Latest / Space News Today / Slow Crawl, Fast Comet

Transcript

Slow Crawl, Fast Comet · Space News Today

0:00
Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
0:03
your daily guide to what's happening in
0:05
space. I'm Anna.
0:07
>> And I'm Avery. It is Tuesday, February
0:10
24th, 2026, and we have a busy show for
0:14
you today.
0:15
>> We do. The big headline, the one
0:17
everyone in the space community is
0:19
talking about right now, is Artemis. And
0:22
specifically, what is happening to that
0:24
rocket at this very moment? Quite
0:27
literally as we record this, the SLS
0:29
rocket is making a very slow journey
0:32
about 1 mph back to its garage. We have
0:36
all the details on that. We also have a
0:39
genuinely exciting story from Mars, a
0:42
wild mission concept to chase an
0:44
interstellar comet. China's mystery
0:46
space plane is back in orbit. And we
0:49
wrap up with some beautiful red giant
0:51
science that solves a mystery that's
0:53
been bugging astronomers since the
0:55
1970s.
0:57
>> Plus, we run through this week's launch
0:59
schedule, and it is surprisingly busy
1:01
despite all the Aremis drama. Let's get
1:04
into it.
1:05
>> So, Avery, let's start with Artemis
1:07
because this is a story that has taken
1:09
yet another dramatic turn. Honestly,
1:12
Anna, this one stings a little because
1:14
just last week we were watching a really
1:16
successful second wet dress rehearsal
1:18
and NASA was talking about March 6th as
1:21
a real launch date. Things were looking
1:23
good.
1:24
>> And then Saturday happened
1:26
>> and then Saturday happened. Overnight on
1:28
February 21st, engineers noticed
1:30
something concerning, an interruption in
1:33
the flow of helium to the rocket's upper
1:35
stage, specifically the interim
1:37
cryogenic propulsion stage or ICPS.
1:41
And just to be clear for listeners who
1:43
might be newer to the show, what does
1:45
the ICPS actually do?
1:47
>> Great question. The ICPS is the upper
1:50
stage of the SLS rocket. It sits above
1:52
the core stage and it's what fires to
1:55
push Orion and the crew on their trans
1:58
lunar trajectory toward the moon. It
2:00
uses helium internally to do two
2:02
critical jobs. It maintains
2:04
environmental conditions around its
2:06
engine and it pressurizes the liquid
2:09
hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant
2:11
tanks. So helium is not optional. Helium
2:15
is fundamental.
2:16
>> And this helium flow issue appeared
2:18
after the wet dress rehearsal had
2:20
completed, not during it, which makes it
2:23
particularly tricky to pin down.
2:25
>> Exactly. The WDR itself went smoothly.
2:28
It was during reconfiguration afterward
2:31
that data showed the interruption. NASA
2:33
administrator Jared Isaacman posted
2:35
about it on Saturday, saying the team
2:37
was investigating three possible causes.
2:40
A blocked filter between the vehicle and
2:42
ground support equipment, a failed quick
2:45
disconnect umbilical interface, or a
2:47
failed check valve on the vehicle,
2:50
similar to what caused delays on Artemis
2:52
1.
2:53
>> And regardless of which of those three
2:55
it turns out to be, the answer is the
2:57
same.
2:58
>> The answer is always the same. They have
3:01
to go back to the vehicle assembly
3:02
building. You can't fix any of those
3:05
things on the launchpad. So NASA
3:07
confirmed a roll back and that roll back
3:09
is happening today, February 24th. The
3:12
SLS, Orion, and the whole stack are
3:15
being loaded onto the crawler and making
3:18
that 4.2 mile journey back to the VAB at
3:22
roughly 1 mph,
3:24
>> which takes several hours. It is not a
3:27
fast vehicle. It's not. The crawler
3:29
itself weighs about 6 12 million pounds
3:32
unloaded and it's burning around 165
3:35
gall of diesel per mile. It is an
3:38
extraordinary piece of engineering in
3:40
its own right.
3:41
>> So where does this leave the mission
3:43
timeline?
3:44
>> March is definitively off the table.
3:46
Isaac man was very clear about that.
