The Space Show

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 4 November 2026:

Vale Patrick Stewart (1940-2026)

Marking the death of actor Patrick Stewart by remembering his narration of the six-part 1992 television series, Space Age.

Turn Back Time: Black Holes

Indigenous Sky Knowledge at IAC 25 Sydney — Part 2

The Host Nation Plenary session at IAC 25: Canadian Indigenous Astronomy with Laurie Rousseu-Nepton, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto.

(Courtesy IAC 2025, Sydney)

Enrico Palermo, Head of the Australian Space Agency, in conversation with Lisa Campbell, President of the Canadian Space Agency, at IAC 25, Sydney. They discuss:

* Partnership development

* Growing industrial base

* Investing

* Earth observation

* Global trade

* Canadarm.

(Courtesy IAC 2025, Sydney)

Roman Space Telescope:

An update and overview of the Roman Space Telescope.

(Courtesy GSFC)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 28 October 2026:

The "Acceleration" push within the Artemis project with Jared Isaacman, NASA Administrator

(Courtesy NASA KSC)

The revised plans for the Artemis III Earth orbital mission with Jeremy Parsons, NASA Artemis Program Manager

(Courtesy NASA KSC)

Turn Back Time:

* 2024 | What was the Lunar Gateway?

* 1966 | Saturn-Apollo 202 (Apollo 3) suborbital test flight.

* 2006 | The Gas Giants of the Solar System

Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission:

Comments by NASA, CNES, and DLR experimenters after the launch of the Martian Moons eXploration mission towards Phobos.

(Audio inserts courtesy of JAXA)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 21 October 2026:

Space Show News:

* Hubble Space Telescope finds rare ultra-massive white dwarf formed from a stellar merger

* Voyager 1 & 2 power management decisions

* Square Kilometre Array data release

* Spiral Blue sells a LiDAR to Lodestar Space

* NASA announced three CLIPS science payloads

* Neumann Space successfully commissions its ND-50 propulsion system aboard the CarbSAR satellite.

Behind the news:

Handling big data from the Square Kilometre Array with Prof. Peter Quinn, Director, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), Perth

(Recorded at a meeting of the Space Association of Australia)

Turn Back Time:

* 60 years ago | Luna-12 in lunar orbit; Molniya-1 4 and Cosmos 130 launched from Baikonur

* 80 years ago | A V-2 rocket lofts an Applied Physics Laboratory camera to take the first photograph of Earth from Space. (Inserts courtesy NZBC, BBC, APL, NRO)

MMX Launched:

The launch of Japan's Martian Moons eXploration mission.

(Inserts courtesy JAXA, DW)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 14 October 2026:

Indigenous Sky Knowledge:

The Host Nation Plenary session at IAC 25 Sydney, introduced and moderated by astrophysicist Dr Kirsten Banks (aka @AstroKirsten)

Enrico Palermo (Head, Australian Space Agency, Adelaide), Professor Martin Nakata (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Indigenous Education and Strategy, James Cook University, Townsville), David Perenara-O'Connell, Chair, Takaki Joint Venture, New Zealand) and Professor Reuben Bold (Deputy Vice Chancellor, Indigenous Strategy and Services, University of Sydney) put the case for indigenous knowledge to be taken seriously by the space industry. (Inserts courtesy IAC Sydney)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 7 October 2026:

Space Show News:

Roo’ver: Australian lunar roving platform

Astronauts and the ISS — Part 2 

A panel discussion with astronauts at the International Space Summit 2026 in Paris led by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

(Courtesy of the French Government) 

India's space programme with Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India 

(Courtesy of the French Government)  

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 30 September 2026:

Space Show News:

SpaceX Starship Flight 14

Turn Back Time:

From 1971 the Luna 19 lunar orbiter, the Vertical 2 sounding rocket, the Intercosmos series of scientific satellites, and the Luna missions; the launch of Japan's Shinsei satellite. 

(Inserts courtesy NZBC, RM)

Yoghurt on the ISS: 

The Space Show in conversation with Elizabeth Charles, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne.

(Recorded at the Australian Space Research Conference 2025)

Astronauts and the ISS — Part 1 

A panel discussion with astronauts at the International Space Summit 2026 in Paris led by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. (Courtesy French Government) 

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 23 September 2026:

Planet Earth — Episode 74 

 * Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, speaking in Paris at the opening of the International Space Summit, describes Europe's Copernicus Earth observation programme and other space projects. 

 * European Space Agency (ESA) feature about the Sentinel satellites

 * Eric Serra's "The Pale Blue Dot". 

(Courtesy of the French Government and ESA) 

International Space Summit 

Speech by French President Macron to the International Space Summit in Paris, during which he unveiled the PAM-6 space mission crew.

(Courtesy of the French Government) 

The Hubble Space Telescope and Fast Radio Bursts

(Courtesy GSFC) 

Turn Back Time 

The fifth anniversary of the launch of Landsat 9.

(Courtesy GSFC) 

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 16 September 2026:

Tasmania and Space with Prof. Simon Ellingsen, Dean of Natural Sciences, University of Tasmania:

• Aurorae
• Ionosphere
• VLF radio astronomy
• Tracking antenna from the Orroral Valley
• Explorer 50
• Halca
• Cassini-Huygens
• Juice
• Kaguya
• Globalstar 
• SpaceX 
• New antenna 
• Space weather 
• Space domain awareness 
• Asteroid observations
• Future activities. 

(Recorded at a meeting of the Space Association of Australia, Melbourne)

Turn Back Time:

The 50th anniversary of the Soyuz 22 mission with an East German camera.

Callum Figgis:

Journalism Student, RMIT University, Melbourne

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 9 September 2026:

Automated space object identification using RMIT's Robotic Optical Observatory (ROO) Telescope

An interview at the November 2025 Australian Space Research Conference with Cody Jeynes, an undergraduate student at RMIT University, Melbourne.

Roman Space Telescope

Descriptions of the Roman's Wide Field Camera and Coronagraph, and the role of STScI and IPAC in handling, storing, and distributing the data sent by the telescope. 

Turn Back Time:

 * Fifty-five years ago, in 1971, Lunokhod 1 was still trundling across the Moon

 * Fifty years ago, the Raduga 2 communications satellite was launched

 * Seventeen years ago, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) began using its new survey telescope, VISTA. 

(Inserts RM, VOA, ESO) 

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 2 September 2026:

(Episode artwork credit: NASA/John Kraus)

Roman Space Telescope Launched

Roman Space Telescope description and launch; origins of the telescope; commissioning process. (Audio inserts courtesy GSFC, KSC)

Soyuz Factory Hit

Ukraine strikes the Soyuz rocket and Rassvet satellite factory.

Turn Back Time

Luna 18 orbits the Moon ahead of a failed landing attempt and reports on the status of Lunokhod 1. (Audio inserts from Radio Moscow, BBC)