TYB
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
June 16, 2025
APOD is 30 Years Old Today
APOD is 30 years old today. In celebration, today's picture uses past APODs as tiles arranged to create a single pixelated image that might remind you of one of the most well-known and evocative depictions of planet Earth's night sky. In fact, this Starry Night consists of 1,836 individual images contributed to APOD over the last 5 years in a mosaic of 32,232 tiles. Today, APOD would like to offer a sincere thank you to our contributors, volunteers, and readers. Over the last 30 years your continuing efforts have allowed us to enjoy, inspire, and share a discovery of the cosmos.
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html
https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/johnson/johnsons-jason-foster-recognized-for-new-technology-reporting-record/
Johnson’s Jason Foster Recognized for New Technology Reporting Record
Jun 16, 2025
Heading into a recent staff meeting for Johnson Space Center’s Business Development & Technology Integration Office, Jason Foster anticipated a typical agenda of team updates and discussion.
He did not expect an announcement that he had been named a 2025 Rookie of the Year – Honorable Mention through the Federal Laboratory Consortium’s annual awards program.
Foster was one of only three technology transfer professionals across the federal government to be recognized in the Rookie of the Year category, which is open to early-career individuals with less than three years of experience.
“It was definitely a surprise,” he said. “It was quite an honor, because it’s not only representing Johnson Space Center but also NASA.”
Foster is a licensing specialist and New Technology Report (NTR) specialist within Johnson’s Technology Transfer Office in Houston.
That team works to ensure that innovations developed for aeronautics and space exploration are made broadly available to the public, maximizing their benefit to the nation.
Foster’s role involves both capturing new technologies developed at Johnson and marketing and licensing those technologies to companies that would like to use and further develop them.
He describes much of his work as “technology hunting” – reaching out to branches, offices, and teams across Johnson to teach them about the Technology Transfer Office, NTRs, and the value of technology reporting for NASA and the public.
“NTRs are the foundation that allows our office to do our job,” he said. “We need to know about a technology in order to transfer it.”
Foster’s efforts to streamline and strengthen the reporting and patenting of Johnson’s innovations led to his recognition by the consortium.
His proactive outreach and relationship-building improved customer service and contributed to 158 NTRs in fiscal year 2024 – the highest number of NTRs disclosed by federal employees at any NASA center.
Foster also proposed a three-month NTR sprint, during which he led a team of seven in an intensive exercise to identify and report new technologies.
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This initiative not only cleared a backlog of leads for the office, but also resulted in more than 120 previously undisclosed NTRs. “We are still using that process now as we continue processing NTRs,” Foster said.
On top of those achievements, he helped secure the highest recorded number of license agreements with commercial entities in the center’s history, with 41 licenses executed in fiscal year 2024.
“I am very proud of my accomplishments, none of it would be possible without the open-mindedness and continuous support of my incredible team,” Foster said.
“They have always provided a space to grow, and actively welcome innovation in our processes and workflows.”
A self-described “space nerd,” Foster said he always envisioned working at NASA, but not until much later in his career – ideally as an astronaut.
He initially planned to pursue an astrophysics degree but discovered a passion for engineering and fused that with his love of space by studying aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering instead.
In his last semester of college at California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, he landed a Universities Space Research Association internship at Johnson, supporting flight software development for crew exercise systems on the International Space Station and future exploration missions.
“I got really involved in the Johnson Space Center team and the work, and I thought, what if I joined NASA now?”
He was hired as a licensing specialist on the Technology Transfer team under the JETS II Contract as an Amentum employee shortly after graduating and continually seeks new opportunities to expand his role and skillsets.
“The more I can learn about anything NASA’s doing is incredible,” he said. “I found myself in this perfect position where literally my job is to learn everything there is to learn.”
Foster celebrates three years with NASA this July. In his time at the agency, he has learned the value of getting to know and understand your colleagues’ needs in order to help them.
Before he meets with someone, he takes time to learn about the organization or team they are a part of, the work they are involved in, and what they might discuss. It is also important to determine how each person prefers to communicate and collaborate.
“Doing your homework pays dividends,” Foster said. He has found that being as prepared as possible opens doors to more opportunities, and it helps to save valuable time for busy team members.
When he is not technology hunting, you might find Foster practicing the art of fire spinning. He picked up the hobby in college, joining a club that met at local beaches to practice spinning and capturing different geometric patterns through long exposure photos.
“It was kind of a strange thing to get into, but it was really fun,” he said. His love of learning drives his interest in other activities as well. Gardening is a relatively new hobby inspired by a realization that he had never grown anything before.
“It’s a genuine joy, I think, coming across something with curiosity and wanting to learn from it,” he said. “I think it especially helps in my job, where your curiosity switch has to be on at least 90% of the time.”
