Latest Space colonization Podcast Episodes
T+277: SabreSat, VLEO, and DARPA’s Otter Program (with Spence Wise, SVP of Missions and Platforms at Redwire)
Main Engine Cut Off - June 17, 2024 16:16 - 40 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsRedwire 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...
T+276: Mars Sample Return Studies, NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 Selections
Main Engine Cut Off - June 14, 2024 16:52 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsNASA 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. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 exec...
T+275: Starliner’s First Crew, Starship’s Fourth Flight
Main Engine Cut Off - June 07, 2024 20:47 - 22 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsStarliner flew its first crew, Starship flew its fourth flight, Chang’e-6 collected its first samples, and Agnikul Cosmos flew its first mission. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive producers—Warren, Bob, Stealth Julian, Will and Lars from Agile Space, Harrison...
T+274: The Vulcan and Artemis Roadmaps
Main Engine Cut Off - May 17, 2024 15:34 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsUnited 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. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive producers—Lee ...
T+273: Mars Sample Return
Main Engine Cut Off - April 18, 2024 15:54 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsNASA 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. This episode of Main Engine C...
T+272: Moon Rovers, Space Stations, and Starships
Main Engine Cut Off - April 12, 2024 11:27 - 30 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsNASA 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 upda...
T+271: Checking in on the Chinese Space Industry (with Andrew Jones)
Main Engine Cut Off - March 19, 2024 12:14 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsAndrew Jones returns to the show to catch up on the Chinese space industry—Tiangong, reusable launchers, constellations, and the Moon. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Tyler, Jan, Will and Lars from Agile Space, Benjamin, Warren, Pat, Russell, Crai...
T+270: K2 Space (with Neel Kunjur, Co-Founder and CTO)
Main Engine Cut Off - March 14, 2024 18:28 - 37 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsNeel 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. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 ...
T+269: IM-1 and Beyond (with Tim Crain, Co-Founder and CTO of Intuitive Machines)
Main Engine Cut Off - March 07, 2024 17:36 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsTim 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. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Russell, Chris, Josh from Impulse Space, Will and La...
T+268: IM-1, CLPS, NASA Budget (with Eric Berger)
Main Engine Cut Off - March 01, 2024 00:07 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsEric 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. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Tyler, Lee Hop...
T+267: Vulcan, New Glenn, Peregrine, Artemis
Main Engine Cut Off - January 26, 2024 18:30 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsI 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. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is bro...
T+266: Alex Fielding, CEO and Chairman, Privateer
Main Engine Cut Off - December 15, 2023 03:11 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsAlex Fielding, CEO and Chairman of Privateer, joins me to talk about what they’re working on and what drives them as an organization. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Joel, The Astrogators at SEE, Chris, Joonas, Tyler, Bob, Craig from SpaceHappyHou...
T+265: Headlines, featuring Starship IFT-2, Dragonfly, and Ariane 6
Main Engine Cut Off - December 01, 2023 01:45 - 17 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsA special (free!) airing of this week’s episode of MECO Headlines. Starship IFT-2, Dragonfly, Ariane 6, ISS happenings, launches, and more. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Donald, Pat from KC, David, Theo and Violet, Dawn Aerospace, Steve, SmallSp...
T+264: ESA’s Interest in Space Stations, Virgin Galactic Bails on VSS Unity
Main Engine Cut Off - November 13, 2023 19:06 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsESA is looking to start a commercial cargo program while looking further ahead to commercial space stations by signing an agreement with Airbus and Voyager. Virgin Galactic is laying off 20% of its staff and ending VSS Unity flights in just a few months. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is b...
T+263: Space Policy Roundup (with Marcia Smith)
Main Engine Cut Off - October 31, 2023 16:54 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsMarcia Smith of SpacePolicyOnline.com joins me for a roundup of space policy topics—the House Speaker mayhem, the outlook for budgets over the next year, what to do about the ISS and its related expenses, and a lot more. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive prod...
T+262: Printing a Meniscus in the BioFabrication Facility (with Dr. Molly Mulligan and Dr. Ken Savin of Redwire)
Main Engine Cut Off - October 27, 2023 13:10 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsDr. Molly Mulligan and Dr. Ken Savin of Redwire join me to talk about successfully 3D bioprinting the first human knee meniscus on the International Space Station in their BioFabrication Facility, how this work fits into the near and far future of both health and the space market at large, and t...
T+261: Agile Space (with CEO Chris Pearson and Chief Engineer Lars Osborne)
Main Engine Cut Off - October 23, 2023 19:33 - 51 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsChris Pearson (CEO) and Lars Osborne (Chief Engineer) of Agile Space join me to talk about what they’re working on, how the company has gotten to where it is today, and what’s in store for the future. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Pat from KC, C...
