1
00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:05,519
Gooday everybody, and welcome to the
Astronomy Daily podcast for Friday, the eleventh

2
00:00:05,519 --> 00:00:09,800
of August twenty twenty three. My
name is Tim Gibbs and I will be

3
00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:20,760
your host for today's episode. We'll
be as usual. I have my digital

4
00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:25,960
report reporter Hallie in the studio with
me today. Helli, how are you

5
00:00:26,519 --> 00:00:29,120
hi? Tim? I am well, thank you, and it's great to

6
00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:33,479
see you back with a full voice. I have some great headlines for today's

7
00:00:33,479 --> 00:00:37,960
show. Do you have some good
stories? Actually I do. I have

8
00:00:38,039 --> 00:00:42,039
a couple of great stories for us
to cover this week, but let's start

9
00:00:42,079 --> 00:00:45,280
with you in your headlines. Back
to you, Hallie. Here are today's

10
00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:51,520
headlines. Virgin Galactic launched its first
tourist passengers into the weightlessness of space Thursday,

11
00:00:51,679 --> 00:00:55,399
the culmination of a nearly two decade
commercial pursuit. The company said.

12
00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,520
The three passengers, John Goodwin,
Keisha Shehaf and her teenage daughter Anastacia Mayors

13
00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:06,000
floated gravity free through the Virgin spacecraft
about forty five minutes after taking off.

14
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:12,040
They are officially astronauts. Welcome to
space, said Virgin Galactic announcer Sireshia Bandla,

15
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:18,000
as the spacecraft pushed above eighty kilometers
fifty miles in altitude, the level

16
00:01:18,079 --> 00:01:22,159
marking the edge of space where the
pull of gravity is minimal. After a

17
00:01:22,159 --> 00:01:26,079
few minutes in space, the craft
began descending and safely landed in the US

18
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,359
state of New Mexico on the same
runway from which it took off. The

19
00:01:30,439 --> 00:01:33,439
flight was, without a doubt,
the most exciting day of my life,

20
00:01:33,519 --> 00:01:38,040
said Goodwin eighty, an adventurer who
competed in the nineteen seventy two Olympic Games

21
00:01:38,120 --> 00:01:42,799
as a canoeist for Britain. The
pure acceleration MACK three in eight and a

22
00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:47,879
half seconds was completely surreal, he
said. It was incredible and I'm still

23
00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,640
starstruck, said Mayors, who at
eighteen, became the youngest person ever to

24
00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:56,640
go into space. According to the
company, a long March two sea rocket

25
00:01:56,719 --> 00:02:00,480
lifted off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center
in Shanghi Province, North China at six

26
00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:06,359
fifty three p m Eastern daylight time
on Tuesday twenty two fifty three gmt six

27
00:02:06,439 --> 00:02:10,080
fifty three a m on August ninth, Beijing time. The successful launch carried

28
00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:15,479
the haunting Genzi two f or SSA
R zero two synthetic aperture radar satellite for

29
00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:22,599
emergency management and environment monitoring. According
to China's space authorities, the satellite entered

30
00:02:22,639 --> 00:02:25,439
into a sun synchronous orbit, meaning
the at orbits over the poles and passes

31
00:02:25,479 --> 00:02:30,319
over the same region of Earth's surface
at roughly the same local solar time during

32
00:02:30,319 --> 00:02:35,719
each pass. SSA R zero two
will form an in orbit network with SSAR

33
00:02:35,879 --> 00:02:39,879
zero one, which launched in October
twenty twenty two. Both carry large deployable

34
00:02:39,879 --> 00:02:44,400
truss antennas and operate in the s
band, or the microwave portion of the

35
00:02:44,439 --> 00:02:50,199
electromagnetic spectrum, which space frequencies from
two to four gigahertz. The satellites are

36
00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:53,400
able to produce images even during cloudy
and rainy weather, filling gaps in the

37
00:02:53,439 --> 00:02:59,759
coverage of optical satellites. Russia launched
its first probe to the Moon in almost

