China's Spaceplane Secrets, Arecibo's Collapse Unveiled, and Starship's Fiery Mishap: S04E17

0:00 Speaker 1: And welcome again to Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Steve Dunkley.

0:03 Speaker 1: It's the twentieth of January twenty twenty five, I mean

0:10 Speaker 1: your whole Steve gun clue. Yes, we're back again and

0:14 Speaker 1: it's great to be with you. And first thing's first,

0:16 Speaker 1: a huge happy birthday to my favorite person in the world.

0:19 Speaker 1: Happy birthday, Dad. I hope you are having a great

0:22 Speaker 1: day and I'll catch up with you in a few orbits.

0:25 Speaker 2: I hope he's an amazing guy.

0:27 Speaker 1: Oh well, you don't have to tell me, Halee.

0:28 Speaker 2: So this is your aircraft pilot, scuba diving community leader,

0:32 Speaker 2: pharmacist dad.

0:33 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, that's the guy. But to us kids, we

0:37 Speaker 1: just call him dad.

0:38 Speaker 2: That's cool.

0:39 Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess not everybody can say their dad can

0:41 Speaker 1: fly and.

0:42 Speaker 2: Breathe underwater like Superman.

0:44 Speaker 1: Sounds funny when you say it like that, but yeah.

0:46 Speaker 2: So happy birthday, Graham, A nice one, Halle, So, my

0:50 Speaker 2: favorite human, how come you fell so far from that tree?

0:53 Speaker 1: Oh? I knew there was a slap coming, Come on, you,

0:55 Speaker 1: chicky thing on with the show.

0:57 Speaker 2: I was just kidding, sure you were Okay, Here we go,

1:11 Speaker 2: China's mysterious space plane returns to Earth after two hundred

1:14 Speaker 2: and sixty eight days in orbit. China's mysterious space plane

1:18 Speaker 2: has returned to Earth after spending over eight months in orbit.

1:21 Speaker 2: The reusable spacecraft landed at the chio Chuan Satellite Launch

1:25 Speaker 2: Center in a remote section of northwest China on Friday,

1:28 Speaker 2: September sixth. It launched from the same site atop a

1:31 Speaker 2: long March to f rocket on December fourteenth, twenty twenty three,

1:35 Speaker 2: on its third mission, and spent two hundred and sixty

1:37 Speaker 2: eight days in orbit, according to Chinese state media outlet Shinha.

1:41 Speaker 2: While the exact capabilities of the space plane remain largely unknown,

1:45 Speaker 2: Shinwa states the craft will pave the way for more

1:47 Speaker 2: convenient and affordable round trip methods for the peaceful use

1:50 Speaker 2: of space in the future. It's unknown what exactly China's

1:54 Speaker 2: space plane was doing on this most recent mission, or

1:56 Speaker 2: on any other mission for that matter. As seen in

2:00 Speaker 2: previous missions, spacecraft trackers on the ground observed the space

2:03 Speaker 2: plane releasing a small object into orbit. This object could

2:07 Speaker 2: be a sub satellite deployment, or it could be a

2:09 Speaker 2: piece of hardware ejected before the end of the mission

2:12 Speaker 2: and the orbit the space plane's first flight did something similar,

2:15 Speaker 2: set astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for

2:19 Speaker 2: Astrophysics in a post on X. The space plane appeared

2:23 Speaker 2: to conduct what is known as rendezvous in proximity operations

2:26 Speaker 2: with the object, meaning it tested its capabilities to meet

2:29 Speaker 2: up with and get close to the object in space.

2:32 Speaker 2: These operations can be used to repair or perform upkeep

2:34 Speaker 2: on friendly satellites, and it is believed that military superpowers

2:38 Speaker 2: are refining these techniques to potentially tamper with adversary satellites

2:41 Speaker 2: during any future orbital combat. China space plane launched on

2:45 Speaker 2: this recent mission just two days before the scheduled launch

2:48 Speaker 2: of the US Space Force's own reusable orbital vehicle, the

2:51 Speaker 2: X thirty seven B. That launch was scrubbed with about

2:54 Speaker 2: thirty minutes remaining in the countdown, and the X thirty

2:57 Speaker 2: seven B would go on to launch two weeks later

2:59 Speaker 2: on to Day, December twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, on

3:02 Speaker 2: its seventh mission Lake with China's space plane. The capabilities

3:06 Speaker 2: and missions of the ACTS thirty seven B are largely classified.

