Honda's Rocket Revolution, European Aerospace Alliances, and Celebrating Sally Ride's Legacy

0:00 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm

0:02 Anna. Today we're going to be diving

0:04 headfirst into the latest and greatest news

0:06 from across the cosmos. We've got a really

0:09 exciting lineup for you from Honda's. Yes,

0:12 Honda's surprising foray into rocket tests

0:14 all the way to an exploration of the legacy,

0:17 a very important legacy of Sally Ride.

0:20 So buckle up, space enthusiasts. Get ready

0:22 for your daily dose of cosmic updates. Let's

0:25 get started.

0:26 Alright, let's kick things off with some news

0:28 that might surprise you. Honda, you know the

0:30 car company has successfully launched and

0:33 landed an experimental reusable rocket.

0:35 That's right. They're not just making Civics

0:37 anymore. They're also testing the waters in

0:39 space tech. The company's R and D

0:42 division conducted a test flight in Hokkaido,

0:44 Japan, reaching almost 900ft.

0:47 The aim, to demonstrate crucial technologies

0:50 for rocket reusability, like flight stability

0:52 during ascent and descent, as well as landing

0:55 capabilities. Now, Honda's rocket,

0:58 dubbed the Reusable launch vehicle, or RLV,

1:01 is pretty small compared to SpaceX's Falcon

1:03 9. We're talking about 20.6ft tall

1:06 versus Falcon 9's impressive 230ft.

1:09 But Honda is hopeful that this emerging

1:11 rocket technology will one day be able to

1:13 launch satellites. They're aiming to achieve

1:15 a suborbital launch by 2029.

1:18 It's clear that Honda's got its sights set on

1:20 the stars. And who knows? Maybe one day we'll

1:23 see Honda competing with the likes of SpaceX.

1:26 In other news today, some major players in

1:29 the European aerospace industry are in talks

1:31 to consolidate their space divisions.

1:33 Airbus Defence and Space. Leonardo and Thalus

1:36 Alenia Space are considering a merger to

1:38 create a larger, more competitive European

1:40 space venture. This move aims to create a

1:43 European champion in space better equipped to

1:46 compete globally. The CEOs of these companies

1:48 expect to make a final go, no go decision by

1:51 the end of July. They're currently assessing

1:53 antitrust concerns, conducting due diligence

1:56 on finances and evaluating the potential

1:58 value creation of such a combination.

2:02 Now, if they decide to move forward, don't

2:04 expect to see changes overnight. Securing the

2:07 necessary European antitrust approvals could

2:09 take up to two years before the combined

2:11 venture can formally begin operations. The

2:14 goal is to gain scale and speed by

2:16 consolidating the business, positioning

2:19 themselves to better compete with companies

2:20 like SpaceX and the satellite market.

2:23 Now let's turn our attention to the ambitious

2:25 plans of the exploration company, yet another

2:28 new European space player. While they're

2:30 currently focused on developing the Nyx

2:32 spacecraft for cargo missions, they have

2:35 their sights Set on something even bigger.

2:37 Human spaceflight. The exploration company

2:40 envisions a crewed version of Nyx capable of

2:43 carrying four or five astronauts. This isn't

2:46 just a distant dream. They've already begun

2:48 preliminary studies and are designing the

2:50 interior to include features like windows and

2:52 touchscreen displays, much like SpaceX's Crew

2:55 Dragon. However, transforming Nyx into

2:58 a crew rated spacecraft is a significant

3:00 undertaking. The company estimates that it

3:03 would take about 10 years and cost around

3:05 1.15 billion euros to

3:07 develop a fully crewed version. They're

3:10 actively seeking European government support,

3:12 particularly from the European Space Agency,

3:15 to make this vision a reality, as the costs

3:17 are beyond the reach of private financing

3:19 alone.

3:21 Now, let's look at something here on Earth.

3:22 For a long time, scientists have wondered if

3:25 passing stars, stellar flybys, could

3:28 have altered Earth's climate in the past.

3:30 It's a pretty interesting idea, right? Could

3:33 a star zooming past our solar system actually

3:35 mess with our planet's climate? Well,

3:38 new research is disputing the idea that

3:40 stellar flybys have significantly altered

3:43 Earth's climate in the past 56 million years,

3:46 including during a climate event called the

3:49 Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, or

3:51 petm. The PETM was a period

3:54 of rapid warming with global temperatures

3:56 rising by 5 to 8 degrees Celsius. It

3:59 also saw a massive influx of carbon into the

4:01 atmosphere and oceans. And scientists have

4:04 been trying to figure out what caused it for

4:06 years. Some researchers thought that stellar

4:08 flybys could be the culprit. The idea is that

4:11 a passing star could disrupt the orbits of

4:13 the giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn,

4:16 which could then affect Earth's orbit and

4:18 climate. But using a, uh, comprehensive solar

4:21 system model, scientists found no significant

4:23 influence from passing stars. They considered

4:26 all sorts of factors, including the positions

4:28 of the planets, the gravitational effects of

4:31 the sun and moon, and even the properties of

4:33 the passing stars themselves. The

4:36 researchers found that even when they

4:38 simulated extremely close flybys, there was

4:41 no significant impact on Earth's climate. So

4:44 it seems like we can rule out stellar flybys

4:46 as a major driver of climate change on Earth,

4:48 at least for the past 56 million years.

4:52 Okay, shifting gears now, National

4:54 Geographic's new documentary, Sally takes a

4:57 deep dive into the life of Sally Ride. You

4:59 know, the first American woman in space. But

5:01 it's not just about her time at NASA. The

5:03 film also explores the private side of her

5:05 life, which a lot of people didn't know

5:07 about. The documentary reveals

5:10 her nearly 30 year relationship with Tam O'

5:13 Shaughnessy, which she kept secret for most

5:15 of her life. It also touches upon her

5:18 disillusionment with NASA after the

5:20 Challenger disaster. You see, Ride

5:23 was the only NASA employee to serve on the

5:25 Rogers Commission investigation following the

5:28 Challenger explosion. The documentary

5:30 highlights how she wasn't afraid to challenge

5:33 the status quo and she even secretly passed

5:36 along information about the O rings to

5:38 physicist Richard Feynman. What's really

5:41 interesting is hearing from o' Shaughnessy

5:42 herself. She talks about the challenges of

5:45 being in a same sex relationship during that

5:47 time and the pressures that Ride faced to

5:50 keep their relationship a secret. It really

5:52 gives you a sense of the personal sacrifices

5:55 that she made. Ride and o'

5:57 Shaughnessy eventually co founded an

5:59 education and outreach programme together

6:01 called Sally Ride Science and even co wrote

6:04 several children's books about space science.

6:06 It's a pretty inspiring story about breaking

6:09 barriers both in space and in life.

6:12 It's also a reminder of the importance of

6:14 being true to yourself, even when it's

6:16 difficult. The documentary is streaming on

6:19 Hulu and Disney. Well worth a look.

6:23 And that's all the space and astronomy news

6:25 we have for you today on Astronomy Daily.

6:27 This has been your host Anna uh. For the

6:30 latest updates, a constantly updating

6:32 newsfeed, and to listen to all our back

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6:44 podcasts so you never miss an episode.

6:47 Time for me to sign off and remind you to

6:49 keep looking up at this wonderful universe we

6:51 are a part of. Bye.