3:49
April is now the earliest possible
3:51
window and NASA has said that quick
3:53
action to get back to the VAB could
3:55
still preserve April. A full media
3:57
briefing is expected this week. The
4:00
crew, commander Reed Weisman, pilot
4:02
Victor Glover, mission specialist
4:04
Christina Ko, and Canadian astronaut
4:06
Jeremy Hansen had just entered
4:09
quarantine and have now been released
4:10
again. This would be their second exit
4:13
from quarantine,
4:14
>> which tells you something about how hard
4:16
this process has been. And this is still
4:19
the first crude mission beyond low Earth
4:21
orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
4:25
The stakes are enormous.
4:27
>> They really are. NASA's under pressure
4:30
both from the public and from the White
4:32
House to get this done. IsaacMen has
4:34
been quite transparent about the
4:36
challenges, which is appreciated. We'll
4:38
keep you updated as the investigation
4:40
progresses. A media briefing is expected
4:42
this week.
4:43
>> Okay, let's lift the mood a little
4:45
because our next story is genuinely
4:47
brilliant and it comes from Mars.
4:50
>> This is one of my favorites of the week.
4:52
NASA's Perseverance rover has just been
4:54
given something that effectively
4:56
functions as GPS on a planet that has no
4:59
GPS satellites whatsoever.
5:01
>> So, how do you navigate on Mars? Walk us
5:04
through how it used to work.
5:06
>> So, historically, Perseverance used a
5:08
system called visual odometry. Every few
5:11
feet, it takes camera images of the
5:13
surrounding rocks and geological
5:14
features, and it tracks how those
5:16
features shift in frame to estimate how
5:19
far it's moved. It's clever, but the
5:21
problem is that tiny errors add up. On a
5:24
long drive, the rover's internal sense
5:26
of where it is could be off by more than
5:28
35 m. That's over 100 ft. When it hit
5:32
that threshold of uncertainty, its
5:34
safety systems would kick in and it
5:36
would just stop and wait for
5:37
instructions from Earth.
5:38
>> And with communication delays of up to
5:40
24 hours, that could mean an entire day
5:43
of lost exploration time.
5:45
>> Exactly. So NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab
5:48
developed a new system called Mars
5:50
Global Localization. Here's how it
5:52
works. Perseverance takes a full 360°
5:55
panorama with its navigation cameras.
5:58
Then an algorithm compares that ground
6:00
level view with highresolution orbital
6:02
maps captured by the Mars Reconnaissance
6:04
Orbiter far above. It matches the
6:06
terrain, the ridges, rocks, slopes, and
6:09
triangulates an exact position. The
6:11
whole process takes about 2 minutes. 2
6:14
minutes to know where you are with 25 cm
6:17
accuracy. That is remarkable.
6:20
>> What makes it even clever is where the
6:22
computing power comes from. It runs on
6:25
the helicopter base station, the
6:26
processor that Perseverance used to
6:28
communicate with Ingenuity. Ingenuity
6:31
fluid's 72nd and final flight last year.
6:34
So that processor was sitting idle. It
6:36
runs more than 100 times faster than the
6:39
rover's main computers. The team
6:41
essentially repurposed it. So ingenuity
6:44
keeps giving even in retirement.
6:46
>> It really does. Bars global localization
6:49
was used successfully for the first time
6:51
in regular mission operations on
6:53
February 2nd and again on February 16th.
6:56
JPL's chief engineer of robotics
6:58
operations, Vandy Verma, described it as
7:01
giving the rover GPS, saying it can now
7:03
drive for potentially unlimited
7:05
distances without calling home.
7:07
>> And this has implications beyond just
7:09
Mars, doesn't it?
7:11
>> Big implications. NASA's already looking
7:13
at adapting this for future lunar
7:15
missions where you have difficult
7:17
lighting conditions and long cold nights
7:19
that make precise location data even
7:21
more critical. And if we ever have
7:23
astronauts driving pressurized rovers on
7:25
Mars, they won't be able to wait for
7:27
Houston to tell them where they are.
7:29
This is exactly the kind of technology
7:31
they'll need.
7:32
>> What a story. 5 years on Mars and
7:35
Perseverance just keeps getting smarter.
7:38
>> And hopefully so are we. Now, this next
7:40
story, I love this one because it is
7:43
genuinely audacious. We're talking about
7:45
a mission concept that was published
7:47
this week for chasing down an
7:49
interstellar comet. Avery set the scene.
