Starship makes it into orbit and searching for habitable worlds

By Marian Summerall,

Brendan Byrne

Published September 29, 2026 at 7:21 PM EDT

Ways To Subscribe

A screenshot from SpaceX's video coverage of its Starship vehicle launching into orbit for the first time.

SpaceX’s massive Starship vehicle went into orbit for the first time.

We’ll speak with Florida Tech’s Don Platt about this flight from Starship, and what it means for future missions for the giant spacecraft.

Then, as scientists scan our skies for exoplanets, how can we tell which ones could support life?

We’ll speak with Florida Tech’s Howard Chen about how a new grant from NASA will help him identify those false positives in exoplanets.

Are We There Yet?

Marian Summerall

Marian is a multimedia journalist at Central Florida Public Media working as a reporter and producer for the 'Are We There Yet?' space podcast.

See stories by Marian Summerall

Brendan Byrne

Brendan Byrne is Central Florida Public Media's Assistant News Director, managing the day-to-day operations of the newsroom, editing daily news stories, and managing the organization's internship program. Byrne also hosts Central Florida Public Media's weekly radio show and podcast "Are We There Yet?" which explores human space exploration, and the weekly news roundup podcast "The Wrap."

See stories by Brendan Byrne

More Episodes

Space

Weapons in space and a new podcast on the search for life in the universe, and what happens next

Marian Summerall, Brendan Byrne

For the first time, the U.S. military has confirmed it has deployed a space weapon in Earth’s orbit. Plus, “When We Find Them” is a new podcast series with Central Florida Public media that explores people have searched for life in our universe.
Space

Tracking El Niño from space and Chandra’s interesting X-ray finding

Brendan Byrne, Marian Summerall

NASA and the EU’s Sentinel-6 satellites track ocean temperatures and can help predict how storms move and intensify. Plus, a team of researchers have made some recent discoveries from X-ray tails from the Chandra X-Ray observatory.
Space

Summer space news roundup

Marian Summerall, Brendan Byrne

It’s been a busy summer for space with things like SpaceX's new plans in Louisiana, Blue Origin is repairing its launch pad after an explosion earlier this year, the announcement of a space academy and more.
When We Find Them

For centuries, humans have looked to the heavens and asked: Are we alone in the universe? And when it comes to answering that question, it’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.With that day on the horizon, are we, as humans, ready for what insight that might bring?“When We Find Them” is a new limited podcast series from Central Florida Public Media that looks at our search for life in the universe and the not so finished plan to tell the world what we find.We’ll look at our current efforts to search for life, the protocols in place to confirm such an extraordinary finding, and look at how we – as humans – may react when our entire worldview changes.Subscribe to “When We Find Them,” from Central Florida Public Media.