Aug. 10, 2026
SpaceX Starship Lost at Sea? Plus China’s Landing Attempt & Uranus “Breathing”
Astronomy Daily · S05E163 · “The Long Way Home” · Monday 10 August 2026. Sources verified against primary / institutional outlets. Starship “lost at sea” (Flight 13) • Flight 13 launched 24 July 2026 from Starbase, South Texas; the upper stage (“Ship,” Ship 40, ~52 m) made the softest Starship water landing yet in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia — and, in a program first, survived intact and afloat. • SpaceX had not planned to recover it. Musk confirmed the salvage attempt on 28 July (“We’re sending a ship out to recover Starship”); recovery ship Go Australis was joined by Norwegian tugs Normand Ranger and Skimmer Tide, with a tow line to the nose. • On 7 August, Musk said recovery is “not looking good right now” in rough seas — but the team had already obtained close-up photos of critical heat-shield and engine regions for future upgrades. A saltwater-soaked Ship was never going to be reflown. • Heat shield: on SpaceX’s first quarterly earnings call (4 August) Musk said he’d “consider the heat-shield problem solved,” long the biggest hurdle to full reuse. • The flight also deployed 20 next-gen Starlink V3 satellites; the Super Heavy booster had engine trouble and was lost in the Gulf of Mexico. Stacked, Starship stands ~124 m. Flight 14 is targeted for late August — its first attempt at operational orbit with production Starlink. • Sources: SpaceX / @elonmusk on X (7 Aug); Space.com (Mike Wall, 7 Aug); CNN (3 Aug). Landspace Zhuque-3, second landing attempt • Landspace (private, Beijing, founded 2015) targets liftoff ~7:45 p.m. EDT Mon 10 Aug (23:45 UTC / ≈9:45 a.m. AEST Tue 11 Aug) from Jiuquan, aiming for a propulsive first-stage recovery on legs (Falcon 9-style), landing downrange in Gansu. • The methalox, stainless-steel Zhuque-3 (~66 m) is broadly a Falcon 9 rival. Its Dec 2025 maiden flight reached orbit but the first stage failed its landing burn and crashed. • Accuracy note: this is China’s fourth orbital-class recovery attempt. A Long March 10B already landed via net-capture on 10 July (China became the 2nd nation to land an orbital booster) — so tonight would make Landspace the first Chinese company to attempt a propulsive/landing-legs recovery, not “China’s first.” • Sources: Space.com (7 Aug); Yahoo/Space (7 Aug); launch trackers (NOTAM-based). Uranus’s “breathing” bow shock • New multifluid-MHD modelling shows Uranus’s bow shock expands and contracts over a single ~17-hour Uranian day — driven by the planet’s own extreme rotation and tilted, offset magnetic field, not by changes in the solar wind. • The model is constrained by Voyager 2’s 1986 flyby — still the only direct measurements ever taken inside the Uranian system (a nice callback to E159’s Voyager 2 “Big Bang” lead). • Implications for future ice-giant missions and for the many ice-giant exoplanets now being found. Cao et al., AGU Advances; surfaced via an Eos research spotlight this week. (Framed as newly-spotlighted rather than newly-published.) • Sources: AGU Advances (Cao et al.); Eos research spotlight; phys.org (7 Aug). Total solar eclipse — 12 August 2026 • The only total solar eclipse of 2026. Unusual over-the-pole path: Arctic Siberia → eastern Greenland → western Iceland → northern Spain (clipping NE Portugal) → the Balearics at sunset. • Greatest eclipse ≈17:46 UTC; max totality 2 min 18 s just off Iceland’s west coast, with the Sun only ~26° high. Iceland’s first total eclipse since 1954 (Reykjavik’s first in 593 years); Spain’s first since 1905. • North America sees a partial across the northern tier (Alaska to North Carolina) and most of Canada — deepest in the far north, a shallow bite (<10%) from the US Northeast, late morning to early afternoon local. NASA livestream from 1:15 p.m. EDT at nasa.gov/live. • Not visible from the Southern Hemisphere. Sources: NASA eclipse pages; national eclipse guides. Skywatch — both hemispheres • Perseids peak the night of 12–13 August under a new Moon — excellent for the Northern Hemisphere (up to ~50–100/hr from dark sites, best pre-dawn 13 Aug); modest and low for the Southern Hemisphere. • Southern-Hemisphere targets: a pre-dawn planet spread; brilliant evening Venus (brightest ~22 Sep); Comet 10P/Tempel 2 low in the pre-dawn south (binoculars/small scope, dark site). • Aurora watch: a G2 storm produced auroras 7–9 Aug; more activity is possible around 11–12 Aug for high-latitude watchers. • Eye safety: certified ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses required for all partial phases; never view the Sun through an unfiltered camera, binoculars or telescope.
