The Universe Unfolds: Vera Rubin's Epic Journey, Swift's Mission Update, and Titan's Human Future

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Anna: Good morning and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

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I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm avery. It's Wednesday, July 1,

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2026, the start of a new month. And what a

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way to kick it off.

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Anna: Today we're opening with something genuinely

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historic. The Vera Rubin Observatory

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has officially started filming its 10 year

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movie of the universe.

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Avery: Plus a quick update on the Swift rescue

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mission. After yesterday's scrub, NASA's plan

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to send a spare Mars rover to the moon's

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south pole. Blue Origin shows off its

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rebuilt launch pad. Rocket lab makes an

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$8 billion move on iridium. And

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we close with scientists mapping out

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humanity's next giant leap to Saturn's

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moon Titan.

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Anna: Six stories, one very big Wednesday.

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Let's get into it.

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We start today with a moment astronomers have

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been waiting decades for. As of yesterday,

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June 30, the NSF DOE

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Vera Rubin Observatory has officially

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begun the Legacy Survey of Space, Space and

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Time, the lsst.

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Avery: We've talked about Rubin a few times this

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year. First with the first look Images Back

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in mid-2025, then in April when its

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early test data turned up over 11,000

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new asteroids in just six weeks. But this

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is different. This is the real thing.

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Starting 10 straight years of full science

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operations.

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Anna: From a mountaintop in Chile, Cerro

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Pachan, Rubin's Simone survey

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telescope, will now scan the entire southern

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sky every few nights. Using largest

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digital camera ever built, 3200

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megapixels, it produces a new image

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roughly every 40 seconds.

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Avery: Over the decade, Rubin will revisit every

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patch of sky about 800 times,

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stacking exposures to reveal fainter and

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fainter detail. Each night, it gathers around

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10 terabytes of data and can generate up to

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7 million alerts about things that have

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changed in the sky, brightened, dimmed, or

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moved.

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Anna: NSF's Brian Stone put it beautifully.

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Today we begin filming the greatest cosmic

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movie ever made. And Rubin's deputy director

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of operations, Phil Marshall, said it takes

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20 years of hard science and engineering to

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get to the point where they can finally call

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action.

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Avery: What's actually at stake here is huge dark

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energy, dark matter, the structure of the

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universe itself, but also very practical

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things. Hundreds of thousands of new

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asteroids and comets, planetary defense data,

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and an open data set that any scientist

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or member of the public will eventually be

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able to explore.

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Anna: Bob Blum, Rubin's director at Nor Lab,

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called it amazing and humbling to be there

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after so many years of work. And for anyone

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who remembers us covering that asteroid haul

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back in April, Mario Jurek's line was that it

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was just the tip of the iceberg.

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Avery: Well, the iceberg just got a lot bigger.

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10 years of nightly filming starts now.

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Anna: An extraordinary way to start July

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onwards.

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Avery: Next, a quick update for anyone following the

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Swift rescue mission since we covered the

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full background in depth yesterday.

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Anna: Right. The Lynx spacecraft's ride to

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orbit on the very last Pegasus XL

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rocket was scrubbed on Tuesday due to

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unfavorable, um, weather over Kwajalen Atoll.

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Avery: NASA and Catalyst Space have retargeted for

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tonight. Our time, 9:43pm Local

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KWA time, which is 5:43 Eastern.

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Stargazer and Pegasus are still go. They're

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just waiting on the weather to clear.

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Anna: So fingers crossed for a clean run this time.

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We'll bring you the result as soon as it

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happens.

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Avery: Moving on from a scrubbed launch to a very

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different moon story, DASA gave

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Anna: its second monthly moon base briefing

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yesterday. And it came with a genuine

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surprise.

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Avery: The headline business first. NASA has awarded

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roughly $590 million across

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Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and

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Intuitive Machines for four new robotic

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lander missions targeted for late

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2028. Astrobotic picked up two of

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them flying on its Griffin 1 lander, one of

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which will carry Astrolabe's Flip rover to

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the surface.

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Anna: Administrator Jared Isaacman described the

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approach as drawing on the 1960s

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playbook. You don't jump straight to Apollo

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11. You build up capability step by step.

