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Speaker 1: Hey, space enthusiasts, you're tuned into another exciting episode of

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Astronomy Daily, where we bring you the most fascinating stories

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from the frontiers of space exploration. Today's lineup is packed

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with incredible developments from across the space industry. We'll be

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diving into Blue Origins latest plans for their massive new

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Glen rocket, and some significant changes within the company. We'll

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also check in on Icepace's resilience Lunar Lander as it

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makes its way toward a historic moon landing attempt. In

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other news, we'll explore how the James Webb Space Telescope

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might help us better understand a potentially hazardous asteroid that's

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caught the attention of astronomers worldwide. Plus, we'll get you

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up to speed on SpaceX's latest starship preparations. And to

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wrap things up, I've got some absolutely remarkable stories about

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spacecraft that have literally come back from the dead. Trust me,

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These tales of space resurrection will blow your mind. So

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strap in and get ready for your daily dose of

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space news and discovery. Let's dive into our first story

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of the day, some major developments from Blue Origin. The

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company has announced plans for their second new Glen launch

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targeting late spring this year. Note that's late spring in

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the Northern Hemisphere, so for Southern Hemisphere listeners that will

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be late fall or autumn. This comes after their first

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launch in January, which, while achieving many mission objectives, encountered

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some issues during the booster recovery attempt. Dave Limp, Blue

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Origins CEO, recently shed some light on what went wrong

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during that first flight. It appears they experienced a propulsion

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related problem that prevented the massive booster from making its

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planned landing. According to Limp, while most engine conditions were nominal,

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they had trouble getting everything properly flowing from the tanks

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to the engines during the critical re entry burn. The

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good news is that Blue Origin believes they've identified the

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root cause and the fixes needed aren't particularly complex. This

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is crucial because the ability to reuse these massive boosters

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is central to Blue Origins busysiness model. The company already

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has a second booster in production, and they're confident this

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investigation won't significantly impact their launch timeline. While they haven't

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announced what payload will fly on this second mission, Limp

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mentioned they're considering several options. They're treating their first three

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flights as development missions, so while they're open to flying

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commercial payloads, they're prepared to use mass simulators if necessary. However,

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this news comes alongside a significant restructuring at Blue Origin.

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The company announced this week that they're reducing their workforce

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by about ten percent, affecting more than one thousand employees

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across various departments, including management, engineering, R and D, and

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project management. Limp explained that the company had grown and

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hired very rapidly in recent years, which led to increased

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bureaucracy and less focus than needed. The restructuring aims to

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streamline operations and improve manufacturing efficiency as they scale up

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their launch case cadence. Despite these cuts, Blue Origin isn't

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hitting the brakes on growth entirely. They're still planning to

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hire hundreds of new employees this year, but with a

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more targeted focus on manufacturing and operations. The company is

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particularly keen on ramping up production of their new Glen

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rockets and advancing work on their Blue Moon lunar lander,

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which they hope will reach the lunar surface later this year.

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Next up, the Japanese space exploration company I Space is

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making exciting progress with their second lunar mission. Their Resilience Lander,

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which launched on January fifteenth aboard a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket,

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is now preparing for a crucial lunar flyby that marks

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a significant milestone in its journey to the Moon. Unlike

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the more direct routes taken by some lunar missions, Resilience

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is taking what we might call the scenic route, an

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energy efficient, circuitous path that will ultimately save valuable fuel.

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Last week, the spacecraft successfully completed a critical maneuver that

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set up this upcoming lunar fly positioning it perfectly for

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this fuel saving gravity assist What's particularly fascinating about this

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flyby is that while it will create the mission's largest

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change in velocity, the spacecraft won't actually feel any acceleration.

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It's all thanks to the elegant physics of gravitational forces.

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The close pass by the Moon will naturally alter Resilience's trajectory,

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setting it up for the second phase of its journey

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using what's called a low energy transfer. As of this week,

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Resilience was already positioned beyond the Moon's orbit, about two

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hundred eighty six thousand miles from Earth. If all goes

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According to plan, the spacecraft will attempt to land in

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mare Frigoris, the Sea of Cold in the Moon's northern hemisphere,

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around late May or early June. The lander isn't traveling

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alone on this ambitious journey. It's carrying several payloads, including

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the tenacious microrover, which will conduct mobile exploration of the

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lunar surface. This mission represent and it's an important step

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forward for private lunar exploration, especially following I Space's previous

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landing attempt. Interestingly, Resilience shared its launch with another lunar

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bound spacecraft, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Lander, which has already

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successfully completed its translunar injection burn and is on track

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for its own lunar encounter Next up, I felt we

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needed a small update to this next story. As you

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may have noticed, the popular press seems to be getting

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themselves into quite a state. What's the popular saying, We're

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all going to die? Not quite, but this a developing

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story that's certainly capturing the attention of astronomers worldwide. And

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now the James Webb Space Telescope is being called upon

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to help determine the potential impact risk of asteroid twenty

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twenty four yr four. This space rock currently has a

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two point one percent chance of colliding with Earth on

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December twenty second, twenty thirty two, a probability that's actually

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increased slightly from the initial one point two per estimate

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in late January. So far, more than fifty observatories have

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contributed over three hundred and fifty observations of this asteroid,

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but pinning down its exact trajectory has proved challenging. The

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object is currently more than sixty five million kilometers away

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and rapidly fading from view, making it increasingly difficult to

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track with ground based telescopes. The full Moon is currently

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interfering with observations, and as the asteroid continues to dim

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to magnitude twenty four, only the largest telescopes on Earth

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can still detect it. This is where WEB comes in.

