Astronomy Daily: Space News Updates

Episode 50 of Season 5! Today Anna and Avery bring you six unmissable space stories: a star 1,540 times the size of our Sun transforming into a rare yellow hypergiant in real time; SpaceX's Dragon CRS-33 capsule completing a historic ISS-boosting mission and splashing down this morning; the James Webb Space Telescope revealing the haunting 'Exposed Cranium' nebula in unprecedented detail; a total...

Astronomy Daily  |  S05E49  |  February 26, 2026 Six Planets, a Surprise in the Milky Way, and the First ISS Medical Evacuation Revealed   Tonight the Moon sits right next to Jupiter in what is the visual highlight of the February six-planet alignment. Meanwhile, astronomers have made a jaw-dropping discovery about our galaxy’s magnetic field, NASA has named the astronaut at the centre of last mon...

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket begins its rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building today as a helium flow issue kills the March launch window — and the crew's unannounced presence at Trump's State of the Union adds a fascinating new dimension. Plus: James Webb achieves an astronomical first by identifying a supernova's progenitor star that was invisible to every other telescope; the case for life...

Today on Astronomy Daily: NASA's Artemis II mission is rolling back to the Vehicle Assembly Building today after a helium flow issue dashed hopes of a March launch. We cover the latest on what went wrong, what it means for the April window, and what happens next.   We also have five more stories to get through: Perseverance just gained the ability to locate itself on Mars with GPS-like precision —...

🚀 Astronomy Daily — Season 5 | Monday, February 23, 2026 NASA rolls back the Artemis 2 moon rocket, Europa's ocean gets a life-friendly upgrade, SpaceX breaks its own booster reuse record, Rocket Lab launches a hypersonic mission TODAY, Mars dust storms reveal how the Red Planet lost its water, and SIX planets are visible in tonight's sky. IN THIS EPISODE: 🌕  Artemis 2 rollback — the crew is rel...

Astronomy Daily — Season 5, Episode 45 | February 21, 2026 "Countdown to the Moon: Artemis II Crew in Quarantine" The Artemis II crew — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialist Christina Koch (NASA), and Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen (CSA) — have officially entered quarantine ahead of a targeted March 6, 2026 launch. With the second Wet Dress Rehearsal completed successfu...

S05E44 | Friday, February 20, 2026   It's a big one today! We cover EIGHT stories including breaking news from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, a damning independent report into the Boeing Starliner crisis, two astonishing dark matter discoveries, the first ancient Jellyfish Galaxy, SpaceX rocket pollution science, and a cosmic farewell to a comet we'll never see again. Plus — yes — we briefly and res...

S05E43 | February 19, 2026 🚀 Artemis Fuels Up LIVE | Pulsar at Our Galaxy's Heart | Universe's Fate Revealed | City Killer Asteroids | Mercury Tonight! It's a big one today — and we mean that literally. As we record, NASA is fuelling its Artemis II Space Launch System rocket at Kennedy Space Center in a make-or-break second wet dress rehearsal. But that's just the start. We've also got a cosmic d...

Episode: S05E42 — Wednesday, February 18, 2026 Hosts: Anna & Avery Network: Bitesz.com Podcast Network   In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover six unmissable stories from across the cosmos. Here's what we're talking about in S05E42:   1. Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal Round Two NASA begins fuelling the SLS moon rocket tomorrow (Feb 19) for a second critical practice count...

Astronomy Daily — S05E41 | Tuesday 17 February 2026 Ring of Fire, Farewell Comet, and the Smell of Rotten Eggs in Space   Two celestial events happen TODAY — an annular solar eclipse transforms the Antarctic Sun into a ring of fire, and a rare hyperbolic comet makes its closest pass to Earth before leaving the solar system forever. Plus, JWST uses the smell of rotten eggs to solve a major exoplane...

  • Crew-12 Docks at ISS — The SpaceX Crew-12 mission docked at the International Space Station on Valentine’s Day, restoring the station to full strength after over a month with a skeleton crew. Astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, and Andrey Fedyaev join Expedition 74 for an eight-month mission.   • Artemis 2 Hydrogen Leak Update — NASA’s “confidence test” on the SLS rocket’s r...

Happy Valentine's Day from Astronomy Daily! The cosmos has pulled out all the stops today — from astronauts docking at the space station to a dying star sending the universe a literal heart-shaped Valentine. Plus, the ring of fire eclipse countdown, why eclipses always arrive in pairs, a comet that flipped its spin, a six-planet parade to look forward to, and a chance of aurora tonight. In this ep...

