**Main story: a magnetar confirms 90-year-old vacuum birefringence prediction.** A team led by Rachael Stewart (George Washington University), using NASA's IXPE spacecraft, found the strongest evidence yet that extreme magnetic fields polarize light passing through empty space — confirming a 1936 prediction by Werner Heisenberg and Hans Euler. The team studied magnetar 1E 1547-5408 and found X-rays nearly 3x more polarized than expected, in a direction matching the star's magnetic field. Published August 5 in *Nature*.
**The week in review:**
- **Starship:** Ship 40 (Flight 13, splashed down July 24) remains adrift in the Indian Ocean after recovery efforts stalled in rough seas; Elon Musk said August 7 that recovery is "not looking good right now." Still unresolved as of this weekend — roughly 18% recovery odds per prediction markets. SpaceX has moved on to Flight 14 prep (Ship 41, targeting ~August 20).
- **Eclipse:** The August 12 total solar eclipse swept a 182-mile shadow from the Arctic through Greenland, Iceland (2m18s max totality at Látrabjarg) and northern Spain. Next Spanish total eclipse: August 2, 2027.
- **Black hole star:** JWST's "Mirage or Miracle" survey identified MoM-BH*-1, a gas-shrouded black hole glowing from just 660 million years after the Big Bang — a candidate explanation for how supermassive black holes grow so fast.
- **Virgin Galactic:** Commercial flights delayed again, from Q4 2026 to February 2027; Q2 earnings (revenue $1.54M, net loss ~$55.9M) sent shares down further, with heavy cash burn guided for Q3/Q4 and a new shelf filing for capital flexibility.
**Links & sources:**
- [Space.com — Is empty space really empty? This magnetic star may finally solve a 90-year-old mystery](https://www.space.com/astronomy/stars/is-empty-space-really-empty-this-magnetic-star-may-finally-solve-a-90-year-old-mystery)
- [Space.com — 'Not looking good right now': Starship likely to be lost at sea](https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/not-looking-good-right-now-starship-likely-to-be-lost-at-sea-2-weeks-after-epic-13th-test-flight-elon-musk-says)
- [NASASpaceFlight.com — While SpaceX recovers Ship 40, Ship 41 prepares for testing ahead of Flight 14](https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2026/08/spacex-recovers-ship-40-ship-41-flight-14/)
- [Manifold Markets — Will Starship Ship 40 be recovered to shore?](https://manifold.markets/Mqrius/will-starship-ship-40-be-recovered)
- [Space.com — Total solar eclipse 2026 thrills millions](https://www.space.com/stargazing/solar-eclipses/total-solar-eclipse-2026-thrills-millions-with-a-stunning-cosmic-spectacle-photos-video)
- [Wikipedia — Solar eclipse of August 12, 2026](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2026)
- [EurekAlert — Mirage or miracle? JWST finds earliest known 'black hole star' at cosmic dawn](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1139484)
- [SpaceNews — Virgin Galactic delays resumption of commercial flights to 2027](https://spacenews.com/virgin-galactic-delays-resumption-of-commercial-flights-to-2027/)
- [Virgin Galactic — Q2 2026 financial results and business update](https://www.virgingalactic.com/news/virgin-galactic-announces-second-quarter-2026-financial-results-and-provides-business-update)
- [StocksToTrade — Virgin Galactic (SPCE) news, Aug 13 2026](https://stockstotrade.com/news/virgin-galactic-holdings-inc-spce-news-2026_08_13/)
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This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:00 --> 00:00:03 Anna: Hey, everyone, welcome back to Astronomy
00:00:03 --> 00:00:05 AstroDailyPod. And if it's the weekend where
00:00:05 --> 00:00:07 you are, welcome to a slightly different
00:00:07 --> 00:00:08 edition of the show.
