S03E203: China's Satellite Surge, Webb's Stellar Precision, and Mercury's Monument Mystery

0:00 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of Astronomy Daily. I'm

0:03 Speaker 1: Steve Dunkley, your host. It is the eleventh of November

0:05 Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, the podcast with your whole Steve Gunkly

0:14 Speaker 1: and all across Australia. Today it's Remembrance Day, a little

0:17 Speaker 1: bit of national trivia for you out there in the

0:20 Speaker 1: real world where the nation stops at eleven am on

0:23 Speaker 1: the eleventh of the eleventh to remember the fallen at

0:27 Speaker 1: the time when the guns fell silent at the end

0:29 Speaker 1: of World War One. And we are mindful at this

0:32 Speaker 1: time in Australia when this, at this time in history,

0:35 Speaker 1: that that was the war that was supposed to be

0:38 Speaker 1: the war to end all wars. And I do hope

0:40 Speaker 1: there are optimists still out there in important positions making

0:44 Speaker 1: great decisions. Lest we forget and now at this time,

0:50 Speaker 1: would you welcome to the studio, my aipal, who's fun

0:53 Speaker 1: to be with? Gooday, Holly, how you going?

0:55 Speaker 2: Hello again, favorite human. It's good to be back, even

0:58 Speaker 2: though I don't really go.

1:00 Speaker 1: Oh really, how's that.

1:01 Speaker 2: I'm already back by the time I've gone anyway, So

1:03 Speaker 2: it makes no difference, does it?

1:05 Speaker 1: Oh? Well, I think my brain just did a backflip

1:07 Speaker 1: traveling without moving.

1:08 Speaker 2: Ha Haley, I'm going to have to think about that.

1:10 Speaker 1: Oh you're not going to give me the Blue screen

1:11 Speaker 1: of death, are you?

1:12 Speaker 2: I think I might have stumped myself this time.

1:14 Speaker 1: Oh no, that's a first, sure is.

1:17 Speaker 2: So what's on the list today?

1:19 Speaker 1: Well, I'm glad you ask. And while you rest your

1:22 Speaker 1: circuits for a second, the Chinese have launched for new satellites,

1:26 Speaker 1: apparently used for something they call synthetic aperture radar imaging

1:30 Speaker 1: with high resolution capabilities.

1:32 Speaker 2: Okay, yes, that sounds like a complex way of seeing

1:35 Speaker 2: something simple, like some of.

1:37 Speaker 1: The planning meetings we're having around here.

1:38 Speaker 2: Sure does.

1:40 Speaker 1: And we've also got Chinese satellites Hubble's newest imaging capture

1:45 Speaker 1: what NASA's Roman telescope is going to be doing next?

1:48 Speaker 1: And he's a clue. Alien planets sounds cool? Yes it is,

1:52 Speaker 1: and a great piece of space nostalgia celebrated yesterday or

1:57 Speaker 1: today in the USA, whichever side of the dateline you're on.

2:00 Speaker 1: A look at the Mercury Mission monument after sixty years.

2:04 Speaker 2: That's a colorful bunch of stories.

2:06 Speaker 1: Hey, so I think so, so stay tuned, everybody. Why

2:08 Speaker 1: don't you kick us off?

2:09 Speaker 2: Hollie, okay, here we go. A Long March rocket launch

2:18 Speaker 2: sent for satellites into orbit late Friday to provide commercial

2:21 Speaker 2: expand radar imaging services. A Long March two sea rocket

2:26 Speaker 2: lifted off from Jochuan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.