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Atlas V to launch Kuiper 2 Launch
June 16 at 1:25 p.m. EDT (1725 UTC)
United Launch Alliance (ULA) will use its Atlas V rocket to deliver the second batch of Project Kuiper satellites into space for Amazon. Project Kuiper is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite broadband network.
Its mission is to provide fast, reliable internet to customers around the world, including those in unserved and underserved communities, using a constellation of more than 3,200 LEO satellites.
https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/next-launch/atlas-v-kuiper-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKifwI3t55A
https://www.space.com/astronomy/scientists-find-universes-missing-matter-while-watching-fast-radio-bursts-shine-through-cosmic-fog
https://arxiv.org/html/2409.16952v1
Scientists find universe's missing matter while watching fast radio bursts shine through 'cosmic fog'
June 16, 2025
Half of the universe's ordinary matter was missing — until now.
Astronomers have used mysterious but powerful explosions of energy called fast radio bursts (FRBs) to detect the universe's missing "normal" matter for the first time.
This previously missing stuff isn't dark matter, the mysterious substance that accounts for around 85% of the material universe but remains invisible because it doesn't interact with light.
Instead, it is ordinary matter made out of atoms (composed of baryons) that does interact with light but has until now just been too dark to see.
Though this puzzle might not quite get as much attention as the dark matter conundrum — at least we knew what this missing matter is, while the nature of dark matter is unknown — but its AWOL status has been a frustrating problem in cosmology nonetheless.
The missing baryonic matter problem has persisted because it is spread incredibly thinly through halos that surround galaxies and in diffuse clouds that drift in the space between galaxies.
Now, a team of astronomers discovered and accounted for this missing everyday matter by using FRBs to illuminate wispy structures lying between us and the distant sources of these brief but powerful bursts of radio waves.
"The FRBs shine through the fog of the intergalactic medium, and by precisely measuring how the light slows down, we can weigh that fog, even when it's too faint to see," study team leader Liam Connor, a researcher at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), said in a statement.
FRBs are FAB searchlights for missing matter
FRBs are pulses of radio waves that often last for mere milliseconds, but in this brief time they can emit as much energy as the sun radiates in 30 years.
Their origins remain something of a mystery. That's because the short duration of these flashes and the fact that most occur only once make them notoriously hard to trace back to their source.
Yet for some time, their potential to help "weigh" the matter between galaxies has been evident to astronomers. Though thousands of FRBs have been discovered, not all were suitable for this purpose.
That's because, to act as a gauge of the matter between the FRB and Earth, the energy burst has to have a localized point of origin with a known distance from our planet.
Thus far, astronomers have only managed to perform this localization for about 100 FRBs.
Connor and colleagues, including California Institute of Technology (Caltech) assistant professor Vikram Ravi, utilized 69 FRBs from sources at distances of between 11.7 million to about 9.1 billion light-years away.
The FRB from this maximum distance, FRB 20230521B, is the most distant FRB source ever discovered.
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Of the 69 FRBs used by the team, 39 were discovered by a network of 110 radio telescopes located at Caltech's Owen Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) called the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA).
The DSA was built with the specific mission of spotting and localizing FRBs to their home galaxies.
Once this had been done, instruments at Hawaii's W. M. Keck Observatory and at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego were used the measure the distance between Earth and these FRB-source galaxies.
Many of the remaining FRBs were discovered by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a network of radio telescopes in Western Australia that has excelled in the detection and localization of FRBs since it began operations.
As FRBs pass through matter, the light that comprises them is split into different wavelengths. This is just like what happens when sunlight passes through a prism and creates a rainbow diffraction pattern.
The angle of the separation of these different wavelengths can be used to determine how much matter lies in the clouds or structures that the FRBs pass through.
"It's like we're seeing the shadow of all the baryons, with FRBs as the backlight," Ravi explained. "If you see a person in front of you, you can find out a lot about them.
But if you just see their shadow, you still know that they're there and roughly how big they are."
The team's results allowed them to determine that approximately 76% of the universe's normal matter lurks in the space between galaxies, known as the intergalactic medium.
They found a further 15% is locked up in the vast diffuse haloes around galaxies. The remaining 9% seems to be concentrated within the galaxies, taking the form of stars and cold galactic gas.
The distribution calculated by the team is in agreement with predictions delivered by advanced simulations of the universe and its evolution, but it represents the first observational evidence of this.
The team's results could lead to a better understanding of how galaxies grow. For Ravi, however, this is just the first step toward FRBs becoming a vital tool in cosmology, aiding our understanding of the universe.
The next step in this development may well be Caltech's planned radio telescope, DSA-2000. This radio array, set to be constructed in the Nevada desert, could spot and localize as many as 10,000 FRBs every year.
This should both boost our understanding of these powerful blasts of radio waves and increase their usefulness as probes of the universe's baryonic matter content.