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
WEBVTT
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Anna: Picture a rocket the height of a 15 storey
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building lying on its side in The Indian
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Ocean, 800 kilometres off
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Western Australia, and a rope running from
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its nose to a tug trying to drag it home
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through a rising swell.
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Avery: That's not a thought experiment. That's where
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the top half of a SpaceX Starship has spent
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the last two weeks.
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Anna: And whether it ever reaches an Australian
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port is right now genuinely up in the
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air. Good day and welcome to Astronomy
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AstroDailyPod. I'm Anna.
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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Monday 10th
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August 2026.
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Anna: There's a thread running through today's
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show. Things taking the long way home, A
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starship under tow, a Chinese booster trying
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to fly itself back to the pad. Tonight,
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40 year old Voyager 2 data still turning up.
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Surprises at, ah, Uranus and eclipse
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chasers heading to the top of the world for
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two minutes of darkness and three days from
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now.
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Avery: And plus the best meteor shower of the year
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peaking under a new Moon. It's a big week,
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let's get into it.
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So let's go back to the 24th of July,
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Starship's ah, 13th full test flight lifts
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off from Starbase in South Texas. And this
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one goes well, really well. The upper
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stage, the part SpaceX just calls ship,
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flies its suborbital arc and comes down for a
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splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the coast
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of Western Australia and exactly where it was
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aimed.
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Anna: And here's the first ever. Every
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previous ship that came down over the ocean,
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broke up or was deliberately destroyed.
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This one ship, 40, made what observers
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called the softest starship water landing
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yet, tipped over as it hit the waves and
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then just stayed in one piece.
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Avery: It floated airtight, bobbing in the
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swell. Onboard cameras showed all six
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Raptor engines with no visible external
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damage. Water lapping at the lens. A
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SpaceX spokesperson called it on the live
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webcast a dream scenario, which it
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Anna: was, because SpaceX genuinely did not
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expect to get this vehicle back. The whole
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point of the flight was the data. The heat
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shield is the thing that kept Elon Musk up at
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night for years, the tiles that protect ship
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on the way back through the atmosphere. And
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on this flight, it held.
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Avery: In fact, on 4 August, on the company's
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first ever quarterly earnings call, its first
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since going public, Musk said, and I'm
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paraphrasing only slightly, that he doesn't
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want to jinx it, but he'd consider the heat
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shield problem solved.
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Anna: That's a big claim for a rocket meant to be
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fully and rapidly reusable. The Heat shield
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was the last great unknown. So a ship
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that survives reentry, survives the water
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and floats there intact is suddenly
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a floating laboratory.
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Avery: Um, and that changed the maths. On
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28 July, Musk posted simply,
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we're sending a ship out to recover Starship.
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The SpaceX vessel Go Australis had been
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shadowing it since splashdown. Two
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Norwegian tugs, A, uh, Normand Ranger and
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Skimmer Tide steamed out to join.
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By early August, satellite imagery showed all
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three working. The vehicle with a towline
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already made fast to the nose section.
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Anna: For context, this thing had already drifted
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more than 400 kilometres. The whole
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convoy is over 1300 kilometres off the
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Australian coast, aiming according to
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imagery based reporting for a Western
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Australian port. Dampier and Port Hedland
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have both been floated as the likely
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destination.
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Avery: And then on the 7th of August, the tone
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shifted. Musk posted an update.
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Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking
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good right now. The team's been fighting
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increasingly rough seas. But, and this is
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the important part, he added that they were
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still able to get close up photos of critical
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regions of the heat shield and the engines
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for future upgrades though.
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Anna: Read that carefully. Even if the tow
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fails, Even if ship 40 never reaches a
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jetty, SpaceX has already banked most of what
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it wanted. The inspection imagery.
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Honestly, a ship soaked in saltwater for two
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weeks was never going to be refurbished and
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flown again anyway.
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Avery: Uh, alright. The prize was never the
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hardware, it was the look at the hardware.
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Which is why as of our recording, the storey
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is beautifully unresolved. A giant rocket
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still afloat, still under tow in a race
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against the weather off Western Australia.
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Anna: Worth remembering how big giant is here.
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Stacked starship stands about
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124 metres tall. The
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biggest, most powerful rocket ever built.
