Blue Origin's Next Steps, Ispace's Moon Mission, and Asteroids Under the Microscope: S04E39

0:00 Speaker 1: Hey, space enthusiasts, you're tuned into another exciting episode of

0:03 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we bring you the most fascinating stories

0:07 Speaker 1: from the frontiers of space exploration. Today's lineup is packed

0:10 Speaker 1: with incredible developments from across the space industry. We'll be

0:14 Speaker 1: diving into Blue Origins latest plans for their massive new

0:17 Speaker 1: Glen rocket, and some significant changes within the company. We'll

0:22 Speaker 1: also check in on Icepace's resilience Lunar Lander as it

0:25 Speaker 1: makes its way toward a historic moon landing attempt. In

0:29 Speaker 1: other news, we'll explore how the James Webb Space Telescope

0:33 Speaker 1: might help us better understand a potentially hazardous asteroid that's

0:37 Speaker 1: caught the attention of astronomers worldwide. Plus, we'll get you

0:40 Speaker 1: up to speed on SpaceX's latest starship preparations. And to

0:44 Speaker 1: wrap things up, I've got some absolutely remarkable stories about

0:48 Speaker 1: spacecraft that have literally come back from the dead. Trust me,

0:52 Speaker 1: These tales of space resurrection will blow your mind. So

0:55 Speaker 1: strap in and get ready for your daily dose of

0:58 Speaker 1: space news and discovery. Let's dive into our first story

1:02 Speaker 1: of the day, some major developments from Blue Origin. The

1:05 Speaker 1: company has announced plans for their second new Glen launch

1:08 Speaker 1: targeting late spring this year. Note that's late spring in

1:11 Speaker 1: the Northern Hemisphere, so for Southern Hemisphere listeners that will

1:15 Speaker 1: be late fall or autumn. This comes after their first

1:18 Speaker 1: launch in January, which, while achieving many mission objectives, encountered

1:22 Speaker 1: some issues during the booster recovery attempt. Dave Limp, Blue

1:25 Speaker 1: Origins CEO, recently shed some light on what went wrong

1:29 Speaker 1: during that first flight. It appears they experienced a propulsion

1:32 Speaker 1: related problem that prevented the massive booster from making its

1:35 Speaker 1: planned landing. According to Limp, while most engine conditions were nominal,

1:39 Speaker 1: they had trouble getting everything properly flowing from the tanks

1:42 Speaker 1: to the engines during the critical re entry burn. The

1:46 Speaker 1: good news is that Blue Origin believes they've identified the

1:49 Speaker 1: root cause and the fixes needed aren't particularly complex. This

1:54 Speaker 1: is crucial because the ability to reuse these massive boosters

1:58 Speaker 1: is central to Blue Origins busysiness model. The company already

2:02 Speaker 1: has a second booster in production, and they're confident this

2:05 Speaker 1: investigation won't significantly impact their launch timeline. While they haven't

2:10 Speaker 1: announced what payload will fly on this second mission, Limp

2:14 Speaker 1: mentioned they're considering several options. They're treating their first three

2:18 Speaker 1: flights as development missions, so while they're open to flying

2:21 Speaker 1: commercial payloads, they're prepared to use mass simulators if necessary. However,

2:27 Speaker 1: this news comes alongside a significant restructuring at Blue Origin.

2:31 Speaker 1: The company announced this week that they're reducing their workforce

2:34 Speaker 1: by about ten percent, affecting more than one thousand employees

2:38 Speaker 1: across various departments, including management, engineering, R and D, and

2:43 Speaker 1: project management. Limp explained that the company had grown and

2:47 Speaker 1: hired very rapidly in recent years, which led to increased

2:50 Speaker 1: bureaucracy and less focus than needed. The restructuring aims to

2:55 Speaker 1: streamline operations and improve manufacturing efficiency as they scale up

2:59 Speaker 1: their launch case cadence. Despite these cuts, Blue Origin isn't

3:03 Speaker 1: hitting the brakes on growth entirely. They're still planning to

3:06 Speaker 1: hire hundreds of new employees this year, but with a

3:09 Speaker 1: more targeted focus on manufacturing and operations. The company is

3:14 Speaker 1: particularly keen on ramping up production of their new Glen

3:16 Speaker 1: rockets and advancing work on their Blue Moon lunar lander,

3:20 Speaker 1: which they hope will reach the lunar surface later this year.