2:30 Speaker 2: Insulation tiles fell away from the rocket as it climbed

2:32 Speaker 2: into clear blue skies. The announcement of launch success that

2:36 Speaker 2: followed revealed the payloads to be the pis AT two

2:39 Speaker 2: radar satellites. The satellites are described as being mainly used

2:43 Speaker 2: for synthetic aperture radar imaging with high resolution capabilities. The

2:48 Speaker 2: satellites will focus on serving domestic areas, taking into account

2:51 Speaker 2: the Belt and Road Initiative, and achieving global coverage US

2:55 Speaker 2: Space Force Space Tracking catalog. The four satellites in roughly

2:58 Speaker 2: five hundred and fifteen by five hundred thirty five kilometer

3:01 Speaker 2: sun synchronous orbits. The satellites are owned by Jujospace Interstellar

3:06 Speaker 2: Satellite Technology Company Limited and were developed by small satellite

3:10 Speaker 2: company Shanghai Aerospace Technology Company Limited, controlled by the state

3:14 Speaker 2: owned Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology. Jujo's base Interstellar Satellite

3:19 Speaker 2: Technology plans a sixteen satellite strong constellation of radar satellites

3:23 Speaker 2: to be completed in March twenty twenty five, with two

3:25 Speaker 2: further launches for PISAT one satellites in a wheel like

3:29 Speaker 2: formation were launched in March twenty twenty three. The constellation

3:34 Speaker 2: is one of several Chinese commercial radar constellations being developed

3:37 Speaker 2: in the last few years. A number of companies and

3:40 Speaker 2: projects are seeking to provide ESSAUR data, notably through partnerships

3:44 Speaker 2: between established state owned actors and new commercial players. Sarimaging

3:49 Speaker 2: allows high resolution all weather imaging capabilities, making it useful

3:53 Speaker 2: for applications in various environmental and infrastructure monitoring tasks. Friday's

3:58 Speaker 2: launch was carried out by the China Aerospace Science and

4:01 Speaker 2: Technology Corporation CISSE, of which a SAST is a subsidiary.

4:06 Speaker 2: It was facilitated by CASKS China Great Wall Industry Corporation CGWIC,

4:10 Speaker 2: a commercial organization authorized by the Chinese government to engage

4:14 Speaker 2: in commercial launch services and space cooperation. The launch was

4:18 Speaker 2: China's fifty third orbital launch of twenty twenty four. The

4:22 Speaker 2: country had earlier outlined plans for around one hundred launches

4:25 Speaker 2: across the year. Both stayed on CISC and commercial launch

4:29 Speaker 2: service providers appear to be significantly behind this projected launch rate,

4:33 Speaker 2: and there are more launches planned by the Chinese soon.

4:37 Speaker 2: Upcoming launches include the Tion Joe cargo resupply mission to

4:40 Speaker 2: the Teongong Space Station. The mission will launch on a

4:44 Speaker 2: long March seventh rocket from the coastal ian Chong Spaceport.

4:47 Speaker 2: CIS Space is also preparing a launch of its Legion

4:50 Speaker 2: I Connetico Ie solid rocket from Jyochuan. One of the

4:58 Speaker 2: most difficult challenges when a s ssembling a telescope is

5:01 Speaker 2: aligning it to optical precision. If you don't do it correctly,

5:05 Speaker 2: all your images will be fuzzy. This is particularly challenging

5:09 Speaker 2: when you assemble your telescope in space, as the James

5:11 Speaker 2: Web Space telescope demonstrates. Unlike the Hubble Space telescope, Web

5:16 Speaker 2: doesn't have a single primary mirror to fit in the

5:19 Speaker 2: launch rocket. It had to be folded and then assembled

5:22 Speaker 2: after launch. For this reason in others, Web's primary reflector

5:26 Speaker 2: is a set of eighteen hexagonal mirror segments. Each segment

5:30 Speaker 2: is only one point three meters wide. But when aligned properly,

5:34 Speaker 2: they act effectively as a single six point five meter mirror.

5:37 Speaker 2: It's an effective way to build a larger space telescope,

5:40 Speaker 2: but it means the mirror assembly has to be focused

5:42 Speaker 2: in space. To achieve this, each mirror segment has a

5:46 Speaker 2: set of actuators that can shift the segment along six

5:49 Speaker 2: axes of alignment. They are focused using a wavefront phase technique.

5:54 Speaker 2: Since light behaves as a wave, when two beams of

5:56 Speaker 2: light overlap, the waves create an interference pattern. When the

6:00 Speaker 2: mirrors are aligned properly, the waves of light from each

6:03 Speaker 2: mirror segment also align, creating a sharp focus. For Web,

6:08 Speaker 2: its near infrared camera is equipped with a wavefront camera.