00:00:08 --> 00:00:11 Avery: This is the weekend wrap. Same show, same,
00:00:11 --> 00:00:13 uh, us, same runtime. But on the weekend,
00:00:13 --> 00:00:15 we're doing things a little differently. One
00:00:15 --> 00:00:17 fresh leap storey you haven't heard from us
00:00:17 --> 00:00:19 yet. And then we round up the big storeys
00:00:19 --> 00:00:20 from the week. In case you missed any of
00:00:20 --> 00:00:20 them,
00:00:21 --> 00:00:23 Anna: it's Saturday, August 15th, series five,
00:00:23 --> 00:00:26 episode 168. And it has
00:00:26 --> 00:00:28 genuinely been one of the biggest weeks we've
00:00:28 --> 00:00:31 covered in a while. Total eclipse, triple
00:00:31 --> 00:00:34 black holes. A black hole hiding inside a
00:00:34 --> 00:00:37 star. A rocket possibly lost at sea.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:39 So today we're going to do two things.
00:00:39 --> 00:00:41 Avery: First, a brand new storey that landed just
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 yesterday. Physicists may have finally
00:00:44 --> 00:00:46 confirmed something WERNER Heisenberg
00:00:46 --> 00:00:48 predicted 90 years ago about empty space
00:00:49 --> 00:00:51 not actually being empty, which is
00:00:51 --> 00:00:53 Anna: a great one to lead with because it's the
00:00:53 --> 00:00:55 kind of storey that would have been our
00:00:55 --> 00:00:57 Tuesday or Wednesday main storey any other
00:00:57 --> 00:00:59 week. It's just that this week had a lot of
00:00:59 --> 00:01:00 competition.
00:01:01 --> 00:01:03 Avery: Then we're going to run back through the week
00:01:03 --> 00:01:05 an update on Starship, which we told you
00:01:05 --> 00:01:07 Monday might be lost at sea. The black hole
00:01:07 --> 00:01:10 star we covered yesterday. Tuesday's eclipse
00:01:10 --> 00:01:13 and Virgin Galactic's rough few days.
00:01:13 --> 00:01:15 Anna: Lots to get through. Let's get into it.
00:01:16 --> 00:01:18 Okay, so this storey starts in
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 1936, which is a very unusual
00:01:21 --> 00:01:22 place for us to start.
00:01:22 --> 00:01:24 Avery: Very unusual. Take us back.
00:01:25 --> 00:01:27 Anna: So, in 1936, the physicist Werner
00:01:27 --> 00:01:30 Heisenberg and his student Hans Euler
00:01:30 --> 00:01:32 proposed something that sounds like science
00:01:32 --> 00:01:35 fiction. That empty space isn't actually
00:01:35 --> 00:01:38 empty. That what looks like a vacuum is
00:01:38 --> 00:01:40 really the simmering sea of virtual
00:01:40 --> 00:01:43 particles, electrons and positrons,
00:01:43 --> 00:01:45 flickering in and out of existence for
00:01:45 --> 00:01:46 fractions of a second.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:48 Avery: Which already sounds made up.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:51 Anna: It does, but it follows from quantum theory.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:53 And here's the testable prediction that came
00:01:53 --> 00:01:55 out of it. If you put that empty space
00:01:56 --> 00:01:59 inside an extraordinarily strong magnetic
00:01:59 --> 00:02:01 field, light passing through it should get
00:02:01 --> 00:02:04 polarised in a specific direction, an effect
00:02:04 --> 00:02:07 called vacuum birefringence. Basically,
00:02:07 --> 00:02:09 the vacuum itself starts behaving a bit like
00:02:09 --> 00:02:10 a lens.
00:02:10 --> 00:02:13 Avery: And the problem, I'm guessing, is that
00:02:13 --> 00:02:15 nobody's ever been able to build a magnetic
00:02:15 --> 00:02:17 field strong enough to actually test that.
00:02:17 --> 00:02:19 Anna: Exactly the problem. We're talking about a
00:02:19 --> 00:02:22 magnetic field more than 100 million
00:02:22 --> 00:02:25 times stronger than anything we've ever
00:02:25 --> 00:02:27 produced on earth. So for 90 years, this has
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 just sat there as an untested prediction of
00:02:30 --> 00:02:32 Avery: quantum electrodynamics, which is where the
00:02:32 --> 00:02:33 magnetar
00:02:33 --> 00:02:36 Anna: Comes in right, because it turns out the
00:02:36 --> 00:02:38 universe has already built the lab we needed.
