Latest / Space News Today / The Weekend Wrap Debuts — Soyuz 5, Artemis II Revisited & Roman Telescope

Transcript

The Weekend Wrap Debuts — Soyuz 5, Artemis II Revisited & Roman Telescope · Space News Today

0:00
Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
0:02
your daily guide to the cosmos. I'm
0:05
Anna.
0:05
>> 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
0:13
on Astronomy Daily.
0:14
>> That's right. Today marks the debut of
0:16
our weekend space and astronomy news
0:19
rap. Every Saturday, we'll bring you two
0:21
fresh stories from the past 24 hours,
0:24
plus a deep dive into the four biggest
0:26
and most important stories from across
0:28
the entire week. Think of it as the week
0:30
in space, condensed, considered, and
0:33
with some new angles you might not have
0:34
heard yet. We've been doing six episodes
0:37
a week all season. And this is our way
0:39
of making sure Saturday feels a little
0:42
different.
0:42
>> So, here's today's format. We'll start
0:44
with two fresh stories first. Then we'll
0:47
ring in the very first Astronomy Daily
0:49
weekend rep. Four stories, the week's
0:51
biggest, right here.
0:53
>> Let's get into it. Our first story today
0:55
is a rocket launch story with some real
0:58
geopolitical texture to it. Russia's
1:00
brand new Soyuse 5 rocket lifted off on
1:03
Thursday, April 30th from the Biconor
1:05
Ksmodrome in Kazakhstan on its very
1:08
first flight and it went well.
1:10
>> This has been coming for a long time.
1:12
Anna, the Soyus 5, also known as Sankar,
1:16
which means Falcon in Kazak, has been in
1:18
development for nearly a decade. There
1:20
were multiple delays, funding hurdles,
1:22
and geopolitical complications along the
1:24
way, but on Thursday at 2:00 p.m.
1:27
Eastern time, it finally flew. It was a
1:30
suborbital test flight, essentially a
1:32
shakeout cruise for the new vehicle. The
1:34
rocket carried a mass-dimensional mockup
1:36
as payload. Both stages performed
1:38
nominally, and the payload followed its
1:41
intended trajectory before splashing
1:43
down in the Pacific Ocean in a
1:44
pre-desated area. Ross Cosmos declared
1:47
it a success. Now, let's talk about why
1:50
this rocket exists. Russia lost access
1:53
to Ukrainian rocket expertise after the
1:55
2022 invasion of Ukraine, and Ukraine
1:58
had long been a powerhouse in rocket
2:00
design and manufacturing. The Soy 5 was
2:03
designed specifically to replace the
2:05
Zenit rocket, which was Ukraine built,
2:08
and to give Russia a fully homegrown
2:10
medium lift capability. In terms of
2:12
specs, it's a two-stage vehicle powered
2:15
by the RD171
2:17
MV engine, which Ross Cosmos describes
2:20
as the world's most powerful
2:21
liquidfueled engine. It can lift up to
2:24
17 metric tons to low Earth orbit, which
2:27
puts it in the same general class as
2:29
SpaceX's Falcon 9. But here's the key
2:32
difference, and it's a significant one.
2:34
Falcon 9's first stage lands itself and
2:37
is reused. Zoya's 5 is fully expendable.
2:41
Every launch burns through a brand new
2:43
rocket. In a launch market that has
2:45
increasingly moved towards reusability
2:47
and reduced costs, that's a genuine
2:50
competitive disadvantage.
2:51
>> It's also unclear if the rocket will
2:53
attract international customers. Russia
2:56
has lost most of its commercial launch
2:58
partnerships since 2022, and the Soyuse
3:00
5 doesn't appear to represent a big
3:02
enough leap to reverse that trend.
3:05
Longer term, the rocket is intended to
3:07
serve as a building block for a future
3:09
superheavy launch system, part of
3:11
Russia's stated ambitions for deeper
3:13
space missions.
3:14
>> For now, though, it's a debut and for
3:16
Ross Cosmos, a symbolic one. The next
3:19
test flights are planned across 2026 and
3:21
2027 with full operational status
3:24
anticipated by the end of the decade. A
3:27
long road ahead, but at least Thursday's
3:29
first step was a successful one.
3:31
brushes. So use 5 finally off the pad
3:34
and on to the next test.
3:36
>> Now for something a little closer to
3:38
home or more precisely something in our
3:41
sky right now. Last night May 1st the
3:44
full flower moon reached peak
3:46
illumination.
3:47
>> And May 2026 is a genuinely special
3:50
month for moon watchers.
3:51
>> Tell us more, Anna.