3:24 Speaker 1: Next up, the Japanese space exploration company I Space is

3:29 Speaker 1: making exciting progress with their second lunar mission. Their Resilience Lander,

3:33 Speaker 1: which launched on January fifteenth aboard a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket,

3:37 Speaker 1: is now preparing for a crucial lunar flyby that marks

3:40 Speaker 1: a significant milestone in its journey to the Moon. Unlike

3:44 Speaker 1: the more direct routes taken by some lunar missions, Resilience

3:47 Speaker 1: is taking what we might call the scenic route, an

3:50 Speaker 1: energy efficient, circuitous path that will ultimately save valuable fuel.

3:54 Speaker 1: Last week, the spacecraft successfully completed a critical maneuver that

3:58 Speaker 1: set up this upcoming lunar fly positioning it perfectly for

4:02 Speaker 1: this fuel saving gravity assist What's particularly fascinating about this

4:06 Speaker 1: flyby is that while it will create the mission's largest

4:09 Speaker 1: change in velocity, the spacecraft won't actually feel any acceleration.

4:15 Speaker 1: It's all thanks to the elegant physics of gravitational forces.

4:19 Speaker 1: The close pass by the Moon will naturally alter Resilience's trajectory,

4:23 Speaker 1: setting it up for the second phase of its journey

4:26 Speaker 1: using what's called a low energy transfer. As of this week,

4:30 Speaker 1: Resilience was already positioned beyond the Moon's orbit, about two

4:34 Speaker 1: hundred eighty six thousand miles from Earth. If all goes

4:37 Speaker 1: According to plan, the spacecraft will attempt to land in

4:40 Speaker 1: mare Frigoris, the Sea of Cold in the Moon's northern hemisphere,

4:45 Speaker 1: around late May or early June. The lander isn't traveling

4:49 Speaker 1: alone on this ambitious journey. It's carrying several payloads, including

4:53 Speaker 1: the tenacious microrover, which will conduct mobile exploration of the

4:57 Speaker 1: lunar surface. This mission represent and it's an important step

5:01 Speaker 1: forward for private lunar exploration, especially following I Space's previous

5:05 Speaker 1: landing attempt. Interestingly, Resilience shared its launch with another lunar

5:10 Speaker 1: bound spacecraft, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lander, which has already

5:15 Speaker 1: successfully completed its translunar injection burn and is on track

5:19 Speaker 1: for its own lunar encounter Next up, I felt we

5:23 Speaker 1: needed a small update to this next story. As you

5:26 Speaker 1: may have noticed, the popular press seems to be getting

5:29 Speaker 1: themselves into quite a state. What's the popular saying, We're

5:32 Speaker 1: all going to die? Not quite, but this a developing

5:36 Speaker 1: story that's certainly capturing the attention of astronomers worldwide. And

5:40 Speaker 1: now the James Webb Space Telescope is being called upon

5:43 Speaker 1: to help determine the potential impact risk of asteroid twenty

5:46 Speaker 1: twenty four yr four. This space rock currently has a

5:50 Speaker 1: two point one percent chance of colliding with Earth on

5:53 Speaker 1: December twenty second, twenty thirty two, a probability that's actually

5:57 Speaker 1: increased slightly from the initial one point two per estimate

6:00 Speaker 1: in late January. So far, more than fifty observatories have

6:04 Speaker 1: contributed over three hundred and fifty observations of this asteroid,

6:08 Speaker 1: but pinning down its exact trajectory has proved challenging. The

6:12 Speaker 1: object is currently more than sixty five million kilometers away

6:16 Speaker 1: and rapidly fading from view, making it increasingly difficult to

6:20 Speaker 1: track with ground based telescopes. The full Moon is currently

6:24 Speaker 1: interfering with observations, and as the asteroid continues to dim

6:28 Speaker 1: to magnitude twenty four, only the largest telescopes on Earth

6:31 Speaker 1: can still detect it. This is where WEB comes in.

