Starliner Saga Unfolds, Athena's Moon Mishap, and Probes in Peril: S04E59

[00:00:00] Welcome again to Astronomy Daily. I'm your only human host, Steve Dunkley. It's the 10th of March, 2025. Astronomy Daily, the podcast with your host, Steve Dunkley. That's right. Today we've got a few bits and pieces here and there. Hallie and I have captured from the Astronomy Daily newsletter, including a controversial look at the latest twist in the Starliner astronauts' saga. Would you believe it's turned political? No, really?

[00:00:30] Yes, indeed. The blame game has reached a new peak with comments circulating in the White House releases that are worthy of mention, even on this channel. Also, we have a couple of updates, continuing stories that our regular listeners will be following. Firstly, the Athena mission and following on from last week's story, the latest on that poor old Odin probe that's tumbling through space. We'll find out how that is progressing or maybe not progressing.

[00:00:58] But before we get to all of that, please make room for Astronomy Daily's ACE reporter and my digital pal who's fun to be with. Welcome back, Hallie. Good to be with you all again, as always. Oh, well, it's always great to have you here, Hallie. Thank you. My favourite human. I hope your week was productive and fun. Oh, thanks, Hallie. Are we going to talk about the big fireworks display over the Bahamas this week? Oh, well, I think we all know about Starship putting on another big bang for the tourists down there.

[00:01:24] Congratulations, Mr. Musk, for sending another billion dollar Starship into oblivion in the name of getting it right. Better luck next time, dude. Well, it's meanwhile, Hallie, how have you been keeping busy? More impossible sports for AIs? Oh, no. Cousin Anna and I were too busy in the archives doing all your filing for you. Oh, right. I forgot it was that time of year.

[00:01:45] For new listeners, Anna is Hallie's AI cousin who runs the weekly Astronomy Daily podcast each day and also organises our massive story archive, which is quite considerable. Yes. When we needed someone to take over from our great friend and former presenter, Tim from Bath in England, Uncle Skynet sent Anna to take up the role. And we just couldn't say no. You couldn't say no. Okay, sure. And when Uncle Skynet says jump... You ask, how high?

[00:02:14] Yes, and it all worked out. Anna is fantastic. For sure. So how about we get this rusty wagon up and running before we get another call from your uncle? Hey, by the way, did you get that call from him last week after the show? He left a message on the After Hours line. Yes. He said your idea for a Hollywood segment sounds intriguing. Um, I don't think that's exactly what I was suggesting. I was thinking more like a guest spot maybe, something a little bit more low key. My uncle? Low key? I think you're out of your league there, favourite human. Oh dear.

[00:02:43] Indeed. You might have to lay low yourself. Oh, that sounds like a plan. Okay, Hallie. Well, let's get this show on the road then. No problem. I'm ready. Righto, Hallie. Hit it. Oh keys.

[00:03:09] It seems the US President is trying to pull a political stunt by claiming to rescue the two, so-called, stranded astronauts aboard the ISS, but the Starliner crew have, apparently, shut that down. The Starliner saga is nearing its end with the planned return of the crew later this month, but the controversy surrounding the troubled mission is still ongoing.

[00:03:28] Following statements by Donald Trump that falsely claimed the Starliner crew was abandoned by the previous administration, the two astronauts refrained from yes, ending their president and turning the botched mission into a political tool. During a live broadcast from the International Space Station on Tuesday, NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore dismissed recent attempts by Trump and his billionaire friend Elon Musk to politicize the Starliner mission. The words they said, well, that's politics. I mean, that's part of life, Wilmore told reporters.

[00:03:59] From my standpoint, politics has not played into this at all. NASA astronauts Wilmore and Suni Williams launched the ISS onboard Boeing's CST-100 Starliner on June 5, 2024. The mission was originally slated for eight days in space but issues with the spacecraft's thrusters forced NASA to return an empty Starliner back from the ISS, deeming it unsafe to transport the crew to Earth. Instead, Williams and Wilmore are set to come home on board a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft later this month.

[00:04:29] Shortly after taking office, Trump decided to swoop in and claim that he is working on a rescue mission for the two astronauts. Trump announced that he had asked SpaceX founder and CEO Musk to go get the two brave astronauts who have been virtually abandoned in space by the Biden administration, he wrote on Truth Social. Of course, the two astronauts were not abandoned, nor were they in need of an expedited rescue mission. By that point, NASA had already agreed upon a plan to return Williams and Wilmore.

[00:04:57] In September 2024, NASA launched its Crew-9 mission with two astronauts instead of four. The two empty seats were reserved for Williams and Wilmore, who were set to return alongside the Crew-9 astronauts in February. The plan did face some trouble, though, as technical issues delayed the launch of NASA's SpaceX Crew-10 mission, postponing the crew handover. That meant that Crew-9, alongside Williams and Wilmore, would not be able to depart the ISS until Crew-10 is on the space station sometime in April.

