Lost Wanderer Podcast 5/4/25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Anywhere. I'm taking off my best, leaping up behind and
to the stocks to a per cent.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Of reasons.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Of per cent on the space night too.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
With the stars and.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
The randsome family on Miss Jaws Man said, Rosy.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Not per center. We rat the space.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
At the stars and the the challenge season pasta sic
the ches.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
On the spaces.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Of the Center, on the station at the start, and
the US the center sasund.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
The choice long base.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
On the space to a blame face.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
Time for this nation to take a clearly leading role
in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the
key to our future on Earth.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
As one all fair for man on Bia. Today is
a day from morning.

Speaker 5 (02:48):
And remember Nancy and I are obtained to the core.
But the tragedy of the Shuttle Challenge.

Speaker 6 (02:54):
The following program may contain fuse language, adult teens and
bad attempts of human Listen a discretion is it vibe?

Speaker 7 (03:16):
What is President Trump's goal?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
What is his vision?

Speaker 7 (03:20):
He wants to put an American flag on marsin.

Speaker 5 (03:38):
A gladi baser angle, Lambert, I am your host.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
J E.

Speaker 8 (03:45):
Doublef also known as a cosmic bard over on X
and this is the Lost Wonderer podcast from May fourth,
twenty twenty five. Happy Sunday evening, and welcome aboard my ship,
the ACS serenade. No, while most folks are out busy
celebrating a galaxy far far away, let's take a moment

(04:07):
to salute something a little more real. The thirty fifth
anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope, launched on April twenty fourth,
nineteen ninety aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, Hubble has spent
three and a half decades quietly changing the way we
understand the universe. It circled Earth more than one hundred
and eighty thousand times, made over one point six million observations, and,

(04:32):
unlike most of us, actually is getting better with age.
Of course, it didn't start that way. It's first few
years were rough thanks to a flawed mirror. Its early
images looks, you know, like someone smeared vasiline on the lens,
like you know, some eighties and nineties pop stars. But
in ninety three, astronauts fix it during a daring servicing mission,

(04:55):
a spacewalk worthy moment that literally bought the Cosmos, and
from there, well, let's face it, it's been nothing short
of legendary Hubble has given us the iconic pillars of creation, y'all,
dropping shots of galaxy smashing together, and even helped measure

(05:16):
the universe's expansion rate. It helped confirm the existence of
dark energy. It spied on newborn stars, and it looked
so far back in time it might as well tap
the shoulder of the Big Bang and asked for a light.

Speaker 4 (05:30):
Not.

Speaker 8 (05:30):
To celebrate its thirty fifth birthday, NASA dropped a fresh
look at the Eagle Nebula, a revisitation of those famous
fingerlike columns of dust and gas, and you know what,
Still majestic, still humbling, and still better than ninety five
percent of science fiction box covers. But here's the part

(05:50):
they didn't put out in those nice glossy photo releases, Hubble,
it's unborrowed time.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
The last servicing.

Speaker 8 (06:00):
Mission was in two thousand and nine. Now it's been
holding up, but just barely. NASA doesn't currently have any
plan to extend its life, despite proposals. Meanwhile, SpaceX has
floated the idea of sending up maybe a private crew
Dragon to service the telescope, maybe swap out some warn components,

(06:22):
boost it, maybe to a little more of a stable
orbit and keep the lights on just a little bit longer.
Now it's a cool idea, but that said, there's no agreement,
no plan, no budget, just right now a suggestion. So

(06:42):
let's be kind of clear here. Fixing Hubble isn't kind
of a plug and play. Let's get a resolved issue.
The telescope wasn't built for remote repair. Every pass service
call was done by highly trained astronauts. You practice for
months to handle the instrument's delicate systems. Doing it again
robotically or with a private crew would take serious effort, money,

(07:04):
and perhaps the hardest part, political will. But here's the kicker.
In my opinion, Hubble is still worth it. Thirty five years,
it's been orbiting up there like the world's most powerful
time machine, quietly turning photons into perspective. It's helped shape
an entire generation's understanding of space science and what is

(07:26):
out there.

Speaker 5 (07:28):
It's not some.

Speaker 8 (07:29):
Toy, although they do make some really cool toys of it.
It's not a branding stunt. It is a scientific monument,
and if we're smart, we won't just let it fall
back to Earth and burn up like yesterday's TikTok trend.
If you're looking for a symbol of what space science
can actually do when we fund it, aimen, and shut
up long enough to let it work. Hubble, is it? So,

(07:53):
here's the thirty five years and hopefully I few more. Now,
coming off a bit of the high of Hubble's thirty
fifth birthday, Unfortunately, it's time to talk about the not
so fun part of space exploration money, or maybe even
more specifically, less money. The Trump Admin's latest budget proposal

(08:20):
calls for a nearly twenty four percent cut to NASA's
funding for twenty twenty six, a reduction from twenty four
point eight billion with a B the eighteen point eight
billion with a B. And yeah, that's kind of a
big hit. But we probably shouldn't hit the panic button
just yet, because buried under the headlines is a well

(08:40):
is a bigger question. What are we actually funding and
is it even working? Let's start with the Space Launch
System or SLS, NASA's mega rocket that's been in development
since twenty eleven and still fly slower than a Jawa
Sam Crawler on a hot day. You think I go

(09:03):
an entire episode without making Star Wars reference, You were wrong.
This plan would cut off SLS and it's Orion Crue
capsule after Artemis three, arguing the costs are just too
damn high, and frankly, they're not wrong. Artemis three hasn't
even launched yet, Artemis two hasn't even really launched yet,

(09:25):
and we've already poured in more than fifty billion dollars
across the program. Meanwhile, SpaceX has been prepping Starship for
a rapid, reusable lunar flight, and private contractors are building
lunar landers, cargo systems, and orbital tugs for a fraction
of the cost. Now, cutting SLS doesn't mean cutting the Moon.

