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00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Anna: Good morning and welcome to Astronomy Daily.
00:00:03 --> 00:00:04 I'm Anna.
00:00:04 --> 00:00:06 Avery: And I'm avery. It's Wednesday, July 1,
00:00:07 --> 00:00:09 2026, the start of a new month. And what a
00:00:09 --> 00:00:10 way to kick it off.
00:00:10 --> 00:00:13 Anna: Today we're opening with something genuinely
00:00:13 --> 00:00:16 historic. The Vera Rubin Observatory
00:00:16 --> 00:00:19 has officially started filming its 10 year
00:00:19 --> 00:00:20 movie of the universe.
00:00:20 --> 00:00:23 Avery: Plus a quick update on the Swift rescue
00:00:23 --> 00:00:25 mission. After yesterday's scrub, NASA's plan
00:00:25 --> 00:00:28 to send a spare Mars rover to the moon's
00:00:28 --> 00:00:30 south pole. Blue Origin shows off its
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 rebuilt launch pad. Rocket lab makes an
00:00:33 --> 00:00:36 $8 billion move on iridium. And
00:00:36 --> 00:00:38 we close with scientists mapping out
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 humanity's next giant leap to Saturn's
00:00:41 --> 00:00:42 moon Titan.
00:00:42 --> 00:00:45 Anna: Six stories, one very big Wednesday.
00:00:45 --> 00:00:46 Let's get into it.
00:00:47 --> 00:00:49 We start today with a moment astronomers have
00:00:49 --> 00:00:52 been waiting decades for. As of yesterday,
00:00:52 --> 00:00:55 June 30, the NSF DOE
00:00:55 --> 00:00:58 Vera Rubin Observatory has officially
00:00:58 --> 00:01:01 begun the Legacy Survey of Space, Space and
00:01:01 --> 00:01:02 Time, the lsst.
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 Avery: We've talked about Rubin a few times this
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 year. First with the first look Images Back
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 in mid-2025, then in April when its
00:01:10 --> 00:01:12 early test data turned up over 11
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 new asteroids in just six weeks. But this
00:01:15 --> 00:01:18 is different. This is the real thing.
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 Starting 10 straight years of full science
00:01:21 --> 00:01:21 operations.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 Anna: From a mountaintop in Chile, Cerro
00:01:24 --> 00:01:27 Pachan, Rubin's Simone survey
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 telescope, will now scan the entire southern
00:01:29 --> 00:01:32 sky every few nights. Using largest
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 digital camera ever built, 3200
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 megapixels, it produces a new image
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 roughly every 40 seconds.
00:01:40 --> 00:01:42 Avery: Over the decade, Rubin will revisit every
00:01:42 --> 00:01:45 patch of sky about 800 times,
00:01:45 --> 00:01:48 stacking exposures to reveal fainter and
00:01:48 --> 00:01:50 fainter detail. Each night, it gathers around
00:01:50 --> 00:01:53 10 terabytes of data and can generate up to
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 7 million alerts about things that have
00:01:55 --> 00:01:58 changed in the sky, brightened, dimmed, or
00:01:58 --> 00:01:59 moved.
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 Anna: NSF's Brian Stone put it beautifully.
00:02:02 --> 00:02:05 Today we begin filming the greatest cosmic
00:02:05 --> 00:02:07 movie ever made. And Rubin's deputy director
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 of operations, Phil Marshall, said it takes
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 20 years of hard science and engineering to
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 get to the point where they can finally call
00:02:15 --> 00:02:16 action.
00:02:16 --> 00:02:19 Avery: What's actually at stake here is huge dark
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 energy, dark matter, the structure of the
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 universe itself, but also very practical
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 things. Hundreds of thousands of new
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 asteroids and comets, planetary defense data,
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 and an open data set that any scientist
00:02:32 --> 00:02:35 or member of the public will eventually be
00:02:35 --> 00:02:36 able to explore.
00:02:36 --> 00:02:39 Anna: Bob Blum, Rubin's director at Nor Lab,
00:02:39 --> 00:02:42 called it amazing and humbling to be there
00:02:42 --> 00:02:44 after so many years of work. And for anyone
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 who remembers us covering that asteroid haul
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 back in April, Mario Jurek's line was that it
00:02:50 --> 00:02:51 was just the tip of the iceberg.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 Avery: Well, the iceberg just got a lot bigger.
