Spacecrafts, Slingshots, and Satellite Power

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Anna: A rocket that got grounded by the weather.

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It's back on the pad and ready to fly

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tonight.

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Avery: And the most powerful rocket ever built is

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fueled, stacked and just waiting for a green

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light. Flight 12 could happen any day now.

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Anna: Plus a uh, spacecraft is about to use

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Mars as a slingshot. And someone has

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figured out how to beam electricity to

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satellites using lasers.

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Avery: Big day in space. Let's get into it.

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This is Astronomy Daily.

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy Daily, your

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daily guide to the universe and everything in

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it. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm um, avery. It's Wednesday the 13th of

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May 2026 and this is season five

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episode 101.

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Anna: Episode 101. We've officially

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passed the century mark. Thank you as always

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to everyone listening. From Europe to

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Australia, across the Southern hemisphere,

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through the Americas and all of the northern

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hemisphere and around the world.

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Avery: Big program today, six stories, some real

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science, a, uh, sky watching update, and a

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trivia question to keep your brain ticking.

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Anna: Let's start with the launch that almost

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wasn't, but very much is.

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Avery: If you were with us yesterday, you might

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remember we mentioned that the SpaceX Dragon

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cargo launch was looking a little shaky,

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weather was a concern and sure enough NASA

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and SpaceX called off the Tuesday evening

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attempt.

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Anna: And here we are, it is back on

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the CRS 34 mission.

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Dragon's 34th cargo run to the

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International Space Station is scheduled to

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lift off today, Wednesday the 13th of

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May at 6:50 in the evening Eastern

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Time. That's 8:50am M Thursday

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morning for us here in Australia.

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Avery: The Falcon 9 launches from Space Launch

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Complex 40 at AH, Cape Canaveral Space Force

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Station in Florida. On board, about

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6,500 pounds, roughly

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2,950 kilograms of supplies,

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hardware and scientific experiments bound for

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the ISS.

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Anna: And there are some genuinely interesting

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experiments in that cargo hold. There's a

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project looking at how well Earth based

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simulators actually replicate microgravity M

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conditions, which matters enormously for

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preparing future astronauts.

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Avery: There's also a bone scaffold, uh, made from

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wood. Yes, wood that could eventually lead

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to new treatments for conditions like

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osteoporosis and equipment to study how

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red blood cells and the spleen adapt to the

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space environment. With an eye on protecting

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future long duration crews.

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Anna: What makes this mission particularly special

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though is the Dragon capsule itself. This is

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the sixth flight for the specific vehicle,

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setting a new record for a SpaceX cargo

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craft.

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Avery: Six flights for one capsule. That

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reusability story just keeps getting more

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impressive. If all goes to plan, Dragon

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will dock with the Harmony Module's forward

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port at around 7:35 in the morning

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EDT on Thursday the 14th.

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Anna: We'll keep an eye on that one.

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RCS 34 the comeback launch

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While one

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Avery: rocket is heading to the ISS today, another

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one is sitting on the pad in South Texas,

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generating enormous anticipation.

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SpaceX's Starship V3 Flight 12

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could launch as soon as May 19th.

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Anna: And the milestone from this week that has

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engineers buzzing. The fully stacked V3

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vehicle successfully completed its wet dress

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rehearsal. That means it was fueled up for

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the first time ever more than 5,000

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metric tons of propellant. That's a number

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so large it barely sounds real.

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Avery: Standing 124 meters tall, that's

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taller than a 40 story building. The V3

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is a complete, complete redesign of the

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Starship system. It features upgraded Raptor

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3 engines, a new lattice structure for hot

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staging, and massively increased payload

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capacity. We're talking 100 metric tons

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to low Earth orbit in a fully reusable

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configuration. The previous version managed

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around 35.

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Anna: Flight 12 will be a suborbital test.

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SpaceX is deliberately taking a step back in

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ambition to validate the new V3

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architecture before pushing for the booster

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catch milestones we saw in Flight 11.

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Both the booster and the ship are uh,

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targeting splashdown on this one.

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Avery: What's at stake? Quite a lot. SpaceX's has

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a reported IPO on the horizon. NASA's

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Artemis program needs a functioning starship

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lunar lander and the company's banking on

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this vehicle to grow Starlink and eventually

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launch AI data centers into orbit.

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Anna: The wet dress rehearsal is done. The static

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fires are done. All they need now is an FAA

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launch license. And that apparently is close.

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Watch this space quite literally, if you

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Avery: want a front row seat to some incredible

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orbital Mechanics, this Friday, May 15th

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is your moment.

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NASA Psyche spacecraft is about to use Mars

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as a gravitational slingshot.

