>>This week on NewsNight, the latest developments in the space industry and how they affect our region.

A look at the latest Axiom Crew launch, as well as NASA's decision to delay its Artemis Moonshots.

Plus, what central Florida scientists are hoping to learn from samples gathered on the asteroid Bennu.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort and welcome to NewsNight, where we take an in-depth look at the top stories and issues in central Florida and how they affect all of us.

We'll get to our main topic in a moment.

But first, we want to mention the big political story of the week.

Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary, beating Nikki Haley.

It came just days after his other rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, pulled out of the Republican presidential race.

>>We've had disagreements with Donald Trump, such as on the coronavirus pandemic and his elevation of Anthony Fauci.

Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden.

That is clear.

I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge.

He has my endorsement because we can't go back to the old Republican Guard of yesteryear or repackage formed of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.

>>I asked one of our regular political analysts, Frank Orlando.

Why he thought Governor DeSantis withdrew before this week's New Hampshire primary.

>>It's strange to me that on the eve of New Hampshire would be the timing of this, because that wasn't the state he was even competing in.

So it's not like the results in New Hampshire or the polls in New Hampshire should have been the thing to push him out of the race because quite frankly, that's not a state he put any effort into.

So I think much more likely that this is probably funding related.

And also, you know, perhaps with an eye towards the future.

The earlier he gets out of the race, maybe from Governor DeSantis perspective, is the more goodwill he can keep with the Trump end of the Republican Party.

And, you know, looking towards 2028 and whatever happens there, obviously that's important political capital to have.

>>Frank Orlando there.

Well, let's bring in our panel now.

Joining us in the studio this week, Brendan Byrne, assistant news director at 90.7 WMFE News, also the host of Are We There Yet?

Thanks for coming in, Brendan.

Peter King, CBS News Radio.

Thank you for being here as well, Peter.

>>Good to be back.

>>Good to see you guys.

Let's just talk about this issue, first of all, for the governor, it's uncertain, right?

What Governor DeSantis, his next political move may be.

Seems unlikely though he's going to play a role in a potential Trump administration.

>>Yeah, that might be the most certain thing about this is he's probably not going to serve in the in the cabinet there or in in Trump's administration.

As Trump has already said and DeSantis hasn't signaled that he wants to do it.

And while DeSantis did endorse, Trump is far from supporting him in this bid from some of the things that he's said in media after suspending his campaign.

>>There has been a lot of speculation, though, Peter, about how he may govern now there's a legislative session going on.

He's got a couple of more sessions after this.

I mean, do we know how Florida lawmakers think it's going to go for them in the next couple of years?

>>Well, these lawmakers, for the most part, have gotten behind Trump.

And you know how much bad blood there has been between Trump and DeSantis.

This rolls back on DeSantis who comes in as a lame duck governor and now has to actually govern.

And he may not be able to bully lawmakers into getting everything that he wants passed this spring the way he did last year to set his agenda for a national campaign.

So it's going to be very interesting to watch that.

>>Very interesting to watch over the next couple of years for sure.

We'd like to hear from you.

Let us know what you think about the governor's decision to drop out of the Republican presidential contest.

Join the conversation on social media.

We're at WUCFTV, on Facebook, X, and also on Instagram.

All right.

Next night, let's talk about space, starting with commercial flight.

Firstly, the recent launch of the Axiom three crew to the International Space Station blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center, the third all commercial launch to the ISS, carrying an Axiom space mission on board a crew dragon and a SpaceX Falcon Nine rocket.

>>Proceeding with hook driving.

>>The all European crew joins the Expedition 70 crew on board the orbiting outpost and will conduct microgravity research.

>>So many nationalities represented on board.

And this is really symbolic of what we're trying to do to open it up not only to other nations, also to individuals, to researchers to continue the great work that's been going on on board the ISS for the last two decades plus.

>>Axiom says this mission is critical in its efforts to build the first commercial space station in orbit.

All right, then.

Well, let's talk about that commercial space station plan.

Brendan, let me start with you on that.

I mean, what do we know about that project and its goals and what a missions like this Axiom three mission here do to further that?

>>As we heard from from your reporting there, Axiom wants to build a commercial space station and they're going to do this by building modules much like the International Space Station was built previously and attach them to the ISS and then eventually have them fly freely when the International Space Station does eventually come to an end.