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Members of Congress want White House to quickly nominate new NASA administrator
June 16, 2025
Members of the House and Senate called in the White House to promptly offer a new candidate for NASA administrator after the surprise withdrawal of Jared Isaacman’s nomination.
In briefings organized by the Aerospace Industries Association June16, representatives of House and Senate delegations to the Paris Air Show said it was critical that the agency get permanent leadership as it deals with potential significant cuts to its budget in the coming fiscal year.
“It’s really important for us to have a confirmed administrator of NASA,” said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who chairs the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA and also serves on the Senate Commerce Committee.
He compared it to the Federal Aviation Administration, who also currently lacks a confirmed administrator. “We need strong, long-term leaders in the positions in both places.’
He expressed surprise at the announcement by the White House May 31 that it was withdrawing Isaacman’s nomination, a decision reportedly linked to the deteriorating relationship between President Trump and Elon Musk, who had advocated for Isaacman to lead NASA.
That move came just days before the Senate was scheduled to vote on, and almost certainly confirm, Isaacman’s nomination. “We worked hard to get his nomination brought to the Senate floor in a timely fashion,” Moran said.
“So I’m anxious for the administration to propose another nominee and begin the process to get someone in place that will be a long-term leader for space development and space exploration in the United States.”
Rep. Brian Babin (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science Committee, offered similar views at a separate briefing a short time later.
“I was surprised,” he said of the withdrawn nomination. “I was ready to work with Mr. Isaacman. However, the White House thought differently, and so we’re waiting in anticipation for some other names to surface.
Maybe they will make another nomination fairly soon.” He added that he felt NASA’s acting administrator, Janet Petro, was doing a “good job,” but that the agency needed a confirmed administrator who can offer more details about the agency’s plans.
“So we’re waiting for guidance there.”
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NASA budget and reconciliation package
Another challenge facing NASA is a fiscal year 2026 budget proposal that would reduce agency spending by nearly 25% from 2025 levels, with steeper cuts in areas such as space science and technology.
Neither Moran nor Babin went into specifics about their views about the budget proposal, both saying that they had only seen a high-level “skinny” budget. NASA, in fact, released a more detailed proposal May 30.
“I would expect, and would work for, a balanced approach to the various aspects of NASA that they receive adequate funding to continue the mission of educating, training, exploring, researching, as well as sending individuals to outer space,” Moran said.
That included support for the Artemis effort to return American astronauts to the moon “in advance of the Chinese,” he said. “Artemis remains a priority for me, and then exploration and on to Mars as we continue to develop our capabilities and the science behind it.”
“I would hope and work for what I would call a more normal appropriations process with support for NASA and their capabilities to continue to expand our exploration and understanding of the world and the universe,” he said.
“I wholeheartedly agree,” added Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who serves on the same appropriations subcommittee.
An exception to that normal appropriations process is a proposal by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to add nearly $10 billion to the Senate’s version of a budget reconciliation bill that would go towards human spaceflight, including procuring Orion and Space Launch System vehicles for Artemis 4 and 5.
Babin said he was “absolutely in favor” of Cruz’s proposal amid concerns about cuts in the White House’s budget proposal.
“It was proposed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, OMB. This is not set in stone,” he said. “This has got a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of people are concerned.”
The proposed overall cut to NASA’s budget would be “tough” for the agency to sustain, he said.
“This is a national security issue, something we will absolutely be addressing because I think it’s imperative for the United States not to cede the moon to our adversary, China, which could very easily happen with cuts like this.”
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who also serves on the appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA, said after the briefing she supported the effort by Cruz to add funding to the reconciliation bill for NASA’s human spaceflight program, noting it “can ensure we fulfill President Trump’s original vision from his first term to get to the moon.”
https://spacenews.com/members-of-congress-want-white-house-to-quickly-nominate-new-nasa-administrator/
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BlackSky unveils wide-area imaging satellite
June 16, 2025
BlackSky, a provider of satellite imagery and analytics, announced plans to develop a new type of Earth observation satellite designed to capture large areas of the planet.
This new satellite will target applications requiring broad geographical coverage, including country-scale mapping, maritime monitoring and the creation of virtual replicas of physical locations.
The wide-area imaging satellite, called Aros, is scheduled to launch in 2027, BlackSky’s CEO Brian O’Toole told SpaceNews.
The Herndon, Virginia-based company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, specializes in Earth monitoring using electro-optical imaging satellites combined with artificial intelligence to analyze the captured data.
It currently operates a fleet of satellites that take frequent, high-resolution images of specific locations.
Its newest Gen-3 satellites can capture images with 35-centimeter resolution and revisit the same spot up to once per hour. These satellites are designed for monitoring targeted areas rather than covering vast regions in a single pass.
