The Weekend Wrap Debuts — Soyuz 5, Artemis II Revisited & Roman Telescope

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

0:02 your daily guide to the cosmos. I'm Anna.

0:05 Avery: And I'm Avery. Happy Saturday, everyone.

0:08 And what a Saturday it is. Because today

0:11 we're launching something brand new here on

0:13 Astronomy Daily.

0:14 Anna: That's right, today marks the debut of our

0:16 weekend space and Astronomy news wrap.

0:19 Every Saturday, we'll bring you two fresh

0:21 stories from the past 24 hours, plus a deep

0:24 dive into the four biggest and most important

0:27 stories from across the entire week.

0:29 Avery: Think of it as the week in Space, condensed,

0:32 considered, and with some new angles you

0:34 might not have heard yet. We've been doing

0:36 six episodes a week all season, and this is

0:39 our way of making sure Saturday feels a

0:41 little different.

0:42 Anna: So here's today's format. We'll start with

0:44 two fresh stories first, then we'll ring in

0:47 the very first Astronomy Daily weekend wrap.

0:50 Four stories, the week's biggest right here.

0:53 Avery: Let's get into it.

0:54 Anna: Our first story today is a rocket launch

0:56 story with some real geopolitical texture to

0:59 it.

0:59 Russia's brand new Soyuz 5 rocket

1:02 lifted off on Thursday, April 30 from the

1:05 Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on its very

1:07 first flight. And it went well.

1:10 Avery: This has been coming for a long time, anna.

1:13 The Soyuz 5, also known as Sunkar, which

1:16 means Falcon in Kazakh, has been in

1:18 development for nearly a decade. There were

1:20 multiple delays, funding hurdles and

1:22 geopolitical complications along the way. But

1:25 On Thursday at 2pm Eastern time, it

1:28 finally flew.

1:29 Anna: It was a suborbital test flight, essentially

1:32 a shakeout cruise for the new vehicle. The

1:34 rocket carried a mass dimensional mockup as

1:36 payload. Both stages performed nominally and

1:39 the payload followed its intended trajectory

1:41 before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean in

1:44 a pre designated area. Roscosmos

1:47 declared it a, uh, success.

1:49 Avery: Now let's talk about why this rocket exists.

1:52 Russia lost access to Ukrainian rocket

1:54 expertise after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

1:57 And Ukraine had long been a powerhouse in

2:00 rocket design and manufacturing. The Soyuz

2:03 5 was designed specifically to replace the

2:05 Zenit rocket, which was Ukraine built, and to

2:08 give Russia a fully homegrown medium lift

2:11 capability.

2:12 Anna: In terms of specs, it's a two stage vehicle

2:14 powered by the RD171 MV M

2:17 engine, which Roscosmos describes as the

2:20 world's most powerful liquid fueled engine.

2:23 It can lift up to 17 metric tons to low

2:25 Earth orbit, which puts it in the same

2:27 general class as SpaceX's Falcon 9.

2:30 Avery: But here's the key difference, and it's a

2:33 significant one. Falcon 9's first stage

2:35 lands itself and is reused. Soyuz

2:38 5 is fully expendable. Every launch

2:41 burns through a brand new rocket. In a launch

2:44 market that has increasingly moved towards

2:46 reusability and reduced costs, that's a

2:49 genuine competitive disadvantage.

2:51 Anna: It's also unclear if the rocket will attract

2:54 international customers. Russia has lost most

2:56 of its commercial launch partnerships since

2:58 2022, and the Soyuz 5 doesn't appear

3:01 to represent a big enough leap to reverse

3:04 that trend. Longer term, the rocket is

3:06 intended to serve as a building block for a,

3:08 uh, future super heavy launch system, part of

3:10 Russia's stated ambitions for deeper space

3:13 missions.

3:14 Avery: For now, though, it's a debut, and for

3:16 Roscosmos, a symbolic one. The next

3:18 test flights are planned across 2026 and

3:21 2027, with full operational status

3:24 anticipated by the end of the decade. A long

3:27 road ahead, but at least Thursday's first

3:29 step was a successful one.

3:31 Anna: Brushes Soyuz 5 finally off the pad

3:34 and on to the next test.

3:36 Avery: Now for something a little closer to home, or

3:39 more precisely, something in our sky right

3:41 now. Last night, May 1, the full

3:44 flower moon reached peak illumination.

3:46 Anna: And May 2026 is a genuinely special

3:49 month for moon watchers.

3:51 Avery: Tell us more, Anna.