I know we don't want to talk about it, but that is on the horizon there that it's inevitable and missions like these are preparing for that get working with NASA, with these private companies, with these different nations to to go to the space station.

This is all laying the groundwork for those future commercial space stations.

And we should note that Axiom is not the only company that has these ambitions to build a commercial space station.

There are a handful of other companies that are working on this as well.

So what what Axiom and other companies learn from these missions is going to lay the groundwork for those future commercial space stations.

>>So missions like this, Peter, are pretty high stakes for a company like Axiom.

>>Oh, they absolutely are.

They need to learn how to work and live in space and familiarize themselves with space station operations.

Now, the International Space Station, NASA's talking about retiring it in 2030.

Axiom wants to have its first module attached to the ISIS in 2026.

So that's three years.

It's already under construction.

They're already figuring out how to fit all the pieces together.

They'll launch separately, as did pieces of the space station, either on unmanned vehicles or on the space shuttle back of the day.

And I think and correct me if I'm wrong, Brendan, but I think it's like four modules: two HAB modules, a laboratory module and a power and climate control module as well.

So it's going to be considerably smaller, I think.

But again, commercially viable, they hope.

>>Of course, Axiom contracted with with Space X here to take its mission up and we're seeing Space X doing a lot of work now.

Right.

Especially that low-Earth orbit work out on the space coast.

We see Space X missions going up all the time.

>>Well, the numbers are astronomical, no pun intended.

Space X came close to 100 launches this past year.

In 2023, most of them from the Kennedy Space Center.

And I think all except for three or four Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station launches were Space X.

The majority of those were the StarLink missions for their Internet service.

But they had cargo missions to the space station.

They had crew missions to the space station as well.

And they're really proving out that model of reusability with the first stages being reused with the crew capsule, the dragon capsule being reused time after time.

A lot of skeptics years ago when this first came to to Light, said, oh, yeah, they'll never get it done.

They're getting it done.

>>And you can argue none of this would happen without a commercial company launching as frequently as Space X.

As you look at Axiom, you look at other commercial companies that I mentioned before, they're all contracting with Space X to get their hardware into space.

So you need to have that workhorse of a commercial launch company and Space X is is in right now.

>>And I think companies like Axiom know they don't need like five years lead time to do this, Space X's turnaround is amazing.

>>Well, let's just talk about another commercial operator that we should mention, and that's Boeing, right?

This company is sort of, I think it's fair to say, beleaguered at the moment in many parts of its business.

The company is finally set to launch two astronauts aboard its Starliner spacecraft.

Right, in April.

There's been lengthy delays.

What has been the cause of those hold ups?

Just remind us, Brendan.

>>How much time do we have?

Yeah, it's been it's been software issues, it's been program issues, it's been hardware issues with valves.

It's also been scheduling issues.

So trying to find time to get to the International Space Station to pull off this mission.

So, I mean, a lot of things have gone wrong in this program here.

And really they're they're very far behind when it comes to the other competitor in the commercial crew program, which is SpaceX, as we mentioned.

>>Let's keep in mind the first Starliner flight, which was the uncrewed flight in late 2019, was a failure because of a software problem.

It failed to reach the International Space Station.

Then they discovered other problems along the way.

So this program is more than four years behind schedule.

On top of that, keep in mind that they are not using Space X as their launch vehicle.

They're using an Atlas five, which is a wonderful launch vehicle, but not reusable.

And and the Starliner is only reusable up to ten times.

So, you know, it's a much different model than Space X has.

>>And we'll certainly see how how preparations go in the lead up to April for sure.

You can find a link to the mission page for Axiom 3 on our website with information to the science going on on board the ISS.

It's all on our website, wucf.org/newsnight.

Okay.

Next tonight, more delays to NASA's Artemis program.

Artemis is NASA's new moon shot using its space launch system and Orion spacecraft.

The aim to return astronauts to the lunar surface.

The space agency had planned to send a crew around the moon late this year, but that mission's now been delayed until at least September 2025.

>>And you can see the Stars and Stripes-- >>NASA's first human landing on the moon in more than half a century is now not slated to take place until the second half of 2026.

Officials blame a series of issues with commercial landers, including Astrobotic Peregrine Lander, which was supposed to touch down on the moon to carry out a scouting mission ahead of a planned astronaut landing.