6:35 Speaker 1: The space telescope is scheduled to make crucial observations in

6:38 Speaker 1: March and May, long after the asteroid becomes too faint

6:42 Speaker 1: for other instruments to track. A team led by Andy

6:45 Speaker 1: Rivkin at Johns Hopkins University has secured four hours of

6:48 Speaker 1: web's observing time. Their observations will serve two crucial purposes,

6:52 Speaker 1: first to better estimate the asteroid's size and then to

6:56 Speaker 1: help refine its orbital parameters. This data could prove decide

7:00 Speaker 1: in determining whether Earth is actually in danger. Efforts to

7:04 Speaker 1: find previous observations of the asteroid from twenty sixteen, when

7:08 Speaker 1: it last passed close to Earth have so far come

7:11 Speaker 1: up empty. Despite thorough searches through archival data from various observatories,

7:16 Speaker 1: no confirmatory images have been found. While these negative observations

7:20 Speaker 1: can sometimes be useful, they must be treated with extreme

7:23 Speaker 1: caution when calculating orbital predictions. This situation has led to

7:27 Speaker 1: twenty twenty four YR four receiving a ter Reino Scale

7:31 Speaker 1: rating of three, the second highest ranking ever assigned to

7:34 Speaker 1: a potential impact threat. Only asteroid Opophos previously reached a

7:39 Speaker 1: higher rating of four back in two thousand and four,

7:42 Speaker 1: though it was quickly determined to pose no danger unlike

7:45 Speaker 1: a pofas. The uncertainty around twenty twenty four YR four's

7:49 Speaker 1: trajectory means we may not have a definitive answer about

7:53 Speaker 1: its impact risk until its next close approach in twenty

7:56 Speaker 1: twenty eight, Unless Web's observations can help resolve the misty sooner. Next,

8:02 Speaker 1: let's take a look at what Starship has been up

8:04 Speaker 1: to this week. As SpaceX gears up for its eighth

8:07 Speaker 1: Starship test flight, the company has been conducting crucial preflight

8:10 Speaker 1: tests at their Starbase facility in Texas. Just last weekend,

8:15 Speaker 1: they completed a full duration static fire test of the

8:17 Speaker 1: super Heavy booster, successfully igniting all thirty three Raptor engines

8:22 Speaker 1: on the massive two hundred thirty three foot rocket stage.

8:25 Speaker 1: Following the booster test, SpaceX turn their attention to Starship itself,

8:30 Speaker 1: conducting engine tests on Tuesday evening at a separate test

8:33 Speaker 1: stand near the launch facilities. This test was more extensive

8:37 Speaker 1: than the boosters, putting the engines through various thrust levels

8:41 Speaker 1: to simulate the different conditions the propulsion system will experience

8:45 Speaker 1: during actual flight. The company has also introduced some new

8:49 Speaker 1: hardware modifications for this upcoming launch, though specific details haven't

8:53 Speaker 1: been disclosed. Once these tests are complete, the Starship vehicle

8:57 Speaker 1: will be transported to join its super Heavy parkartner at

9:00 Speaker 1: the launch pad, where the two will be stacked together.

9:03 Speaker 1: When fully assembled, this engineering marvel stands an impressive four

9:07 Speaker 1: hundred and three feet tall with the Starship portion alone,

9:10 Speaker 1: exceeding the height of the Statue of Liberty. This launch

9:13 Speaker 1: follows January's Ift seven mission, which saw mixed results. While

9:18 Speaker 1: that flight achieved some successes, including a successful catch of

9:22 Speaker 1: the super heavy booster by the launch tower's chopstick arms,

9:25 Speaker 1: contact with the Starship Portion was lost about eight point

9:29 Speaker 1: five minutes into the flight. The vehicle was later observed

9:32 Speaker 1: breaking up over the Caribbean. Space X is targeting a

9:36 Speaker 1: launch date at the end of February, though this timeline

9:39 Speaker 1: depends on several factors, including receiving the necessary launch license

9:43 Speaker 1: from the Federal Aviation Administration. This will mark their second

9:48 Speaker 1: Starship launch of twenty twenty five, as the company works

9:51 Speaker 1: toward their ambitious goal of completing twenty five launches this year.

