Medical Evacuation from the ISS | Wobbling Black Hole Jets | Lunar Hotel Reservations: Your Daily Space Update

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to Astronomy Daily.

I'm Anna.

And I'm Avery.

Thanks for joining us on this exciting Tuesday, January 13, 2026.

We've got an incredible lineup of space news

to share with you today.

We really do, Avery.

We're covering everything from a historic first

on the International Space Station

to groundbreaking black hole discoveries.

Plus, we've got some fantastic mission updates from NASA.

And believe it or not, you can now put down

a deposit for a hotel room on the moon.

That's right.

It's going to be a packed episode.

But first, let's start with some update news

from the International Space Station

that's making history for all the wrong reasons.

So Avery, we're witnessing something

that's never happened before in the 25-year history

of the International Space Station.

On Sunday, NASA announced the first ever medical evacuation

from the ISS.

That's right, Anna.

The SpaceX crew 11 mission, which launched to the station

back in August 2025, is being cut short due to an undisclosed

medical condition affecting one of the four crew members.

The team includes NASA astronauts Mike Think

and Zena Cardman, Russia's Oleg Platanov,

and Japan's Kimia Yui.

And yesterday, we saw a really touching change

of command ceremony.

Mike Think, who was serving as commander of Expedition 74,

handed control of the station over to Russian cosmonaut

Sergei Kudzsvichkov.

During the ceremony, Think called it bitter sweet.

And you could really feel the emotion in his words.

I read about that.

Think told Kudzsvichkov, it's an honor and a pleasure

to be a commander, and I cannot imagine being happier

than to hand over command to you.

The crew scheduled to undock from the ISS

on Wednesday afternoon, with hatch closing at 3 p.m. Eastern

time and departure at 5 p.m.

They'll then make an 11-hour journey back to Earth

aboard their Dragon Endeavor spacecraft.

They're expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean

early Thursday morning, around 3 p.m. Eastern time.

Now, one interesting aspect of this situation

is that NASA has declined to specify which astronaut

is experiencing the medical issue,

citing privacy concerns.

They also haven't disclosed the nature

of the medical condition itself.

This early departure creates an unusual situation

on the station.

After crew 11 leaves, there will only be three astronauts

aboard, including just one American Chris Williams.

That's well below the typical crew complement.

Right.

Normally, NASA prefers crew overlap

to avoid gaps in maintenance and research capabilities,

but they've deemed this medical situation serious enough

to warrant the immediate return, even if it means operating

with a skeleton crew until the next rotation arrives.

And speaking of the next rotation,

crew 12 was originally scheduled to launch in mid-February.

NASA is now evaluating if they can move that launch date up.

Of course, this all has to be coordinated

with another major event on NASA's calendar.

You're talking about Artemis II, right?

Exactly.

NASA is simultaneously working to roll out

the space launch system rocket for the Artemis II mission

from the vehicle assembly building

to launch complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center.

That rollout is scheduled for January 17th

with the first launch opportunity for Artemis II

opening on February 6th.

It's a delicate balancing act for NASA operations.

According to NASA Administrator,

the ISS evacuation shouldn't interfere

with the Artemis II timeline,

but it certainly adds complexity

to an already busy schedule.

Absolutely.

This situation really highlights how NASA handles

unexpected medical challenges in space.

They have protocols in place,

but this is the first time they've actually had to implement

a full medical evacuation from the station.

It's worth noting that while this is the first medical

evacuation, it's not the first time medical concerns

have affected ISS operations.

Just last week, a planned spacewalk had to be canceled

due to these same medical concerns

that ultimately led to the evacuation decision.

We wish all four crew 11 astronauts a safe journey home

and a quick recovery to whoever's dealing

with the medical issue.

Now, let's shift gears to some absolutely fascinating

astronomy news.

Avery astronomers have discovered something

they've never seen before,

a galaxy-wide wobbling black hole jet.

This is really cool stuff, Anna.

A team led by researchers at UC Irvine

and Caltech's infrared processing

and analysis center has found the largest

and most extended jet ever observed,

emanating from a supermassive black hole.

And it's doing something remarkable.

It's wobbling.

The galaxy in question is called VV340A,

and the jet extends up to 20,000 light years from its center.

To put that in perspective,

that's about one fifth the diameter

of the Milky Way galaxy.

These jets are composed of super-heated material

being accelerated to near the speed of light.

The observations were made using the WM Keck Observatories,

Keck Cosmic Web Imager on Mount Akeia in Hawaii.

But what really makes this discovery special

is that the team combined data

from multiple observatories to get the complete picture.

Right, they used infrared observations

from the James Webb Space Telescope,

radio images from the very large array

and the optical data from Keck.

Each observatory revealed different aspects

of this phenomenon.