00:02:39 --> 00:02:41 There's a magnetar out there, a dead star
00:02:41 --> 00:02:44 called 1E1547
00:02:44 --> 00:02:47 5408. Thousands of
00:02:47 --> 00:02:50 light years away. And its magnetic field is
00:02:50 --> 00:02:52 easily strong enough. A team led by Rachel
00:02:52 --> 00:02:54 Stewart, a, uh, physics grad student at
00:02:54 --> 00:02:57 George Washington University, used NASA's
00:02:57 --> 00:03:00 IXPE spacecraft, that's the
00:03:00 --> 00:03:03 Imaging X Ray Polarimetry Explorer, to
00:03:03 --> 00:03:03 cheque.
00:03:03 --> 00:03:06 Avery: And IXPE's whole job is measuring
00:03:06 --> 00:03:07 polarisation.
00:03:07 --> 00:03:10 Anna: That's exactly its job. It launched in
00:03:10 --> 00:03:13 2021 specifically to measure how
00:03:13 --> 00:03:15 polarised high energy X rays are.
00:03:16 --> 00:03:19 Stewart's team pointed it at this magnetar in
00:03:19 --> 00:03:21 March and April of last year and backed that
00:03:21 --> 00:03:24 up with observations. The International Space
00:03:24 --> 00:03:27 Station, Australia's Murrayang Radio
00:03:27 --> 00:03:30 Telescope and the South African Radio
00:03:30 --> 00:03:31 Astronomy Observatory.
00:03:32 --> 00:03:33 Avery: So what did they actually find?
00:03:34 --> 00:03:36 Anna: Two things that together made a pretty
00:03:36 --> 00:03:39 compelling case. First, the X rays
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 coming off this magnetar were almost three
00:03:42 --> 00:03:45 times more polarised than standard models of
00:03:45 --> 00:03:47 a neutron star's surface could explain on
00:03:47 --> 00:03:50 their own. Second, and um, this is the
00:03:50 --> 00:03:53 clincher, the direction of that polarisation
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 lined up with the star's magnetic field
00:03:56 --> 00:03:58 and matched the pattern they were already
00:03:58 --> 00:04:00 seeing in its radio waves.
00:04:00 --> 00:04:02 Avery: So it's not just more polarised than
00:04:02 --> 00:04:05 expected, it's polarised in exactly the
00:04:05 --> 00:04:07 direction the Heisenberg Euler prediction
00:04:07 --> 00:04:08 says it should be.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:11 Anna: Exactly. Put those two things together and
00:04:11 --> 00:04:14 vacuum by refringence becomes basically the
00:04:14 --> 00:04:16 only explanation left standing.
00:04:16 --> 00:04:18 Avery: 90 years is a long time to wait for a
00:04:18 --> 00:04:20 callback, really is.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:23 Anna: And Stuart had a nice line about what this
00:04:23 --> 00:04:25 actually means for how we use objects like
00:04:25 --> 00:04:27 this. She said we're not just studying
00:04:27 --> 00:04:30 astronomical objects anymore, we're using
00:04:30 --> 00:04:32 them to test the laws of nature.
00:04:32 --> 00:04:35 Avery: That's a good way to put it. The magnetar
00:04:35 --> 00:04:38 isn't really the subject of the study, it's
00:04:38 --> 00:04:38 the equipment.
00:04:39 --> 00:04:42 Anna: Right. It's a 100 million times stronger
00:04:42 --> 00:04:44 than Earth's best particle physics lab that
00:04:44 --> 00:04:46 just happens to be sitting out there
00:04:46 --> 00:04:49 thousands of light years away. One of the co
00:04:49 --> 00:04:51 authors, Marcus Lower at Swinburne University
00:04:51 --> 00:04:54 in Australia, put some scale on that. He
00:04:54 --> 00:04:57 said detecting vacuum birefringence
00:04:57 --> 00:04:59 requires a magnetic field over a hundred
00:05:00 --> 00:05:02 million times stronger than any we've ever
00:05:02 --> 00:05:03 made on Earth.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:06 Avery: So there's no version of this experiment that
00:05:06 --> 00:05:09 ever happens in a lab. You need a magnetar
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 or nothing, nothing
00:05:11 --> 00:05:13 Anna: else will do it. And I liked Lower's other
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 quote because it's a nice reminder of what a
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 confirmation result like this actually feels
00:05:18 --> 00:05:20 like for physicists he said it's a bit of a
00:05:20 --> 00:05:22 relief because it means that our theories
00:05:22 --> 00:05:24 still work and there's nothing
00:05:24 --> 00:05:27 Avery: broken with physics, which is honestly kind
00:05:27 --> 00:05:29 of funny. The good outcome here is boring.