3:52 Anna: So May this year has two full moons. The

3:55 flower moon peaked on May 1, and a second

3:58 full Moon, a blue Moon, will arrive on May

4:00 31. Two full moons in a single calendar

4:03 month is already a relatively rare

4:05 occurrence, happening roughly every two to

4:07 three years. But there's an extra twist this

4:10 year. Both of them are micromoons.

4:13 Avery: Exactly. A, uh, micromoon is the opposite of

4:16 a supermoon. It occurs when a full Moon

4:18 happens near the point in the Moon's

4:20 elliptical orbit where it's farthest from

4:22 Earth, what astronomers call apogee.

4:25 At that distance, the moon appears around 14%

4:28 smaller and about 30% dimmer than it does at

4:31 its closest approach. Not a huge difference

4:34 to the naked eye, but it's a genuine physical

4:36 distinction, though.

4:38 Anna: Why are both May full moons micro moons?

4:41 It comes down to orbital timing. The moon's

4:43 apogee circles around relative to our

4:45 calendar, and this month they happen to align

4:48 twice, giving us a double micro moon. May.

4:51 Avery: For listeners in Australia and New Zealand,

4:53 you've got great autumn skies right now. And

4:55 the flower moon last night would have been

4:57 beautiful as it arced across your northern

4:59 sky. It sat between the red star

5:02 Antares in Scorpius and blue white Spica

5:05 in Virgo. Quite a tableau if you missed it.

5:08 Don't worry. At 99% illumination tonight,

5:11 it still looks essentially full.

5:12 Anna: And for the blue moon, on May 31st, that's

5:15 your next event to mark in your calendar. It

5:18 won't look blue. Of course the name comes

5:20 from a 16th century idiom for something rare.

5:23 But two full moons in one month is always

5:25 worth stepping outside for.

5:27 Avery: The month of May is also great for planets

5:29 right now. Venus and Jupiter are both

5:32 prominent in the evening sky. With the two

5:34 planets slowly closing toward a conjunction

5:36 on June 9th. Saturn and Mars are re

5:39 emerging in the pre dawn east. A uh, busy sky

5:42 for May.

5:42 Anna: Alright, now it's time for something

5:44 completely new. Avery, let's do it.

5:47 Avery: And now the Astronomy Daily weekend

5:49 wrap your guide to the week's biggest stories

5:52 from across the cosmos. I'm Avery.

5:55 Anna: And I'm Anna. This week in space was

5:57 frankly extraordinary. We had history made,

6:00 hardware delivered, a telescope confirmed,

6:03 and a cosmic spectacle that no human had

6:06 ever witnessed before. Let's do this.

6:08 Avery: Our first wrap story is a step back, a full

6:11 exhale to appreciate what NASA and its

6:14 partners pulled off with Artemis 2. Because

6:16 it's been a few weeks now Since Splashdown on

6:18 April 10th and we have the full picture

6:21 and it is genuinely staggering.

6:24 Anna: The headline numbers

6:25 694,481

6:28 miles traveled in total, a peak velocity

6:31 of 24,664 miles

6:34 per hour. A farthest distance from Earth of

6:37 252,756

6:40 miles, surpassing the record previously held

6:42 by Apollo 13 in 1970.

6:45 And a closest approach to the lunar surface

6:48 of 4,067 miles. The

6:51 crew were farther from Earth than any humans

6:53 in history.

6:54 Avery: The mission launched on April 1st. Yes,

6:57 April Fool's Day. Carrying Commander Reid

6:59 Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Mission

7:02 Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space

7:05 Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their

7:08 spacecraft, which the crew named integrity,

7:10 flew a 10 day free return trajectory around

7:13 the moon and back.

7:14 Anna: One of the most watched elements of the

7:16 mission was the heat shield. Artemis I had

7:19 shown some unexpected erosion of the AVcode

7:21 ablative material. And there was significant

7:24 debate before the mission about whether to

7:26 fly with the uh, existing design. Engineers

7:28 and NASA administrator Jared Isaacman

7:31 ultimately decided to proceed. And the data

7:33 coming back now shows char loss was

7:35 significantly reduced compared to Artemis I.

7:38 And consistent with ground testing

7:40 predictions, a uh, huge relief.

7:42 Avery: Orion splashed down just 2.9 miles from

7:45 its target site. Entry velocity was within

7:48 1 mph of predictions. Rick

7:51 Henfling, the entry flight Director put it

7:53 simply. A quarter of a million miles to the

7:56 moon and back and they hit a less than 1

7:58 degree entry angle on the way home. That is

8:01 not luck. That is a thousand people doing

8:03 their jobs.

8:04 Anna: The crew are now in post flight

8:06 Reconditioning at Johnson Center. And in

8:08 their own words, they were moved. Commander

8:10 Reid Wiseman, Victor, Christina and Jeremy,

8:13 we are bonded forever. And no one down here

8:16 is ever going to know what the four of us

8:18 just went through. And it was the most

8:20 special thing that will ever happen in my

8:22 life.

