Ryan Gosling sits in the pilot seat of a dimly-lit spaceship. He is reaching above him with his left hand.

Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace in PROJECT HAIL MARY, from Amazon MGM Studios.

Jonathan Olley © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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Jonathan Olley © 2026 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Short Wavers, we hear your requests. You want MORE! SPACE! So this is the first installment of a new segment focusing only on space news. First, we talk about the new sci-fi film Project Hail Mary and the accuracy of the science in the movie. Then, we move on to data centers in orbit, if they are better for the environment and why even send them up into space. Finally, we round out the conversation with a quick update about the upcoming Artemis II launch. The space nerds assembled for this conversation are host and astrophysicist Regina G Barber, known space enthusiast and host of All Things Considered Scott Detrow and NPR science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel.

Interested in more on space, check out whole summer series, Space Camp? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.

Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.

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This episode was produced by Rachel Carlson. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez, Amina Khan and Christopher Intagliata.