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Avery: But the real headline grabber was what

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Isaacman floated almost as an aside.

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NASA's considering repurposing an engineering

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test version of its nuclear powered Mars

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rovers built alongside Perseverance and

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Curiosity, and sending it to the moon's south

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pole instead.

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Anna: They're calling it Promise Polar Rover for

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observation, mapping and in situ

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exploration. It's currently just sitting at

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JPL as a test unit. But Isaacman said

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there's, quote, very little that would hold

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us back from making use of that hardware.

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Avery: What makes it interesting is the power

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source. NASA already has Viper heading to the

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moon next year. But Viper runs on solar

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power, which limits where it can go. PROMISE

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would use a radioisotope generator, the same

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kind of nuclear battery that's kept Curiosity

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going for 14 years on Mars.

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Anna: That means PROMISE could drive right into

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permanently shadowed craters at the lunar

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south pole, the ones that never see sunlight

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and are thought to hold significant water ice

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and just keep working through the lunar

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night.

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Avery: And, um, in the least serious moment of the

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briefing, Isaacman asked the moon based

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program manager to promise, no pun intended,

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that a soccer ball would fly to the moon on

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one of these landers if the US Wins the World

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Cup. That it would one up Alan Shepard's

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Anna: Lunar Golf shot a nice reminder that even

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in a briefing full of contracts and rover

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engineering, there's still room for a bit of

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fun. Promise is still very much in the

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considering phase, but if it flies, it'll be

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a rover with quite the resume already.

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Avery: From the Moon to the Launch Pad Literally

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one month on from the dramatic New Glenn

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explosion at Cape Canaveral, Blue Origin gave

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its first real look at what comes next.

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Anna: As a reminder, on May 28, a new Glenn

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first stage exploded during a static fire

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test at Launch Complex 36A,

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destroying the rocket and badly damaging the

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pad. The lightning tower and transporter

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erector were lost, though the tank farm

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integration facility and water tower

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survived.

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Avery: CEO Dave Limp announced yesterday that Blue

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Origin is not simply rebuilding what was

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there before. They're pivoting to what

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they're calling a horizontal vertical hybrid

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configuration. Stages are mated horizontally

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in the integration facility, then rolled out

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and raised vertically by crane at the pad,

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with the payload attached once it's upright.

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Anna: Interestingly, that's not a new idea for

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them. It's the concept they'd already been

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developing for a second pad to support their

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much larger Future rocket, the 9x4

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variant. They've essentially brought that

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design forward to rebuild 36A

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sooner on the cause of

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Avery: the explosion, limp said. Early analysis

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points to the aft section of the first stage,

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but the investigation is still active. The

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good news? By his own account, quote, we

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caught a lot of breaks. Hardware recovery and

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debris removal are already complete and

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reconstruction has begun.

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Anna: There's real pressure behind this. New Glenn

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is central to NASA's Artemis plans. It's

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due to carry the Blue Moon lander, and Blue

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Origin says it still intends to fly again

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before the end of this year.

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Avery: NASA's Jared Isaacman, who visited the damage

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pad in person, said the agency has been

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looking at contingency options, but that Plan

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A is looking a lot better today than it was a

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few weeks ago.

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Anna: A tough month for Blue Origin, but a

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genuinely fast recovery so far. We'll

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keep tracking it toward that end of year.

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Target now for the biggest deal in the

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commercial space sector this year, Rocket Lab

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has agreed to acquire satellite

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communications giant Iridium in a cash and

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stock deal worth about $8 billion.

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Avery: Under the terms, Iridium shareholders get

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$54 a share, 27 in

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cash, 27 in Rocket Lab stock,

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which works out to roughly a 24%

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premium. The market loved it.

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Rocket Lab shares jumped around 16%, and

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Iridium's soared about 25%.

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Anna: So for anyone who doesn't know Iridium. It's

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one of the original global satellite

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communications networks, dating back to

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Motorola in the late 1980s and

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famous for surviving a dramatic bankruptcy in

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1999 before reinventing itself.

