The space shuttle Discovery, with a crew of five, lifts off on the 35th mission in the shuttle program. The next day, astronaut Steven A. Hawley releases the Hubble Space Telescope, an on-orbit observatory with great scientific promise. Although the telescope gathers unprecedented images, it proves to be somewhat myopic (exhibiting a two-micron-wide spherical aberration, something less than the width of a human hair) and will have to be repaired on a 1993 shuttle flight.
House, Senate Unveil Competing Proposals for 2026 Budget
July 11, 2025
Lawmakers from the House and Senate laid out competing versions of the annual defense policy bill on July 11, with vastly different potential outcomes for some of the Air Force’s most embattled programs.