Forty Times Brighter Than the Full Moon: Inside the Space-Mirror Fight

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Anna: Here we go. Hi everyone. Welcome back to

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Astronomy AstroDailyPod. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm um, avery. It's Friday, August

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28th. Series 5 Episode

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179 Today's Lead Storey

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Anna: is one of those genuinely new dilemmas.

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As we reported a few weeks ago, a US

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startup just got the green light to put a

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giant mirror in orbit and beam

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sunlight down to Earth at night. And

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astronomers are understandably not happy

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about the maths on how bright that actually

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is.

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Avery: Then Starship's, um, next flight quietly

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slips a few weeks while the last one is

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finally on its way home by ship. A hot little

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exoplanet that's living on borrowed time and

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the Roman Space Telescope two days from

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launch with a budget survival storey we

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haven't told you yet.

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Anna: Let's get into it.

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Avery: Okay, this first one sounds almost too on the

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nose. Mirrors in space aimed at Earth.

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Anna: That's exactly it. Uh, a US startup

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called ReflectOrbital wants to put tens

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of thousands of large mirrors into low

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Earth orbit and use them to beam

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reflected sunlight down to specific spots

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on the ground on demand, even at night.

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And back in July, the FCC actually

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approved their first demonstration satellite.

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Avery: Approved it to do what exactly?

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Anna: To launch and operate a satellite called

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Earendil 1, about 600 kilometres

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up, carrying a reflective mirror roughly

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60ft on a side. That's just the demo.

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The company's actual business plan is a

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constellation of more than 50,000

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mirrors by 2035, with the operational

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versions much bigger, again around

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174ft or 54

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metres per side.

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Avery: And um, the pitch is what free

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Anna: nighttime sunlight pretty much reflect.

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Orbital's pitch is extending solar panel

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output into the night, lighting disaster and

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search and rescue zones without needing

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generators, letting construction and outdoor

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work run longer hours. Even carbon free

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street lighting. On paper, it's a genuinely

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interesting idea. Controllable,

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targeted daylight wherever and whenever you

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need it.

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Avery: So where's the catch?

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Anna: The catch is what it does to everyone

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standing underneath it who didn't ask for it.

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And to the night sky generally. A new peer

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reviewed study led by Miroslav Kochifai

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and Princeton astrophysicist Gaspar Bakos

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worked out exactly how bright one of these

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full scale 54 metre mirrors would

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actually look from the ground. Their number

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about magnitude

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-16.7, roughly 4

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magnitudes, which works out to about 40

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times brighter than the full moon for anyone

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standing inside its roughly 3.4

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mile beam.

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Avery: 40 times the full moon. That's not reading

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by moonlight bright. That's daylight.

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Anna: That's the point. Bacchus was making. His

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actual quote was that it would be worse than

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big cities like London for light pollution

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and that you would not see any stars if you

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were in the beam. And it's not just the

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direct beam either. The study also modelled

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how sunlight scatters around the atmosphere

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around that brightest source, and found the

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skyglow stays measurably brighter for another

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20 to 30 kilometres beyond the edge

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of the beam itself.

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Avery: So even people who aren't the target

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Anna: still get some of the glow right, and it

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compounds. Space.com's reporting on the

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study noted that if you had several hundred

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of these mirrors with overlapping beams,

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which is exactly what a 40,000 plus

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satellite constellation would eventually

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produce, the combined brightness could run

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up around, uh, 10,000 times the full moon

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in the overlap zones.

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Avery: That feels like a genuinely different scale

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of problem to what we've talked about before

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with satellite constellations.

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Anna: It is a different problem and it's worth

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being precise about that difference. The

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Starlink style mega constellation complaints

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astronomers have been raising for years are

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mostly about individual satellites showing up

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as bright, moving streaks across long

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exposure telescope images. Annoying,

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sometimes ruining a specific observation, but

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a source of light, not a source of daylight.

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This is different. It's purpose built to be

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as bright as possible, aimed deliberately at

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a patch of ground dark. Sky advocates like

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John Barentine have flagged separate concerns

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too. The effect on nocturnal wildlife that

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navigate and hunt by natural light cycles,

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not just on telescopes.

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Avery: What does the company say to all

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Anna: that Reflect Orbital's position? Is that the

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light stays contained to a defined target

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area, that beams can be shut off instantly if

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needed, and that they'll steer clear of

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observatories and sensitive habitats when

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scheduling illumination passes. Whether

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that's enough to satisfy critics once there

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are tens of thousands of these things flying

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rather than one demo satellite, is very much

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the open question. And it's one regulators

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are going to have to keep answering as more

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of these filings show up.

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Avery: So this is really the opening chapter of a

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much bigger fight. Not the whole storey,

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exactly.

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Anna: That Arendelle Lun hasn't even flown

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yet. It's still targeted for later this year,

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but the FCC's already approved it. The

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astronomy community has already got peer

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reviewed numbers on exactly how bad the

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full scale version would be. And the

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company's public ambition is 40,000

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to 50,000 of these things within a decade.

