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Artemis II Crew Lands in Florida — Launch Countdown Is On · Space News Today

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
• 0:02
  I'm Anna.
• 0:04
  >> And I'm Avery. It is Friday, March 27th,
• 0:08
  2026. And our producer has given us an
• 0:10
  absolutely stacked show. Today
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  >> we are literally 5 days from a crew of
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  four astronauts launching around the
• 0:18
  moon for the first time in over 50
• 0:20
  years. And today, those four people
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  touch down in Florida.
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  >> We've also got the most detailed look at
• 0:26
  Saturn ever captured. Lightning on
• 0:29
  Jupiter that makes Earth storms look
• 0:30
  like a birthday sparkler. And a 50-year
• 0:33
  stellar mystery finally cracked open by
• 0:35
  a Japanese space telescope.
• 0:37
  >> Plus, we're narrowing down the short
• 0:39
  list of exoplanets most likely to harbor
• 0:42
  alien life. And we have a juicy update
• 0:45
  on that dramatic rocket scrub from
• 0:47
  yesterday.
• 0:47
  >> Spoiler, it was a boat.
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  >> It was absolutely a boat. Let's get into
• 0:52
  it.
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  >> Let's go then.
• 0:54
  >> All right, story one. and Avery. This
• 0:56
  one is really happening today. As we
• 0:59
  record, the Aremis 2 crew is flying into
• 1:01
  Kennedy Space Center.
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  >> Commander Reed Wisman, pilot Victor
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  Glover, mission specialist Christina
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  Coach, all from NASA, and Canadian Space
• 1:10
  Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Four
• 1:13
  people, one rocket, and they are now
• 1:15
  officially on site. NASA Administrator
• 1:18
  Jared Isaacman and Canadian Space Agency
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  President Lisa Campbell were there to
• 1:23
  greet them on the tarmac this afternoon.
• 1:26
  The crew also answered questions from
• 1:28
  the media.
• 1:28
  >> Now, just to set the scene, the SLS
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  rocket and the Orion capsule are already
• 1:33
  sitting on launchpad 39B at Kennedy
• 1:36
  Space Center. They rolled out on March
• 1:38
  20th. Everything is in place. The target
• 1:41
  launch window opens Wednesday, April 1st
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  at 6:24 p.m. Eastern time.
• 1:47
  >> And April 1st is not a joke. This is
• 1:49
  genuinely happening. A 2-hour window on
• 1:52
  the first, and if they need it,
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  opportunities continue through April
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  6th.
• 1:56
  >> The crew has been in quarantine since
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  March 18th, keeping their health locked
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  down before this 10-day mission. They
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  spent the quarantine reviewing
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  procedures at Johnson Space Center in
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  Houston, Texas. And now the rest of the
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  countdown happens here in Florida.
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  >> This mission is going to take them
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  farther than Earth than any human has
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  been since Apollo 13 in 1970, about
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  5,000 m beyond the moon. It won't land,
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  but it will swing around the back of the
• 2:23
  moon on a free return trajectory and
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  come screaming back to Earth at around
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  25,000 mph. Victor Glover will become
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  the first person of color. Christina
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  Coach the first woman. And Jeremy Hansen
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  the first non-American to travel beyond
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  low Earth orbit. And for Canadians
• 2:42
  listening, Jeremy Hansen arrives in
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  Florida today for what is going to be
• 2:46
  the ride of his life.
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  >> We are going to be covering this story
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  right through launch. Stick with us.
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  Astronomy Daily is your front row seat
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  to the most exciting human space flight
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  moment in a generation.
• 2:58
  >> Story two. And this one is visually
• 3:00
  stunning. NASA has released a new set of
• 3:03
  Saturn images and they are genuinely the
• 3:05
  most comprehensive view of Saturn ever
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  created.
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  >> This is a collaboration between two of
• 3:11
  humanity's greatest telescopes, the
• 3:13
  James Web Space Telescope and Hubble
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  Space Telescope. Now, these two
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  observatories were launched 31 years
• 3:20
  apart. Hubble went up in 1990, web in
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  late 2021. But when you combine their
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  observations, you get something
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  extraordinary.
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  >> Hubble observed Saturn in visible light
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  in August 2024, capturing all those
• 3:34
  familiar golden cloud bands and the
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  iconic rings. You get the colors, the
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  subtle atmospheric variations, the sheer
• 3:41
  beauty of the thing.