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Anna: Psyche launched back in October 2023

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and has been on a long fuel efficient journey

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toward the asteroid belt, where it's heading

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for a metal rich asteroid, also named

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psyche, arriving in 2029.

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But to get there, it needs a speed boost. And

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Mars is about to provide one.

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Avery: At about 12,333 miles

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per hour. That's nearly 20,000 kilometers

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per hour. The spacecraft will pass just

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2,800 miles, or about 4,500

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kilometers from the Martian surface.

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The planet's gravity will effectively grab

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Psyche, swing it around, accelerate it and

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redirect its trajectory towards the asteroid

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belt.

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Anna: This is called a, uh, gravity assist and it's

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one of the most elegant techniques in all of

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space exploration. Instead of burning

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precious fuel, you borrow energy from a

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planet's orbital motion. It's been used on

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missions dating back to Voyager.

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Avery: But this by blight isn't just about speed.

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It's a rare opportunity to calibrate Psyche

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science instruments. While there's something

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large enough to actually observe, the imager

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will get its first proper workout. The

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magnetometer may detect Mars's magnetic

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field. And scientists are intrigued by the

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possibility that the spacecraft might catch

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glimpses of a faint dust ring or torus

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surrounding Mars created by

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micrometeorites striking the surfaces of its

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two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

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Anna: Several existing Mars missions, including the

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Curiosity and perseverance rovers and

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NASA's orbiters, will also be watching and

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contributing data during the encounter.

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Avery: Friday the 15th. Mark it in your calendar.

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Psyche and M Mars an encounter 2.8

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billion kilometers in the making Just before

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Anna: I take us into our next story, a quick

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reminder to check out the great deal our uh,

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the link in the show notes.

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Alright, moving on. Here's a story that

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sounds almost like science fiction, but it is

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very much real and very much happening right

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now. A Florida based startup called

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Starcatcher Industries has just raised

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$65 million to build what it

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describes as the world's first power grid in

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space.

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Avery: The concept is called optical power beaming.

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Starcatcher plans to launch a constellation

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of satellites that will focus sunlight in the

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form of laser light onto other solar panels

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of other satellites that need more power. No

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hardware modifications to the receiving

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satellite required just extra electricity

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on demand.

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Anna: The company says its system can deliver up to

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10 times more power to client satellites than

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they could generate on their own, and its

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CEO, Andrew Rush made an analogy

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that I think really captures why this

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matters. He said, and I'm paraphrasing

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that every satellite is essentially on

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camping trip. It carries its own power and at

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some point it runs low.

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Avery: Starcatcher wants to change that the same way

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the terrestrial power grid enabled

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revolutions in communications computing

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here on Earth. An orbital power grid could

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unlock the next generation of capabilities in

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space, things like persistent Earth

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observation, real time data processing and

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advanced communications infrastructure.

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Anna: The Series A round was oversubscribed,

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meaning more investors wanted in than there

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were shares available, and was led by B

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Capital, with Shield Capital and Cerberus

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Ventures also co leading. Notably, General

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J. Raymond, the first chief of space

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operations of the US Space Force, is joining

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the board.

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Avery: Starcatcher already holds the world record

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for optical power beaming on the ground and

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has completed an on orbit subsystem

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demonstration. Now it's moving from validated

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technology to scalable infrastructure.

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An in space demonstration is planned for

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later this year.

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Anna: Mhm. Lasers in space, charging

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your satellites. The future is something

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else.

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Avery: Alright, now we're going deep. This

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one is for everyone who's ever stared at the

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night sky and thought, why is any of this

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here? And why does it work the way it does?

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Anna: Physicists at Brown University in Rhode

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island have published a paper in Physical

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Review Letters proposing a potential solution

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to one of the most vexing problems in all of

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the cosmological constant problem.

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Avery: Let's unpack that. The cosmological constant

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is the mathematical term that describes the

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energy driving the accelerating expansion of

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the universe. Einstein introduced it,

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famously, called it his greatest blunder, and

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then died not knowing he'd actually been

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right about it. Observations in the 1990s

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confirmed the universe's expansion is indeed

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accelerating.

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Anna: Here's the Quantum field theory,

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one of the most successful and rigorously

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tested frameworks in physics, predicts that

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vacuum energy, the energy inherent in empty

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space, should make the cosmological constant

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enormous, practically infinite. But

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what we actually observe, a tiny, tiny

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fraction of that prediction, the discrepancy

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is around 120 orders of

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magnitude. That's, uh, a one followed by

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120 zeros.

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Avery: It is, without exaggeration, the worst

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prediction in the history of physics, and the

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Brown University team thinks they may have

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found a way to explain it.

