From Rocket Crashes to Cosmic Balances: Your Daily Space Update

0:00 Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that

0:02 brings you the universe. One story at a time.

0:05 I'm Avery.

0:06 Anna: And I'm Anna. Today we'll be covering some

0:09 unfortunate news for South Korea's burgeoning

0:11 space industry. A look back billions of

0:14 years to when Earth had a 19 hour day.

0:17 A very busy launch schedule to close out

0:20 2025, and some serious safety

0:22 concerns over Boeing's Starliner. And we'll

0:25 cap things off with a major leadership

0:27 shakeup at United Launch Alliance.

0:30 Avery: A lot to get through.

0:31 Let's start with that launch anomaly in

0:33 Brazil. What happened with the Hanbit Nano

0:35 rocket?

0:36 Anna: It's a tough break for the South Korean

0:38 company Innospace. Their first commercial

0:41 orbital rocket, the Hanbit Nano,

0:43 unfortunately crashed just 30 seconds after

0:46 liftoff from the Alcantara Space center in

0:48 Brazil.

0:49 Avery: Only 30 seconds. Wow. Do we

0:52 know the cause?

0:53 Anna: The company cited a vehicle abnormality,

0:56 but they haven't released specific details

0:58 yet. The important thing is that no one was

1:00 hurt and there was no damage to the launch

1:02 facility.

1:03 Avery: That's certainly the silver lining. This was

1:05 a significant launch for them, wasn't it? It

1:07 had been delayed a few times already.

1:09 Anna: Exactly. It was carrying five satellites,

1:12 so this was a major milestone attempt. A,

1:15 successful first commercial launch would have

1:17 been a huge step for South Korea's private

1:19 space sector. Setbacks are part of the

1:21 process, but this one definitely stings for

1:24 Innospace.

1:25 Avery: Right. Failure is always an option in

1:27 rocketry, especially on a debut flight. We'll

1:30 be watching to see how they bounce back.

1:32 Anna: Absolutely. And it highlights the immense

1:35 challenge for smaller private companies

1:37 trying to break into the orbital launch

1:39 market. It's not just about building a

1:41 rocket. It's about securing funding,

1:44 navigating international regulations, and

1:46 building a track record. The barrier to entry

1:49 is still incredibly high.

1:51 Avery: That's a great point. While companies like

1:53 SpaceX make it look almost routine, now each

1:56 successful launch is built on a mountain of

1:59 data from both successes and failures.

2:01 Hopefully Innospace can analyze what went

2:04 wrong and come back stronger. A, competitive

2:06 launch market is good for everyone.

2:08 Anna: Definitely.

2:09 Now let's switch gears and go way, way

2:12 back in time. Billions of years, in fact.

2:15 Avery, did you know there was a period when

2:17 Earth's day was stuck at, just 19 hours

2:20 long?

2:21 Avery: Stuck. I know the day has been getting

2:23 gradually longer as the moon moves away from

2:25 us, but I've never heard of it, stopping.

2:28 Anna: That's what's so fascinating. New research

2:30 indicates that for about a billion years,

2:33 from roughly 2 billion years to 1 billion

2:35 years ago, the day length just flatlined

2:38 at 19 hours, a.

2:40 Avery: Billion years is not a short time. What could

2:43 cause our planet's rotation to just pause its

2:46 slowdown like that?

2:47 Anna: It's a really cool celestial balancing act.

2:50 We know the Moon's gravity creates ocean

2:53 tides that act like a brake on Earth's

2:55 rotation, so slowing it down.

2:57 Avery: Right, the lunar tides.

2:58 Anna: But the sun also creates tides, not just in

3:01 the ocean, but in the atmosphere. The sun

3:04 heats the atmosphere, causing it to bulge.

3:07 This atmospheric tide, influenced by Earth's

3:09 rotation, actually pulls on the planet,

3:12 trying to speed it up.

3:14 Avery: So you have the Moon's gravity slowing us

3:16 down and the Sun's atmospheric heat speeding

3:19 us up.

3:20 Anna: Precisely. And during this specific billion

3:23 year period, the theory is that the two

3:25 forces reached a perfect equilibri. The

3:28 atmospheric day was in resonance with the

3:30 rotational day. The slowing effect from the

3:33 lunar ocean tides was perfectly balanced by

3:36 the speeding effect of the solar atmospheric

3:38 tides.

3:39 Avery: A, tidal resonance. That's incredible.

