Episode T+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.
I host Main Engine Cut Off and Off-Nominal.
Formerly: Quirks & Compulsions and The Multilogue.
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.