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Artemis II returns from Moon & Two comets: breakup and promise - Space News (Apr 12, 2026)
Published 1 month, 2 weeks ago
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Episode Transcript
Artemis II returns from Moon
NASA’s Artemis II mission has safely returned to Earth, closing a landmark 10-day crewed flight around the Moon. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen rode the Orion spacecraft—nicknamed “Integrity”—to a modern-era distance record, flying roughly 4,600 miles beyond the lunar surface and surpassing Apollo 13’s farthest-crewed-flight mark. Orion splashed down in the Pacific at about 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10, or 0007 UTC April 11, after a high-energy reentry that saw the capsule peak above 38,000 kilometers per hour before parachutes brought it down to around 30 kilometers per hour. The crew was recovered and taken to the USS John P. Murtha for checks, then headed to Houston for a hero’s welcome—plus the mission delivered a first: a deep-space “ship-to-ship” call with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Two comets: breakup and promise
April’s most dramatic comet story belongs to sungrazer Comet C/2026 A1, also known as MAPS, which made an extremely close pass by the Sun—about 161,000 kilometers above the solar surface, roughly 1.073 solar radii. Early hopes suggested it could become extraordinarily bright if it survived, but observations—including from the James Webb Space Telescope—indicated a small nucleus, around 400 meters across, and the comet ultimately disintegrated roughly six hours before perihelion on April 4. It’s a vivid reminde
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Today's topics:
Artemis II returns from Moon - NASA’s Artemis II splashes down after a record-setting lunar flyby, validating Orion and SLS for future Moon and Mars ambitions. The crew’s precision reentry and recovery cap a milestone moment for human deep-spaceflight in April 2026.
Two comets: breakup and promise - Sungrazer Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) disintegrates near perihelion, while Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) emerges as a leading bright-comet candidate for April–May. Here’s what happened, what to watch for, and when visibility is best by hemisphere.
April skywatching: meteors and planets - April 2026 brings the Lyrid meteor shower plus eye-catching planetary scenes, including Venus near Uranus and challenging predawn groupings of Mercury, Mars, and Saturn. Learn the best nights, where to look, and why moonlight conditions are favorable for the Lyrids.
Launches, Starlink growth, ISS cargo - Space operations stay busy: Starlink surpasses 10,000 active satellites, multiple Falcon 9 missions roll through the calendar, and ISS logistics continue with a Cygnus XL cargo flight. Blue Origin’s New Glenn and ESA–China’s SMILE mission add to a packed launch period.
New discoveries: black holes to Mars - Astronomy and planetary science advance on multiple fronts: a possible close pair of supermassive black holes in Markarian 501, a surge of new exoplanet and JWST spectral data, a compact new gravitational-wave detection concept, and dust-driven electrochemistry reshaping Mars.
Episode Transcript
Artemis II returns from Moon
NASA’s Artemis II mission has safely returned to Earth, closing a landmark 10-day crewed flight around the Moon. Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen rode the Orion spacecraft—nicknamed “Integrity”—to a modern-era distance record, flying roughly 4,600 miles beyond the lunar surface and surpassing Apollo 13’s farthest-crewed-flight mark. Orion splashed down in the Pacific at about 8:07 p.m. EDT on April 10, or 0007 UTC April 11, after a high-energy reentry that saw the capsule peak above 38,000 kilometers per hour before parachutes brought it down to around 30 kilometers per hour. The crew was recovered and taken to the USS John P. Murtha for checks, then headed to Houston for a hero’s welcome—plus the mission delivered a first: a deep-space “ship-to-ship” call with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Two comets: breakup and promise
April’s most dramatic comet story belongs to sungrazer Comet C/2026 A1, also known as MAPS, which made an extremely close pass by the Sun—about 161,000 kilometers above the solar surface, roughly 1.073 solar radii. Early hopes suggested it could become extraordinarily bright if it survived, but observations—including from the James Webb Space Telescope—indicated a small nucleus, around 400 meters across, and the comet ultimately disintegrated roughly six hours before perihelion on April 4. It’s a vivid reminde