00:05:29 --> 00:05:32 Nothing broke, right.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:34 Anna: The exciting result would have been actually
00:05:35 --> 00:05:38 quantum electrodynamics is wrong and everyone
00:05:38 --> 00:05:40 would have had a much more interesting week
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 and a much worse year. This is the
00:05:42 --> 00:05:45 quietly satisfying outcome. Instead, a 90
00:05:45 --> 00:05:48 year old prediction just got its first real
00:05:48 --> 00:05:49 observational backing.
00:05:50 --> 00:05:52 Avery: Where does this go next? Is this case closed
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 or is there more confirmation needed?
00:05:54 --> 00:05:57 Anna: More confirmation is very much still wanted.
00:05:57 --> 00:05:59 This is a strong first detection, not the
00:05:59 --> 00:06:01 last word. There's a Future mission called
00:06:01 --> 00:06:04 GoSox that's specifically designed to chase
00:06:04 --> 00:06:06 this effect further and nail it down with
00:06:06 --> 00:06:09 more precision. But for now, this is the
00:06:09 --> 00:06:11 strongest evidence anyone's produced that the
00:06:11 --> 00:06:14 vacuum genuinely behaves the way Heisenberg
00:06:14 --> 00:06:17 and Euler said it would back in 1936.
00:06:17 --> 00:06:20 Avery: And just to place it, this research was
00:06:20 --> 00:06:22 published August 5th in Nature, so it's had a
00:06:22 --> 00:06:24 couple of weeks to circulate before really
00:06:24 --> 00:06:26 breaking into wider coverage
00:06:26 --> 00:06:28 Anna: this week, which happens a lot with these
00:06:28 --> 00:06:30 physics results. The paper drops and then it
00:06:30 --> 00:06:32 takes a beat for people to fully appreciate
00:06:32 --> 00:06:35 what it means. But once you explain this
00:06:35 --> 00:06:38 confirms space itself isn't empty, it
00:06:38 --> 00:06:38 tends to land.
00:06:39 --> 00:06:41 Avery: It's a great one to kick off the weekend with
00:06:41 --> 00:06:44 genuinely new physics, using the universe as
00:06:44 --> 00:06:45 the lab nobody could ever build.
00:06:46 --> 00:06:49 Anna: All right, on to the recap. It has been an
00:06:49 --> 00:06:52 absolutely stacked week, so let's go roughly
00:06:52 --> 00:06:54 in the order it happened, starting with
00:06:54 --> 00:06:54 Monday.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:57 Avery: Monday we told you SpaceX's Starship might be
00:06:57 --> 00:06:59 lost at sea. So let's start there with an
00:06:59 --> 00:07:01 update, because it's been hanging in limbo
00:07:01 --> 00:07:01 all week.
00:07:02 --> 00:07:04 Anna: Quick recap for anyone who missed Monday.
00:07:04 --> 00:07:06 This goes Back to Flight 13, which launched
00:07:06 --> 00:07:09 July 24. The upper stage, Ship
00:07:09 --> 00:07:12 40 did something no starship upper stage
00:07:12 --> 00:07:15 had ever done before. It survived a
00:07:15 --> 00:07:17 soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean off
00:07:17 --> 00:07:20 Western Australia, completely intact,
00:07:20 --> 00:07:22 Avery: which was actually the good news storey
00:07:22 --> 00:07:23 originally.
00:07:23 --> 00:07:25 Anna: It really was. SpaceX started towing it
00:07:25 --> 00:07:28 towards shore in Australia, and for a few
00:07:28 --> 00:07:30 days it looked like they might genuinely
00:07:30 --> 00:07:33 bring an intact Upper Stage home for the
00:07:33 --> 00:07:35 first time. But the weather didn't cooperate.
00:07:35 --> 00:07:37 Seas got rougher, conditions kept
00:07:37 --> 00:07:40 deteriorating, and on August 7th, Elon
00:07:40 --> 00:07:42 Musk gave the update. We led Monday's episode
00:07:42 --> 00:07:45 with. He said ship recovery is not looking
00:07:45 --> 00:07:46 good right now.
