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Speaker 1: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, your go to source for the

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latest space news. I'm Anna and I'm Avery.

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Speaker 2: Happy Saturday, everyone, We've got great stories for you today.

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The FAA has given SpaceX the green light to fly

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Falcon nine again, which means NASA's Crew twelve mission is

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officially a go for next week.

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Speaker 1: We've also got a fascinating NASA study that's raising some

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very intriguing questions about organic molecules on Mars. Plus our

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Interstellar Visitor comment three i ATLS is putting on one

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last spectacular show on its way out of the Solar System.

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Speaker 2: And some less cheerful news from across the Atlantic, where

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the UK government is proposing massive cuts to astronomy funding.

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We'll also look at the renewed debate over making new

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Glens second stage reusable, and we'll wrap up with a

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story that'll make you smile. The fraggles have arrived at

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Kennedy Space Center. Let's get into it, so our top story.

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Great news for anyone who's been watching the Crew twelve

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mission calendar nervously. The FAA has officially cleared SpaceX's Falcon

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nine to return to flight after a four day grounding.

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Speaker 1: Right this all stemmed from a starlink launch on February second,

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where the upper stage deployed the satellites just fine, but

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then failed to perform its de orbit burn. The rocket

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body ended up re entering the atmosphere uncontrolled.

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Speaker 2: And here's the thing that jumps out. This was the

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fourth Falcon nine upper stage issue in just nineteen months.

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That's a pattern that's hard to ignore, but the FAA

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wrapped up its review remarkably quickly. This time. The probable

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root cause was a failure of the engine to ignite

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before the de orbit burn, and SpaceX has identified preventative measures.

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Speaker 1: So with that resolved, Crew twelve is now targeting launch

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at six h one am Eastern on February eleventh, that's

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next Tuesday. The crew includes NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and

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Jack Hathaway, cosmonaut Andre Fedyev, and ESA Sophie Adenaut flying

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aboard the Dragon capsule freedom.

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Speaker 2: This mission is especially critical because the ISS has been

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running with a skeleton crew of just three since January fifteenth,

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when Crewe eleven departed in the first ever medical evacuation

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from the station. Getting Crew twelve up there will bring

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the station back to its normal complement of seven. We'll

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be watching that launch closely now.

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Speaker 1: This next story is one of those that makes you

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sit up a little straighter. A new NASA study has

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found that non biological processes can't fully account for the

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abundance of organic compounds found in a rock sample from

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Mars's Gale crater.

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Speaker 2: Okay, before anyone gets too excited, this is not a

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we found life on Mars announcement, but it is genuinely significant.

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Back in March twenty twenty five, Curiosity's chemistry lab identified

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small amounts of decane, undecane, and dough decane in a

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rock sample. These are the largest organic molecules ever found

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on Mars, and they could be fragments of fatty acids.

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Speaker 1: Now on Earth. Fatty acids are mostly produced by life,

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though they can also form through geological processes. The follow

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up study looked at no non biological sources like delivery

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by meteorites, and tried to see if those could explain

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the amounts found. The team essentially rewound the clock about

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eighty million years, estimating how much organic material would have

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been there before cosmic radiation destroyed much of it.

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Speaker 2: And the result far more organic material than non biological

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processes could typically produce, So the researchers say it's reasonable

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to hypothesize that living things could have formed these molecules.

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They're very clear that more study is needed, but this

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keeps the door open in a really tantalizing way.

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Speaker 1: It's exactly the kind of incremental science that could one

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day lead to a truly historic finding. Mars keeps teasing us,

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and we love it.

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Speaker 2: Speaking of tantalizing science, our interstellar visitor comet three eye

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dash at Liss has been putting on 's white the

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Farewell Show. Aassphere X space telescope caught the comet dramatically

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brightening in December, well after its closest approach to the Sun.

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Speaker 1: That's really unusual. You'd normally expect a comet to be

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fading as it heads away from the Sun, not flaring up.

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The sph e er Ex data shows three I slash

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atls erupting with water, vapor, carbon dioxide, and organic compounds,

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along with a beautiful pear shaped dust tail.

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Speaker 2: The leading theory is that sunlight slowly penetrated beneath the

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comet's crust, which had been hardened by billions of years

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of cosmic rapeombardment in interstellar space. Once the heat reached

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the pristine ices buried deeper down, they erupted, releasing a

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cocktail of ancient chemicals that hadn't been exposed for billions

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of years.

