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Starliner Is On Its Way to the ISS! · Made of Stars

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Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics, and
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space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been known to learn about astronomical
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phenomenon, the scientific method, and expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism
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and uranus. Listen, that's your own risk. Go ahead. When made
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of stars, made them stars, made sizes. When made of stars,
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you could be from high they would New Mexicomus where all stars? When we
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are made of stars. I'm West Carol, joined by my good friend doctor
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Sean Cruisin from Coma State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. Hey Sean,
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Hey Wes. Good to be here. It's a kind of a special edition
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for us tonight. I yes, we normally record shows on Thursday. We
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talk about that we have new shows available on Thursday. We'll drop this.
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That's the hipp lingo for release this on Thursday, as we normally do.
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But we're recording it on Wednesday evening because we've got some big news and it's
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really breaking news. And if you've been following this show for any series of
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weeks, any stretch over the past several weeks, I should say you know
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that this is a big story because it's been put off and put off and
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put off. But today is a really big day for a few people.
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It's a big day for NASA, it's a big day for Boeing especially.
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But it has happened. Starliner has blasted into space now today, on this
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fifth day of June. It finally happened. Yes, Starliner is the shall
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we call it, the company's nickname for the CST one hundred spacecraft. So
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the CSD one hundred spacecraft built by Boeing is one of two spacecraft that one
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bids to produce for NASA what they call their commercial crew capsules, right,
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and so this is the crew's not commercial, they're NASA astronauts. It's the
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spacecraft that's commercial. So these are commercial companies building spacecraft to take NASA astronauts
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back and forth to the International Space Station. Listeners to this show surely know,
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unless this is your very first time, you probably already know very well
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that SpaceX and Dragon have been doing this for some number of years now.
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Right, It's important to mention just because it is that Boeing received their money
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to produce their commercial crew via at the same time that SpaceX did. They
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also received four point two billion dollars with a B billion dollars, which was
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all most twice as much as SpaceX received to produce Dragon. But Dragon's been
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the vehicle that's become the workhorse taking American astronauts and cargo back and forth from
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the International Space Station. So, as you can imagine, Boeing was under
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some industrial pressure to be able to produce their vehicle, get it to fly,
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make sure it passed all the safety inspections. They had a couple of
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not completely successful trips to space without human beings on board. All of these
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things, as Wes has mentioned, we've documented on this show. We've talked
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about these several times. Today, we can put all that aside and just
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say okay today, Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams, NASA astronauts launched safely and
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successfully, which is the goal, folks, safely and successfully aboard the CST
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one hundred, the star Liner spacecraft built by Boeing headed for the International Space
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Station. Now they're due to arrive as we're recording the show on a Wednesday
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night. They're due to arrive tomorrow Thursday, around noon, about twelve to
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fifteen pm. Eastern time is when they're going to be docking, and then
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they'll spend just over a week. Is the plan. Now, sometimes we
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know that these plans change. Ask astronaut Frank Rubio for instance. You can
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have your plans change when you're up there. But the plan is for them
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to spend just a little over a week aboard the ISS and then come back
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home in star Liner for a touchdown on June fourteenth. Now here's the exciting
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part about that. It's not a splashdown. So the SpaceX Dragon model was
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modified from a ground land ending which they were going to use retro rockets very
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similar to how they land their boosters along with parachutes to bring their Dragon capsule
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back down on land. For reasons that I don't know all of the details
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of the engineering, but it was decided by NASA input that it would be
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safer and more effective to splash that vehicle down in the desert. I'm sorry,
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in the in the ocean desert. Splashing down in the desert sounds a
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little dangerous. It's a very dangerous thing. Yes, this is me being
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an idiot. I'm reading words ahead of what i'm speaking, which I should
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never do. The star Liner is scheduled to come down in the desert that's
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where I was heading. So whereas Dragon splashes down in the ocean, the
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star Liners actually only come down on parachutes and very similar to the soy Used
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spacecraft that the Russians use to take astronauts both causnauts and American astronauts back and
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forth International Space Station. They do a very hard ground landing somewhere in Mongolia.
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And when I say hard, I've heard astronauts describe it as, Yeah,
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it's a little bit like a low speed car accident, is how it
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feels when it comes down and makes contact. I'm hoping that Butts Wilmore and
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Sunny Williams, the NASA astronauts that are going to come back down on Starliner,
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will report a little bit of a softer landing aboard star Liner in the
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US southwestern deserts when they come back on June the fourteenth. Then I've heard
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astronauts describe the soy Used landing. So anyway, this is all exciting.
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You know. What I'm hoping is that, first of all, obviously I'm
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hoping for a safe landing. I'm hoping that everything's safe. I just want
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everybody to be okay. At this point, we don't really care that it
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took longer. It's well, we kind of do, but we don't really
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because they're safe, right. That's the important is that the astronauts are safe.
