Turbulent Times for SpaceX, a Monstrous Comet in the Oort Cloud, and Europe's Space Revival

0:00 Anna: Hey there space enthusiasts and welcome to Astronomy Daily. I'm your host, Anna, and I'm so glad you could join us today for another journey through the cosmos. We've got some really captivating stories lined up for you this episode. We're going to dive into some big news from SpaceX, talking about their latest Starship developments which have been quite, shall we say, explosive recently. And then we'll shift gears to something truly immense, a colossal Oort cloud comet that's making its way through our solar system.

0:30 And we'll also touch on Europe's push to reclaim its status as a space power. So stay tuned for all that and more. Alright, let's talk about SpaceX, shall we? Because they've been in the news again, and not for the reason they usually like to be their newest Starship spacecraft. This massive 171 foot tall vehicle experienced an explosion on a test stand at their Starbase site late last Wednesday night. This happened as they were getting ready to ignite its six Raptor engines for what's called a static fire trial, which is a pretty common pre launch test.

1:05 Now, A day later, SpaceX narrowed down the likely cause. Initial analysis, they say, points to the potential failure of a pressurised tank, specifically what they call a copv, or composite overwrapped pressure vessel. This tank, which holds gaseous nitrogen and is located in Starship's nosecone area. But they're still doing a full data review. Good news though, there were no reported injuries from this explosion. All SpaceX personnel at Starbase are safe and folks living around the site near Brownsville shouldn't worry about contamination.

1:37 SpaceX has done independent tests on materials inside Starship and they've confirmed no chemical, biological or toxicological risks. Plus they're coordinating with local, state and federal agencies on environmental and safety impacts. Now, this incident did cause some damage around the test stand at their Massey site. Not the orbital launch mount mind you, but still it ignited several fires there, which are being assessed once it's safe to approach. Obviously this explosion is going to push back the timeline for Starship's 10th flight test, which SpaceX had hoped to launch by the end of this month.

2:13 It's not clear yet by how much, but it definitely shifts things to the right, as they say. This is also the latest in a series of setbacks for the starship upper stages. SpaceX actually lost the vehicle on its last three flight tests, which happened in January, March and May of this, uh, year. The upper stage, or ship, as they call it, has had a bit of A tough run. Interestingly, the first stage, known as Super Heavy, has had a much better track record lately. For example, on flights 7 and 8, this huge booster successfully returned to Starbase and was even caught by the launch tower's chopstick arms, which is a jaw dropping feat to watch.

2:53 On Flight 8, which launched on March 6, the Super Heavy booster was successfully caught. But the ship, the upper stage, it started to tumble after several of its six Raptor engines failed toward the end of its ascent burn. SpaceX lost contact about nine minutes into the flight, and it presumably detonated high in the sky. This kind of mirrored Flight seven, where they also lost ship at about the same point. SpaceX traced that Flight 7 anomaly to what they described as a harmonic response several times stronger in flight than had been seen during testing, which caused increased stress and propellant leaks, leading to fires.

3:27 They've since taken steps to minimise recurrence, like conducting a longer static fire test with Flight 8's ship and making hardware changes to fuel lines and propellant temperatures. They've even added new vents and a purge system using gaseous nitrogen to make the area more robust to propellant leakage. In the long run, SpaceX plans to bring both Super Heavy and Ship back to Starbase for these launch tower catches. Their vision is for this fully reusable rocket to fly multiple times per day, making Mars settlement, which is Elon Musk's long held goal, economically feasible.

4:03 They've requested approval for 25 Starship launches from Starbase in 2025 alone. So despite these recent challenges, they're still aiming high. Okay, let's pivot now from rockets and explosions to something a little more serene, but still incredibly exciting. A truly monstrous comet spotted way out in the outer solar system. Astronomers have recently completed a long range observation of a comet named C 2014 UN 271 Bernardinelli Bernstein. And this thing is just massive. It's actually one of the largest Oort Cloud comets ever observed, measuring a whopping 140 kilometres across.

4:43 For some context, Halley's Comet, which we all know is only about 15 kilometres across. So imagine something nearly 10 times that size. This comet, UN 271, is currently pretty far from the sun, about 16 and a half astronomical units away, which makes it super tough to observe. But astronomers have been using the powerful Atacama Large Millimetre Submillimeter Array, or alma, in Chile to keep an eye on it. And what they're seeing is quite surprising for something so far out there. They're watching jets of carbon monoxide gas, erupting from its nucleus.

5:16 That's a really unexpected level of activity for a comet that's so distant and cold. The comet was actually Discovered back in 2014 by astronomers Gary Bernstein and Pedro Bernardinelli, who spotted it as a faint fuzzy smudge in archival images from the Dark Energy Survey. Its slow movement immediately told them it was far out in the solar system and therefore quite large. This thing is on an incredibly long journey. Its perihelion, which is its closest approach to the sun, won't be until January 2031.

5:47 And even then it'll still be 10.9 AU from the sun just outside Saturn's orbit. It's on a 2.8 million year orbit inbound, and then a 4.6 million year orbit outbound heading almost a light year away, about a fifth of the way to Proxima Centauri, our nearest star. The difference in its inbound and outbound orbit, by the way, is is likely due to interactions with planets when it's closer to the Sun. Nathan Roth from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre noted that these measurements give us a look at how this enormous icy world works and that they're seeing explosive outgassing patterns that raise new questions about how this comet will evolve.