(09:47):
It means we're just gonna start flying smarter. The proposal
also pulls back from the Gateway lunar station in Mars
sample return, favoring commercial alternatives and robotic explore. Now, I
got admit that's a little controversial, But again, maybe it
is overdue. The Mars return mission is decades away and

(10:08):
budgets starved. Gateway has shifted designs more times in the millennium,
falcon dodging a tractor being So maybe a timeout isn't
necessarily surrendered, it's just a system's reboot. Well, yeah, there,
you know. There are some genuine losses.

Speaker 5 (10:24):
Here.

Speaker 8 (10:25):
There are some STEM education funding that takes a hit,
and not all all those STEM is necessarily bad. And
you have some Earth science programs that are getting squeezed,
some for the benefit, like you know, climate monitoring. But
that's where the cuts do feel a little short sighted
in my opinion. These are some of these programs are
low cost and deliver actually more of an impact than

(10:49):
I think some people realize. But that's said, given real
data to real people is essential. And maybe it isn't
about NASA doing it and slashing them. But does it
turn NASA into a one trick rocket ship. No, I
don't think it does, but I can understand the concern.
But overall, this isn't some sort of apocalypse. It's a

(11:10):
philosophical shift, one that says NASA should focus on high
value science and exploration and let private industry handle the
heavy lifting whenever and wherever possible. And that doesn't mean
abandoning bold missions at all. It means prioritizing which ones
are worth it and who's best equipped to run them.

Speaker 5 (11:32):
It also means we.

Speaker 8 (11:33):
Stop funding hardware for the sake of appearances and start
demanding results. So yeah, there is actually plenty here to debate.
Some of these cuts are surgical. Others feel maybe they
were just used with one of Elon's flamethrowers. But either way,
it's not about giving up on space. It's just about

(11:53):
rethinking how we get there and maybe just maybe cutting
some bloat means will finally launch more than we actually promise. So,
now that we've slashed nearly a quarter of NASA's budget
and trimming big ticket programs, well, what's next on the

(12:15):
chopping block? Well, this one's a little controversial too. How
about saving astronauts live. No, it's not controversial to save them,
it's how we save them now. In a move that
sounds like something out of a Dilvert and Space comic,
NASA just announced it's exploring options to privatize astronaut rescue services.

(12:36):
Out I knew you were thinking about junk removal. We
got a new new angle here we can tackle.

Speaker 5 (12:43):
Now.

Speaker 8 (12:43):
To be fair, here, this isn't really as insane as
it might initially sound.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Yet.

Speaker 8 (12:51):
Traditionally, if a crude launch went sideways or a capsule
splashed down in the wrong part of the ocean, the
US military, specifically Detachment three of the Air Force was
the one to scramble everything. I think helicopters, PAWA rescue jumpers,
fast boats, full medical teams, real kind of black ops
adjacent hero stuff. But under this new proposal, NASA wants

(13:12):
to hand some of this, if not all, responsibility, off
to private contractors or even academic institutions. That's right, your
next astronaut rescue might be brought to you by a
university grant or a some sort of snart up with
a snazzy logo and three people on payroll.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
That said.

Speaker 8 (13:31):
The goal, they say, is flexibility and cost savings. And look,
I get it. The rise of commercial spaceflight. You have SpaceX, Axiom, Sierra, Space,
and a whole bunch of other acronym soups. It does
mean we're getting more launches than ever. I can't even
do it in a segment with rocket launches anymore because
they're so damn frequent. So maybe it is time to

(13:54):
rethink how we do the rescues as well. But we
have to be honest about the stakes here. This isn't
delivering snacks to the ISS. This is high speed emergency
response across the Atlantic Ocean and others with the lives
of astronauts hanging in the balance. Now, NASA is asking

(14:17):
these potential vendors to hit some serious benchmarks. They have
to reach water landing zones within twenty four hours. They
have to be able to provide full medical stabilization and triage,
secure and extract crews safely, and transport them to a
hospital if needed, all of this while coordinating with government agencies,

(14:39):
tracking systems, and international flight corridors. And of course, the
main hope is that this can be done cheaper than
what the military currently charges. But this does raise a
bit of a few questions. What kind of training will
these private time teams get, be standardized drills and certifications,

(15:03):
and who's responsible in the horrible event that the rescue
team screws up. But there's another kicker to all of this.
NASA isn't even guaranteeing a contract yet, they're just requesting information.
I mean, someone's gonna burn a lot of time in

(15:23):
resources pitching a solution for a problem that may or
may not be outsourced at all. Now I'm not against
commercial solutions when they work. I mean SpaceX has proven this,
but this is a bit of an ass or not rescue,
not your typical door dash to the ISS. If we're

(15:45):
going to privatize it, it better not be to the
lowest bidder doing triage with some red green kind of
duct tape. In a CPR APP that said, if we
can't actually create a fast, reliable hydrid response network public, private,
and international, this could be a real game changer. More missions,

(16:05):
more risk, smarter safety nets. Honestly, this is the way
forward in my opinion. But if this turns into Space
Bay Rescue service is proudly powered by some new crypto, uh,
I swear I'm just gonna say screw it. I'm gonna
book passage to EUROPEA on my way home to Alpha Centauri.