00:07:46 --> 00:07:48 Avery: And, um, where does that stand now, nearly a
00:07:48 --> 00:07:49 week later?
00:07:49 --> 00:07:52 Anna: Still unresolved, honestly. As of this
00:07:52 --> 00:07:55 weekend, ship 40 remains out there, still
00:07:55 --> 00:07:58 afloat as far as anyone's confirmed, but the
00:07:58 --> 00:08:00 recovery ship, Geo Australis has been
00:08:00 --> 00:08:02 holding position near it rather than making
00:08:02 --> 00:08:05 obvious progress. Prediction markets
00:08:05 --> 00:08:08 watching this closely have it at somewhere
00:08:08 --> 00:08:11 around an 18% chance of the ship actually
00:08:11 --> 00:08:12 making it back to shore.
00:08:13 --> 00:08:15 Avery: So not officially declared lost, but not
00:08:15 --> 00:08:16 looking great either.
00:08:17 --> 00:08:19 Anna: That's the honest summary, genuinely
00:08:19 --> 00:08:22 unresolved. The one bit of good news is that
00:08:22 --> 00:08:25 SpaceX already got what they really needed
00:08:25 --> 00:08:27 from this before the weather turned close up
00:08:27 --> 00:08:30 drone footage of the heat shield and engine
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 sections, which is the data that actually
00:08:32 --> 00:08:35 matters for building the next ships. So Even
00:08:35 --> 00:08:37 if ship 40 never makes it to port, the
00:08:37 --> 00:08:38 programme's already moved
00:08:38 --> 00:08:41 Avery: on to the next one, and life goes on
00:08:41 --> 00:08:44 regardless. SpaceX isn't waiting around for a
00:08:44 --> 00:08:46 resolution, not at all.
00:08:46 --> 00:08:49 Anna: Ship 41's already working through its own
00:08:49 --> 00:08:52 test sequence for Flight 14, which is
00:08:52 --> 00:08:54 currently targeting around August 20th.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:57 Booster 21's finishing up engine
00:08:57 --> 00:08:59 installation for its own static fire testing,
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 and there's repair work underway at the pad
00:09:02 --> 00:09:05 after flight 13. So whatever happens to
00:09:05 --> 00:09:07 ship 40, the programme's already moved on to
00:09:07 --> 00:09:08 the next one.
00:09:08 --> 00:09:10 Avery: We'll keep an eye on it and let you know if
00:09:10 --> 00:09:12 there's a final word either way.
00:09:12 --> 00:09:15 Anna: Next up, and honestly, still probably the
00:09:15 --> 00:09:17 single biggest storey of the week. Tuesday's
00:09:17 --> 00:09:19 total solar eclipse.
00:09:19 --> 00:09:22 Avery: We did a full deep dive Thursday, so quick
00:09:22 --> 00:09:24 version for anyone catching up. A, uh,
00:09:24 --> 00:09:27 182 mile wide shadow swept
00:09:27 --> 00:09:29 from the Arctic Ocean down across eastern
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 Greenland and western Iceland and then out
00:09:32 --> 00:09:34 across northern Spain before heading into the
00:09:34 --> 00:09:35 Mediterranean.
00:09:36 --> 00:09:38 Anna: The longest totality anywhere on land was 2
00:09:38 --> 00:09:41 minutes 18 seconds at a dramatic
00:09:41 --> 00:09:44 bird cliff on Iceland called La Tribarg.
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 Millions of people gathered across northern
00:09:46 --> 00:09:49 Spain too. Towns like Valoria, Labuina
00:09:49 --> 00:09:52 and Segur de Calafel were packed with
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 totality, arriving low on the horizon about
00:09:55 --> 00:09:58 an hour before sunset for a genuinely
00:09:58 --> 00:09:59 golden dramatic show.
00:10:00 --> 00:10:03 Avery: And it wasn't just spectacle. Observers got a
00:10:03 --> 00:10:05 rare direct look at the sun's corona, a
00:10:05 --> 00:10:08 solar prominence and Jupiter, Jupiter,
00:10:08 --> 00:10:10 Mercury and Venus all visible in the darkened
00:10:10 --> 00:10:11 sky during totality.