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The ship on its own is 52 metres.
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That's what's on the end of that rope.
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Avery: And the flight did its day job too. During
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the mission, ship deployed 20 next generation
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Starlink V3 satellites. The bigger
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broadband bird SpaceX wants to fly by the
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hundred thousand. Those particular 20
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came straight back down by design, but it was
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a dress rehearsal for the future.
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Anna: The booster, meanwhile, the super heavy had a
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rougher day. Engine trouble on descent and it
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came down hard in the Gulf of Mexico and
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exploded. So a triumphant ship, a lost
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booster and a two week sea drama that may or
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may not have a tidy ending.
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Avery: And the look ahead is quick. Musk says the
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next one, Flight 14 is targeted for late
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August and it's meant to be Starship's first
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crack at reaching operational orbit while
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carrying production Starlink satellites, so
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the pace isn't slowing. But for our part of
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the world, this is the rare week the Starship
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Storey washed up on an Australian shore.
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Almost literally.
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Anna: Almost literally.
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Let's bring it home from the other direction
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now because someone else is trying to land a
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booster tonight. Because reusability isn't
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just a SpaceX storey anymore. Tonight,
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our tonight, a, uh, Chinese company called
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Landspace is going to try something only
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SpaceX has truly mastered. Flying
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an orbital class booster back down and
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landing it on its legs.
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Avery: And Landspace is a private outfit founded in
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Beijing back in 2015. Their rocket is the
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Zhuque 3, stainless steel, methane and
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liquid oxygen engines, about 66 metres
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tall in capability. It's broadly a Falcon
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9 rival.
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Anna: And the timing for local listeners, liftoff
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is targeted to a quarter to 8 on Monday
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evening US Eastern Time, which is a quarter
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to midnight UTC. And for us in Sydney, it's
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about a quarter to 10 on Tuesday morning. It
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goes from Zhuquan in China's northwest.
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Avery: Now here's what we need to be precise because
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the headlines get this slightly wrong. This
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isn't China's first booster landing, it's
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China's fourth orbital class recovery
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attempt. And one of those already worked back
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on the 10th of July, a long March 10th B was
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caught using a net capture system, which made
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China the second nation ever to land an
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orbital booster.
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Anna: So what makes tonight different is the
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method. Landspace isn't going for a net,
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it's going for the full Falcon 9 move. A, uh,
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powered descent, a powered landing, burn and
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legs, setting itself down on a pad downrange
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in Gansu Province. If it works, Landspace
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becomes the first Chinese company to pull off
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that kind of propulsive booster landing.
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Avery: And they've been close before. The Zhukui 3's
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maiden flight last December actually did its
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main job. The second stage reached orbit. It
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was the first stage that let them down. The
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landing burn faltered a few kilometres up and
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the booster came down in a fireball. By some
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accounts they were within about 17 seconds of
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a landing.
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Anna: 17 seconds. That's the margin they're trying
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to close tonight. A clean static fire test at
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the end of June set it up and airspace
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closure notices point to this evening.
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Avery: Why does it matter to the rest of us? Because
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landing and reflying boosters is what dragged
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the cost of getting to orbit down in the
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first place. A second company doing it on a
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different continent with a methane rocket is
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how a, uh, one company capability becomes an
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industry.
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Anna: We'll be recording before the window opens so
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we're calling it forward. If you're listening
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later in the day. Cheque astronomydaily IO
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we'll have the result
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Avery: now, from rocket recoveries to a planet lying
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on its side.
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There's a lovely result due in the rounds
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this week about Uranus. And it comes with an
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old friend attached.
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Anna: Set the scene first. Because Uranus is the
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oddball of the solar system, it doesn't spin
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upright like Earth, it's tipped right over,
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rolling around the sun on its side. And its
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magnetic field is stranger still, tilted
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about 60 degrees from its spin axis and
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offset from the planet's centre. Nothing
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about it is neat, which matters
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Avery: for something called the bow shock. That's
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the boundary out in front of a planet where
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the solar wind, the constant stream of
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particles off the sun, slams into the
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planet's magnetic field and abruptly slows
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down. At Earth, that boundary sits there
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fairly steadily. It only really moves when
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the sun kicks up.
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Anna: But at, uh, Uranus, this new modelling shows
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the bow shock is anything but study. It
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swells and shrinks, it breathes over the
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course of a single Uranian day, which is
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about 17 hours.