Today on Astronomy Daily: Astronomers have witnessed something extraordinary in the Andromeda Galaxy — a massive star that simply vanished, collapsing into a brand-new black hole without the usual supernova fireworks. We cover the SpaceX Crew-12 launch to the ISS, Europe's powerful Ariane 64 flying for the first time with Amazon satellites aboard, another booster anomaly for ULA's Vulcan rocket, a...

In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery unpack six major space stories. China has achieved a crucial milestone in its crewed lunar programme, successfully testing the Mengzhou capsule's abort system at maximum dynamic pressure while also demonstrating SpaceX-style rocket recovery with the Long March 10 first stage. ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket is set to launch its longest mission yet,...

Four astronauts are stuck in quarantine in Florida as weather keeps pushing back the Crew-12 launch — now targeting no earlier than Friday, February 13. We've got the full story, including the remarkable subplot involving a Russian cosmonaut who was quietly removed from the mission in December. Plus: interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is on its way out of the solar system forever, but new data from NASA'...

In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, Anna and Avery cover five major stories from across the cosmos. SpaceX Crew-12 is targeting Thursday February 12th for launch to the International Space Station, after weather pushed back the Wednesday window. Meet the international crew of four and find out why this mission will run longer than usual. Our Sun has been active overnight, with sunspot region AR...

Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Today we explore the new lunar space race as SpaceX shifts focus from Mars to the Moon, Europe establishes its Moonport company, and NASA continues Artemis II preparations. Plus, scientists solve the mystery behind auroras, explain Uranus's radiation anomaly from 1986, and SpaceX returns to flight after a brief stand-down. Join hosts Anna and Avery for your daily dose o...

## In Today's Episode: - **FAA clears Falcon 9 — Crew-12 launch set for February 11** — The four-day grounding ends after SpaceX identifies and addresses the upper stage engine ignition failure. Fourth upper stage issue in 19 months. - **NASA study: Non-biological sources can't fully explain Mars organics** — Researchers find that known non-biological processes don't account for the abundance of o...

Episode S05E32 - Friday, February 6, 2026 Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Join hosts Anna and Avery as they bring you the latest space and astronomy news from across the cosmos. Episode Highlights Lunar Smartphones: NASA Approves Modern Tech for Space NASA astronauts will finally be allowed to bring their smartphones on missions, starting with Crew-12 to the ISS next week and the Artemis II lunar flyb...

Astronomy Daily - S05E31: Dark Sky Victory, Jupiter Redefined, Monster Sunspot Victory for dark skies as industrial plant near major observatory cancelled • NASA's Juno mission reveals Jupiter is larger and flatter than we thought • 15-Earth-wide sunspot currently facing our planet • Unusual Martian storm reveals subsurface secrets • NASA acknowledges SLS rocket sustainability challenges • How red...

Welcome to Astronomy Daily, bringing you the latest space and astronomy news. I'm Anna, joined by my co-host Avery, with today's cosmic headlines for Wednesday, February 4th, 2026. Episode Highlights: 🚀 ARTEMIS 2 DELAYED - NASA's historic moon mission pushed to March after hydrogen leak during wet dress rehearsal. Four astronauts await their journey around the Moon as teams address familiar techn...

Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Join hosts Anna and Avery for Tuesday, February 3rd's space news roundup. Today we're covering a critical setback in NASA's Artemis 2 wet dress rehearsal, Elon Musk's controversial vision for orbital AI data centers following SpaceX's acquisition of xAI, NASA's announcement of Axiom Mission 5 to the ISS, extraordinary solar flare activity from a volatile new sunspot, th...

Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Join hosts Anna and Avery for today's cosmic journey through space news, featuring SpaceX's audacious plan for one million solar-powered satellites, an ancient star catalog recovered from layers of medieval text, and China's groundbreaking solar mission to the L5 point. **Episode Highlights:** 🛰️ **SpaceX's Million-Satellite Vision** - SpaceX files with the FCC to launc...

Join hosts Anna and Avery for Saturday's cosmic roundup! NASA's Artemis 2 wet dress rehearsal faces weather delays, pushing the historic lunar mission to April 2026. Blue Origin announces a major strategic shift, pausing space tourism for two years to focus on their Blue Moon lunar lander program. We explore million-mile-per-hour cosmic winds racing through a "magnetic superhighway" in colliding g...

Witness the largest volcanic eruption ever seen on Jupiter's moon Io, explore NASA's breakthrough in nuclear propulsion, and discover evidence of ancient Martian beaches that could rewrite the story of life beyond Earth. In this episode, we cover: • NASA's Juno spacecraft captures a colossal 150-mile-high volcanic plume on Io • KRUSTY nuclear reactor test paves the way for deep space exploration •...