Nuclear Satellite Inspections, New Horizons Awakens, and a Cosmic Catalog of Galaxy Clusters

Astronomy Daily S05E136 — Thursday, 9 July 2026   An MIT physicist proposes a shoebox-sized satellite that could catch a hidden nuclear weapon in orbit, NASA's New Horizons wakes up after its longest hibernation ever nearly six billion miles from home, an Antarctic telescope catalogues over seven thousand galaxy clusters, Japan's ispace books cargo space on a SpaceX Starship Moon mission, a Falcon 9 booster breaks its own reuse record for a thirty-sixth flight, and we close with tonight's Venus–Regulus conjunction.   In This Episode •          A shoebox-sized satellite that could catch a hidden nuclear weapon in orbit •          New Horizons wakes up after its longest hibernation, 5.9 billion miles from Earth •          An Antarctic telescope catalogues over 7,000 galaxy clusters •          Japan's ispace books cargo space on a SpaceX Starship Moon mission •          SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster B1067 breaks its own reuse record — 36 flights •          Tonight's sky: Venus cosies up to Regulus  Become 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.