00:02:55 --> 00:02:57 10 years of nightly filming starts now.
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 Anna: An extraordinary way to start July
00:03:00 --> 00:03:01 onwards.
00:03:01 --> 00:03:04 Avery: Next, a quick update for anyone following the
00:03:04 --> 00:03:06 Swift rescue mission since we covered the
00:03:06 --> 00:03:08 full background in depth yesterday.
00:03:08 --> 00:03:11 Anna: Right. The Lynx spacecraft's ride to
00:03:11 --> 00:03:13 orbit on the very last Pegasus XL
00:03:13 --> 00:03:16 rocket was scrubbed on Tuesday due to
00:03:16 --> 00:03:18 unfavorable, um, weather over Kwajalen Atoll.
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 Avery: NASA and Catalyst Space have retargeted for
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 tonight. Our time, 9:43pm Local
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 KWA time, which is 5:43 Eastern.
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 Stargazer and Pegasus are still go. They're
00:03:30 --> 00:03:31 just waiting on the weather to clear.
00:03:31 --> 00:03:34 Anna: So fingers crossed for a clean run this time.
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 We'll bring you the result as soon as it
00:03:36 --> 00:03:37 happens.
00:03:37 --> 00:03:40 Avery: Moving on from a scrubbed launch to a very
00:03:40 --> 00:03:42 different moon story, DASA gave
00:03:42 --> 00:03:44 Anna: its second monthly moon base briefing
00:03:44 --> 00:03:46 yesterday. And it came with a genuine
00:03:46 --> 00:03:47 surprise.
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 Avery: The headline business first. NASA has awarded
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 roughly $590 million across
00:03:53 --> 00:03:55 Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and
00:03:55 --> 00:03:58 Intuitive Machines for four new robotic
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 lander missions targeted for late
00:04:00 --> 00:04:03 2028. Astrobotic picked up two of
00:04:03 --> 00:04:06 them flying on its Griffin 1 lander, one of
00:04:06 --> 00:04:08 which will carry Astrolabe's Flip rover to
00:04:08 --> 00:04:09 the surface.
00:04:09 --> 00:04:12 Anna: Administrator Jared Isaacman described the
00:04:12 --> 00:04:14 approach as drawing on the 1960s
00:04:14 --> 00:04:17 playbook. You don't jump straight to Apollo
00:04:17 --> 00:04:20 11. You build up capability step by step.
00:04:20 --> 00:04:22 Avery: But the real headline grabber was what
00:04:22 --> 00:04:25 Isaacman floated almost as an aside.
00:04:25 --> 00:04:28 NASA's considering repurposing an engineering
00:04:28 --> 00:04:30 test version of its nuclear powered Mars
00:04:30 --> 00:04:33 rovers built alongside Perseverance and
00:04:33 --> 00:04:35 Curiosity, and sending it to the moon's south
00:04:35 --> 00:04:36 pole instead.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:40 Anna: They're calling it Promise Polar Rover for
00:04:40 --> 00:04:42 observation, mapping and in situ
00:04:42 --> 00:04:45 exploration. It's currently just sitting at
00:04:45 --> 00:04:48 JPL as a test unit. But Isaacman said
00:04:48 --> 00:04:50 there's, quote, very little that would hold
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 us back from making use of that hardware.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:55 Avery: What makes it interesting is the power
00:04:55 --> 00:04:57 source. NASA already has Viper heading to the
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 moon next year. But Viper runs on solar
00:05:00 --> 00:05:03 power, which limits where it can go. PROMISE
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 would use a radioisotope generator, the same
00:05:06 --> 00:05:08 kind of nuclear battery that's kept Curiosity
00:05:08 --> 00:05:11 going for 14 years on Mars.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:14 Anna: That means PROMISE could drive right into
00:05:14 --> 00:05:16 permanently shadowed craters at the lunar
00:05:16 --> 00:05:19 south pole, the ones that never see sunlight
00:05:19 --> 00:05:22 and are thought to hold significant water ice
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 and just keep working through the lunar
00:05:24 --> 00:05:24 night.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:27 Avery: And, um, in the least serious moment of the
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 briefing, Isaacman asked the moon based
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 program manager to promise, no pun intended,
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 that a soccer ball would fly to the moon on
00:05:34 --> 00:05:36 one of these landers if the US Wins the World
00:05:36 --> 00:05:39 Cup. That it would one up Alan Shepard's
00:05:39 --> 00:05:42 Anna: Lunar Golf shot a nice reminder that even
00:05:42 --> 00:05:44 in a briefing full of contracts and rover
00:05:44 --> 00:05:47 engineering, there's still room for a bit of
00:05:47 --> 00:05:50 fun. Promise is still very much in the
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 considering phase, but if it flies, it'll be
00:05:52 --> 00:05:55 a rover with quite the resume already.