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The space telescope is scheduled to make crucial observations in

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March and May, long after the asteroid becomes too faint

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for other instruments to track. A team led by Andy

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Rivkin at Johns Hopkins University has secured four hours of

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web's observing time. Their observations will serve two crucial purposes,

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first to better estimate the asteroid's size and then to

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help refine its orbital parameters. This data could prove decide

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in determining whether Earth is actually in danger. Efforts to

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find previous observations of the asteroid from twenty sixteen, when

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it last passed close to Earth have so far come

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up empty. Despite thorough searches through archival data from various observatories,

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no confirmatory images have been found. While these negative observations

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can sometimes be useful, they must be treated with extreme

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caution when calculating orbital predictions. This situation has led to

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twenty twenty four YR four receiving a ter Reino Scale

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rating of three, the second highest ranking ever assigned to

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a potential impact threat. Only asteroid Opophos previously reached a

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higher rating of four back in two thousand and four,

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though it was quickly determined to pose no danger unlike

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a pofas. The uncertainty around twenty twenty four YR four's

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trajectory means we may not have a definitive answer about

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its impact risk until its next close approach in twenty

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twenty eight, Unless Web's observations can help resolve the misty sooner. Next,

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let's take a look at what Starship has been up

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to this week. As SpaceX gears up for its eighth

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Starship test flight, the company has been conducting crucial preflight

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tests at their Starbase facility in Texas. Just last weekend,

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they completed a full duration static fire test of the

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super Heavy booster, successfully igniting all thirty three Raptor engines

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on the massive two hundred thirty three foot rocket stage.

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Following the booster test, SpaceX turn their attention to Starship itself,

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conducting engine tests on Tuesday evening at a separate test

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stand near the launch facilities. This test was more extensive

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than the boosters, putting the engines through various thrust levels

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to simulate the different conditions the propulsion system will experience

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during actual flight. The company has also introduced some new

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hardware modifications for this upcoming launch, though specific details haven't

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been disclosed. Once these tests are complete, the Starship vehicle

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will be transported to join its super Heavy parkartner at

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the launch pad, where the two will be stacked together.

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When fully assembled, this engineering marvel stands an impressive four

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hundred and three feet tall with the Starship portion alone,

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exceeding the height of the Statue of Liberty. This launch

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follows January's Ift seven mission, which saw mixed results. While

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that flight achieved some successes, including a successful catch of

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the super heavy booster by the launch tower's chopstick arms,

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contact with the Starship Portion was lost about eight point

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five minutes into the flight. The vehicle was later observed

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breaking up over the Caribbean. Space X is targeting a

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launch date at the end of February, though this timeline

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depends on several factors, including receiving the necessary launch license

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from the Federal Aviation Administration. This will mark their second

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Starship launch of twenty twenty five, as the company works

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toward their ambitious goal of completing twenty five launches this year.

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These test flights are drawing increasing attention as NASA's time

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twenty twenty seven Artemis three mission approaches, a mission that

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will rely on Starship to land astronauts on the lunar surface.

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I love this next story in the fascinating world of

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space exploration. Not every mission that goes dark stays that way. Sometimes,

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against all odds, spacecraft we thought were lost forever managed

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to phone home again. Let me share some remarkable stories

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of these space based resurrection events. Take the case of Serbi,

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a small satellite launched in twenty twenty three to study

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Earth's radiation belts. After completing its initial four month missions

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so successfully that NASA extended it, Serbey suddenly went dark

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in April twenty twenty four. The team was devastated, especially

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when massive solar storms hit Earth in May, exactly the

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kind of event Serbi was designed to study. But then

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something extraordinary happened. On May twenty third, out of nowhere,

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Serbi's signal returned, though it only stayed alive for two

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and a half days before falling silent again. It wasn't

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finished yet. The plucky little spacecraft came back once more

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on June tenth, this time for good, at least until

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it's planned re entry in October. Even more remarkable is

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the story of NASA's Image, spacecraft launched in two thousand

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to study Earth's magnetosphere. Image operated flawlessly for five years

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before suddenly going silent in December two thousand and five.

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For over a decade, everyone assumed it was dead. Then

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in January twenty eighteen, an amateur radio astronomer accidentally picked

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up its signal while searching for something else entirely. When

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NASA re established contact, they discovered something fascinating. The spacecraft

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had been stuck in a bizarre loop, rebooting itself every

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seventy two hours for thirteen years straight, unable to properly

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power its communication system. It was like a patient in

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a coma, alive but unable to reach out to the world.

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These revivals aren't always accidental. Sometimes spacecraft are deliberately put

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into hibernation, like the European Space Agency's Jotto mission after

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visiting Halley's comment in nineteen eighty six. It was powered

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down to conserve energy, only to be awakened four years

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later for another comet encounter. Even NASA's Wise Telescope got

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a second life. After completing its initial mission and being

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shut down. It was reactivated as new WIS to hunt

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for potentially hazardous asteroids. These stories remind us that in

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space exploration, sometimes patients and persistence can bring seemingly lost

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missions back from the brink, providing unexpected opportunities for new discoveries.

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And that wraps up today's episode of Astronomy Daily. I'm

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Anna and I've enjoyed bringing you these fascinating stories from

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the world of space exploration and astronomy. From blue origins,

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latest developments to miraculous spacecraft revivals, It's been another exciting

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day in space news. If you want to stay up

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to date with all the latest developments in space and astronomy,

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visit our website at Astronomy Daily dot io. There you

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can sign up for our free daily newsletter and access

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our constantly updates newsfeed. You'll also find all our past

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episodes available for listening anytime. We're also active across social media.

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You can find us as astro Daily Pod on Facebook,

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for bonus content and real time updates on breaking space news.

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This has been Astronomy Daily. Thank you for listening, and

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keep looking up. There's always something amazing happening in the Cosmos.

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Suday star is Starz story