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Anna: Their insight draws an analogy with something

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called the quantum hall effect, an exotic

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phenomenon in condensed matter physics, where

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electrical conductance in certain materials

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is held perfectly steady, regardless of

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imperfections, because of the topology,

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the mathematical shape of the quantum state.

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Avery: The researchers found that the simplest

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formulation of quantum gravity has a

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mathematically analogous structure, something

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called the Chern Simons Kodama state. And

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in that framework, the cosmological constant

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becomes essentially locked in place. It's

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protected by topology. The quantum

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fluctuations that should be destabilizing it

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are simply too small or improbable

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Anna: to shift it, which, if it holds up, would

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explain why the constant has the value it

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does, not because of some extraordinary fine

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tuning, but because the universe's geometry

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protects it.

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Avery: The authors are the first to acknowledge this

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is a beginning, not an ending. There's a lot

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of detailed work still to do, but it's a

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genuinely new idea in one of the oldest

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unsolved problems in physics, and that

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deserves a moment.

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Anna: We end today in the Jovian system And

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with an image that has had planetary

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scientists genuinely excited.

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Avery: On 1 May, NASA's Juno spacecraft

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completed a close flyby of Thebe, the

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second largest of Jupiter's inner moons. And

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when we say close, we mean it.

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Juno passed within just 3,100

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miles or 5,000 kilometers of thebe's

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surface. The resulting image captures detail

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at a resolution of about 1.9 miles

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per pixel. The sharpest view we have ever had

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of this world.

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Anna: Thebe sits at the outer edge of Jupiter's

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faint ring system. And that position is no

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coincidence. Scientists believe Thebe

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plays an active role in shaping one of

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Jupiter's most delicate structures, the so

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called gossamer ring. Dust shed from

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Thebes surface gets swept into the ring,

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helping maintain it.

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Avery: The image was captured using Juno's Stellar

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Reference Unit, an instrument whose primary

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job is navigation imaging star fields to keep

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the spacecraft oriented. But its exceptional

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sensitivity in low light conditions has made

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it a surprisingly powerful secondary science

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instrument. It's previously discovered

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shallow lightning in Jupiter's atmosphere and

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revealed the structure of Jupiter's ring

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system.

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Anna: And now it's given us Thebe up close. A

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small irregular world, heavily cratered,

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ancient, playing a uh, quiet but essential

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role in the dynamics of the solar system's

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largest planet.

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Avery: Juno continues to surprise us even this deep

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into its extended mission. What a spacecraft.

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Anna: Before we go, let's take a look at the sky

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above you this week. Southern Hemisphere

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listeners.

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Avery: This morning, if you were up early enough,

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you may have caught Saturn and a slender

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crescent moon sharing the sky in the east

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just a few degrees apart in Pisces.

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Saturn's ring system is tilted towards us

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again after years at southerly declinations,

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so conditions are improving every month.

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Anna: Also in the pre dawn sky, Neptune is in the

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area, though you'll need binoculars or a

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telescope for that one.

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Avery: Tomorrow morning, Thursday the 14th, Mars

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makes its own crescent moon pairing. A thin

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sliver of moon sitting about 4 degrees from

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the red planet, both visible to the naked eye

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under a reasonably dark sky.

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Anna: And looking ahead, the flower moon, May's

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full moon arrives on May 31 and it

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will be a blue moon. That's the second full

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moon in a single calendar month. It won't

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actually look blue, but it's a lovely thing

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to know.

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Avery: Clear skies to all of you out there now,

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trivia time.

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Anna: Today's trivia question ties into our Psyche

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mission story.

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Avery: The asteroid 16 Psyche is thought to be the

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exposed metallic core of an ancient

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protoplanet. Scientists believe it may be

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composed primarily of two elements.

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Anna: What are they Oh, I know that one. The

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answer Nickel and Iron Psyche is

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thought to be a, uh, remnant planetary core,

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the building blocks of rocky worlds stripped

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bare by billions of years of collisions.

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Studying it from orbit could give us the

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closest thing we'll ever have to a look

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inside the Earth itself, which

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Avery: is remarkable when you think about it. We

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can't drill to our own planet's core, but we

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might be able to

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Anna: fly around one that is everything for today's

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episode of Astronomy Daily, episode

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101. Thank you for spending part of your day

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with us.

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Avery: If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe,

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leave a review and tell a space curious

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friend. Every listener matters.

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Anna: You can find us at astronomydaily,

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IO and across all major podcast

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platforms, and you can follow us on social

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media. Astrodaily Pod we'll be back

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tomorrow with

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Avery: the latest from the universe. Until then,

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keep looking up from Anna and Avery

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Clear skies.