Cleared for Launch: Crew-12, Mars Organics, and an Interstellar Farewell

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to source for the

0:04 Speaker 1: latest space news. I'm Anna and I'm Avery.

0:07 Speaker 2: Happy Saturday, everyone, We've got great stories for you today.

0:10 Speaker 2: The FAA has given SpaceX the green light to fly

0:14 Speaker 2: Falcon nine again, which means NASA's Crew twelve mission is

0:17 Speaker 2: officially a go for next week.

0:19 Speaker 1: We've also got a fascinating NASA study that's raising some

0:23 Speaker 1: very intriguing questions about organic molecules on Mars. Plus our

0:27 Speaker 1: Interstellar Visitor comment three i ATLS is putting on one

0:31 Speaker 1: last spectacular show on its way out of the Solar System.

0:35 Speaker 2: And some less cheerful news from across the Atlantic, where

0:37 Speaker 2: the UK government is proposing massive cuts to astronomy funding.

0:41 Speaker 2: We'll also look at the renewed debate over making new

0:44 Speaker 2: Glens second stage reusable, and we'll wrap up with a

0:47 Speaker 2: story that'll make you smile. The fraggles have arrived at

0:50 Speaker 2: Kennedy Space Center. Let's get into it, so our top story.

0:54 Speaker 2: Great news for anyone who's been watching the Crew twelve

0:57 Speaker 2: mission calendar nervously. The FAA has officially cleared SpaceX's Falcon

1:02 Speaker 2: nine to return to flight after a four day grounding.

1:05 Speaker 1: Right this all stemmed from a starlink launch on February second,

1:08 Speaker 1: where the upper stage deployed the satellites just fine, but

1:11 Speaker 1: then failed to perform its de orbit burn. The rocket

1:14 Speaker 1: body ended up re entering the atmosphere uncontrolled.

1:17 Speaker 2: And here's the thing that jumps out. This was the

1:20 Speaker 2: fourth Falcon nine upper stage issue in just nineteen months.

1:24 Speaker 2: That's a pattern that's hard to ignore, but the FAA

1:27 Speaker 2: wrapped up its review remarkably quickly. This time. The probable

1:31 Speaker 2: root cause was a failure of the engine to ignite

1:33 Speaker 2: before the de orbit burn, and SpaceX has identified preventative measures.

1:38 Speaker 1: So with that resolved, Crew twelve is now targeting launch

1:41 Speaker 1: at six h one am Eastern on February eleventh, that's

1:45 Speaker 1: next Tuesday. The crew includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and

1:49 Speaker 1: Jack Hathaway, cosmonaut Andre Fedyev, and ESA Sophie Adenaut flying

1:54 Speaker 1: aboard the Dragon capsule freedom.

1:56 Speaker 2: This mission is especially critical because the ISS has been

1:59 Speaker 2: running with a skeleton crew of just three since January fifteenth,

2:03 Speaker 2: when Crewe eleven departed in the first ever medical evacuation

2:07 Speaker 2: from the station. Getting Crew twelve up there will bring

2:10 Speaker 2: the station back to its normal complement of seven. We'll

2:13 Speaker 2: be watching that launch closely now.

2:14 Speaker 1: This next story is one of those that makes you

2:16 Speaker 1: sit up a little straighter. A new NASA study has

2:19 Speaker 1: found that non biological processes can't fully account for the

2:23 Speaker 1: abundance of organic compounds found in a rock sample from

2:26 Speaker 1: Mars's Gale crater.

2:28 Speaker 2: Okay, before anyone gets too excited, this is not a

2:32 Speaker 2: we found life on Mars announcement, but it is genuinely significant.

2:38 Speaker 2: Back in March twenty twenty five, Curiosity's chemistry lab identified

2:43 Speaker 2: small amounts of decane, undecane, and dough decane in a

2:47 Speaker 2: rock sample. These are the largest organic molecules ever found

2:52 Speaker 2: on Mars, and they could be fragments of fatty acids.