7:53
>> Right. So, our audience will remember
7:54
comet 3i/ATLS,
7:57
the third confirmed interstellar object
7:59
ever detected in our solar system,
8:01
discovered in July 2025. It came
8:04
screaming through from outside the solar
8:06
system, made its closest approach to the
8:08
sun last October, swung past Venus in
8:11
November, and came closest to Earth in
8:14
December. It is now racing away from us
8:16
at over 60 km/s,
8:19
>> which is extraordinarily fast. For
8:22
context, that's faster than any
8:24
spacecraft humanity has ever launched.
8:27
>> Much faster. And that speed is the whole
8:29
problem. Researchers from the Initiative
8:32
for Interstellar Studies published new
8:34
work this week exploring how you could
8:37
actually send a spacecraft to intercept
8:39
it. The short answer is you need to do
8:42
something genuinely extreme. They call
8:45
it a solar oirth maneuver.
8:47
>> Explain that to us.
8:49
>> So the oirth effect is actually a
8:52
principle used in basically every rocket
8:54
launch. It says that if you fire your
8:56
engines when you're moving fast, you get
8:59
a bigger boost than if you fire them
9:01
when you're going slowly. Normally, it's
9:03
applied when a spacecraft is at the
9:05
closest point of its orbit around the
9:07
planet. What this mission proposes is
9:10
doing it at the closest point of a solar
9:13
orbit, a literal close flyby of the sun
9:16
itself. We're talking 3.2 solar radi
9:20
from the sun's surface. That is
9:22
extremely close. How close is that?
9:25
Actually,
9:26
>> to put it in perspective, the Parker
9:28
Solar Probe goes closer, but even that
9:31
is an extraordinary engineering
9:33
challenge. At that distance, the heat
9:35
and radiation are intense. The
9:38
spacecraft would need serious shielding.
9:41
But the gravitational kick from firing
9:43
your engines that close to the sun is so
9:46
powerful that you could theoretically
9:48
reach speeds never achieved by
9:50
human-made objects. And then you'd still
9:53
need how long to actually reach 3i-atls?
9:57
>> If launched in 2025, which the
10:00
researchers identify as the optimal
10:02
window based on the alignment of Earth,
10:04
Jupiter, the sun, and the comet, the
10:07
spacecraft would reach 3-TLS
10:10
by around 2085
10:13
at a distance of approximately 732
10:16
astronomical units from the sun. For
10:19
comparison, Voyager 1 has been traveling
10:21
for nearly 50 years and is only at about
10:25
170 AU.
10:27
>> So this would be the most distant rende
10:30
view in human history
10:32
>> by a massive margin. And only a flyby
10:35
would be possible, not orbit insertion
10:37
because both the spacecraft and the
10:39
comet would be moving so fast. But even
10:42
a flyby would be extraordinary because
10:45
3II-TLS
10:47
didn't form in our solar system. It
10:50
formed around the different star,
10:52
possibly one that no longer exists. Its
10:55
chemical fingerprints could tell us
10:57
things about planetary formation
10:59
elsewhere in the galaxy that we simply
11:01
cannot learn any other way.
11:03
>> It's one of those stories where the
11:05
scale of ambition just takes your breath
11:08
away. Is there any serious movement
11:10
toward actually doing this?
11:12
>> The researchers are clear this is a
11:14
proposal, not a funded mission. But 2035
11:17
is only 9 years away. Decisions would
11:20
need to start being made soon. And three
11:23
Atlas won't be the last interstellar
11:25
visitor. The more of these we find, the
11:28
more valuable the case for chasing one
11:30
becomes. Staying in the realm of things
11:32
we don't know much about, let's talk
11:35
about China's Shenlong spacecraft, which
11:37
launched on its fourth mission earlier
11:39
this month. Shenl Long, which means
11:42
divine dragon in Chinese, is one of
11:44
those topics that generates a lot of
11:46
fascination precisely because so little
11:49
is officially confirmed. This is China's
11:51
reusable robotic space plane. Broadly
11:54
analogist to the US Air Force's X37B,
11:58
it launched from the Ju Kuan satellite
12:00
launch center on February 6th or 7th
12:03
aboard a Long March 2F rocket.
12:05
>> And as usual, China hasn't said much.
12:09
>> Extremely little. The official line via
12:11
state media Shin Wa is that the mission
12:14
will conduct quote technology
12:16
verification and will provide technical
12:18
support for the peaceful use of space.
