Spaceflight Daily Report, Thursday 6th August 2026

Image credit: NASA

US Spacewalk 96

American astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon performed a spacewalk today from the International Space Station, supported from inside the station by fellow astronauts Jack Hathaway and Sophie Adenot, and supported from the ground by Aki Hoshide and Stephanie Wilson. The spacewalk began at 1233 UTC and concluded at 1900 UTC, lasting 6 hours 27 minutes. The spacewalkers prepared the 3B power channel for the future installation of a new roll-out solar array. They also performed other small maintenance tasks outside the station. This was Jessica Meir's 6th spacewalk, bringing her up to 42 hours 33 minutes of EVA time, and it was Anil Menon's first spacewalk. It was the first spacewalk of Expedition 75 and overall the 281st spacewalk from the International Space Station. [Source: NASA]

Falcon Impact Images

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also called Danuri, today captured the first images of the new crater formed on the Moon by yesterday's impact of a leftover Falcon 9 second stage, having manoeuvred into an orbit that took it over the site both before and after the collision. Danuri is South Korea's first lunar mission, itself launched on a Falcon 9 back in 2022. [Source: Korea AeroSpace Administration]

Swift Boost Recovery

NASA and Katalyst Space have succeeded in stabilising the LINK spacecraft, which was left in an uncontrolled spin after its reaction wheels and thrusters malfunctioned. The plan now is to send the craft a software update to enable it to manoeuvre while accounting for the malfunctions. Then, it will attempt to rendezvous with the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and complete its mission to rescue the space telescope by boosting it to a higher orbit. [Source: NASA]

Launch of "The Grain Goddess Provides"

Rocket Lab launched an Electron out of Māhia in New Zealand at 0918 UTC, or 2118 local time (NZST). The mission, named "The Grain Goddess Provides", delivered QPS-SAR-13 to orbit, a synthetic aperture radar satellite operated by the Japanese company iQPS. This was the 92nd flight of Electron. [Source: Rocket Lab]