Episode Details

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Today's topics:

Artemis II returns from lunar flyby - Artemis II completed a historic 10-day crewed circumlunar mission, validating SLS and Orion performance and paving the way for Artemis III’s planned lunar landing in 2027. We cover key milestones, record-setting distance, and what post-flight inspections reveal for upcoming missions.

ISS schedule and SpaceX CRS-34 - International Space Station operations ramp up with updated flight planning and the imminent SpaceX CRS-34 cargo run delivering major science investigations and critical spares. We break down what’s on Dragon, why these experiments matter, and what’s next for crew and cargo rotations in 2026.

Robotic missions: Mercury, asteroids, Mars - A wave of robotic exploration is advancing planetary science: China’s Tianwen-2 prepares for asteroid operations and later a comet rendezvous, while ESA-JAXA’s BepiColombo closes in on Mercury. We also preview ESA’s Hera, JAXA’s MMX, and why these missions reshape planetary defense and origin stories.

Fresh astronomy breakthroughs across universe - New observations are solving long-standing astrophysical puzzles, from gamma-Cas X-rays to star cluster evolution measured by Webb and Hubble. We also look at a reawakened supermassive black hole launching a million-light-year jet and what these results mean for how galaxies and stars evolve.

Space weather, NEOs, and skywatching - Two powerful X-class solar flares highlight ongoing space-weather risk, while near-Earth asteroid flybys and new planetary-defense cooperation keep attention on impact preparedness. We’ll also highlight May 2026 sky events including Eta Aquarids, a Moon–Venus conjunction, and a rare Blue Moon.

Episode Transcript

Artemis II returns from lunar flyby
NASA’s Artemis II mission has wrapped up as the first crewed journey beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo, completing a ten-day circumlunar flight that launched April 1, 2026 and splashed down April 10 in the Pacific off San Diego. Flying aboard Orion, named Integrity, commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen reached a maximum distance of about 252,756 miles from Earth and logged roughly 695,081 miles total. Beyond the headline return to lunar vicinity, the crew executed key propulsion burns and captured standout deep-space observations, including Earth setting behind the lunar horizon, real-time views of the Moon’s far side, and a 54-minute solar eclipse sequence that revealed the Sun’s corona. Post-flight checks indicate Orion’s thermal protection system performed as expected, with reduced heat-shield char loss compared to Artemis I and a notably precise landing about 2.9 miles from target—data that feeds directly into planning for Artemis III and a first crewed lunar surface landing targeted for 2027.

ISS schedule and SpaceX CRS-34
The International Space Station remains the centerpiec