Latest / Space News Today / Crew-12 Spy Scandal, AI on Mars & Interstellar Comet’s Last Secret?

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Crew-12 Spy Scandal, AI on Mars & Interstellar Comet’s Last Secret? · Space News Today

0:00
Four astronauts, one rocket, and weather
0:03
that just will not cooperate. The Crew
0:06
12 team is in quarantine in Florida,
0:09
watching the forecast and waiting.
0:12
>> A visitor from another solar system is
0:14
heading for the exit and handing us a
0:16
chemical blueprint of its home solar
0:18
system on the way out. Plus, a rover on
0:22
Mars just took orders from an AI instead
0:25
of a human for the very first time. All
0:28
that plus a rare solar eclipse just days
0:31
away, new research that could change how
0:33
we search for life, and Starship making
0:36
a comeback after a dramatic setback.
0:39
It's a big day. Welcome to Astronomy
0:42
Daily.
0:42
>> Let's get started. Anna, take it away.
0:46
>> Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
0:48
your daily guide to what's happening out
0:50
there. I'm Anna.
0:52
>> And I'm Avery. It is Wednesday, February
0:55
11th, 2026. We have six stories to get
0:58
through today, and honestly, it's one of
1:01
those lineups where every single one of
1:03
them earns its place.
1:04
>> We're going to kick off with the ongoing
1:06
Crew 12 drama at Cape Canaveral, then
1:09
swing to Deep Space for the latest from
1:12
ThreeI/Atlas,
1:13
and then we've got a Mars AI story that
1:16
genuinely made me stop and think. Some
1:18
fascinating new science about why Earth
1:21
ended up being habitable at all. a rare
1:24
solar eclipse just days away and a big
1:27
Starship update.
1:28
>> Let's get into it.
1:30
>> So Avery, as of this morning, the Crew
1:33
12 mission has now been pushed back to
1:35
no earlier than Friday, February 13th.
1:38
That is the third attempted launch date
1:40
in less than a week.
1:42
>> It really is. Weather has been the
1:44
culprit each time. The teams originally
1:47
had a window on Wednesday 11th today,
1:50
but conditions along the Dragon
1:52
spacecraft flight path just weren't
1:53
cooperating, so they waved it off. Then
1:56
Thursday the 12th got pushed. Now
1:59
they're looking at Friday morning with a
2:01
planned liftoff at 5:15 Eastern.
2:04
>> And the reason there's so much urgency
2:06
here isn't just that people are
2:08
impatient. The International Space
2:10
Station is currently running on what
2:12
NASA is calling a skeleton crew. Crew 11
2:15
had to come home early back in January
2:18
following a medical issue with one of
2:19
the astronauts. And since then, the
2:22
station has been significantly
2:23
understaffed. Crew 12 is the relief
2:26
team,
2:27
>> which makes every weather delay feel a
2:29
little more loaded than usual. The
2:32
people up there are doing the work of a
2:33
full crew with a much smaller team.
2:36
>> So, who's making this trip? Well, let's
2:39
run through them one more time.
2:41
Commander is NASA astronaut Jessica
2:43
Meyer, a veteran of a previous
2:45
longduration station mission and well
2:48
known for conducting the first all
2:50
female spacew walk back in 2019. She'll
2:53
be joined by pilot Jack Hathaway, also
2:56
from NASA on his first space flight.
2:58
>> And then there are two mission
3:00
specialists, Sophie Adnot from the
3:02
European Space Agency representing
3:04
France and Andre FedV from Russia's
3:07
Rosscosmos. This will be Fed JV's second
3:10
trip to the station. Once they dock,
3:12
they're looking at an 8 to Nmon stay,
3:15
longer than usual, to cover the time
3:17
lost by Crew 11's early departure.
3:19
>> Now, there is a subplot to this mission
3:21
that I think a lot of people may not
3:23
have heard about. Back in December,
3:26
Russia's Ross Cosmos quietly removed
3:28
cosminaut Alleg Artamev from the Crew 12
3:31
mission. The official line was that he
3:33
had transitioned to quote other work
3:37
>> which is the kind of statement that
3:38
immediately makes you want to know what
3:40
the actual reason is.
