Wednesday, July 29, 2026

SpaceX successfully launched Starship Flight 13 on July 24, deploying the first V3 Starlink satellites capable of high-capacity laser communication, marking a major milestone for the company's next-generation internet constellation.^[1]

NASA's Psyche spacecraft completed a successful Mars flyby, capturing stunning images and testing instruments as it used the planet's gravity to boost its speed toward the metal-rich asteroid Psyche, with arrival expected in 2029.^[2]

NASA's Swift Observatory detected a supermassive black hole devouring a star more than 30,000 light-years from the center of a distant galaxy, producing a flare that briefly outshone the entire host galaxy in ultraviolet light.^[3]

Researchers at Lund University traced the evolution of vertebrate eyes to a one-eyed ancestor that lived nearly 600 million years ago, also finding that this ancient median eye survives today as the pineal gland.^[4]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham at a British naval base, where they discussed joint drone projects and Ukraine's need for ballistic missile interceptors to counter Russian attacks.^[5]

Wildfires in southwestern France flared up again ahead of a fourth summer heatwave, with authorities evacuating nearly 4,000 more people from tourist sites on the Atlantic coast as firefighters struggled to maintain control of the Gironde blaze.^[6]

NASA selected SpaceX to deliver Starlink laser communication terminals for the Artemis III mission, which will provide high-definition video as four astronauts test rendezvous and docking with commercial lunar landing systems in 2027.^[7]