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  >> Then web looked at it in infrared in
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  November 2024, just 14 weeks later, and
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  the picture completely transforms. The
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  rings glow brilliantly because they're
• 3:53
  made of highly reflective water ice. You
• 3:56
  can see deep atmospheric storms,
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  jetreams, and a mysterious gray green
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  glow at the poles that scientists think
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  may be linked to auroral activity or
• 4:06
  high altitude aerosols.
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  >> One of the most poignant details in this
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  release, Saturn's famous hexagonal
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  jetream at the North Pole is just barely
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  visible in these images. And scientists
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  say this could be among the last clear
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  views of it for decades because the pole
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  is heading into a long winter darkness
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  that won't lift until the 2040s.
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  >> NASA describes what the two telescopes
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  together can do as slicing through
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  Saturn's atmosphere at multiple
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  altitudes like peeling back the layers
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  of an onion. Hubble covers the upper
• 4:40
  clouds. Web dives deeper into the
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  chemistry. Together, they give
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  researchers a three-dimensional picture
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  of how this whole system works.
• 4:50
  >> And Web's wide-angle view captured six
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  of Saturn's moons in the same frame,
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  including Titan, which is massive and
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  hazy, and Enceladus, that little world
• 5:00
  with a subsurface ocean that
• 5:02
  astrobiologists find so tantalizing.
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  >> We will link to these images in the show
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  notes. They are genuinely worth 5
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  minutes of your time just to look at
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  them. Saturn is out there looking
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  absolutely magnificent.
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  >> Story three. And I want everyone to
• 5:18
  picture the most dramatic lightning
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  storm you have ever seen on Earth. A
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  real cracker. Thunder rattling the
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  windows. Now imagine that, but a million
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  times more powerful.
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  >> That is potentially what is happening in
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  Jupiter's atmosphere. According to new
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  research from the University of
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  California, Berkeley, published this
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  week in the journal AGU Advances,
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  >> the study used data from NASA's Juno
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  spacecraft, which has been orbiting
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  Jupiter since 2016, specifically its
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  microwave radiometer. That instrument
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  was designed for studying the planet's
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  atmosphere. But it turns out it's also
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  brilliant at detecting the radio
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  signatures of lightning. The clever bit
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  was that the team focused on a period in
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  2021 and 2022 when a normally
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  storm-filled belt on Jupiter went
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  unusually quiet. That meant Juno could
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  pinpoint individual isolated storm
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  systems, what the researchers call
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  stealth supertorrms, and directly
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  measure the power of lightning within
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  them.
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  >> The results are remarkable. from 613
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  detected lightning pulses. The power
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  range from roughly comparable to an
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  Earth lightning bolt all the way up to a
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  100 times more powerful. But because of
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  uncertainties in how radio frequencies
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  compare across the two planets, some of
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  those bolts could be up to a million
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  times stronger than anything on Earth.
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  >> And these storms were generating around
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  three lightning flashes per second. On
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  one flyover, Juno detected 206 separate
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  microwave pulses in a single pass.
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  >> Lead researcher Michael Wong describes
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  it really well. On Earth, moist air
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  rises because water makes it more
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  buoyant in a nitrogen atmosphere. On
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  Jupiter, the atmosphere is mostly
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  hydrogen, so moist air is actually
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  heavier and sinks. It takes enormous
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  energy to push it upward. And when those
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  storms finally break loose, they release
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  all of that stored energy in
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  extraordinary ways.
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  >> What I love about this is that the Juno
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  mission has been delivering incredible
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  science for a decade now. And even as
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  the spacecraft ages, it's still finding
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  ways to rewrite our understanding of the
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  solar system's biggest planet.
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  >> Okay, on to our next story today.
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  >> Story four. And this is one of those
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  stories where astronomers get to say,
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  "We finally did it after 50 years."
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  >> The star in question is Gamma Cassiopia.
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  If you look up at the distinctive W
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  shape of the constellation Cassiopia on
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  a clear night, the middle star of that
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  W, that's it. Visible to the naked eye,
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  about 550 lighty years away. And since
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  1976, it has been blasting out X-rays
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  around 40 times more powerful than you'd
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  ever expect from a star like that.
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  >> The plasma generating those X-rays was
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  hotter than 100 million degrees. And for
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  decades, nobody could agree why. Was it
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  magnetic activity on the star itself?