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Avery: And here's the clever Because Uranus is so
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tilted and lopsided, every few hours a
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different part of that wonky magnetic field
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is turned to face the wind, so the
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shape of the shield keeps changing. The team
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ran simulations where they held the solar
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wind perfectly steady and the breathing still
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happened. Which means it's driven by the
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planet's own rotation, not by the sun.
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Anna: The studies in the journal AGU Advances, led
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by Tsin Kao and colleagues. And this is where
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our old friend comes in. Because to anchor
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the model, they leaned on the only direct
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measurements m humanity has ever taken inside
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the uranian system.
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Avery: Voyager 2, which regular listeners will
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remember from last week. It's the same
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spacecraft whose team just pulled off that
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Big Bang power manoeuvre to keep it alive.
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Voyager 2 swept past Uranus back in
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January 1986, caught a single
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crossing of that bow shock and moved on.
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Forty years later, that one dataset is
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still the ground truth. Every Uranus model
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has to match.
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Anna: I love that a 40 decade old flyby
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still doing frontline science. And it's not
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just trivia about one weird planet. A lot of
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the exoplanets we're finding out there are
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ice giants like Uranus. So understanding how
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a tilted off kilter world handles the stellar
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wind gives us a template for worlds around
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other stars entirely.
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Avery: Fair to say too, this is a modelling result
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that's been quietly out for a little while
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and only got its moment in the spotlight this
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week. But it's a genuinely new way of
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seeing an old planet and a, uh, reminder that
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the next mission to Uranus can't come soon
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enough.
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Anna: Right.
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Three days from now, on Wednesday the 12th,
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the moon's shadow sweeps across the Earth for
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the only total solar eclipse of 2026.
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And this one is strange in the best way.
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Avery: Strange how?
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Anna: Most eclipse paths race west to east across
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the planet. This one goes up and over the top
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of the world. It begins in the Arctic over
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remote Siberian Russia, arcs across
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the North Pole and comes down over eastern
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Greenland, then the west coast of Iceland,
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then northern Spain, clipping a tiny
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corner of Portugal and finishes out over the
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Balearic Islands right at sunset.
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Avery: And because it's so far north, totality is
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short and the sun sits low. Greatest
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eclipse is about a quarter to six in the
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evening UTC just off Iceland's
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west coast. And even there, totality lasts
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only 2 minutes and 18 seconds with the sun
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barely 26 degrees above the horizon.
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Anna: For, uh, the places in the path, it's
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history. Iceland hasn't seen a total eclipse
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since 1954 and for Rygji, it's the first
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in 593 years. Totality there
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lands around a quarter to six in the evening
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local time. Spain hasn't had one since
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1905. From Oviedo and Gihon,
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it's about half past eight in the evening,
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low in a sunset sky.
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Avery: Audience question what about North America?
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Anna: North America gets a partial, no totality,
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but a real bite out of the sun. NASA has
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it visible right across the northern tier
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from Alaska all the way to North Carolina
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and over most of Canada. The deepest
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coverage is up in the far north in Alaska.
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By the time you're down on the US east coast,
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it's a shallower bite, under 10% for
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somewhere like New York.
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Avery: And um, the timing for the U.S.
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Anna: it's a late morning into early afternoon
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event, depending on how far west you are. The
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simplest anchor, NASA begins its live
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broadcast at a, ah, quarter past one in the
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afternoon eastern
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time@NASA.gov live.
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So even if you're nowhere near the path, you
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can watch totality from Greenland and Spain
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in real time, which is
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Avery: exactly what our Southern Hemisphere
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listeners will be doing because from
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Australia this uh, eclipse simply isn't
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visible at all. Nothing from Sydney. But
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don't worry, your night sky this week has
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plenty going on and we're getting to that
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right now.
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Anna: We are, because the eclipse is only half of
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a genuine Skywatch double feature
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Avery, take us home.
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Avery: Here's the gift of this week. 12 August
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gives you an eclipse by day and that same
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night into the 13th, the Perseids at their
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peak under a brand new moon. No
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moonlight to wash them out. It doesn't line
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up like this often.
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Anna: Let's do the north first because that's where
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both events favour Northern hemisphere
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listeners. This is your year for the
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Perseids. Dark skies, no moon,
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the radiant climbing high. Best viewing
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is after midnight into the pre dawn hours of
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the 12th and 13th. From a properly dark
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site, you could see 50 to 100 an hour.
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For North America, the small hours before
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dawn on the 13th are the sweet spot.