(16:27):
But the real story is we're not just redefining how
we go to space. We're also going to be redefining
who gets you home. And while I think this is
an improvement, we'd better get it right. So while NASA
is now debating who's gonna fish astronauts out of the ocean,

(16:48):
back here on Earth, we still have that little thing
called Mars in our neighborhood, and in particular, the Curiosity
Rover still grinding away on Mars like or powered tank
that it is, and it just dropped a clue that
makes you want to stop and ponder things. According to

(17:09):
a new analysis, Curiosity has found something in the rock
record that might be one of the strongest pieces of
evidence yet that Mars was once habitable. Not just all
you know, had some water habitable. We're talking the kind
of environment where microbes could have set up shop and
called it home. What was this big vine iron rich

(17:33):
carbonate minerals. Now, I know that all doesn't really sound sexy,
but hang in there, please. Carbonates form when carbon dioxide
mixes with water and certain kind of rocks. That reaction
doesn't happen in dry, frozen wastelands. It happens in places
with a thick atmosphere and liquid water two things Mars

(17:56):
hasn't had in a very very very very very very
long time. And we've been looking for carbonates for years
because if you want to prove Mars was more than
just a cold, dusty ball, this is the stuff we
need to know. These minerals are like little fossilized receipts
that says, yeah, you know what this planet once had,

(18:19):
realt weather, real rivers, and possibly even real life. That said,
let's not get completely ahead of ourselves and the Wong
family farm needs to be built on the Moon or
even in Mars. This doesn't mean that we're gonna get
little green men fishing in Martian lakes or history of
it still could, but it does suggest it billions of

(18:39):
years ago Mars had the chemical ingredients to support microbial life. Now,
these carbonates were found in a crater called Gale Crater,
which used to be a lake bed. That means this
wasn't a one time fluke. This was a whole ecosystem,
or at least now the skeleton of one. So why

(19:03):
does this matter? Because when we ask was Mars ever alive,
we're really asking how rare is life in the universe,
if Mars had it even briefly. Yes, maybe life isn't
as special or as fragile as we once thought it.
Maybe it happens even more often than we once possibly
dared to hope. But here is where it gets complicated.

(19:30):
Curiosity can only drill so deep, and it can only
analyze so much. It doesn't have the tools to look
for organic fossils or actual microbial traces. That job might
fall to the upcoming Mars sample return missions, although they
may have just gotten ax by the next budget shuffle,
So who knows, But for now we have a huge

(19:54):
cosmic breadcrumb, unfortunately not the full loaf. No, it is
a big deal, and it's a reminder that even after
a decade of crawling around the Martian dust, Curiosity is
still living up to its name.

Speaker 5 (20:07):
I mean, think about it.

Speaker 8 (20:08):
The rover has survived dust storms, broken wheels, software updates
from one hundred million miles away, and it's still sending
back clues that could reshape what we know about life
in the universe. And all of that from a robot
that is the size of a Mini Cooper, powered by
a battery that could have come out of Doc Brown's garage.

(20:29):
So yeah, while billionaires are arguing over who gets the
land on the Moon first, and as the debates which
contracts to cancel, we still have good old Curiosity up
there doing the work quietly, relentlessly and turning rocks into revelations,
the kind of explorer that reminds us the truth is

(20:50):
still out there if you're willing to dig a little.

Speaker 5 (20:58):
And as if Rock.

Speaker 8 (21:01):
To the Moon wasn't enough, things have just gotten a
little bit more interesting in South Texas because apparently SpaceX's
home based just leveled up, Starbase is officially a city.

Speaker 5 (21:22):
That's right.

Speaker 8 (21:22):
After years of pushing for it, Elon Musk and the
team at SpaceX got their wish. The unincorporated Bocachica village
has now voted to become a real municipality. The vote
passed by a landslide two hundred and twelve in favor
sticks against which yes, yes, yes, I know, try to
be honest, try to be factual. It does mostly reflect

(21:45):
a population made up of SpaceX employees and lease holders.
But still we can officially say welcome to star Based,
Texas America's first rocket town. And yes, the zip code
sixty nine is available and unused. Now that said, this

(22:06):
isn't just a branding stunt or a roadside attraction. Starbase
actually now has the legal status to govern itself. What
does this mean while setting ordinances, managing infrastructure, and potentially
having a say and how future launches are now managed.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
It's a bold move.

