NASA's Lunar Dreams in Jeopardy, China's Bold Moves, and a Lava World Reimagined

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily,

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your daily guide to the cosmos. I'm

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Anna.

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Avery: And I'm um, avery. It's Tuesday the 2nd of

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June, 2026 and this is season 5

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episode 113.

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Anna: What a week it's been in space already.

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Blue Origin is picking up the pieces. After a

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spectacular rocket explosion and the ripple

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effects for NASA's moon plans are uh, growing

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by the hour.

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Avery: China quietly launched a brand new rocket

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overnight and barely told anyone about it.

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Anna: Starship is grounded again and this time

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there's an IPO in the balance.

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Avery: And NASA's Roman Space Telescope is getting

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ready to change everything we know about

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exoplanets. We're talking a hundred

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thousand new worlds.

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Anna: Plus, did you know Earth was once a planet

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wide ocean of lava for 500

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million years? New research is rewriting

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the story of our early home.

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Avery: And the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a

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stunning new look at a galaxy on a cosmic

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collision course. One that won't end for

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hundreds of millions of years.

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Anna: All that and more right here on Astronomy

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Daily. Let's get into it.

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Avery: Why don't you kick things off Anna with

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today's big news update.

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Anna: Okay. When Blue Origin's new Glenn

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rocket exploded on 28 May, the

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world was watching. But five days on the

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full scale of the damage, not just to the

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pad, but to America's lunar ambitions is

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becoming painfully clear.

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Avery: Let's recap what happened for anyone who

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missed it. The new Glenn was undergoing a

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static fire test. A uh, routine pre launch

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engine ignition at Launch Complex

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36 ahead of a planned June 4 launch.

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Instead, all seven first stage engines

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ignited. Something clearly went wrong and the

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322 foot rocket was engulfed in a

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massive fireball. The explosion could be seen

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and felt for miles.

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Anna: Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp has

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confirmed the company has begun clearing the

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pad. But here's the critical problem. Launch

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Complex 36 is Blue Origin's only

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orbital launch facility. They have no backup.

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And rebuilding a destroyed launch complex

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isn't a matter of weeks.

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Avery: And the mission that was sitting on that pad

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wasn't just about Internet satellites. Blue

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Origin was preparing to deploy Amazon's LEO

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broadband constellation. But the new Glenn is

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also the rocket that NASA is counting on to

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carry its Blue Moon landers to the lunar

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surface.

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Anna: That's right. Just two days before the

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explosion, NASA had signed a new agreement

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with Blue Origin to launch a pair of New

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Glenns carrying rovers to the moon. Rovers

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that would be waiting for Artemis Cruise, the

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Blue Moon Mark 1 Lander scheduled to deliver

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the first hardware for NASA's Moon Base 1

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mission this coming northern autumn will now

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faces an uncertain delay.

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Avery: And when the lander slips, the crew capable

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blue moon mark two timeline slips with it.

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One expert put it bluntly. NASA's moon based

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plans are at this point quote, an

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aspiration rather than being realistically

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achievable in the next few years.

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Anna: It's worth noting that SpaceX and United

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launch alliance both successfully launched

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rockets from elsewhere at the cape less than

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24 hours after the new Glenn explosion.

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A pointed reminder of the advantage of having

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multiple launch pads.

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Avery: A, uh, tough lesson and a sobering moment for

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the whole Artemis program. We'll be watching

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this one very closely.

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Anna: On to our next story. And were the Chinese

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being sneaky or just getting on with

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business?

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Avery: Well, while the world was focused on the Blue

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origin explosion, China was quietly making

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its own significant space history without so

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much as a press release in advance.

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Anna: On June 1, at 4:40am Eastern

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Time, China's new Long March 12B

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rocket lifted off from the Zhuquan Satellite

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launch center in the Gobi Desert. Its very

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first flight with no advance warning

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whatsoever.

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Avery: No announcement, no countdown, just

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gone. China's 35th orbital launch attempt

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of 2026 and arguably one of the most

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technically significant.

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Anna: The Long March 12B is China's answer

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to SpaceX's Falcon 9. It's a two

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stage kerosene and liquid oxygen rocket,

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72 meters tall with a 20 ton payload

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capacity to low Earth orbit. And crucially,

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it's designed from the ground up to be

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reusable. No recovery was attempted on this

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maiden flight, but one is planned.

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Avery: What makes it especially interesting is the

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technology on board the rocket features what

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engineers are calling dual brains.

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Independent flight computers on both stages

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that can process data and make real time

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flight decisions autonomously. Think of it as

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redundant artificial intelligence for the

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rocket itself.

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Anna: The debut mission successfully deployed

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another batch of satellites for the Qian Fan

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Constellation, also known as Thousand

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Sails, China's answer to Starlink. If

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this launch followed the typical batch size,

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the Qianfan Constellation now has

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approximately 180 satellites in

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orbit.

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Avery: And it was developed in just 21 months.