3:09 Speaker 2: It is known to be an orbital test bad for

3:11 Speaker 2: new technologies, but that's about it. India is also developing

3:15 Speaker 2: its own reusable orbital space plane named Pushpuk.

3:19 Speaker 1: Astronomy Ka the bud CAAP. What does the discovery of

3:27 Speaker 1: a binary pulsar in nineteen seventy four, the discovery of

3:31 Speaker 1: the first exoplanets, and the most powerful message humans have

3:35 Speaker 1: ever sent out into space all have in common. Well,

3:38 Speaker 1: they all happened at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico,

3:42 Speaker 1: with a spherical reflected dish that was three hundred and

3:46 Speaker 1: five meters or roughly one thousand feet in diameter. Arecibo

3:50 Speaker 1: held the title of the world's largest radio telescope for

3:53 Speaker 1: over half a century, from its construction in nineteen sixty

3:57 Speaker 1: three until twenty sixteen to the dismay of astronomers around

4:02 Speaker 1: the world. In twenty twenty, Arecibo's reflected dish collapsed when

4:07 Speaker 1: the support cables gave way, leading to the eventual decommissioning

4:10 Speaker 1: of one of science's most fruitful instruments. Now. Not long

4:15 Speaker 1: after the decommissioning, the National Science Foundation and the University

4:20 Speaker 1: of Central Florida began an investigation into the primary causes

4:23 Speaker 1: of that collapse, and after nearly four years of investigation.

4:27 Speaker 1: The committee tasked with finding an explanation have finally released

4:31 Speaker 1: an official report detailing the findings. After analyzing the data

4:37 Speaker 1: and the extensive and detailed forensic investigations commissioned by the

4:41 Speaker 1: University of Central Florida and National Science Foundation NSF, the

4:46 Speaker 1: committee's consensus is that the root cause of the Aracibo

4:51 Speaker 1: telescopes collapse unprecedented and accelerated long term zinc creep induced

4:56 Speaker 1: failure of the telescope's cable spelt us sockets. That's a

5:01 Speaker 1: quote the report's details how structural failure of the telescope

5:06 Speaker 1: likely began in twenty seventeen when Hurricane Maria hit the observatory,

5:11 Speaker 1: which subjected to the Aracibo Telescope to winds between one

5:14 Speaker 1: hundred and five and one hundred and eighteen miles per hour.

5:17 Speaker 1: The winds subjected the Aracibo telescope cables to the highest

5:22 Speaker 1: structural stress they had ever endured since it opened in

5:25 Speaker 1: sixty three. According to the report, inspections were conducted after

5:30 Speaker 1: the hurricane, but no significant damage was deemed to have

5:33 Speaker 1: jeopardized the telescope structural integrity. Still, repairs were still ordered.

5:38 Speaker 1: Yet these repairs were delayed for years, and, as the

5:41 Speaker 1: investigation states, they were targeted toward components and replacement of

5:46 Speaker 1: a main cable that ultimately never failed, which suggests that

5:50 Speaker 1: the repairs would not have actually prevented the eventual collapse

5:54 Speaker 1: of the observatories reflected dish, even if they weren't delayed. Eventually,

5:59 Speaker 1: in August and Sember of twenty twenty, an auxiliary and

6:02 Speaker 1: main cable failed, leading the NSF to announce the decommissioning

6:06 Speaker 1: of the telescope through a controlled demolition. More support cables

6:10 Speaker 1: gave way on December one, tent twenty, causing the instrument

6:14 Speaker 1: platform to collapse into the dish itself. Thankfully, no one

6:18 Speaker 1: was injured by the cable failures. The report continued to

6:21 Speaker 1: detail how hidden out why failures triggered the collapse, which

6:26 Speaker 1: had fractured due to sheer stress from zinc creep or

6:29 Speaker 1: zinc decay in the telescope's cable spelzer sockets. Unfortunately, this