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  Was there a hidden companion pulling in
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  material? The debate has raged across
• 8:28
  multiple research groups for half a
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  century
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  >> now. Thanks to Japan's XRISM space
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  telescope that stands for X-ray imaging
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  and spectroscopy mission developed by
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  JAXA in collaboration with NASA and ESA.
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  The answer is finally in. The culprit is
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  a hidden white dwarf companion. The key
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  instrument is called Resolve, a high
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  precision microc calorimeter on XRISM
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  that can measure X-ray spectra with
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  extraordinary accuracy. The team
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  observed gamma Cassiopa three times in
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  December 2024, February 2025, and June
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  2025, covering the full 203day orbit of
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  the binary system. What they found was
• 9:12
  that the superheated plasma generating
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  the X-rays was moving in sync with the
• 9:16
  hidden companion, not with the bright B
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  star everyone could see. That's the
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  clincher. First, direct proof that it's
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  the white dwarf, not the star itself,
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  driving all that high energy activity.
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  >> And it turns out this white dwarf is
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  magnetic. Its field is funneling
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  material from the stars surrounding disc
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  toward its poles where it releases all
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  that energy as X-rays like a tiny but
• 9:41
  ferocious cosmic vacuum cleaner.
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  >> The implications go well beyond this one
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  star. Astronomers have long predicted
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  that about 50 to 70% of Btype binary
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  stars might have white dwarf companions.
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  But solid evidence has been hard to pin
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  down. This result confirms a whole new
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  class of binary systems that had
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  previously only existed in theory.
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  >> Lead researcher Yael Naz at the
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  University of Leazge put it beautifully.
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  There has been an intense effort to
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  solve the mystery of gamma Cassiopa
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  across many research groups for many
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  decades. And now thanks to XRISM, we
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  have finally done it. A very good Friday
• 10:22
  for stellar astrophysics.
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  >> Story five. And this one comes with a
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  movie tie-in, which I am absolutely here
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  for.
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  >> If you haven't seen Project Hail Mary
• 10:31
  yet, the Ryan Gosling film based on Andy
• 10:34
  Weir's novel, it's currently in cinemas,
• 10:36
  and it is excellent. The premise is that
• 10:39
  humanity discovers a tiny microorganism
• 10:42
  called Astrophase is consuming the sun's
• 10:45
  energy, and one scientist is sent on a
• 10:47
  desperate solo mission to find the
• 10:49
  answer at a distant star. And this week,
• 10:52
  real astronomers at Cornell University's
• 10:54
  Carl Sean Institute have published the
• 10:57
  paper that asks essentially the same
• 10:59
  question the movie poses. If we were
• 11:02
  building a real Hail Mary spacecraft,
• 11:04
  where would we send it?
• 11:05
  >> Lead researcher, Professor Lisa Colton,
• 11:08
  alongside a team of undergraduate
• 11:10
  students, comb through data from the
• 11:12
  European Space Ay's Gaia mission and the
• 11:15
  NASA exoplanet archive. There are over
• 11:18
  6,000 known exoplanets. From that
• 11:20
  enormous list, they've narrowed it down
• 11:22
  to 45 rocky worlds sitting in their
• 11:25
  stars habitable zones where liquid water
• 11:28
  could potentially exist on the surface.
• 11:30
  The list includes some names that will
• 11:32
  be familiar to our regular listeners.
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  Trappist 1, DFG,
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  about 40 light years away. Proxima
• 11:42
  Centauri B, our nearest stellar neighbor
• 11:45
  at just 4.25 25 light years. LHS1140B,
• 11:51
  a dense super Earth about 48 light years
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  out, and quite a few lesserknown
• 11:57
  candidates that could prove just as
• 11:59
  interesting.
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  >> What's powerful about this paper is that
• 12:02
  it's not just a list, it's a strategic
• 12:04
  road map. It tells you which worlds are
• 12:07
  best suited for transmission
• 12:08
  spectroscopy with JWST,
• 12:11
  which worlds are targets for future
• 12:13
  direct imaging missions, and which have
• 12:15
  the tightest constraints on
• 12:16
  habitability. There's also a more
• 12:18
  conservative list of just 24 world
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  within a tighter three-dimensional
• 12:22
  habitable zone. And if you account for
• 12:24
  the uncertainties in stellar
• 12:26
  measurements, the 45 could expand to as
• 12:29
  many as 73.