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So let's not lose sight of the important thing. We have a new
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vehicle carrying astronauts safely into orbit. We're hoping and praying that everything goes well
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and they safely return back to the Earth, landing in the desert, not
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in the water, which honestly is a lot easier once they're on the ground
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because you don't have to go out there with boats and try to catch it
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in stormy seas, and you don't have other people with motor boats trying to
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crowd your space and need the coastguard to chase them off, and all the
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kinds of things that happen with dragon capsules. I'm hoping long term that this
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kind of leads to SpaceX being able to reintroduce their original model of retro rockets
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and parachutes to land dragons on the ground too, as they have demonstrated their
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very high level of proficiency in landing boosters safely back on the ground. So
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we'll see where this takes it. That's just one of the things that I
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think about as I watched this whole thing unfold with to day's successful launch of
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Starline. So step one, and again, safety is obviously absolute paramount.
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That's the only thing that really matters is getting these two human beings to space
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and back home. That's that's top priority. When you start looking at the
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breakdown of like the launch, obviously that's the big one. They had to
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get off the ground, they had to get into space. They've done that
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all right, So docking is obviously should be pretty routine. But again,
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space is hard. It's always hard. So that's the next thing that we
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need to check off. And then they need to you know, do what
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they're there to do, spend their week, and then come back and obviously
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safely land that also will be you know, difficulty level goes back up again.
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So I mean, they got to feel good about finally launching. I
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mean, that's all I can say, is like, that's finally happened,
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and it's been successful and they've done what you know, it's as soon as
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they're on the International Space Station, obviously they can say, yes, we've
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done this. Our vehicle has been used to do what we were hoping to
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do with it. So it's a big day. It's a huge day now
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with two vehicles able to send people to the International Space Station, right.
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Yeah, So and you know we have we've said a lot about Boeing,
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but there are of course teams of people at NASA working on Starliner. Right.
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It's not just Boeing operating in a vacuum, so to speak. They
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are working very closely with a large team of people at the National Aeronautics and
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Space Administration. So so it's a big day for everybody involved, both on
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the Boeing side and on the NASA side and on the ULA side, who
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is the rocket company that has the Atlas five. So everybody's feeling pretty good
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because you know, there have been problems in a number of fronts, and
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hasn't always just been the Starliner spacecraft. Atlas five had some delays, NASA
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caused some delays anyway, So all of these things have worked together too,
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yeah, to slow the program down. But at the same time, you
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now have, as you said moments ago, a successful launch. Now you
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did talk about docking and landing. Let's remember that this is a test flight,
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right, So everything they're doing is for the first time. They had
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some runs at things with a spacecraft with no one on board, but you
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can also get away with things with no one on board that you couldn't necessarily
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get away with when you have human beings on board. So this is a
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test flight. Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams are test astronauts much as they were
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test pilots before becoming astronauts for aircraft, and being a test pilot's dangerous because
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you're flying an aircraft that you haven't worked out all the bugs. Well that's
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kind of what's happening now. So one of the things they're going to do,
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both Boeing Starliner and the SpaceX Dragon had to be designed by the parameters
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of the contract to be fully autonomous. They had to be able to without
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astronaut control, fly to the International Space Station, dock, successfully, undock,
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return back home, all with autonomous operation. But one of the things
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that's going to happen is if your autonomous operation goes out, you have to
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be able to take over this thing manually. So on the way up to
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the space station, as we're now waiting for them to dock, sometime tomorrow,
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butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams will occasionally take manual control of Starliner. It's
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not because the autonomous system has a problem. It's because this is a test
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flight. These are test pilots or test astronauts in this case. They're actually
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going to fly the spacecraft manually to make sure everything works right. They're testing
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out all the systems when they bring it back down in land. There will
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be tests along the way of various systems and parameters for bringing the vehicle back
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down, so they're really checking it out. So they're not really ready to
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put this thing, shall we say, into service fully yet because they're going
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to take all of the telemetry and all of the data from this test flight
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and all of the things measured by the two astronauts on board, and they're
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going to bring that back to the drawing board and make sure they work out
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all of those bugs. So really, Starliner is not scheduled to become a
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part of NASA's official crew fleet until twenty twenty five. So if everything goes
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well on this test flight and they don't have anything that they discovered, they're
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too far out of spec. Yeah, so sometime next year, they'll begin
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to alternate between SpaceX and Boeing flights up to International Space Station. You know,
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you probably have as many star Liner flights as you do Dragon flights at
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that time. But for now, it still has to pass all of its
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tests, and you know, one could imagine a scenario where, you know,
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maybe they discover something that isn't quite right. Maybe the landing's a little
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hopefully not but a little harder than they wanted, or you know, just
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something along the way, maybe docking doesn't go quite as smoothly. All of
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these things are being tested, so that's what we're watching. And I'm gonna
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be watching this doc myself tomorrow because I'm just personally curious. I just feel
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like, you know, I'm kind of watching evil. Can Evil jump the
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Snake River Gorge? Right, I mean that's yeah. If you don't know
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that, reference kids to look it up, all right, So anyway,
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but I just feel like I'm watching somebody do something for the first time that
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is tricky and dangerous and it's going to be It's interesting to me, and
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you know, I feel kind of emotionally invested, just because I'm a space
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enthusiast and I really care about these people. I want them, everybody to
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be okay. I want them to all go through a successful set of steps
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to doc safely and then return back home safely. On the fourteenth, Elon
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Musk congratulating them for a successful launch. I guess on X. So so
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funny thing is I went on X because I saw this quote and by the
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way, i'm i'm i'm, I'm talking about this new story. Typically I
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try to give credit to the news outlets for where I find all my information.