T+260: Northrop Grumman Changes Plans, Starlab, Orbital Reef, and Leadership Changes
Main Engine Cut Off - October 19, 2023 15:58 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsNorthrop Grumman has changed plans—they’ve ended their own space station project, and will contribute to Starlab. At the same time, Blue Origin and Sierra Space are reconsidering their Orbital Reef plans, amidst changing leadership and raising money. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is broug...
T+259: Tom Marotta, The Spaceport Company
Main Engine Cut Off - September 12, 2023 16:21 - 56 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsTom Marotta of The Spaceport Company joins me to talk about what they’re working on, their vision for the future of spaceflight, spaceport operations, the demonstration they did in May, the FAA and its interaction with private companies, reentry licensing, and a whole host of other topics. This...
T+258: The Six, by Loren Grush (Off-Nominal 123 - An Exciting Time)
Main Engine Cut Off - September 08, 2023 18:35 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsJake and Anthony are joined by Loren Grush of Bloomberg to talk about her new book, The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 34 executive producers—Frank, Chris, Joel, Fred, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut), Steve, ...
T+257: Chandrayaan-3, Luna-25, and the Deep Space Network (with Scott Tilley)
Main Engine Cut Off - August 31, 2023 19:27 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsScott Tilley joins me to talk about ISRO’s success with Chandrayaan-3, Roscosmos’ Luna-25 mission and the mystery behind it, and the state of the Deep Space Network. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 34 executive producers—Pat, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut), Joel, Fre...
T+256: The Kuiper Logjam
Main Engine Cut Off - August 25, 2023 19:39 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsAmazon moved their Project Kuiper prototypes from Vulcan to Atlas V. Between that and some recent conversations I’ve had, I thought it would be a good time to check in on Kuiper and to see how they’re progressing towards deployment. I do some math, and it’s not good. This episode of Main Engine...
T+255: NSSL Phase 3 Addendum
Main Engine Cut Off - July 20, 2023 17:34 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsAfter the most recent show, I found a few nuggets of information in the NSSL Phase 3 documents, plus some more updates came out in a call that the Space Force had with some reporters. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Donald, Lee, The Astrogators at...
T+254: Mars Sample Return, Vulcan, NSSL Phase 3 (with Eric Berger)
Main Engine Cut Off - July 18, 2023 14:23 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsEric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about the budgetary threat facing Mars Sample Return, the latest issue with ULA’s Vulcan vehicle, and the ongoing tweaks to the National Security Space Launch Program’s Phase 3 architecture. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35...
T+253: The German and European Launch Industry (with Adrian Beil)
Main Engine Cut Off - June 14, 2023 14:37 - 36 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsAdrian Beil of NASASpaceFlight.com (and a long-time beloved member of the Off-Nominal Discord) joins me to talk about the state of German and European launch, with new entrants Rocket Factory Augsburgand Isar Aerospace getting close to the launch pad, many others working their way there, and ins...
T+252: NASA Selects Blue Moon for a Second Lunar Lander, But is Facing a Grim Budget Reality
Main Engine Cut Off - May 31, 2023 20:44 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsNASA selected Blue Moon as the second human lunar lander for Artemis—which is awesome!—yet the budget outlook for the next few years is…not good. I think through what NASA can, should, and might do in the face of a grim budget reality. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36...
T+251: Finance and Business Strategy (Live from Space Symposium 2023)
Main Engine Cut Off - May 04, 2023 12:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsLive from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss the business and finance side of spaceflight, with Caleb Henry (Quilty Space), Peter Beck (Rocket Lab), and Jonathan Baliff (CFO, Redwire). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Pat, Fred, R...
T+250: LEO and Lunar Commercialization (Live from Space Symposium 2023)
Main Engine Cut Off - May 02, 2023 13:53 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsLive from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss the commercialization effort of LEO and the Moon with Angela T. Hart (Manager, Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program Office, NASA), Dr. Molly Mulligan (Business Development, Redwire), Jana Spruce (VP of Spacecraft, Firefly), and Kevin F...
T+249: Space Symposium Round Up Plus Drop-In Guests (Live from Space Symposium 2023)
Main Engine Cut Off - April 30, 2023 11:49 - 47 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsLive from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss news, announcements, and happenings from the conference, then talk with a trio of drop-in guests: Sean Bedford (Director of Business Development, Astrobotic), Mike DeRosa (Co-Founder & CMO, Gravitics), and Jason Hopkins (Vice Preside...
T+248: Space Policy (Live from Space Symposium 2023)
Main Engine Cut Off - April 28, 2023 11:00 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 268 ratingsLive from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss current space policy topics with Lori Garver (former Deputy Administrator of NASA), and Karina Drees (President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Ste...
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