3:42
>> Right. and investigative outlet The
3:44
Insider reported that Artamev was
3:47
effectively expelled from the United
3:49
States by being accused of violating
3:52
international traffic in arms
3:54
regulations by allegedly photographing
3:57
SpaceX engines, documents, and other
3:59
sensitive technologies with his phone
4:02
and then exporting that information. So
4:05
he was allegedly taking photos inside
4:07
SpaceX facilities of proprietary rocket
4:10
technology and sending it out of the
4:13
country.
4:13
>> That appears to be the allegation. He
4:16
was replaced by Andre Fedv and Ross
4:19
Cosmos has said very little publicly.
4:21
But it's a striking reminder that even
4:24
in the cooperative world of the
4:25
International Space Station, the
4:27
geopolitical tensions of the wider world
4:30
don't disappear at the door. And it
4:32
raises interesting questions about what
4:34
access international partners are given
4:37
to commercial SpaceX facilities. These
4:39
aren't NASA government sites.
4:42
>> Anyway, the crew are in quarantine. The
4:44
rocket is on the pad and all eyes are
4:47
now on the Florida forecast for Friday.
4:49
We'll update you the moment there's
4:51
news.
4:52
>> Our second story takes us to the outer
4:54
solar system where interstellar comet 3i
4:57
Atlas is continuing its farewell tour.
5:00
And before it goes, it's been handing
5:03
scientists some truly unexpected data.
5:06
>> Just to set the scene, 3E Atlas was
5:08
discovered in July 2025 by a telescope
5:11
in Chile, traveling far too fast on a
5:14
trajectory that couldn't possibly have
5:16
originated within our solar system. It's
5:19
only the third interstellar object ever
5:21
confirmed to have passed through after
5:23
Umuam Mua in 2017 and Boris in 2019.
5:28
NASA's Spear X telescope observed
5:31
threeey atlas in December 2025 and the
5:34
results have been remarkable. The
5:36
comet's coma has become dramatically
5:39
more active and chemically complex. BREX
5:42
detected water ice, carbon dioxide,
5:45
carbon monoxide, organic compounds, and
5:48
rocky material being ejected in chunks
5:51
far larger than the fine dust grains
5:53
you'd normally expect. The scientists
5:56
described it as a cocktail of chemicals
5:58
that haven't been exposed to space for
6:00
billions of years. The James Web Space
6:03
Telescope added another layer, finding
6:05
that the ratio of carbon dioxide to
6:08
water in the coma is approximately 8:1,
6:11
which is one of the highest CO2 to water
6:14
ratios ever measured in any comet. In
6:17
our solar systems comets, water tends to
6:19
dominate. So the implication is threeey
6:22
atlas may have formed much further from
6:25
its home star than a typical comet would
6:27
near a CO2 ice line. Its chemistry is
6:31
essentially telling us something about
6:32
the architecture of the planetary system
6:35
it came from.
6:36
>> There's also data on the comet spin. It
6:39
rotates once every 16.16
6:42
hours and researchers found it had
6:44
strange wobbling jets in a rare
6:47
sun-facing anti-tail. Normally comet
6:50
tails point away from the sun, but
6:52
Threeey Atlas briefly had one pointing
6:55
toward it. Genuinely weird behavior.
6:57
>> As of today, Three Atlas is in the
7:00
constellation Gemini, fading beyond
7:02
naked eye visibility. It's heading
7:04
towards a Jupiter flyby in mid-March
7:06
before leaving the solar system forever.
7:09
And there's one more data release to
7:11
watch for.Sa's ISA's Juice spacecraft
7:13
observed three Atlas back in November,
7:16
but couldn't transmit the data while
7:18
using its antenna as a heat shield. That
7:20
data is expected to arrive here on Earth
7:22
any time now in February. So, there
7:24
could still be one more surprise coming.
7:27
>> When future generations ask what we
7:29
learned about other solar systems in
7:31
2025 and 2026, 3i Atlas is going to be a
7:36
big part of the answer.
7:37
>> Safe travels, 3II/Atlas. Don't be a
7:40
stranger. Although I suppose by
7:42
definition you always will be.
7:46
>> Now this next story is one I find
7:49
genuinely fascinating because it sits
7:51
right at the intersection of robotics,
7:54
artificial intelligence, and the
7:56
practical reality of exploring another
7:58
planet. In December, NASA handed the
8:01
wheel of the Perseverance Mars rover to
8:04
an AI. Not metaphorically, literally.