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Avery: Um, and the bonus for northern watchers, the
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sun's been active. A uh, geomagnetic storm
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lit up auroras across high latitudes over the
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weekend and there's a chance of more around
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the 11th and 12th. So if you're up north
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chasing meteors, keep one eye on the horizon
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for
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Anna: the lights, then the eclipse recap for our
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North American listeners. A partial on
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Wednesday, late morning to early afternoon,
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your time deepest in the far north. And
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NASA's stream starts a uh, quarter past one
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eastern if the sky won't cooperate.
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Avery: Now, south of the equator, Australia, New
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Zealand. The eclipse passes you by and the
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Perseids barely clear your northern horizon.
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So rates are modest at best. But your
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sky is far from empty.
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Anna: Not at all. Step out before dawn and
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there's a spread of planets strung across the
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sky. Look west after sunset and Venus
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is unmistakable brilliance climbing
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higher each evening, heading for its
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brightest around the 22nd of September.
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And lo in the pre dawn south, Comet
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10P Kempel 2 is still within reach
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of a small telescope or good binoculars from
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a dark site from Sydney. Give yourself that
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clear eastern to southern horizon before
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first light.
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Avery: So wherever you are, north or south,
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there's something to look up at this week.
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But before anyone points anything at the sun,
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only during the brief moments of totality and
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only if you are standing inside the narrow
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path, can you ever look at the sun without
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protection everywhere else, and that
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includes all of North America, all of the
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Sun's partial phases. You must keep
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certified ISO
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123122
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eclipse glasses on the entire time.
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Never look through an unfiltered camera,
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binoculars or telescope. The
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concentrated light causes instant permanent
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eye damage. If in doubt, watch the light
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stream.
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Anna: And that's the show for today. Everything we
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covered, the starship tow, tonight's
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landspace landing attempt, the Arenas study
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and full eclipse and Perseid timings for both
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hemispheres is written
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up@astronomydaily.IO with
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sources.
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Avery: While you're there, sign up for the daily
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newsletter, leave us a review, and send us
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your Perseid and eclipse photos through the
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contact page. We love featuring them.
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Anna: We're at Astronomy AstroDailyPod. Pod
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everywhere. I'm Anna.
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Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. Whether the skies are
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dark for meteors or the sun goes out for two
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Anna: minutes over Iceland, we hope yours are
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clear until tomorrow.
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Avery: Clear skies,
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Anna: Sam. Hm.
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Anna: Picture a rocket the height of a 15 storey
1
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building lying on its side in The Indian
2
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Ocean, 800 kilometres off
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Western Australia, and a rope running from
4
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its nose to a tug trying to drag it home
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through a rising swell.
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Avery: That's not a thought experiment. That's where
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the top half of a SpaceX Starship has spent
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the last two weeks.
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Anna: And whether it ever reaches an Australian
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port is right now genuinely up in the
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air. Good day and welcome to Astronomy
12
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AstroDailyPod. I'm Anna.
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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Monday 10th
14
00:00:33.132 --> 00:00:34.500
August 2026.
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Anna: There's a thread running through today's
16
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show. Things taking the long way home, A
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starship under tow, a Chinese booster trying
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to fly itself back to the pad. Tonight,
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40 year old Voyager 2 data still turning up.
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Surprises at, ah, Uranus and eclipse
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chasers heading to the top of the world for
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two minutes of darkness and three days from
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now.
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Avery: And plus the best meteor shower of the year
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peaking under a new Moon. It's a big week,
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let's get into it.
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So let's go back to the 24th of July,
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Starship's ah, 13th full test flight lifts
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off from Starbase in South Texas. And this
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one goes well, really well. The upper
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stage, the part SpaceX just calls ship,
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flies its suborbital arc and comes down for a
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splashdown in the Indian Ocean off the coast
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of Western Australia and exactly where it was
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aimed.
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Anna: And here's the first ever. Every
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previous ship that came down over the ocean,
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broke up or was deliberately destroyed.
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This one ship, 40, made what observers
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called the softest starship water landing
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yet, tipped over as it hit the waves and
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then just stayed in one piece.
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Avery: It floated airtight, bobbing in the
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swell. Onboard cameras showed all six
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Raptor engines with no visible external
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damage. Water lapping at the lens. A
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SpaceX spokesperson called it on the live
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webcast a dream scenario, which it
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Anna: was, because SpaceX genuinely did not
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expect to get this vehicle back. The whole
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point of the flight was the data. The heat
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shield is the thing that kept Elon Musk up at
53
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night for years, the tiles that protect ship
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on the way back through the atmosphere. And
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on this flight, it held.
