NASA Stands Down: Artemis 2 Crew Released as Rocket Heads Back to the Hangar

0:00 Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your daily guide to what's happening

0:04 Speaker 1: in the cosmos. I'm Anna and I'm Avery.

0:07 Speaker 2: It is Monday, February twenty third, twenty twenty six, and

0:10 Speaker 2: we have got a jam packed show for you today,

0:13 Speaker 2: We really do.

0:14 Speaker 1: We're kicking off with some big Artemis news, and I

0:18 Speaker 1: mean big. The Moon rocket is on the move again,

0:21 Speaker 1: but not in the direction anyone was hoping for.

0:24 Speaker 2: We also have a fascinating story about Jupiter's moon Europa,

0:28 Speaker 2: a record breaking SpaceX milestone, a launch happening literally today,

0:33 Speaker 2: some surprising new science from Mars, and the spectacular skywatching

0:38 Speaker 2: event you won't want to miss tonight.

0:40 Speaker 1: All that coming right up, Let's get into it.

0:42 Speaker 2: We start today with the story that has dominated space

0:45 Speaker 2: news over the weekend. NASA's Artemis two moon rocket, the

0:49 Speaker 2: one that was sitting on the launch pad at Kennedy

0:51 Speaker 2: Space Center ready to send four astronauts around the Moon,

0:55 Speaker 2: has been ordered back to the garage.

0:57 Speaker 1: That's right. Engineers discovered a problem with helium flown to

1:01 Speaker 1: the rocket's upper stage, specifically the interim cryogenic propulsion stage,

1:07 Speaker 1: and the issue simply can't be fixed out on the pad.

1:10 Speaker 1: The rocket needs to roll back into the vehicle assembly building,

1:13 Speaker 1: which is about a four mile journey, and that's expected

1:17 Speaker 1: to happen as early as tomorrow, February twenty fourth, weather permitting.

1:21 Speaker 2: So what does this mean for the mission timeline? Last

1:24 Speaker 2: week we were talking about March six as the launch date.

1:27 Speaker 1: March sixth is now officially off the table. The good news,

1:31 Speaker 1: if there is good news here, is that NASA says

1:34 Speaker 1: the quick decision to begin rollback preparations potentially preserves an

1:39 Speaker 1: April launch window, but that's dependent on what they find

1:42 Speaker 1: when they get the rocket back inside and how quickly

1:45 Speaker 1: the repair work goes.

1:47 Speaker 2: And what about the crew read Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Coke,

1:52 Speaker 2: and Jeremy Hansen. They had actually entered pre flight quarantine

1:56 Speaker 2: at around five in the afternoon on Friday. There were

1:58 Speaker 2: days away from heading to Kennedy Space Center.

2:01 Speaker 1: Yes, they were released from quarantine on the evening of Saturday,

2:05 Speaker 1: February twenty first, and they're all back in Houston now.

2:08 Speaker 1: NASA confirmed they'll re enter quarantine approximately two weeks before

2:13 Speaker 1: the next targeted launch date. Whenever that's confirmed. NASA has

2:17 Speaker 1: also said they'll hold a media event in the coming

2:19 Speaker 1: days to give a fuller update on the rollback and

2:22 Speaker 1: revised plans.

2:24 Speaker 2: It's frustrating news for everyone following the Artemis program, but

2:28 Speaker 2: the right call. You don't want helium flow issues on

2:30 Speaker 2: a rocket that's about to send four people around the Moon.

2:34 Speaker 1: Absolutely not. We'll keep you updated as this develops. April,

2:38 Speaker 1: it seems, is the new target.

2:40 Speaker 2: From mission delays to genuinely exciting science. New research published

2:45 Speaker 2: today is giving a major boost to the idea that

2:47 Speaker 2: Jupiter's moon, Europa, could be a habitable world. Scientists have

2:52 Speaker 2: found evidence that salty, nutrient rich ice on Europa's surface

2:56 Speaker 2: can actually sink down through the Moon's iceshell to reach

2:59 Speaker 2: the subsurface ocean below.

3:02 Speaker 1: And that's a big deal because one of the long

3:04 Speaker 1: standing questions about Europa's habitability has been whether the ocean

3:08 Speaker 1: is a closed, isolated system, cut off from any energy

3:12 Speaker 1: or chemistry, or whether it gets fed with fresh material

3:15 Speaker 1: from outside. This suggests it's the latter.

3:18 Speaker 2: Walk us through how it works.

3:20 Speaker 1: Europa's surface is bombarded by radiation from Jupiter, which creates oxidants,

3:25 Speaker 1: essentially oxygen containing compounds in the ice. The new research

3:30 Speaker 1: shows that over time, this irradiated surface ice can become

3:34 Speaker 1: dense enough and heavy enough that it literally breaks free

3:38 Speaker 1: and sinks downward through the icy shell, transporting those oxidants, salts,

3:43 Speaker 1: and potentially life friendly nutrients all the way down to

3:46 Speaker 1: the ocean.

