Launch Eve: Starship V3 Ready for Liftoff | Lunar Laser Navigation Breakthrough | VAST Ventures into Satellites

About this episode

This episode covers the upcoming launch of Starship V3, advancements in lunar navigation, and new discoveries in astronomy.

Sponsor Link: To check out our great NordVPN money saving deal - Click Here Astronomy Daily • S05E107 • Wednesday 21 May 2026 Starship V3 is on the pad and counting down for Thursday's debut launch — we bring you the full update including technical objectives, the Artemis stakes, and a sober note about a worker fatality at Starbase. Plus: a NIST proposal to build GPS for the Moon using lasers inside permanently frozen polar craters; space station startup Vast enters the satellite market; JWST finally has an explanation for the universe's impossibly large early black holes; the Roman Space Telescope locks in a September 2026 launch; and interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS gives up two remarkable new secrets — alien water thirty times richer in heavy hydrogen than anything in our solar system, and pre-discovery images that show it was spotted before anyone knew it was there. Stories This Episode • STORY 1 — Starship V3 Flight 12: Launch window opens Thursday 21 May at 6:30 PM EDT (8:30 AM AEST Friday 22 May). Splashdown of upper stage in Indian Ocean off Western Australia ~65 min after liftoff. First flight of Starship V3, first use of Starbase Pad 2. Key objectives: Raptor 3 engines, heat…

Topics covered

• Starship launch
• Lunar navigation
• Satellite technology
• Space exploration
• Astronomy news

Keywords

• Starship V3
• NIST
• lunar GPS
• VAST Ventures
• JWST
• Roman Space Telescope
• interstellar comet
• heavy hydrogen
• space news

Sponsors

NordVPN

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Starship V3, NIST, VAST Ventures, JWST, Roman Space Telescope

Places: Indian Ocean, Western Australia, lunar south pole

More episodes of Astronomy Daily: Latest Space News

• Half the Neutron Stars · September 11, 2026 · 31 min
• A Hundred and Nine Flashes · September 10, 2026 · 28 min
• The Smallest Things Remember · September 9, 2026 · 28 min
• The Moon in Five Hours · September 8, 2026 · 27 min
• Europe Launches From Europe — And Two White Dwarfs Six Minutes Apart · September 7, 2026 · 29 min
• The Hydrogen Map: How a Radio Telescope Heard Half the Universe · September 5, 2026 · 28 min