8:08
The AI generated the rover's driving way
8:10
points, and the rover followed them
8:12
without human control across two
8:15
separate days, covering a total of 456
8:19
m.
8:20
>> And just to be clear, this isn't NASA
8:22
hopping on a bandwagon. They have been
8:24
working on autonomous rover navigation
8:26
for years out of sheer necessity. Mars
8:29
is so far away that a roundtrip radio
8:32
signal takes around 25 minutes. That
8:35
means every driving instruction you send
8:37
has a built-in delay and every
8:39
unexpected obstacle requires another 25
8:42
minutes to respond to. Autonomous
8:44
navigation isn't a luxury, it's a
8:46
practical requirement.
8:48
>> So in this demonstration, the AI
8:50
analyzed orbital images from the Mars
8:53
Reconnaissance Orbiter's high-rise
8:55
camera as well as digital elevation
8:58
models. It identified hazards, sand
9:01
traps, boulder fields, bedrock, rocky
9:04
outcrops, and then generated a path
9:07
defined by a series of way points to
9:09
avoid them. From there, Perseverance's
9:12
own onboard auto navigation system took
9:15
over to actually execute the drive. And
9:18
importantly, before those AI generated
9:20
way points were sent to Mars, they were
9:22
tested here on Earth using
9:24
Perseverance's engineering twin, a
9:26
fullscale physical replica at JPL's
9:29
Marsard. So, this wasn't a blind
9:31
experiment. There was a safety net built
9:34
in.
9:34
>> The AI in question is built on
9:36
Anthropics Claude, which regular
9:39
listeners may know as the same AI that
9:41
helps power this show. So, there's a
9:44
certain pleasing symmetry and reporting
9:46
on that. There really is and the
9:48
engineers are excited about what comes
9:50
next. One of the current limitations is
9:52
that the longer a rover drives without
9:54
human relocization, essentially humans
9:57
checking in to confirm where it is on
9:59
the map, the more positional uncertainty
10:02
built up over 655 m. That uncertainty
10:06
can grow to around 33 m. The goal is to
10:09
use AI to solve that relocization
10:12
problem, too. So rovers can handle
10:14
kilome scale drives entirely on their
10:16
own.
10:17
>> And beyond Mars, this matters for the
10:20
whole future of deep space exploration.
10:23
NASA's Dragonfly mission to Saturn's
10:25
moon Titan will rely heavily on AI for
10:28
autonomous navigation as it flies around
10:30
in Titan's thick atmosphere. The further
10:33
from Earth you go, the more critical
10:36
autonomous systems become. Because
10:38
waiting 25 minutes for a signal is one
10:41
thing, but waiting hours or days is
10:43
quite another.
10:44
>> The vision the JPL team laid out is
10:47
compelling. Intelligence systems not
10:49
just at mission control here on Earth,
10:51
but embedded in the rovers, helicopters,
10:53
and drones themselves. Trained on the
10:56
collective knowledge of NASA's engineers
10:58
and scientists. The Mars rover of 2035
11:01
may look quite different from
11:02
Perseverance. Our next story is one of
11:05
those pieces of research that sounds
11:07
almost philosophical at first, but turns
11:10
out to have very concrete scientific
11:12
implications. A new study published in
11:15
Nature Astronomy has found that life on
11:17
Earth may be thanks to an
11:19
extraordinarily lucky chemical accident
11:22
during our planet's formation nearly 4.6
11:25
billion years ago.
11:27
>> And when they say lucky, they mean it.
11:30
The research suggests that two elements
11:32
absolutely essential for life as we know
11:35
it, phosphorus and nitrogen, only stayed
11:38
accessible on Earth's surface because of
11:40
a very precise and apparently quite rare
11:44
balance of oxygen during the planet's
11:46
earliest formation.
11:47
>> Here's how it works. When a young rocky
11:50
planet forms, it's initially molten, a
11:53
churning ball of liquid rock. As heavy
11:55
metals sink inward to form the core,
11:58
lighter materials stay near the surface.
12:01
During this chaotic stage called core
12:03
formation, the amount of oxygen present
12:06
determines where other elements end up.