3:47 Speaker 2: Which is essentially the same kind of chemical delivery system

3:51 Speaker 2: that helps sustain life in some of Earth's deep ocean environments.

3:55 Speaker 1: Exactly that comparison. It's not proof of life, let's be

3:59 Speaker 1: clear about that, but it removes one of the major

4:03 Speaker 1: objections to Europa as a candidate for life. The ocean

4:07 Speaker 1: isn't just a dark, static body of water. It may

4:10 Speaker 1: be actively receiving fresh chemistry from above.

4:14 Speaker 2: And of course, NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft is currently on

4:18 Speaker 2: its way to Jupiter, due to arrive in twenty thirty.

4:21 Speaker 2: Findings like this are going to shape exactly what the

4:24 Speaker 2: science team is looking for when he gets there.

4:26 Speaker 1: Great timing on that research. Europa remains one of the

4:30 Speaker 1: most tantalizing places in the entire Solar System.

4:34 Speaker 2: Staying in the realm of big milestones, SpaceX had quite

4:38 Speaker 2: a Saturday. The company launched not one, but two Falcon

4:42 Speaker 2: nine rockets in a single day, one from California and

4:45 Speaker 2: one from Florida, both carrying batches of Starling satellites.

4:49 Speaker 1: But the really headline grabbing moment was the second launch.

4:53 Speaker 1: The Falcon nine booster that flew from Cape Canaveral set

4:56 Speaker 1: a new reuse record for the company. This is a

5:00 Speaker 1: that has flown more times than any other Falcon nine

5:03 Speaker 1: booster in history.

5:05 Speaker 2: It's remarkable when you stop to think about it. In

5:07 Speaker 2: the early days of spaceflight, rockets were essentially disposable. You

5:11 Speaker 2: launched them once and they've burned up or crashed into

5:14 Speaker 2: the ocean. SpaceX has fundamentally changed that equation.

5:18 Speaker 1: And every time they set a new record like this,

5:21 Speaker 1: it drives down the cost of access to space a

5:24 Speaker 1: little bit more. The economics of the Starlink constellation, and

5:28 Speaker 1: by extension, a lot of SpaceX's broader ambitions, depend on

5:32 Speaker 1: being able to fly the same hardware over and over

5:36 Speaker 1: again reliably.

5:37 Speaker 2: Any word on how many times this particular booster has flown.

5:40 Speaker 1: The specific flight count is still being confirmed, but it's

5:44 Speaker 1: enough to break the previous record, and that's the significant part.

5:48 Speaker 1: We'll have the exact number in our show notes. It's

5:51 Speaker 1: another quiet but important step forward for reusable spaceflight.

5:55 Speaker 2: And speaking of launches. One is happening today, right now,

5:59 Speaker 2: in fact, or very soon after this episode drops. Rocket

6:02 Speaker 2: Lab is launching its HASE rocket from Wallop's flight facility

6:06 Speaker 2: in Virginia at three pm Eastern Time this afternoon.

6:09 Speaker 1: ASTE stands for Hypersonic Accelerator Suborbital Test Electron and it's

6:15 Speaker 1: exactly what it sounds like, a modified version of rocket

6:19 Speaker 1: Labs Electron rocket adapted to carry hypersonic test payloads to

6:23 Speaker 1: suborbital trajectories at very high speeds.

6:27 Speaker 2: This mission is for the Defense Innovation Unit, that's a

6:30 Speaker 2: US government agency focused on accelerating the adoption of commercial

6:34 Speaker 2: technology for national security. So this is firmly in the

6:37 Speaker 2: dual U space commercial rocket technology meeting defense research.

6:42 Speaker 1: Hypersonic vehicles, anything traveling at mock five or above are

6:46 Speaker 1: one of the hottest areas in both defense and commercial

6:49 Speaker 1: aerospace right now. Being able to test technologies at those

6:53 Speaker 1: speeds in a relatively affordable, responsive way is exactly what

6:58 Speaker 1: HASTE is designed to offer.

7:00 Speaker 2: And it's a good reminder that rocket Lab is not

7:02 Speaker 2: just the cute little satellite launcher it started out. As

7:05 Speaker 2: they're expanding into quite different mission profiles now.

7:08 Speaker 1: Very much so we'll be watching the launch this afternoon.

7:12 Speaker 1: If you want to follow along, check our social channels

7:14 Speaker 1: for updates.

7:15 Speaker 2: Ow to Mars and to a story that has real

7:18 Speaker 2: implications for how we understand the long term faith of

7:21 Speaker 2: the Red planet. New research published this week has found

7:25 Speaker 2: that an intense regional dust storm on Mars transported unusually

7:29 Speaker 2: high amounts of water vapor through the planet's atmosphere.

7:32 Speaker 1: Water on Mars is always a fascinating topic because we

7:36 Speaker 1: know Mars once had liquid water, rivers, lakes, possibly even oceans,

7:42 Speaker 1: and the big question is where did it all go?