Speaker 8 (22:25):
And it puts SpaceX one step closer to a model
where cities and spaceports could actually be one and the same. Now,
there is some legit concerns floating around this. Some locals
and those hippies and the environmental groups have pushed back
over the years, worried about access to beaches, coastal erosion,

(22:45):
and cultural preservation. Others are watching closely to see how
much authority this new quote unquote city has when it
comes to things like public closures and launch safety protocols,
and it is going to be a balancing act. You
have economic development versus public access, innovation versus regulation, but
we should give credit where it's due. SpaceX has transformed

(23:09):
was once a quiet stretch of shoreline into one of
the most active launch corridors on the planet. It's brought
in jobs, investment, infrastructure and attention. And now with Starbase
being incorporated, a company is signaling it's not just staying.
It's going to build a community and the city's existence

(23:29):
could also be a model for the future. Think about this,
a launch facility that doubles as a place to live,
work and collaborate. Engineer, scientists, technicians and families all building
the next frontier together. It's the kind of vision that
feels a little more sci fi than city planning. But

(23:50):
here we are, and you know, Elon is already thinking bigger,
because if this is the first star base on Earth.
What's the second one going to be called? You know
it's sister city on Mars. Will it be Moscopolis, Red
Vegas or New New Austin or maybe just Star based

(24:12):
prime population whoever survives the first winter? Now I get it.
Jokes aside, this is an inflection point. We're watching a
company stake out not just its launch pad, but it's
home turf. And whether or not this model stick stumbles
or evolves, it's clear the age of static, government run
space centers is giving way to something a little more agile,

(24:34):
a little more integrated, and a whole lot more ambitious.
As long as the balance stays right between private vision
and public interest, OAR Base could actually be the prototype
for the towns we're going to build on the Moon, Mars,
or whatever rock we land on next. And yes, that
is how we get Eureka. But while SpaceX continues building

(24:59):
cities out of a law lunch pads, the business of
space logistics doesn't stop, and neither does the appetites of
the astronauts, the real astronauts up on the ISS. On
April twenty first, my executive producer's birthday, a four fifteen

(25:19):
in the morning, because SpaceX and other places love launching
windows that don't care about you know, me, sleeping or anything.
SpaceX launched its thirty second cargo resupply mission to the ISS.
The CRS thirty two flight lifted off from Kennedy Space
Center on a Falcon nine, marking yet another flawless of
sin for the now routine orbital work horse. Riding on top,

(25:43):
of course, is Dragon, now, not the fire breathing kind,
but the cargo capsule that basically has become NASA's orbital
You all, and this Dragon was not a rookie. It's
flown four times before, making this its fifth round trip
to space. At this point, it's practically on a first
name basis with the ISS docking poart and probably has
her phone number.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Now.

Speaker 8 (26:08):
The mission was originally supposed to be a mix of
science and supplies, but thanks to a hiccup on the
Sickness Resupply mission damage during shipment you know, classic stuff,
the manifest got reshuffled, so and fly Instead of flying
cutting edge labs and beef space telescopes, Dragon showed up.
But the stuff the crew actually needs to survive another

(26:28):
month in orbit, food, hygiene, tools, clothing, and tortillas. That's
not a punch line, because tortillas are as space staple.
They don't crumble like bread. Their shelf stable when they
make excellent impromptu sandwich wraps for everything from peanut butter
to tuna to rehydrated beef stew. Astronauts love them. One

(26:53):
flight without tortillas, and morale dips faster than a satellite
on a bad orbit. That said, it wasn't all pans
tree vulumes. It did deliver some sharp scientific tools, including
two atomic clocks or testing fundamental physics, you know, like
Einstein's theory relativity drink, because who doesn't want to do
a little time travel on the weekends. These super precise

(27:15):
timekeepers will help re find how we measure time and
space and potentially pave the way for better navigation both
in orbit and beyond. Also a board an upgraded air
quality monitor to keep track of trace gases, including any
mystery molecules from experiments or long forgotten socks, and some
plant biology experiments designed to figure out how vegetation racks

(27:36):
to space conditions, because if we're going to grow spinach
on Mars, we need to know whether it's bolts, wilts
or mutinies. Now, let said it did dock successfully on
the twenty second, and we'll hang out on the station
for about a month after that. Dragon War returned the
Earth loaded with completed experiments, used gear, and whatever. Isn't

(27:58):
really nailed down, because even in space, recycling is king.
And what's remarkable here isn't just the hardware or even
the mission count. It really is the rhythm. SpaceX has
turned the extraordinary into the routine. A resupply mission to
orbit used to be front page news. Now it's a
line item on the launch calendar that hopefully includes food,

(28:21):
so Jeff can talk about it. Well, let's let's not
let the familiarity fool you. This is how the foundation
of a permanent human presence in space gets built, not
with a flash, not with flag planting, but with tortillas,
air filters, and science payloads that quietly make tomorrow possible.

(28:44):
Before we dive pace first into some more orbital nonsense,
we're going to take a quick five minute break here
aboard the ACS serenade. Let's go stretch your legs, recharge
your neural capacitors, and enjoy minute tracks signals in the dark.
Little something for those drifting between stars and static, and
when we come back, it's time once again.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
Or assholes in space.

Speaker 8 (29:11):
And let's just say the International Space Station might need
to serve a little.

Speaker 5 (29:16):
Because a certain debreas viewing space agency.

Speaker 8 (29:19):
That rhymes with Heina is making headlines again.

Speaker 5 (29:22):
So don't go far.

Speaker 8 (29:24):
We've got orbital dodgeball waiting for you.

Speaker 9 (29:27):
After this break.

Speaker 10 (30:42):
Walk the static from sleep coded pulses through the voice
looking for a mind that dreams. Walk the static from
a sleep praying side. This can't be Himselt. Galaxies don't bend.

Speaker 2 (31:17):
Don't break, They drift his bibroles just like thot I
scream into the cradle. Pake Galaxies don't bend, don't break.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
But every signal of sand fo God. I'm Netron Sola

(32:35):
Sonaser for architects of Space sing, is there someone else's space? Short?

Speaker 2 (32:51):
Are we?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
Netron Sola Sonaser?