00:05:55 --> 00:05:58 Avery: From the Moon to the Launch Pad Literally
00:05:58 --> 00:06:00 one month on from the dramatic New Glenn
00:06:00 --> 00:06:03 explosion at Cape Canaveral, Blue Origin gave
00:06:03 --> 00:06:05 its first real look at what comes next.
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 Anna: As a reminder, on May 28, a new Glenn
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 first stage exploded during a static fire
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 test at Launch Complex 36A,
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 destroying the rocket and badly damaging the
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 pad. The lightning tower and transporter
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 erector were lost, though the tank farm
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 integration facility and water tower
00:06:24 --> 00:06:25 survived.
00:06:25 --> 00:06:28 Avery: CEO Dave Limp announced yesterday that Blue
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 Origin is not simply rebuilding what was
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 there before. They're pivoting to what
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 they're calling a horizontal vertical hybrid
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 configuration. Stages are mated horizontally
00:06:38 --> 00:06:40 in the integration facility, then rolled out
00:06:40 --> 00:06:43 and raised vertically by crane at the pad,
00:06:43 --> 00:06:45 with the payload attached once it's upright.
00:06:46 --> 00:06:48 Anna: Interestingly, that's not a new idea for
00:06:48 --> 00:06:50 them. It's the concept they'd already been
00:06:50 --> 00:06:53 developing for a second pad to support their
00:06:53 --> 00:06:56 much larger Future rocket, the 9x4
00:06:56 --> 00:06:58 variant. They've essentially brought that
00:06:58 --> 00:07:01 design forward to rebuild 36A
00:07:01 --> 00:07:02 sooner on the cause of
00:07:02 --> 00:07:05 Avery: the explosion, limp said. Early analysis
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 points to the aft section of the first stage,
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 but the investigation is still active. The
00:07:10 --> 00:07:12 good news? By his own account, quote, we
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 caught a lot of breaks. Hardware recovery and
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 debris removal are already complete and
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 reconstruction has begun.
00:07:19 --> 00:07:22 Anna: There's real pressure behind this. New Glenn
00:07:22 --> 00:07:25 is central to NASA's Artemis plans. It's
00:07:25 --> 00:07:27 due to carry the Blue Moon lander, and Blue
00:07:27 --> 00:07:30 Origin says it still intends to fly again
00:07:30 --> 00:07:32 before the end of this year.
00:07:32 --> 00:07:35 Avery: NASA's Jared Isaacman, who visited the damage
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 pad in person, said the agency has been
00:07:37 --> 00:07:39 looking at contingency options, but that Plan
00:07:39 --> 00:07:42 A is looking a lot better today than it was a
00:07:42 --> 00:07:43 few weeks ago.
00:07:43 --> 00:07:46 Anna: A tough month for Blue Origin, but a
00:07:46 --> 00:07:49 genuinely fast recovery so far. We'll
00:07:49 --> 00:07:50 keep tracking it toward that end of year.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:53 Target now for the biggest deal in the
00:07:53 --> 00:07:56 commercial space sector this year, Rocket Lab
00:07:56 --> 00:07:58 has agreed to acquire satellite
00:07:58 --> 00:08:01 communications giant Iridium in a cash and
00:08:01 --> 00:08:03 stock deal worth about $8 billion.
