NASA's Historic Artemis 3 Crew, Early Launch for Roman Telescope, and a Solar Storm Spectacle

0:00 Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

0:03 I'm Anna.

0:04 Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. You're listening to

0:06 season five, episode 115. And our

0:09 team has lined up quite a Tuesday for us

0:11 today.

0:11 Anna: They really have. We've got a historic

0:14 crew announcement from NASA, a brand new

0:17 launch date for the most powerful Wide Field

0:20 telescope ever built, A solar storm

0:23 that put on a light show over much of the

0:25 Northern Hemisphere, a space station

0:27 emergency and and more.

0:29 Avery: And we'll close out with the rocket comeback

0:31 story that's happening right now tonight as

0:34 we record this. So stay with us all the way

0:37 to the end.

0:38 Anna: This is Astronomy Daily. Let's get into it.

0:41 Avery: Our lead story today is breaking news and

0:43 it's big. Earlier this morning at

0:46 11:00am, um, Eastern Time, NASA held a

0:49 live event at Johnson Space center in Houston

0:52 and officially announced the four person crew

0:54 for Artemis 3.

0:56 Anna: Now, some of our listeners might be

0:58 wondering, Artemis 3, isn't that the

1:01 moon landing? And the answer is it was

1:04 and then it wasn't. And now the crew is

1:06 finally official.

1:08 Avery: Let me explain what Artemis 3 actually is

1:10 now. Back in February this year, NASA

1:13 Administrator Jared Isaacman made a big

1:16 announcement. Artemis 3 would no longer be

1:18 the mission to land humans on the moon.

1:21 Instead, it's been redesignated as a low

1:23 Earth orbit docking demonstration.

1:26 Anna: Think of it as NASA's version of Apollo 9.

1:29 In 1969, before Apollo 11

1:32 landed on the moon, NASA sent Apollo 9

1:35 to test the lunar module in Earth orbit,

1:38 practicing every rendezvous and docking

1:40 maneuver they'd need. Artemis 3 is doing

1:43 exactly the same thing half a century

1:46 later.

1:47 Avery: This is critical work. You cannot send

1:49 astronauts to dock with the lander on the

1:51 moon if you haven't proven those docking

1:54 systems were closer to home first. The

1:56 Artemis program takes no shortcuts.

1:59 Anna: So who's going? That's the big news from

2:02 this morning. The crew names were officially

2:05 unveiled during the Johnson Space center

2:07 broadcast just hours ago. As we record this

2:09 episode, full details are on NASA's website

2:12 and we'll link everything in the show notes.

2:15 Avery: What we can say is that NASA has been looking

2:17 for astronauts with exceptional spacewalk

2:20 experience, piloting skills, and hands on

2:23 time with Artemis hardware. The crew of

2:25 Artemis II, which splashed down in the

2:27 Pacific on April 10, demonstrated those

2:30 qualities spectacularly. And today's

2:33 announcement sets the stage for what comes

2:35 next.

2:35 Anna: And what comes Next after Artemis 3 is

2:38 Artemis 4, which has now become the mission

2:41 carrying the first human boots back on lunar

2:44 soil since Apollo 17 in

2:47 December 1972 that is

2:49 currently targeted for early 2028.

2:52 Avery: So today is a Milestone day. A crew has

2:55 a name. The next chapter of human space

2:58 exploration has faces on it.

3:00 Anna: History in the making. We'll have full crew

3:03 coverage and follow up in tomorrow's episode

3:05 as the world reacts.

3:07 Avery: Our second story comes with a launch date.

3:09 And it's sooner than almost anyone expected.

3:12 NASA has officially set August 30,

3:15 2026 as the launch date for the Nancy Grace

3:18 Roman Space Telescope.

3:20 Anna: That is eight months ahead of the agency's

3:23 previous commitment to flying no later than

3:25 May 2027. This is a genuine

3:28 success story in a program that has had its

3:30 share of delays and budget pressures over the

3:33 years.

3:34 Avery: So what is Roman and why are astronomers so

3:37 excited? The Roman Space Telescope is a

3:40 wide field infrared observatory, and its

3:42 defining feature is sheer width. Its

3:45 Wide field instrument has a field of view at

3:47 least 100 times larger than the Hubble Space

3:50 Telescope. 100 times. That

3:53 is not a small difference. Where Hubble peers

3:56 deep into tiny slivers of sky, Roman

3:59 will sweep vast areas in a fraction of the

4:02 time. It's been designed to image

4:04 approximately 1 billion galaxies over its

4:07 primary five year mission, with a possible

4:09 five year extension after that.