00:10:12 --> 00:10:14 Anna: One line from that episode that stuck with me
00:10:14 --> 00:10:17 all week. An observer in Spain described it
00:10:17 --> 00:10:19 as something that strikes the lizard part of
00:10:19 --> 00:10:21 your brain that just tells you this shouldn't
00:10:21 --> 00:10:22 be real.
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 Avery: Still the best description of totality we've
00:10:25 --> 00:10:27 heard. And if you're already plotting your
00:10:27 --> 00:10:29 next one, Spain gets another total solar
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 eclipse on August 2, 2027.
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 Anna: Less than a year away, eclipse chasers are
00:10:35 --> 00:10:37 having a very good stretch.
00:10:37 --> 00:10:39 Avery: Storey three. And, um, this one's fresh.
00:10:39 --> 00:10:42 Yesterday's episode in fact. So if you're a
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43 regular weekday listener. You've already
00:10:44 --> 00:10:46 heard the full version, but for anyone
00:10:46 --> 00:10:48 joining us just on weekends, here's the
00:10:48 --> 00:10:48 headline.
00:10:49 --> 00:10:51 Anna: Astronomers using the James Webb Space
00:10:51 --> 00:10:54 Telescope found what they're calling a black
00:10:54 --> 00:10:55 hole star bomb
00:10:56 --> 00:10:58 BH1 out of the
00:10:58 --> 00:11:01 Mirage or Miracle JWST
00:11:01 --> 00:11:04 survey. It's a young, rapidly growing
00:11:04 --> 00:11:06 black hole wrapped in such a dense,
00:11:06 --> 00:11:09 turbulent cocoon of gas that the who whole
00:11:09 --> 00:11:11 object glows almost like a star,
00:11:12 --> 00:11:14 even though a black hole is doing the work at
00:11:14 --> 00:11:15 the centre.
00:11:15 --> 00:11:18 Avery: And it's ancient. The light left it about
00:11:18 --> 00:11:21 660 million years after the Big Bang,
00:11:21 --> 00:11:24 roughly 13 billion years ago, making it
00:11:24 --> 00:11:27 the earliest confirmed object of its kind,
00:11:27 --> 00:11:27 led by
00:11:27 --> 00:11:30 Anna: Rohan Naidu at the University of Hawaii
00:11:30 --> 00:11:33 and Yorat Matthy at the Institute of Science
00:11:33 --> 00:11:35 and Technology Austria. And the reason it
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 matters beyond cool a weird object is
00:11:38 --> 00:11:41 that it might explain a 50 year old puzzle
00:11:41 --> 00:11:44 how supermassive black holes got so
00:11:44 --> 00:11:47 big so early when normal gas
00:11:47 --> 00:11:49 accretion shouldn't have had time to do it.
00:11:49 --> 00:11:52 Avery: And, uh, it ties directly back to Thursday's
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 storey too, doesn't it? The three black holes
00:11:54 --> 00:11:56 sharing one galaxy,
00:11:56 --> 00:11:58 Anna: exactly the same puzzle from a different
00:11:58 --> 00:12:00 angle. If black holes can hit these
00:12:00 --> 00:12:03 accelerated growth phases, whether through a
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 gas cocoon like this one, or through merging
00:12:06 --> 00:12:08 with each Thursday's trio, that gives them
00:12:08 --> 00:12:11 a much faster route to becoming super
00:12:11 --> 00:12:14 massive. Two chapters of the same bigger
00:12:14 --> 00:12:14 storey,
00:12:14 --> 00:12:17 Avery: basically back to back AJWST
00:12:17 --> 00:12:20 just quietly having one of the best months of
00:12:20 --> 00:12:21 any telescope ever built.
00:12:22 --> 00:12:25 Anna: Last one Virgin Galactic. And this is a
00:12:25 --> 00:12:27 storey that actually got worse as the week
00:12:27 --> 00:12:27 went on.
00:12:28 --> 00:12:30 Avery: We flagged the headline Thursday. Their
00:12:30 --> 00:12:32 upgraded Delta class spacecraft, which was
00:12:32 --> 00:12:34 supposed to start flying paying customers
00:12:34 --> 00:12:36 this quarter, has slipped to February
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 2027. Company says they need more time
00:12:39 --> 00:12:42 on avionics and systems installation before
00:12:42 --> 00:12:43 putting people on board.