00:08:04 --> 00:08:06 Avery: Under the terms, Iridium shareholders get
00:08:06 --> 00:08:09 $54 a share, 27 in
00:08:09 --> 00:08:12 cash, 27 in Rocket Lab stock,
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 which works out to roughly a 24%
00:08:15 --> 00:08:17 premium. The market loved it.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:20 Rocket Lab shares jumped around 16%, and
00:08:20 --> 00:08:22 Iridium's soared about 25%.
00:08:23 --> 00:08:26 Anna: So for anyone who doesn't know Iridium. It's
00:08:26 --> 00:08:28 one of the original global satellite
00:08:28 --> 00:08:30 communications networks, dating back to
00:08:30 --> 00:08:33 Motorola in the late 1980s and
00:08:33 --> 00:08:36 famous for surviving a dramatic bankruptcy in
00:08:36 --> 00:08:38 1999 before reinventing itself.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:42 Today it runs 66 satellites in low
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 Earth orbit and serves more than two and a
00:08:44 --> 00:08:47 half million subscribers. Government,
00:08:47 --> 00:08:50 defense, aviation, maritime,
00:08:50 --> 00:08:53 journalists in war zones, all sorts of
00:08:53 --> 00:08:55 users who need connectivity when nothing else
00:08:55 --> 00:08:55 works.
00:08:56 --> 00:08:59 Avery: So why does Rocket Lab want it? Because right
00:08:59 --> 00:09:02 now Rocket Lab builds rockets and satellites
00:09:02 --> 00:09:04 but doesn't operate its own big
00:09:04 --> 00:09:07 constellation. This deal instantly hands
00:09:07 --> 00:09:09 them a mature, profitable, already licensed
00:09:09 --> 00:09:12 global network along with valuable radio
00:09:12 --> 00:09:14 spectrum. Rather than spending years and
00:09:14 --> 00:09:15 billions building
00:09:15 --> 00:09:18 Anna: one from scratch, Rocket Lab founder Peter
00:09:18 --> 00:09:21 Beck has been open about wanting to become a
00:09:21 --> 00:09:23 fully vertically integrated space company,
00:09:23 --> 00:09:26 designing, building, launching and operating,
00:09:26 --> 00:09:29 much like SpaceX has done with Starlink. This
00:09:29 --> 00:09:31 is a very direct step in that direction.
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 Avery: Analyst reaction has been strongly positive,
00:09:34 --> 00:09:37 too. One space consultant put it simply,
00:09:37 --> 00:09:39 the existing customer base and distribution
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 network Rocket Lab gains might end up being
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 worth more than the satellites and spectrum
00:09:45 --> 00:09:45 themselves.
00:09:45 --> 00:09:48 Anna: Rocket Labs lined up a $3.6
00:09:48 --> 00:09:50 billion bridge loan from Deutsche bank and
00:09:50 --> 00:09:53 Wells Fargo to help fund the cash portion,
00:09:53 --> 00:09:56 and the deal's expected to close around the
00:09:56 --> 00:09:58 middle of next year, pending the usual
00:09:58 --> 00:09:59 regulatory approvals.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:02 Avery: It's a genuine changing of the guard moment
00:10:02 --> 00:10:04 for the smaller end of the space industry and
00:10:04 --> 00:10:07 the clear shot across the bow for anyone
00:10:07 --> 00:10:09 assuming SpaceX would have this space to
00:10:09 --> 00:10:10 itself.
00:10:10 --> 00:10:13 Anna: Big money, big ambitions. We'll be watching
00:10:13 --> 00:10:15 how this one plays out. We'll close today
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 with something further out, literally.
00:10:18 --> 00:10:20 Earlier this month, a group of scientists and
00:10:20 --> 00:10:23 engineers gathered in Boulder, Colorado, for
00:10:23 --> 00:10:26 the very first humans to Titan summit.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 Avery: Titan is Saturn's largest moon, a
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 strange, hazy world with rivers, lakes and
00:10:32 --> 00:10:34 rain. Except instead of water, it's all
00:10:34 --> 00:10:37 liquid methane and ethane. And for the
00:10:37 --> 00:10:40 first time, a dedicated group of experts sat
00:10:40 --> 00:10:43 down and seriously asked, could humans
00:10:43 --> 00:10:44 actually go there?
