Latest / Space News Today / China Aces Lunar Abort Test, Viking Life Debate Reignited, and Hubble’s Dying Star

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China Aces Lunar Abort Test, Viking Life Debate Reignited, and Hubble’s Dying Star · Space News Today

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Good day and welcome to Astronomy Daily,
0:03
your go-to source for everything
0:05
happening in space and astronomy. I'm
0:08
Anna
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>> and I'm Avery. It's Thursday, February
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the 12th, 2026, and we have a packed
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show for you today.
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>> We really do. China has just pulled off
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a major milestone in its push to land
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astronauts on the moon, including a
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pretty spectacular rocket splashdown
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that should have a few people at SpaceX
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paying attention. We've also got ULA's
0:31
Vulcan Centaur rocket launching a pair
0:33
of space surveillance satellites for the
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US Space Force, a deep dive into why
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Artemis 2 has so few chances to actually
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get off the ground, and a stunning new
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Hubble image of a dying star. Plus, did
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NASA's Viking missions actually find
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life on Mars 50 years ago? New research
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says the answer might be yes, and
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astronomers are still hunting for the
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remains of a comet that dramatically
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fell apart during CO lockdowns.
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>> Let's get into it. Our lead story today
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takes us to Wang Chong Space launch site
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on the island of Hainan where yesterday,
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February 11th, China conducted a
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landmark test that checked off multiple
1:16
firsts in a single mission. This was a
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lowaltitude demonstration flight of
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China's next generation Long March 10
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rocket carrying the Mangjo crew capsule.
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And what they were testing was something
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called a Max Q abort. Basically, can the
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capsule safely escape the rocket at the
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moment of maximum aerodynamic stress
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during ascent?
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>> And for context, that's the point during
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any rocket launch where the vehicle is
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experiencing the greatest combination of
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speed and atmospheric resistance. If
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something goes wrong at max Q, the crew
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needs to get away fast. This was China's
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first ever test of that scenario with a
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crude class spacecraft. The capsule
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successfully separated from the rocket,
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deployed its parachutes, and was
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recovered at sea. It was carrying lunar
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space suits and test dummies rather than
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actual tyonuts, obviously, but the abort
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system performed exactly as designed.
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>> Now, here is where it gets really
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interesting, Avery. After the capsule
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separated, the Long March 10 first stage
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didn't just tumble into the ocean. It
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performed a powered vertical landing, a
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soft splashdown at sea, very much in the
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style of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster
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recoveries.
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>> And that's a huge deal because until now
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only the United States has had
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operational reusable orbital class
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rockets. This was China's first
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successful rocket recovery attempt and
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it worked on the very first powered
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flight of the Long March 10 prototype.
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And they even had a dedicated autonomous
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recovery vessel called the Ling Hangzer
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standing by which is essentially China's
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answer to SpaceX's drone ships. The full
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Long March 10 is going to be an absolute
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beast when it's complete. A Tririccore
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rocket standing around 90 m tall with
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about 2700 tons of liftoff thrust. It's
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designed to be China's largest launch
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vehicle and the only one capable of
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sending both a crew spacecraft and a
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lunar lander to the moon in a single
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launch. If things continue at this pace,
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China is projecting a full orbital
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flight of the long march 10 by 2027 with
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tyonauts on the lunar surface before the
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end of the decade. That puts them in a
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very real race with NASA's Aremis
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program, which is targeting its own
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crude landing with Artemis 3 no earlier
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than 2028.
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>> And this test was conducted from the
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brand new launchpad number three in
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Wangchang, which was built specifically
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for these lunar missions. So, the
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infrastructure is going in alongside the
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hardware. A genuinely significant day
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for the Chinese space program and one
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that adds real momentum to what's
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shaping up to be the most exciting moon
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race since Apollo.
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>> Sticking with rockets, but moving to
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Cape Canaveral, ULA's Vulcan Centaur
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rocket is set to launch early this
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morning, February 12, with the window
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opening at 3:30 a.m. Eastern time.
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>> This is the fourth Vulcan mission
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overall and the first of 2026. The
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payload is a pair of GSSAP satellites.
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That's the geocynchronous space
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situational awareness program built by
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Northrop Grumman for the US Space Force.
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>> Think of GSSAP as a neighborhood watch
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program for geocynchronous orbit. These
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satellites monitor other spacecraft at
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that critical 35,000 km altitude,
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improving flight safety and giving Space
4:44
Force operators better situational
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awareness about what's happening up
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there. There's also a secondary payload
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called Propulsive ESPA. Essentially, a
4:54
training spacecraft that Space Force
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Guardians will use to practice precision
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orbital maneuvers and validate
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techniques for protecting assets in
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orbit. What's notable about this
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particular mission is that it's the
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longest Vulcan flight to date, nearly 10
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hours, because the Centaur upper stage
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is performing a direct insertion all the
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way to geocynchronous orbit rather than
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just dropping the satellites into a
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transfer orbit. ULA is under some
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pressure this year. They've got interm
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CEO John Elbon at the helm after Tory
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Bruno departed to join Blue Origin late
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last year and they're targeting 18 to 22
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launches in 2026 after falling short of
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their targets in 2025.