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That's the shape of the next big fight

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between commercial space and the people who'd

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like to still see actual stars at night.

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Avery: A mirror in orbit and a genuinely

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unresolved argument underneath it.

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Anna: Watch this space. Sorry, couldn't resist that

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one.

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Avery: Sticking with things in orbit. Or in this

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case, things very much not in orbit anymore.

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Anna: Two Starship updates today, and they bookend

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each other nicely. First ship 40, the

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upper stage that made that historic intact

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splashdown after Flight 13 back on July

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24, has finally been loaded onto a heavy

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lift transport vessel in the Indian Ocean off

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Christmas island and is now on its way home

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to Starbase in South Texas.

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Avery: That's the one that had been floating around

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for weeks, right?

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Anna: That's the one towed further than originally

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expected, ending up sheltering off Christmas

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island for over three weeks before this

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loading happened. SpaceX says the trip back

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to Texas will take several months, but the

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reason it mattered enough to tow home at all

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is that ship 40 is the first starship upper

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stage ever to survive re entry and

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splashdown intact. So engineers now

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get to physically inspect real heat shield

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samples and reentry damage, rather than just

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working from telemetry data that's already

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feeding into design changes on the next ships

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in line.

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Avery: And speaking of the next ship in line, that's

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flight 14, right?

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Anna: And here's the update. Some of what's

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circulating still says Flight 14 is

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targeting around August 28th today,

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but that number's gone stale. Internal

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SpaceX and FAA air traffic planning documents

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reported earlier this week put the actual

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no earlier than date at September 15th.

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Ship 41 already finished its testing

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a single engine deorbit burn demo and

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a full six engine static fire in the last

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week or so. But booster 21 only

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just rolled out to the pad for its own static

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fire on Monday. And that's the item actually

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setting the pace now.

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Avery: So ship 40 finally gets home right as its

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sibling gears up to fly.

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Anna: Nice bit of symmetry, yes, and when Flight

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14 does go it it's aiming for something

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Starship hasn't done yet, a full orbital

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flight. Deploying the newer larger Starlink

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V3 satellites. Though the tower catch

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attempt for the returning ship is being

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pushed back again. Musk saying that's

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now probably in a few months. Rather than

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this flight, ship 41 will splash down in the

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ocean instead. Same as ship 40 did.

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Avery: One ship finally coming home by boat, the

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next one still a few weeks from even trying

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to fly.

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Anna: That's Starship in one sentence at the

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moment. Recovery and preparation happening in

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parallel on two completely different

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timescales.

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Avery: Alright, uh, from rockets to an actual

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planet, one with a pretty grim forecast.

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Anna: Meet HD 176071

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b, a newly

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characterised exoplanet about

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335 light years away.

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Found by a team led by Sylvain Breton at

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Italy's National Institute for astrophysics.

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It's roughly 2 1/2 times Earth's width,

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about 8 1/2 times Earth's mass. And the

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modelling suggests something like half of

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that mass is water, half water.

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Avery: So an um, actual ocean world, not just a

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rocky planet with some water on it.

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Anna: That's the read. Though Ocean

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undersells how strange the conditions

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probably are because this planet orbits its

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star from just one and a half million miles

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out, completing a ah, full year in about

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14 hours. At that distance. We're

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not talking gentle blue oceans, we're talking

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a permanently baked tidally battered water

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world.

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Avery: How do you even find something like that?

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Doesn't the usual method needed to cross in

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front of its star Normally.

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Anna: Yes. The transit method. Watching

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starlight dim as a planet passes in front.

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This one was found a different way.

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Retton's team compared old Kepler space

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telescope data against newer observations

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from TESS and used the HAARPS N

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instrument on the Galileo National Telescope

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to measure tiny variations in sunlight

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reflected directly off the planet's surface.

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Rather than waiting for a transit dip, it's a

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nice reminder that there's still real science

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to be squeezed out of years old archival

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data. If you bring a new technique to

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Avery: it and the living on borrowed

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time part, where does that come from?

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Anna: From exactly how close it's orbiting

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at 1 1/2 million miles. The tidal

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forces from star are extreme and the

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consensus from the team is that this planet

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is being slowly consumed. The kind of

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fate that waits for anything hugging a star

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this tightly. It won't happen on any

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timescale. We'll be around to watch. But it's

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basically doomed by geometry the moment you

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look at the orbit.

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Avery: A uh, genuine ocean world discovered by a

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clever trick with old data and already on

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a slow path to being swallowed.

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Anna: Space has a way of finding new categories of

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beautiful but temporary last storey

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before skywatch.

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Avery: And um, it's the big one on everyone's launch

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calendar right now.

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Anna: The Nancy Grace Roman space telescope is

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two days from launch Sunday August

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30, 7:26am, um, Eastern

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on a Falcon Heavy from Kennedy Space Centre.

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Today is actually the launch readiness review

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happening as we record this. So we don't have

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that outcome yet. We'll be all over it once

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it lands.

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But we wanted to use today's slot on

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something. We haven't told you how close this

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mission came to never flying at all.

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Avery: I don't think I've Heard this part.