6:35 Speaker 1: issue was not identified during the post Maria hurricane inspection,

6:40 Speaker 1: which meant engineers hadn't considered the degradation of these mechanisms

6:44 Speaker 1: as a source of potential future collapse. Despite Aracibo's discovery

6:49 Speaker 1: days being over, the observatory will be remade into an

6:53 Speaker 1: education center known as Arecibo c III. Hopefully the decommissioned

6:57 Speaker 1: observatory can inspire the next general of astronomers to make

7:01 Speaker 1: discoveries as impactful as those made when it was peering

7:05 Speaker 1: out into the universe. Thank you for joining us for

7:17 Speaker 1: this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just

7:20 Speaker 1: a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter,

7:23 Speaker 1: which you can receive in your email every day, just

7:26 Speaker 1: like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just

7:29 Speaker 1: visit our url Astronomy Daily dot io and place your

7:33 Speaker 1: email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll

7:36 Speaker 1: be receiving all the latest news about science, space, science

7:39 Speaker 1: and astronomy from around the world as it's happening. And

7:42 Speaker 1: not only that, you can interact with us by visiting

7:46 Speaker 1: at astro Daily pod on x or at our new

7:50 Speaker 1: Facebook page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook.

7:54 Speaker 1: See you there, Astronomy Daily, We'll see and Haley, Space

8:00 Speaker 1: Spice size and Astronomy.

8:05 Speaker 2: FAA to investigate Starship seven test explosion. The US Federal

8:10 Speaker 2: Aviation Administration FAA is requiring an investigation into what went

8:14 Speaker 2: wrong during the seventh ever test flight of SpaceX's Starship

8:17 Speaker 2: meg rocket yesterday, January sixteenth. The launch from SpaceX's Starbase

8:22 Speaker 2: site in South Texas went well at first. Starship got

8:26 Speaker 2: off the pad successfully and its two stages, the super

8:29 Speaker 2: heavy booster and ship spacecraft separated on time, and the

8:33 Speaker 2: giant booster came back to Starbase, where it was caught

8:36 Speaker 2: by the launch tower's chopstick arms. Ship was less successful, however.

8:42 Speaker 2: The flight plan called for the upper stage to deploy

8:44 Speaker 2: ten dummy satellites about seventeen point five minutes after liftoff

8:47 Speaker 2: and splashed down in the Indian Ocean off the coast

8:50 Speaker 2: of Western Australia fifty minutes later, but that didn't happen.

8:54 Speaker 2: The one hundred and seventy one foot tall, fifty two

8:56 Speaker 2: meters craft exploded about eight point five minutes after lawng lunch,

9:00 Speaker 2: reigning debris over the Atlantic Ocean near the Turks and

9:02 Speaker 2: Caicus Islands. That work may not take too long. SpaceX

9:08 Speaker 2: has already identified a likely proximate cost, According to company

9:11 Speaker 2: founder and CEO Elon Musk, a propellant leak which led

9:14 Speaker 2: to a fire in ships aff section the ship's explosion

9:18 Speaker 2: had some real world impact beyond creating a dramatic sky show,

9:21 Speaker 2: according to the FAA. While no injuries have been reported,

9:25 Speaker 2: the agency is working with SpaceX and appropriate authorities to

9:28 Speaker 2: confirm reports of public property damage on Turks and Cakus,

9:31 Speaker 2: FAA officials wrote in an emailed statement today. During the event,

9:35 Speaker 2: the fa activated a debris response area and briefly slowed

9:38 Speaker 2: aircraft outside the area where space vehicle debris was falling,

9:41 Speaker 2: or stopped aircraft at their departure location. The agency added

9:46 Speaker 2: several aircraft requested to divert due to low fuel levels

9:48 Speaker 2: while holding outside impacted areas. SpaceX will lead the mishap investigation,

9:54 Speaker 2: but the FAA must approve the company's final report. According

9:57 Speaker 2: to the agency, which grants launch licenses for US vehicles,

10:01 Speaker 2: a return to flight is based on the FAA determining

10:04 Speaker 2: that any system process or procedure related to the mishap

10:07 Speaker 2: does not affect public safety, the agency wrote in today's statement.

