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 The curated playlist of Space News podcasts from Bitesz.com...all your favourites in one feed. Space Nuts with Andrew Dunkley & Professor Fred Watson; SpaceTime with Stuart Gary and Astronomy Daily.Copyright 2024 All rights reserved. Astronomie et science de l’espace Nature et écologie Science
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  • NASA Artemis Overhaul, Vulcan Centaur Grounded, and the Milky Way’s True Origin Story

    NASA Artemis Overhaul, Vulcan Centaur Grounded, and the Milky Way’s True Origin Story
    Mar 1 2026
    NASA rewrites the Artemis roadmap, the Space Force grounds Vulcan Centaur, astronomers peer back 11 billion years to the universe's most extraordinary construction site, water bears reveal surprising secrets about Martian soil, NASA passes a key milestone in extracting oxygen from lunar regolith, and ancient stellar lighthouses rewrite the Milky Way's origin story. Plus — six planets in tonight's sky. 📰 STORIES THIS EPISODE 1 — NASA Overhauls the Artemis Programme NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced a sweeping restructure of the Artemis Moon programme on Friday 27 February. The headline change: Artemis III will no longer attempt a crewed lunar landing. Instead it has been redesigned as a low Earth orbit test flight in 2027, where astronauts will dock with the SpaceX Starship Human Landing System and potentially Blue Origin's Blue Moon lander, testing suits, life support and rendezvous procedures before anyone attempts a surface landing. The Block 1B SLS upgrade has been scrapped, vehicle configuration standardised, and NASA is targeting annual Moon landings from Artemis IV and V in 2028, with at least one surface landing per year thereafter. Isaacman invoked Apollo's step-by-step approach as his model — pointing out the programme was essentially jumping from Apollo 8 to the Moon landing without the intervening tests. The Lunar Gateway space station was notably absent from the announcement. Artemis II — the crewed flight around the Moon — remains on track for no earlier than 1 April 2026 pending resolution of a helium pressurisation issue. 2 — Space Force Grounds Vulcan Centaur The U.S. Space Force has placed an indefinite hold on all national security launches aboard ULA's Vulcan Centaur rocket following a repeat solid rocket booster anomaly during the USSF-87 mission on 12 February — the rocket's fourth flight. A booster nozzle appeared to separate during ascent, mirroring an incident on Vulcan's second certification flight in October 2024. The payloads were successfully delivered, but Space Force Col. Eric Zarybnisky confirmed at the AFA Warfare Symposium that no further Vulcan national security missions will fly until the issue is fully resolved. With over a dozen military launches manifested for 2026, the grounding threatens significant disruption to the Pentagon's launch schedule. 3 — The Universe's Most Extraordinary Construction Site Astronomers using the Very Large Array and ALMA telescope have discovered J0846 — the first strongly gravitationally lensed protocluster core ever found. A foreground galaxy cluster is acting as a cosmic zoom lens, magnifying a cluster of at least 11 furiously star-forming galaxies more than 11 billion light years away — all crammed into a region smaller than the distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda. Completely invisible to optical telescopes due to dense dust shrouding, ALMA's detection of cold dust and gas revealed the extraordinary scene. Lead researcher Nicholas Foo (Arizona State University) describes it as catching a galaxy cluster in the very first chapter of its life. 4 — Could Mars Soil Actually Block Earth Microbes? A Penn State-led international team published findings in the International Journal of Astrobiology showing that simulated Martian regolith significantly suppresses tardigrade (water bear) activity — one of the toughest creatures on Earth. Critically, rinsing the regolith with water largely reversed the harmful effect, suggesting the culprit is a water-soluble compound — possibly salts or perchlorates detected by previous Mars missions. The dual implication: Martian soil may naturally protect the Red Planet from Earth contamination, and could potentially be treated to support plant growth in future habitats. 5 — Extracting Oxygen from Lunar Soil — A Major Milestone NASA's Carbothermal Reduction Demonstration (CaRD) project has passed a key integrated prototype test aboard the ISS, confirming that concentrated solar energy can drive a chemical reaction in simulated lunar regolith to produce carbon monoxide — which can then be converted into breathable oxygen. Lunar regolith is approximately 45% oxygen by mass, locked in silicate minerals. The integrated system combines hardware from Sierra Space, NASA Glenn, Composite Mirror Applications, and Kennedy Space Center. Beyond breathing air, the process could produce rocket propellant in-situ — directly relevant to this week's Artemis restructuring and the goal of a permanent lunar presence. 6 — Ancient Stellar Lighthouses Rewrite the Milky Way's Origin Story Using the largest-ever catalogue of RR Lyrae variable stars — ancient pulsating 'cosmic lighthouses' over 10 billion years old — combined with ESA's Gaia satellite data, a large international team has found that the Milky Way's structural layers (halo, thick disk, thin disk) all formed at roughly the same early epoch, not sequentially as long assumed. The layers differ in chemistry, ...
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    22 min
  • Dying Star, Skull Nebulae, and a Blood Moon