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21 months from concept to first successful

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flight of a new heavy lift rocket. That's a

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remarkable pace by any standard.

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Anna: And in other Chinese space news, and it's

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been a busy week. The three member Shenzhou

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Uh, 21 crew returned safely to Earth on

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29 May 2026, wrapping

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up a record 210 day mission

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aboard the Tiangong Space Station. Commander

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Cheng Liu, Wu Fei and Cheng Hongzhang are all

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in good health. It was a mission that had

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some added drama. A suspected space debris

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strike had damaged the window of their

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original return capsule, requiring China to

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launch an emergency replacement spacecraft to

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bring them home.

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Avery: China's space program is accelerating on

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every front simultaneously. The pace is

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extraordinary.

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Anna: Next up, you could say it's been a rough few

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days for commercial spaceflight and Starship

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hasn't escaped the turbulence. The FAA has

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formally grounded SpaceX's Starship version

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3 rocket following what it's designated a uh,

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Mishap during Flight 12 on 22

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May.

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Avery: Let's remind listeners what happened on

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Flight 12. It was the debut of the Version 3

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configuration, a significant upgrade with new

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Raptor 3 engines featuring a simplified

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design and increased thrust. The launch

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itself looked spectacular. The booster

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separated cleanly and delivered the upper

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stage to its intended trajectory.

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Anna: But then things went wrong during the boost

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back burn. When the super heavy booster fires

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its engines to arc back toward the recovery

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zone, it couldn't light all the planned

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engines. A partial burn ended early. The

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booster then attempted a landing burn, failed

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to ignite and hard splashed into the Gulf of

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Mexico or Gulf of America, depending on where

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you live. Meanwhile, one of the three vacuum

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Raptor vacuum engines on the upper stage also

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failed, though SpaceX was still able to steer

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it to the intended splashdown in the Indian

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Ocean.

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Avery: The FAA has now determined that constitutes a

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mishap under federal launch licensing rules

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and SpaceX must complete a, uh, full

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investigation led by SpaceX but overseen

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by the FAA. Before Starship can fly again.

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The FAA must approve the final report and

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any corrective actions. This is the seventh

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time Starship has been grounded in three

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years.

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Anna: Industry observers are currently pointing to

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a July to August 2026 window for

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Flight 13 May. SpaceX may also choose

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to skip the booster, catch on that flight and

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repeat the Gulf splashdown profile while the

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Raptor 3 issues are understood.

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Avery: Now here's where this gets particularly

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interesting. SpaceX filed its public

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IPO prospectus with the SEC on

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May 20, just two days before Flight

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12. The company is targeting a uh,

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NASDAQ listing under the ticker

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SPCX, with shares

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potentially trading as early as June 12.

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And its entire growth story is built

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around starship.

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Anna: In the S1 filing, SpaceX stated, and

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we're paraphrasing here, that its growth

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strategy depends on increasing launch cadence

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and payload capacity, which in turn depends

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on the successful development of Starship at

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scale. A grounding right before the IPO

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roadshow is not ideal.

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Avery: High stakes all around. We'll keep following

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both the investigation and the IPO timeline.

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Anna: Okay, let's take a breath from all the rocket

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drama and look ahead to something genuinely

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thrilling. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space

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Telescope is heading to Kennedy Space center

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this month with a launch target of early

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September 2026. And what it's going to do

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is nothing short of staggering.

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Avery: To put it in perspective, since the dawn of

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the exoplanet era, we have confirmed around

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6,300 planets beyond our solar system.

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That's across decades of work from Kepler,

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Tess, Hubble and every ground based

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observatory on Earth. Roman is expected

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to find approximately 100,000

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more in just five years.

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Anna: 100,000 15 times

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everything we've ever found in half a decade.

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How?

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Avery: It comes down to Roman's extraordinary

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combination of Hubble class resolution and a

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field of view at least 100 times larger.

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Where Hubble would photograph a postage stamp

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of sky, Roman photographs a full

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page spread with the same sharpness. It

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can survey the sky up to a thousand times

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faster than Hubble.

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Anna: And critically, Roman will be looking in

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places we've barely explored. Its galactic

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bulge Survey will observe approximately 100

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million stars in the dense, understudied

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heart of the milk Milwaukee regions where

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most planet hunting missions have never

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ventured. It will find planets using both the

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transit method and gravitational

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microlensing, which can detect planets that

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don't even transit their stars.

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Avery: Roman is also expected to find a significant

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population of rogue planets, worlds

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drifting through the galaxy without a star to

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orbit. We currently know of only a handful.

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Roman could reveal thousands.

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Anna: And then there's the coronagraph instrument,

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a ah, technology demonstrator that will

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directly image a handful of large planets

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around nearby stars. Testing techniques

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intended for a future mission to photograph

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Earth like worlds around sun, like stars.

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Roman is also hunting dark energy and dark

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matter.