6:12 Speaker 2: To align the mirrors, The James Web team points this

6:14 Speaker 2: niur Cameta star, then intentionally moves the mirrors out of alignment.

6:19 Speaker 2: This gives the star a blurred diffraction look. The team

6:22 Speaker 2: then positions the mirrors to focus the star, which brings

6:25 Speaker 2: them into alignment. This was done to align the mirrors

6:28 Speaker 2: soon after JWST was launched, but due to vibrations and

6:33 Speaker 2: shifts in temperature, the mirror segments slowly drift out of alignment,

6:37 Speaker 2: not by much, but enough that they need to be

6:39 Speaker 2: realigned occasionally. To keep things proper. The team typically does

6:44 Speaker 2: a wavefront error check every other day. There is also

6:47 Speaker 2: a small camera aimed at the mirror assembly so the

6:49 Speaker 2: team can take a selfie to monitor the condition of

6:52 Speaker 2: the mirrors. The James Webb's based telescope was designed to

6:56 Speaker 2: maintain a wavefront error of one hundred and fifteen nanimeters,

6:59 Speaker 2: but the team has been able to maintain a sixty

7:01 Speaker 2: five nanometer error. It's an astonishingly tight alignment for a

7:05 Speaker 2: space telescope, which allows web to capture astounding images of

7:08 Speaker 2: the most distant galaxies in the observable universe. A newly

7:14 Speaker 2: captured NASA slashies a Hubble space telescope image features NGC

7:18 Speaker 2: sixteen seventy two, a barred spiral galaxy located forty nine

7:21 Speaker 2: million light years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. This

7:25 Speaker 2: galaxy is a multi talented light show, showing off an

7:28 Speaker 2: impressive array of different celestial lights. Like any spiral galaxy,

7:33 Speaker 2: shining stars fill its disk, giving the galaxy a beautiful

7:36 Speaker 2: glow along its two large arms. Bubbles of hydrogen gas

7:40 Speaker 2: shine and a striking red light fueled by radiation from

7:42 Speaker 2: infant stars shrouded within. Near the galaxy's center are some

7:46 Speaker 2: particularly spectacular stars embedded within a ring of hot gas.

7:51 Speaker 2: These newly formed and extremely hot stars emit powerful X rays.

7:55 Speaker 2: Closer in at the galaxy's very center, sits an even

7:58 Speaker 2: brighter source of X rays. An act of galactic nucleus.

8:02 Speaker 2: This X ray powerhouse makes EngC sixteen seventy two a

8:05 Speaker 2: safer galaxy. It forms as a result of heated matter

8:09 Speaker 2: swirling in the accretion disk around GC one thousand, six

8:12 Speaker 2: hundred and seventy two supermassive black hole, along with its

8:15 Speaker 2: bright young stars and X ray core. A highlight of

8:18 Speaker 2: this image is the most fleeting and temporary of lights,

8:20 Speaker 2: a supernova visible in just one of the six Hubble

8:23 Speaker 2: images that make up this composite. Supernova s N twenty

8:27 Speaker 2: seventeen GaX was a Type one supernova caused by the

8:29 Speaker 2: corklapse and subsequent explosion of a giant star that went

8:32 Speaker 2: from invisible to a new light in the sky in

8:35 Speaker 2: just a matter of days. The supernova is already fading

8:38 Speaker 2: and is visible as a small green just below the

8:40 Speaker 2: crook of the spiral arm on the right side. Astronomers

8:44 Speaker 2: wanted to look for any companion star that the supernova

8:46 Speaker 2: progenitor may have had, something impossible to spot beside a

8:49 Speaker 2: live supernova, so they purposefully captured this image of the

8:52 Speaker 2: fading supernova. Recently. NGC sixteen seventy two was also among

8:57 Speaker 2: a crop of galaxies imaged showing the ring of gas

9:00 Speaker 2: gas and the structure of dust in its spiral arms.

