Main Engine Cut OffT+275: Starliner’s First Crew, Starship’s Fourth Flight
Starliner flew its first crew, Starship flew its fourth flight, Chang’e-6 collected its first samples, and Agnikul Cosmos flew its first mission.
T+274: The Vulcan and Artemis Roadmaps
United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan debut went smoothly, but sluggish hardware integration raises doubts about meeting commitments, while Orion faces heat shield issues, potentially shaking up the Artemis manifest.
T+273: Mars Sample Return
NASA is heading back to the drawing board for a Mars Sample Return architecture, and is accepting proposals for mission studies by May. I talk about a few takeaways from the communication of that plan, and ponder whether or not SpaceX is going to do the damn thing.
T+272: Moon Rovers, Space Stations, and Starships
NASA selected 3 teams to work on unpressurized rovers for Artemis, while Japan signed on officially to provide a pressurized rover in exchange for seats on Artemis landers. Elsewhere, Mitsubishi took a stake in Starlab, and I still needed to catch up on Starship’s 3rd flight and the ensuing update from SpaceX.
T+271: Checking in on the Chinese Space Industry (with Andrew Jones)
Andrew Jones returns to the show to catch up on the Chinese space industry—Tiangong, reusable launchers, constellations, and the Moon.
T+270: K2 Space (with Neel Kunjur, Co-Founder and CTO)
Neel Kunjur, Co-Founder and CTO of K2 Space, joins me to talk about their vision for the future of satellites and the wider space industry, what they’ve been up to lately, and what their roadmap to the launch pad looks like from here.
T+269: IM-1 and Beyond (with Tim Crain, Co-Founder and CTO of Intuitive Machines)
Tim Crain, Co-Founder and CTO of Intuitive Machines, joins me to talk about their recent IM-1 mission to land Odysseus on the Moon as part of NASA’s CLPS program.
T+268: IM-1, CLPS, NASA Budget (with Eric Berger)
Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about Intuitive Machine’s successful landing despite so many issues on the mission, the future of CLPS, and the tough questions facing NASA and its budget.
T+267: Vulcan, New Glenn, Peregrine, Artemis
I catch up with a round up of stories from January: ULA’s first Vulcan launch, Blue Origin’s success with its BE-4 engines and what it means for their year, Astrobotic’s Peregrine mission, JAXA’s SLIM mission, and NASA’s announcement of Artemis delays.
T+266: Alex Fielding, CEO and Chairman, Privateer
Alex Fielding, CEO and Chairman of Privateer, joins me to talk about what they’re working on and what drives them as an organization.