Starship Set for Flight 13, Japan's Reusable Rocket Breakthrough, and SpaceX's 100,000 Satellite Ambition

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Anna: Hello and welcome to Astronomy daily for

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Monday 13th July, 2026.

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I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm, uh, Avery. And what a way to start

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the week, because the week ahead is shaping

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up to be a genuinely big one.

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Anna: It really is. Coming up today,

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SpaceX's Starship could fly again as

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soon as Wednesday. And this time, it's

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carrying real working satellites for the

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first time, not the dummies of earlier

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flights.

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Avery: Japan quietly joins the reusable rocket club,

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just one day after China did something

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similar in spectacular fashion.

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Anna: Plus, SpaceX asks permission to launch

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100,000 satellites. Yes,

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you heard that number right.

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Avery: Physicists may have heard the faint whispers

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of every star that's ever exploded. A

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rocket company we've been following all year

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signs a deal to launch from a second

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continent.

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Anna: And we close with a black hole in our cosmic

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backyard that's behaving like it belongs at

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the dawn of time, with some Aussie science

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right at the heart of the discovery.

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Avery: All that, plus what's in your skies this

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week. Let's get into it.

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Anna: Let's start at Starbase Texas, where

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SpaceX is in the final stretch before

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Starship's 13th test flight. And

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if all goes to plan, we could see it fly

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as soon as Wednesday, our time.

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Avery: The pace over the past few days has been

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something to behold. On Thursday, Booster 20,

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the newest super heavy off the production

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line, rolled out to the pad and was hoisted

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onto its launch mount by those famous

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Mechazilla chopstick arms.

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Anna: And then on Friday, SpaceX lit up

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all 33 of its upgraded Raptor 3

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engines in a static fire test. And by all

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accounts, it was a monster. One observation

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team, measuring from about 10 km away,

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recorded dramatically higher acoustic

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pressure than previous tests, one of the

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strongest events they've ever captured at

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Starbase.

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Avery: With that test in the books, the FAA's

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advisories point to a large window opening as

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early as Wednesday morning, Australian

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Eastern time. As always with Starship, dates

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can slip, but the hardware is stacked and

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ready now.

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Anna: This is the second flight of the Version 3

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vehicle, the tallest, most powerful

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iteration yet. Standing around

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124 meters. Flight

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12 back in May was V3's debut, and

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it was a mixed bag. The ship suffered an

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engine out during ascent and the booster

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fumbled its boost back burn and ended up in

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the Gulf instead of coming home.

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Avery: So Flight 13 is essentially the do over.

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Same suborbital profile, with the booster

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aiming to nail that boost back and landing

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burn at an offshore point and the ship

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performing an in space raptor relight. Before

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a controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean,

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which as we like to remind you, is our neck

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of woods.

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Anna: But here's the genuinely new for the

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first time, Starship is carrying real

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functional satellites rather than the mass

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simulators of earlier flights. 20

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Starlink V3s due to be deployed on

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that suborbital arc where they'll unfold

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their solar arrays and antennas and attempt

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to talk to the ground before re entering.

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Avery: And six of those satellites have been fitted

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with camera suites specifically to scan

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Starship's heat shield during the mission and

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beam the IM home, helping SpaceX

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work out when it's safe to bring a ship all

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the way back to the launch site.

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Anna: Keep that Starlink detail in your back pocket

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because it connects directly to our third

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story today. For now, eyes on Texas.

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Come Wednesday morning, we'll have full

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coverage of however it plays out.

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Avery: From the biggest rocket in the world to one

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of the smallest test vehicles making

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headlines. And honestly, this might be my

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favorite story of the day. On Saturday, Japan

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flew and landed a reusable rocket for the

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first time.

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Anna: This is JAXA's RV X, the

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Reusable Vehicle Experiment, and it took its

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first hop at the Noshiro testing Center in

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Akita Prefecture in Japan's north.

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Avery: Now let's be clear about the scale here. This

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wasn't an orbital flight. The whole thing

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lasted about 40 seconds. The rocket

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lifted off, climbed to roughly 11 or 12

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meters, translated about 16

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meters sideways, keeping itself

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perfectly upright the whole time, and set

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itself back down on its four landing legs.