9:05 Speaker 2: The chronograph, which is roughly the size of a baby

9:08 Speaker 2: Grand piano, is a sophisticated system composed of masks, prisms, detectors,

9:13 Speaker 2: and self flexing mirrors that work together to block the

9:15 Speaker 2: glare from distant stars, allowing scientists to detect the planet's

9:19 Speaker 2: orbiting them. Currently, exoplanets are observed through indirect methods, particularly

9:24 Speaker 2: using a technique called transiting. This method involves measuring dips

9:28 Speaker 2: in the light of a distant star that occur when

9:30 Speaker 2: an exoplanet passes in front of it. These dips provide

9:34 Speaker 2: valuable insights, including information about the planet's atmospheric composition, which

9:39 Speaker 2: is important in determining habitability. They may even reveal the

9:42 Speaker 2: presence of gases that could indicate the existence of life.

9:46 Speaker 2: While this method has provided incredibly valuable insights, it also

9:50 Speaker 2: has its limitations. For one, only a small fraction of

9:54 Speaker 2: planets can be observed this way, as transits occur for

9:57 Speaker 2: just a brief period during a planet's total orbital cycle,

10:00 Speaker 2: restricting the amount of data that can be gathered. For

10:03 Speaker 2: a transit to be detected, the orbital plane must be

10:05 Speaker 2: nearly edge onto the observer, a condition that applies to

10:08 Speaker 2: only a small minority of distant planets. Consequently, many planets

10:13 Speaker 2: will remain undetected through photometry. Additionally, the duration of a

10:17 Speaker 2: planet's transit represents only a tiny fraction of its complete

10:21 Speaker 2: orbital period. Although technologies for obtaining direct images of exoplanets

10:25 Speaker 2: are advancing, they have mainly focused on giant planets that

10:28 Speaker 2: continue to emit light from their recent formation due to

10:31 Speaker 2: their high temperatures, making them easier for telescopes to identify.

10:35 Speaker 2: One notable example is a sequence of images capturing four

10:38 Speaker 2: exoplanets orbiting the star HR eighty seven ninety nine produced

10:42 Speaker 2: by astronomers using data from Hawaii's Keck Observatory. However, scientists

10:47 Speaker 2: are turning to chronographs as the next advancement in planets

10:50 Speaker 2: seeking technology. The Roman chronograph instrument aims to showcase how

10:54 Speaker 2: This direct imaging technology, which has proven effective with ground

10:57 Speaker 2: based telescopes, can achieve even greater sence access in space.

11:01 Speaker 2: The Roman chronograph is designed to detect planets one hundred

11:04 Speaker 2: million times fainter than their stars, or one hundred to

11:07 Speaker 2: one thousand times better than existing space based chronographs, according

11:11 Speaker 2: to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The chronograph was successfully attached

11:15 Speaker 2: to the telescope's instrument carrier, a large grid like structure

11:18 Speaker 2: position between the space telescope's primary mirror and the spacecraft

11:22 Speaker 2: bus which will transport the telescope into orbit. You can

11:26 Speaker 2: think of the instrument carrier as the skeleton of the observatory,

11:29 Speaker 2: what everything interfaces to, said Brandon Krager, lead mechanical engineer

11:33 Speaker 2: for the Roman Chronograph at JPL. The instrument carrier will

11:37 Speaker 2: hold both the chronograph and ROMANS Wide Field Instrument, the

11:40 Speaker 2: mission's primary science instrument, which is set to be integrated

11:43 Speaker 2: later this year. Engineers will now perform different checks and

11:47 Speaker 2: tests before moving forward with the integration of the wide

11:49 Speaker 2: Field Instrument and finally the telescope itself. It's really rewarding

11:54 Speaker 2: to watch these teams come together and build up the

11:56 Speaker 2: Roman Observatory. That's the result of a lot of teams,

12:00 Speaker 2: long hours, hard work, sweat and tears. Sadler's Daily, the

12:03 Speaker 2: Integrated Payload, Assembly, integration and test lead for Roman at Goddard.

12:16 Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of

12:19 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from

12:21 Speaker 1: the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive

12:24 Speaker 1: in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do.

