Artemis II Heads to the Moon + Comet Death or Glory + Dark Matter Mystery

Astronomy Daily Season 5, Episode 80 — Friday, April 3, 2026  It's Day 2 of the Artemis II mission and the crew is on their way to the Moon after a perfect translunar injection burn. We've also got a comet about to face perihelion, a dark matter mystery deepening, stunning new JWST images, and the escalating fight over the future of our night skies.  In today's episode:  🚀 ARTEMIS II — TRANSLUNAR INJECTION BURN: The Orion spacecraft successfully completed its TLI burn on April 2, sending four astronauts toward the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen delivered one of the quotes of the year from orbit.  🚽 ARTEMIS II — THE LUNAR LOO: Hours after launch, Orion's toilet malfunctioned. Christina Koch fixed it. This is why test flights exist.  ☄️ SUNGRAZER COMET C/2026 A1 (MAPS): Tomorrow, this Kreutz sungrazer passes 161,000 km from the Sun's surface. It could vaporise — or become the most spectacular comet since Ikeya-Seki. Southern Hemisphere watchers: eyes on the western horizon from April 6.  🌌 DARK MATTER-FREE GALAXIES: Yale astronomers have confirmed a third galaxy with essentially no dark matter — NGC 1052-DF9. The 'Bullet Dwarf' collision theory is gaining powerful evidence.  🌟 JWST + W51: The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed hidden young stars in the W51 star-forming region, piercing dust clouds that have blocked our view for decades.  ⚠️ NIGHT SKY UNDER THREAT: Reflect Orbital's orbital mirror satellite launches this month. SpaceX wants one million satellites. The astronomical community is fighting back.  Find us at: http://astronomydaily.io Follow us: @AstroDailyPod Part of the Bitesz.com Podcast NetworkBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-latest-space-news--5648921/support.Sponsor Details:Ensure your online privacy by using NordVPN. To get our special listener deal and save a lot of money, visit www.astronomydaily.io/nordvpn. You'll be glad you did!Get the best secure and private email on the planet. Stop your Government, google and who knows who else spying on every email you write. Do what we did and use ProtonMail. They beleive in privacy and there are no ads in their business model...yet they still provide a free forever service. Check them out and get out special deal at www.astronomydaily.io/protonmailBecome a supporter of Astronomy Daily by joining our Supporters Club. Commercial free episodes daily are only a click way... Click HereThis episode includes AI-generated content.