I’m Anthony Colangelo.

Jeff Foust of Space News joins me to talk about Starliner, Fram2, VIPER, Blue Moon, and everything else going on in space. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 31 executive producers—Jan, Warren, Pat from KC, David, Frank, Lee, Joonas, Josh from Impulse, Steve, Harrison, Russell, Joel, Bob, The Astrogators at SEE, Stealth Julian, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Kris, Fred, Theo and Violet, Matt, Donald, Will and Lars from Agile, Ryan, Pat, Better Every Day Studios, and four anonymous—and 823 other supporters.

Jake and Anthony are joined by Logan and Alan from MSI DFAT to talk about blasting satellites and spacecraft with sound. Seriously, that is their job.

Jake and Anthony are joined by Christian Davenport of The Washington Post to catch Jake up on what he missed while on vacation. Just a Falcon 9 failure, the ongoing Starliner saga, and a brand new Presidential race.

Mark Albrecht joins me to talk about the state and future of space policy in a very dynamic Presidential election year. He shares some stories from the past, talks about his experience in presidential transitions and on the National Space Council, and ruminates on what we may see in November and beyond.

Anthony is joined by his two favorite LGs—Lori Garver, former NASA Deputy Administrator, and Loren Grush of Bloomberg—to talk about an absolutely chaotic run of space news.

Andrew Rush returns to the show to talk about his new venture, Star Catcher. They are working to build an energy grid in space, beaming energy directly to existing solar panels on satellites in LEO.

Anthony is joined by Joey Roulette of Reuters and Jacqueline Feldscher of Payload to talk about the Falcon 9 failure and its fallout, and the ongoing communications debacle that is Starliner.

NASA announced their intent to cancel VIPER, the rover that was due to go to the Moon on Astrobotic’s Griffin lander, after severe schedule and cost growth. SpaceX had a rare failure of Falcon 9 that has led to a (seemingly short) grounding of the vehicle.

A few weeks ago, we talked about Redwire’s SabreSat spacecraft, and today we’re talking about their Europe-based Phantom spacecraft. We talk about the spacecraft platform itself, how the different parts of Redwire work together, VLEO and its use cases, and how to fly satellites through little bits of atmosphere.

Jake and Anthony are back! We catch up mostly about spacesuits, space stations, spaceships, and probably Dragon XL.

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.