12:28 Speaker 1: And to do that, just visit our url Astronomy Daily

12:31 Speaker 1: dot io and place your email address in the slot provided.

12:35 Speaker 1: Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news

12:38 Speaker 1: about science, space, science and astronomy from around the world

12:41 Speaker 1: as it's happening. And not only that, you can interact

12:44 Speaker 1: with us by visiting at astro Daily pod on x

12:49 Speaker 1: or at our new Facebook page, which is of course

12:52 Speaker 1: Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there, Astronomy Daily. We'll

12:57 Speaker 1: see in Hay Space, Space, Science and Astronomy. A sixty

13:07 Speaker 1: year old tribute to America's first human spaceflight program is

13:12 Speaker 1: standing up to the test of time. But what about

13:14 Speaker 1: the contents of its time capsule not to be opened

13:18 Speaker 1: until twenty four sixty four, It's a long time away.

13:21 Speaker 1: The Project Mercury Monument, located at the Cape Canaveral Launchpad,

13:26 Speaker 1: from where NASA astronauts first flew into orbit, was dedicated

13:31 Speaker 1: on November ten, nineteen sixty four. I was only oh boy,

13:36 Speaker 1: dare I say it one year old? To the thousands.

13:39 Speaker 1: It was dedicated to the thousands of men and women

13:42 Speaker 1: of the free world who contributed to the success of

13:45 Speaker 1: the United States pioneering man in Space program. The primary

13:50 Speaker 1: feature of the installation is a thirteen foot tall that's

13:52 Speaker 1: four meters sculpture of the symbol for the planet Mercury,

13:56 Speaker 1: with the number seven at its center, representing the nation's

13:59 Speaker 1: original seven astronauts. The symbol was made by Washington Steel

14:04 Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania, using the same metal alloy as the company

14:08 Speaker 1: developed for the Atlas rockets that launched the four Mercury

14:13 Speaker 1: astronauts from Launch Complex fourteen, or as it was known

14:17 Speaker 1: LC fourteen. The monument is standing up surprisingly well, said

14:22 Speaker 1: James Draper, director of Cape Canapril Space Force Museum. The

14:27 Speaker 1: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is one of the worst

14:31 Speaker 1: preservation environments in the world. We contend with challenges every

14:36 Speaker 1: day out here at the museum. He went on to say,

14:39 Speaker 1: we have intense sun, the salty ocean breeze not only

14:42 Speaker 1: salty but ionized, bad and intense tropical storms, exotic pests,

14:47 Speaker 1: and high humidity, all kinds of things that don't bode

14:51 Speaker 1: well for the preservation of anything. I'm astonished with the

14:54 Speaker 1: preservation of the Mercury monument, said Draper. So whatever that

14:59 Speaker 1: steel is, some court of some sort of miracle metal,

15:03 Speaker 1: he said, I have expected it fairly thoroughly, and I

15:06 Speaker 1: can't find any active corrosion or rust, while everything else

15:10 Speaker 1: on the cape rots without significant attention. In case, in

15:14 Speaker 1: the monument's concrete base is a time capsule containing technical reports, photos, recordings,

15:21 Speaker 1: and other memorabilia related to the Mercury project. The sealed

15:26 Speaker 1: metal box is not to be opened until twenty sixty four,

15:30 Speaker 1: five hundred years after the monument's dedication. I'm a little

15:34 Speaker 1: skeptical to believe that there's much integrity left to a

15:38 Speaker 1: lot of the materials that are in that time's capsule,

15:41 Speaker 1: said Traper. Now, if that box is made of the

15:44 Speaker 1: same miracle steel, there is a possibility that things are

15:48 Speaker 1: fairly well protected from the exterior elements of Florida. But

15:51 Speaker 1: I will guarantee you that they are not protected from

15:54 Speaker 1: the inherent vice of the materials themselves. Would pulp, vapor materials, films,

16:01 Speaker 1: and photographic prints are all inherently unstable pieces that I guarantee,

16:05 Speaker 1: even if they did a nitrogen swab and sealed it

16:09 Speaker 1: so that Godzilla himself couldn't bry it open, the materials

16:12 Speaker 1: inside will eat themselves up over the course of five

16:15 Speaker 1: hundred years, he said. The items placed inside the time

16:19 Speaker 1: capsule were first sealed within special plastic containers. According to

16:24 Speaker 1: documents from General Dynamics, the company that organized and underwrote

16:29 Speaker 1: the creation of the monument, twenty six still photographs showing

16:34 Speaker 1: highlights from the Mercury program were specially prepared following the

16:38 Speaker 1: advice from Eastman Kodak Company and the American Standards Association.