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I had to borrow a lot because this story was all over the place.
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So this is AP news dot com, AOL dot com, and Nbcnews
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dot com, Reuters dot com, along with my usual spacelight sites like space
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dot com and spaceflight Now dot com. I really read a bunch of different
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articles, but then I found this quote on several of them, which just
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said this quote, congratulations on a successful launch unquote Elon wrote on social media.
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So I thought myself, like you, Oh, I bet it was
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Twitter. That's now X and they don't want to say it X. But
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actually I went on the X site and it's not there. Ah, Okay,
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he did have some stuff on X, but it's talking about Starship,
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So then it boggled my mind to try to think about where this could have
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been on a different social media site. But anyway, we're just going to
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go along with all the attributions that I just gave you and say many of
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the news outlets outlets have quoted that he said this on quote unquote social media.
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So there you go. Maybegulations on a successful launch, Elon bothered the
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words for his competitor Boeing. Maybe he posted something on one of their sites
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on social media and he didn't put it specifically on his page or something.
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Maybe that's how he was clever about it. Well, you mentioned he was
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talking about SpaceX because and Starship has a scheduled launch. Now we've been talking
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for a couple of weeks now about the importance at least for the optics for
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Boeing to do what they did today before Starship gets another flight in and that's
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scheduled. And again we're recording on Wednesday. We normally record on Thursdays,
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but that's scheduled for early tomorrow morning. So yeah, I mean, I
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think that that's a little bit of it. Certainly a win for Boeing to
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get that done, But sometimes you do something really great and then you know,
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the other team comes along and kind of steals your thunder the next day.
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So I guess they have to feel good that at least they got this
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one launched before this next launch from SpaceX. Yeah, if you want to
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hear some of our comments on the competition between Boeing and SpaceX in general,
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go back one show. I think we talked about it last week. I'm
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sure I don't really want to reash that now because I probably said more than
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I needed to last week. But but yes, there is a thing there.
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So it's kind of funny that Elon was on social media quote unquote congratulating.
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Look, and I know what you're getting at, and I know what
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you're saying, But the reality is good competition in the spirit of if we're
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not talking about two companies that just hate each other's guts and that they're trying
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to sabotage one another, obviously there's gonna be a little bit of competition there.
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You got one that would love to come out on top and say,
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ah, we're the winner. But I think overall, this is what's driving
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all of this forward. And I think if you got five or six companies
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that are able to do this at some point. I think that's naturally a
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progression that we could go to down the line. And I don't know that
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you're gonna get somebody like I mean, would Elon Musk have done what he
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had done without Richard Branson and his encouragement and friendship and things. So I
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don't know that it's really so bloodthirsty and nasty, but it is that good
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kind of competition. I think that that helps push all of this forward,
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am I right? You and I think similarly, and and we have talked
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many times about the benefit of competition, you know. We it's you know,
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it's it's the good side of capitalism, right And people can argue that
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there's downsides of capitalism. I'm not gonna do that on this show. For
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sure. There are good things about being in a competitive environment. Holy moly,
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friends, you know, Darwinism Okay, Like so, I mean natural
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selection wasn't our idea. So so there you go. Yeah, how about
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that. I'll leave it in there in sports, I mean sports, I
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mean it's you know, you can sit here and say capitalism and we can
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say this about space and we can say that, but the reality is we
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see it in some I mean, some of the great athletes in sports got
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there because of competition. It's just the way it works. I mean,
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there's a reason that they name the conference final MVPs in the East the Larry
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Bird Trophy and the Magic Johnson Trophy in the West. I mean, it's
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just competition is what brings out the best in people. And I feel like
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that's a big part of what's going on with these two companies. So,
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I mean, you know, it's the Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese of the
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space world. That's what this is. But don't mention the girl that just
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ran up and knocked her down for no reason. That's something I can't remember.
