Cosmic Milestones: All-Female Spaceflight, Supernova Secrets, and Stellar Symphonies

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Astronomy Daily, where we bring you the latest in space and astronomy news. I'm your host, Anna, and today we'll explore an exciting array of cosmic events from Blue Origin's historic all-female flight to supernovae that may have shaped Earth's history, and much more. From stellar rhythms that reveal the secrets of our galaxy to NASA's Lucy spacecraft preparing for its next asteroid encounter, we have a universe of discoveries to share with you today. Let's kick things off today with the one story everyone seems to be talking about.

Blue Origin made history this past Monday with a groundbreaking achievement in human spaceflight - the first all-female crewed rocket launch since 1963. What took them so long? Their New Shepard rocket carried six remarkable women beyond Earth's atmosphere on the company's 31st launch and 11th crewed mission overall.

At 9:30 AM Eastern on April 14th, the RSS Kármán Line space capsule lifted off from Blue Origin's Launch Site One in West Texas with an extraordinary passenger manifest. Pop superstar Katy Perry joined mission leader Lauren Sánchez, journalist Gayle King, bioastronautics scientist Amanda Nguyễn, film producer Kerianne Flynn, and former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe on this historic journey. The flight itself lasted approximately 10.5 minutes, but its impact will be felt for generations. During those brief moments in space, the crew experienced about four minutes of weightlessness as their capsule arced above the Kármán line – the internationally recognized boundary of space at 62 miles altitude. Despite the brevity of their spaceflight, each woman returned transformed by what astronauts often call the "overview effect" – that profound shift in awareness that comes from seeing our planet from space. As Katy Perry eloquently put it after landing, "It is the highest high, and it is surrender to the unknown, trust."

The mission carried special significance beyond its all-female crew composition. Amanda Nguyễn made history as the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman to fly to space. For Gayle King, who has an outspoken fear of flying, the mission represented an extraordinary step outside her comfort zone. Each passenger brought personal items that carried deep meaning. Perry brought a daisy, which she described as a resilient flower that "grows through any condition," symbolizing strength and beauty. Nguyễn carried two particularly poignant items – her hospital band from a sexual assault and a written promise to herself from that time, using the flight to honor her journey of healing.

For Lauren Sánchez, the mission leader and fiancée of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, the experience revealed Earth's underlying unity. "We're so connected. More connected than you realize," she reflected, noting how the view from space dissolves the artificial divisions between people. This historic suborbital flight not only broke barriers but also demonstrated the expanding horizons of commercial spaceflight, where increasingly diverse crews are experiencing the life-changing perspective that comes from seeing our fragile blue planet against the vast darkness of space. Each of the women who experienced the historic NS-31 mission returned to Earth with transformative insights that went far beyond the typical excitement of spaceflight. Their perspectives offer a glimpse into how seeing our planet from above can fundamentally shift human consciousness.

Mission leader Lauren Sánchez described Earth from space as profoundly quiet and peaceful. "We're so connected. More connected than you realize," she reflected. "Because you just see all these things that divide us. But we're not." The experience left her wanting to "come back and just hug everyone" with the realization that "we're in this together." Sánchez expressed hope that more people could experience this perspective shift, uncertain of just how deeply it would change her. For Amanda Nguyễn, the flight carried immense symbolic weight as she became the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman in space. Her journey held special significance for survivors of trauma. "I just want all survivors to know that you can heal. No dream is too wild," she said, referencing her own experience as a sexual assault survivor. By bringing her hospital band from that day into space, she honored her past self and demonstrated the possibility of healing and achievement even after profound trauma.

Gayle King, who has a well-known fear of flying, found unexpected courage through the experience. "Eleanor Roosevelt once said, 'courage is doing something that scares you, but you do it anyway,'" King reflected. "Now that I've done it, I really do feel I can take on anything." She described the powerful silence of space and how it reminded her of our shared responsibility on Earth. "It's really quiet and peaceful. If everybody could experience that peace that we had up there... I'll never, ever, ever forget." Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientist, was transformed by the view. "I will never be the same," she declared, noting how Earth filled their windows with no visible boundaries or borders. Her message after landing was emphatically clear: "Dream it, plan it and go and do it. I never really thought I could go to space, although I really wanted to go."