9:56 Speaker 1: These test flights are drawing increasing attention as NASA's time

10:00 Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven Artemis three mission approaches, a mission that

10:03 Speaker 1: will rely on Starship to land astronauts on the lunar surface.

10:08 Speaker 1: I love this next story in the fascinating world of

10:11 Speaker 1: space exploration. Not every mission that goes dark stays that way. Sometimes,

10:16 Speaker 1: against all odds, spacecraft we thought were lost forever managed

10:20 Speaker 1: to phone home again. Let me share some remarkable stories

10:23 Speaker 1: of these space based resurrection events. Take the case of Serbi,

10:27 Speaker 1: a small satellite launched in twenty twenty three to study

10:29 Speaker 1: Earth's radiation belts. After completing its initial four month missions

10:33 Speaker 1: so successfully that NASA extended it, Serbey suddenly went dark

10:37 Speaker 1: in April twenty twenty four. The team was devastated, especially

10:41 Speaker 1: when massive solar storms hit Earth in May, exactly the

10:44 Speaker 1: kind of event Serbi was designed to study. But then

10:48 Speaker 1: something extraordinary happened. On May twenty third, out of nowhere,

10:52 Speaker 1: Serbi's signal returned, though it only stayed alive for two

10:56 Speaker 1: and a half days before falling silent again. It wasn't

10:59 Speaker 1: finished yet. The plucky little spacecraft came back once more

11:02 Speaker 1: on June tenth, this time for good, at least until

11:05 Speaker 1: it's planned re entry in October. Even more remarkable is

11:09 Speaker 1: the story of NASA's Image, spacecraft launched in two thousand

11:13 Speaker 1: to study Earth's magnetosphere. Image operated flawlessly for five years

11:17 Speaker 1: before suddenly going silent in December two thousand and five.

11:21 Speaker 1: For over a decade, everyone assumed it was dead. Then

11:24 Speaker 1: in January twenty eighteen, an amateur radio astronomer accidentally picked

11:28 Speaker 1: up its signal while searching for something else entirely. When

11:32 Speaker 1: NASA re established contact, they discovered something fascinating. The spacecraft

11:37 Speaker 1: had been stuck in a bizarre loop, rebooting itself every

11:40 Speaker 1: seventy two hours for thirteen years straight, unable to properly

11:44 Speaker 1: power its communication system. It was like a patient in

11:47 Speaker 1: a coma, alive but unable to reach out to the world.

11:50 Speaker 1: These revivals aren't always accidental. Sometimes spacecraft are deliberately put

11:54 Speaker 1: into hibernation, like the European Space Agency's Jotto mission after

11:59 Speaker 1: visiting Halley's comment in nineteen eighty six. It was powered

12:02 Speaker 1: down to conserve energy, only to be awakened four years

12:05 Speaker 1: later for another comet encounter. Even NASA's Wise Telescope got

12:09 Speaker 1: a second life. After completing its initial mission and being

12:12 Speaker 1: shut down. It was reactivated as new WIS to hunt

12:15 Speaker 1: for potentially hazardous asteroids. These stories remind us that in

12:19 Speaker 1: space exploration, sometimes patients and persistence can bring seemingly lost

12:24 Speaker 1: missions back from the brink, providing unexpected opportunities for new discoveries.

12:30 Speaker 1: And that wraps up today's episode of Astronomy Daily. I'm

12:33 Speaker 1: Anna and I've enjoyed bringing you these fascinating stories from

12:37 Speaker 1: the world of space exploration and astronomy. From blue origins,

12:41 Speaker 1: latest developments to miraculous spacecraft revivals, It's been another exciting

12:46 Speaker 1: day in space news. If you want to stay up

12:48 Speaker 1: to date with all the latest developments in space and astronomy,

12:52 Speaker 1: visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io. There you

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13:17 Speaker 1: This has been Astronomy Daily. Thank you for listening, and

13:20 Speaker 1: keep looking up. There's always something amazing happening in the Cosmos.

13:24 Speaker 1: Suday star is Starz story