NASA scrambles to save Swift telescope

Today's space news is anchored by NASA's urgent rescue of the Swift Observatory, a rare orbital repair mission that feels like a throwback to the shuttle era. Meanwhile, the agency is quietly testing local AI for medical diagnostics on deep space missions and handing out awards for lunar lander life support systems, both signs that Artemis is getting real.

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Swift rescue

The biggest story today is a salvage operation that could extend a key gamma-ray observatory's life by decades.

#01abcnews.comJun 29

NASA races to save Swift telescope from falling back to Earth

NASA has hired startup Katalyst Space Technologies to boost the aging Swift Observatory to a higher orbit using a three-armed robotic spacecraft. The $30 million mission launches this week from the Marshall Islands, aiming to keep Swift detecting gamma-ray bursts for years longer.

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Deep space prep

Two quieter stories show NASA preparing for the medical and life support challenges of the Moon and Mars.

#02www.redhat.comJun 29

To the moon and beyond: RamaLama being tested by NASA to potentially support a medical AI assistant for future deep space missions

NASA's Johnson Space Center is testing a medical AI assistant called CMO-DA, powered by RamaLama for local inference, so astronauts can diagnose and treat symptoms without real-time communication with Earth. The system is being developed for deep space missions to the Moon and Mars.

#03share.googleJun 29

NASA Announces Winners for 2026 Human Lander Challenge - NASA

NASA announced winners of the 2026 Human Lander Challenge, where university teams designed environmental control and life support systems for future crewed lunar landers under the Artemis program. The challenge concluded June 25 near the Marshall Space Flight Center.

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