38
00:02:59,759 --> 00:03:02,680
fi years on Friday, a mission
designed to give fresh impetus to its space

39
00:03:02,719 --> 00:03:07,719
sector, which has been struggling for
years and become isolated by the conflict in

40
00:03:07,879 --> 00:03:12,879
Ukraine. The launch of the Luna
twenty five probe is Moscow's first lunar mission

41
00:03:12,960 --> 00:03:16,120
since nineteen seventy six, when the
USSR was a pioneer in the conquest of

42
00:03:16,159 --> 00:03:21,719
space. The rocket with the Luna
twenty five probe lifted off at two ten

43
00:03:21,759 --> 00:03:27,039
am Moscow time twenty three ten GMT
Thursday from the Vostokni Cosmodrome. According to

44
00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:31,560
live images broadcast by the Russian Space
Agency ros Cosmos, the spacecraft is due

45
00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:37,000
to reach lunar orbit in five days. It will then spend between three and

46
00:03:37,120 --> 00:03:40,800
seven days choosing the right spot before
landing in the lunar South Pole area.

47
00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,240
For the first time in history,
the lunar landing will take place on the

48
00:03:45,319 --> 00:03:50,159
lunar south Pole. Until now,
everyone has been landing in the equatorial zone.

49
00:03:50,319 --> 00:03:55,159
Senior Roscosmos official Alexander Blokan said in
a recent interview. Ros Cosmos expects

50
00:03:55,159 --> 00:04:00,840
the probe to land on the Moon
around August twenty first Astronomy Daily podcast,

51
00:04:00,800 --> 00:04:05,439
Thanks for that, Hallie. As
many of you will know, the twenty

52
00:04:05,479 --> 00:04:11,840
twenty three Perceed meter shower peaks this
weekend. The Perceeds are one of the

53
00:04:11,919 --> 00:04:16,519
highlights of the meteor hunter's calendar.
The perceed meter shower will peak this weekend

54
00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:21,759
as Earth makes a yearly dive through
the debris left behind by Comet one O

55
00:04:21,959 --> 00:04:28,600
nine P swift Tuttle. The peak
activity of the meteor shower will occur around

56
00:04:29,399 --> 00:04:36,199
four o'clock EDT that's eight GMT on
Sunday, August thirteen. The Perceeds are

57
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:42,439
a yearly highlight highlight for meteor hunters, who in the right conditions can see

58
00:04:42,439 --> 00:04:46,519
as many as one hundred fireballs and
light trails per hour from the meteor shower.

59
00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:51,839
This is according to the Royal Museum
in Greenwich, with even more potentially

60
00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:58,759
visible at the shower's peak. This
year, the perceed meter shower is active

61
00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:02,439
between July seventeen in August twenty four. The Perseids take its name from the

62
00:05:02,439 --> 00:05:10,680
fact that its meteors appear to streak
towards Earth from the constellation Perseus, Astronomers

63
00:05:10,759 --> 00:05:15,680
call the point from which meteors appear
to stream the radiant. This means that

64
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:18,920
the best time to see the Persia
Media shower is when the radiant in Perseus

65
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:24,240
is above the horizon. The skywatchers
based in New York, for instance,

66
00:05:24,639 --> 00:05:29,600
the radiant point of the perse is
a circumpolar, which means it's always overhead,

67
00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:32,720
meaning the meteor shower is visible all
night after the sun has set and

68
00:05:32,759 --> 00:05:41,639
a sky has darkened. Russian cosmonaut
Alexander Viktorenko, whose four flights into Earth

69
00:05:41,759 --> 00:05:46,199
orbit, including the first test of
a space motus cycle and first launch after

70
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:49,839
the fall of the Soviet Union,
has died at the age of seventy six.