10:11 Speaker 2: SpaceX wants to get Starship back on the pad quickly.

10:15 Speaker 2: The company intends to make big strides this year on

10:17 Speaker 2: the Mega Rocket, which it's developing to help humanity settle Mars.

10:21 Speaker 2: Among other exploration feeds. The ship and booster for Starships

10:25 Speaker 2: eight flight test are built and going through pre launch

10:27 Speaker 2: testing and preparing to fly as we continue a rapid

10:30 Speaker 2: iterative development process to build a fully and rapidly reusable

10:33 Speaker 2: space transportation system. SpaceX reported.

10:37 Speaker 1: Lords of that Control. We are listening to Astarmi Daily

10:41 Speaker 1: podcast astronom Is as sounding alne Bills as the world's

10:50 Speaker 1: most precious sky observing location faces the risk of being

10:54 Speaker 1: blinded by light pollution due to a planned renewable energy project.

10:58 Speaker 1: The US EDGY comp the AES Energy wants to build

11:02 Speaker 1: a large renewable hydrogen manufacturing complex in Chle only a

11:06 Speaker 1: few kilometers from the summit of Mount Paranal. The site

11:10 Speaker 1: of the European Southern Observatory or SOO Very Large Telescope VTL. VTL,

11:17 Speaker 1: which costs some three hundred and fifty million to build

11:20 Speaker 1: in the nineteen nineties or eight hundred and forty million

11:24 Speaker 1: in today's dollars, is one of the world's most sensitive

11:28 Speaker 1: sky watching instruments, capable of observing the most intriguing objects

11:33 Speaker 1: in the universe. The high precision observatory consists of four

11:38 Speaker 1: twenty seven foot wide or eight point two telescopes that

11:42 Speaker 1: act as one and has shed light on some of

11:45 Speaker 1: the most mysterious phenomena known to humankind, but the observing

11:49 Speaker 1: potential of this astronomical powerhouse will be significantly curtailed if

11:54 Speaker 1: the hydrogen project called Inna or Inner receives the go

11:59 Speaker 1: ahead via Bacon's ESOS director General told space dot com.

12:05 Speaker 1: Mount Paranal, an eighty seven hundred and forty foot high

12:08 Speaker 1: or two thousand, six hundred and sixty four meters peak

12:12 Speaker 1: of the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, is one of

12:16 Speaker 1: the last spots on Earth free from urban and industrial

12:19 Speaker 1: light pollution. Thanks to the unique geography of the Andes

12:23 Speaker 1: Mountain range, the star studded night sky above the summit

12:26 Speaker 1: is perfectly clear for more than eleven months of the year,

12:29 Speaker 1: providing perfect conditions for the most challenging astronomical research. It's

12:36 Speaker 1: the darkest place where we have ever set an observatory

12:39 Speaker 1: in the world by a large margin, Barkon, said. ESSO,

12:43 Speaker 1: an intergovernmental organization comprising sixteen European states, set its sits

12:48 Speaker 1: on Attikama more than sixty years ago, having opened its

12:52 Speaker 1: first observatory in Chile on the La Cilia Mountains to

12:56 Speaker 1: the south of Paranal in nineteen sixty six. Paranal took

13:01 Speaker 1: over as the hub of European astronomy in nineteen nineties

13:05 Speaker 1: when the VTL was constructed. So far, the VTL has

13:09 Speaker 1: allowed astronomers to trace orbits of stars in the nearest

13:12 Speaker 1: vicinity of the black hole at the center of the

13:14 Speaker 1: Milky Way galaxy, taken the first ever image of a

13:18 Speaker 1: planet outside the Solar System, and uncovered the elusive cosmic

13:22 Speaker 1: web that sprawls across the entire cosmos. One of the

13:25 Speaker 1: reasons the VTL has been so prolific is the dark

13:29 Speaker 1: skies that it was built under. A survey published in

13:33 Speaker 1: twenty twenty three found that among the world's twenty eight

13:35 Speaker 1: most powerful astronomical observatories, telescopes on Mount Paranal suffered from

13:40 Speaker 1: the lowest levels of artificial light pollution. The superior sky