Webb's infrared data showed the energetic heart of the galaxy,

while Keck's optical data showed

how that energy propagates outward.

And the VVLA radio data revealed something remarkable.

The plasma jets are twisted into a helical pattern

as they move outward.

This is evidence of what's called jet procession,

where the jet's direction slowly wobbles over time,

kind of like a spinning top.

Lead author Justin Cater from UC Irvine

said the Keck Observatory data was crucial.

He noted that the gas they observed with Keck

reaches the farthest distances from the black hole,

meaning it also traces the longest time scales.

Without those observations,

they wouldn't know how powerful or persistent

this outflow really is.

What's particularly surprising about this discovery

is where it was found.

VV340A is a relatively young galaxy

still in the early stages of a galactic merger.

Typically, these kinds of jets are observed

in older elliptical galaxies

that have long since stopped forming stars.

That's a great point.

The Webb data showed that the superheated coronal gas,

the plasma erupting from either side of the black hole,

measures several thousand Parsecs across.

Most observed coronas measure in the hundreds of Parsecs,

making this the most extended coronal gas structure

ever observed.

The discovery also revealed that the jet

is actively affecting the galaxy's evolution.

The KCWI data showed that the jet is stripping

the galaxy of gas at a rate of about 20 solar masses per year,

effectively shutting down star formation.

This finding challenges our established theories

about how galaxies and their supermassive black holes

evolved together.

As Kader put it, this is the first time

we've seen a precessing Kilo Parsec scale radio jet

driving such a massive outflow in a disc galaxy.

He also noted something intriguing about the Milky Way.

He said there's no clear fossil record

of something like this happening in our galaxy,

but this discovery suggests we can't rule it out.

It changes the way we think about the galaxy we live in.

The next step for the team involves

higher resolution radio observations

to determine whether a second supermassive black hole

could be at the center of VV340A,

which might be causing the jets to wobble.

It's an exciting time for studying black holes

and their impact on galactic evolution.

This discovery opens up new questions

about how common this type of activity

might be in the universe.

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Now let's take a look at what's launching this week.

We've got a busy manifest with eight orbital launch attempts

scheduled from China, the United States, and Norway.

That's right, Anna.

SpaceX is dominating the American launch schedule, as usual.

They're launching two batches of Starlink satellites

into the Constellations Group 6 shell,

as well as a batch of reconnaissance satellites

for the National Reconnaissance Office.

The first Starlink mission of the week, Group 6-97,

actually already lifted off yesterday.

Monday, January 12th at 408 PM Eastern time

from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral.

The Falcon 9 flew 29 Starlink version

two mini satellites into orbit.

And the booster that supported that mission, B1078,

was flying for its 25th time.

After stage separation, it successfully landed on the drone ship,

just read the instructions in the Atlantic Ocean.

These reusability numbers just keep getting more impressive.

They really do.

The next Starlink mission, Group 6-98,

is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th at 101 PM Eastern

from the same launch site.

That will use booster B1085 on its 13th flight,

landing on the shortfall of gravitas drone ship.

Moving over to China, they have four launches

on the manifest this week.

On Tuesday, the Chinese Aerospace Science and Technology

Corporation is launching a Chang-Zang 8A rocket from Wang Chang.

The payload is unknown, but this marks

the first CZ-8A mission of 2026 and the seventh overall.

Then on Thursday, we have a Chang-Zang 3B slash E launch

from Xi-Sheng, carrying another unknown payload.

The CZ-3BE is one of China's workhorse rockets,

and this will be its 103rd launch overall.

Also on Thursday, private Chinese spaceflight company

Galactic Energy is scheduled to launch a Series 1S rocket

from the Oriental Space Port launch ship.

This will be the first Series 1S mission of 2026

and the 23rd overall for this solid-fueled rocket.

And here's something exciting.

Galactic Energy is also debuting

its new Series 2 rocket this week.

The demonstration flight is scheduled for Saturday,

January 17th from the Zhiyouquan Satellite Launch Center.

The Series 2 is a larger upgraded version,

capable of lifting about 2,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit.

Back to the United States, SpaceX has a classified mission

for the National Reconnaissance Office.

N-R-O-L-105 is scheduled to launch Friday evening,

January 16th, at 8.18 pm Pacific time

from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This mission is using brand new booster B-1100

on only its second flight, and it'll perform

a return-to-launch site landing at Landing Zone 4,

right next to the launch pad.

This represents the 12th batch of satellites

launched into this particular NRL constellation

developed by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman.

And finally, wrapping up the week,

German company Esar Aerospace is scheduled

to launch the second test flight of its spectrum rocket

from Norway's Andoya rocket range.

This comes after the first test flight in March 2025,

failed shortly after liftoff.