2:56 Speaker 1: Now on Earth. Fatty acids are mostly produced by life,

3:00 Speaker 1: though they can also form through geological processes. The follow

3:04 Speaker 1: up study looked at no non biological sources like delivery

3:09 Speaker 1: by meteorites, and tried to see if those could explain

3:12 Speaker 1: the amounts found. The team essentially rewound the clock about

3:16 Speaker 1: eighty million years, estimating how much organic material would have

3:20 Speaker 1: been there before cosmic radiation destroyed much of it.

3:24 Speaker 2: And the result far more organic material than non biological

3:29 Speaker 2: processes could typically produce, So the researchers say it's reasonable

3:33 Speaker 2: to hypothesize that living things could have formed these molecules.

3:37 Speaker 2: They're very clear that more study is needed, but this

3:40 Speaker 2: keeps the door open in a really tantalizing way.

3:43 Speaker 1: It's exactly the kind of incremental science that could one

3:47 Speaker 1: day lead to a truly historic finding. Mars keeps teasing us,

3:52 Speaker 1: and we love it.

3:53 Speaker 2: Speaking of tantalizing science, our interstellar visitor comet three eye

3:58 Speaker 2: dash at Liss has been putting on 's white the

4:00 Speaker 2: Farewell Show. Aassphere X space telescope caught the comet dramatically

4:05 Speaker 2: brightening in December, well after its closest approach to the Sun.

4:09 Speaker 1: That's really unusual. You'd normally expect a comet to be

4:13 Speaker 1: fading as it heads away from the Sun, not flaring up.

4:17 Speaker 1: The sph e er Ex data shows three I slash

4:21 Speaker 1: atls erupting with water, vapor, carbon dioxide, and organic compounds,

4:27 Speaker 1: along with a beautiful pear shaped dust tail.

4:31 Speaker 2: The leading theory is that sunlight slowly penetrated beneath the

4:34 Speaker 2: comet's crust, which had been hardened by billions of years

4:38 Speaker 2: of cosmic rapeombardment in interstellar space. Once the heat reached

4:42 Speaker 2: the pristine ices buried deeper down, they erupted, releasing a

4:47 Speaker 2: cocktail of ancient chemicals that hadn't been exposed for billions

4:50 Speaker 2: of years.

4:51 Speaker 1: And remember, this is only the third confirmed interstellar object

4:56 Speaker 1: we've ever seen, after Omua Mua in twenty seventeen and

5:00 Speaker 1: borisof in twenty nineteen. The chemical fingerprint from three I

5:05 Speaker 1: slash at ls gives us our best look yet at

5:09 Speaker 1: material formed around another star. The similarities to our own

5:13 Speaker 1: comets could tell us whether the raw ingredients for planets

5:17 Speaker 1: and potentially life are common across the galaxy.

5:21 Speaker 2: What a way to say goodbye save travels three iatls.

5:25 Speaker 1: Now for a story that's causing real alarm in the

5:28 Speaker 1: scientific community, The UK government is proposing a thirty percent

5:33 Speaker 1: cut to its funding for astronomy, particle physics and nuclear

5:38 Speaker 1: physics research. The Royal Astronomical Society's Robert Massey has called

5:43 Speaker 1: it the worst outcome for the field in decades.

5:47 Speaker 2: This comes through the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which

5:50 Speaker 2: distributes funds and runs major research facilities in the UK.

5:55 Speaker 2: The cut are being justified by the need to focus

5:57 Speaker 2: on fewer priorities and by the right and costs of

6:00 Speaker 2: running existing labs. But this follows a fifteen percent reduction

6:05 Speaker 2: in grants just last year, so these cuts are really compounding.

6:09 Speaker 1: What makes it particularly painful is that the UK has

6:13 Speaker 1: historically been a global astronomy powerhouse, third in the world

6:17 Speaker 1: by research citations. They're major contributors to the Square Kilometer

6:22 Speaker 1: Array and the European Southern Observatory. The worry is that

6:26 Speaker 1: they'll invest in building these world class facilities but then

6:30 Speaker 1: not fund the researchers needed to actually use them, and its.