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Anna: 40 seconds and 11 meters might not sound

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like much, but everyone in this game starts

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with a hop. SpaceX's grasshopper did

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exactly these baby steps more than a decade

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ago. And look where that led.

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Avery: The vehicle itself is about 7.3

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meters tall and 1.8 meters across,

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Co developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy

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Industries. And the engine is a hearty little

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thing. It's survived 165

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combustion tests on the ground.

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Anna: The project lead Takashi Ito told reporters

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he felt, quote, a great sense of relief,

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which after that many years of development is

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probably an understatement. Next up,

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JAXA wants to push rvx to around 100

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meters altitude and the agency is also

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collaborating with France and Germany on

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reusable rocket technology more broadly.

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Avery: And here's the thing that makes this a story

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about a weekend rather than a single flight.

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This came just one day after China netted

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a long March 10B booster out at sea

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on its first ever orbital class landing,

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which was our lead story

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Anna: On Saturday's show two Asian space

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powers cracking two different pieces of the

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reusability puzzle within 24 hours of each

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other. The era of the throwaway rocket really

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is drawing to a close, and the club SpaceX

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had all to itself for nearly a decade is

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suddenly getting crowded.

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Alright, remember those 20 Starlink V3

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satellites hitching a ride on Flight 13?

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Here's why they matter so much. SpaceX

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has just filed an application with the US

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Federal Communications Commission to operate

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a, uh, next generation constellation of up to

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100,000 satellites.

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Avery: 100,000 for

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context, SpaceX currently has roughly

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10,000 Starlinks in orbit already

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by far the largest constellation in history.

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With approval for 15,000. This

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filing asks for nearly 10 times that.

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Anna: The paperwork went in early last week, and

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the wider world caught on when astronomer and

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satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell spotted

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the filing. Facex calls it the Gen3

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system. And interestingly, the application

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doesn't even use the word starlink.

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Avery: The satellites themselves would be big units,

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around 2 tons each, so heavier than most of

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what's flying today, parked in very low

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Earth orbit, shells roughly between

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320 and 480km

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up at inclinations covering essentially the

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whole planet.

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Anna: The pitch is multi gigabit symmetrical

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broadband, meaning uploads as fast as

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downloads, with expansion into entirely

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new slices of radio spectrum. And the framing

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throughout the filing is all about artificial

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intelligence. SpaceX argues the world's

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AI devices will need massive uplink

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capacity and that this constellation would

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carry their words the majority of the world's

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Internet traffic.

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Avery: Worth being clear on what this is not. It's

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separate from that even wilder proposal we

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covered back in February, the one seeking up

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to a million satellites acting as orbital

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data centers. This is the communications

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network that was the computing network.

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Anna: And crucially, the whole thing is contingent

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on Starship. You Simply cannot loft

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100,000 two ton satellites on Falcon

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9. By one analysis that would take well

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over 3,000 launches. It only

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pencils out if Starship starts flying

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regularly with big satellite batches. Hence

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Wednesday's flight carrying those first V3

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test units.

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Avery: Uh, now we'd be remiss not to mention the

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other side of this ledger. Astronomers are

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already wrestling with satellite streaks in

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their data. Atmospheric scientists are

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studying what thousands of re entering

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satellites do to the upper atmosphere and

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orbital debris trackers are watching low

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Earth orbit get busier by the month.

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100,000 satellites is a different

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category of question altogether.

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Anna: The FCC will take public comment before

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anything is decided, and history suggests

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these mega requests get trimmed

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substantially. But even the ask tells you

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where SpaceX believes the future is heading

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and how central starship is to all of it.

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Avery: Okay, deep breath, because this next

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one is the kind of story that reminds you why

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we love this field. Physicists in

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Japan may have detected for the first time

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the accumulated whisper of every star that

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has ever died in a supernova.

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Anna: This comes from Super Kamiokande, a gigantic

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neutrino detector sitting a full kilometer

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underground in Gifu Prefecture, Japan.

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Picture a cathedral sized tank of

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50,000 tons of ultra pure water

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lined with thousands of golden light sensors

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buried under a mountain.

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Avery: Neutrinos are often called ghost particles.

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They have almost no mass, no electric charge,

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and they stream through planets, through you,

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through everything, barely ever interacting.