12:21
No launch time was given, no
12:23
photographs, no mission duration,
12:26
nothing.
12:27
>> But we can look at what the previous
12:28
missions have done and draw some
12:30
inferences.
12:31
>> We can The first mission in September
12:34
2020 lasted 2 days. The second in 2022
12:38
lasted 276 days. The third launched
12:42
December 2023 lasted 268 days. So recent
12:47
missions have been around 9 months in
12:49
orbit. If this one follows the pattern,
12:52
we might expect it to return around
12:54
November or December.
12:56
>> And what have analysts pieced together
12:58
about what it does up there?
13:00
>> This is where it gets interesting.
13:03
Western space tracking organizations,
13:05
including the US space force and private
13:07
space situational awareness companies,
13:10
have observed that Shenlong conducts
13:12
what are called rendevous and proximity
13:14
operations. It maneuvers close to other
13:17
objects in orbit. It has deployed small
13:20
objects, possible subsatellites, during
13:23
at least two previous missions. One of
13:25
those objects was observed transmitting
13:28
signals over North America, leading some
13:30
analysts to describe it as a potential
13:32
mobile signals intelligence platform
13:35
>> and the anti-satellite angle.
13:38
>> Analysts are cautious. Some experts
13:40
point out that Shenlong's small payload
13:43
bay and limited power generation make it
13:45
an unlikely direct space weapon. But the
13:48
ability to approach other satellites at
13:50
close range is inherently dual use. It
13:54
could be inspection. It could be
13:55
servicing. It could be something else.
13:58
We genuinely don't know. What we do know
14:01
is that the US X37B's eighth mission is
14:04
also currently in orbit. Launched last
14:07
August to test quantum inertial sensors
14:09
and high bandwidth laser links. These
14:12
are the only two countries flying
14:14
reusable space planes right now. and
14:16
they're both being quite secretive about
14:18
it.
14:19
>> The new space race conducted largely in
14:22
silence.
14:23
>> Perfectly put.
14:24
>> Now, let's do a quick run through of
14:26
what else is happening on the launch
14:28
front this week. Because despite all the
14:30
Aremis drama, the commercial sector does
14:33
not stop.
14:34
>> It really doesn't. Today, February 24th,
14:38
we actually have a launch scheduled from
14:40
Wallup's flight facility in Virginia.
14:43
Rocket Lab's Haste rocket hypersonic
14:45
accelerator suborbital test electron is
14:49
carrying a fascinating payload called
14:51
Dart AE. It's a scamjet powered
14:54
hypersonic vehicle built by Brisbane
14:56
based company hypersonics launch systems
14:59
and this will be its first ever flight.
15:01
The mission is nicknamed that's not a
15:03
knife which we appreciate.
15:05
>> Australian hypersonics delivered with
15:08
Australian humor.
15:10
>> Exactly. SpaceX also has a Falcon 9
15:13
Starlink launch out of Cape Canaveral
15:14
today. Wednesday brings another Starlink
15:17
from Vandenberg, but the standout launch
15:19
of the week is Friday. Firefly
15:21
Aerospace's Alpha rocket is returning to
15:23
flight on the Stairway to 7 mission.
15:26
>> Tell us about that one.
15:28
>> So Fireflyy's last alpha launch was in
15:30
April 2025 and it ended in failure. The
15:33
rocket had an anomaly and the mission
15:35
was lost. This is their return to flight
15:38
and it's significant for another reason.
15:41
This will be the last flight of Alpha in
15:43
its current block one configuration.
15:45
They're upgrading to block 2 for flight
15:47
8 which introduces in-house avionics and
15:50
thermal improvements. So flight 7 is
15:53
essentially a test bed for some of those
15:55
new systems ahead of the full upgrade.
15:57
>> A lot riding on it.
15:59
>> Quite a lot. Then the week closes out on
16:02
Sunday, March 1st with two more SpaceX
16:05
Starlink missions, one from Vandenberg
16:08
and one from Cape Canaveral. By the end
16:10
of this week, SpaceX will have surpassed
16:13
27 Falcon 9 launches for 2026 alone. The
16:18
cadence is extraordinary.
16:20
>> And all of this happening while the SLS
16:22
is making its 1m hour journey back to
16:25
the VAB. Quite the contrast. The
16:28
juxaposition pretty much writes itself.