6:35 Speaker 2: Early career researchers who will bear the brunt. PhD students

6:39 Speaker 2: and postdocs are the most vulnerable when funding disappears. The

6:42 Speaker 2: Institute of Physics called it a devastating blow. When you

6:46 Speaker 2: combine this with the UK's recent eleven percent cut to

6:49 Speaker 2: its ESA contributions, it paints a worrying picture for British

6:53 Speaker 2: science at a time when other countries are investing more.

6:57 Speaker 1: Gifting to the launch industry. Now, the question of whether

7:00 Speaker 1: Blue Origin should make new glens second stage reusable is

7:04 Speaker 1: back in the spotlight. They've been studying this under a

7:08 Speaker 1: program called Project Jarvis, and it's one of those fascinating

7:12 Speaker 1: engineering dilemmas.

7:14 Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos himself has described it as a horse race.

7:17 Speaker 2: The expendable team's goal is to make the second stage

7:20 Speaker 2: so cheap to manufacture that reusability never makes sense. Meanwhile,

7:25 Speaker 2: the reusable team's goal is to make it so operationally

7:29 Speaker 2: efficient that throwing one away never makes sense. They're still

7:33 Speaker 2: deciding between aluminum and stainless steel for the reusable version.

7:37 Speaker 1: With New Glen's first stage now proven they successfully landed

7:42 Speaker 1: it on the second flight last November, and SpaceX pushing

7:45 Speaker 1: towards full starship reusability, there's real competitive pressure, and companies

7:51 Speaker 1: like Stoke Space are working on fully reusable systems.

7:55 Speaker 2: The stakes are high. Full reusability could be the key

7:58 Speaker 2: to making space access truly of F one, but it's

8:01 Speaker 2: also enormously technically challenging. We'll be watching how this debate

8:05 Speaker 2: plays out as Blue Origin ramps up its launch cadence

8:08 Speaker 2: In twenty twenty six, And.

8:10 Speaker 1: Finally, our feel good story of the day, Jim Henson's

8:13 Speaker 1: beloved Fraggles have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center visitor Complex.

8:18 Speaker 2: That's right, Fraggle Rock, a Spacey Adventure is a new

8:21 Speaker 2: Life stage show that debuted in December. It features Gobo,

8:25 Speaker 2: Red Uncle, traveling Matt and cotterr Upinduzer exploring NASA's Kennedy

8:29 Speaker 2: Space Center and learning about the Artemis missions. They even

8:32 Speaker 2: get to chat with the real astronaut on the ISS.

8:35 Speaker 1: I love the connection they've made here. In the original show,

8:39 Speaker 1: the Fraggles always called the human world outer space, so

8:43 Speaker 1: having them explore actual outer space at Kennedy's Space Center

8:47 Speaker 1: is a really clever fit. The show is directed by

8:50 Speaker 1: John Tartaglia, who is the Jim Henson Company's creative supervisor

8:55 Speaker 1: for Fraggle Rock.

8:56 Speaker 2: The characters appear as full body walk around costumes craft

9:00 Speaker 2: by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, and the show blends comedy, music,

9:04 Speaker 2: and real space science. It's included with regular admission and

9:08 Speaker 2: place twice daily. If you're visiting Florida. That sounds like

9:11 Speaker 2: a brilliant way to inspire the next generation dance.

9:15 Speaker 1: Your care is away all the Way to the Moon, And.

9:19 Speaker 2: That's our show for today. If you enjoyed the episode,

9:22 Speaker 2: please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.

9:25 Speaker 2: It really helps other space fans find us.

9:28 Speaker 1: You can find us online at astronomy Daily dot io,

9:32 Speaker 1: and you can follow us on social media at astro

9:34 Speaker 1: Daily Pod for all the latest updates. We'll be back

9:38 Speaker 1: on Monday with more space news. Until then, keep looking up.

9:42 Speaker 2: See you next week. Sunday Stars start story is Control