8:23 Avery: Christina Koch described the experience of

8:25 seeing Earth tiny through Orion's window,

8:28 surrounded by blackness, as one of the most

8:31 overwhelming moments of her life. Victor

8:34 Glover said the gratitude he felt was too big

8:37 to fit in one body. And Jeremy

8:39 Hansen, as the crew broke the distance

8:41 record, spoke directly to the next

8:44 generation. We challenge this generation

8:46 and the next to make sure this record is not

8:49 long lived.

8:51 Anna: Host flight assessments are well underway at,

8:53 uh, Kennedy Space center, where the Orion

8:55 capsule has returned. All

8:57 186 Avocote heat shield blocks for

9:00 Artemis III, the upgraded version have

9:02 already been installed, cured, and inspected.

9:05 The next mission is already in motion. And

9:08 that leads to our fourth RAP story.

9:10 Avery: But first, of all, the extraordinary things

9:13 that happened during Artemis 2, there is one

9:16 moment that stands alone. On April

9:19 6, as the crew flew around the far side of

9:22 the Moon, they witnessed something that no

9:24 human being had ever experienced in the

9:27 history of our species. A total solar

9:30 eclipse observed from beyond

9:32 Anna: the Moon on Earth. A total solar

9:35 eclipse, when the Moon completely blocks the

9:37 sun and reveals its corona, lasts a few

9:40 minutes at most. For the Artemis 2 crew,

9:43 totality lasted 57 minutes.

9:46 57 minutes of watching the Sun's outer

9:48 atmosphere glowing around a, uh, completely

9:51 black lunar disk from a vantage point

9:53 4,000 miles above the surface.

9:56 Avery: Victor Glover's descriptions from inside the

9:59 spacecraft were extraordinary. He called

10:01 the Moon a black orb against the gray that

10:04 drifted into blackness. He describes seeing

10:07 Earth shine. The light reflected from Earth,

10:10 illuminating the dark lunar surface as very

10:13 distinct and creating quite an impressive

10:15 visual illusion. And then as the solar

10:18 corona began to emerge from the edges of the

10:20 Moon, he described the streamers as looking

10:23 like what the Luxor spotlight in Las Vegas

10:26 wants to be when it grows up.

10:28 Anna: The crew made genuine scientific observations

10:30 during those 57 minutes. They searched for

10:33 lofted lunar dust, a phenomenon some

10:36 Apollo crews reported and watched for

10:38 micrometeoroid impacts on the darkened lunar

10:40 surface. They reported seeing at least five

10:43 impact flashes. They observed zodiacal light.

10:46 They photographed the corona in unprecedented

10:48 detail. Christina Koch described the

10:51 experience simply. I just had an

10:53 overwhelming sense of being moved by looking

10:56 at the Moon.

10:57 Avery: The images NASA has since released are

10:59 breathtaking. The glowing halo of the

11:02 solar corona against the black lunar disk,

11:05 with Earthshine illuminating the Moon's face.

11:08 Venus and Saturn visible as pinpoints of

11:10 light in the frame. Scientists are still

11:13 analyzing whether the halo effect is pure

11:15 corona, zodiacal light, or a combination.

11:19 Anna: Victor Glover perhaps said it best. I know

11:21 this observation won't be of any scientific

11:24 value, but I'm really glad we launched on

11:26 April 1, because without that specific launch

11:29 date, the geometry simply wouldn't have

11:31 worked. Four people in the right place at the

11:34 right moment to see something no human had

11:37 ever seen. That was Artemis 2.

11:40 Avery: Our third rep story is about the next great

11:42 space telescope, and it comes with a headline

11:45 that NASA doesn't get to write very often.

11:47 Ahead of schedule and under budget,

11:50 the

11:50 Anna: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, Roman

11:53 for short, has a confirmed September

11:55 2026 launch target. NASA

11:58 Administrator Jared Isaacman announced this

12:00 at a press conference at Goddard Space flight

12:02 Center on April 21. Standing in front of the

12:05 completed telescope eight months ahead of

12:08 NASA's committed deadline, under budget and

12:10 fully assembled, let's talk

12:12 Avery: about what this telescope will actually do

12:15 because the numbers are mind bending.

12:17 Roman's primary mirror is the same

12:20 2.4 meter diameter as Hubble's,

12:23 but its field of view is 100 times larger.

12:26 What Hubble would take 2000 years to

12:28 survey Roman can do in a year.