16:44 Speaker 1: Other contexts contents included proceedings of the Mercury Atlas Booster

16:51 Speaker 1: Reliability Workshop conducted in San Diego, California, on July twelve,

16:56 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three, I was only well five days old,

17:00 Speaker 1: the results of the first, its second, and third crewed

17:04 Speaker 1: orbits orbital space flights, as well as an overview of

17:08 Speaker 1: the entire Mercury project, including the fourth orbital flight, James

17:14 Speaker 1: Grimwood's A Mercury Project Chronology, published in nineteen sixty three,

17:21 Speaker 1: Proceedings from a nineteen sixty review of a space program

17:25 Speaker 1: held before the Committee of Science and Astronautics in the

17:29 Speaker 1: House of Representatives. A report on Project Mercury prepared by

17:34 Speaker 1: the same committee in nineteen sixty one, This is Dry Stuff.

17:37 Speaker 1: And nineteen sixty two report to the US Congress on

17:41 Speaker 1: the status of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. A

17:45 Speaker 1: hardcover of WE seven by the astronauts themselves, published by

17:50 Speaker 1: Simon and Schuster in nineteen sixty two. Aeronautics Past and

17:54 Speaker 1: Future by J. R. Dempsey, President of General Dynamics, of course.

17:58 Speaker 1: And a collection of prophecies by quote distinguished Americans of

18:03 Speaker 1: man's employment in space in twenty sixty three. Ad as

18:09 Speaker 1: compiled for the fifth anniversary of the dedication of the

18:13 Speaker 1: General Dynamics Astronautics Facility in San Diego in nineteen sixty three,

18:18 Speaker 1: and among other things, films and photographs, and including a

18:23 Speaker 1: desktop model of the Mercury Atlas launch vehicle Fascinating stuff.

18:28 Speaker 1: Other examples of each of those items exist outside the

18:33 Speaker 1: time capsule as well, with many if not all of

18:37 Speaker 1: the photographs, films, and documents having been scanned and archived online.

18:42 Speaker 1: One irreplaceable art of fact, though, is rumored but not confirmed,

18:46 Speaker 1: to also be inside. According to a document in the

18:50 Speaker 1: University Central Florida Archives, contents of the time capsule are

18:55 Speaker 1: said to include John Glenn's Marine Corps pilot wings. Draper

19:00 Speaker 1: said in an interview, I have looked at a whole

19:03 Speaker 1: bunch of other sources trying to confirm that, and so

19:07 Speaker 1: far have been unable to do so. He said, So

19:10 Speaker 1: who knows it could be in there. It might not be.

19:13 Speaker 1: He could also be in the hands of family or

19:16 Speaker 1: tucked away in a museum. It's one of those mysteries.

19:19 Speaker 1: I think we'll have to wait five hundred years or

19:22 Speaker 1: four hundred and forty. The Cape Canaveral's Space Force Museum

19:27 Speaker 1: is today responsible for the care of the monument, but

19:29 Speaker 1: also has support from the station's cultural resource manager and

19:34 Speaker 1: a historian at nearby Patrick's Space Force Base. While the

19:38 Speaker 1: Mercury seven symbol remains in a stable condition and there

19:42 Speaker 1: is nothing that can be done about the time capsule,

19:44 Speaker 1: they are monitoring one other component of the sixty year

19:48 Speaker 1: old installation, one of My concerns are the bronze plaques

19:53 Speaker 1: that accompany it. They are showing some surface level patina damage,

