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 responsibly address the UFO/UAP conversation. Stories in this episode: • Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal —...
Feb 20, 2026•21 min•Season 5Ep. 43
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 discovery that could let us test Einstein's theories like never before, new data suggesting the unive...
Feb 19, 2026•18 min•Season 5Ep. 43
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 countdown. Engineers have replaced two seals and a filter after hydrogen leaks forced the February launch win...
Feb 18, 2026•18 min•Season 5Ep. 42
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 exoplanet mystery, NASA performs a CT scan on the northern lights, a startup plans to fuel rockets with water,...
Feb 17, 2026•19 min•Season 5Ep. 41
• 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 repaired hydrogen fueling seals showed mixed but cautiously encouraging results. March remains the earlie...
Feb 16, 2026•15 min•Season 5Ep. 40
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 episode: 🚀 SpaceX Crew-12 launched yesterday and docks at the ISS today — a Valentine's Day arrival t...
Feb 14, 2026•14 min•Season 5Ep. 39
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 bizarre inside-out planetary system that defies formation models, and NASA's plan to rescue the Swi...
Feb 13, 2026•18 min•Season 5Ep. 37
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, delivering GSSAP space surveillance satellites directly to geosynchronous orbit for the US Space Fo...
Feb 12, 2026•17 min•Season 5Ep. 37
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's SPHEREx and James Webb telescopes reveals it's been carrying a chemical cocktail from another star...
Feb 11, 2026•21 min•Season 5Ep. 36
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 AR4366 firing off four M-class flares including an M2.8 that triggered a radio blackout over the Pacif...
Feb 10, 2026•14 min•Season 5Ep. 35
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 of space and astronomy news! --- ### Featured Stories **[00:00] Introduction** Your hosts Anna and Av...
Feb 09, 2026•16 min•Season 5Ep. 34
## 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 organic compounds discovered by Curiosity in Gale Crater. The team modelled 80 million years of cosmi...
Feb 07, 2026•10 min•Season 5Ep. 33
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 flyby in March. After years of using decade-old cameras, astronauts can now spontaneously capture and sh...
Feb 06, 2026•24 min•Season 5Ep. 32
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 giant stars destroy their own gas giant planets Host Anna and Avery discuss six major space stories...
Feb 05, 2026•19 min•Season 5Ep. 31
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 technical challenges. 🛰️ SPACEX UNVEILS STARGAZE - Revolutionary space traffic management system uses 30...
Feb 04, 2026•21 min•Season 5Ep. 30
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, the start of NASA's IMAP mission to map our heliosphere, and exciting opportunities through ESA's Grad...
Feb 03, 2026•16 min•Season 5Ep. 29
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 launch up to one million solar-powered satellite data centers for AI, framing it as a step toward becomi...
Feb 02, 2026•21 min•Season 5Ep. 28
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 galaxies, investigate a mysterious object sending unexplained signals across the galaxy, discover why...
Feb 01, 2026•27 min•Season 5Ep. 27
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 • Ancient beach deposits in Gale Crater reveal Mars' watery past • Artemis II communication networks ...
Jan 30, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 25
Join hosts Anna and Avery for an exciting journey through today's most compelling space stories. We explore Mercury's surprising geological activity, NASA's TESS satellite recovery, a frigid Earth-like exoplanet discovery, an accelerated ISS crew launch, runaway black holes tearing through space, and the scientific opportunities of a potential lunar asteroid impact in 2032. ### Episode Highlights **Mercury's Hidden Activity** New research reveals that Mercury, long considered geologically dead, ...
Jan 29, 2026•20 min•Season 5Ep. 25
## Today's Headlines: 🛰️ **NOAA Solar Observatory Reaches L1** NOAA's Space Weather Follow-On satellite successfully arrived at Lagrange point 1 on January 21st, establishing the first component of a future constellation designed to provide early warning of solar storms and coronal mass ejections. The satellite offers 15-60 minutes advance notice of space weather events that could impact Earth's infrastructure. 🚀 **Challenger Disaster: 40 Years Later** Marking four decades since the Space Shut...
Jan 28, 2026•16 min•Season 5Ep. 24
Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Join hosts Anna and Avery as they explore today's most fascinating space and astronomy stories. IN THIS EPISODE: 🌌 NASA's Dark Matter Map NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has created one of the most detailed dark matter maps ever produced, revealing the invisible scaffolding of the universe in unprecedented detail. Scientists mapped nearly 800,000 galaxies, showing how dark matter and regular matter have grown together throughout cosmic history - and how dark matter...