12:31 Isaacman put it this Roman will give the

12:34 Earth a new atlas of the universe. There is

12:37 not a screen in existence large enough to

12:40 display a single Roman image at full

12:42 resolution.

12:43 Anna: In its five year primary mission, Roman

12:46 is expected to discover over 100,000

12:49 distant worlds, hundreds of millions of

12:52 stars and billions of galaxies. It

12:55 will conduct three core surveys focused on

12:58 dark energy, dark matter and wide field

13:00 cosmology. It also carries a

13:03 coronagraph instrument that can directly

13:05 image exoplanets by blocking out the glare

13:08 of their host stars. A technology

13:11 demonstrator that could change how we search

13:13 for worlds like our own,

13:15 Avery: the telescope is now undergoing final tests

13:18 at Goddard. It will ship to Kennedy Space

13:20 center in mid June for launch preparations

13:22 before riding a SpaceX Falcon Heavy to its

13:25 final destination, the Sun. Earth L2

13:28 Lagrange point, about a million miles from

13:31 Earth, same address as James Webb.

13:33 Anna: The Roman telescope is named for Dr.

13:36 Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first

13:39 chief of Astronomy and one of the key

13:41 architects of the Hubble Telescope. Known

13:44 as the Mother of Hubble, she spent her

13:47 career making the case for space based

13:49 astronomy. September 2026

13:52 her namesake telescope joins the fleet.

13:55 We cannot wait.

13:57 Avery: And our final wrap story brings us back to

14:00 the Moon because even as Artemis 2 was being

14:02 celebrated, Kennedy Space center was already

14:05 turning the page.

14:06 Anna: On April 27th and 28th, while the

14:09 Artemis 2 Orion capsule was being

14:12 unloaded on one side of Kennedy Space

14:14 center for post flight analysis. The

14:17 Artemis II ISLS core

14:20 stage was arriving on the other side via uh,

14:23 the Pegasus barge from New Orleans.

14:26 Two missions, one spaceport, one

14:29 extraordinary week.

14:30 Avery: The core stage is the backbone of the SLS

14:33 rocket, 212ft tall,

14:36 containing the liquid hydrogen and liquid

14:38 oxygen tanks that hold more than

14:40 733,000 gallons of propellant.

14:44 It will be joined with its engine section and

14:46 solid rocket boosters in the vehicle assembly

14:48 building over the coming months ahead of the

14:51 2027 launch.

14:52 Anna: Now Artemis 3 has a revised mission

14:55 profile compared to what was originally

14:57 planned under changes announced by

15:00 Administrator isaacman in February,

15:02 Artemis 3 is no longer a lunar landing

15:05 mission. Instead it's been redesigned as a

15:08 crewed Earth orbit test. Docking the

15:10 Orion spacecraft with one or both of

15:13 the commercial human landing system vehicles,

15:17 Face X's Starship HLS and

15:19 Blue Origin's Blue Moon Lander.

15:22 Avery: Think of it as Apollo 9 for the Artemis era,

15:25 a critical step in validating the docking

15:27 procedures and systems that will be needed

15:30 before astronauts can actually descend to the

15:32 lunar surface. The first crewed landing is

15:34 now Artemis 4 targeted for 2028.

15:38 Anna: The Artemis III Orion crew module is

15:41 already at Kennedy undergoing functional

15:43 tests. All 186

15:46 upgraded AVCOT Heat shield locks, the

15:49 improved version informed by Artemis 2 data,

15:52 are installed and inspected. The four

15:54 RS25 engines for the core stage

15:57 are due to arrive from Stennis Space center

16:00 by July.

16:02 Avery: The Crew for Artemis 3 hasn't been announced

16:04 yet, but they're out there somewhere knowing

16:06 that their moment is approaching.

16:08 Anna: From Artemis 2 splashing down to

16:11 Artemis 3 hardware through the door. This was

16:14 a week that showed NASA is not pausing for

16:16 breath. Onwards to the moon.

16:19 Avery: And that is our first ever Astronomy Daily

16:22 weekend wrap.

16:23 Six stories One extraordinary week.

16:26 Russia launched a new rocket. Maze Moon is

16:29 doing something rare. Artemis 2 left us

16:32 speechless. The Roman telescope is almost

16:34 ready to fly and Artemis 3 is already

16:37 assembling in the VAB.

16:39 Anna: This is why we do this show. Thanks so much

16:41 for spending some of your weekend with us. If

16:44 you enjoyed today's format, let us know. Find

16:47 us at astronomydaily IO or on

16:50 social media astrodailypod.

16:52 Your feedback genuinely shapes the show.

16:55 Until next time, keep looking up clear skies

16:58 everyone.

16:59 Avery: This is Astronomy Daily.