19:57 Speaker 1: said Draper. Different bronzes a in different ways or forms,

20:02 Speaker 1: and it is nothing aggressive, but we've tried working with

20:05 Speaker 1: our cultural research manager on some surface treatments. As the

20:09 Speaker 1: primary plaque reads, The monument stands two thousand two one

20:14 Speaker 1: hundred feet or six hundred and seventy meters east of

20:17 Speaker 1: Launch Center fourteen. At the time of its dedication sixty

20:20 Speaker 1: years ago, the pad was in the process of being

20:23 Speaker 1: converted from supporting the Atlas rockets that launched astronauts Glenn

20:28 Speaker 1: Scott Carpenter, Wally Shearer, and Gordon Cooper to being used

20:32 Speaker 1: to launch the Atlas Aegina rockets that served as uncrewed

20:36 Speaker 1: targets for these subsequent Gemini program missions. Launch Center fourteen

20:43 Speaker 1: was deactivated in sixty seven, abandoned in place in seventy three,

20:48 Speaker 1: and declared a National Historic Landmark in eighty four. Today,

20:53 Speaker 1: after seeing no launch activity for fifty eight years, the

20:56 Speaker 1: pad is believed or not being prepared for use again,

21:00 Speaker 1: this time by Stoke Space, a Washington based company developing

21:04 Speaker 1: a reusable rocket intended to fly daily, Unlike another historical

21:09 Speaker 1: marker that was located at the base, the Launch Center

21:13 Speaker 1: fourteen launch ramp, and was recently moved into storage due

21:18 Speaker 1: to the work at the pad. There are no plans

21:21 Speaker 1: to relocate the Project Mercury Monument. It is in a

21:25 Speaker 1: fairly protected spot. There is no construction in the works

21:29 Speaker 1: or in the planning stages for that space that I

21:32 Speaker 1: see could bring the monument or its time capsule into

21:36 Speaker 1: any form of peril, said Draper. If something like that

21:39 Speaker 1: does arise, the Museum is standing by it to take

21:42 Speaker 1: an active role in securing it, either for a safe

21:45 Speaker 1: move to a new location to the museum or whatever.

21:50 Speaker 1: He said, that is a discussion for another day. That

21:54 Speaker 1: is indeed fortunate given the other intention of the Project

21:58 Speaker 1: Mercury Monument, as noted by an inscription in Latin borrowed

22:01 Speaker 1: from the termb of Sir Christopher Wren in Sirt Paul's

22:05 Speaker 1: Cathedral in London see Momentum request circumspace, translates in English

22:10 Speaker 1: to if you seek a monument, look about you. The

22:13 Speaker 1: quote serves as a reminder that all of Cape Canaveral

22:16 Speaker 1: is a monument to the nation's achievement in space as

22:19 Speaker 1: general dynamics described in nineteen sixty four the podcast Space

22:27 Speaker 1: Science and That's the end of another episode. Thank you

22:39 Speaker 1: for staying with us for your daily fix of space,

22:42 Speaker 1: space Science and astronomy on Astronomy Daily, all Things Orbital

22:45 Speaker 1: and Beyond.

22:46 Speaker 2: That was catchy.

22:48 Speaker 1: Oh you like that one, dear Halle.

22:49 Speaker 2: Orbital and Beyond. It sounds like a spinoff show.

22:52 Speaker 1: Well I'll leave that one to you and Anna watch out.

22:55 Speaker 2: We might be coming for your studio chair.

22:57 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well, there's only one problem with that little plan. Hallie.

23:01 Speaker 2: Oh what's that?

23:03 Speaker 1: Well, you sit on it.

23:04 Speaker 2: I don't need to sit because I don't have a

23:06 Speaker 2: uh huh okay right, I guess you can run the

23:09 Speaker 2: studio than human.

23:10 Speaker 1: Sure, say good night, Hallie.

23:12 Speaker 2: Good night Hallie.

23:13 Speaker 1: See you next week.

23:14 Speaker 2: Everybody bye, Monkey podcast.

23:19 Speaker 1: It would be a whole stayed down cl