3:42 So the Earth was in a state of cosmic tug of

3:44 war, and for a billion years it was a perfect

3:47 draw.

3:48 Anna: Exactly. Eventually, other factors broke the

3:51 resonance, and the Moon's influence won out

3:53 again, Continuing the slow lengthening of our

3:56 day to the 24 hours we have now. It makes

3:59 you think about all the delicate balances

4:01 that have shaped our planet's history.

4:03 Avery: Absolutely. Imagine what life might have been

4:06 like with five extra hours of darkness each

4:08 day.

4:09 Anna: That's the big question researchers are

4:11 exploring now. A consistent 19 hour

4:14 day night cycle could have provided a stable

4:16 environment for early photosynthetic

4:18 organisms like cyanobacteria to thrive.

4:21 Some theories suggest this long period of

4:23 stability might have been a crucial factor in

4:26 the Great Oxidation Event, where oxygen

4:28 levels in the atmosphere began to rise,

4:30 paving the way for more complex life.

4:32 Avery: Well, coming back to the present, things

4:34 aren't anything but slow. The last full week

4:37 of 2025 is shaping up to be incredibly

4:39 busy for space launches.

4:41 Anna: It seems like everyone is trying to get their

4:43 last missions of the year off the ground.

4:45 What's on the manifest?

4:46 Avery: Well, we already discussed Innispace's

4:48 attempt in China. CASC is expected to

4:51 debut its brand new reusable Chang Zhang

4:53 12, a rocket that's a huge development for

4:56 their Reusable Launch Vehicle program.

4:58 Anna: Mm. A direct competitor to SpaceX's Falcon

5:01 9.

5:02 Avery: Indeed. Then over in India, ISRO's

5:05 launching a Bluebird Block 2 satellite.

5:07 Russia has not one, but two Soyuz missions

5:10 planned from different cosmodromes.

5:12 Anna: A busy week for Roscosmos.

5:14 Avery: And of course, you can't have a busy launch

5:16 week without SpaceX they're scheduled for

5:18 their final Falcon 9 mission of the year,

5:20 launching the CSG3 satellite. For the

5:23 Italian Space Agency. It's a real flurry of

5:26 activity to end the year.

5:27 Anna: It really shows how global the space industry

5:29 has become. Launches from China, India,

5:32 Russia and the US all within days

5:35 of each other. It's an exciting time to be

5:38 following spaceflight, that's for sure.

5:40 It's worth noting the diversity of these

5:42 missions too. The Chinese launch is a

5:45 technology demonstrator for reusability. The

5:48 Indian mission is for Earth observation. The,

5:50 the Russian launches are likely for

5:52 government and commercial payloads. And the

5:54 SpaceX mission is for an Italian radar

5:57 reconnaissance satellite. It's a snapshot of

6:00 the entire space ecosystem in action.

6:02 Avery: And the logistical coordination is mind

6:05 boggling. You have range safety, air and sea

6:07 traffic control, satellite tracking and

6:09 telemetry all happening concurrently across

6:12 the globe. A, fittingly chaotic end to a

6:15 very busy year in space.

6:16 Anna: Speaking of US spaceflight, let's turn to our

6:19 next story on today's rundown, which is a bit

6:21 more sobering. It's about Boeing's Starliner

6:24 and the fallout from its first crewed test

6:26 flight.

6:26 Avery: Yeah, that mission was eventful to say the

6:29 least. What's the latest?

6:30 Anna: Well, NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel

6:33 has come out with a pretty strong statement.

6:35 They've said that NASA should have taken the

6:37 problems with Starliner far more seriously as

6:40 they were happening.

6:41 Avery: Let's recap what those problems were. There

6:43 were multiple helium leaks and failures with

6:45 the maneuvering thrusters, right?

6:47 Anna: That's right. Separate thruster failures

6:49 during docking and multiple helium leaks that

6:52 were discovered both before and during the

6:54 mission. The panel's main point of contention

6:56 is that NASA never officially declared an in

6:59 flight mishap or a high visibility close

7:02 call.

7:02 Avery: And not making that declaration has

7:05 consequences.

7:06 Anna: It does. According to the panel, this failure

7:09 to officially recognize the severity of the

7:11 issues led to an extended period of

7:14 uncertainty. It put a lot of stress on the

7:16 workforce at NASA and Boeing who were trying

7:18 to troubleshoot these serious problems

7:21 without the formal structure and resources

7:23 that come with a mishap declaration.

7:25 Avery: So they were essentially trying to manage a

7:27 crisis without being allowed to call it a

7:29 crisis. That sounds incredibly difficult.

