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Support The Automated Daily directly: 15 free episodes a day, 5 editions, 3 languages, about $4 a day to produce. A coffee keeps it going: theautomateddaily.com/support Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Consensus: AI for Research. Get a free month - https://get.consensus.app/automated_daily - Lindy is your ultimate AI assistant that proactively manages your inbox - https://try.lindy.ai/tad - SurveyMonkey, Using AI to surface insights faster and reduce manual analysis time - https://get.surveymonkey.com/tad Today's topics: Starship reaches orbit, booster lost - Starship Flight 15 reached orbit, but a guidance issue forced its Super Heavy booster to abandon a planned tower catch and divert to the Gulf of Mexico. The upper stage remained in orbit ahead of a possible return to Starbase, making this a consequential test of full rocket reusability. [138] Electron completes hundredth successful launch - Rocket Lab completed the 100th launch of its Electron rocket and successfully deployed Japan’s YAMATSUMI-II radar-imaging satellite. The milestone highlights the growing maturity of dedicated small-satellite launch services. [165][166] Dead star sends radio pulses - Astronomers traced radio flashes repeating every eight minutes to a white dwarf paired with a Sun-like star. The unusual binary offers an important clue to the origin of mysterious long-period radio transients. [46][55] Invisible neutron star challenges limits - An unseen object orbiting a red giant may be an exceptionally massive neutron star, with a best mass estimate around 2.2 Suns. The candidate could help define the uncertain boundary between neutron stars and black holes. [76][102] Young supernova captured while changing - New Gemini South and Dark Energy Camera observations show the young Type Ia supernova SN 2026ahvu evolving in a nearby spiral galaxy. Early observations can improve scientists’ understanding of these explosions and their use in measuring cosmic distances. [103] Episode Transcript Starship reaches orbit, booster lost SpaceX sent Starship into orbit on Friday during Flight 15, but the mission’s first planned recovery did not go as intended. Shortly after separating from the upper stage, the Super Heavy booster began its return toward the launch area in South Texas. A guidance, navigation and control issue prompted the vehicle to abandon its planned tower catch and divert to an offshore landing zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The booster was therefore not recovered. The Starship upper stage did reach orbit and deployed its satellite payload, leaving the mission with both a clear achievement and a clear setback. At the time of the latest reporting, the ship was continuing a flight of roughly twenty-two hours, with a potential return to Starbase still ahead. If approved after health checks, that return would become the first attempt to catch a Starship upper stage after an orbital flight. The larger significance is reusability. Starship’s intended missions to the Moon and beyond depend on recovering, inspecting and flying both stages again. Flight 15 has already shown that reaching orbit and completing a productive mission can coexist with recovery problems, which is exactly why these tests matter. [135][138] Electron completes hundredth successful launch In New Zealand, Rocket Lab reached a major milestone with the 100th flight of its Electron rocket. The mission successfully placed YAMATSUMI-II, a Japanese radar-imaging satellite, into orbit. The spacecraft also established its first communication after deployment and was reported to be healthy. Electron began flying in 2017 and was designed for comparatively small payloads, giving satellite operators an alternative to waiting for space aboard a much larger rocket. Reaching one hundred missions shows how that part of the launch market has developed from an experiment into a regular service. The satellite delivered on this flight belongs to Japan’s iQPS, which is building a...