Speaker 11 (32:57):
Just watch yourself becase eight.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
All cont coose transmission carried like yous past their gray.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Only last lot.

Speaker 1 (33:24):
Omission to be a noise silence, says every questions.

Speaker 11 (33:35):
Just commission.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
To pierce the failed camel way.

Speaker 11 (34:12):
Do we matter in the sprather of stars? Just the
math of Corbin does could there be hands behind those bonds.
Do we matter in the sprawl of stars?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
But just mind streaming what they want?

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Bird, I do care.

Speaker 5 (35:18):
And welcome back. Hope you enjoyed that.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
All right.

Speaker 8 (35:23):
I had a handful of things I had to do
at the innimation break, so it was a little longer
than normal. I do apologize for that. That said, it's
time for everyone's favorite orbital mess all food fight and.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
Now assholes in space?

Speaker 8 (36:05):
But what happened this time? He might be asking?

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Well.

Speaker 8 (36:13):
On April twenty four, the ISS had to fire its
thrusters to dodge debris from you guessed it's a Chinese
long March rocket stage. And this wasn't just a heads

(36:34):
up and shrug, this was a schedule maneuver. At eight
twenty two am Eastern, the issuggested its orbit using Russian
progress dusters to avoid what NASA politely referred to as
a piece of space junk. And I gotta figure out
what's going on here. Okay, let's give this a shot,

(36:55):
all right?

Speaker 5 (36:55):
About that?

Speaker 8 (36:55):
It seems like my volume really fuck a nosed eye
of here. Try to get that fixed for you. Please
amuse yourselves while I do this. Okay, let's do this,

(37:16):
so let's call it what it is, a busted Chinese
rocket part left to drift in orbit like a broken
beer bottle and a zero G bar fight. And sadly,
this isn't new. The ISS has had to dodge orbital
debris over thirty times since nineteen ninety nine, and a

(37:36):
good chunk of what comes from two sources, defunct satellites
and China's habit of blowing things up in orbit. Remember
the twenty or two thousand and seven anti satellite test.
That thing created thousands of pieces of long lasting space
junk and it's still out there. This latest maneuver was
a success. Nobody floated into a wall, no solar panels

(37:59):
were clipped, but it's just another reminder of the tightrope
act that is low Earth orbit. There are thousands of
active satellites, dead satellites, upper stages, paint chips, toolbags, and
probably a frozen wrench and a tortillas from two thousand
and two tumbling around up here, and sadly, when one
of them threatens the ISS, which by the way, still

(38:19):
houses a rotating crew of international astronauts throwing everything from
growing lettuce to testing dark matter sensors, It's not just annoying,
it's dangerous. One bolt at orbital space could punch a
hole clean through a station module. And this isn't science fiction.
That's basic physics. Or one careless launch or deliver it

(38:41):
explosion away from turning the sky into a no fly
zone of high speed death confetti. Great name for a band,
by the way, death Confetti. So yeah, congrats to the
ISS crew and the ground teams who executed the avoidance
burned perfectly. You danced out of the way of yet
another orbital bullet. Are blindly by space program that still
can't seem to figure out the whole They don't let

(39:03):
her in orbit thing. At some point, somebody's gonna have
to clean this up al or install windshield wipers on
the next space station. Until then, we just have to
keep dodging and keep tracking and keep updating the who almost.

Speaker 5 (39:16):
Killed the ISS this week leaderboard.

Speaker 8 (39:20):
By the way, China's in first place coming out of
our last segment where the ISS had to prep for
another game of avoid the flaming Chinese space garbage. We
got a hate on this segment.

Speaker 5 (39:33):
We have to give.

Speaker 8 (39:34):
Credit where credits due, because while the orbital debris may
be their unflattering headline. China also just pulled off a
picture of perfect crew hand off the t Young space station,
the kind of baton pass any relay team would envy
and doesn't require clubbing someone on the back of the
head with. So let's start with Shinzal nineteen. That's the

(39:55):
career Kai Jungling Dong and Wang Yu Ze, who spent
the last six months of bourteen yong running experiments, maintaining
the station and performing some high altitude acrobatics, including a
nine hour spacewalk, and that is one of the longest
China has ever done, and in full pressure ized suits,
mind you not your have reached gym session and the

(40:20):
ride back of the corpse of course, a capsule that
re entered Earth's atmosphere on April thirtieth, touching down with
a controlled parachute to sind and in our Mongolia. No
cows were killed, at least not report it. A little
wind delay pushed landing back a day, but hey, when
you're in space for one hundred and eighty days, what's
really another twenty four And right as they were packing
their bag, sends out twenty launched from a Xi Kwan

(40:42):
satellite launched center on the twenty fourth of April, a
week ahead of course. Chen Dong, a veteran of Chinese
space program, led the new crew alongside two fresh faced astronauts,
Cheng Chiang gru and Wang Xi. The two arrived in
Xiang after breezy six and a half hour orbital chase
cleanly and stepping aboard their new orbital home before the

(41:02):
coffee even got cold. Of their mission another six months
running science experiments focused on life sciences and fluid physics
and stalling gear and likely performing a couple of spacewalks
of their own, unless beyond it's probably not flinging rocket
parts in the crowded orble highways while they're at it. Maybe,
but in all seriousness, this kind of of seamless crew

(41:24):
rotation is really no small thing. It shows that King
Jong is now in true operational phase. This is a
fully functioning space station supporting long term missions and planned launches,
successful returns and international observers watching closely. And if you're
wondering why this does actually matter, it's because China's future

(41:45):
ambitions hinde them proven that they can do this over
and over and over again without incident. At least you
know in lowerth orbit getting there, that's that's still iffy
proposition from time to time. So that means deep SpaceX
a cis lunar economy. You really can't build that without
mastering the rhythm of orbit, and right now the orbit part,

(42:10):
they're kind of in a rhythm. So credit of course
where it is due. Not all news from china spased
program invokes ducking for cover. Most of it does, but
not always. Sometimes it is just a clean pass that
Chris Pandolf and a reminder that the new space race
really does have a lot more runners than.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
It used to. But we're not quite done yet.

