Science & Technology — August 20, 2026

Private rescue of NASA's Swift telescope fails. A private spacecraft failed to boost the orbit of NASA's Swift Observatory, meaning the gamma-ray telescope will burn up in Earth's atmosphere later this year.

The attempt represented a commercial effort to extend the life of a NASA science mission by raising its decaying orbit. With that maneuver unsuccessful, Space.com reports the observatory now has no path to remain aloft, and atmospheric reentry is expected within the year, ending the spacecraft's observing career. The outcome underscores the risks of relying on private servicing missions to preserve aging government space assets.

Space.com · Read more →

Chinese startup lands reusable rocket. LandSpace landed its Zhuque-3 first stage, another Chinese step toward reusable rockets that narrows the gap with SpaceX and Blue Origin.

Recovering a booster's first stage intact is the key technical hurdle for reusing rockets, a capability that lowers launch costs and until recently was demonstrated mainly by U.S. companies. Ars Technica characterizes the achievement as opening the floodgates, noting it is not an isolated feat but part of a broader push by multiple Chinese firms toward reusability, putting the country's commercial launch sector closer to its American rivals.

Ars Technica · Read more →

T-Mobile cut a cable to oust Chinese hackers. The U.S. carrier physically severed hackers' access after detecting Chinese-backed intruders early, avoiding a large-scale breach of its network.

According to TechCrunch, the decisive factor was early detection: identifying the intruders before they burrowed deeper allowed the carrier to respond with a blunt physical measure rather than a prolonged digital eviction. The report attributes the intrusion to hackers backed by China and frames the episode as a case where a telecommunications company prevented the kind of large-scale compromise that has hit network operators.

TechCrunch · Read more →

Fastest known star could expose black hole's spin. Astronomers found S301 swooping so close to the Milky Way's central supermassive black hole that it could reveal the giant's rotation for the first time.

A black hole's rotation has never been directly measured for the supermassive object at the Milky Way's center, according to Scientific American. Because S301 passes closer to it than any other known star, tracking its orbit offers a natural probe of how the spinning giant warps nearby space. The finding gives astronomers a concrete target for follow-up observations aimed at pinning down that fundamental property.

Scientific American · Read more →