For Katy Perry, the experience ranked as her life's second most incredible moment, after the birth of her daughter. "It's not about me, it's not about singing my songs. It's about a collective energy," Perry emphasized. "It's about making space for future women and taking up space and belonging." The bond formed through this shared journey created what King called "a true sisterhood" that will connect these pioneering women forever.

Speaking of launches, let's get a quick roundup of what else is planned this week. The global launch schedule is hitting a bit of a lull this week with just four launches on the calendar, but each mission carries significant importance for space exploration and national security. Leading the week's activities is a Minotaur IV rocket set to lift off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Wednesday. This mission, designated NROL-174, will carry a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office. The 78-foot-tall four-stage rocket, derived from the Peacekeeper missile design, will follow a southeasterly trajectory to place its mysterious cargo into low-Earth orbit. This marks the first Minotaur IV mission of 2025 and just the sixth in the vehicle's operational history.

Friday brings us Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket, which will make another attempt to launch Lockheed Martin's new LM400 satellite bus from Vandenberg. Dubbed "Message In A Booster," this mission has faced multiple delays since its originally scheduled March launch window. The LM400 will carry a demonstration communications payload into orbit, marking Alpha's first flight of 2025 and its sixth mission overall. The two-stage rocket stands nearly 97 feet tall and uses kerosene and liquid oxygen to power its Reaver engines in the first stage and single Lightning engine in the second stage.

SpaceX rounds out the week with two Falcon 9 launches. The first, scheduled for Saturday from Vandenberg, will loft another classified NRO payload, believed to be the tenth batch of Starshield reconnaissance satellites. The booster supporting this mission is expected to land on the drone ship "Of Course I Still Love You" stationed about 400 miles downrange in the Pacific Ocean. The second Falcon 9 mission comes Monday with the CRS-32 cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. Launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, this flight will deliver essential supplies, scientific experiments, and spare parts to the orbiting laboratory. Among the science payloads is a French atomic clock for the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space experiment, which will test Einstein's theory of general relativity by measuring how gravity affects the flow of time with unprecedented precision.

Also heading to the ISS are experiments to monitor airborne particles inside the station, a robotic spacecraft guidance demonstration, pharmaceutical manufacturing experiments, and plant growth studies. The Falcon 9 booster for this mission is expected to return for a landing at Cape Canaveral's Landing Zone 1 shortly after launch.

Meanwhile further out in space. NASA's Lucy spacecraft is now just days away from its second asteroid encounter, approaching the small main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson at a distance of less than 50 million miles. The April 20th rendezvous will serve as a comprehensive dress rehearsal for Lucy's primary mission – exploring multiple Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun over the next decade. The upcoming flyby builds on lessons learned from Lucy's first asteroid encounter last November, when it successfully visited the tiny main belt asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam. Mission controllers are now preparing for a more complex observation sequence as Lucy approaches Donaldjohanson.

At its closest approach, scheduled for 1:51 PM Eastern on Saturday, Lucy will pass within just 596 miles of the asteroid. About 30 minutes before this moment, the spacecraft will orient itself to track Donaldjohanson, temporarily turning its high-gain antenna away from Earth and suspending communications. Guided by its terminal tracking system, Lucy will autonomously rotate to keep the asteroid in view while all three science instruments collect data. Unlike the Dinkinesh encounter, Lucy will need to stop tracking Donaldjohanson 40 seconds before closest approach to protect its sensitive instruments from intense sunlight. As encounter phase lead Michael Vincent explains, "If you were sitting on the asteroid watching Lucy approach, you would have to shield your eyes from the Sun while waiting for Lucy to emerge from the glare. After Lucy passes, the positions will be reversed, so we have to shield the instruments in the same way."

This challenging geometry is unique among Lucy's planned asteroid encounters. After closest approach, the spacecraft will reorient its solar arrays toward the Sun and reestablish communication with Earth approximately an hour later. The 25-minute round-trip light delay presents its own challenges. When mission controllers command data playback after closest approach, they'll need to wait nearly half an hour before receiving any images or confirmation that their commands were received. Donaldjohanson itself presents an intriguing target, representing a fragment from a collision that occurred 150 million years ago – making it one of the youngest main belt asteroids ever visited by a spacecraft. As mission program scientist Tom Statler notes, "Every asteroid has a different story to tell, and these stories weave together to paint the history of our solar system."