    Dying Star, Skull Nebulae, and a Blood Moon
    Feb 27 2026

    Episode 50 of Season 5! Today Anna and Avery bring you six unmissable space stories: a star 1,540 times the size of our Sun transforming into a rare yellow hypergiant in real time; SpaceX's Dragon CRS-33 capsule completing a historic ISS-boosting mission and splashing down this morning; the James Webb Space Telescope revealing the haunting 'Exposed Cranium' nebula in unprecedented detail; a total lunar eclipse blood moon arriving this Tuesday (March 3) — the last until 2028/29; groundbreaking research showing Jupiter's icy moons may have been born with life's molecular building blocks embedded in them; and NASA shaking up its human spaceflight leadership following a damning report on the Boeing Starliner Crew Flight Test. STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: • (00:00) Intro & Episode 50 Milestone • (02:00) WOH G64: Red supergiant transforms into yellow hypergiant — supernova imminent? • (06:00) SpaceX CRS-33 Dragon splashes down after historic six-month ISS-boosting mission • (09:00) Webb's Exposed Cranium Nebula: A dying star's brain-shaped farewell • (12:00) Blood Moon Alert: Total lunar eclipse Tuesday March 3 — where to watch • (14:30) Jupiter's moons born with life's building blocks — new research • (17:00) NASA leadership shakeup: Starliner fallout claims two senior figures • (19:30) Outro FIND US: • Website: astronomydaily.io • Social: @AstroDailyPod on all major platforms • Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast Network

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    Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/31908764?utm_source=youtube
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    22 min
  • Martian Gullies and Inside-Out Planets: Discoveries from the Cosmos

    Martian Gullies and Inside-Out Planets: Discoveries from the Cosmos
    Feb 27 2026

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    This episode of SpaceTime is brought to you by Squarespace. Create your own exceptional website with ease at squarespace.com/spacetime (https://squarespace.com/spacetime) .

    SpaceTime with Stuart Gary Gary - Series 29 Episode 25

    In this episode of SpaceTime , we explore the intriguing mysteries of Mars' gullies, uncover a unique inside-out planetary system, and witness the inaugural launch of Europe's most powerful rocket.

    Mysterious Martian Gullies Explained

    Scientists have made significant strides in understanding the enigmatic gullies on Mars, previously thought to be shaped by unknown forces. A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters reveals that blocks of frozen carbon dioxide are the culprits behind these formations. When the Martian winter sets in, CO2 ice accumulates and, upon warming, sublimates, creating gas pressure that carves deep gullies in the Martian surface. This groundbreaking phenomenon, likened to the sandworms of Dune, showcases a unique geological process not observed on Earth.

    Inside-Out Planetary System Discovery

    Astronomers have identified a remarkable new planetary system, catalogued as LHS 1903, that defies conventional models of planetary formation. Unlike our solar system, which features rocky planets close to the star and gas giants further out, LHS 1903 has a small rocky planet orbiting outside of two gas giants. This discovery, detailed in Science , suggests that this rocky world may have formed in a gas-depleted environment, challenging existing theories about how planets evolve and raising questions about the nature of planetary systems.

    Europe's Powerful Rocket Launch

    The European Space Agency has successfully launched the Ariane 64, its most powerful rocket to date, from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana. This inaugural mission, VA267, carried 32 satellites into orbit for Amazon's LEO network, marking a significant milestone as the largest number of satellites ever launched by an Ariane rocket. With plans for an average of 10 launches per year, the Ariane 64 is set to play a crucial role in the future of satellite deployment.

    www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com (https://www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com/)

    ✍️ Episode References

    Geophysical Research Letters, Science

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    Episode link: https://play.headliner.app/episode/31903922?utm_source=youtube
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    38 min
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