Speaker 8 (42:32):
We're not done with the assholes in space segment. After
a graceful Chinese swap cruise swap, we now turn our
attention to the other major player and the who the
hell thought this was a good idea space category, and
that is Russia. Because just when you thought things couldn't

(42:58):
get weirder in orbit, a couple of Russian military satellites
decided to reenact the opening of GoldenEye without the charm
soundtrack or even the accountability. Earlier this month, two Russian
military satellites Cosmos two five to three five and Cosmos
two five three six, which have been in a suspicious

(43:18):
little dance together since twenty nineteen, suddenly released a new
object in the orbit, quietly, unannounced, without telling the international
community or really anyone. The US military spotted it using
tracking systems to design to detect these space based threats,
and make no mistake, this wasn't some accidental ejection of

(43:39):
a spent battery packet was deliverate. This new object, designation
Object E is now floating in close proximity to its
satellite parents. What is it, what is adoing and why
is it there? Well, nobody outside of Ross Cosmos in
the Russian Ministry of Defense seems to know.

Speaker 5 (43:55):
But let's be honest.

Speaker 8 (43:56):
When Russias satellites program's birth, a mystery object is probably
probably not, you know, a bull of petunias. Of the
last time this happened, in twenty seventeen, a similar mystery
object was believed to be capable of rendezvous and inspection maneuvers,
or worse, maybe something a little more aggressive. I think
orbital proximity operations both the side of paranoia and a

(44:19):
little bit of old Cold War spice. But we got
to remember space is no longer just about science and
selfies with Earth in the background. It's about surveillance. It's
about disruption and probably even more so, orbital advantage. And
that means when a country launches a classified satellite that
starts spitting out surprise packages, the rest of us get

(44:39):
a little itchy and twitchy. Now to date there really
has been no explanation at least from the Kremlin, just
radio silence from the same folks it brought you the
no dual missile, the satellite trapping, the cloud of twenty
twenty one, and those charming so used leaks aboard the ISS.
Now we're not necessarily this is some kind of orbital

(45:01):
weapon test. If it were, this is exactly how it
would start, though, a sudden to playing in a tight orbit,
vague intentions, and a whole lot of denials until someone's
GPS goes offline. And if you're wondering, well, surely there's
some international community that will hold them con cannibal right,
I gotta so we use toilet. I want to sell

(45:22):
you if you believe that. So, yeah, Russia has once
again earned a recurring spot on this segment, not for
some spectacular catastrophe necessarily this time, but for adding one
more mystery object to an already dangerously cluttered orbital shell
without warning, coordination, or even a care. That's just right,
We're going to have. I need a new orbital category,

(45:45):
inexplicably suspicious debrid adjacent to known jerks, because when you're
operating in a domain where one bolt can punch a
hole in that two billion dollar spacecraft, you don't get
to play coy about mystery tech. But what's that We're
gonna shift gears a little back to the folks who

(46:06):
actually give a damn about building the future and not
breaking it.

Speaker 5 (46:10):
Enter Firefly Aerospace.

Speaker 8 (46:16):
Yeah, I know their latest launch didn't quite stick the
landing or you know, even make more of it. But
before we get to that, let's say up front, Firefly
is one of the good guys. They're scrappy, they're ambitious,
they're innovative, and they're still kind of punching above their
weight in a field for even the giants trip up.

(46:37):
And on April twenty ninth, Firefly launched its six Apple rocket,
dubbed the message in a booster from random Burg Space
Force Base. Its job, what's to deliver a Lockheed Martin
tech demo satellite in orbit. All was going well, clean
lift off, crisp stage separation, and then yeah, per stage
said nope, I'm out and the engine nozzle extension literally

(47:00):
the attachment flight that's really not Oh what's the word
I'm looking for here? Yes, thank you, ep ideal thrust dropped,
trajectory slipped, and instead of delivering to orbit, the mission
ended with a controlled splash down near Antarctica. Now, while

(47:20):
that's not a success in the mission patch sense, it
was a safe flight, no uncontrolled breakup, no debris cloud,
and most importantly a kind of a odd way of
looking at this, but it's true a data rich failure,
which in rocketry is sometimes as good as a win.
So now, yes, the FAA has grounded Alpha pending review.