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Speaker 1: And remember, this is only the third confirmed interstellar object

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we've ever seen, after Omua Mua in twenty seventeen and

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borisof in twenty nineteen. The chemical fingerprint from three I

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slash at ls gives us our best look yet at

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material formed around another star. The similarities to our own

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comets could tell us whether the raw ingredients for planets

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and potentially life are common across the galaxy.

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Speaker 2: What a way to say goodbye save travels three iatls.

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Speaker 1: Now for a story that's causing real alarm in the

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scientific community, The UK government is proposing a thirty percent

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cut to its funding for astronomy, particle physics and nuclear

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physics research. The Royal Astronomical Society's Robert Massey has called

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it the worst outcome for the field in decades.

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Speaker 2: This comes through the Science and Technology Facilities Council, which

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distributes funds and runs major research facilities in the UK.

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The cut are being justified by the need to focus

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on fewer priorities and by the right and costs of

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running existing labs. But this follows a fifteen percent reduction

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in grants just last year, so these cuts are really compounding.

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Speaker 1: What makes it particularly painful is that the UK has

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historically been a global astronomy powerhouse, third in the world

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by research citations. They're major contributors to the Square Kilometer

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Array and the European Southern Observatory. The worry is that

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they'll invest in building these world class facilities but then

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not fund the researchers needed to actually use them, and its.

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Speaker 2: Early career researchers who will bear the brunt. PhD students

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and postdocs are the most vulnerable when funding disappears. The

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Institute of Physics called it a devastating blow. When you

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combine this with the UK's recent eleven percent cut to

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its ESA contributions, it paints a worrying picture for British

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science at a time when other countries are investing more.

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Speaker 1: Gifting to the launch industry. Now, the question of whether

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Blue Origin should make new glens second stage reusable is

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back in the spotlight. They've been studying this under a

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program called Project Jarvis, and it's one of those fascinating

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engineering dilemmas.

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Speaker 2: Jeff Bezos himself has described it as a horse race.

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The expendable team's goal is to make the second stage

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so cheap to manufacture that reusability never makes sense. Meanwhile,

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the reusable team's goal is to make it so operationally

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efficient that throwing one away never makes sense. They're still

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deciding between aluminum and stainless steel for the reusable version.

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Speaker 1: With New Glen's first stage now proven they successfully landed

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it on the second flight last November, and SpaceX pushing

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towards full starship reusability, there's real competitive pressure, and companies

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like Stoke Space are working on fully reusable systems.

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Speaker 2: The stakes are high. Full reusability could be the key

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to making space access truly of F one, but it's

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also enormously technically challenging. We'll be watching how this debate

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plays out as Blue Origin ramps up its launch cadence

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In twenty twenty six, And.

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Speaker 1: Finally, our feel good story of the day, Jim Henson's

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beloved Fraggles have arrived at the Kennedy Space Center visitor Complex.

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Speaker 2: That's right, Fraggle Rock, a Spacey Adventure is a new

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Life stage show that debuted in December. It features Gobo,

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Red Uncle, traveling Matt and cotterr Upinduzer exploring NASA's Kennedy

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Space Center and learning about the Artemis missions. They even

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get to chat with the real astronaut on the ISS.

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Speaker 1: I love the connection they've made here. In the original show,

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the Fraggles always called the human world outer space, so

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having them explore actual outer space at Kennedy's Space Center

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is a really clever fit. The show is directed by

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John Tartaglia, who is the Jim Henson Company's creative supervisor

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for Fraggle Rock.

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Speaker 2: The characters appear as full body walk around costumes craft

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by the Jim Henson Creature Shop, and the show blends comedy, music,

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and real space science. It's included with regular admission and

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place twice daily. If you're visiting Florida. That sounds like

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a brilliant way to inspire the next generation dance.

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Speaker 1: Your care is away all the Way to the Moon, And.

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Speaker 2: That's our show for today. If you enjoyed the episode,

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please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform.

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It really helps other space fans find us.

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Speaker 1: You can find us online at astronomy Daily dot io,

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and you can follow us on social media at astro

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Daily Pod for all the latest updates. We'll be back

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on Monday with more space news. Until then, keep looking up.

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Speaker 2: See you next week. Sunday Stars start story is Control