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Avery: NASA administrator Jared Isaacman described

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the accelerated development as a true success

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story. The telescope is now targeting a

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September launch ahead of its May 2027

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commitment. It's heading to Kennedy Space

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center this very month.

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Anna: Roman is going to be extraordinary. Our

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audience is going to be hearing a lot about

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this one.

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Avery: Now, um, here's a question to ponder. Picture

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the very young Earth. Four and a half billion

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years ago, the Moon has just formed from the

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debris of a catastrophic collision. The

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surface is an ocean of molten rock. As far as

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you can see. The atmosphere is a thick,

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toxic steam. How long did that last?

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Anna: OSU scientists had assumed not very long,

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geologically speaking, A few tens of millions

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of years, perhaps before the planet cooled

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and solidified. But according to A striking

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new preprint from the researchers at the

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Kaptain Astronomical Institute in the

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Netherlands. The answer might be up to half a

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billion years.

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Avery: Half a billion years. To put that in

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perspective, that's longer than the entire

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history of complex animal life on Earth.

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The planet was essentially a global lava

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ocean for that entire time.

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Anna: So what kept it molten for so long? The

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researchers point to two key factors working

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together. First, the Moon. At that early

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stage, the newly formed Moon was orbiting the

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Earth much closer than it does today. That

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proximity created enormous tidal forces.

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Imagine the Moon's gravity kneading the

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interior of the planet like dough. That tidal

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heating alone would have kept the mantle

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churning and molten.

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Avery: And the second factor, the atmosphere.

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Anna: In the early Earth, the thick steam

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atmosphere acted like a thermal blanket,

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trapping heat and dramatically slowing the

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rate at which the planet could radiate energy

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into space and cool down. Without that

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atmospheric insolation, the magma ocean would

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have solidified much faster.

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Avery: But here's the part that makes this more than

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just a story about ancient geology. The

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research also found that these prolonged hot,

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chemical rich conditions would have been

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ideal for producing hydrogen cyanide,

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a molecule that sounds poisonous, but is

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actually considered one of the key building

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blocks of life's precursor chemicals.

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Rna, amino, um, acids.

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Anna: So the very conditions that kept Earth molten

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may also have set the stage for life to

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eventually emerge. A 500 million

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year lava world as a cradle for biology.

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It's a remarkable reframing.

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Avery: The paper is currently available as a pre

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print on Arxiv with full peer review to

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follow. We'll be watching for the published

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results.

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Anna: And we close today with something beautiful.

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A brand new image from the NASA and ESA

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Hubble Space Telescope that was released this

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week as Hubble's picture of the Month.

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Avery: It shows the spiral galaxy Messier

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88 M8, about 63 million

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light years away in the constellation Coma

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Berenices. It's a gorgeous object.

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Tight, symmetrical spiral arms outlined by

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sparkling pink and blue star clusters

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draped in knotted clouds of dust with a

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warm glowing heart.

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Anna: But what makes this image scientifically

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fascinating is the story behind what we're

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seeing. M M88 is a member of the Virgo

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Cluster, a collection of more than a thousand

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galaxies bound together by gravity. And M

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M88 is currently about 2 million light

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years from the cluster's center on a long

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inward journey that will unfold over hundreds

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of millions of years.

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Avery: And that, uh, journey is already leaving

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marks. Researchers have found that M M88

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has significantly less cold gas in its outer

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regions than you'd expect for a galaxy of its

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size. Cold gas is the raw fuel for star

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formation, and it's being stripped away by a

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process called ram pressure stripping, where

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the gravitational influence of the cluster

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environment essentially blows material off

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the galaxy like wind stripping lead from a

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tree.

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Anna: You can actually see the effect in the image.

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The leading edge of the galaxy's gas disk

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appears compressed and piled up like snow

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in front of a plow. The galaxy is being

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reshaped in real time by its environment,

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and in roughly

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Avery: 200 to 300 million years, M88

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will reach its closest encounter with

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neighboring giant Messier 87,

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the galaxy whose supermassive black hole gave

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us humanity's first ever photograph of a

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black hole back in 2019. Their

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gravitational interaction will reshape both

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galaxies

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Anna: profoundly, a cosmic drama unfolding

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across timescales almost too vast to

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comprehend. And Hubble is letting us watch it

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in a single, breathtaking image that is

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Avery: Astronomy Daily for Tuesday, 2nd

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June 2026. What a show

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today. From exploding rockets to a hundred

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thousand new worlds, from Earth's ancient

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fire to, uh, a galaxy's long journey through

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the cosmos.

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Anna: If you enjoyed today's episode, please follow

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us wherever you get your podcasts and share

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us with a fellow space fan. We'd love to grow

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our community.

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Avery: Find us at astronomydaily IO and follow

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us on X, Instagram, TikTok,

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Facebook, YouTubeMusic, and Tumblr, all

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@astrodaily.

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Anna: Pod for Avery I'm Anna

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Clear skies

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Avery: everyone, and stay curious.

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Anna: Love.

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Story soul.