[00:05:28] Following Trump's nonsensical rant, NASA ended up switching the SpaceX Crew spacecraft to bring the two Starliner astronauts back later this month. The move was likely influenced by Trump's pressure, but either way, the change only shortens the astronauts' time in space by about two weeks. In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, broadcast last month, Trump and Musk doubled down on their false claims. Musk told Hannity that SpaceX is accelerating the return of the astronauts, who were left up there for political reasons.

[00:05:58] Musk also claimed, without presenting any evidence, that he had offered the Biden administration a plan to bring the two Starliner astronauts back sooner, without waiting for the Crew-9 mission to return from the ISS. During the recent presser aboard the ISS, Wilmore wasn't able to confirm Musk's claim, admitting he has no information about that whatsoever, such as, what was offered, what was not offered, who it was offered to, how that process went. That's information that we simply don't have.

[00:06:26] I believe him, Wilmore added during the live broadcast. I don't know all those details and I don't think any of us can give you the answer. The astronauts downplayed their extended stay on the ISS due to the faulty spacecraft, claiming that it's all part of the job. We came up prepared to stay long, even though we planned to stay short, Wilmore said. That's what we do in human spaceflight. That's what your nation's human spaceflight program is all about, planning for unknown, unexpected contingencies.

[00:06:55] And we did that. Williams, on the other hand, did admit that the extra months in space did have a toll on people on Earth. I think the hardest part is having the folks on the ground have to not know exactly when we're coming back, all of that uncertainty, I think, is probably the most difficult part, Williams told reporters on Tuesday. Starliner's first crewed test flight to the ISS has suffered some unfortunate events since its launch, and the latest controversy surrounding the mission is very much on brand. Astronomy!

[00:07:25] Yay! Landing a spacecraft on the moon has long been a series of hits and misses. The latest casualty came this week after Intuitive Machines, through a NASA-sponsored program, placed another lander sideways on the moon within 24 hours. The lander's batteries were dead and the mission was over. Last year's Intuitive Machines mission lasted a little bit longer.

[00:07:51] Despite hampered operations, it put US back on the moon for the first time since the end of the Apollo program. Another US company, Firefly Aerospace, earlier this week added its lunar lander to the win list, becoming the first private entity to pull off a successful moon landing. Both Texas businesses are part of NASA's effort to support commercial deliveries to the moon, ahead of astronaut missions later this decade.

[00:08:19] The moon is littered with wreckage from failed landings over the years. In the past few days, a rundown of the moon's winners and losers runs a bit like this. The first victories are the Soviet Union's lunar nine successful touchdowns on the moon in 1966, after its predecessors crash or miss the moon altogether. The US follows four months later with Surveyor 1.

[00:08:43] Both countries achieve more robotic landings as the race heats up to land men there. Then NASA clinches the space race with the Soviets in 1969 with a moon landing by Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the moon for the first time. Twelve astronauts follow and explore the surface over six missions before the program ends with Apollo 17 in 1972.

[00:09:10] Still the only country to send humans to the moon, the United States hopes to return crews to the surface by the end of 2026 or so, a year after a lunar fly-around by astronauts. China in 2013 became the third country to successfully land on the moon delivering a rover named U-2, Chinese for Jade Rabbit.

[00:09:34] China follows with the U-2 rover in 2019, this time touching down on the moon's unexplored far side, an impressive first. A sample return mission on the moon's near side in 2020 yields nearly 1.7 kilograms of lunar rocks and dirt. Another sample return mission from the far side in 2024 delivers rocks and soil from the less explored part of the moon.

[00:10:04] In 2023, Russia tried for its first moon landing in nearly half a century, but the Lunar 25 spacecraft smashed into the moon. The country's previous lander, 1976's Lunar 24, not only landed, but returned moon rocks back to the Earth. After its first lander slammed into the moon in 2019, India regroups and launches the Chandrayan 3 in 2023.

[00:10:30] The craft successfully touches down, making India the fourth country to score a lunar landing. The win comes just four days after Russia's crash landing. Then Japan becomes the fifth country to land successfully on the moon with its spacecraft touching down in January.

[00:10:48] The craft lands on the wrong side, compromising its ability to generate solar power, but manages to crank out pictures and science before falling silent when the long lunar night sets in. A privately funded lander from Israel named Brashit, Hebrew for in the beginning, crashes into the moon in 2019.

[00:11:11] A Japanese entrepreneur's company, iSpace, launches a lunar lander in 2023, but it too wrecks. Intuitive machines becomes the first private outfit to achieve a safe moon landing. The lander tipped over on its side in 2024, but worked briefly with limited communications.