Peregrine experienced problems after its launch on ULA's new Vulcan Centaur rocket from the Kennedy Space Center earlier this month.

Peter, let me come to you on this one.

I mean, what was that lander supposed to achieve on the moon and kind of what went wrong?

>>Well, NASA has several contracts out for Lunar Lander as both crew and uncrewed lunar landers, and this was one of the uncrewed lunar landers that was supposed to bring various payloads to the lunar surface.

For NASA.

It would be cargo, it would be food supplies, that kind of thing.

For astronauts to find when they get there.

In this case, it was other NASA payloads, some experiments and other things, including a small rover that was attached to this one.

So this is one of several streams for NASA to try and get cargo to the moon because you can't carry it all on one Artemis launch.

>>So pretty important stuff.

I mean, the stakes are pretty high for that mission.

>>Yeah.

So to the program that this is this is the commercial Lunar Payload service program.

So as we've been talking about getting using Space X to get astronauts to the International Space Station, NASA's using commercial companies, like Peter mentioned, to get science and and cargo to the lunar surface.

So the stakes were very high for this one.

This was Astrobotic's first mission.

Peter, probably the most quoted quoting in your reporter's notebook from sources you talk to is probably "Space is hard."

And that's what Astrobotic said here.

But the stakes are very high for the next mission that Astrobotic is sending, which is carrying the Viper mission that this rover is looking for water underneath the surface of of the moon, that future astronauts could use for life, support for fuel and all that.

And that's a much more expensive mission.

So all eyes are on what Astrobotic is going to learn from this failure and what they're going to bring into this next mission, which as of right now is launching at the end of this year.

So it'll be interesting to see what happens there.

But as you mentioned, this, this has to go right because it is laying that the scientific and logistical groundwork for astronauts to put their boots on the surface.

>>Well, Peter, you mentioned rovers, plural.

NASA's also counting on the Space X starship to land its astronauts right on the on the moon eventually.

But the the two test launches of the starship have exploded.

Right?

I mean, what what impact does that have on Artemis?

>>That has a huge impact because they need a lander that's going to take humans to the surface of the moon.

Not only has the Starship rocket exploded a couple of times, although SpaceX loves to spin it as a successful failure, the lunar lander is still in development and has not flown even a test mission.

And we're talking NASA's talking about a landing one in 2026 now.

So you're less than three years away.

You're less than two years away or maybe two and a half years away from having to have that up and running.

And it hasn't even flown yet.

So that's that's a little bit that's a little bit dicey.

>>Does Space X still have confidence with its starship?

What does it say?

>>When you talk to SpaceX, yeah they have confidence in as Peter mentioned they they do they spin these explosions or "rapid unplanned disassembly" is right you know they they and I mean they have been they have proven that learning by blowing up things has really helped in that has accelerated this.

But if you're NASA and you're looking at 2026 and this thing hasn't gotten to orbit yet, and you look at the infrastructure of getting this lander into orbit and then to the moon, it's going to require multiple launches to refuel it while it's in orbit, which is also unproven right now and extremely complex and difficult.

>>And multiple launches.

I think we're talking ten.

>>Yeah, we're we're in the double digits here to actually refuel this thing in orbit.

So there is a lot that Space X has to prove before it even gets to the surface of the moon.

And then before NASA is going to put astronauts on that thing to get down to the surface.

>>Again just another example of how Space X is such a sort of integral part, I guess, of of the US space program right now.

Let me just mention another story I want to talk about.

Members of Congress say they continue to support Artemis while expressing disappointment in the most recent delay at a meeting of the House Science Committee, several members and witnesses voiced concern over the prospect that further delays may give China an advantage in the race back to the moon.

>>I remind my colleagues that we are not the only country interested in sending humans to the moon.

The Chinese Communist Party is actively soliciting international partners for a lunar mission, a lunar research station, and has stated its ambition to have astronauts on human astronauts on the surface.

By 2030, the country that lands first will have the ability to set a precedent for whether future lunar activities are conducted with openness and transparency or in a more restricted manner.

>>Everything about the behavior of the Chinese Communist Party suggests that they are their adversary, and they say so to allow a situation to develop where the human frontier is populated by our adversary and we are not there, should be unacceptable to this nation and to our Western and Asian partners.

