And here’s the megafeed of everything I’ve been doing.
Firefly added launch sites in Virginia and Sweden for its Alpha vehicle. NASA has selected SpaceX to build the ISS US Deorbit Vehicle, closed out their task orders to Collins for ISS spacesuits, and decided to keep Starliner at the ISS for a few more weeks.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Laura Delgado López, Visiting Fellow at the Americas Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to talk about Latin American space policy.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Mark Peller, VP of Vulcan Development at United Launch Alliance, to talk about…well…Vulcan development!
Redwire announced today that it has been awarded a contract from DARPA to serve as the prime mission integrator for its Otter program. For the program, and for the industry beyond that, they’ll be developing SabreSat, an air-breathing spacecraft flying in VLEO. Spence Wise, Senior Vice President of Missions and Platforms at Redwire, joins me to discuss the program, VLEO generally, and to dive into the technical and operational details of SabreSat.
NASA selected the organizations who will be carrying out mission design studies for the Mars Sample Return rethink, and the US Space Force selected the first 3 bidders for the National Security Space Launch Program Phase 3 Lane 1.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Peter Beck, Founder, President, and CEO of Rocket Lab, to talk about making rocket bikes, why he would do such a thing as make rocket bikes, what it was like to ride rocket bikes, and why he stopped making rocket bikes.
Starliner flew its first crew, Starship flew its fourth flight, Chang’e-6 collected its first samples, and Agnikul Cosmos flew its first mission.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Matt Desch, CEO of Iridium, to talk about what they’ve been up to lately, the state of the satellite communications industry, and to tell some stories from his career.
Jake and Anthony catch up on the news, and Anthony returns from vacation with a few reviews of some recent Smithsonian Air and Space Museum changes.
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.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Caleb Henry (Director of Research) and Justin Cadman (Co-CEO) of Quilty Space, to talk about their financial analysis of Starlink.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica, to figure out what’s up with the Orion heat shield, SLS layoffs, commercial Mars studies, and the ISS deorbit vehicle.
Erin Edwards joins Jake and Anthony to talk about flying helicopters, making the leap from the military to space, and being a Canadian CAPCOM at NASA.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Aria Alamalhodaei, reporter at TechCrunch, to talk about valves, getting footage of Astra’s explosions, Mars Sample Return, and everything else that has been going on lately, including cursed eclipses.
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.
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.
Jake and Anthony catch up after some travels, unfortunate events, clouds, news, and hijinks.
Jake is joined my Simon Stähler from ETH Zürich to talk about the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Jake and Anthony are joined by Paul Niles, CLPS project scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, to talk about the science side of CLPS.
Andrew Jones returns to the show to catch up on the Chinese space industry—Tiangong, reusable launchers, constellations, and the Moon.