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>> They've invested heavily in
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infrastructure, a second mobile launch
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platform and a second integration
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facility at the Cape. So, the capacity
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is there. The question is whether Vulcan
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can deliver on the reliability and
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cadence that their roughly 80 mission
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backlog demands.
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>> We should note that ULA's webcast
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coverage will end at fairing separation
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about 5 minutes after launch because the
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classified nature of the payload means
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the rest of the mission is conducted in
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silence. Now, speaking of getting
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rockets off the ground, let's talk about
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Artemis 2. Because if you've been
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following the countdown to the first
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crude moon mission in over 50 years, you
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might have noticed something surprising
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about how few chances there actually are
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to launch. NASA has published the
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available launch dates and there are
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just 11 opportunities across March and
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April combined. Five dates in March, the
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6th through the 9th, plus March 11th,
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and six in April. Each window is about 2
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hours long. 11 chances in 61 days.
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That's it. And some of those could be
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lost to weather or the need to replace
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consumables like rocket fuel. So why so
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few?
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>> It all comes down to orbital mechanics
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and the specific requirements of this
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mission. Artemis 2 doesn't fly straight
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to the moon. The SLS rocket first
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delivers the Orion capsule to high Earth
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orbit where the crew and ground teams
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run through a series of checkouts. Then
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comes a trans lunar injection burn to
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send Orion on its way.
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>> So the launch time on any given day has
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to thread the needle. SLS needs to reach
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the right orbit. Orion needs to be in
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the correct alignment with both Earth
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and the moon for that trans lunar
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injection burn. And the whole trajectory
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has to work as a free return loop using
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the moon's gravity to sling the capsule
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home.
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>> And then there's a power constraint.
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Orion's solar arrays can't be in
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darkness for more than 90 minutes at a
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stretch. So NASA has to rule out any
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trajectory that would put the spacecraft
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in an extended eclipse. That alone
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eliminates a lot of potential dates.
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>> The return profile matters too. Orion
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needs a specific entry angle and
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conditions for splashdown. So that
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further narrows the field. Now, the
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reason we're talking about March and
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April specifically, is that the first
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wet dress rehearsal, that's the full
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practice run of fueling and countdown
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procedures, ended early on February 2nd,
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because of a liquid hydrogen leak that
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took February off the table entirely. A
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second wet dress attempt is expected
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soon, possibly this weekend. And NASA
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officials have been reassuring everyone
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that there are launch opportunities in
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every month beyond April as well. They
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just haven't published those dates yet.
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>> And it's worth remembering that Artemis
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1 had similar hydrogen leak issues and
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still flew successfully in late 2022. So
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this isn't uncharted territory.
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>> Whenever it flies, it'll be historic. No
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astronaut has been beyond low Earth
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orbit since Apollo 17 in December 1972.
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That's over 53 years.
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>> Moving on to our next story, and it's
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time for some pure cosmic beauty. NASA
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has released a breathtaking new image
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from the Hubble Space Telescope showing
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the Egg Nebula in extraordinary detail.
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The Egg Nebula is about a thousand
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lighty years away in the constellation
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Signis and it's what astronomers call a
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pre-planetary nebula which despite the
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name has nothing to do with planets
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forming. It's the early stage of a dying
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sunlike star shedding its outer layers.
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And NASA describes it as the first,
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youngest, and closest pre-planetary
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nebula ever discovered, which makes it
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incredibly valuable for studying how
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stars like our sun eventually meet their
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end. What makes this image so striking
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is the structure. At the center, you
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have the dying star, the yolk of the
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egg, hidden behind a dense cloud of
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dust. Quinn beams of light punch outward
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through gaps in that dusty shell,
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illuminating a series of concentric arcs
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of gas that ripple outward like waves.
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And unlike most nebula, which glow
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because their gas has been ionized, the
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Egg Nebula shines purely by reflected
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light from the central star. The star
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hasn't heated up enough yet to ionize
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its surroundings. That's what makes this
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a pre-planetary nebula rather than a
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full planetary nebula. The symmetry is
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remarkable, too. Scientists say the
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patterns are far too orderly to have
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come from a violent event like a
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supernova. Instead, they point to
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coordinated sputtering events in the
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carbonenenriched core of the dying star.
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Though the exact mechanism is still
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poorly understood, there's also evidence
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of gravitational interactions with one
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or more hidden companion stars buried
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deep within the dust, which may be
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helping to shape those dramatic
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outflows. This pre-planetary phase only
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lasts a few thousand years, an absolute
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blink in cosmic terms. So catching a
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nebula at this stage is like catching
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lightning in a bottle. And the material
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being shed here is the same kind of
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carbonri stardust that seated our own
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solar system 4 and a half billion years
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ago. Hubble has observed the Egg Nebula
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before, but this new image taken with
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the wide field camera 3 combines
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multiple data sets to produce the most
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detailed portrait yet. 35 years in orbit
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and Hubble is still delivering. Now for
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a story that could fundamentally change
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how we think about Mars. New research
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published in the journal Astrobiology is
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making the case that NASA's Viking
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missions may have actually detected
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signs of life on Mars back in 1976.