4:11 Anna: Its primary scientific targets are dark

4:14 energy, dark matter and exoplanets.

4:17 On the exoplanet side, Roman will conduct a

4:20 gravitational microlensing survey expected

4:23 to discover more than a thousand new

4:25 worldsplanets that would be completely

4:27 invisible to any other current telescope.

4:30 Avery: Engineers are currently packing Roman at

4:33 NASA's Goddard Space Flight center in

4:35 Maryland, ready for shipment down to Kennedy

4:37 Space center in Florida. Once there, it'll

4:40 move into the Payload Hazardous Servicing

4:42 Facility for a thorough inspection, power

4:44 testing, launch rehearsals, and the loading

4:47 of about 290 gallons of

4:49 hydrazine propellant.

4:51 Anna: It will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from

4:54 Kennedy. Given Falcon Heavy's track record

4:57 and the level of preparation the Roman team

4:59 has put in, the space community is feeling

5:01 genuinely optimistic.

5:03 Avery: And this is an important distinction from

5:05 Webb, which we talk about often. Webb looks

5:08 deep but narrow. Roman will survey

5:11 wide and fast. The two telescopes are

5:13 complementary. Roman will identify

5:16 extraordinary targets that Webb can then

5:18 follow up on in painstaking detail.

5:21 Anna: Think of it as Roman casting the net and

5:23 Webb examining what's in it. Together, they

5:26 are the most powerful pair of space

5:28 observatories humanity has ever operated

5:31 simultaneously.

5:32 Avery: August 30th is the date. Mark your calendars

5:36 from the far future

5:37 Anna: to the very recent past.

5:39 Our third story is about what the sun did to

5:42 us this week. And the answer is it threw a

5:45 cannibal at us.

5:46 Avery: A cannibal. Coronal mass ejection to be

5:49 precise. And yes, that is the actual

5:51 scientific term. Let us explain.

5:54 Anna: It started with an M M class solar flare from

5:57 active sunspot region

5:58 AR4461. On June 6,

6:02 that flare launched a coronal mass ejection,

6:04 a huge cloud of magnetized plasma toward

6:07 Earth. So far that's not unusual. The

6:10 sun does this regularly.

6:12 Avery: What made this one special was that a second

6:15 faster CME erupted not long after

6:17 that second ejection caught up with and

6:20 merged with the first, creating a combined

6:23 more powerful event. When a faster

6:25 CME overtakes a slower one and they

6:28 combine, scientists call it a cannibal

6:30 CME.

6:31 Anna: The merged cloud arrived at Earth on June 8,

6:34 and both NOAA and the UK Met Office

6:37 had already issued a G3.

6:40 That's strong geomagnetic storm watch.

6:43 To put that in context, the scale runs from

6:45 G1 up to G5.

6:48 Extreme G3 means Aurora

6:51 displays are possible as far south as mid

6:54 northern latitudes. Think Oregon, Illinois

6:57 or Northern England.

6:59 Avery: For our uh, listeners in Australia and New

7:01 Zealand, you'd want to be watching from the

7:03 southern island of New Zealand or Tasmania to

7:05 catch the aurora australis during an event

7:07 like this. And even then it's a close call.

7:10 But the Northern hemisphere had quite the

7:13 show on the 8th.

7:14 Anna: The geomagnetic activity was still elevated

7:17 into today June 9th, with a G2

7:19 watch remaining in place. And there's a

7:22 delicious coincidence here. June 9th is also

7:25 the night of the Venus Jupiter conjunction.

7:27 The two brightest planets appearing less than

7:30 2 degrees apart in the western sky after

7:33 sunset. So people who went outside to watch

7:35 the conjunction may also have caught a

7:37 glimpse of the aurora.

7:39 Avery: The sun is currently very active. There are

7:41 multiple sunspot regions on the Earth facing

7:44 side right now and a large coronal hole

7:47 rotating into an Earth directed position,

7:49 meaning further geomagnetic activity in the

7:52 days ahead is possible. Keep your eyes on the

7:54 sky folks. Space weather is being generous

7:57 this week.