• 12:30
  >> Halton summed it up perfectly. Our paper
• 12:33
  reveals where you should travel to to
• 12:35
  find life if we ever build a Hail Mary
• 12:38
  spacecraft. The search for alien life
• 12:40
  just got a short list. I find that
• 12:42
  genuinely thrilling.
• 12:44
  >> Finally, today, the boat story we teased
• 12:46
  at the beginning of the show.
• 12:48
  >> Dory 6. And yesterday, we told you about
• 12:50
  that extraordinary scrub at Tminus 3
• 12:54
  seconds for ESR Aerospace's Spectrum
• 12:56
  rocket. the most dramatic last second
• 12:59
  halt you could imagine, right on the
• 13:01
  edge of potentially making European
• 13:03
  space history.
• 13:04
  >> And we didn't know why. The countdown
• 13:07
  got all the way to 3 seconds before
• 13:09
  engine ignition, then nothing.
• 13:11
  Controllers called a scrub. We knew
• 13:13
  there was a hold in the countdown, but
• 13:15
  the exact cause wasn't confirmed when we
• 13:17
  recorded yesterday.
• 13:18
  >> Well, now we know it was a boat. An
• 13:22
  unauthorized vessel entered the danger
• 13:24
  zone around Andoya Spaceport in northern
• 13:26
  Norway during the countdown. The range
• 13:29
  had already been delayed when the boat
• 13:30
  first appeared, and by the time the boat
• 13:32
  cleared and the range was reopened, the
• 13:35
  propellant temperatures on board the
• 13:37
  rocket had shifted. The window was gone.
• 13:39
  >> To add insult to injury, the countdown
• 13:42
  had actually cleared tminus 3 seconds.
• 13:45
  The engines were moments from igniting.
• 13:48
  Hear aerospace would have potentially
• 13:50
  become the first company ever to launch
• 13:52
  a rocket to orbit from European soil and
• 13:55
  a boat said no.
• 13:56
  >> No new launch date has been announced as
• 13:58
  of now. ESAR has said they're working to
• 14:01
  determine a suitable window and they'll
• 14:03
  need to assess the propellant situation
• 14:04
  and any technical reviews before they
• 14:06
  can reset for another attempt.
• 14:08
  >> Now, we should note this kind of range
• 14:11
  safety protocol exists for a reason.
• 14:13
  Keeping people out of danger zones
• 14:15
  during rocket launches is genuinely
• 14:17
  critical. No one is blaming range
• 14:19
  control here, but the timing could not
• 14:21
  have been more painful.
• 14:23
  >> We'll keep tracking this one. ESAR
• 14:25
  Spectrum rocket is a genuinely
• 14:27
  significant vehicle, 28 m tall, capable
• 14:30
  of carrying up to a ton of payload to
• 14:32
  low Earth orbit. Designed and built
• 14:35
  almost entirely inhouse near Munich.
• 14:37
  When it does reach orbit, it will be a
• 14:39
  historic moment for European space
• 14:42
  capability. The mission is called Onward
• 14:44
  and Upward, and that is exactly what
• 14:46
  ESAR will have to be. We're rooting for
• 14:49
  them.
• 14:49
  >> And that is your astronomy daily for
• 14:52
  Friday, March 27th. What a week it has
• 14:55
  been. And honestly, with Artemis 2 5
• 14:58
  days from launch, next week is going to
• 15:00
  be even bigger.
• 15:01
  >> We will be covering every step of the
• 15:03
  countdown, right through to liftoff and
• 15:05
  beyond. Make sure you're subscribed so
• 15:07
  you don't miss a single episode. You can
• 15:09
  find us on all the usual platforms at
• 15:11
  astronomyaily.io
• 15:13
  and across social media at astroailyaily
• 15:16
  pod on X, Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube,
• 15:19
  Facebook, Rumble, and Tumblr.
• 15:21
  >> And if today's episode sparked something
• 15:23
  for you, a question, a thought, a theory
• 15:26
  about whether that rogue boat was
• 15:27
  actually a disgruntled rocket
• 15:29
  enthusiast, drop us a message. We love
• 15:31
  hearing from you.
• 15:32
  >> From all of us here at Astronomy Daily,
• 15:34
  keep looking up. The universe is not
• 15:36
  done surprising us. See you tomorrow.
• 15:50
  The stories were told.