NASA’s Lunar Dreams in Jeopardy, China’s Bold Moves, and a Lava World Reimagined

Episode Summary In today's episode, Anna and Avery cover six major space and astronomy stories: the growing implications of Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket explosion for NASA's lunar plans; China's surprise maiden flight of the Long March 12B reusable rocket plus the return of the Shenzhou-21 crew; Starship V3 being grounded by the FAA following Flight 12 — with SpaceX's IPO in the balance; the upcoming launch of NASA's Roman Space Telescope and its mission to find 100,000 new exoplanets; new research suggesting Earth remained a global magma ocean for up to half a billion years; and a stunning new Hubble image of galaxy M88 on a perilous journey through the Virgo Cluster. Story 1 — New Glenn Aftermath: NASA Moon Plans Under Threat Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket was destroyed on May 28 during a pre-launch static fire test at Launch Complex 36, Cape Canaveral. As of June 2, the damage to Blue Origin's lunar programme is becoming clear: the Blue Moon Mark 1 lander — scheduled to deliver Moon Base 1 hardware in autumn 2026 — now faces likely delays, and the crewed Blue Moon MK2 timeline may slip as a result. LC-36 is Blue Origin's only orbital pad; rebuilding will take considerable time. NASA had signed a new New Glenn launch agreement for Moon rovers just two days before the explosion. Sources: Space.com, Time Magazine, TechTimes (June 1–2, 2026) Story 2 — China's Long March 12B Debut + Shenzhou-21 Returns China's new Long March 12B rocket completed its maiden flight on June 1 from Jiuquan, deploying Qianfan constellation satellites in a no-advance-notice launch. The rocket — China's answer to the Falcon 9 — features a 20-tonne LEO capacity, a 5.2m fairing, kerolox propulsion, and dual independent flight computers ('dual brains'). No booster recovery on this flight, but planned for future missions. Developed in just 21 months. In other Chinese space news: the Shenzhou-21 crew (Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, Zhang Hongzhang) returned safely on May 29 after a record 210-day stay aboard Tiangong, landing in a Shenzhou-22 emergency rescue capsule after their original return craft was damaged by a suspected space debris strike. Sources: SpaceNews, Global Times, Xinhua (June 1, 2026) Story 3 — Starship V3 Grounded: FAA Mishap Investigation Following Flight 12 (May 22), the FAA has formally classified the Starship V3 debut as a mishap and grounded the vehicle. The Super Heavy booster failed its boostback burn and hard-splashed in the Gulf of America; one Raptor Vacuum engine on the upper stage also failed. SpaceX must complete an FAA-overseen investigation before Flight 13. This is Starship's seventh grounding in three years. A July–August return-to-flight window is cited; a booster catch may be skipped on Flight 13. SpaceX's IPO (ticker: SPCX, Nasdaq) was filed May 20 with shares potentially trading from ~June 12. Sources: SpaceNews, Aviation Week, TechCrunch (May 27–June 1, 2026) Story 4 — NASA Roman Space Telescope: 100,000 New Worlds NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is on track to arrive at Kennedy Space Center in June, with a launch target of early September 2026 — ahead of its May 2027 commitment. Over its five-year primary mission, Roman is expected to discover ~100,000 exoplanets, hundreds of millions of galaxies, and billions of stars, generating a 20,000-terabyte data archive. Its Galactic Bulge Survey will observe ~100 million stars in underexplored Milky Way regions. Roman also features a Coronagraph Instrument to directly image nearby exoplanets and test techniques for future Earth-analogue imaging. Sources: NASA.gov, ScienceDaily, SciTechDaily (June 1–2, 2026) Story 5 — Earth Was a Lava World for Half a Billion Years A preprint from researchers at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute (arXiv, June 2026) proposes that Earth's global magma ocean phase lasted up to 500 million years — far longer than previously assumed. Two key factors sustained the molten state: tidal heating from the newly formed, much-closer Moon; and a thick steam atmosphere that acted as a thermal blanket, slowing planetary cooling. The prolonged hot conditions would also have favoured the photochemical production of hydrogen cyanide — a key prebiotic molecule linked to the origin of RNA and amino acids. Sources: Universe Today, Phys.org (June 1, 2026) — preprint on arXiv Story 6 — Hubble Images M88 on a Perilous Virgo Cluster Journey NASA/ESA Hubble's June 2026 Picture of the Month features Messier 88 (M88/NGC 4501), a spiral galaxy 63 million light-years away in Coma Berenices. M88 is on a long inward journey through the Virgo Cluster, with a supermassive black hole ~100 million solar masses at its core. Ram pressure stripping is already depleting its cold gas reserves, visible as compressed gas on the galaxy's leading edge. In ~200–300 million years, M88 will make its closest pass to M87. Observed as part of Hubble program #18103 (PI: D. Thilker). Sources: NASA Science, ESA, ScienceDaily (May 29–June 1, 2026)

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