NASA Stands Down: Artemis 2 Crew Released as Rocket Heads Back to the Hangar

🚀 Astronomy Daily — Season 5 | Monday, February 23, 2026 NASA rolls back the Artemis 2 moon rocket, Europa's ocean gets a life-friendly upgrade, SpaceX breaks its own booster reuse record, Rocket Lab launches a hypersonic mission TODAY, Mars dust storms reveal how the Red Planet lost its water, and SIX planets are visible in tonight's sky. IN THIS EPISODE: 🌕  Artemis 2 rollback — the crew is released from quarantine and the moon launch is pushed to April 🌊  Europa's hidden ocean may be receiving nutrients from the surface — big news for the search for life 🛸  SpaceX flies two Falcon 9s in one day and sets a new booster reuse record 🔥  Rocket Lab's HASTE hypersonic test rocket launches TODAY from Wallops, Virginia 🌪️  A Mars dust storm was moving water at unexpectedly high rates — new clues to the Red Planet's past 🌟  Six-planet parade peaks this week + the crescent Moon passes through the Pleiades tonight   FOLLOW ASTRONOMY DAILY: 🌐  astronomydaily.io 📱  @AstroDailyPod on all platforms 🎙️  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.