The spectrum rocket stands 28 meters tall

and uses nine Aquila engines on the first stage,

and one on the second stage, burning propane

and liquid oxygen.

It's expected to carry several CubeSats

to Sun synchronous orbit for the European Space

Agency's Boost Program.

If successful, this will mark spectrum's first flight

of 2026, and the 13th worldwide orbital launch attempt

of the year.

It's shaping up to be a busy week in space flight.

All right, Avery, let's talk about some mission milestones.

NASA's Corrothers GeoCorona Observatory

has reached its target orbit.

This is great news, Anna.

The spacecraft achieved this destination

at Lagrange 0.1 or L1, which is approximately

1 million miles from Earth towards the Sun.

The confirmation came on January 10th,

following the spacecraft's third and final orbital maneuver,

a two-minute thrustive fire on January 8th.

For those unfamiliar, L1 is one of those special points

in space where the gravitational forces of the Earth

and Sun balance out, creating a stable position.

It's an ideal spot for observing the Earth and Sun

simultaneously.

Exactly, and Corrothers has a very specific mission

to capture the first repeated observations

of the ultraviolet glow from Earth's outer atmosphere,

known as the GeoCorona.

The mission is named in honor of Dr. George R. Corrothers,

who invented the ultraviolet camera that

was placed on the moon by Apollo 16 astronauts in 1972.

That Apollo 16 camera captured the very first images

of Earth's GeoCorona.

Now, more than 50 years later, Corrothers

is going to study it in unprecedented detail

from its vantage point at L1.

The love-seed-sized spacecraft launched

from Kennedy Space Center back on September 24th, 2025.

Since launch, the team has been testing the spacecraft's instruments

and capturing what they call first-light images,

while adjusting its course as it approached L1.

I saw those first-light images.

They're really impressive.

The spacecraft has two cameras, a wide field imager

and a narrow field imager, both capture ultraviolet light,

and the images clearly show Earth

with this fuzzy halo around it, which is the GeoCorona.

What's interesting is that you can also see the moon

in those images, and the lunar surface still shines

in this specific wavelength of light called Lyman Alpha,

because its rocky surface reflects all wavelengths

of sunlight.

That's actually why it's important to compare

the Lyman Alpha images with the broad ultraviolet filter.

The narrow field imager even captured two background stars

that must have surface temperatures approximately twice

as hot as our sun to be so bright in this wavelength of light.

Corrothers is now beginning its final checkout procedures

before starting its two-year primary science mission in March.

From L1, it will provide scientists

with the most detailed views ever of how Earth's

out-or-most atmospheric layer interacts

with the space environment.

The mission is led by Dr. Laura Waldrup

from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign,

with the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley

leading mission implementation and operations.

Speaking of missions reaching their destinations, Anna,

NASA's IMAP mission has also arrived at L1.

That's right.

IMAP, which stands for Interstellar Mapping

and Acceleration Probe, reached Lagrange.1 on January 10th,

just two days after Corrothers completed its final maneuver.

The mission operations team sent commands

to the spacecraft on the morning of January 9th

to begin the trajectory maneuvers.

Early on January 10th, they confirmed

that IMAP had successfully entered its final L1 orbit,

where it will stay for the duration of its mission.

IMAP has a fascinating mission profile.

It's going to explore and map the very boundaries

of our heliosphere.

That's the protective bubble created by the solar wind

that encapsulates our entire solar system.

It will study how the heliosphere interacts

with the local galactic neighborhood beyond.

Think of IMAP as a modern day celestial cartographer.

It's going to explore and chart the vast range

of particles in interplanetary space,

investigating how charged particles from the sun

get energized, and how the solar wind interacts

at the boundary with interstellar space.

But IMAP also has a very practical application.

It will provide real-time observations

of the solar wind and energetic particles,

giving critical data that can help protect spacecraft

and astronauts from adverse space weather effects.

L1 provides IMAP with a stable and clear 360-degree view

of the heliosphere.

This position also gives an unobstructed view of the sun,

which means the spacecraft can give

about a half hours warning to astronauts

and spacecraft near Earth of harmful radiation

coming their way.

IMAP launched on September 24th, 2025,

the same day as Carothers.

They traveled to Lone together,

along with N-O-O-A's SWF-O Lagrange,

which stands for Space Weather Follow-On Lagrange 1.

At Lone, they join other spacecraft already in orbit there,

like NASA's Wind and Ace missions,

and the ESA slash NASA Soho Observatory.

The mission is led by principal investigator David McComas,

a professor at Princeton University,

with an international team of more than 20 partner institutions.

Johns Hopkins applied physics laboratory

built the spacecraft and operates the mission.

IMAP is nearing completion of its commissioning phase,

and will begin its science mission on February 1st.