Next up today. A fascinating new study suggests that deadly cosmic explosions may have twice brought mass extinction to our planet. Researchers from Keele University have linked two of Earth's major extinction events to nearby supernova explosions - stellar deaths so powerful they could have severely disrupted Earth's atmosphere. These massive stellar blasts, which occur when large stars collapse and explode at the end of their lives, may have destroyed our planet's protective ozone layer, triggered acid rain, and exposed Earth's surface to dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun. The researchers specifically point to the Ordovician extinction about 445 million years ago and the late Devonian extinction around 372 million years ago as likely candidates influenced by these cosmic catastrophes. The Ordovician event wiped out 60 percent of marine invertebrates at a time when life was largely confined to the seas, while the late Devonian extinction eliminated approximately 70 percent of all species, dramatically altering the types of fish that inhabited ancient oceans and lakes.

What makes this research particularly compelling is that past studies have failed to identify clear causes for either extinction event, though both have been linked to ozone layer depletion - something a supernova could easily trigger. To reach their conclusion, the research team conducted a "census" of massive stars within about 3,260 light-years of our Sun. By mapping the distribution of these massive OB stars, they calculated the rate at which supernovae occur in our cosmic neighborhood. When they compared this data with the timing of Earth's mass extinctions, they found a compelling correlation that supports the supernova theory.

The researchers describe supernovae as both "creators and destroyers of life" - they spread heavy elements that help form and sustain life across the universe, but if a planet is too close to such an explosion, the effects can be devastating. Before you start worrying about our cosmic neighborhood, astronomers believe only two nearby stars could potentially go supernova within the next million years: Antares and Betelgeuse. Fortunately, both are more than 500 light-years away, and computer simulations suggest supernovae at that distance likely wouldn't affect Earth.

This research not only helps explain Earth's past but provides valuable insights into the complex relationship between cosmic events and life on our planet.

Finally today. Have you ever wondered what stars would sound like if we could hear them? Well, scientists from UNSW Sydney, Australia, have been "listening" to stars sing, and what they've discovered is giving us unprecedented insights into stellar evolution. By analyzing the subtle oscillations of 27 stars in a cluster called M67, located about 2,700 light-years away, researchers have unlocked what they describe as the "sounds" of stars. These stellar vibrations, detectable by telescopes as tiny fluctuations in brightness, act like cosmic fingerprints that reveal a star's age, mass, and stage of life.

What makes this study particularly valuable is that all these stars were born from the same gas cloud approximately four billion years ago. They share nearly identical chemical compositions but differ in mass, providing researchers with a perfect natural laboratory to observe how stars evolve under similar conditions. "When we study stars in a cluster, we can see their whole sequence of individual evolution," explains Dr. Claudia Reyes, who led the study published in Nature. Though the same age, their different masses mean they're aging at different rates, giving scientists a snapshot of various life stages all in one place. Professor Dennis Stello, co-author of the study, likens this process to listening to an orchestra. "The frequency by which an instrument is vibrating depends on the physical properties of the matter that the sound travels through," he says. "Stars are the same. You can 'hear' a star based on how it rings."

The biggest stars produce the deepest "sounds," while smaller stars emit higher-pitched frequencies. As stars mature toward becoming red giants, these frequency patterns change in distinctive ways that track their evolution. This breakthrough has significant implications. It not only helps us understand what lies ahead for our own Sun but also allows astronomers to more accurately map the history of the Milky Way by determining the true ages of stars throughout our galaxy. Since our Sun was born in a cluster similar to M67, these findings give us a glimpse into both our solar system's past and its future. The research also has implications for the search for habitable planets, as a star's properties are critical for supporting life on worlds that orbit them. By listening to the stars sing, we're unlocking the secrets of the cosmos in ways never before possible.

That wraps up today's cosmic journey on Astronomy Daily. From the profound experiences of the latest all-female crew in space to the stars that literally sing to us across the cosmos, our universe continues to amaze and inspire. Whether we're witnessing nearby asteroid encounters, tracking rocket launches, or discovering how ancient supernovae may have shaped life on Earth, space exploration connects us all to something greater than ourselves. I'm Anna, your host, and I want to thank you for joining me. To catch up on all the latest space and astronomy news, visit our website at astronomydaily.io where you can find our constantly updating newsfeed and listen to all our back episodes. You can also find us on social media - just search for AstroDailyPod on X, Facebook, YouTube, YouTube Music, Instagram, and TikTok.

Until next time, keep looking up!