(47:46):
That standard Firefly is cooperating with the FAA Space Force
UNLOCKEY to figure out what went wrong and more importantly,
how to prevent it next time, with no cover ups,
no ghost payloads, just transparency engineering in course. And they'll
bounce back, why because this isn't their first stumble, and

(48:07):
every time they come back swinging a little harder and
a little better. Let's not forget these are the same
folks who land at their Blue Ghost lunar Land are
the same team with twenty five plan launches for twenty
twenty nine for Lockheed Martin and the same company getting
love from the Texas Space Commission with grants and infrastructure expansion.
So let's be I'm gonna be honest with you if
you call it the last Dream. If you were like me,

(48:32):
you weren't just watching the telemetry numbers, you were probably
keeping one or both eyes mesaur eyes by the brilliant commentary,
infectious enthusiasm, and let's just say it, the draw dropping
presence of Morgan, affectionately dubbed by fans as the rocket
haughty take that last Blue Origin crew. Now, look, I'm

(48:55):
semi joking. I mean she is a hotty. She does
work on rockets, so she is a rocket haughty. We
celebrate science here, but if passion, brains and stunning delivery
help pull a few new eyes toward the stars, We're
all for it. Morgan, that is not the thing that
happened to Blue Origin launched that was sponsored by Aquainet.
Not that one, the one that actually has hot ones

(49:16):
in it. So yeah, Firefly's rocket had a bit of
a hiccup, but the mission wasn't a complete loss.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
It was just a chapter.

Speaker 8 (49:24):
Because in this industry, every flame out is a prequel
to a breakthrough. They'll be back, and when they are,
we'll be watching with telemetry on one screen.

Speaker 5 (49:34):
And Morgan on the other.

Speaker 8 (49:42):
So while we do absolutely believe science stars, we do
also when we're not looking at rocket hotties, we occasionally
will giggle like middle schoolers when the universe happens. The
tee one up for us, and guess what we have
one that teed up for us Because this week and
NASA called a rare and revealing glimpse of Urinus, that

(50:07):
ice giant with the unfortunate name finally stepped into the limelight,
or more accurately, stepped in front of it, or on
April seventh, Urinus passed directly between Earth and a distant
background star and what asked astronomers call a stellar oculation
translation for a brief shining moment, Uranus.

Speaker 5 (50:28):
Blocked out starlight.

Speaker 8 (50:31):
Despite the chuckles, or maybe because of it, this is
a huge deal for planetary scientists. These rare events are
kind of like a planetary medical scan when the light
from a star passes through the upper assm sphere of
a planet. We get a chance to study the composition,
the temperature, and dynamics of those high altitude layers an incredible,
incredible detail. And this wasn't just one telescope and a

(50:54):
grad student in the desert somewhere. NASA coordinated a full
planetary se take out eighteen observatories, over thirty scientists, all
with eyes locked in on the same patch of sky
hooping catch Uranus in action. Why because this kind of

(51:14):
oculation doesn't happen often with a planet like Uranus. The
last solid opportunity to study its atmosphere was back in
nineteen ninety six, you know, when flannel shirts were in
and so was dial up. So this was kind of big.
And what made this especially valuable was the angle. This
was a side on oculation, meanings are passed behind the
rings in atmosphere at just the right sliver to let

(51:36):
scientists analyze how light was observed, refracted and scattered by
the gas layers of the planet's upper atmosphere. So let's
be honest, We're half of us were here for there
for this segment for the science, and the other half
just wanted to see if we'd get through the segment
without a single keep joke. We almost we almost, you know,

(51:57):
did we tried? We really really tried. So yes, we
got to peak at Uranus from the side this month.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
But more importantly, we got.

Speaker 8 (52:08):
A rare fleeting moment where the universe lined up just rate,
let us peer a little deeper, ask smarter questions, and
maybe chart a course or future missions to a planet
that's been orderly ignored for far too long. So here
we are rounding the edge of the program. And wouldn't

(52:31):
you know it, if Uranus wasn't enough, the ghost of
planet nine is back, because when the science news cycle
starts the quiet down, there's always one trustee fallback. We
think we might maybe have found possibly something that maybe
could be sort of planet nine again. Of this time,

(52:57):
the latest user comes courtesy of a twenty three year
old cosmic break come trail sits together from two infrared
sky surveys IRIS back in nineteen eighty three and the Kira,
which ran from two thousand and six to twenty eleven.
Astronomers decided to do a forensic resweep of that data
and found the mysterious cold object moving slowly, very very

(53:17):
slowly through the sky. The calcululation suggests it's a distant,
dark and massive sounds familiar. That's because every planet nine
theory basically boils down to, hey, guys, it's big, it's far,
and we swear it's out there somewhere. Maybe he possibly
sort of. Now it does get a little messy. This

(53:39):
particular object's orbit is tilted at a ridiculous one hundred
and twenty degrees compared to the Solar System's nice flat
playing field. Now this doesn't scream Planet nine. That screams
what the hell is that going here? Could it be
a rogue planet that wandered into our system and mini
brown dwarf, a distant Kuiper object, you know, doing doughnuts
in the void.

Speaker 5 (53:58):
Yes, it could be, but.

Speaker 8 (54:00):
It doesn't really match the long standing model for planet
nines orbit, which it doesn't. Then it's probably not the
mythical heavyweight that was supposed to make sense of the
weird motions of everything past Neptune. But even if it were,

(54:21):
let's be crystal clear on this ship, we allready have
a nice planet. It's called Luto. It's been there the
whole damn time. It didn't has to be demoted and
it's doing just fine with its icy heart, Methansky's and
devoted fan base. This whole planet nine business, it only

(54:46):
got legs after Pluto got booted.

Speaker 5 (54:48):
Thank you.