3:53
>> So May this year has two full moons. The
3:55
flower moon peaked on May 1st, and a
3:58
second full moon, a blue moon, will
3:59
arrive on May 31st. Two full moons in a
4:02
single calendar month is already a
4:04
relatively rare occurrence, happening
4:06
roughly every 2 to 3 years. But there is
4:09
an extra twist this year. Both of them
4:12
are micro moons.
4:13
>> Exactly. A micro moon is the opposite of
4:16
a super moon. It occurs when a full moon
4:18
happens near the point in the moon's
4:20
elliptical orbit where it's farthest
4:22
from Earth. what astronomers call
4:24
apogee. At that distance, the moon
4:27
appears around 14% smaller and about 30%
4:30
dimmer than it does at its closest
4:32
approach. Not a huge difference to the
4:34
naked eye, but it's a genuine physical
4:37
distinction,
4:38
>> though. Why are both May full moons
4:40
micro moons? It comes down to orbital
4:42
timing. The moon's apogee cycles around
4:45
relative to our calendar, and this month
4:47
they happen to align twice, giving us a
4:49
double micro moon. For listeners in
4:52
Australia and New Zealand, you've got
4:54
great autumn skies right now. And the
4:56
flower moon last night would have been
4:58
beautiful as it arked across your
4:59
northern sky. It sat between the red
5:02
star Anteries in Scorpius and blue white
5:04
spika in Virgo. Quite a tableau. If you
5:07
missed it, don't worry. At 99%
5:10
illumination tonight, it still looks
5:12
essentially full.
5:13
>> And for the blue moon on May 31st,
5:15
that's your next event to mark in your
5:17
calendar. It won't look blue, of course.
5:19
The name comes from a 16th century idiom
5:22
for something rare, but two full moons
5:24
in one month is always worth stepping
5:26
outside for.
5:27
>> The month of May is also great for
5:29
planets right now. Venus and Jupiter are
5:31
both prominent in the evening sky with
5:34
the two planets slowly closing toward a
5:36
conjunction on June 9th. Saturn and Mars
5:38
are reemerging in the pre-dawn east. A
5:41
busy sky for May.
5:42
>> All right, now it's time for something
5:44
completely new. Avery, let's do it. And
5:47
now, the Astronomy Daily Weekend Rap,
5:50
your guide to the week's biggest stories
5:52
from across the cosmos. I'm Avery.
5:55
>> And I'm Anna. This week in space was
5:58
frankly extraordinary. We had history
6:00
made, hardware delivered, a telescope
6:02
confirmed, and a cosmic spectacle that
6:05
no human had ever witnessed before.
6:07
Let's do this. Our first rap story is a
6:10
step back, a full exhale to appreciate
6:13
what NASA and its partners pulled off
6:15
with Artemis 2 because it's been a few
6:17
weeks now since Splashdown on April 10th
6:19
and we have the full picture and it is
6:22
genuinely staggering.
6:24
>> The headline numbers 694,481
6:28
m traveled in total. A peak velocity of
6:32
24,664
6:34
mph. a farthest distance from Earth of
6:37
252,756
6:40
miles, surpassing the record previously
6:42
held by Apollo 13 in 1970 and a closest
6:46
approach to the lunar surface of 4,67
6:50
mi. The crew were farther from Earth
6:52
than any humans in history. The mission
6:55
launched on April 1st. Yes, April Fool's
6:58
Day. Carrying Commander Reed Weisman,
7:00
pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist
7:03
Christina and Canadian Space
7:05
Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. Their
7:08
spacecraft, which the crew named
7:10
Integrity, flew a 10-day free return
7:12
trajectory around the moon and back. One
7:14
of the most watched elements of the
7:16
mission was the heat shield. Artemis 1
7:19
had shown some unexpected erosion of the
7:21
AV code ablative material and there was
7:23
significant debate before the mission
7:25
about whether to fly with the existing
7:27
design. Engineers and NASA administrator
7:30
Jared Isaacman ultimately decided to
7:32
proceed and the data coming back now
7:34
shows char loss was significantly
7:36
reduced compared to Artemis 1 and
7:39
consistent with ground testing
7:40
predictions. A huge relief.
7:42
>> Orion splashed down just 2.9 m from its
7:46
target site. Entry velocity was within
7:48
one mile per hour of predictions. Rick
7:51
Henfling, the entry flight director, put
7:53
it simply, a quarter of a million miles
7:55
to the moon and back, and they hit a
7:57
less than onederee entry angle on the
8:00
way home. That is not luck. That is a
8:02
thousand people doing their jobs.
8:04
>> The crew are now in post-flight
8:06
reconditioning at Johnson Center. And in
8:08
their own words, they were moved.