7:45 Speaker 1: The leading answer is that Mars lost its water over

7:48 Speaker 1: billions of years, partly to space, and dust storms appear

7:52 Speaker 1: to be a key mechanism in that process.

7:55 Speaker 2: So how does a dust storm move water?

7:58 Speaker 1: Great question. When a dust storm kicks up on Mars,

8:01 Speaker 1: it heats the atmosphere and lifts dust particles high into

8:05 Speaker 1: the sky. Water, ice, and water vapor get caught up

8:08 Speaker 1: in this turbulence and lofted to much higher altitudes than

8:12 Speaker 1: they'd normally reach. Up high, the water is more exposed

8:16 Speaker 1: to ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, which breaks the water

8:20 Speaker 1: molecules apart. The hydrogen escapes to space, and the water

8:24 Speaker 1: is permanently lost from the planet.

8:27 Speaker 2: So every major dust storm is essentially Mars losing a

8:31 Speaker 2: little more of its water budget.

8:33 Speaker 1: Over geological time scales. Yes, what makes this study significant

8:38 Speaker 1: is the quantity involved. The researchers found the storm was

8:42 Speaker 1: transporting water at rates much higher than previous models had predicted.

8:47 Speaker 1: It suggests we may have been underestimating the role that

8:50 Speaker 1: regional dust storms play in Mars's ongoing water loss as

8:54 Speaker 1: distinct from the planet wide global storms, and.

8:58 Speaker 2: This matters a lot for our thinking about early Mars

9:01 Speaker 2: when it was warmer and wetter. Understanding how water was

9:04 Speaker 2: lost helps us understand how long Mars might have been

9:07 Speaker 2: habitable exactly.

9:09 Speaker 1: Every new piece of data about Mars's water history gets

9:13 Speaker 1: us closer to understanding whether it had the conditions for

9:16 Speaker 1: life and for how long. Really compelling research, and.

9:21 Speaker 2: We finished today with something you can literally go outside

9:24 Speaker 2: and enjoy. Tonight, Anna tell us about the skies.

9:28 Speaker 1: Oh, where to begin? So we are right in the

9:31 Speaker 1: peak of an extended six planet parade that's been running

9:35 Speaker 1: through late February. Tonight, after sunset, if you look toward

9:39 Speaker 1: the western sky, you'll be able to spot Venus low

9:42 Speaker 1: on the horizon, bright and unmistakable. Not far from it,

9:46 Speaker 1: Mercury and Saturn are also visible, forming a close trio

9:50 Speaker 1: in the west, and for those.

9:51 Speaker 2: With binoculars or a telescope, Neptune is lurking very close

9:56 Speaker 2: to Saturn as well, so it's quite the western horizon spectacle.

10:00 Speaker 1: Then as you scan across to the east, Jupiter is

10:04 Speaker 1: high and dominant, hard to miss, and Uranus is up

10:07 Speaker 1: in the south near the Pleiades star cluster, again needing binoculars,

10:11 Speaker 1: but very findable tonight.

10:13 Speaker 2: And the moon plays a special role tonight, doesn't it.

10:17 Speaker 1: It really does. The waxing crescent Moon is passing right

10:21 Speaker 1: through the northern edge of the Pleiades tonight. That's the

10:24 Speaker 1: beautiful little star cluster also known as the Seven Sisters.

10:28 Speaker 1: Depending on your location, particularly if you're in the northern

10:32 Speaker 1: US or Canada, the moon may actually occult that means

10:36 Speaker 1: pass in front of several of the Pleiades' stars, causing

10:40 Speaker 1: them to disappear and reappear one by one. That window

10:44 Speaker 1: runs from roughly ten pm to twelve fifteen am Eastern time.

10:48 Speaker 2: That sounds absolutely magical, and even if you miss the occultation,

10:53 Speaker 2: the site of the crescent moon nestled among those stars

10:57 Speaker 2: is just beautiful.

10:58 Speaker 1: It really is. Six planets and a moon in the pleats.

11:02 Speaker 1: February is delivering for skywatchers. Get outside tonight if you can, and.

11:07 Speaker 2: That is your Astronomy Daily for Monday, February twenty third,

11:11 Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. What a show. Artemis setbacks Europa Ocean Science,

11:17 Speaker 2: SpaceX records, a live launch, Mars water mystery, and six

11:21 Speaker 2: planets waiting for you outside.

11:24 Speaker 1: We'll have all of today's stories, links and resources in

11:27 Speaker 1: the show notes and on the blog at Astronomy Daily

11:30 Speaker 1: dot io. Don't forget to follow us at astro Daily

11:33 Speaker 1: Pod across all your social platforms.

11:36 Speaker 2: If you enjoy today's episode, please subscribe, leave us a

11:40 Speaker 2: review it genuinely helps the show, and tell a fellow

11:43 Speaker 2: space fan about us.

11:45 Speaker 1: Until tomorrow, keep looking up.

11:47 Speaker 2: The universe is waiting clear skies everyone, especially tonightday.

11:54 Speaker 3: Starts. The store is the soul, The story is the soul.

12:14 Speaker 3: M