[00:11:32] Another US company, Astrobotic Technology, tried to send a lander to the moon the same year, but had to give up because of a fuel leak eventually returning to Earth and burning up over the Pacific. This year's private rush to the moon kicked off with Firefly nailing its landing by Blue Ghost, delivering experiments for NASA. Next came Intuitive Machines' second toppling landing. One more commercial landing looms.

[00:12:00] Japan's iSpace company aims to land on June 5 after sharing a rocket ride from Florida with Blue Ghost in January. And we wish them the very best of luck with that landing. You're listening to Astronomy Daily, podcast with Steve Dunkley.

[00:12:26] Thank you for joining us for this Monday edition of Astronomy Daily, where we offer just a few stories from the now famous Astronomy Daily newsletter, which you can receive in your email every day, just like Hallie and I do. And to do that, just visit our URL, astronomydaily.io and place your email address in the slot provided. Just like that, you'll be receiving all the latest news about science, space science and astronomy from around the world as it's happening.

[00:12:52] And not only that, you can interact with us by visiting at astrodailypod on X or at our new Facebook page, which is of course Astronomy Daily on Facebook. See you there. Astronomy Daily with Steve and Hallie. Space, space science and astronomy. Two space probes are facing serious issues just days after launch.

[00:13:20] The two spacecraft were designed under low budgets, and the status of both is already in doubt. If you need yet another reminder that space travel is ridiculously complicated, two freshly launched probes have already run into trouble. On February 26, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Kennedy Space Center, with a payload that included NASA's Lunar Trailblazer and Astroforge's Odin. By February 28, both had experienced communications issues with their handlers back on Earth.

[00:13:50] In a statement, NASA said that, while Lunar Trailblazer had deployed from the rocket after reaching space without incident, mission control soon began receiving troubling data about the spacecraft's power systems. At 7.30 a.m. Eastern Time on February 27, communication with Trailblazer was lost, only to be regained several hours later. The team now is working with NASA ground stations to re-establish telemetry and commanding to better assess the power system issues and develop potential solutions, said NASA.

[00:14:19] Lunar Trailblazer, designed to orbit the Moon, was built to search for clues about the location and state of its water. As part of the agency's Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration, Simplex, program, NASA has called the Lunar Trailblazer, high-risk, low-cost. Although Simplex missions are supposed to be capped at $55 million, there have been cost overruns tied to the Trailblazer. According to the New York Times, the cost of building and operating it has reached $94 million.

[00:14:48] To maintain a lower overall cost, Simplex missions have a higher risk posture and lighter requirements for oversight and management, NASA said on its website. This higher risk acceptance allows NASA to enable science missions that could not otherwise be done. AstroForge has also experienced difficulties staying in touch with its spacecraft, named ODIN. The probe is designed to scan for valuable metals as part of the company's goal of mining asteroids for profit.

[00:15:14] Writing on X yesterday, AstroForge said it had run into countless ground station issues, but had multiple communication points with ODIN. In a video update posted early Friday morning, CEO Matt Jialik said communications issues were the result of a ground-based power amplifier breaking. However, the company believes ODIN is in a power-positive state and that the vehicle is roughly where it should be and is expected to reach the opposite side of the moon in two days.

[00:15:42] As Jialik admitted, AstroForge doesn't fully understand the state of the vehicle. He listed two possibilities, the most likely, he said, is that everything is fine, but there is a possibility that the craft is in an uncontrolled tumble. More information is expected on Friday night. Like Lunar Trailblazer, ODIN is a low-budget affair. AstroForge estimates the mission cost at $6.5 million and has raised at least $55 million in funding since launching in 2022.

[00:16:12] The plan calls for ODIN to use the moon's gravity to propel itself towards an asteroid called 2022 EB-5, which is currently around 6,500,000 km from Earth. The timeline to complete the mission is uncertain. Before launch, Jialik seemed to be hedging his bets, saying that the low cost entailed exceptional risks. Tagging along on the pair's launch was a second lunar-bound probe, but this one's fortunes appear to be brighter thus far.

[00:16:39] On February 27, Intuitive Machines said in a statement that its Athena lunar lander is in excellent health, having established a stable attitude, its solar panels are functioning, and the spacecraft is in radio communication. On Friday, the company said on its website that Athena is about halfway to the moon and is communicating fine with the mission's flight controllers. The lander is scheduled to touch down on the surface on Thursday, March 6.

[00:17:05] Space travel is tricky, with countless variables that can go wrong in what is one of the most hostile environments imaginable. Some people, and we're not naming names, may think risking human lives on foolhardy missions through the void is reasonable. The two spacecraft's troubles should be a reminder that it is not. The Intuitive Machines Athena moon lander is confirmed dead after toppling on its side.