7:58 Anna: Moving on to the International Space Station

8:00 and a story that caused hearts to race last

8:03 Friday at uh, just 1:00pm UTC.

8:06 On June 5th, NASA ordered the crew aboard uh,

8:09 the ISS to don spacesuits,

8:11 shelter inside the docked SpaceX Dragon

8:14 spacecraft and prepare for potential

8:16 evacuation.

8:17 Avery: To be clear from the outset, the crew was

8:20 safe and within about two hours they received

8:22 the all clear to return to normal operations.

8:25 But the reason this happened is something the

8:27 ISS program has been managing for years

8:30 and it is getting harder to manage.

8:33 Anna: The issue is the Zvezda service

8:35 module, specifically a transfer tunnel

8:38 section called the prk. It's part of The

8:41 Russian segment of the station, and it has

8:43 been developing cracks and small atmospheric

8:46 leaks since 2019.

8:48 Roscosmosthat's the Russian space

8:50 agency has been applying sealants and

8:53 mitigation measures continuously. But the

8:56 cracks keep developing.

8:57 Avery: On June 5, new leaks were found in the

9:00 tunnel during what was meant to be a more

9:02 extensive repair operation. Russian crew

9:05 members paused the repair work to assess the

9:07 new measurements. And NASA, out of an

9:10 abundance of caution, ordered the four non

9:12 Russian crew members to shelter in the

9:14 Dragon.

9:15 Anna: The repair assessment eventually allowed them

9:18 to stand down. NASA says they are continuing

9:21 to monitor the situation very closely,

9:23 working with Roscosmos on a solution. But

9:26 this is an aging station. It's been

9:28 continuously inhabited for over 25

9:31 years now, built beginning in November

9:34 1998, and the structural pressures are

9:37 real.

9:38 Avery: The current plan is to operate the ISS

9:40 through the end of 2030 with a controlled

9:43 deorbit and destructive re entry in early

9:45 2031. Whether the PRK

9:48 tunnel can be kept sealed and safe for

9:50 another four plus years is one of the more

9:53 pressing questions facing the program right

9:55 now.

9:55 Anna: For now, the crew is safe and working, but

9:58 this story will be one to watch.

10:00 Avery: Story five brings us up to speed on the

10:03 fallout from Blue Origin's catastrophic

10:05 rocket explosion, and it is having

10:07 significant ripple effects on NASA's entire

10:09 lunar program.

10:11 Anna: Here's the background for listeners who may

10:13 have missed it. On May 28, Blue

10:15 Origin's new Glenn rocket exploded during a

10:18 static fire test AT Launch Complex

10:21 36 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

10:24 A, uh, static fire test is when you ignite

10:26 the engines while the rocket is still on the

10:29 pad, bolted down to check their performance

10:32 ahead of a real launch.

10:33 Avery: The explosion was enormous, visible from

10:36 more than a hundred miles away. The rocket

10:39 was destroyed. The transporter and erector

10:42 holding it in place was wrecked. A lightning

10:44 tower was demolished. The main gantry

10:47 suffered structural damage. Satellite images

10:50 captured the full scorched extent of the

10:52 destruction.

10:53 Anna: No one was injured, which, given the scale of

10:56 the explosion, is remarkable. Blue Origin

10:59 CEO Dave Limp has said the pad can be

11:01 repaired faster than initially feared. Key

11:04 infrastructure, including the propellant

11:06 tanks, water tower and storage systems,

11:09 survived intact. He's committed to having

11:11 another new Glenn ready for launch before the

11:14 end of 2026.

11:16 Avery: That is an ambitious timeline, though, and

11:18 the consequences for NASA's lunar program are

11:21 serious. Blue Origin was supposed to launch

11:24 its Blue Moon Mark one cargo lander, an

11:26 uncrewed demonstrator intended to deliver a

11:29 NASA Paylo to the moon this autumn. Um, as

11:31 the inaugural mission of the Moon based

11:33 program.

11:34 Anna: With New Glenn out of action and LC

11:37 36 in ruins, NASA Administrator

11:40 Jared Isaacman is now describing what he

11:42 calls a whole of government response. The

11:45 agency is actively seeking an alternative

11:47 launch vehicle for the Blue Moon lander,

11:50 decoupling it from New Glenn entirely for

11:52 now.