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Her name, had something to do with Kennedy Space Center or something I
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can't remember. But that's not what we're taking. That would be sabotage and
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for some dumb reason. I don't really understand that. But anyway, so
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competition's good. As Wes said, So think and let me make one more
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comment on it. Think of the historical implications of the space race itself,
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the Apollo era, right, and and that really is the Mercury Gemini Apollo
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era, the golden age of space exploration for the United States of America was
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born on the back of competition with the Russian Space Agency, you know,
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trying to get to the moon first. So so all of these things are
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true, and and yes there's going to be some optics had space had There's
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so many stars, you know, we talked about that, dude last time.
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All these stars aren't really going to the stars are really going to the
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moon. But anyway, so starships and star liners and all these things are
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going to lower the orbit and the moon and all these things. All right,
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SpaceX Starship, if it had launched before star Liner, would have been
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a bad look for a worse look even for Boeing, because then it's like,
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well, not only did Elon Musk and SpaceX beat us to lower orbit,
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they're also beating us badly to the next level vehicle that it's gonna help
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us get to the moon. Well, Boeing did win this phase of the
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competition, but only by twenty two hours. Because now it looks as if
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Starship is going to launch within less than twenty four hours of the star Liner
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completing its successful mission. And yeah, there's there's probably a little bit of
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saliva in the eye. So to speak in terms of when this is launching.
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But okay, that's all great. The big first step was that they
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had to get an FAA license. So this is a quote from FAA officials.
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They put out a statement and said, quote, the FAA has approved
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a license authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight number four. SpaceX met all safety and
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other licensing requirements for this test flight. And then that's shortly after when Elon
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Musk came out on this new platform apparently called X. I'm never not really
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sure what that is. I think didn't they used to have Twitter or something.
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I don't know, it's something like that, something like that. So
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quote the at SpaceX Starship launch tomorrow morning will be live streamed exclusively on X.
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So if you want to see this, you got to go on X,
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which is apparently Elon Musk's social media platforms what I'm hearing anyway, So
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something like that, just not for congratulatory messages to Boeing, because he doesn't
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do that there, does it other places, but not there. Yeah,
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there you have it, friends, That's what's happening. Now. Listen,
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there's something cool that's kind of developing out of this, because again we've documented
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this on this show, but lots of people have There is a somewhat thorny
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relationship, I would say between SpaceX and the FAA. They've been, you
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know, maybe not as kind to each other in terms of comments back and
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forth being vollied, and you know, federal officials are a bit more careful.
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Elon is pretty cavalier about his comments about the FAA anyway, So you
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know, there's been a little bit of a thorny relationship there. But now,
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hey, it looks like they're actually trying to work together. So for
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Starship four flight, SpaceX and the FAA worked out an agreement on a different
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approach. And this is yet another statement from the FAA. They said this
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quote. As part of its request for licensed modification, SpaceX proposed three scenarios
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involving Starship entry that would not require an investigation in the event of the loss
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of the vehicle. The FAA approved the scenarios as test induced damage exceptions after
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evaluating them as part of the Flight safety and flight hazard analysis and confirming they
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met public safety requirements. If a different anomaly occurs with Starship vehicle and investigation
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may be warranted, as well as if an anomaly occurs with the super heavy
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booster rocket. Okay, so what they're saying is, yeah, if it's
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something really bad and out of the ordinary, we're going to have to do
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an investigation. But we are going to make some exceptions here is SpaceX has
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certain kind of loss of vehicle events because we acknowledge and accept the way that
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SpaceX does their AI engineering. Their engineering model is agile development. It's let's
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fly this thing, let's see what fails and fix it. Let's fly it
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again as fast as we can see. And so the FAA in the statement
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is kind of acknowledging that, yeah, we get it, and we're going
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to allow certain certain flexibility for SpaceX even if they lose their vehicle, because
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we know that this is how they do their engineering. So I think this
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is a step forward. It's a step forward for the FAA certainly kind of
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acknowledging the development process of SpaceX, kind of saying, Okay, this is
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a very legitimate platform. NASA is waiting around for this design to be successfully
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tested. Let's go ahead and get it done. So maybe maybe some yellow
24:45
brick road smooth skies ahead between FAA and SpaceX. We'll see after the actual
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launch tomorrow and these subsequent events that happened there. All right, So you
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made a reference to the space race, and we were talking about competition.
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We're talking about the value in it. Now we're assuming, we're hoping at
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least that there's some friendly competition between the folks at Boeing and SpaceX. It's
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a little bit different when you start talking country to country. And now China
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has had a very significant success in one of their missions, and I guess
25:22
accomplished a first. So obviously there's also this aspect to this competition thing that
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I think we have to be aware of the fact that China is making some
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strides when it comes to the space race that we're now in that also involves
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China. Now, yeah, it's friends, we're in another space race.
