#77 - November 2018 Part 2

The Discussion: Jeni talking exoplanets and aliens at Cardiff
Museum and we take a no spoiler look at the Neil Armstrong
biopic, First Man.


The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we
have:


Commercial spaceflight update

New Zealand’s Rocket Lab build a new launch site in the US

The winners & losers in USAF’s launcher funding
competition

China’s Long March 5 rocket failure induces delays

The death of the Kepler space telescope

Russian Soyuz failures risk human access to space

Hubble dead? Don’t believe the hype

OSIRIS-Rex begins its final manoeuvres to land on an asteroid



Main news story: Europe and Japan’s Bepicolumbo mission to
Mercury.


The Interview: Jeni interviews Bethan James, astronomer &
astrophysicist currently working as an ESA/AURA Astronomer at the
Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) on the Hubble
instrument team.


Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter
take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always
plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month
we take a look USAF’s rocket funding decision:


Why wasn’t SpaceX funded in the latest US military space funding
round while Blue Origin was? Mark De Vrij, UK.