The Aros satellite is intended to image entire countries or large regions, generating comprehensive datasets that can be used to build and maintain what the industry calls “digital twins” — virtual replicas that mirror the current state of physical infrastructure like ports, cities, or industrial facilities.
Filling market demand
BlackSky is looking to offer a more complete imaging solution — pairing rapid revisit with broader surveillance capabilities, O’Toole said.
The move toward large-area imaging comes at a time when wide-coverage satellites operated by other providers are aging, opening a market opportunity.
“There is a well-defined market and demand signal for this,” he said, citing interest from U.S. defense agencies, international governments and commercial users.
“If customers want to collect large, country-size database maps, they can do that through this new satellite,” O’Toole said. The company is not yet disclosing how many Aros satellites it plans to build.
The wide-area satellites will work alongside the rapid-revisit constellation in what’s known as “tipping and queuing.” The broad-coverage satellite acts as a scout, scanning large areas to identify changes or points of interest.
When something noteworthy is detected, it alerts the high-resolution satellites to focus on those specific locations for detailed imaging.
This coordinated approach could prove valuable for applications such as missile detection and tracking, O’Toole said.
O’Toole said the decision to develop Aros was closely tied to BlackSky’s acquisition of satellite manufacturer LeoStella in late 2024.
LeoStella, originally a joint venture with Thales Alenia Space, manufactures BlackSky’s entire line of satellites. “Aros was one of the key factors in BlackSky’s acquisition of LeoStella,” he said.
The company’s immediate priority is deploying its Gen-3 satellite constellation, O’Toole said. Two of these high-resolution satellites are already in orbit and BlackSky aims to have eight in operation by the first quarter of 2026.
https://spacenews.com/blacksky-unveils-wide-area-imaging-satellite/
Raman Spectroscopy As A Tool For Assessing Plant Growth In Space And On Lunar Regolith Simulants
June 16, 2025
Colonization of the Moon and other planets is an aspiration of NASA and may yield important benefits for our civilization.
The feasibility of such endeavors depends on both innovative engineering concepts and the successful adaptation of life forms that exist on Earth to inhospitable environments.
In this study, we investigate the potential of Raman spectroscopy (RS) in a non-invasive and non-destructive assessment of changes in the biochemistry of plants exposed to zero gravity on the International Space Station and during growth on lunar regolith simulants on Earth.
We report that RS can sense changes in plant carotenoids, pectin, cellulose, and phenolics, which in turn, could be used to gauge the degree of plant stress in new environments.
Our findings also demonstrate that RS can monitor the efficiency of soil supplements that can be used to mitigate nutrient-free regolith media.
We conclude that RS can serve as a highly efficient approach for monitoring plant health in exotic environments.
https://astrobiology.com/2025/06/raman-spectroscopy-as-a-tool-for-assessing-plant-growth-in-space-and-on-lunar-regolith-simulants.html
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12117163/
Met Office launches £18M services call following ‘higher than anticipated’ space weather
16 Jun, 2025
The Met Office has issued a tender notice for £18M of technical services to complement its own efforts to mitigate the impact of severe space weather on “critical sectors”.
What is space weather?
Space weather is a normal part of activity within the solar system, and the most visible daily impacts on Earth are the aurora borealis around the North Pole and the aurora australis around the South Pole.
In 2019, the government commissioned the £19.9M Space Weather Instrumentation, Measurement, Modelling and Risk (SWIMMR) programme which looked at preparing the UK for severe space weather.
The SWIMMR S6 project group commissioned a report Severe space weather impacts on UK critical national infrastructure which was published in March 2025.
The report found that severe space weather “poses a hazard to critical national infrastructure including space-based services such as global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and satellite communications, systems in the atmosphere like aircraft electronics and ground-based systems like power grids and mobile cellular networks”.
In October 2024, Nasa (the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in the US confirmed that the Sun had “reached its solar maximum period, which could continue for the next year”.
The UK was then hit by multiple instances of elevated space weather over Winter 2024/25, where stargazers as far south as the south coast of England could see aurora.
Fresh funding to help UK prepare for space weather
On 13 July 2025, the Met Office published a tender notice saying it was seeking technical support to assist it with space weather preparedness. The notice has an enquiry deadline of 10 July, and tender submission deadline of 22 July 2025.
“Given the prominence of the severe space weather as a 'significant' risk on the UK Government's National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) and the higher than anticipated activity in this solar cycle, cross-government activity has increased putting greater demands and requirements on the Met Office,” the Met Office said in its tender notification.
It said the award decision date is expected to be 5 September 2025, and the contract would run from 9 October 2025 to 8 October 2030.
“The Met Office owns the Severe Space Weather Risk on the NSRA and receives funding from the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) to deliver a core national space weather capability to inform mitigation against the worst effects by government and critical sectors,” it went on to say.
“Increased funding has been secured to resource these more demanding requirements focussed on improving UK preparedness for any future severe space weather event.”