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Avery: In fact, on 4 August, on the company's
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first ever quarterly earnings call, its first
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since going public, Musk said, and I'm
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paraphrasing only slightly, that he doesn't
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want to jinx it, but he'd consider the heat
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shield problem solved.
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Anna: That's a big claim for a rocket meant to be
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fully and rapidly reusable. The Heat shield
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was the last great unknown. So a ship
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that survives reentry, survives the water
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and floats there intact is suddenly
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a floating laboratory.
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Avery: Um, and that changed the maths. On
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28 July, Musk posted simply,
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we're sending a ship out to recover Starship.
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The SpaceX vessel Go Australis had been
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shadowing it since splashdown. Two
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Norwegian tugs, A, uh, Normand Ranger and
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Skimmer Tide steamed out to join.
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By early August, satellite imagery showed all
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three working. The vehicle with a towline
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already made fast to the nose section.
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Anna: For context, this thing had already drifted
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more than 400 kilometres. The whole
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convoy is over 1300 kilometres off the
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Australian coast, aiming according to
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imagery based reporting for a Western
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Australian port. Dampier and Port Hedland
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have both been floated as the likely
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destination.
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Avery: And then on the 7th of August, the tone
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shifted. Musk posted an update.
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Unfortunately, ship recovery is not looking
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good right now. The team's been fighting
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increasingly rough seas. But, and this is
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the important part, he added that they were
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still able to get close up photos of critical
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regions of the heat shield and the engines
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for future upgrades though.
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Anna: Read that carefully. Even if the tow
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fails, Even if ship 40 never reaches a
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jetty, SpaceX has already banked most of what
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it wanted. The inspection imagery.
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Honestly, a ship soaked in saltwater for two
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weeks was never going to be refurbished and
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flown again anyway.
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Avery: Uh, alright. The prize was never the
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hardware, it was the look at the hardware.
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Which is why as of our recording, the storey
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is beautifully unresolved. A giant rocket
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still afloat, still under tow in a race
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against the weather off Western Australia.
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Anna: Worth remembering how big giant is here.
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Stacked starship stands about
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124 metres tall. The
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biggest, most powerful rocket ever built.
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The ship on its own is 52 metres.
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That's what's on the end of that rope.
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Avery: And the flight did its day job too. During
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the mission, ship deployed 20 next generation
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Starlink V3 satellites. The bigger
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broadband bird SpaceX wants to fly by the
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hundred thousand. Those particular 20
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came straight back down by design, but it was
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a dress rehearsal for the future.
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Anna: The booster, meanwhile, the super heavy had a
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rougher day. Engine trouble on descent and it
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came down hard in the Gulf of Mexico and
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exploded. So a triumphant ship, a lost
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booster and a two week sea drama that may or
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may not have a tidy ending.
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Avery: And the look ahead is quick. Musk says the
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next one, Flight 14 is targeted for late
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August and it's meant to be Starship's first
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crack at reaching operational orbit while
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carrying production Starlink satellites, so
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the pace isn't slowing. But for our part of
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the world, this is the rare week the Starship
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Storey washed up on an Australian shore.
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Almost literally.
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Anna: Almost literally.
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Let's bring it home from the other direction
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now because someone else is trying to land a
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booster tonight. Because reusability isn't
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just a SpaceX storey anymore. Tonight,
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our tonight, a, uh, Chinese company called
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Landspace is going to try something only
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SpaceX has truly mastered. Flying
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an orbital class booster back down and
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landing it on its legs.
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Avery: And Landspace is a private outfit founded in
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Beijing back in 2015. Their rocket is the
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Zhuque 3, stainless steel, methane and
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liquid oxygen engines, about 66 metres
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tall in capability. It's broadly a Falcon
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9 rival.
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Anna: And the timing for local listeners, liftoff
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is targeted to a quarter to 8 on Monday
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evening US Eastern Time, which is a quarter
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to midnight UTC. And for us in Sydney, it's
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about a quarter to 10 on Tuesday morning. It
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goes from Zhuquan in China's northwest.
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Avery: Now here's what we need to be precise because
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the headlines get this slightly wrong. This
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isn't China's first booster landing, it's
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China's fourth orbital class recovery
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attempt. And one of those already worked back
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on the 10th of July, a long March 10th B was
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caught using a net capture system, which made
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China the second nation ever to land an
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orbital booster.