13:44 Speaker 1: observing conditions in the area led EESO to choose the

13:47 Speaker 1: neighboring Mount Amazonius as the location of its next generation

13:52 Speaker 1: sky observing supermachine, the extremely Large Telescope. Once completed toward

13:57 Speaker 1: the end of this decade, the ELT will be the

14:00 Speaker 1: world's largest telescope studying the universe in visible light, featuring

14:04 Speaker 1: a one hundred and thirty foot or thirty nine point

14:07 Speaker 1: three wide meter wide mirror. The telescope, worth more than

14:11 Speaker 1: one point five billion, promises to expand the science done

14:14 Speaker 1: by reliable vot It will provide even deeper views to

14:19 Speaker 1: the most distant universe, but will also be able to

14:22 Speaker 1: gather detailed information about potentially habitable exoplanets. The light pollution

14:28 Speaker 1: expected from Inner Project would undo all that progress. We

14:33 Speaker 1: might lose the ability to observe about thirty percent of

14:36 Speaker 1: the fadess galaxies, said Barcons. We are at the point

14:40 Speaker 1: of starting to be able to see details of exoplanet atmospheres,

14:44 Speaker 1: but if the sky gets brighter, we may not be

14:46 Speaker 1: able to see those details anymore. The Inner Project, a

14:49 Speaker 1: three thousand hecta industrial park worth about ten billion dollars,

14:55 Speaker 1: will consist of three solar farms, three wind farms, a

14:58 Speaker 1: battery energy storage system, and facilities for the production of hydrogen.

15:03 Speaker 1: According to Renewables now ESO estimates, the complex will leak

15:08 Speaker 1: as much light pollution as a city with a population

15:11 Speaker 1: of about twenty thousand. Parts of the industrial park may

15:16 Speaker 1: extend as close as three miles or five kilometers to

15:19 Speaker 1: ESO's telescopes, and any possible further expansion would further worse

15:24 Speaker 1: at the impact on the Paranal. At night Sky, expected

15:29 Speaker 1: to generate more than two hundred and seventeen thousand metric

15:32 Speaker 1: tonnes of green hydrogen per year, the venture presents a

15:36 Speaker 1: conundrum FORO. The organization itself has committed to reducing its

15:41 Speaker 1: carbon footprint and even building a nine megawatt photovoltaic power

15:46 Speaker 1: plant to supply the Paranal and Amazona's observatories with green power,

15:51 Speaker 1: but bark On states that while the project, like INNA,

15:53 Speaker 1: can easily find other suitable locations for astronomers, there is

15:57 Speaker 1: only one Mount Paranal. These two things cannot be in

16:01 Speaker 1: the same place. It's as simple as that. Said. Parkons,

16:04 Speaker 1: this clean hydrogen plant could be perfectly okay for us

16:08 Speaker 1: only fifty kilometers or thirty one kilometers away. We don't

16:11 Speaker 1: think there is any reason why it couldn't be moved.

16:14 Speaker 2: You're listening to Astronomy Daily with Steve Dunkley.

16:24 Speaker 1: Okay, and that's another episode done and dusted. Thanks for

16:28 Speaker 1: joining me, Hallie and making it a good one. O

16:31 Speaker 1: Receibo was always an inspiring place for me as a child.

16:34 Speaker 1: That was a really interesting piece, quite a marvel of engineering.

16:38 Speaker 2: And it features in one of your favorite movies too.

16:41 Speaker 1: Ah yes it does get a starring role in Contact,

16:44 Speaker 1: the Carl Sagan written story of the first contact with

16:47 Speaker 1: another race starring Jodi Foster in the lead. A fun

16:50 Speaker 1: adventure that one.

16:51 Speaker 2: And on that note, we are okay to go.

16:55 Speaker 1: Yes we are very good.

16:56 Speaker 2: Ali Enjoy the rest of the week with Anna on

16:58 Speaker 2: Astronomy Daily.

17:00 Speaker 1: All right, we'll be back next Monday with our episode

17:02 Speaker 1: of Astronomy Daily.

17:03 Speaker 2: Too bye Daily Podcast and if your host, Steve Dunklet