The total value of the contract is £18M including VAT.
Met Office seeking technical services to add space weather preparedness capacity
The tender said the Met Office’s technology team was looking to “supplement its internal resources to support and advise the space weather programme from the technical perspective.”
The additional resources would be used in a “blended team” and “will be supported by Met Office internal technical, product and delivery management leadership.”
It specified that the requirement is for resources “to develop, support, maintain and improve our space weather portfolio and associated technologies.”
The Met Office concluded by saying it has an incumbent ‘Space Weather Delivery Partner contract’ and this is due to finish in March 2026.
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/met-office-launches-18m-services-call-following-higher-than-anticipated-space-weather-16-06-2025/
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/infrastructure-operators-warned-they-must-develop-severe-space-weather-preparedness-plans-07-03-2025/
Images from space appear to show limited damage at Fordo nuclear site
Monday, June 16, 2025, 8:05 am
New satellite imagery released by US geospatial intelligence firm Planet Labs appears to show some damage outside the Fordo nuclear site.
Before and after pictures of the site appear to show the collapse of what may have been a retaining wall on the side of the mountain alongside a road ringing the edge of the secret nuclear site, which is buried deep under a mountain.
Iran had previously reported minor damage from Israeli strikes to the facility, which is thought to be largely beyond the reach of Israel’s munitions.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/images-from-space-appear-to-show-limited-damage-at-fordo-nuclear-site/
Iran preparing to ‘shut down Israel’s war machine’ – RT source
15 Jun, 2025 20:49
Tehran is gearing up to decisively counter Israel’s military operations, and intends to “shut down the regime’s war machine,” a senior Iranian security official told RT exclusively on Sunday.
Israel and Iran have been engaged in a fierce exchange of fire for three consecutive days. According to Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom, Iranian strikes have killed at least ten people, bringing the total death toll to 13.
In Iran, Israeli strikes have caused at least 406 deaths and 654 injuries, according to the group Human Rights Activists. The Iranian government has not released official casualty figures yet.
”Iran has been preparing for a long war,” the official told RT, emphasizing the country’s resolve to confront Israel.
According to the source, millions of Iranians rallied in the streets on Saturday, defying West Jerusalem’s attacks, and demanding retribution. “This is an important support for Iran to continue its actions with force,” the official added.
The official outlined Iran’s extensive list of potential targets within “occupied territories,” which include covert residences of Israeli government leaders, energy facilities, factories supplying military aircraft, and critical command-and-control infrastructure.
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said that the country’s missiles had targeted fuel production facilities for Israeli fighter jets, a claim not acknowledged by Israel.
World leaders urgently called for de-escalation in order to prevent an all-out war. Russian President Vladimir Putin had condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran and expressed concern over further escalation.
In a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Saturday, Putin reiterated Moscow's willingness to facilitate negotiations.
Oman-mediated nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington were scheduled for Sunday; however, they were canceled following Israel’s strikes.
Trump did not rule out the possibility of continuing the negotiations, saying, “They’d like to make a deal. They’re talking.”
https://www.rt.com/news/619398-iran-prepares-shut-down-israel/
Suspected Ukrainian agent accused of assassination plot – Moscow
16 Jun, 2025 10:03
A Russian citizen residing in the country’s Kherson Region has been charged with terrorism for allegedly plotting to assassinate a local official on behalf of Kiev, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Monday.
The man, who was not publicly named but is said to be in his early 50s, was allegedly instructed to plant a home-made explosive device beneath a vehicle used by the target.
The bomb, reportedly packed with metal washers to increase lethality, was shown in a photo the FSB released with its statement.
According to the agency, the suspect confessed to having been recruited by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) last August. He expressed remorse for his role in the attempted bombing, which could carry a life sentence if he is convicted.
The official targeted in the plot serves in the Gornostaevka municipality, located along the Dnieper River east of Kakhovka, where a now-disabled eponymous dam once stood. Residents of Kherson Region voted to join Russia in late 2022 in a referendum Kiev denounced as illegitimate and vowed to reverse.
FSB of Russia
Following the 2014 Western-backed armed coup in Kiev, Ukrainian authorities launched a targeted killing program aimed at individuals deemed enemies of the state.
Initially, intelligence services focused on figures in the Donbass Region who rejected the post-coup government and sought independence from Kiev.
Since the outbreak of full-scale hostilities with Russia in 2022, the program’s scope has widened to include suspected collaborators and public figures accused of supporting Moscow.
Those believed to have been targeted by such operations include Russian journalist Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bombing in August 2022; former Ukrainian lawmaker Ilya Kiva, shot dead in Russia in December 2023; and Russian politician Zakhar Prilepin, who survived a car bomb attack in May 2023 that killed his driver.
https://www.rt.com/russia/619421-bomb-plot-kherson-region/
Moscow ready to repatriate more remains of Ukrainian troops – MOD
16 Jun, 2025 11:37
Russia is ready to hand over more remains of fallen troops to Ukraine, in addition to making good on its earlier promise to send some 6,000 bodies to Kiev’s military, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.
