Main Engine Cut OffNorthrop Grumman and Firefly announced a partnership to develop a new first stage for Antares—the same first stage that will power Firefly’s larger launch vehicle, Beta. It’s a great partnership for both parties that will surely lead to more interesting things in the future.
Mike Loucks and John Carrico of Space Exploration Engineering join me to talk about astrogation, mission planning, missions they’ve worked on, how they interact with teams of all types, and everything else they do at SEE.
Rick Mastracchio, former NASA astronaut and current Director Of Business Development at Northrop Grumman Space Systems, joins me to talk about Northrop Grumman’s Commercial Space Station concept that they are working on as part of NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations program.
NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program is in a tricky spot right now. VIPER has been delayed a year, new task orders are being awarded to new teams like the one led by Draper, and Masten is all but dead.
Some thoughts on where we are now that Dmitry Rogozin has been dismissed as head of Roscosmos, and that NASA and Roscosmos have signed a seat exchange agreement for future flights to the ISS.
Our good friend Jake Robins, host of WeMartians and my cohost on Off-Nominal, joins me to talk about Psyche missing its launch window, the state of the SIMPLEx program, its troubles with launch slots, and how NASA might approach this in the future.
Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about the Artemis Program’s space suits, expensive launch sites, maybe-cheaper-but-at-least-not-as-delayed launch sites, vehicles, and its manifest over the next decade. Plus, a few bonus topics like Astra, Firefly, and Lori Garver’s new book.
SpaceX’s plans for launching Starship to orbit from Boca Chica cleared an environmental review with the FAA, but more than 75 mitigations are required in order to receive a launch license to carry out flights in the future.
Boeing completed Starliner’s long-awaited Orbital Flight Test-2 mission to the ISS, but about a week after landing, NASA announced its intent to buy more Dragon flights from SpaceX.
Mike Gold, Executive Vice President of Civil Space Business Development and External Affairs at Redwire, joins me to talk about his previous role at NASA, where he served as Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, and was the driving influence behind the Artemis Accords.