Avery: Welcome to Astronomy Daily, the podcast that
brings you the universe. One story at a time.
I'm Avery.
Anna: And I'm Anna. Today we'll be covering some
unfortunate news for South Korea's burgeoning
space industry. A look back billions of
years to when Earth had a 19 hour day.
A very busy launch schedule to close out
2025, and some serious safety
concerns over Boeing's Starliner. And we'll
cap things off with a major leadership
shakeup at United Launch Alliance.
Avery: A lot to get through.
Let's start with that launch anomaly in
Brazil. What happened with the Hanbit Nano
rocket?
Anna: It's a tough break for the South Korean
company Innospace. Their first commercial
orbital rocket, the Hanbit Nano,
unfortunately crashed just 30 seconds after
liftoff from the Alcantara Space center in
Brazil.
Avery: Only 30 seconds. Wow. Do we
know the cause?
Anna: The company cited a vehicle abnormality,
but they haven't released specific details
yet. The important thing is that no one was
hurt and there was no damage to the launch
facility.
Avery: That's certainly the silver lining. This was
a significant launch for them, wasn't it? It
had been delayed a few times already.
Anna: Exactly. It was carrying five satellites,
so this was a major milestone attempt. A,
successful first commercial launch would have
been a huge step for South Korea's private
space sector. Setbacks are part of the
process, but this one definitely stings for
Innospace.
Avery: Right. Failure is always an option in
rocketry, especially on a debut flight. We'll
be watching to see how they bounce back.
Anna: Absolutely. And it highlights the immense
challenge for smaller private companies
trying to break into the orbital launch
market. It's not just about building a
rocket. It's about securing funding,
navigating international regulations, and
building a track record. The barrier to entry
is still incredibly high.
Avery: That's a great point. While companies like
SpaceX make it look almost routine, now each
successful launch is built on a mountain of
data from both successes and failures.
Hopefully Innospace can analyze what went
wrong and come back stronger. A, competitive
launch market is good for everyone.
Anna: Definitely.
Now let's switch gears and go way, way
back in time. Billions of years, in fact.
Avery, did you know there was a period when
Earth's day was stuck at, just 19 hours
long?
Avery: Stuck. I know the day has been getting
gradually longer as the moon moves away from
us, but I've never heard of it, stopping.
Anna: That's what's so fascinating. New research
indicates that for about a billion years,
from roughly 2 billion years to 1 billion
years ago, the day length just flatlined
at 19 hours, a.
Avery: Billion years is not a short time. What could
cause our planet's rotation to just pause its
slowdown like that?
Anna: It's a really cool celestial balancing act.
We know the Moon's gravity creates ocean
tides that act like a brake on Earth's
rotation, so slowing it down.
Avery: Right, the lunar tides.
Anna: But the sun also creates tides, not just in
the ocean, but in the atmosphere. The sun
heats the atmosphere, causing it to bulge.
This atmospheric tide, influenced by Earth's
rotation, actually pulls on the planet,
trying to speed it up.
Avery: So you have the Moon's gravity slowing us
down and the Sun's atmospheric heat speeding
us up.
Anna: Precisely. And during this specific billion
year period, the theory is that the two
forces reached a perfect equilibri. The
atmospheric day was in resonance with the
rotational day. The slowing effect from the
lunar ocean tides was perfectly balanced by
the speeding effect of the solar atmospheric
tides.
Avery: A, tidal resonance. That's incredible.
So the Earth was in a state of cosmic tug of
war, and for a billion years it was a perfect
draw.
Anna: Exactly. Eventually, other factors broke the
resonance, and the Moon's influence won out
again, Continuing the slow lengthening of our
day to the 24 hours we have now. It makes
you think about all the delicate balances
that have shaped our planet's history.
Avery: Absolutely. Imagine what life might have been
like with five extra hours of darkness each
day.
Anna: That's the big question researchers are
exploring now. A consistent 19 hour
day night cycle could have provided a stable
environment for early photosynthetic
organisms like cyanobacteria to thrive.
Some theories suggest this long period of
stability might have been a crucial factor in
the Great Oxidation Event, where oxygen
levels in the atmosphere began to rise,
paving the way for more complex life.
Avery: Well, coming back to the present, things
aren't anything but slow. The last full week
of 2025 is shaping up to be incredibly
busy for space launches.
Anna: It seems like everyone is trying to get their
last missions of the year off the ground.
What's on the manifest?
Avery: Well, we already discussed Innispace's
attempt in China. CASC is expected to
debut its brand new reusable Chang Zhang
12, a rocket that's a huge development for
their Reusable Launch Vehicle program.
Anna: Mm. A direct competitor to SpaceX's Falcon
9.
Avery: Indeed. Then over in India, ISRO's
launching a Bluebird Block 2 satellite.
Russia has not one, but two Soyuz missions
planned from different cosmodromes.
Anna: A busy week for Roscosmos.
Avery: And of course, you can't have a busy launch
week without SpaceX they're scheduled for
their final Falcon 9 mission of the year,
launching the CSG3 satellite. For the
Italian Space Agency. It's a real flurry of
activity to end the year.