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Anna: So what makes tonight different is the
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method. Landspace isn't going for a net,
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it's going for the full Falcon 9 move. A, uh,
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powered descent, a powered landing, burn and
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legs, setting itself down on a pad downrange
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in Gansu Province. If it works, Landspace
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becomes the first Chinese company to pull off
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that kind of propulsive booster landing.
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Avery: And they've been close before. The Zhukui 3's
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maiden flight last December actually did its
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main job. The second stage reached orbit. It
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was the first stage that let them down. The
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landing burn faltered a few kilometres up and
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the booster came down in a fireball. By some
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accounts they were within about 17 seconds of
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a landing.
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Anna: 17 seconds. That's the margin they're trying
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to close tonight. A clean static fire test at
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the end of June set it up and airspace
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closure notices point to this evening.
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Avery: Why does it matter to the rest of us? Because
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landing and reflying boosters is what dragged
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the cost of getting to orbit down in the
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first place. A second company doing it on a
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different continent with a methane rocket is
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how a, uh, one company capability becomes an
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industry.
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Anna: We'll be recording before the window opens so
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we're calling it forward. If you're listening
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later in the day. Cheque astronomydaily IO
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we'll have the result
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Avery: now, from rocket recoveries to a planet lying
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on its side.
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There's a lovely result due in the rounds
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this week about Uranus. And it comes with an
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old friend attached.
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Anna: Set the scene first. Because Uranus is the
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oddball of the solar system, it doesn't spin
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upright like Earth, it's tipped right over,
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rolling around the sun on its side. And its
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magnetic field is stranger still, tilted
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about 60 degrees from its spin axis and
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offset from the planet's centre. Nothing
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about it is neat, which matters
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Avery: for something called the bow shock. That's
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the boundary out in front of a planet where
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the solar wind, the constant stream of
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particles off the sun, slams into the
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planet's magnetic field and abruptly slows
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down. At Earth, that boundary sits there
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fairly steadily. It only really moves when
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the sun kicks up.
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Anna: But at, uh, Uranus, this new modelling shows
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the bow shock is anything but study. It
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swells and shrinks, it breathes over the
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course of a single Uranian day, which is
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about 17 hours.
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Avery: And here's the clever Because Uranus is so
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tilted and lopsided, every few hours a
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different part of that wonky magnetic field
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is turned to face the wind, so the
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shape of the shield keeps changing. The team
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ran simulations where they held the solar
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wind perfectly steady and the breathing still
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happened. Which means it's driven by the
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planet's own rotation, not by the sun.
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Anna: The studies in the journal AGU Advances, led
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by Tsin Kao and colleagues. And this is where
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our old friend comes in. Because to anchor
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the model, they leaned on the only direct
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measurements m humanity has ever taken inside
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the uranian system.
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Avery: Voyager 2, which regular listeners will
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remember from last week. It's the same
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spacecraft whose team just pulled off that
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Big Bang power manoeuvre to keep it alive.
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Voyager 2 swept past Uranus back in
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January 1986, caught a single
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crossing of that bow shock and moved on.
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Forty years later, that one dataset is
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still the ground truth. Every Uranus model
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has to match.
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Anna: I love that a 40 decade old flyby
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still doing frontline science. And it's not
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just trivia about one weird planet. A lot of
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the exoplanets we're finding out there are
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ice giants like Uranus. So understanding how
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a tilted off kilter world handles the stellar
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wind gives us a template for worlds around
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other stars entirely.
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Avery: Fair to say too, this is a modelling result
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that's been quietly out for a little while
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and only got its moment in the spotlight this
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week. But it's a genuinely new way of
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seeing an old planet and a, uh, reminder that
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the next mission to Uranus can't come soon
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enough.
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Anna: Right.
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Three days from now, on Wednesday the 12th,
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the moon's shadow sweeps across the Earth for
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the only total solar eclipse of 2026.
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And this one is strange in the best way.
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Avery: Strange how?
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Anna: Most eclipse paths race west to east across
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the planet. This one goes up and over the top
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of the world. It begins in the Arctic over
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remote Siberian Russia, arcs across
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the North Pole and comes down over eastern
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Greenland, then the west coast of Iceland,
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then northern Spain, clipping a tiny
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corner of Portugal and finishes out over the
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Balearic Islands right at sunset.
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Avery: And because it's so far north, totality is
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short and the sun sits low. Greatest
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eclipse is about a quarter to six in the
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evening UTC just off Iceland's
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west coast. And even there, totality lasts
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only 2 minutes and 18 seconds with the sun
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barely 26 degrees above the horizon.