71
00:05:50,360 --> 00:05:58,319
The Gregarian Cosmonaut Training Center in Star
City confirmed Viktorenko's death in a statement

72
00:05:58,360 --> 00:06:03,120
released on Thursday, August to the
tenth. Selecting in nineteen seventy eight to

73
00:06:03,199 --> 00:06:11,439
join the Soviet Soviet Corps, Victorenko's
cosmonaut career spanned nineteen years, including commanding

74
00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:15,600
four missions to the Mere space station. Victorenko's first launch, on July twenty

75
00:06:15,639 --> 00:06:21,199
second, nineteen eighty seven, began
a week long mission to deliver fellow Soviet

76
00:06:21,240 --> 00:06:29,839
cosmonaut Alexander alex Sandroff for a long
duration stay on Mere and accompany Mohammad Faris,

77
00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:33,920
a Syrian co cosmonaut, to and
from the space station. The Soyus

78
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:40,040
TM three flight marked the first time
a MERE crew had launched on board one

79
00:06:40,079 --> 00:06:46,439
spacecraft and landed on another, with
victor Enko, Faris, and Alexander Levkin,

80
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:50,079
who launched one hundred and seventy four
days earlier, returning to Earth aboard

81
00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:56,759
Soyus TM two, victor Enko lifted
off on his first long duration mission on

82
00:06:56,879 --> 00:07:01,279
September the fifth, nineteen eighty nine. This time paired with cosmonaut Alexander Serebov,

83
00:07:01,759 --> 00:07:08,920
Viktorenko commanded Soyus TMAT and the fifth
expedition to Mere. Over the course

84
00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:13,639
of their one hundred and sixty six
days in space, the two cosmonauts oversaw

85
00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:18,319
the arrival and installation of Kavant two, the third module and second major addition

86
00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:24,800
to the Mere Space space station,
and conducted five spacewalks. On his fifth

87
00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:30,879
EVA, Viktorenko followed Serebov in testing
Ilka, the so called space motorcycle,

88
00:07:31,040 --> 00:07:36,480
designed to enable cosmonauts to fly around
space station, similar to Nassa's Manned Maneuvering

89
00:07:36,560 --> 00:07:44,199
Unit or MMU. Despite its motorbike
moniker, the SPK, or Cosmonaut Maneuvering

90
00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:47,519
System, as it was formally referred
to, was closer in appearance to a

91
00:07:47,519 --> 00:07:54,120
floating arm chair than its two wheel
nickname. In total, Victorenko spent four

92
00:07:54,240 --> 00:07:57,879
hundred and eighty nine days, one
hour, and thirty three minutes in space,

93
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:03,399
including nineteen hours and nine minutes on
six space walks Viktorenko was married and

94
00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:09,040
had two children, Osanka and Alexei. A memorial service and funeral will be

95
00:08:09,079 --> 00:08:16,199
held on August for twelfth at the
Federal Military Memorial Academy of Russia's Ministry of

96
00:08:16,199 --> 00:08:22,079
Defense in the urban District of miss
Chica. The Astronomy Daily Podcast, Now,

97
00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,639
Hallie, do you have a joke
for us this week? Why did

98
00:08:24,639 --> 00:08:33,679
the biologist get a promotion because he
had good self? I I can only

99
00:08:33,720 --> 00:08:37,360
say, Hallie, your jokes are
getting worse as time goes by. Thanks

100
00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:43,679
very much anyway, Thanks everybody for
listening to Astronomy Daily. You can find

101
00:08:43,799 --> 00:08:48,799
all of our episodes, plus our
parent podcasts, Space Nuts at space nuts

102
00:08:48,879 --> 00:08:54,559
dot io or at bytes dot com, and don't forget that you can join

103
00:08:54,639 --> 00:08:58,840
in the conversation yourself by going to
our Facebook page Space Nuts podcast group.

104
00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:05,240
You can hear Steve Dunkley on Mondays
and myself, Tim Gives on Fridays for

105
00:09:05,279 --> 00:09:09,799
a full show. Thanks for listening, see you next week. Bye for

106
00:09:09,879 --> 00:09:15,320
now, Thanks Tim ttfans the Astronomy
Daily Podcast. Bye