE TENSION PROBED WITH NEW INDEPENDENT METHOD

  • The HALO II study uses continuum reverberation mapping lag fitting of AGN Fairall 9 to derive an independent measurement of the Hubble constant H0, offering a new cross-check against the Hubble tension between early- and late-universe measurements.

BLAZAR 3C 279 STUDIED ACROSS ALL WAVELENGTHS DURING 2017 EHT CAMPAIGN

  • A new analysis presents the broadband multiwavelength properties of blazar 3C 279 during the April 2017 Event Horizon Telescope observing run, combining one of the most extensive quasi-simultaneous campaigns ever assembled to study its relativistic jet.

Space Pulse is grounded in official sources: NASA, ESA, JAXA, ESO, NRAO, NOAA SWPC, arXiv astro-ph, and Launch Library 2. All times UTC.

📎 Sources

  1. Partners, NASA Ready for June Launch of Swift Boost Mission — NASA Science
  2. Pegasus XL | Swift Boost Mission — Launch Library 2
  3. Euclid Sees Heart of Milky Way — NASA News Releases
  4. Space Weather Message Code: ALTEF3 — NOAA SWPC Alerts
  5. Long March 10B | Demo Flight — Launch Library 2
  6. Long March 4C | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  7. Long March 8 | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  8. Long March 6A | Unknown Payload — Launch Library 2
  9. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-48 — Launch Library 2
  10. Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-42 — Launch Library 2

Curated from official sources — NASA/ESA/JAXA/ESO/NOAA/arXiv/Launch Library. Informational only.
Serial 20260626-22-v13 · 2026-06-26 22:01 UTC

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