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Anna: For, uh, the places in the path, it's
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history. Iceland hasn't seen a total eclipse
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since 1954 and for Rygji, it's the first
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in 593 years. Totality there
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lands around a quarter to six in the evening
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local time. Spain hasn't had one since
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1905. From Oviedo and Gihon,
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it's about half past eight in the evening,
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low in a sunset sky.
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Avery: Audience question what about North America?
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Anna: North America gets a partial, no totality,
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but a real bite out of the sun. NASA has
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it visible right across the northern tier
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from Alaska all the way to North Carolina
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and over most of Canada. The deepest
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coverage is up in the far north in Alaska.
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By the time you're down on the US east coast,
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it's a shallower bite, under 10% for
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somewhere like New York.
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Avery: And um, the timing for the U.S.
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Anna: it's a late morning into early afternoon
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event, depending on how far west you are. The
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simplest anchor, NASA begins its live
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broadcast at a, ah, quarter past one in the
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afternoon eastern
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time@NASA.gov live.
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So even if you're nowhere near the path, you
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can watch totality from Greenland and Spain
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in real time, which is
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Avery: exactly what our Southern Hemisphere
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listeners will be doing because from
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Australia this uh, eclipse simply isn't
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visible at all. Nothing from Sydney. But
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don't worry, your night sky this week has
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plenty going on and we're getting to that
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right now.
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Anna: We are, because the eclipse is only half of
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a genuine Skywatch double feature
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Avery, take us home.
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Avery: Here's the gift of this week. 12 August
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gives you an eclipse by day and that same
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night into the 13th, the Perseids at their
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peak under a brand new moon. No
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moonlight to wash them out. It doesn't line
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up like this often.
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Anna: Let's do the north first because that's where
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both events favour Northern hemisphere
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listeners. This is your year for the
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Perseids. Dark skies, no moon,
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the radiant climbing high. Best viewing
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is after midnight into the pre dawn hours of
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the 12th and 13th. From a properly dark
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site, you could see 50 to 100 an hour.
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For North America, the small hours before
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dawn on the 13th are the sweet spot.
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Avery: Um, and the bonus for northern watchers, the
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sun's been active. A uh, geomagnetic storm
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lit up auroras across high latitudes over the
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weekend and there's a chance of more around
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the 11th and 12th. So if you're up north
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chasing meteors, keep one eye on the horizon
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for
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Anna: the lights, then the eclipse recap for our
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North American listeners. A partial on
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Wednesday, late morning to early afternoon,
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your time deepest in the far north. And
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NASA's stream starts a uh, quarter past one
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eastern if the sky won't cooperate.
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Avery: Now, south of the equator, Australia, New
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Zealand. The eclipse passes you by and the
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Perseids barely clear your northern horizon.
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So rates are modest at best. But your
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sky is far from empty.
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Anna: Not at all. Step out before dawn and
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there's a spread of planets strung across the
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sky. Look west after sunset and Venus
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is unmistakable brilliance climbing
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higher each evening, heading for its
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brightest around the 22nd of September.
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And lo in the pre dawn south, Comet
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10P Kempel 2 is still within reach
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of a small telescope or good binoculars from
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a dark site from Sydney. Give yourself that
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clear eastern to southern horizon before
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first light.
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Avery: So wherever you are, north or south,
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there's something to look up at this week.
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But before anyone points anything at the sun,
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only during the brief moments of totality and
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only if you are standing inside the narrow
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path, can you ever look at the sun without
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protection everywhere else, and that
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includes all of North America, all of the
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Sun's partial phases. You must keep
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certified ISO
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123122
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eclipse glasses on the entire time.
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Never look through an unfiltered camera,
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binoculars or telescope. The
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concentrated light causes instant permanent
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eye damage. If in doubt, watch the light
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stream.
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Anna: And that's the show for today. Everything we
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covered, the starship tow, tonight's
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landspace landing attempt, the Arenas study
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and full eclipse and Perseid timings for both
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hemispheres is written
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up@astronomydaily.IO with
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00:16:08.350 --> 00:16:08.830
sources.
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Avery: While you're there, sign up for the daily
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newsletter, leave us a review, and send us
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your Perseid and eclipse photos through the
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contact page. We love featuring them.
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Anna: We're at Astronomy AstroDailyPod. Pod
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everywhere. I'm Anna.
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Avery: And I'm, um, Avery. Whether the skies are
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dark for meteors or the sun goes out for two
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Anna: minutes over Iceland, we hope yours are
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clear until tomorrow.
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Avery: Clear skies,
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Anna: Sam. Hm.