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Trillions have passed through you since we

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started this story.

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Anna: Now, somewhere in the universe, a, uh,

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massive star collapses and explodes as a

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supernova several times every second.

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Each of those blasts releases an absolutely

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staggering flood of neutrinos. And since the

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universe began, all those neutrinos from all

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those explosions have been quietly

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accumulating, spreading out, filling space.

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Avery: That accumulated flux has a name, the

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diffuse supernova neutrino background

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theorists have predicted it for decades.

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Nobody had ever seen a hint of it. The signal

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is impossibly faint, like straining to hear a

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whisper from the far side of a stadium during

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a rock concert.

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Anna: Until now. After analyzing nearly

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5,000 days of data, that's more than 13

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years of watching the Super Kamiokande

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collaboration, some 250 researchers

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across 60 institutions has reported the

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first observational indication of that

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background. Background. The results were

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presented at the big International Neutrino

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Physics conference in California.

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Avery: A key breakthrough was chemistry of all

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things. The team dissolved gadolinium into

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the water a few years back, which makes the

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tank far better at flagging the specific

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signature of electron antineutrinos

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exactly the flavor the supernova background

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should deliver.

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Anna: Now the honest caveat. This is an indication

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not yet a gold plated discovery. The excess

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they see needs more data to reach that

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threshold. That's where Hyper Kamiokande

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comes in, the even bigger successor detector

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under construction, which together with Super

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K, should settle the question.

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Avery: And if it holds up, then we've gained

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something extraordinary. A, uh, way to read

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the entire history of star death in the

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universe. How many stars exploded when

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and what they forged, written in particles

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that have traveled untouched, cross borders

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billions of years.

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Anna: The whispers of every star that ever died

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finally reaching our ears. That's just

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gorgeous science.

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Now for an update in a saga long time

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listeners will know well. Isar Aerospace,

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the German company behind the spectrum rocket

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we've been following since way back in March,

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has signed a deal to launch from a second

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continent.

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Avery: Isar has inked a 10 year agreement with

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Canada's Maritime Launch Services for a

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dedicated launch complex at Spaceport Nova

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Scotia, near the town of Canso on

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Canada's Atlantic coast. Headline value

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around US$150 million,

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made up of quarterly facility fees over the

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decade plus additional per launch charges,

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with options to extend a, uh, further 10

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years.

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Anna: And Isar isn't just renting a patch of

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concrete. The company plans to pour roughly

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$100 million of its own into building out

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the pad. And it stood up a Canadian

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subsidiary to anchor the operation.

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Construction is slated to begin later this

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year. First orbital launches are targeted for

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2028, and the ambition is up to 40

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launches a year from the site by 2029.

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Avery: The deal was actually signed at a NATO

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defense industry summit in Turkey. And that's

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not incidental. Canada has flagged sovereign

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launch capability as a strategic priority.

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The federal government took its own 10 year

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lease at the same spaceport earlier this

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year. And Isar's pitch is bringing end

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to end launch capability to allied nations.

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Anna: Geography helps, too. Nova Scotia's

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Atlantic coast lets rockets head over open

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water into polar and sun synchronous orbits,

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the workhorse trajectories for Earth

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observation without overflying anyone.

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Avery: Now the deliciously cheeky footnote.

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Spectrum has not actually reached orbit yet.

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Its debut from Norway ended in a fireball

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seconds after liftoff, and a second attempt

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was scrubbed in June over fluid system

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issues. But investors clearly believe

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the company raised 270 million

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euros that same month.

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Anna: When we first covered Spectrum's troubles

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back in March, this was a company fighting

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for its next launch window. Sixteen months

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on, it's planning operations on two

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continents. Whatever else you say about the

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new space race, the ambition curve only

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points one way.

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Avery: And for our final story today, a, uh, galaxy

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that's been misbehaving in the most

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scientifically wonderful way with

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Australian researchers and Australian

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telescopes right in the middle of it.

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Anna: The galaxy goes by the extremely catchy

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name SDSSJ

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1105-460714-52024.

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Let's just call it J1105.

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It's a spiral galaxy in the constellation

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Leo, about 1.8 billion light years

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away, which sounds far, but in cosmological

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terms, it's practically our backyard.