It should be unacceptable.

We are not on a path to recognize that.

The rest of the world looks and will always look to the nations that occupy the frontier and exploit the frontier and extend the frontier as leaders of the world.

I believe that's a position that the United States should occupy in preference to our adversaries.

>>Former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin.

Okay, Peter, let me come to you first on this one.

I mean, Congressman Bill Posey from Brevard said in that meeting that China wasn't mentioned by the NASA representative who testified.

And I wonder, is is NASA as concerned about China as others seem to be, particularly on the Hill?

>>I believe NASA is very, very concerned.

And I think if you ever hear Administrator Bill Nelson talk China, I don't want to say China as every other word out of his mouth, but he he takes every opportunity to say, look, we are in a space race with them.

We don't want them to get there first.

But he also said they may have an aggressive plan, but we don't think they are going to get there first.

So.

>>Yeah, I mean, that's interesting and certainly from Mike Griffin there he sees this as a as a security imperative.

>>Well, and I think Mike Griffin is right.

I mean, he's always been a straight shooter in many ways.

And what he said that what he also said, that should be an alarm bell, I think, for NASA along with that is, you know, talking about the complexity of the Artemis program, saying that it's unrealistically priced.

And that's something we've heard for a long, long time, no matter what program NASA has had it, he said it compromises crew safety.

He says, I'm not sure that this is the way for us to do this, but think about it.

If you start all over again, you lose more time.

And Artemis is, Artemis is what they've got right now.

He's very worried about China.

So are a lot of other people.

>>Yeah, already hugely delayed.

Does that seem to be much indication from Congress, Brendan, that it wants changes to the Artemis program, given that given the latest delays or is it pretty much on board still?

>>You know, I think there's always going to be some skepticism over the spending of Artemis.

I think even internally at NASA with with NASA's inspector general, there is some concern over that.

And I think that the funding for for NASA is coming under fire from Congress because of these delays, because of the issues that Peter laid out here and also in other science aspects of NASA, like the Mars sample return and that.

So I think there's going be a lot more congressional scrutiny over NASA's budget if we're not seeing results, especially if there is this kind of political adversary in China.

Remember, China's got a crewed space station in orbit right now.

I mean, they're not just on the planning board with stuff like this.

They are moving forward in with these very ambitious space programs.

>>They are.

But they have also flown human spacecraft less than ten times.

I think so.

>>Yeah, that's another good point.

>>That's also a good point.

They're moving very, very slowly and deliberately.

And let me say one more thing about funding, because, yeah, they will talk a good game about the budget.

But keep in mind that every congressional representative has a NASA contractor or subcontractor or sub subcontractor in his or her district, and they don't want to see jobs lost in their own districts either.

So they'll push, but they may not push that hard.

>>No doubt about it.

But you can find more on the Artemis program on our website, wucf.org/newsnight along the bottom of your screen.

All right.

Next tonight, scientists are studying samples returned to earth from a historic mission to the asteroid Bennu.

The final samples were retrieved this month when NASA managed to prize open a capsule that had been stuck shut since it returned in September.

Krystel Knowles visited with a team of scientists at UCF that are part of the Osiris Rex mission.

>>Finally, after seven years, NASA's Osiris-Rex is back on earth.

Scientists waiting patiently until the unmanned spacecraft traveled 200 million miles to reach asteroid Bennu and back.

Scientist Humberto Campins a UCF physics professor and international asteroid expert has been there since the beginning.

What was it like participating in this mission?

>>Oh, it's been the best thing that has happened to me professionally.

I got asked to be on the team 13 years ago, and at that time the University of Arizona invited me on to the team to help them write the proposal that then they submitted to NASA, and we won.

>>Also part of the Osiris-Rex team is UCF physics professor and planetary geologist Kerri Donaldson Hanna.

They collaborated on finding the best sampling site on Bennu by interpreting data from the asteroid's composition.

This process taking hundreds of hours with no room for error.

How long did that process take?

>>The lab measurements took over two years, so I was making measurements well before we got to the asteroid.

That continue while we got to the asteroid.

And then, of course, the spacecraft was in orbit for a year, making detailed maps, spectral maps, trying to get complete maps for picking a sampling site.

>>The team is overjoyed.