During talks in Istanbul in early June, Russia unilaterally decided to repatriate the bodies of 6,060 slain Ukrainian troops as a humanitarian gesture.
On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the final batch of remains had been handed over to Kiev, and that Moscow had “fulfilled the agreements” reached during the talks in Türkiye.
However, the ministry made it clear that it presently holds some 2,000 more remains.
“At this stage, we are ready to hand over another 2,239 bodies of the deceased servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the Ukrainian side,” a statement released on Monday claimed.
Moscow transferred 1,248 bodies in an exchange on Monday during which it received from Ukraine the remains of 51 slain Russian servicemen, it said.
Russia has this received some 76 bodies from Ukraine, having repatriated some 6,000 to Kiev.
Russia initially tried to return the remains over the previous weekend, but Ukraine’s representatives failed to show up at the exchange point on the border between Belarus and Ukraine.
Kiev later claimed that it had not agreed on the date of the transfer and accused Moscow of “using humanitarian issues for information purposes.”
At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova branded Ukraine’s failure to receive the bodies of its fallen soldiers “genocide against its own people.”
The deliberate inaction of Vladimir Zelensky’s government was proof that it “does not need its people; neither dead nor alive,” she argued.
Kiev eventually began to accept the bodies from Moscow on Wednesday, with several transfers taking place since then.
https://www.rt.com/russia/619433-fallen-troops-kiev-moscow/
Russian missiles strike command center in Donbass – MOD
16 Jun, 2025 08:03
Russian forces have targeted a Ukrainian military headquarters with Iskander ballistic missiles, the Defense Ministry reported Monday.
The facility housed officers overseeing the operative task force Lugansk, the ministry claimed.
The attack on the alleged command and control site in Druzhkovka, a town under Kiev’s control in Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic, was reportedly filmed by a drone.
Video released by the ministry shows two projectiles hitting a large industrial building, apparently part of a Soviet-era machine factory.
The town lies about 30 kilometers northwest of Dzerzhinsk, also known as Toretsk, which previously played a key role in Ukrainian operations before being liberated by Russian forces in February.
The ministry did not specify when the strike occurred. However, the same footage first appeared Saturday on a Telegram channel that covers the Ukraine conflict.
The Iskander missile system is designed to destroy high-value targets at ranges of up to 500 km.
It can carry a 480-kg payload and offers various warhead options depending on the mission. Traveling at speeds of around Mach 6, it is difficult to intercept and is suited for time-sensitive operations.
Russia’s Defense Ministry recently reported using Iskander missiles to target a German-supplied IRIS-T anti-missile system, a field military camp and an airfield reportedly used to launch kamikaze drones into Russian territory.
https://www.rt.com/russia/619411-iskander-strike-headquarters-video/
'Russians lie about everything' — Ukraine hits out at Kremlin claims after yet another drone strike on Kyiv
June 16, 2025 10:06 AM
Ukraine has accused Russia of "lying about everything" after yet another drone attack on Kyiv injured two people overnight on June 16, saying the strike once again rubbished Kremlin claims that only military objects are being targeted.
The strike hit Rusanivka Gardens, a private neighborhood in the capital’s Dniprovskyi District, creating a crater near civilian homes, and injuring a 20-year-old man and a woman, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said.
"The Russians lie about everything. When they claim to have hit military targets, they are actually targeting our homes and our people," he wrote on Telegram.
"This is a deliberate tactic of terror."
The injured man was hospitalized in serious condition, while the woman is being treated on an outpatient basis, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. "Miraculously, significant damage and casualties were avoided," Tkachenko said.
Despite Moscow's denials, Russia has repeatedly hit civilian areas throughout its full-scale war. On July 8, 2024, one of the deadliest strikes on Kyiv killed 33 people and wounded 121 others, including patients at Ohmatdyt, Ukraine's largest children's hospital.
The Russian Defense Ministry continues to insist it targets only military infrastructure, dismissing reports of civilian casualties as "absolutely untrue."
The pattern of destruction across cities like Kharkiv and Kherson shows civilians are often the primary targets.
Moscow launched 138 drones at Ukraine overnight, including Iranian-designed Shahed-type drones.
Ukraine's Air Force reported that air defenses intercepted 125 of them, while another 41 went off radars — likely used as decoys to overwhelm air defense systems.
The strike comes as Russia intensifies its air campaign against Ukraine and continues to reject Western-backed proposals for a ceasefire.