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We just don't know it, or maybe the general public in the United States
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and perhaps you know, elected officials don't really acknowledge it. But China is
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leading the way right now with numerous successful moon launched landing and now they're doing
26:03
a sample return mission. So right now, the chongy six successfully has collected
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samples from the lunar far side, one side of the Moon always faces the
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Earth. The other side of the Moon always faces away from the Earth.
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Neither side is dark all the time. So I'm sorry, Pink Floyd,
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there is no dark side of the moon. Or yes, there's a dark
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side of the Moon, but it's not the same side all the time.
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How about that? Yeah, there you go. That's more scientifically accurate.
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So anyway, on the far side of the Moon, we've never had any
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of those lunar samples come back to Earth before for analysis. So this Chinese
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moon probe, called the chongy six, has collected moon samples from the far
26:56
side, has lifted back off the lunar surface, is in the process of
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redocking with its lunar orbiter, and then it will be heading back for the
27:08
Earth with the samples collected robotically from the far side. Now again, if
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you're not a space enthusiast, there's no people on board this thing, right,
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They haven't sent Chinese people to the Moon. It's a robot ship,
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but it's doing the work that is necessary for the scientific investigation of a part
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of the Moon that is very different from the side that faces the Earth.
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And we could do a whole show on why that's different. But you know,
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if you're really curious about it, just look it up. The lunar
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far side is different geologically by far than the lunar near side, the side
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of the Moon that we see all the time. These are the first samples
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ever taken of the first of the lunar far side which are being returned for
27:49
analysis, and it's China that's doing it. And that sample return mission is
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due to land back on the Earth in the inner mong not the outer Mongolia
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region, which I have visited actually, but the Inner Mongolia region, the
28:06
part of Mongolia near China, sometime around June twenty fifth. So I mean
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congratulations to China. Yes, I think yes from a scientific perspective, yes,
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we want to keep our science friendly. But we also know that China
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is actively preparing space based weapons systems, yes, and a lot of other
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very unfriendly space technologies, anti satellite weaponry and other things. And so it's
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hard for me to be hardy in my personal congratulations to China, not because
28:48
of the Chinese people, but because of the actions of the Chinese government.
28:52
But yeah, okay, good, we got lunar fareside samples that that will
28:56
be good for science. All right, there we go read the story by
28:59
the way, on You Versus Day dot Com. We'll be talking about another
29:02
story in a second that's from Universe Today dot Com too. That's a great
29:04
website, by the way, to keep up on a lot of space news
29:08
that has to do with astronomy and planetary exploration. And it's hard, it's
29:15
hard not to think and we talk about weaponry and all that, and we've
29:18
we've done a show where we talked about the concerns that we need to have
29:22
at least about some of their plans. It also kind of can't help but
29:26
feel like they're working towards this race of trying to come up with a way
29:30
to colonize in some form, and it feels like that's a big part of
29:33
what the race is there. You mentioned there's no permanent dark side of the
29:37
Moon, but the side that faces the Earth always looks like Jackie Gleeson and
29:42
the Honeymooners. So keep that in mind. Fact fact, you don't have
29:48
to convince Yeah, you don't have to You don't have to convince Pink Floyd
29:52
of anything on that coming up after a quick break, trouble with the Hubble.
29:56
We'll talk about that next, all right, So what's going on with
30:22
the Hubble telescope. We are always marveled at how long the Hubble has been
30:29
able to be in service and of service to science and to just the whole
30:34
planet. And anytime we get to some sort of a story, we go,
30:41
oh, there might be a problem with Hubble. You can't oh my
30:44
gosh. And they always seem to figure it out. So what's the latest
30:47
with Hubble. They've had to shut it down a bit. So what's the
30:51
deal, what's going on with Hubble? Please tell me we can bring Hubble
30:53
back. Okay, yeah, sure, we can bring it back. Something
31:00
to do with gyroscopes, right, Yeah, we can bring it back.
31:03
Let's move on. No, I'm just kidding. So, in order to
31:07
take nice pictures of objects in deep space, the Hubble space telescope has to
31:14
be able to point at them, which means controllers on the ground have to
31:18
be able to move it around with a high level of precision, because the
31:25
field of view on Hubble is tiny, so it has to be lined up
31:29
just right. And then not only that, once it's lined up, it
31:33
has to have the ability to stay in that orientation. So the spatial control
31:40
of the actual vehicle, the spacecraft part of Hubble is very important. In
31:45
order for that to take place, it has to have three functioning gyroscopes.