8:10
Commander Reed Wisman, Victor,
8:12
Christina, and Jeremy. We are bonded
8:14
forever. And no one down here is ever
8:17
going to know what the four of us just
8:18
went through. And it was the most
8:20
special thing that will ever happen in
8:22
my life.
8:23
>> Christina described the experience
8:25
of seeing Earth tiny through Orion's
8:28
window, surrounded by blackness, as one
8:30
of the most overwhelming moments of her
8:33
life. Victor Glover said the gratitude
8:35
he felt was too big to fit in one body.
8:39
and Jeremy Hansen as the crew broke the
8:41
distance record spoke directly to the
8:44
next generation. We challenged this
8:46
generation and the next to make sure
8:48
this record is not longived.
8:51
>> Post-flight assessments are well
8:52
underway at Kennedy Space Center where
8:54
the Orion capsule has returned. All 186
8:58
Avacote heat shield blocks for Artemis
9:00
3, the upgraded version, have already
9:03
been installed, cured, and inspected.
9:05
The next mission is already in motion.
9:08
And that leads to our fourth rap story.
9:10
But first,
9:11
>> of all the extraordinary things that
9:14
happened during Artemis 2, there is one
9:16
moment that stands alone. On April 6th,
9:19
as the crew flew around the far side of
9:22
the moon, they witnessed something that
9:24
no human being had ever experienced in
9:27
the history of our species. A total
9:30
solar eclipse observed from beyond the
9:32
moon. On Earth, a total solar eclipse,
9:35
when the moon completely blocks the sun
9:37
and reveals its corona, lasts a few
9:40
minutes at most. For the Aremis 2 crew,
9:43
totality lasted 57 minutes. 57 minutes
9:47
of watching the sun's outer atmosphere
9:49
glowing around a completely black lunar
9:52
disc. From a vantage point 4,000 m above
9:55
the surface.
9:56
>> Victor Glover's descriptions from inside
9:58
the spacecraft were extraordinary. He
10:01
called the moon a black orb against the
10:04
gray that drifted into blackness. He
10:06
described seeing Earth shine, the light
10:09
reflected from Earth, illuminating the
10:11
dark lunar surface as very distinct and
10:14
creating quite an impressive visual
10:16
illusion. And then as the solar corona
10:19
began to emerge from the edges of the
10:21
moon, he described the streamers as
10:23
looking like what the Luxor spotlight in
10:25
Las Vegas wants to be when it grows up.
10:28
The crew made genuine scientific
10:30
observations during those 57 minutes.
10:33
They searched for lofted lunar dust, a
10:35
phenomenon some Apollo crews reported,
10:37
and watched for micromedoroid impacts on
10:40
the darkened lunar surface. They
10:42
reported seeing at least five impact
10:43
flashes. They observed zodiacal light.
10:46
They photographed the corona in
10:48
unprecedented detail. Christina
10:50
described the experience simply. I just
10:53
had an overwhelming sense of being moved
10:55
by looking at the moon. The images NASA
10:58
has since released are breathtaking. The
11:01
glowing halo of the solar corona against
11:03
the black lunar disc with Earth shine
11:06
illuminating the moon's face. Venus and
11:08
Saturn visible as pinpoints of light in
11:11
the frame. Scientists are still
11:13
analyzing whether the halo effect is
11:15
pure corona, zodiacal light, or a
11:18
combination.
11:19
>> Victor Glover perhaps said it best. I
11:21
know this observation won't be of any
11:23
scientific value, but I'm really glad we
11:26
launched on April 1st because without
11:28
that specific launch date, the geometry
11:30
simply wouldn't have worked. Four people
11:33
in the right place at the right moment
11:35
to see something no human had ever seen.
11:38
That was Artemis 2.
11:40
>> Our third rep story is about the next
11:42
great space telescope, and it comes with
11:44
a headline that NASA doesn't get to
11:46
write very often. Head of schedule and
11:49
under budget. The Nancy Grace Roman
11:52
Space Telescope, Roman for short, has a
11:54
confirmed September 2026 launch target.
11:58
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman
12:00
announced this at a press conference at
12:02
Gddard Space Flight Center on April
12:04
21st, standing in front of the completed
12:06
telescope, 8 months ahead of NASA's
12:08
committed deadline, under budget and
12:11
fully assembled.
12:12
>> Let's talk about what this telescope
12:14
will actually do because the numbers are
12:16
mindbending. Roman's primary mirror is
12:19
the same 2.4 m diameter as Hubble's, but
12:23
its field of view is 100 times larger.