12:08
The researchers from ETHZurich found
12:11
that oxygen levels need to fall within a
12:13
surprisingly narrow range for both
12:16
phosphorus and nitrogen to remain in the
12:18
mantle and crust available for future
12:21
life. Too little oxygen and phosphorus
12:24
bonds with iron and gets dragged into
12:26
the core, taking away a key ingredient
12:28
for DNA, cell membranes, and energy
12:30
transfer. Too much oxygen and nitrogen
12:33
is more easily lost to space. Either
12:36
way, the chemistry needed for life never
12:38
fully comes together. Earth hit this
12:40
sweet spot, what the researchers are
12:42
calling a chemical goldilock zone.
12:44
Precisely.
12:46
>> The lead researcher, Craig Walton, put
12:48
it clearly. If Earth had had just a
12:50
little more or a little less oxygen
12:52
during core formation, there would not
12:54
have been enough phosphorus or nitrogen
12:57
for the development of life. They also
12:59
modeled Mars and found it likely had the
13:02
wrong oxygen balance. More phosphorus in
13:04
the mantle than Earth, but less
13:06
nitrogen. Challenging conditions for
13:08
life as we know it.
13:10
>> This is a significant challenge to how
13:12
we've traditionally thought about the
13:14
search for life. The habitable zone, the
13:16
region around a star where liquid water
13:19
can exist on the surface, has been our
13:21
go-to framework. But this research
13:23
suggests that even a planet in the
13:26
perfect orbital position with liquid
13:28
water could be fundamentally incapable
13:30
of supporting life if its internal
13:33
chemistry didn't form correctly.
13:35
>> And here's the hopeful flip side. The
13:38
oxygen conditions during planetary
13:40
formation are linked to the chemistry of
13:42
the host star itself. Because planets
13:45
form from the same material as their
13:47
stars. So in principle, by looking at
13:50
stellar chemistry, we might be able to
13:52
predict which planetary systems had the
13:55
right conditions from the start.
13:57
Walton's advice for the search, look for
13:59
solar systems with stars that resemble
14:02
our own sun.
14:03
>> It makes the Earth feel even more
14:05
special and the universe feel a little
14:08
more vast and empty. All right, from the
14:11
philosophical to the spectacular. In
14:14
exactly one week's time, on February
14:16
17th, an annular solar eclipse is going
14:19
to sweep across the southern hemisphere.
14:22
This is the so-called Ring of Fire
14:24
eclipse, where the moon passes directly
14:26
in front of the sun. But because it's at
14:28
a slightly greater distance from Earth
14:30
than usual, it appears a little smaller
14:33
than the sun's disc, the result is a
14:35
thin blazing ring of sunlight
14:37
surrounding the moon's dark silhouette.
14:40
Stunning. Though this is different from
14:42
a total solar eclipse where the moon
14:45
completely covers the sun and you get
14:47
that eerie darkness in the middle of the
14:49
day. In an annular eclipse, the moon
14:51
blocks about 96% of the sun's disc, but
14:55
that remaining sliver stays visible, and
14:57
the ring effect is only visible for
14:59
around 2 minutes and 20 seconds at any
15:02
given location in the past.
15:04
>> The path of annularity for this one is
15:06
quite remote. It runs primarily over
15:09
Antarctica, which means the full Ring of
15:12
Fire experience will be witnessed by the
15:14
researchers at places like Concordia
15:17
Station, the French Italian outpost on
15:20
the Dome Sea Plateau, and Mirin Station,
15:23
the Russian base on the Davis Sea Coast.
15:26
We're talking about teams of maybe 50 to
15:29
200 people. A very exclusive audience
15:32
for one of nature's best shows. For the
15:35
rest of us, partial phases will be
15:37
visible from the southernmost parts of
15:39
South America, southern Chile, and
15:41
Argentina, and from parts of South
15:43
Africa. Not the full ring, but still a
15:46
striking sight if you're in the right
15:48
location with proper eclipse glasses.
15:50
And it goes without saying, never look
15:53
directly at the sun during an eclipse
15:55
without approved eclipse glasses. The
15:57
ring of fire does not mean the sun is
16:00
safe to look at. There's also something
16:02
lovely about the timing of this eclipse.
16:04
February 17th is the start of Chinese
16:07
New Year, specifically the year of the
16:10
Firehorse. The new moon that causes the
16:12
eclipse is the same new moon that marks
16:14
the beginning of the lunar new year. And
16:17
the cresant moon visible on February
16:19
18th will signal the start of Ramadan.