31:52
You know, if you know anything about aviation or aircraft, think about yaw,
31:56
pitch, and roll. If you've heard those terms, that's three degrees
32:00
of freedom in which the aircraft can move. Well, they basically have the
32:05
same thing on Hubble. They just need a gyroscope to monitor all three of
32:09
those possible movements. Three axes about which the vehicle can move, three degrees
32:15
of freedom. So you need three gyroscopes. Well, Hubble has six gyroscopes
32:23
and they do that so in case, you know, one or two go
32:27
out, they still have these other ones that they can use, and that's
32:30
great. As Wes mentioned, it's been in operation since nineteen ninety. I'm
32:36
I don't like to talk about how old I am, but you know,
32:37
I'm not as young a man as I used to be. That's been for
32:40
my entire scientific career. That's roughly the year that I started my physics degree
32:47
the first time, and I've had a pretty long and storied career as a
32:52
PhD faculty member at Columbus State University. So Hubble's been up there a while
32:57
nineteen ninety to twenty twenty four. That's thirty four years of operation. That's
33:00
a long time, and so you know it's a venerable spacecraft. It's been
33:06
around a minute. It's had fantastic contributions to our understanding of the universe.
33:13
It's been probably the most important scientific instrument created by human beings for a certain
33:19
branch of science. I mean, that's its importance to astronomy can't be understated,
33:23
overstated, can't be overstated. So the point is that, yeah,
33:29
it's had a long and great career, but as it's been up there,
33:30
it's also been repaired a few times. There have been four servicing missions up
33:35
to the Hubble Space Telescope. The first one was in nineteen ninety seven,
33:38
the last one was in two thousand and nine, and so at those servicing
33:44
missions, replacing gyros was one of the things that they did because gyros are
33:49
a very important part. Well now all of this time later, those gyros
33:54
are going out and we don't have a Space Shuttle anymore in service, so
33:59
we can't get vehicles out there. We can't send dragon capsules that far out
34:04
into space. People might not realize this, but Hubble Space Telescope is a
34:07
lot further from the Earth than the International Space Station, so Dragon does not
34:12
currently have the capability of getting out that far. It also doesn't really have
34:15
a capability for people to do spacewalks because it doesn't have an airlock system and
34:22
it's not designed for that. It's designed to get people to International Space Station.
34:28
So there's lots of reasons why we can't get out there and repair it.
34:30
Again. One of the things, one of the things, by the
34:34
way, that made the Shuttle such a great vehicle, right, I mean,
34:37
it's just it was just such an amazing vehicle for them to use and
34:42
have access to. So without it, yeah, we don't have all of
34:45
those things. When Shuttle is retired, to your point, we spend a
34:49
lot of time about talking about how are we going to get to space and
34:51
how are we going to get our restaurants. International Space Station, well,
34:53
Hubble Space, Hubble Space, Telescope and many other very important sign payloads were
35:00
another component of what the Space Shuttle could do. Right, it could put
35:06
all of these other vehicles out there, and then not only that, it
35:09
could take astronauts to these kind of eccentric orbits and get them to the position
35:14
where they can actually repair those vehicles in orbit, so we didn't have to
35:17
just replace it. So those vehicles weren't disposable, they were repairable, right,
35:22
and so so yes, you're right. Basically, when when Shuttle got
35:25
to orbit, it was its own space station in a way, so its
35:30
capabilities were far greater than Dragon and Land without splashing down or slamming into the
35:35
desert. Yes, indeed, and being you know, largely reusable as a
35:40
vehicle. Right, So it's main engines, it's it's orbiter, it's solid
35:45
rocket boosters, all reusable. All of these things were yeah, notable pluses
35:51
with Shuttle that yes, we've lost that capability and haven't exactly replaced it yet.
35:55
Okay, well so so along with Hubble. Now three of those gyros
36:00
have gone bad over the years since the last repair. It only has three
36:06
left. As we just said, it's the minimum number we knew this day
36:08
was coming. One of those last three gyros is failing. And what it's
36:15
doing is it's throwing faults. It hasn't completely quit working, but it's throwing
36:20
enough faults. It's sending back faulty data, which means they can't trust it.
36:23
So they're now trying to figure out a workaround, and according to NASA
36:29
dot Gov, NASA announced on Tuesday that work is underway to transition Hubble Space
36:35
Telescope to operate using only one gyro. You're like, well, yay,
36:40
why didn't we do this a long time ago? Why does it need three?