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Today it runs 66 satellites in low

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Earth orbit and serves more than two and a

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half million subscribers. Government,

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defense, aviation, maritime,

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journalists in war zones, all sorts of

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users who need connectivity when nothing else

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works.

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Avery: So why does Rocket Lab want it? Because right

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now Rocket Lab builds rockets and satellites

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but doesn't operate its own big

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constellation. This deal instantly hands

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them a mature, profitable, already licensed

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global network along with valuable radio

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spectrum. Rather than spending years and

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billions building

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Anna: one from scratch, Rocket Lab founder Peter

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Beck has been open about wanting to become a

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fully vertically integrated space company,

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designing, building, launching and operating,

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much like SpaceX has done with Starlink. This

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is a very direct step in that direction.

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Avery: Analyst reaction has been strongly positive,

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too. One space consultant put it simply,

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the existing customer base and distribution

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network Rocket Lab gains might end up being

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worth more than the satellites and spectrum

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themselves.

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Anna: Rocket Labs lined up a $3.6

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billion bridge loan from Deutsche bank and

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Wells Fargo to help fund the cash portion,

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and the deal's expected to close around the

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middle of next year, pending the usual

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regulatory approvals.

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Avery: It's a genuine changing of the guard moment

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for the smaller end of the space industry and

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the clear shot across the bow for anyone

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assuming SpaceX would have this space to

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itself.

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Anna: Big money, big ambitions. We'll be watching

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how this one plays out. We'll close today

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with something further out, literally.

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Earlier this month, a group of scientists and

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engineers gathered in Boulder, Colorado, for

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the very first humans to Titan summit.

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Avery: Titan is Saturn's largest moon, a

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strange, hazy world with rivers, lakes and

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rain. Except instead of water, it's all

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liquid methane and ethane. And for the

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first time, a dedicated group of experts sat

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down and seriously asked, could humans

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actually go there?

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Anna: The summit was organized by Amanda Hendricks,

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director of the Planetary Science Institute

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and president of the advocacy group Explore

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titan. She told Space.com, the

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goal wasn't to plan a mission next year. It

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was to normalize the idea that Titan is a

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genuinely reasonable destination for humans

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so it can sit in our minds as the next stop

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after Mars.

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Avery: And Titan does have some surprising

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advantages. Its atmosphere is actually

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thicker than Earth's, so you wouldn't need a

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pressurized suit like you would on the moon

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or Mars. You'd mainly need to stay warm.

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Some researchers have even floated the idea

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of strapping on wings or a jetpack to

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fly through that thick air under something

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close to human muscle power.

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Anna: The challenges are just as extraordinary

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though, building habitats, transportation and

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airlocks for a world that's

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-179 degrees

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Celsius on average, with methane, monsoons

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and floods floods to plan around.

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Avery: Scott Rafkin from the Southwest Research

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Institute, who hosted the two day gathering,

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said it plainly sending humans to Titan is

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extraordinarily ambitious, but he called the

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summit the beginning of a long term effort to

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imagine and ultimately achieve something

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transformative.

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Anna: We do have a real precursor already in

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motion. NASA's Dragonfly

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rotorcraft, nuclear powered about the size of

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a small car, is targeted to launch no earlier

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than 2028 on a six journey

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for a multi year surface mission exploring

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Titan by air.

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Avery: Whatever Dragonfly finds in the next decade

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will shape everything that comes after it,

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but it's a nice thought to end on, even while

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we're mapping asteroids by the 10 thousands

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and reboosting telescopes somewhere in

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a conference room in Boulder, people are

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already sketching what it might take to walk

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on a beach of liquid methane under

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Saturn's rings.

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Anna: And that's Astronomy Daily for today.

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Avery: What a first day of July, a 10 year

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cosmic movie beginning a ah, Mars rover

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eyeing a lunar detour, two very

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different launch industry shakeups, and

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humans quietly starting to plan for Titan.

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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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us a review if you can. It really does help

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new listeners find the show.

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Avery: We'll have the Swift Link launch result for

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you as soon as it happens. Fingers crossed

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for clear skies over Kwajalein tonight.

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Anna: Until tomorrow, keep looking up.

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Avery: Clear skies everyone.

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: Sam

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m.