Kyiv, located along the Dnipro River in the country's north-center, remains one of the most heavily targeted cities in the war.
https://kyivindependent.com/russians-lie-about-everything-russian-drone-strike-injures-kyiv-resident-damages-homes-shops/
Nato maritime drone startles sailor in Gulf of Finland
June 16, 2025 17:21
Boaters in the Gulf of Finland have spotted remote-controlled maritime drones being used in Nato sea exercises over the weekend.
One of the boaters, photographer Kari Kuukka, told Yle he was startled by a red, submarine-like vessel as he was sailing near Mäkiluoto, an island just south of the Porkkala peninsula.
At first, he said he feared it was a capsized vessel, looking like a red-bottomed sailboat flipped upside-down.
"I've seen a capsized sailboat with its keel up before, it looked quite similar," he explained.
However, as he approached the roughly eight-metre long vessel, he noticed it was moving steadily forward, under its own power.
The vessel was not using an automatic identification system (AIS) that communicates its location to others. However, it was quite visible due to its red colour — at least during daylight and clear conditions.
The vessel's bright colour suggested to Kuukka that it was not part of some covert or hostile naval operation, so he took some more photos and continued sailing.
The Finnish Navy's communications director, Annele Apajakari, confirmed to Yle that the unusual sighting at sea was not a hostile ship.
"On the contrary, we invited them here," she explained, noting that the vessel was part of the Dynamic Messenger exercise.
The exercise is focusing on unmanned systems, amid anticipated calls from Nato's leadership for a dramatic increase in collective defence capabilities.
”This is not a combat exercise, it is research. Nato is testing these gadgets in various conditions.
It has previously carried out similar exercises in more southern seas, but now, as a new member state, Finland enables the possibility to study and test things in new areas," Apajakari said.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20168087
https://yle.fi/a/74-20166639
https://globalnews.ca/news/11243563/quebec-detention-centres/
Drones, contraband pose everyday challenges in Quebec detention centres
June 16, 2025 8:58 am
On any given day, drones buzz in the skies above Quebec’s detention centres looking to drop tobacco, drugs or cellphones to the inmates below.
Statistics from Quebec’s public security minister show staff reported 274 drones flying over provincial centres between January and March — or just over three per day. That doesn’t include the 10 federally-managed prisons in the province.
Corrections spokespeople and a drone expert say the problem is growing, dangerous and hard to stop, despite millions of dollars invested by provincial and federal governments.
Stéphane Blackburn, the managing director for Quebec’s correctional services, described the threat of airborne contraband as “something we face every day.”
The provincial figures show 195 of the 247 drones were seen dropping packages. Most of them — 69 per cent — were reported as seized. The province also seized 896 cellphones.
But the data shows drone sightings have been growing gradually in recent years.
There were 695 drone sightings logged from April 2021 to the end of March of 2022. For the same period between 2024 and 2025, there were 1,175. They’re also increasingly being spotted outside Montreal.
“A few years ago, it was mainly in the metropolitan region that we saw drone events,” Blackburn said. “Montreal has been subjected to the problems for several years now, and now we see a rise in drone events in certain regions.”
Blackburn says the most common forms of contraband are tobacco and cannabis, although cellphones, tools and other drugs are also seized.
In recent weeks, the province has announced an additional $38.5 million worth of measures aimed at curbing contraband smuggling.
Those include technological solutions such as drone and cellphone detectors, and physical infrastructure including fencing or netting around windows and courtyards.
Workers will also be using mobile X-ray scanners and body scanners to detect items once they’ve been delivered.
The federal government also announced a pilot project in March that will allow correctional staff to use radio-frequency jammers to block wireless communication to drones and cellphones in federal and Quebec detention centres.
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Frédérick Lebeau, the national president of the Union of Canadian Correction officers, said the rise in drone drops in correctional facilities has been “exponential” in recent years.
“We can talk about several drops a day — three, four, it depends,” he said.
He said drops happen often when inmates are in the yard, and packages are quickly snapped up and hidden in body cavities or elsewhere. Sometimes, drones are flown directly to windows where inmates have dismantled the bars.
He said the presence of contraband — including drugs and weapons — can create debts among inmates and allow criminal networks to operate, resulting in increased violence for detainees and corrections staff alike.
“It’s really an ecosystem,” he said. “If there are more debts, there’s more violence. If there’s more drinking, more drugs, there’s violent (incidents) where we have to intervene.”
Lebeau said that while new announcements by the different levels of government are “a step forward,” many of the measures have only been put in place in a few institutions.
In particular, he says there’s a need for more jammers to stop drones from reaching jails and prisons, as well as body scanners to catch the drugs once they’re dropped.
“It’s not just detecting drones, we have to catch them,” he said.
Jeremy Laliberte, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ottawa’s Carleton University, says drones are an ideal tool for delivering contraband because they’re “ubiquitous, inexpensive,” and can be launched from kilometres away.
