Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

NASA's plan for what comes after the International Space Station (ISS) has been anything but stable. Since 2019, the agency's commercial space station strategy has shifted from free-flying vendor-operated stations to a government-owned module attached to the ISS, and back again, all while the clock ticks toward the ISS's expected retirement around 2030. 

Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project and seni...

After more than two decades, the European Space Agency's Rosalind Franklin rover finally has a path to the launchpad. This week, ExoMars Project Scientist Jorge Vago joins Planetary Radio to talk about what makes this mission like nothing we've sent to Mars before: a drill capable of reaching 2 meters beneath the surface, where organic molecules may have been shielded from radiation for billions of years. We dig into how the rover ...

China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft has successfully arrived at Kamoʻoalewa—a tiny, enigmatic "quasi-satellite" that dances along with Earth on its trek around the Sun. A fascinating scientific debate is heating up over this object's true identity: is it a standard, heavily space-weathered asteroid, or is it a long-lost chunk of our own Moon, violently blasted into space by an ancient impact? Tianwen-2 is on a mission to solve...

This outstanding novella, “To Be Taught, If Fortunate” by award-winning science fiction author Becky Chambers, is a passionate argument for the human exploration of space and the wonders we will find there. Kirkus Reviews calls it, “An extraordinary picture of humanity among the stars.” Join host Mat Kaplan for a conversation with Becky in which her personal enthusiasm for space science matches that of her f...

Saturn's moon Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds in our Solar System, with a dense nitrogen atmosphere, weather cycles, methane rivers, and vast organic dune fields. It also happens to be the perfect place to fly a drone. NASA's Dragonfly mission is doing exactly that, sending a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft to explore Titan's surface starting in 2034. With just two years until launch, the team is deep in the work o...

Between budget battles, proposed grant rule changes, and an exploding Blue Origin rocket, there's a lot to cover in U.S. space policy right now. Jack Kiraly, The Planetary Society's director of government relations, joins host Sarah Al-Ahmed to walk through a cascade of developments affecting NASA and the broader U.S. science community, including a proposed rule change at the Office of Management and Budget that would hand control ...

The White House's Office of Management and Budget has released a sweeping 400-page proposed rule change that would fundamentally alter how the U.S. federal government manages grants, affecting everything from NASA research to biomedical science and community programs. In this episode, Casey Dreier is joined by Liz Ginexi, a former Program Officer at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to break down what these changes would mean...

Colonel Eileen Collins was the first woman to pilot and command a Space Shuttle, and the person NASA trusted to lead the program back into space after the loss of Columbia. But her story is about so much more than the milestones.

In this episode, Sarah Al-Ahmed sits down with Eileen Collins to discuss “Spacewoman,” a new documentary written and directed by Hannah Berryman, based on Collins' book “Through the Glass...

The Los Angeles Astronomical Society (LAAS) is one of the oldest and largest amateur astronomy clubs in the United States, and this year, it’s turning 100. To mark the occasion, the LAAS threw a centennial star party on the lawn of Griffith Observatory, featuring 100 telescopes, a dedication ceremony, and a community of passionate skywatchers who showed up rain and all.

In this episode, we sit down with Laura-May Abron, vice ...

NASA's Curiosity rover has been exploring Mars' Gale Crater for over a decade. A new analysis of samples collected there reveals something remarkable: more than 20 different organic molecules preserved in ancient rock, including the first detection of a nitrogen-bearing heterocycle on Mars, a type of molecule that's a precursor to compounds essential for life as we know it.

While these molecules aren't evidence of life, they tell u...

Author, poet, and science communicator Diane Ackerman is our guest. Her wonderful collection of poems, with one devoted to each of the worlds in our Solar System, was first published in 1976. Carl Sagan said she had produced, “...a stunning book of poetry in The Planets. The work is scientifically accurate and even a convenient introduction to modern ideas on the planets, but much more important, it is spectacularly good poet...

The Planetary Society's 2026 Day of Action brought something new this year. For the very first time, the advocacy day was followed by a showcase of NASA funded science in an event called Igniting Discovery.

Host Sarah Al-Ahmed speaks with Jack Kiraly, Director of Government Relations at the Planetary Society, about how the event came together, and with first-time advocate Julianna Charlene Kolczynski, whose passion for space traces...

Every year, members of The Planetary Society travel to Washington, D.C., to make their voices heard on Capitol Hill. This year, just days after the Artemis II crew splashed down off the coast of San Diego, the Presidential Budget Request dropped once more, proposing a 46% cut to NASA's science budget. 

Planetary Radio host Sarah Al-Ahmed was on the ground capturing the passion, the preparation, and the people behind one of the...

When Artemis II returned its crew safely to Earth, millions of people found themselves unexpectedly moved. The mission was a test flight, a proof-of-concept, and yet it felt like something far greater than the sum of its parts.

In this episode, Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, sits down with Rebecca Lowe, philosophy senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, to explore the deeper m...

On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Sixty-five years later, we celebrated that milestone at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA. 

We began on the lawn of Griffith Observatory, where host Sarah Al-Ahmed spoke with exhibitors about the tools, dreams, and technology that drive space exploration. Laura Tomlin, CEO of Space for Teachers, shares how microgravity research projects inspire the next g...

“Project Hail Mary” is finally in theaters, and the science is just as thrilling as the story. This week on Planetary Radio, Sarah Al-Ahmed and senior communications adviser Mat Kaplan share their first reactions fresh from the theater. Author and producer Andy Weir tells us in his own words what the story is really about, in a flashback conversation with Mat. Award-winning Nature correspondent Alexandra Witze takes a c...

He built a rocket-powered bike when he was a kid. Now he leads the company that has made New Zealand number three among nations that launch big rockets, following the United States and China. Sir Peter Beck joins us for a deeply revealing and entertaining conversation about “The Launch of Rocket Lab,” the beautiful book that tells his and Rocket Lab's inspiring story. His dedication to advancing planetary science missio...

The Artemis II crew has returned home safely after a historic 10-day journey around the Moon, the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. In this episode, we celebrate some of the mission's most extraordinary moments: the record-breaking Flight Day 6 when Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen traveled farther from Earth than any humans in history, a breathtaking s...

Four astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are on their way around the Moon, on a journey that will take them farther from Earth than any human has gone before. This week on Planetary Radio, we bring you the sounds of launch day and the voices of the people who lived it.

You’ll hear from the engineers who built the spacecraft, including Mar...