16:22
So, this one celestial event sits right
16:24
at the intersection of multiple major
16:26
cultural moments around the world. If
16:29
you're not in the past and want to
16:30
watch, there will almost certainly be
16:32
live streams from research teams in
16:34
Antarctica. We'll keep an eye out and
16:36
link to any good ones in the show notes.
16:38
And we're going to close out today's
16:40
main stories with a Starship update.
16:43
Because after a frustrating lull, things
16:45
are very much moving again at SpaceX's
16:48
Starbase facility in South Texas. To
16:50
understand why this is significant, you
16:53
need a quick bit of context. The last
16:55
Starship flight, flight 11, was the
16:58
final launch of the block 2
17:00
configuration. SpaceX is now
17:02
transitioning to block 3, which is a
17:05
significantly upgraded architecture
17:07
featuring new Raptor 3 engines, enhanced
17:10
performance, and improved reusability
17:12
features. But the development of Block
17:15
3, hit a serious setback when booster
17:17
18, the first Block 3 booster, failed
17:21
during cryogenic pressure testing late
17:23
last year. Its outer container cracked.
17:26
>> Base X moved fast. Booster 19, the
17:30
replacement, was stacked and delivered
17:32
to the test site in record time. And in
17:34
the first week of February, it
17:36
successfully completed not one but two
17:39
cryogenic pressure tests. The first was
17:42
on February 2nd, the second on the 4th.
17:45
Both passed. Starbase watchers described
17:48
it as looking like the entire booster
17:51
had frozen solid as super chilled liquid
17:54
oxygen entered it, which is exactly what
17:56
it's supposed to do.
17:57
>> Booster 19 has since been returned to
17:59
the production site for further work.
18:02
And all eyes are now on the flight
18:04
stack. Booster 19 paired with ship 39,
18:07
which is being prepared for what will be
18:09
the debut of the full Block 3 vehicle.
18:12
The current target is a launch window in
18:14
the February to March time frame, though
18:17
sources familiar with the program point
18:19
to March as the most realistic date.
18:21
>> Flight 12 is a genuinely significant
18:24
milestone. It'll be the first flight of
18:26
the block 3 Starship, the first use of
18:28
the new pad 2 architecture at Starbase,
18:31
and the debut of Raptor 3 engines at
18:34
scale. The stakes are high. NASA needs a
18:38
successful block 3 to progress towards
18:40
using Starship as the human landing
18:42
system for the Aremis program's crude
18:44
lunar missions. That timeline is already
18:47
under pressure.
18:48
>> Meanwhile, infrastructure work continues
18:50
at a remarkable pace. Pad 1 at Starbase
18:53
is being rebuilt. Space X's facility at
18:56
Kennedy Space Center at launch complex
18:58
39A is progressing toward a first
19:01
Florida Starship launch in the second
19:03
half of 2026. And environmental approval
19:07
has been granted for a brand new
19:08
Starship complex at Space Launch Complex
19:11
37 at Cape Canaveral, which would
19:14
eventually give the program five launch
19:17
pads across Texas and Florida.
19:19
>> Five launch pads for Starship. It's a
19:22
lot to take in, but after booster 18's
19:25
failure and the testing lull, the fact
19:27
that booster 19 has passed its cryotests
19:30
and flight 12 is back on track is
19:32
genuinely good news for the program.
19:35
>> We will be watching closely.
19:37
>> That is everything we've got for you
19:39
today on Astronomy Daily. Fix stories,
19:42
all of them worth your time. From
19:43
astronauts waiting for weather in
19:45
Florida to a comet carrying four
19:48
billionyear-old secrets from another
19:50
star, a rover taking orders from an AI
19:53
on Mars, new science that makes life on
19:56
Earth feel like a cosmic lottery win, a
19:58
ring of fire one week away, and Starship
20:01
dusting itself off for another attempt
20:04
at history.
20:05
>> A genuinely brilliant day to be
20:07
following space news. Thank you so much
20:09
for spending part of it with us. If you
20:11
enjoyed today's episode, please
20:12
subscribe wherever you get your
20:14
podcasts. And if you want to go deeper
20:16
on any of these stories, full show notes
20:18
and our blog are over at
20:20
astronomyaily.io.
20:22
>> Until tomorrow, keep looking up.
20:24
>> Take care, everyone.
20:26
>> Daily
20:28
stories.
20:36
Stories to tell.