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Avery: For more than eight years now,

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J1105 has been blazing in

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radio waves. Its radio emission jumped more

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than 20 fold and simply hasn't dimmed

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at radio wavelengths, it's shining around 10,

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quadrillion times as intensely as our Sun.

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Most radio flare ups near black holes last

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days or weeks. This has lasted the

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better part of a decade, the first source of

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its kind ever seen.

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Anna: An international team led by Stefani Camosa

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at the Max Planck Institute for Radio

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Astronomy pulled together new observations

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and years of archival data from radio

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right through to X rays and published the

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results in the Astrophysical Journal.

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Avery: And um, here's the the black hole at AH

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J1105's center is comparatively

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lightweight, but it's growing at a ferocious

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rate, gorging on infalling matter and

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firing off a newly launched jet of particles

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at nearly the speed of light. That

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combination, a small black hole growing

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incredibly fast, is something astronomers

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have only ever seen in the early universe in

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the first billion years or so after the Big

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Bang.

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Anna: Which is what makes this so valuable. The

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early universe is agonizingly hard to study.

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Those baby galaxies are impossibly faint and

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distant. But J1105 is close

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enough that you can literally see its two

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spiral arms in survey images. It's like

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finding a living fossil, a creature from the

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dawn of time, alive and well down the street,

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available for study in exquisite detail.

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Avery: And the Aussie connection runs deep. Follow

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up observations use CSIRO's Australia

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Telescope Compact Array at Narabi

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alongside the 100 meter Effelsberg Dish in

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Germany. CSIRO's Phil Edwards is

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a co author and he describes

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J1105 as the prototype of

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a new class of galaxies that uh, undergo

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rapid changes in radio emission.

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Anna: Hovey Rose from the University of Sydney is

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on the team too and made the point that these

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high energy events let us study physics in

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some of the most extreme environments in the

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universe.

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Avery: And this is just the opening act when the

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Square Kilometer Array comes fully online

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with its core sites right here in Australia

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and in South Africa. Surveys should start

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turning up more of these long duration radio

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transformers.

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Anna: A window into the dawn of time hiding

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in plain sight in leo. Not bad for a Monday.

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Avery: Alright, let's send you outside because this

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is one of the best sky watching weeks of the

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month.

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Anna: Tomorrow evening brings the New Moon. For us,

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That's Tuesday evening, the 14th at uh,

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7:44pm Eastern Australian time,

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9:44pm for our new Zealand listeners.

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And New Moon means the darkest skies of the

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month.

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Avery: And July's dark skies are made for one

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thing above all the Milky Way. The

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galactic core is riding high for Southern

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Hemisphere observers right now. That glorious

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dense band through Sagittarius and

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Scorpius nearly overhead in the evening.

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Get away from city lights this week. Give

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your eyes 20 minutes to adjust. Leave the

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phone in your pocket and

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Anna: just look up in the evening west.

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Brilliant Venus is impossible to miss after

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sunset, stepping eastward through Leo and

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for the early risers. Reddish Mars is hanging

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near Aldebaran in the pre dawn east, with

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Saturn well

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Avery: placed higher up and one for the telescope

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owners. Comet 10P Tempel 2 is

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brightening in the evening sky, currently

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around magnitude 7 to 8 as it heads toward

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its early August closest approach to the Sun.

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And here's the kicker. Southern Hemisphere

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observers get the better view with the comet

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sitting higher in our

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Anna: sky, dark skies, the galactic core

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overhead, and a comet that favors the south.

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Sometimes the universe just hands us the good

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seats.

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Avery: And that's Astronomy Daily for Monday 13

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July, Starship on the pad for Wednesday,

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Japan's first reusable hop

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100,000 satellite ambition, the

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whispers of dying stars, Yessar's

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transatlantic leap, and the Black Hole is

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showing us the dawn of time.

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

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subscribe wherever you're listening and leave

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00:18:37.870 --> 00:18:40.310
us, uh, a review. It genuinely helps new

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00:18:40.310 --> 00:18:42.710
listeners find the show. You'll find all our

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00:18:42.710 --> 00:18:45.590
episodes and more@astronomydaily.IO

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00:18:45.590 --> 00:18:47.710
I'm Avery. And I'm Anna. We'll see you

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tomorrow on Astronomy Daily.