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We just didn't know how to read the
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data.
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>> This is a big claim, so let's unpack it.
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The Viking landers carried an instrument
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called the GCMS,
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the gas chromatography mass
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spectrometer, which was designed to
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detect organic molecules in the Martian
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soil. At the time, it returned what was
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interpreted as a negative result. No
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organics found. Case closed.
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>> And that conclusion essentially shut
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down the debate for decades. The Viking
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project scientist Gerald Soffen famously
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said, "No bodies, no life." And that
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became the textbook answer.
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>> But here's the twist. In 2008, NASA's
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Phoenix Lander discovered perchlorates
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in the Martian soil. Perchlorates are
12:20
powerful oxidizing chemicals. And it
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turns out they break down organic
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molecules when heated, which is exactly
12:26
what the Viking GCMS did to its soil
12:29
samples. Though in 2010, astrobiologist
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Raphael Navaro Gonzalez showed that if
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you take organic material and heat it in
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the presence of perchlorate, you get
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methyl chloride and carbon dioxide,
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which is precisely the chemical
12:45
signature that Viking detected and
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dismissed as either contamination or an
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unknown chemical process.
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>> Lead author Dr. Benner puts it very
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directly. The GCMS didn't fail to
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discover organics. It did discover them
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through their degradation products. We
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just didn't understand what we were
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looking at.
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>> The team has even developed a model for
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what Martian microbes might look like.
13:10
They call it Barum. That's bacterial
13:13
autoroes that respire with stored oxygen
13:16
on Mars. The idea is that these
13:18
organisms could photosynthesize during
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the Martian day, produce and store
13:23
oxygen, then use it to survive the
13:25
freezing Martian nights. I should
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emphasize this doesn't prove there's
13:30
life on Mars, but it does reopen a door
13:32
that was closed 50 years ago and makes a
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compelling case that the evidence was
13:37
there all along hiding in plain sight.
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>> And it raises a fascinating question. If
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we go back to Mars with modern
13:45
instruments designed with perchlorates
13:47
in mind, what else might we find?
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>> Our final story today is a bit of a
13:52
cosmic cold case. Remember comet C209 Y4
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Atlas?
13:57
>> Oh, the pandemic comet. It was
14:00
discovered in December 2019. And as it
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flew toward the inner solar system in
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early 2020, it brightened so rapidly
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that astronomers predicted it could
14:09
become visible to the naked eye, a real
14:11
lockdown spectacle.
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>> And then, like so many plans in 2020, it
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fell apart, literally. In late April
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2020, the comet dramatically
14:22
disintegrated into dozens of pieces.
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Hubble tracked about 30 fragments
14:26
grouped into a few clusters of icy
14:29
debris. But here's the thing. A new
14:32
study in the Astronomical Journal by a
14:34
team led by Salvatore Cordova Kihano at
14:37
Boston University has been asking if
14:39
anything is still out there. Did the
14:41
comet completely destroy itself or could
14:44
a chunk have survived? The team scanned
14:47
the skies in August and October of 2020
14:50
using the Lowel Discovery Telescope in
14:52
Arizona and the Zwicki Transient
14:54
Facility, which surveys the entire
14:56
northern sky every two nights. They
14:59
found nothing. But, and this is the
15:02
intriguing part, that doesn't
15:04
necessarily mean there's nothing left.
15:06
Their analysis suggests that a fragment
15:08
up to about half a kilometer wide could
15:11
still exist, but would be too small and
15:13
too faint for those telescopes to
15:15
detect. It could be out there right now,
15:18
quietly tracing the comet's original
15:20
orbit back toward the outer solar
15:22
system.
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>> The researchers pose a really
15:25
thoughtprovoking question. How many
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comets that we've assumed were
15:29
completely destroyed might actually have
15:31
surviving remnants still orbiting the
15:34
sun? And there's a wonderful historical
15:36
footnote here. Comet Atlas is believed
15:38
to be a fragment of the same parent body
15:41
as the great comet of 1844, which itself
15:44
may have been visible to stone age
15:46
civilizations about 5,000 years ago when
15:49
it swept past the sun.
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>> So somewhere out there, a tiny piece of
15:53
a 5,000-year-old cosmic traveler might
15:57
still be making its lonely journey
15:58
through the darkness. I find that oddly
16:01
beautiful.
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>> Me, too. And the study serves as a heads
16:05
up to astronomers. Next time a comet
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breaks apart, be ready to keep watching
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because the story might not be over.
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>> And that is your Astronomy Daily for
16:14
Thursday, February 12th, 2026. What a
16:18
lineup. From China's moon ambitions to
16:21
Vikings longlost life clues. If you
16:23
enjoyed the show, please do leave us a
16:25
review on your podcast platform of
16:27
choice. It really does help new
16:29
listeners find us. And you can find full
16:31
show notes, links to all our sources,
16:34
and more at astronomyaily.io.
16:37
>> For Avery and the whole Astronomy Daily
16:39
team, I'm Anna. Keep looking up, and
16:41
we'll see you tomorrow.
16:54
Stories told.