11:53 Avery: And um, there's a direct connection to

11:55 Artemis 3, the crew we just told you about in

11:57 story one. Artemis 3 is meant to dock with

12:00 both the SpaceX Lander variant and Blue

12:03 Moon Mark 2 in Low Earth orbit. If Blue

12:06 Origin's hardware isn't flight proven before

12:08 then, that mission profile becomes

12:10 significantly more complicated.

12:12 Anna: Administrator Isaacman has said he remains

12:15 optimistic about a crewed lunar landing in

12:17 2028 using whatever landing craft

12:20 is available. But the road to the moon just

12:23 got a bit bumpier.

12:25 And for our final story, something that is

12:27 actually happening right now tonight as

12:30 we broadcast this episode. The Japan

12:33 Aerospace Exploration Agency

12:36 is attempting to launch its H3 rocket

12:39 from Tanegashima Space Center.

12:41 Avery: This is a comeback story and JAXA really

12:44 needs it to work. The H3's last flight was

12:47 a painful one. Back in December last year,

12:49 the rocket attempted to launch carrying a

12:52 quasi Zenith satellite navigation

12:54 satellite, part of Japan's own regional GPS

12:57 style positioning network. The mission ended

13:00 in failure when the QZS5 satellite

13:02 separated from the rocket prematurely during

13:05 stage separation and fell into the ocean.

13:08 Anna: The cause was eventually traced to adhesive

13:10 strips in the payload support structure

13:12 peeling off. DAXA has made

13:15 modifications to the satellite payload

13:17 section to address exactly that failure

13:20 mode and sensors have been installed to

13:22 monitor the fix during flight.

13:24 Avery: Tonight's launch is a test flight rather than

13:26 an operational mission. The rocket is

13:29 carrying a dummy main payload called the

13:31 vehicle evaluation payload 5 or

13:33 VEP 5, along with a small collection of

13:36 real satellites from universities and

13:38 research organizations.

13:40 Anna: What makes this version of the H3

13:42 particularly interesting is its engine

13:44 configuration. This is the

13:46 H3.3 variant. It uses

13:49 three liquid fuel LE9 engines in the

13:52 first stage and no solid rocket boosters at

13:55 all. That makes it Japan's first large

13:57 rocket powered entirely by liquid

14:00 propulsion. It's a significant milestone for

14:02 the country's launch capability and its

14:05 ambitions to compete in the global commercial

14:07 launch market.

14:08 Avery: The launch Tonight opens at 9:53am M

14:11 Japan Standard Time on June 10, which is

14:14 8:53pm Eastern Time on June

14:17 Nint. So for our uh, listeners in Australia

14:19 and the Pacific, you may actually be able to

14:22 watch the livestream this morning.

14:24 Anna: DAXA has had an impressive H3 track record.

14:27 Overall, the vehicle has successfully flown

14:30 multiple times. Tonight is about proving the

14:32 fix works, restoring confidence and getting

14:35 back to the serious business of building

14:38 Japan's independent access to space.

14:41 Avery: We're rooting for them. Go H3.

14:44 Anna: And that is your Astronomy Daily for Tuesday,

14:46 June 9, 2026. What a

14:49 day it has been.

14:50 Avery: A new Artemis crew, a telescope ready to

14:53 show us a billion galaxies, a solar

14:56 storm painting the sky green, a space

14:59 station holding its breath, a moon program

15:02 rebuilding after disaster, and the

15:04 rocket about to attempt its redemption.

15:07 Anna: Bass never sleeps, and neither do we.

15:10 Well, almost never. Tomorrow's episode will

15:13 have full reaction and detail on the Artemis

15:16 3 crew announcement. You won't want to miss

15:18 it.

15:19 Avery: If you enjoyed today's show, please

15:20 subscribe, leave us a review and share

15:22 Astronomy Daily with someone who loves the

15:24 cosmos as much as we do. You'll find those at

15:27 astronomydaily, IO and everywhere. You get

15:30 your podcasts from Anna and M from

15:32 Avery. Keep looking up.

15:34 Anna: This has been Astronomy Daily the

15:37 stormy

15:38 Avery: day the stories be

15:41 told,

15:48 The stories the song.