36:45
Well, okay, because they're going to transition it to a much more
36:49
limited form of operation. It's not going to have full capability like it does
36:53
now, and so it's going to be in a depleted mode. So this
36:59
is this is unfortunate. Right, So Hubble Space Telescope is coming to a
37:02
point where it's no longer going to be the instrument than it was, and
37:07
right now it's been shut down and put in a safe mode until they can
37:12
get this new configuration figured out. Lots of astronomers worldwide they were counting on
37:16
data from Hubble, which, yes, I know, we have James Webb
37:20
Space Telescope. I know, friends, I know it doesn't do the same
37:23
stuff that Hubble does. Yes, it gives amazing pictures that look pretty in
37:29
the USA today or wherever you see them, but it doesn't do the same
37:32
scientific jobs that Hubble does. They are not the same instruments. Hubble is
37:37
a visible light telescope. James Webb is an infra red telescope. So so
37:43
yeah, we're about to lose a major scientific capability. Astrophysicists all over the
37:47
world have already applied for and received time on Hubble. They have plans to
37:52
make their observations, and now because of this Gyro going out, they will
37:55
lose the ability to take some of those data, and you we'll just miss
38:00
out on some science. So that's basically the the new mode that Hubbles coming
38:04
too shortly. I know that this has said to Gyro over and over and
38:08
over again, but it doesn't mean that. In my head, I'm not
38:12
reading euro and really wanting sharma. So that's where I'm at right now.
38:15
All right, let's talk about the parade of planets. People have been talking
38:20
about the parade of planets. Oh my word, all the planets perfectly lined
38:24
up in the sky in alphabetical order, easy to see with the naked eye.
38:30
You just walk outside, you look up and it's just it's just like
38:35
you the little model that you made at school, you know, with the
38:38
little foam balls and the little toothpicks and and you know, you painted it
38:44
and then you just stuck it there and you shine a flashlight. That's what
38:46
it's going to look like in the sky, just waiting for everybody to see
38:50
it, right, I mean, because that happens, right, I mean,
38:55
like, don't you remember all those great pictures one that happened in the
38:59
past. Yeah, no, oh, they're just fabulous, all the way
39:01
back to when Caveman were, you know, chiseling it into rock. That's
39:07
how far back it goes. Oh my goodness. I mean remember that last
39:12
time you could see Neptune with a naked eye? Yeah? Great, you
39:14
know, And I mean, yeah, if I had a dollar for every
39:16
time I saw Uranus. Uh. So let's let's talk about what's actually happening,
39:23
because, yes, we're gonna get something if you've got a really good
39:29
telescope, and you know, thankfully I know people with good telescopes. But
39:36
if you've got a good telescope, you're able to see some pretty spectacular things.
39:39
But this is not really quite what the hype has been. So let's
39:45
talk about what's actually going on in the sky. Yeah, I'm gonna I'm
39:49
gonna handle this story in a little bit different way. So I'll tell you
39:52
this, I was completely unaware of me as a space media person and professor
39:59
of astrophysm, was completely unaware of this monumental event taking place in the sky
40:04
on June third until one of my buddies saw it on Facebook. Yeah.
40:07
Well, I had friends messaging me, tagging me in stories about it,
40:10
so that we're kind of it's a little different for us in the way that
40:15
this approached us, because and it's like, you know, you want to
40:19
say, yes, technically some of this is right, just I mean,
40:28
but you can't really, you know, dive in the way that it's kind
40:31
of presented. You have to dig a little deeper into what's actually going on.
40:37
Yeah. So so the different way I'm going to handle it is this,
40:40
I'm going to I'm going to defer to a couple of guys that you
40:44
may have heard of on social media. James span who's a meteorologist skywatcher,
40:52
and Tony Rice, who's an astronomy enthusiast skywatcher, both famous on social media
40:59
for other reasons I'm normally gonna go into now, but but they they had
41:04
kind of the perfect response to all this, so I'm gonna let them I'm
41:07
gonna let their words lead the way, all right. So according to James
41:12
span Tony Rice on social media, they say this June third isn't special.
41:19
June third seed two days ago. That was the day that it was supposed
41:22
to happen. So if you rushed outside, I'm sorry we didn't get the
41:24
podcast out like on Monday, so we could prevent you from rushing outside and
41:28
losing sleep early in the morning on June third, Tuesday. But you know
41:32
I'm here. I'm here to help you over your pain. Now. According
41:36
to James and Tony, June third isn't special. It is even the best
41:38
time to see some of the planets. Only Mars and Saturn will be visible.
41:46
That's because only Mars and Saturn are the visible planets that are actually in
41:52
the sky that aren't so close to the Sun that you could actually see them.
41:57
So already that you're, you know, you're massive planets that you're gonna
42:00
be able to see with the naked eye is already kind of tossed out the
42:02
window. Next comment from James and Tony, Neptune and Uranus are too dim
42:07
to see without the aid of a sizeable backyard telescope. Amen there, brother,
42:12
that's true. I have even found in fairly large telescopes that we have
42:15
at the Space Science Center. I have found the planet's Uranus and Neptune in
42:21
those telescopes and tried to show them to the general public and they and they
42:23
always ask me the same question, which one which is it? Now?