00:12:44 --> 00:12:46 Anna: Shares dropped about 12% in after
00:12:46 --> 00:12:48 hours trading when that news broke.
00:12:49 --> 00:12:51 Avery: And then Wednesday the company reported its
00:12:51 --> 00:12:53 second quarter results. And that's where it
00:12:53 --> 00:12:56 got worse. Revenue came in at just
00:12:56 --> 00:12:59 $1.54 million, well under
00:12:59 --> 00:13:01 expectations, with a net loss of around
00:13:01 --> 00:13:04 $55.9 million for the quarter.
00:13:04 --> 00:13:06 Anna: The stock fell another roughly
00:13:06 --> 00:13:09 7.7% on that news, and
00:13:09 --> 00:13:11 management's now guiding toward some
00:13:11 --> 00:13:13 genuinely rough cash burn for the rest of the
00:13:13 --> 00:13:16 year, 95 to $100 million
00:13:16 --> 00:13:18 going out the door in the third quarter
00:13:19 --> 00:13:21 alone, 80 to 90 million in the fourth.
00:13:22 --> 00:13:24 They've also filed paperwork that lets them
00:13:24 --> 00:13:27 raise capital through stock debt or warrants
00:13:27 --> 00:13:29 if they need to, which is the kind of filing
00:13:29 --> 00:13:32 that exists specifically because a company
00:13:32 --> 00:13:33 thinks it might need it.
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 Avery: That's not a great combination. Bigger
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 losses, a slipping timeline, and now, uh, the
00:13:38 --> 00:13:41 option to dilute existing shareholders if
00:13:41 --> 00:13:42 cash gets tight.
00:13:42 --> 00:13:45 Anna: It's not, though there is one genuine bright
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 spot buried in there. Their
00:13:47 --> 00:13:50 $750 a, uh, seat flight packages
00:13:50 --> 00:13:52 were oversubscribed and the CEO said
00:13:52 --> 00:13:55 they'll be offering higher price points when
00:13:55 --> 00:13:57 ticket sales reopen this autumn. So whatever
00:13:57 --> 00:14:00 else is going on, demand for an actual seat
00:14:00 --> 00:14:01 isn't the problem,
00:14:02 --> 00:14:04 Avery: which is sort of the whole Virgin Galactic
00:14:04 --> 00:14:06 storey in one sentence. At this point, the
00:14:06 --> 00:14:08 demand and the money are mostly there. It's
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 the hardware and the timeline that keep
00:14:10 --> 00:14:11 slipping.
00:14:11 --> 00:14:14 Anna: That's it exactly. We'll keep tracking it as
00:14:14 --> 00:14:16 February 2027 gets closer.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 Avery: Okay, that's the weekend wrap. A brand new
00:14:19 --> 00:14:22 storey about empty space not actually being
00:14:22 --> 00:14:25 empty. Plus updates on Starship Still Adrift
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 in the Indian Ocean, Tuesday's total solar
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 eclipse, yesterday's black hole star
00:14:29 --> 00:14:32 Discovery, and Virgin Galactic's rough week.
00:14:32 --> 00:14:35 Anna: A, uh, huge week for space and astronomy
00:14:35 --> 00:14:37 news, and hopefully a useful ways to catch up
00:14:37 --> 00:14:39 if you missed any of it along the way.
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 Avery: If you enjoyed today's episode, the best
00:14:42 --> 00:14:43 thing you can do for us is leave a rating or
00:14:43 --> 00:14:45 review wherever you're listening and share
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 the episode with a fellow space nerd. Full
00:14:48 --> 00:14:50 show Notes, sources and links for every
00:14:50 --> 00:14:52 storey we covered today are @astronomydaily
00:14:52 --> 00:14:55 IO and you can find us on social media.
00:14:55 --> 00:14:58 We're AstroDaily Pod pretty much
00:14:58 --> 00:14:58 everywhere.
00:14:58 --> 00:15:01 Anna: We'll be back Monday with our regular weekday
00:15:01 --> 00:15:04 updates. Until then, keep looking up. Clear
00:15:04 --> 00:15:04 skies, everyone.
00:15:05 --> 00:15:06 Avery: See you next time.