16:31
>> And we close today with some beautiful
16:34
deep science. A new study published this
16:36
week in the journal Nature Astronomy has
16:39
solved a mystery about red giant stars
16:41
that have had astronomers puzzled since
16:43
the 1970s.
16:45
>> I love this one. So, a bit of
16:47
background. Red giants are what stars
16:49
like our sun become when they exhaust
16:52
their hydrogen fuel. They expand
16:54
dramatically and undergo chemical
16:56
changes. One of the most striking
16:58
observations has been a consistent
17:00
decline in the ratio of carbon 12 to
17:03
carbon 13 in their outer layers.
17:06
Scientists knew this had to be caused by
17:08
material rising up from the nuclear
17:10
furnace in the core. But they could not
17:12
figure out how that material crossed the
17:15
stable barrier layer separating the core
17:17
from the outer envelope
17:19
>> until now.
17:20
>> Until now. A team led by Simon Bluen at
17:23
the University of Victoria's Astronomy
17:25
Research Center working with colleagues
17:27
at the University of Minnesota used
17:30
cuttingedge three-dimensional
17:31
hydrodnamic simulations to model the
17:34
actual fluid dynamics inside a red
17:36
giant. And they found the answer. It's
17:39
rotation.
17:40
>> Stellar rotation drives the mixing
17:43
>> in a really dramatic way. Their
17:46
simulations showed that in non-rotating
17:48
stars, waves passing through the barrier
17:50
layer transport very little material,
17:52
which is what previous models predicted.
17:55
But once you add rotation, it amplifies
17:58
those waves enormously. Mixing rates
18:00
exceed non-rotating stars by over 100
18:03
times, and they increase with faster
18:06
rotation rates. That matches exactly
18:08
what we observe on real red giant
18:10
surfaces.
18:11
>> And these weren't small simulations.
18:13
They used some serious computing power.
18:15
>> Two supercomputers, the Texas Advanced
18:18
Computing Center at UT Austin and the
18:20
brand new Trillium Supercomputing
18:22
Cluster at the University of Toronto's
18:24
CINET facility. The principal
18:26
investigator, Faulk Herurwig, described
18:29
these as the most computationally
18:31
intensive stellar convection simulations
18:33
ever performed. They were only possible
18:36
because of very recent advances in
18:38
supercomputing.
18:38
>> And what does this mean for us? For our
18:40
son? In about five billion years, our
18:43
sun will enter its red giant phase.
18:46
It'll expand and likely swallow Mercury,
18:49
Venus, and probably Earth. Beyond the
18:51
frost line, Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond,
18:55
those worlds will move into the new
18:56
habitable zone. This research gives us
18:59
much better predictions of exactly how
19:01
our sun's chemistry will evolve during
19:03
that transition. What elements will
19:05
appear on its surface, how fast changes
19:08
will occur,
19:08
>> which sounds like a very long-term
19:10
concern. But understanding how our star
19:12
will die is genuinely important science.
19:14
>> It is, and the techniques developed here
19:17
have applications far beyond astronomy.
19:19
The same simulation methods apply to
19:21
ocean currents, atmospheric dynamics,
19:24
even blood flow. Balkerwig is already
19:27
working with researchers in those fields
19:28
to develop new largecale simulation
19:31
tools.
19:31
>> The universe teaching us about the
19:33
ocean. I love it. And that is your
19:35
astronomy daily for Tuesday, February
19:38
24th. Big day for Artemis and not in any
19:40
way anyone hoped. But as we've seen
19:43
today, space science never stops.
19:45
Whether it's a rover finding its feet on
19:47
Mars or scientists finally understanding
19:49
why red giant stars change the way they
19:52
do. If you want to keep up with the
19:53
Aremis roll back developments, we'll
19:56
have updates in tomorrow's show once
19:58
NASA has held that media briefing. In
20:01
the meantime, you can find us at
20:03
astronomyaily.io
20:05
and at astrodaily pod across all your
20:08
social platforms.
20:09
>> Subscribe if you haven't already. Leave
20:11
us a review if you have a moment. It
20:13
really does help. And we will see you
20:14
tomorrow.
20:15
>> Clear skies everyone.
20:16
>> Clear skies.
20:20
Stories told
20:28
stories told
20:36
stories