42:30
Remember this is through a very sizeable telescope. They're basically seeing a field of
42:34
stars, and I'm trying to tell them that one of those stars is actually
42:37
a planet through a telescope. And I say, well, do you see
42:40
the one that looked a little bit kind of greenish, that's Uranus. Do
42:45
you see the one that's a tiny bit blue that's Neptune. No, I
42:49
don't really see that. Okay, I'm sorry. Just look at them all
42:52
and you'll know that you've seen it, even though you don't know which one
42:57
it is. Okay. So there's that. Here's the other part from James
43:00
and Tony. Jupiter and Mercury conjunction is technically above the horizon, but it's
43:05
lost in the morning twilight because it's too close to the Sun for you to
43:08
be able to see it. So yeah, technically from Earth, Jupiter and
43:15
Mercury are coming not to a perfect alignment. They get close together, they
43:20
get somewhat close together in the sky, which we call a conjunction in astronomy.
43:27
They are not aligned. Okay, whatever, You're not even gonna be
43:30
able to see that because you can't see it in the morning twilight. All
43:32
right, here we go. Here's another fun fact. June third isn't special.
43:38
The arrangement of the planets is mostly the same throughout early June. So
43:44
for the next two weeks, I mean, these planets are gonna be more
43:47
or less than the same configuration. So if you did rush out there on
43:51
June third and you still didn't see anything, go out for the next two
43:53
weeks. The planets are gonna be doing the same thing. Oh, by
43:55
the way, you still won't be able to see anything. Refer back to
44:00
the reasons I just mentioned. You probably can see Mars. I mean,
44:04
let's be honest, you know maybe, I mean, you know, I
44:07
don't. Most people can't if you're not a skywatcher, can't really locate Mars
44:12
in the sky. But yeah, with proper star maps and things. And
44:15
by the way, friends, if you want to find I don't want to
44:16
discourage anyone. If you want to find Mars and Saturn in the early morning
44:21
sky. A great website to pull up star maps is something called skymaps dot
44:27
com. Skymaps dot com. There's also Heavens dash Above dot com. Let's
44:31
are are a couple of great websites to pull up skymaps and so you can
44:35
see where the things are in the nighttime or in the early morning sky.
44:37
All right, so last one here comes. Mercury is going to join Saturn
44:46
in Mars and Jupiter in September, and they'll actually be a little bit more
44:54
visible in the sky because they're not so close to the Sun. So let's
45:00
tell you what last Let's all get together in September again, and we'll go
45:05
out, you know, I'll announce it here on Native Stars and well maybe
45:07
we'll have a virtual star party and we'll all go see all these planets in
45:12
the sky. What you can actually see them and listen to Earth, Wind
45:15
and Fire while we're doing it. Why not? I mean, I think
45:17
you know, September is a great song there. So James and Tony from
45:22
Social Media, thanks guys for you know, for the summary. I appreciated
45:24
that kept me from ranting. I just read your words. It's fine,
45:28
All right, let's talk about Columbus State University's Cocola Space Science Centers. You
45:31
guys are in uh summer mode, and we say this all the time.
45:37
You come in and you can check out for a very small fee. You
45:40
can check out all the great exhibits and everything that you have, the shows
45:44
that you have there, and enjoy some air conditioning. And we're starting to
45:49
get into that phase of the year where the air conditioning becomes very important.
45:54
Yeah. We have a great gallery of exhibits and hands on activities, including
45:59
flights emulators, flights to space aboard our Space Shuttle Odyssey. That's a virtual
46:02
flight to space by the way, just in case you're wondering. We have
46:06
our Guzzle Vortex, which is great for the youngest of visitors, kind of
46:09
pre k up to about second grade. But let's be honest, the middle
46:14
school kids and the adults love that exhibit as well. That's where you get
46:16
to feed some aliens and then there's an air mas involved, and if you
46:21
want to know more, just come down and actually see it. It's easier
46:22
that way. But we also have the largest collection of Space Shuttle artifacts in
46:25
the state of Georgia. Come down and see artifacts like Space Shuttle mate engine
46:30
nozzle, a skate basket, front tire, computer, on board computer,
46:34
and a variety of other artifacts from the Space Shuttle era. Also the David
46:37
R. Scott Collection Commander David Scott from Pollo fifteen. He and his brother
46:43
and his family have donated artifacts to us directly from his collection. You can
46:46
come down and see some of those one of a kind, priceless artifacts on
46:51
display at the Coca Cola Space Science Center at Columbus State University. Summertime,
46:54
as West said's good time to get out from the heat into the ac Come
47:00
check out our newly installed planetarium system in our Omosphere theater. Lots of fun
47:06
stuff to do. Www dot cc s SC dot org, Charlie Charlie SamSam
47:13
Charlie dot org. You can find out all the information there, or follow
47:15
us on that social media thing that we kept talking about. You know,
47:20
we're on that one called Facebook. You can follow us on Facebook and we
47:23
put out announcements about our programs there. Sean and I thank you for listening,
47:28
and we'll do this again next week. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has
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