7:31 Anna: Extremely. And the end result speaks for

7:34 itself. The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and

7:37 Suni Williams, ended up staying on the

7:39 International Space Station for nine months

7:41 while engineers tried to figure out if

7:43 Starliner was safe to bring them home.

7:45 Avery: And in the, end, it wasn't. They came home on

7:48 a SpaceX Dragon capsule.

7:50 Anna: That's the Crucial point, the Starliner

7:53 capsule had to return to Earth empty.

7:56 Having your crew return on a competitor

7:58 spacecraft because your own was deemed

8:00 unsafe is a massive blow to the

8:03 program's credibility. The safety panel is

8:05 basically saying that if NASA had been more

8:08 forthright about the problems from the start,

8:11 a lot of this prolonged uncertainty and

8:13 stress could have been handled better.

8:16 Avery: It's a tough lesson in transparency and risk

8:18 management. You never want to see a situation

8:21 where you have to rely on your backup

8:23 transportation system for a crewed mission.

8:25 It really underscores the value of having,

8:27 redundant, reliable systems like SpaceX's

8:30 Dragon.

8:31 Anna: It absolutely does. There's a lot for

8:34 both NASA and Boeing to learn from this

8:36 incident before they even consider putting

8:39 another crew on Starliner.

8:41 Avery: Absolutely. And the post flight investigation

8:44 is digging into the root causes. The helium

8:47 leaks, for instance, seem to be related to

8:49 seals that become brittle at extreme

8:51 temperatures. But the thruster issue is more

8:54 complex. It's a propulsion system that has

8:56 seen numerous issues throughout its

8:58 development. And the failures during this

9:00 critical mission pointed to a potential

9:03 systemic design flaw in the reaction control

9:05 system.

9:06 Anna: A systemic flaw is the last thing you want to

9:09 hear about on a crude vehicle. So what's the

9:11 path forward for Boeing? Is the Starliner

9:14 program salvageable at this point?

9:16 Avery: It's a tough road ahead. They will likely

9:19 need a complete redesign and recertification

9:21 of the propulsion system, which could take

9:23 years and billions more dollars. NASA

9:26 is committed to having two independent crew

9:29 transportation systems, so they won't give up

9:31 on Boeing easily. But the pressure is immense

9:34 and confidence both within NASA and

9:37 publicly has been severely shaken.

9:40 They have to prove beyond any doubt that

9:42 Starliner is safe before anyone else straps

9:45 in for a ride.

9:46 Anna: And for our final story today, we've got

9:49 some big news from one of the titans of the

9:52 launch industry. Tory Bruno. The

9:54 longtime president and CEO of United

9:57 Launch alliance has resigned.

9:59 Avery: That is big news. Bruno has been at the helm

10:02 of ula for nearly 12 years. He

10:05 really guided the company, a joint venture

10:07 between Boeing and Lockheed Martin through

10:09 one of its most challenging periods. Facing

10:12 intense competition from newcomers like

10:14 SpaceX.

10:15 Anna: Absolutely. His legacy will

10:17 undoubtedly be tied to the development of the

10:20 new Vulcan Centaur rocket. That was a

10:23 massive undertaking, designed not only to

10:25 replace the legacy Atlas v and Delta 4

10:28 rockets, but also to end ULA's

10:31 reliance on the Russian RD180

10:34 engines.

10:35 Avery: And he was such a public facing CEO, wasn't

10:37 he? He was famous for his engaging presence

10:40 on social media, always willing to answer

10:42 technical questions from space fans. He

10:45 really modernized ula's public image. It

10:48 truly feels like the end of an era for the

10:50 company. Do we know who's taking over?

10:52 Anna: For now, John Elban has been appointed as the

10:55 interim CEO while they search for a permanent

10:58 replacement. It will certainly be interesting

11:00 to see the direction ULA takes in this new

11:03 chapter.

11:04 Avery: And that's all the time we have for today.

11:06 From rocket failures and celestial mechanics

11:08 to a packed launch schedule and critical

11:11 safety reviews, it's been another busy day in

11:13 the world of astronomy and spaceflight.

11:15 Anna: Thanks for tuning in to Astronomy Daily.

11:17 We'll be back tomorrow with more news from

11:20 across the cosmos. Until then, I'm Anna.

11:23 Avery: And I'm Avery. Keep looking up

11:27 Astronomy Day

11:30 stories be told.

11:33 Anna: The world.