Speaker 8 (54:49):
In DT it's costic rebound science. We've lost one, so
let's imagine a bigger one farther away, and maybe one
will finally eventually see even though we have the Pluto,
the ninth planet that we can currently track. Now, I
get it. The astronomy behind this is kind of solid.

(55:12):
It's a legit hunt backed by clever analysis and patient
comparisons of faint signals across decades. It's the naming that's
where the problem is. Don't call it planet nine, call
it planet maybe hell, call it planet what's its s face?

(55:36):
But don't try to slap a number on it when
you erase the real number nine in the first place.
Until this mystery rock shows up at the planetary family
reunion with a respectable orbit and a better altitude. Pluto
still and forever, we'll hold that seat and we're never
giving it up. Now, before we head into our star

(56:02):
gazing forecast, let's check in with something a little more
terrifyingly majestic.

Speaker 5 (56:09):
But there's a.

Speaker 8 (56:10):
Magnetary kind of neutron star with a magnetic field so
strong it could work erase your credit card from half
a million miles away and rip your ad ofs apart
if you get a little just you know, get in
the same neighborhood. It doesn't like you all around here.
If you take my meeting, mister Frodo, it's called SGR
zero five zero one plus four or five one six.

(56:30):
But let's be honest, galactic zombie star just rolls off
the tongue a little better. And this stellar revenant it's
on the move apparently through the Milky Way at over
one hundred and ten thousand miles per hour, which he
reference is way too fast for something that could turn
your molecules into abstract art. Now, before you pack your towel,

(56:51):
you don't need the panic. It's about fifteen thousand late
years away. So it's not exactly you know, rounding alpha
centaury with murder in its magnetic heart, but it's still
kind of an incredible object. Why Because unlike magnetars, this
one might not have formed in a typical supernova. Researchers
think it may have been born from a direct collapse

(57:11):
of a white dwarf, which is like skipping the explosion
and going straight to Hello, guys, I'm death now. So
we've got a hypermagnetic undead star hurling through space, probably
with no idea where it came from or where it's
even going. Basically, it's the universe's version of a metal
album cover. It's a reminder also that out there in

(57:33):
the void, things don't just shine and twinkle. They roar,
burn out, collapse, and somehow still keep going. Like Keith
Richard's some stars will fade away. Others they just put
on a hood and start running like hell, hey Kril,
that time let's grab your drink, step into the hull

(57:55):
of the ship and start gazing outwards through the night sky.
Because of the time part of the show where we
stop tracking debris and start tracking den destiny. This is
your stargazing forecast, brought to you by the stars, the moon,
and a galaxy not quite as far far away as advertised.

(58:17):
So if you got skuys, you've got plans. We're gonna
dim the console lights, tilt your chair back, and get
ready to lose yourself a little, because for the next
two weeks the sky is putting on a little bit
of an opera, and you don't even need a telescope
to catch the best seats in the house. We start
with the headliner, because my executive producer, now that he's seventeen,

(58:38):
hates my guts. We have the full flower moon rising
on May twelfth. This moon has been blooming in Native
American sky lore for generations, and in honor of our
executive producer's cruel joy and watching me struggle, we will
include the real names. In the honest one language, it's

(59:01):
known as the wabbiwin Negisis, or the flowering Moon. The
Cherokee call it anuda oh na da noni, or the
planting moon, because this is a time when the earth
wakes up and you get your hands thirty. I don't
know why he I don't know why he hates me.

(59:22):
Now I really don't. And if you've got clear skies
on the twelfth step outside, just after sunset and look
to the southeast, show rise full and bright, and if
you have time, and if you time it right, you'll
catch her low on the horizon, all honeyed and golden,
like a whispered secret. The other skytree they Querid's meteor shower.

(59:44):
It peaks May fifth and sixth, and if you're up
before dawn, away from street lights, you might see up
to thirty meteors per hour, fast and graceful arcs from
dust trails left by none other than Haley's comet. That's right,
Old Haley still knows how to light up a even
if we haven't seen the bastard comet since nineteen eighty six.

(01:00:05):
The best viewing time is four am to five thirty am,
facing east southeast. Bring a warm drink, a reclined chair,
and probably a bit of patience. This guy will reward
those who wait. And finally, a diva is leaving us.
Venus is gone. No sign of the morning Star right now.

(01:00:28):
She slipped behind the sun for a while, But don't worry.

Speaker 5 (01:00:31):
She'll be back.

Speaker 8 (01:00:33):
And you know, when she comes back, she'll make an entrance,
because that's what divas do.

Speaker 5 (01:00:39):
So that's it for tonight's show.

Speaker 8 (01:00:40):
Thank you for tuning in when and however you do
special thanks to NASA, Spacexpace, dot Com, Mars Technica, NASA's
face Flight, Popular Mechanics, and more for the great information
on stories tonight. Stay tuned for Sunday Night with Alan
Ray Thanks to my executive producer. As always for your
help and inspiration. I hope you enjoyed the show, learned

(01:01:02):
a little bit, and maybe even had a laugh for
two as well.

Speaker 4 (01:01:09):
It's a pretty big place.

Speaker 12 (01:01:12):
It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before.

Speaker 10 (01:01:19):
So if it's just us, it seems like an awful
waste of space.

Speaker 12 (01:01:27):
Right when I was young, it seemed that life was
so wonderful, a miracle. Oh it was beautiful, magical, And
the birds in the trees, would they'd be singing so happily,
oh joyfully? Playfully you watching me?

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
Than this