Anna: It really shows how global the space industry
has become. Launches from China, India,
Russia and the US all within days
of each other. It's an exciting time to be
following spaceflight, that's for sure.
It's worth noting the diversity of these
missions too. The Chinese launch is a
technology demonstrator for reusability. The
Indian mission is for Earth observation. The,
the Russian launches are likely for
government and commercial payloads. And the
SpaceX mission is for an Italian radar
reconnaissance satellite. It's a snapshot of
the entire space ecosystem in action.
Avery: And the logistical coordination is mind
boggling. You have range safety, air and sea
traffic control, satellite tracking and
telemetry all happening concurrently across
the globe. A, fittingly chaotic end to a
very busy year in space.
Anna: Speaking of US spaceflight, let's turn to our
next story on today's rundown, which is a bit
more sobering. It's about Boeing's Starliner
and the fallout from its first crewed test
flight.
Avery: Yeah, that mission was eventful to say the
least. What's the latest?
Anna: Well, NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel
has come out with a pretty strong statement.
They've said that NASA should have taken the
problems with Starliner far more seriously as
they were happening.
Avery: Let's recap what those problems were. There
were multiple helium leaks and failures with
the maneuvering thrusters, right?
Anna: That's right. Separate thruster failures
during docking and multiple helium leaks that
were discovered both before and during the
mission. The panel's main point of contention
is that NASA never officially declared an in
flight mishap or a high visibility close
call.
Avery: And not making that declaration has
consequences.
Anna: It does. According to the panel, this failure
to officially recognize the severity of the
issues led to an extended period of
uncertainty. It put a lot of stress on the
workforce at NASA and Boeing who were trying
to troubleshoot these serious problems
without the formal structure and resources
that come with a mishap declaration.
Avery: So they were essentially trying to manage a
crisis without being allowed to call it a
crisis. That sounds incredibly difficult.
Anna: Extremely. And the end result speaks for
itself. The two astronauts, Butch Wilmore and
Suni Williams, ended up staying on the
International Space Station for nine months
while engineers tried to figure out if
Starliner was safe to bring them home.
Avery: And in the, end, it wasn't. They came home on
a SpaceX Dragon capsule.
Anna: That's the Crucial point, the Starliner
capsule had to return to Earth empty.
Having your crew return on a competitor
spacecraft because your own was deemed
unsafe is a massive blow to the
program's credibility. The safety panel is
basically saying that if NASA had been more
forthright about the problems from the start,
a lot of this prolonged uncertainty and
stress could have been handled better.
Avery: It's a tough lesson in transparency and risk
management. You never want to see a situation
where you have to rely on your backup
transportation system for a crewed mission.
It really underscores the value of having,
redundant, reliable systems like SpaceX's
Dragon.
Anna: It absolutely does. There's a lot for
both NASA and Boeing to learn from this
incident before they even consider putting
another crew on Starliner.
Avery: Absolutely. And the post flight investigation
is digging into the root causes. The helium
leaks, for instance, seem to be related to
seals that become brittle at extreme
temperatures. But the thruster issue is more
complex. It's a propulsion system that has
seen numerous issues throughout its
development. And the failures during this
critical mission pointed to a potential
systemic design flaw in the reaction control
system.
Anna: A systemic flaw is the last thing you want to
hear about on a crude vehicle. So what's the
path forward for Boeing? Is the Starliner
program salvageable at this point?
Avery: It's a tough road ahead. They will likely
need a complete redesign and recertification
of the propulsion system, which could take
years and billions more dollars. NASA
is committed to having two independent crew
transportation systems, so they won't give up
on Boeing easily. But the pressure is immense
and confidence both within NASA and
publicly has been severely shaken.
They have to prove beyond any doubt that
Starliner is safe before anyone else straps
in for a ride.
Anna: And for our final story today, we've got
some big news from one of the titans of the
launch industry. Tory Bruno. The
longtime president and CEO of United
Launch alliance has resigned.
Avery: That is big news. Bruno has been at the helm
of ula for nearly 12 years. He
really guided the company, a joint venture
between Boeing and Lockheed Martin through
one of its most challenging periods. Facing
intense competition from newcomers like
SpaceX.
Anna: Absolutely. His legacy will
undoubtedly be tied to the development of the
new Vulcan Centaur rocket. That was a
massive undertaking, designed not only to
replace the legacy Atlas v and Delta 4
rockets, but also to end ULA's
reliance on the Russian RD180
engines.
Avery: And he was such a public facing CEO, wasn't
he? He was famous for his engaging presence
on social media, always willing to answer
technical questions from space fans. He
really modernized ula's public image. It
truly feels like the end of an era for the
company. Do we know who's taking over?
Anna: For now, John Elban has been appointed as the
interim CEO while they search for a permanent
replacement. It will certainly be interesting
to see the direction ULA takes in this new
chapter.
Avery: And that's all the time we have for today.
From rocket failures and celestial mechanics
to a packed launch schedule and critical
safety reviews, it's been another busy day in
the world of astronomy and spaceflight.
Anna: Thanks for tuning in to Astronomy Daily.
We'll be back tomorrow with more news from
across the cosmos. Until then, I'm Anna.
Avery: And I'm Avery. Keep looking up
Astronomy Day
stories be told.
Anna: The world.