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Anna: Most people haven't, because it happened

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quietly in budget documents rather than

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headlines. Back in April last year,

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leaked draughts of the Trump administration's

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proposed 2026 NASA budget

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showed the largest funding cut in the

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agency's history on the table, uh, a

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24% overall reduction, with science

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programmes alone facing a 50% cut.

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And buried in that proposal, no funding

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Avery: for Roman for a mission that was already

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what most of the way built,

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Anna: 95% complete at that point,

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hardware built, tested most of the way

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through integration, and still facing a line

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in a federal budget proposal that would have

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effectively cancelled it. When the official

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skinny budget came out weeks later, it walked

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that back slightly. Roman got

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$156.6 million, less

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than half what it had the year before, but

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not zero. Still nowhere near enough

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certainty for a mission this far along.

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Avery: So how did it end up two days from launch?

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Anna: Instead, Congress rejected the deeper cuts

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and restored NASA's funding to its previous

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levels. That's the part that actually saved

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it. But here's the detail we liked enough to

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build the whole segment around. Rather than

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just breathing a sigh of relief, Roman's own

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management team used the scare as motivation.

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They pulled the launch timeline forward from

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September to August 30, running double

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shifts and weekend work to get there,

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finishing eight months ahead of the original

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schedule and under budget.

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Avery: That's a genuinely unusual reaction to nearly

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losing your funding. So sprint faster, not

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slower.

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Anna: Project manager Jamie Dunn put it about as

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plainly as you can. Delivering on your

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commitments means something, whatever you

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think about the politics around it. That's a

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team that came within a budget line of being

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cancelled and answered by launching nine

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months early. Once we've got the launch

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readiness review outcome and Sunday's launch

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itself, we'll bring you the full storey for

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today. That's the part worth knowing going in

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Avery: a telescope that survived Washington before

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it even had to survive launch.

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Anna: Sometimes the hardest part of getting to

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space happens entirely on the ground.

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Avery: Alright, Skywatch time, quick win on both

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hemispheres tonight.

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Anna: Starting up north, that G2 geomagnetic

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storm watch NOAA issued earlier this week for

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Today, Friday the 28th is playing out

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right now as we speak. The combination of

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Tuesday's, um, M6.9 flare and a

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high speed solar wind stream reaching Earth's

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magnetosphere. If you're at higher latitudes,

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northern tier US states, the uk,

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Scandinavia and similar tonight and into the

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weekend are worth stepping out for, weather

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permitting.

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Avery: And for us in the southern hemisphere,

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Anna: one more time, pretty much the same answer as

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it's been all week. A G2 level storm

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typically doesn't push the aurora Australis

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much past Tasmania on a good night. And

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there's nothing in this forecast suggesting

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it goes further than that this time either.

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Worth a glance at the southern horizon if

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you're somewhere dark, but we wouldn't build

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plans around it.

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Avery: What's actually reliable for us down here

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tonight then?

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Anna: Um, Venus and Saturn. Same pair we've been

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pointing you to all week. Venus low in the

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west shortly after sunset. Unmistakably

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bright even with some light pollution around

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Saturn. Well placed and worth finding with

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binoculars once it's properly dark and

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tonight the Moon's essentially full. We

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watched most of the world's share of that

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partial lunar eclipse pass by in broad

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daylight here earlier today, so it'll be a

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bright night for the Moon itself, even if

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it's washing out some of the fainter stuff

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around it.

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Avery: Venus at dusk, Saturn after dark, a full

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moon overhead and an aurora that's someone

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else's show.

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Anna: Tonight, a uh, properly full sky. Even

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the parts of it that aren't technically ours.

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And that's it for today's episode, series

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five, episode 179

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and my quick recap.

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Avery: A uh, US startup's plan to beam sunlight

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down from orbit using giant mirrors has

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cleared its first FCC hurdle and the new

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peer reviewed study says the full scale

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version would be roughly 40 times brighter

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than the full Moon. For anyone caught in the

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beam. Starship's ship 40 is

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finally on its way home from the Indian Ocean

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by ship while Flight 14 quietly

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slips to mid September, astronomers have

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found a hot water rich exoplanet

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slowly being consumed by its star, and

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the Roman Space Telescope is two days from

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launch after nearly losing its funding

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entirely last year and answering by launching

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nine months early.

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Anna: If you enjoyed the show, the best thing you

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can do is tell a friend. Leave us a rating

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00:16:08.800 --> 00:16:11.320
wherever you listen and follow us. Just

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00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:13.720
search Astro AstroDailyPod Pod on Facebook,

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00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:17.040
Instagram, TikTok x Tumblr and

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YouTube.

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Avery: And while you're there, head to

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00:16:19.520 --> 00:16:22.400
astronomydaily.IO and sign up for

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our free daily newsletter, a summary of the

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latest space and astronomy news straight to

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your inbox, plus an email alert every time

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we post a new episode.

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Anna: We'll be back tomorrow with the weekend wrap.

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Until then, keep looking up clear

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skies everyone. See you then.

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Avery: Mhm.

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Anna: Love.