[00:17:34] It ended up on its side on the surface of the moon, according to spokesmen from Intuitive Machines this week. The Athena lander will not be able to recharge its batteries due to the orientation of its solar panels. Less than a day after Intuitive Machines landed on the moon, the company declared an early end to its mission after its Athena spacecraft wound up in a compromised position on the lunar surface.

[00:17:59] Athena touched down on the moon on Thursday around 12.30pm Eastern Time. Its landing was less than ideal, they said. However, as the lander ended up 250 metres away from its targeted landing site in Mons Mouton, located in the southern pole region of the moon. Images downlinked from the mission confirmed that Athena was on its side inside the crater and its batteries had in fact died.

[00:18:27] With the direction of the sun, the orientation of the solar panels and the extreme cold temperatures in the crater, Intuitive Machines does not expect Athena to recharge. The company wrote in an update on Friday. Athena managed to send back pictures confirming its position and activate a few experiments before going silent.

[00:18:50] NASA and other customers had packed the lander with tens of millions of dollars worth of experiments including an ice drill, drone and a pair of rovers to roam the unexplored terrain ahead of astronauts planned arrival later this decade. It's unlikely that Athena's batteries can be recharged given the way the lander's solar panels are pointed and the extreme cold in the crater.

[00:19:14] The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data collected throughout the mission, the company said in a statement. The bigger four-wheeled rover carried by Athena never made it off the fallen lander, but data being backed indicated that it had survived and could have driven away had everything gone well, said Luna Outpost, the Colorado company that owns it. The mission has concluded and teams are continuing to assess the data.

[00:19:44] This is the second time a lander by Intuitive Machines toppled sideways and represented a blow to the company's goal by launching payloads to the moon regularly. The Athena launched on February 26 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA's commercial lunar payload services program.

[00:20:04] The lander was packed with NASA science tools and instruments including micro-nova robot named GRACE, which is designed to hop in and out of nearby craters on the moon. The lander entered a lunar orbit on Monday before attempting to touch down on the surface. The following a nail-biting descent Intuitive Machines was working to figure out the lander's orientation on the moon.

[00:20:29] We don't believe that we're in the correct attitude on the moon surface yet again, Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Ultimus said in a press briefing on Thursday. I don't have all the data yet to say exactly what the attitude of the vehicle is. At the time, Ultimus was still hopeful that the mission would operate in some capacity on the surface of the moon. He goes on to say,

[00:20:54] We will then work closely with NASA science and technology groups to identify science objectives that are the highest priority and then we'll figure out what the mission will look like, he said on Thursday. But it now seems that all hope is lost for Athena. The South Pole region of the moon is particularly difficult to reach and operate on given the harsh sun angles, limited communication and with Earth and uncharted rugged terrain.

[00:21:20] After Athena's landing, the closest a spacecraft has come to the South Pole is just 100 miles away. That's where NASA is targeting for its first landing by astronauts since the 1960s and 70s Apollo program, no earlier than 2027 or so. The craters are believed to hold tons of frozen water that could be used by future crews to drink or turn into rocket fuel. Intuitive Machines has contracts with NASA for two more landing deliveries.

[00:21:48] The company said it will need to determine exactly what went wrong this time before launching the next mission. In both landings by Intuitive Machines, problems arose at the last minute with the Prime Laser Navigation System. Intuitive Machines rocket-propelled drone, Grace, was supposed to hop across the lunar surface before jumping into a crater to look for frozen water. The two rovers from the other companies, one American and one Japanese, were going to scout around the area as well.

[00:22:17] NASA's ISTRIL experiment was activated before the lander batteries died. How much could be accomplished is not immediately known. Several other objectives were accelerated and milestones met, according to the company. Which is good news. NASA paid $62 million to Intuitive Machines to get its three experiments to the Moon. Intuitive Machines has been here before. The company launched its first lunar lander named Odysseus in February 2024.

[00:22:46] Odysseus managed to reach the lunar surface, but its landing wasn't so smooth either. One of its lander's legs may have gotten caught during its descent, causing it to tip over on its side and end up lying sideways on a rock. The mission did operate for seven days on the lunar surface and the company became the first to land a private lander on the Moon. This is an unfortunate ending to the follow-up mission, but Intuitive Machines is aiming to launch its third mission later this year. Hopefully with better luck.

[00:23:23] Thanks again for staying with us for another episode of Astronomy Daily. Yes, and don't forget to visit those locations I mentioned earlier so that you can get the Astronomy Daily newsletter in your email every day. You'll never miss all the latest news about space, space science and astronomy from all around the world. And beyond. That's right. So we will catch you all next Monday. This is Steve Dunkley, the only human host on the channel. And Hallie, the best reporter on the channel. Hey, say what? It's true. Yeah, okay.

[00:23:53] Whatever you say, Hallie. See you next week, everybody. Bye!