The mission of collecting samples of rocks and dust went without a hitch.

Osiris-Rex made the two and a half year journey back on Earth, but it would be another four months until scientists would get their hands on the samples.

Once the sample came back to Earth, they couldn't access it immediately.

What happened?

>>Yeah.

So it's really interesting because the sample capsule, we want to to protect it from Earth's environment.

We don't want Earth air to contaminate any of the sample.

We really want to limit that interaction.

And so the sample capsule was put into this plastic box, essentially, and they had developed tools that were to be able to go into that plastic box and access and remove the nuts and bolts.

But it was having a hard time actually getting the right torque with those tools.

And so they had to develop an all new tool that could go into the sample box and then get the right torque to undo those.

And so now that's done and we have access to the full sample that the that the spacecraft collected.

>>Researchers say if there is a way to mine asteroids like Bennu, then they could create fuel in space making for a more sustainable space economy.

>>So when we think about going out into further parts of the solar system, we think about being out there for a long time.

And so we have to have resources in space that we can access and use to keep humans out into space for longer periods of time.

>>So far, they have been able to test a few samples, finding evidence of carbon and water, bringing them one step closer to answering some key questions about our own origins.

>>Krystel Knowles reporting there.

Okay, So what do scientists want to learn from this asteroid, Peter?

>>Out of the universe begin.

And, you know, it's a question we always talked about, unlocking the secrets of the universe or the mysteries of the universe.

And this is another step.

You know, what is that asteroid made of?

How much carbon is there water anywhere in there?

Could it it could it have come from something that once supported some form of life?

And is it part of the Big Bang?

Have I left anything out?

>>It's all fascinating stuff.

Where did we come from?

Essentially is what's trapped on this asteroid.

>>So they're basically studying it to see what is in that rubble.

It just looks like rubble.

>>It's it's a time capsule, essentially, like I like to think of it as like a cosmic fly trap, which has been collecting all of the stuff as it traverses through the universe and really collecting all of those things that tell that the tale of us and how we came to be.

>>But it's not rocks the way we brought it back from the moon back in the sixties instead it's these little micro pieces of dust, and that they can take just a few dust particles and glean all this from that is always amazing.

>>Well, finally, we wanted to mention NASA's Remembrance Day, which took place on Thursday.

It's when the agency pays tribute to the lives lost on Apollo One, Challenger, and Columbia.

And Peter, we wanted to talk about this because you're here and you covered the Columbia disaster 21 years ago.

I think we probably all remember that.

Tell us about your memories of that day.

>>It was I had just gotten off the air doing a live shot at 9:00, and I heard mission control repeatedly calling up to the Columbia crew and getting no answer.

And you know how you can sometimes get that huge pit in the bottom of your stomach?

The bottom of my stomach fell out because I knew something was desperately wrong.

I went next door to our TV studio on the CBS building, looked at Bill Harwood, and he looked at me and said, I don't think they're coming back.

And that's kind of how we knew there were no sonic booms a few minutes later and you knew that this was not going to end well.

It was just a horrific day and a terrible tragedy that never should have happened.

>>I mean, really an example, Brendan, that when we talk about these exciting missions that go from the Space Coast all the time, about the inherent risks of these kinds of things.

>>Yeah, and I remember before covering my first crewed launch, which was in 2020, I reached out to Peter who had covered these before, and I'll never forget the advice he gave me.

Peter, you said, you know, remember that space is hard, space is never routine.

And to never forget that there are real humans on every mission and there are inherent risks.

And I've taken that to every story I've done, thanks to veteran reporters like yourself sharing that.

>>Well, it was good advice because you never know what's going to happen.

And I've covered you know, I covered the last half the space shuttle program.

I've covered every human spaceflight launch really since 1997 from the Cape, maybe missing one.

And you always kind of hold your breath because you want them to get off safely.

You know, the unexpected can happen and you have to be prepared for that.

I think with Columbia, what happened was most of us never expected anything to happen on a landing.

And that was that was one of the bigger shocks.

>>Well, we certainly appreciate your reporting on this issue.

It's certainly important that we keep across it, very important for our region as well.

But that is all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Peter King, CBS News Radio, and Brendan Byrne, 90.7 WMFE News.

Thank you so much for coming in today, guys.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, for all of us here at NewsNight take care.

Have a great week.