“The folks who want to do this can buy them for a few hundred dollars, modify them, remove any identifying information and launch them and not even worry about getting them back,” he said.
He said the war in Ukraine — as well as domestic concerns about malicious operators — have spurred a growing interest in counter-drone technology, including better detectors that can locate both the drone and the operator.
However, these systems are expensive and complex to develop, while “the drones themselves are hundreds of dollars.”
Laliberte said physical barriers such as fencing and netting as well as the detectors, jammers, and scanners can all work to protect detention centres, though he notes determined operators can find a way around any one measure.
That’s why he says a layered model that combines different strategies — the so-called “Swiss cheese model” — has the best chance of success.
“There isn’t going to be just one strategy that’s going to be the magic bullet that stops everything,” he said.
“It’s going to have to be a mix of things, because the technology, it’s like an arms race. There’s always going to be people trying to get better at this.”
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Drone And Aerial Device Ban Enforced Around Kochi Airport Over Safety Fears
Updated on: 16 June 2025 5:59 pm
Authorities on Monday banned the use of drones, laser beams, and other aerial devices within a five-kilometre radius of Kochi International Airport, citing serious safety concerns.
The order was issued by Ernakulam District Collector N S K Umesh, who said that devices such as microlight aircraft, paragliders, hot air balloons, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) pose a threat to aircraft flying in and out of the airport at Nedumbassery.
The decision follows reports from the airport director and Ernakulam rural police chief, who flagged unauthorised flying activity near the runway and approach paths.
They warned that such activity could interfere with the safe take-off and landing of aircraft. The ban has been enforced under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023, a new national civil safety law.
Officials said no one will be allowed to operate aerial equipment in the "Red Zone" unless they have specific permission. Police have urged the public to report any violations immediately to the nearest station.
https://www.outlookindia.com/national/drone-and-aerial-device-ban-enforced-around-kochi-airport-over-safety-fears
Tehran dismantles Mossad sabotage network behind suicide drone attacks
JUN 16, 2025
Iranian security forces have announced the thwarting of Mossad-operated drone production plots aimed at undermining the country’s air defenses and military capabilities as part of Israel’s war against the country.
According to Iranian media reports, authorities raided a three-story building on the outskirts of Tehran on 15 June, uncovering a facility for assembling drones and explosives.
Iranian police released footage showing a large cache of small drones and explosives seized by authorities at the site on Sunday.
Footage from Sunday also showed an Iranian police officer chasing a truck filled with drones, which was eventually intercepted and seized.
In two separate operations, the Rey County Special Police Command identified and arrested two Mossad internal agents in Fashafoyeh,” said Iranian police spokesman Brigadier General Montazer al-Mahdi, according to Tasnim news agency.
“More than 200 kilograms of explosives and equipment for 23 drones, launchers, guidance devices, and controllers, along with a Nissan car, were discovered and seized from these individuals,” he added.
Iranian journalist and contributor to The Cradle, Fereshteh Sadeghi, confirmed that “Tehran police captured 200 kilograms of explosives and a workshop in Shahr-e Rey, south of Tehran where suicide drones were equipped with explosives and launched,” adding that “Sunday’s discovery happened after a drone attack on Shahr-e Rey’s fuel depot.”
Sadeghi noted that a significant number of the attacks carried out against Iran since the start of Israel’s US-backed war were launched from inside the country by spies employed by Tel Aviv.
“Iranian citizens have a big role in finding bombs or exposing Israeli agents. Volunteers have established checkpoints, stopped suspicious trucks or pickups and inspected their cargo.
It has led to discoveries in the past two days and a decline in attacks in the past 24 hours,” she added, stressing that “the Iranian establishment has a difficult task after the end of this war: to conduct a purge on Israel’s collaborators.”
On Monday morning, Iranian authorities announced the execution of a Mossad agent.
Israeli officials cited by Axios last week claimed Tel Aviv’s operation against Iran was launched after eight months of planning.
According to the Times of Israel, Mossad operatives built a covert drone launch base inside Iran. The operation involved smuggling weapons into Iran, disabling air defenses, and launching drone and missile strikes near Tehran.
The Guardian also noted that Mossad agents were embedded near Iranian air defense sites. These sites have been targeted by drones launched internally.
Over the past 48 hours, Iranian air defenses have been highly active and continue to intercept Israeli projectiles, as Tel Aviv launches nationwide attacks on Iran.
Reports from last week said Iranian defenses were subjected to sabotage at the onset of Israel’s war, and took several hours to be repaired.
https://thecradle.co/articles/tehran-dismantles-mossad-sabotage-network-behind-suicide-drone-attacks
https://twitter.com/fresh_sadegh/status/1934379697384939722
https://twitter.com/war_noir/status/1934376564545695859
https://twitter.com/MintPressNews/status/1934342067880370255
will repost nb