Astronauts have not been coming home for a while.

0:00 Speaker 1 Would us today is Steve Kates, otherwise known as doctor Sky. It’s Sunday morning, Labor Day weekend. Well, Steve Kates, tell us what you’re gonna tell us? Sunday morning, Labor Day weekend. It’s the end of the summer.

0:16 Speaker 2 Well, John, welcome to September, and hopefully everybody has a great Labor Day weekend. But we turn our attention to the sky and the mysteries above, and John late breaking news, since the world is so consumed with the politics of the season, we find out that NASA scientists are saying that we’ve now looked and found water at least we

0:33 know under the surface of the planet Mars. And you and I have talked about this for a long time, but what are they saying. They’re saying through seismology, meaning the shaking of the Earth measured by these spacecraft, that there’s something underneath there. And wow, many people believe they’re what vast reservoirs of water. And if there is water

0:55 down there, there’s also methane, which is a key ingredient of life. John, this my be the way to find that there ever would be or is life on Mars, Because seventy percent of bacteria on Earth, John, are underneath the ground. So that’s pretty exciting. But isn’t that a shame we don’t hear that as big news nowadays.

1:13 Speaker 1 If there’s water underneath, and this could be oceans of water underneath Mars, there’s life on Mars. In my opinion, yes.

1:24 Speaker 2 John, And I’m hoping then hopefully we can get some spacecraft. I think, of course Elon with sex obviously he seems to be the leader of the most successful program of getting spacecraft. He’s obviously ready to go to Mars. And I think, well, maybe in our lifetime we’ll finally get an answer to that, because, as I mentioned last week,

1:43 many people in the New York area in nineteen twenty four were looking at Mars through tolescopes and people were asked a question, then take a look, and what do you think? You think there’s life up there? So maybe we’re closer to an answer.

1:55 Speaker 1 And I’m still wondering moons. Remember some of the mysteries involved with you know, Mars’s moons, and yeh one of them. The rumor was, is possible that it’s hollow?

2:13 Speaker 2 Bobos and demos are the two Martian moons, John, You’re so right, and some people believe scientists are sending spacecraft there. So hopefully within the next decade or so, we’re going to get answers to whether or not where the heck did these two Martian moons come from? And what’s the origin of those But there’s so many interesting information things

2:32 to talk about here on the Cat’s round Table, and John, we’re going to do a brief summary of SpaceX’s plans. We now found out that past week there was a delay for another SpaceX mission called Polaris Dawn, and it’s funded by a billionaire known as Jared Isaacson. What’s he doing?

2:49 Him and his three other astronauts are going to set a record, they hope, of flying themselves to the highest position humans have been away from the Earth since the Apollo days, while still in orbit around the Earth. That’s eight hundred and seventy miles above the Earth, way higher than most spacecraft in lower Earth orbit. And they’re going

3:07 to even do I think a space walk. Now, that would be a heck of an exciting mission, don’t you think.

3:13 Speaker 1 Uh, eight hundred and seventy miles. I mean, it’s a long way to the Moon, It’s not that much. One hundred and seventy miles.

3:20 Speaker 2 That’s all right, but.

3:23 Speaker 1 Less than half a percent of the Moon.

3:26 Speaker 2 I know. But for this one, John, what they’re trying to say is most spacecraft, even the space station, it’s only about two hundred and seventy miles up there. So we wish them well for that particular mission. But you know, I saved something that as the best for the last John.

3:40 We always talk about the mystery of the week. How about this one? In the heated political season that we’re in right now, here’s a question that’s the mystery. How do astronauts vote in space? May seem silly, but it’s serious.

3:52 Speaker 1 Oh how do you do? How do you do a secret ballot?

3:57 Speaker 2 Exactly? Well, nobody looks over your shoulder. But here’s the answer to this. Since most astronauts live as a residence in Texas, the Texas legislature back in nineteen seventy seven took and passed a resolution called the Texans Election Code.

4:12 It was called the Election Code eighty one point thirty five, and what it said, in simple English, is that astronauts can get a ballot, a special absentee ballot sent up to the space station or the spacecraft and when they’re asked for their residents that don’t make this stuff up, they have to put down space station Low Earth orbit.

4:33 And the first time it was done was back in nineteen seventy seven astronaut David Wolf. He voted on the Mere Space Station. So hopefully that was a secure ballot. But that’s an interesting story because all this information is coming from the Johnson Space Center and that’s how they vote in space I find that interesting.

4:51 Speaker 1 It does sound interesting. What else is going on? SpaceX has your own problems. What happened last week? Uh with that one that was coming down to the land.

5:07 Speaker 2 Well, john this is interesting. There’s all these little pumps that every one of these organizations has. Blue origins had theirs with their big rocket, the New Glen, where two of their stages had exploded on the ground. They’re trying to get that fixed. But the interesting news here is hopefully the next big launch of the Starship that’s the

5:24 most powerful rocket in the world. That’s a SpaceX Elon Musk creation that’s slated to go up hopefully in the next few weeks in early September, and the mission there is to bring back the large booster to make it soft land, but this time it’s going to hopefully go back to the launch pad. They call it Megzilla, and

5:43 it’s got these giant arms that are going to try to grab it. So that’s going to be happening, and so many other things in the world of space. So it’s quite fascinating that we talk about these subjects. Isn’t it amazing?

5:54 Speaker 1 John?

5:54 Speaker 2 Twenty thirty years ago they would think we’re making this stuff up, But it’s real.

5:59 Speaker 1 Sunday Winning give us one more thing that we could dream about.

6:03 Speaker 2 Well, John, I tell you, we always tell people to look to the skies. So here’s something interesting because not only do we talk about it, we’re not just talking to talk, We’re going to walk it and run it.

6:11 Look into the west. After sunset, the planet Venus, the most brilliant planet, starts to become visible. Saturn is in the eastern part of the sky, and as the temperatures hopefully cool down for a good portion of the United States and North America, wherever the Cats Roundtable is heard, I welcome in. We welcome in the season of fall,

6:30 which is just around the corner. This should be quite fascinating. So what do we say, John, Keep your eyes to the Skies. Check us out here on WABC radio dot com the Doctor Sky Experience for more great information on all these subjects, and also information from American Exceptionalism as we move toward an election twenty twenty four