12:26
What Hubble would take 2,000 years to
12:28
survey, Roman can do in a year. Isaacman
12:32
put it this way. Roman will give the
12:34
Earth a new atlas of the universe. There
12:37
is not a screen in existence large
12:39
enough to display a single Roman image
12:42
at full resolution. In its 5-year
12:45
primary mission, Roman is expected to
12:47
discover over a 100,000 distant worlds,
12:51
hundreds of millions of stars, and
12:53
billions of galaxies. It will conduct
12:56
three core surveys focused on dark
12:58
energy, dark matter, and wide field
13:01
cosmology. It also carries a coronagraph
13:04
instrument that can directly image
13:06
exoplanets by blocking out the glare of
13:09
their host stars. A technology
13:11
demonstrator that could change how we
13:13
search for worlds like our own. The
13:16
telescope is now undergoing final tests
13:18
at Gddard. It will ship to Kennedy Space
13:20
Center in midJune for launch
13:22
preparations before riding a SpaceX
13:24
Falcon Heavy to its final destination,
13:27
the Sun L2 Lrangee Point about a million
13:30
miles from Earth. Same address as James
13:33
Webb.
13:34
>> The Roman telescope is named for Dr.
13:36
Nancy Grace Roman, NASA's first chief of
13:40
astronomy and one of the key architects
13:42
of the Hubble telescope. Known as the
13:45
mother of Hubble, she spent her career
13:48
making the case for space-based
13:50
astronomy. September 2026, her namesake
13:53
telescope joins the fleet. We cannot
13:56
wait.
13:57
>> And our final rap story brings us back
14:00
to the moon. Because even as Artemis 2
14:02
was being celebrated, Kennedy Space
14:04
Center was already turning the page. On
14:06
April 27th and 28th, while the Aremis 2
14:10
Orion capsule was being unloaded on one
14:13
side of Kennedy Space Center for
14:15
post-flight analysis, the Aremis 2 ISLs
14:20
core stage was arriving on the other
14:22
side via the Pegasus barge from New
14:25
Orleans. Two missions, one spaceport,
14:28
one extraordinary week. The core stage
14:31
is the backbone of the SLS rocket. 212
14:35
ft tall, containing the liquid hydrogen
14:38
and liquid oxygen tanks that hold more
14:40
than 733,000
14:42
gallons of propellant. It will be joined
14:44
with its engine section and solid rocket
14:47
boosters in the vehicle assembly
14:48
building over the coming months ahead of
14:51
the 2027 launch. Now, Artemis 3 has a
14:54
revised mission profile compared to what
14:57
was originally planned. Under changes
14:59
announced by administrator Isaacman in
15:01
February, Artemis 3 is no longer a lunar
15:05
landing mission. Instead, it's been
15:07
redesigned as a crude Earth orbit test,
15:10
docking the Orion spacecraft with one or
15:13
both of the commercial human landing
15:15
system vehicles. Face X's Starship HLS
15:19
and Blue Origins Blue Moon lander.
15:22
>> Think of it as Apollo 9 for the Aremis
15:24
era. A critical step in validating the
15:27
docking procedures and systems that will
15:29
be needed before astronauts can actually
15:31
descend to the lunar surface. The first
15:34
crude landing is now Artemis 4, targeted
15:36
for 2028. The Aremis 3 Orion crew module
15:41
is already at Kennedy undergoing
15:43
functional tests. All 186 upgraded AvCot
15:47
heat shield locks, the improved version
15:50
informed by Artemis 2 data, are
15:52
installed and inspected. The four RS25
15:56
engines for the core stage are due to
15:58
arrive from Stenis Space Center by July.
16:02
The crew for Artemis 3 hasn't been
16:03
announced yet, but they're out there
16:05
somewhere, knowing that their moment is
16:07
approaching.
16:08
>> From Artemis 2 splashing down to Aremis
16:12
3 hardware through the door, this was a
16:14
week that showed NASA is not pausing for
16:17
breath. Onwards to the moon.
16:19
>> And that is our first ever astronomy
16:22
daily weekend rap. Six stories, one
16:25
extraordinary week. Russia launched a
16:27
new rocket. Maze moon is doing something
16:30
rare. Artemis 2 left us speechless. The
16:33
Roman telescope is almost ready to fly
16:36
and Artemis 3 is already assembling in
16:38
the VAB.
16:39
>> This is why we do this show. Thanks so
16:41
much for spending some of your weekend
16:43
with us. If you enjoyed today's format,
16:46
let us know. Find us at astronomyaily.io
16:49
or on social media at astroaily pod.
16:53
Your feedback genuinely shapes the show.
16:55
>> Until next time, keep looking up.
16:58
>> Clear skies everyone. This is astronomy
17:01
daily.
17:12
Stories told.