Jan 27, 2026•16 min•Season 5Ep. 23
# Astronomy Daily - S05E22 ## Monday, January 26, 2026 Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Join hosts Anna and Avery as they explore the latest developments in space and astronomy, from ambitious plans to terraform Mars to stunning new views of dying stars. ### Episode Highlights **Mars Terraforming Gets Serious** Scientists unveil a comprehensive blueprint for transforming Mars into a habitable world. Discover the three-phase plan using Martian resources, engineered nanoparticles, and hardy microorgani...
Jan 26, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 22
Rocket Lab's "Hungry Hippos" arrive at Wallops Island despite tank test setback, NASA enlists global volunteers to track Artemis II, ancient lunar impact explains Moon's asymmetry, affordable space memorials launching in 2027, massive exomoon challenges definitions, and an 11th-century monk may have discovered Halley's Comet first. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: 🚀 Rocket Lab's Neutron program reaches major milestone as innovative "Hungry Hippo" reusable fairings arrive at Wallops Island after month-long s...
Jan 25, 2026•18 min•Season 5Ep. 21
Welcome to Astronomy Daily! Today we explore NASA's inspiring collection of historic keepsakes heading to the Moon on Artemis II, including fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer. We examine an urgent warning about orbital debris—the CRASH Clock shows catastrophic collision could occur in just 5.5 days if satellites lose maneuvering capability. New analysis of Apollo lunar samples challenges our understanding of where Earth's water came from. Irish researchers solve the mystery of how supermassive bl...
Jan 23, 2026•18 min•Season 5Ep. 20
Welcome to Astronomy Daily! In today's episode, we explore Blue Origin's ambitious new TeraWave satellite internet network offering speeds up to 6Tbps, discuss the first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station, and celebrate Buzz Aldrin's 96th birthday as the oldest living astronaut. We also dive into exciting science from Saturn's moon Enceladus, surprising plasma wave discoveries at Mercury, and groundbreaking Solar Orbiter observations revealing how magnetic avalanches po...
Jan 22, 2026•25 min•Season 5Ep. 19
Stunning northern lights dazzle the world after a severe G4 geomagnetic storm, legendary NASA astronaut Suni Williams retires after 27 years, and China executes a dramatic space rescue. Plus, Blue Origin's next tourist launch and groundbreaking telescope observations! In today's episode of Astronomy Daily, hosts Anna and Avery bring you the latest space and astronomy news: 🌌 SEVERE GEOMAGNETIC STORM UPDATE - Follow-up to yesterday's prediction as the CME slams into Earth, triggering spectacular...
Jan 21, 2026•22 min•Season 5Ep. 18
The Sun's latest outburst arrived ahead of schedule! A powerful X1.9 solar flare and massive CME triggered severe G4 geomagnetic storms on January 19th, bringing spectacular auroras as far south as Alabama. Hosts Anna and Avery break down what happened and what to expect. Also in today's episode: China successfully tests the Long March 12B reusable rocket, giving us a preview of their next-gen launch capabilities. We get an exclusive look at the Xuntian space telescope set to launch in 2027, whi...
Jan 20, 2026•29 min•Season 5Ep. 17
Join hosts Anna and Avery for today's essential space and astronomy news roundup! 🚀 NASA's Artemis II rocket completes its journey to Launch Pad 39B, bringing humanity one step closer to returning to the Moon. We bid farewell to Japan's remarkable Akatsuki Venus orbiter after a decade of groundbreaking discoveries. China's FAST telescope solves a ten-year mystery about fast radio bursts, revealing they come from binary star systems. Plus, we preview the incredible space science missions launchi...
Jan 19, 2026•28 min•Season 5Ep. 16
NASA attempts to contact the silent MAVEN Mars orbiter after 40 days—but prospects look grim. Plus: the first-ever ISS medical evacuation succeeds, Europe debuts its powerful Ariane 64, scientists crack asteroid defense secrets, China releases lunar timekeeping software, and Hubble reveals where planets are born. Your daily space news for January 15, 2026. ### Extended Episode Description (for podcast websites/apps) After more than a month of silence, NASA is making what may be its final attempt...
Jan 17, 2026•36 min•Season 5Ep. 15