6:26 Now, you might be wondering, is this giant comet going to hit Earth? And thankfully no. While a comet of this size is, it's 12 times the size of the Chicxulub impactor that wiped out the dinosaurs. Would definitely be an extinction level event if it came our way. UN271 isn't coming anywhere near the inner solar system, so breathe easy. It's a bit of a shame it won't visit the inner solar system closer, because it would put on an amazing show even bigger than Comet Hale Bopp. But its appearance really shows us just what might be lurking out there in the remote icy realms of the outer solar system and how active these distant objects can be, which is pretty cool from the distant icy realms of comets.

7:09 Let's zoom in a bit closer to Earth and actually to the geopolitical arena of space. French President Emmanuel Macron recently made some pretty strong statements emphasising that Europe really needs to re establish itself as a global space power. And he's particularly focused on the increasingly competitive low Earth orbit or or LEO satellite market. Macron was speaking at the Paris Air show and he didn't mince words. He warned that France, and by extension Europe, risked being completely squeezed out of this crucial LEO satellite constellation market.

7:42 He specifically called out players like SpaceX who have as he put it disrupted the market and also Amazon, who's getting involved, plus China who's not far behind. He said we all need to be very clear headed about this situation. The urgency here stems from growing geopolitical tensions which are pushing countries to focus on the independence of their satellite infrastructure. Macron believes that relying on non European constellations in low orbit would be, and I quote, madness. He really wants to see Europe, with France at its core, become a space power once again.

8:17 So what's the plan? Well, he's calling for a significant increase in collective investment, both public and private. He also suggested that non European partners like those in the Gulf, India, Canada and Brazil should team up with France. It's all about building strong alliances and shared solutions. As part of this push, France has actually more than doubled its stake in the satellite operator Utilsat, making it the largest shareholder in a deal worth about 1.35 billion euros. Utilsat, which by the way merged with the British firm OneWeb in 2023, is now the world's second largest operator of low earth orbit satellites, right behind Starlink.

8:57 So they're actively positioning Eutelsat as a European alternative, especially for companies and nations looking for sovereign solutions and not wanting to rely solely on Elon Musk's ventures. Looking ahead, France also plans to organise a major space Summit in early 2026. The goal there is to really mobilise partners globally, both public and private, to push this vision forward. It really highlights how critical this independent space infrastructure is becoming, not just for telecommunications and navigation, but also for emergency response and even defence.

9:31 It's a big deal. Speaking of global space efforts, the European Space Agency, or esa, is celebrating a pretty big milestone, their first half century. To mark this occasion, they've released a new publication called Issei 50 Hallmark Achievements Across 50 Years. And it really highlights some incredibly pivotal moments. From landing on a comet, which is just wild to think about, to fostering Europe's space industry, contributing a lab for the space shuttle, and even implementing the world's most precise satellite navigation system.

10:03 It's a huge retrospective. The that really underscores ESA's crucial role in undertaking ambitious projects that frankly would just be too big for any single nation to tackle alone. As uh, ESA Director General Jos Aschbacher puts it, being an agency means taking action to deliver results too big and ambitious for any single nation. It really is all about that collective power. Kai Ua Schrogel, who was the agency coordinator for the 50th anniversary, actually mentioned that the biggest challenge wasn't deciding what to include in the publication, but actually what to leave out, because ISSEI has achieved such an enormously long list of remarkable milestones over the years.

10:42 So the book isn't just about the top achievements, but truly hallmark ones, showcasing technical miracles, historic firsts, and honestly, just moments of pure inspiration that highlight the broad range of ESA's activities. It makes you think about what a Europe without its space agency would even look like. Director General Aschbacher encourages readers to imagine the wider universe would be a much dimmer, less known place. Our continent might have fewer native astronauts or space scientists, and our telecommunications, navigation, and even weather forecasting could well be dependent on foreign powers.

11:21 So ESA's work is critical for maintaining Europe's independence and advancing its capabilities in space. The 50 achievements listed in this publication are actually grouped according to the five strategic goals of Issei's Strategy 2040, which is their vision for the next 15 years. So they're not just looking back, they're treating these past results as baselines to build upon for the future. The publication is available as a PDF and I'll include a link in the show Notes if you'd like to download a copy.

11:53 That's all for this episode of Astronomy Daily. Wow, we covered a lot of ground today, didn't we? From the latest on SpaceX's Starship and those ongoing challenges they're facing to that truly monstrous Oort Cloud comet just doing its thing way out there, and even Europe's big push for space independence. And let's not Forget ise celebrating 50 years of incredible achievements. Thank you so much for tuning in and joining me. This has been Anna, your host, and I really invite you to visit our website at astronomydaily IO.

12:24 That's astronomydaily IO. There you can actually sign up for our completely free daily newsletter and just catch up on all the latest space and astronomy news with our constantly updating news feed. And don't forget to subscribe to Astronomy Daily wherever you get your podcasts, whether that's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, anywhere else you listen. That way you'll never miss an episode. Until next time, keep looking up. This is Anna signing off.