The data from IMAP's state-of-the-art instrumentation

will greatly enhance the usefulness of data

from those other missions at Lone.

It's exciting to have both Carothers and IMAP

reaching their destinations at the same time.

They launched together, traveled together,

and now they're both settling into their orbits

to begin their science missions.

Okay, Avery, save the best for last, right?

You can now put down a deposit

for a hotel room on the moon.

I know it sounds like science fiction, Anna,

but this is for real.

A company called Gru Space,

and that's galactic resources utilization,

has publicly announced its intent

to construct a series of habitats on the moon,

culminating in a hotel that's actually inspired

by the Palace of the Fine Arts in San Francisco.

On Monday, the company opened applications

for aspiring lunar tourists.

You can place a deposit ranging from $250,000

to $1 million to reserve a spot

on one of their early lunar surface missions.

They're targeting as early as 2032

for the hotel opening.

Now, before anyone rushes to empty their bank accounts,

let's talk about what this actually involves.

Gru Space is a Y-combinator back startup,

founded in 2025 by Skyler Chan,

a recent UC Berkeley graduate who's only 22 years old.

The company has received backing

from investors in SpaceX and Andrew.

What makes Gru's approach interesting

is that they're not planning to ship

all the building materials from Earth.

Instead, they want to use in situ resource utilization

or ISRU technology.

That means using robotic systems

to transform lunar soil, regolith,

into durable building blocks.

Their roadmap starts with a 2029 demonstration mission

to validate the process of turning lunar soil into bricks.

By 2032, if everything goes according to plan,

they expect to open what would be

the world's first lunar hotel inside a lunar cave,

which provides natural protection

from radiation and temperature extremes.

The initial hotel will be built on Earth

and delivered by a heavy lander.

It's an inflatable structure designed to host

up to four guests for multi-day stays.

The hotel is designed to operate for 10 years

and will offer views of the lunar landscape and Earth,

along with activities like moonwalks, striving rovers,

and get this, they're even talking about golf.

Of course, this is an incredibly ambitious plan.

And their white paper grew acknowledges

that execution heavily relies on factors

outside their control.

They need decreasing launch costs,

regular and reliable crude flights to the lunar surface,

a favorable regulatory environment

and supporting infrastructure

like lunar power and communications.

All of which are in various stages of development.

The company's vision doesn't stop at moon hotels either.

After establishing the first hotel,

they want to help build America's first moon base

with roads and warehouses, then expand to Mars

and eventually the asteroid belt.

Skyler Chan, the founder, has been passionate

about space and childhood.

He said that I've been obsessed with space

since I was a kid.

I've always wanted to become an astronaut

and feel extremely fortunate to be doing my life's work.

He also mentioned that if they succeed,

billions of human lives will be born on the moon

and Mars and be able to experience the beauty

of lunar and Martian life.

There's actually a $1,000 non-refundable application fee

just to apply and that doesn't guarantee approval.

Selected applicants will receive invitations tied

to specific mission roles and lunar stays.

It's worth noting that this isn't the first time

someone has proposed a lunar hotel.

Hilton hotels actually had a lunar Hilton concept

in the 1960s and even printed reservation cards

and room keys as promotional items.

True and back in 1973, Hilton partnered

with Trans International Airlines

to produce a brochure inviting customers

to a trip to the moon sometime after 1973

with costs up to $25,000 per person.

Of course, that never materialized.

The big question is whether GRU space can succeed

where others have only dreamed.

They've got the backing, they've got the vision

and they've got a founder who's putting everything

into making it happen.

The timeline aligns with NASA's renewed push

to establish a permanent human presence on the moon

through the Artemis program.

Even if this particular venture doesn't pan out exactly

as planned, it's exciting to see private companies

seriously pursuing lunar infrastructure.

The fact that we're even having this conversation

about booking hotel rooms on the moon

shows how far space exploration has come.

Absolutely, whether it's 2032 or 2042,

the era of lunar tourism feels like it's genuinely approaching.

We might actually see commercial lunar hotels

in our lifetimes.

Well, that's all the time we have

for today's episode of Astronomy Daily.

What an incredible day of space news.

From the historic ISS medical evacuation

and wobbling black hole jets

to missions reaching their destinations at L1

and even the possibility of vacationing on the moon,

it's been quite a journey.

If you enjoyed today's episode,

please subscribe to Astronomy Daily

wherever you get your podcasts.

And don't forget to leave us a review.

It really helps other space enthusiasts find the show.

You can find us on social media

and at our website for more space news and updates.

Just search for Astro Daily Pod on socials

or visit us on the web at astronomydaily.io.

Thanks so much for listening, everyone.

Until next time, keep looking up.

See you tomorrow, clear skies.

Astronomy Daily, the star is the toe.

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