00:10:44 --> 00:10:47 Anna: The summit was organized by Amanda Hendricks,
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 director of the Planetary Science Institute
00:10:49 --> 00:10:52 and president of the advocacy group Explore
00:10:52 --> 00:10:55 titan. She told Space.com, the
00:10:55 --> 00:10:57 goal wasn't to plan a mission next year. It
00:10:57 --> 00:11:00 was to normalize the idea that Titan is a
00:11:00 --> 00:11:03 genuinely reasonable destination for humans
00:11:03 --> 00:11:06 so it can sit in our minds as the next stop
00:11:06 --> 00:11:06 after Mars.
00:11:07 --> 00:11:09 Avery: And Titan does have some surprising
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 advantages. Its atmosphere is actually
00:11:11 --> 00:11:14 thicker than Earth's, so you wouldn't need a
00:11:14 --> 00:11:16 pressurized suit like you would on the moon
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 or Mars. You'd mainly need to stay warm.
00:11:19 --> 00:11:21 Some researchers have even floated the idea
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 of strapping on wings or a jetpack to
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 fly through that thick air under something
00:11:26 --> 00:11:27 close to human muscle power.
00:11:28 --> 00:11:30 Anna: The challenges are just as extraordinary
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 though, building habitats, transportation and
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 airlocks for a world that's
00:11:35 --> 00:11:37 -179 degrees
00:11:37 --> 00:11:40 Celsius on average, with methane, monsoons
00:11:40 --> 00:11:42 and floods floods to plan around.
00:11:42 --> 00:11:45 Avery: Scott Rafkin from the Southwest Research
00:11:45 --> 00:11:47 Institute, who hosted the two day gathering,
00:11:47 --> 00:11:50 said it plainly sending humans to Titan is
00:11:50 --> 00:11:53 extraordinarily ambitious, but he called the
00:11:53 --> 00:11:55 summit the beginning of a long term effort to
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 imagine and ultimately achieve something
00:11:58 --> 00:11:59 transformative.
00:12:00 --> 00:12:02 Anna: We do have a real precursor already in
00:12:02 --> 00:12:04 motion. NASA's Dragonfly
00:12:04 --> 00:12:07 rotorcraft, nuclear powered about the size of
00:12:07 --> 00:12:10 a small car, is targeted to launch no earlier
00:12:10 --> 00:12:13 than 2028 on a six journey
00:12:13 --> 00:12:16 for a multi year surface mission exploring
00:12:16 --> 00:12:17 Titan by air.
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 Avery: Whatever Dragonfly finds in the next decade
00:12:20 --> 00:12:23 will shape everything that comes after it,
00:12:23 --> 00:12:26 but it's a nice thought to end on, even while
00:12:26 --> 00:12:28 we're mapping asteroids by the 10 thousands
00:12:28 --> 00:12:31 and reboosting telescopes somewhere in
00:12:31 --> 00:12:34 a conference room in Boulder, people are
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 already sketching what it might take to walk
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 on a beach of liquid methane under
00:12:39 --> 00:12:40 Saturn's rings.
00:12:40 --> 00:12:43 Anna: And that's Astronomy Daily for today.
00:12:43 --> 00:12:46 Avery: What a first day of July, a 10 year
00:12:46 --> 00:12:49 cosmic movie beginning a ah, Mars rover
00:12:49 --> 00:12:52 eyeing a lunar detour, two very
00:12:52 --> 00:12:54 different launch industry shakeups, and
00:12:54 --> 00:12:57 humans quietly starting to plan for Titan.
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 Anna: If you enjoyed today's episode, please hit
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 subscribe wherever you're listening and leave
00:13:02 --> 00:13:04 us a review if you can. It really does help
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 new listeners find the show.
00:13:06 --> 00:13:08 Avery: We'll have the Swift Link launch result for
00:13:08 --> 00:13:11 you as soon as it happens. Fingers crossed
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 for clear skies over Kwajalein tonight.
00:13:14 --> 00:13:16 Anna: Until tomorrow, keep looking up.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:17 Avery: Clear skies everyone.
00:13:32 --> 00:13:41
00:13:41 --> 00:13:41 m.