Podcasts about intuitive machines

It's time for Rod and Tariq to catch up on headlines... and space dad jokes! We're going to update you on the ever-slimming NASA budget, the latest news on the Voyager spacecraft, what's up with the SLS, Orion capsule, and Artemis programs? SpaceX's 9th Starship test flight, AliBaba in orbit, and the end of the universe. And more space jokes than ever for you to choke on. Gilmore Space Launch Attempt: Gilmore Space's Ares rocket experienced a payload fairing separation on the pad before launch. NASA Budget Cuts & Artemis Program: Proposed budget cuts threaten NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), Orion capsule, and Lunar Gateway, sparking debate about the future of the Artemis program and a potential shift towards commercial solutions. Voyager 1 Thrusters: After 21 years of inactivity, Voyager 1 successfully fired its backup thrusters, ensuring continued communication from interstellar space. NASA Advisory Groups React: NASA advisory groups, including the Mars Exploration Program Advisory Group, expressed concern over budget cuts and their potential to hinder U.S. leadership in space exploration. Texas MARS Act: Texas Senator John Cornyn proposed allocating $1 billion for modernizing the Johnson Space Center. Intuitive Machines Update: Intuitive Machines plans to return to the moon in Q1 2026 with Intuitive Machines 3, having identified and addressed the causes of previous landing failures. SpaceX Starship Update: Elon Musk will provide an update on SpaceX's Mars plans before the next Starship test flight, frlight 9, addressing challenges like refueling the vehicle in space. The End of the Universe: Astrophysicists predict the universe's end, or "heat death", will occur sooner than previously thought, approximately 10 to the power of 78 years from now. China's Orbital Computing Sats: China launched its first 12 orbital computing satellites, part of a planned 2,800-satellite constellation designed to shift power-hungry computing and AI capabilities off-planet. Starlink Profitability: SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business has generated $11.8 billion in revenue in 2024, surpassing its space transportation business. VIPER Lunar Rover: NASA may be working to save the VIPER lunar prospecting rover mission, which was previously canceled due to lander delays. Solar Flare Activity: The sun has unleashed a strong solar flare, an X2.7 magnitude, with the potential for increased auroras on Earth. Auroras on Mars: Perseverance rover images reveal the first visible light auroras on Mars from the planet's surface. Virgin Galactic Update: Virgin Galactic plans to launch its new Spaceship Delta fleet in early 2026 and resume ticket sales, with prices increases to come. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

It's time for Rod and Tariq to catch up on headlines... and space dad jokes! We're going to update you on the ever-slimming NASA budget, the latest news on the Voyager spacecraft, what's up with the SLS, Orion capsule, and Artemis programs? SpaceX's 9th Starship test flight, AliBaba in orbit, and the end of the universe. And more space jokes than ever for you to choke on. Gilmore Space Launch Attempt: Gilmore Space's Ares rocket experienced a payload fairing separation on the pad before launch. NASA Budget Cuts & Artemis Program: Proposed budget cuts threaten NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), Orion capsule, and Lunar Gateway, sparking debate about the future of the Artemis program and a potential shift towards commercial solutions. Voyager 1 Thrusters: After 21 years of inactivity, Voyager 1 successfully fired its backup thrusters, ensuring continued communication from interstellar space. NASA Advisory Groups React: NASA advisory groups, including the Mars Exploration Program Advisory Group, expressed concern over budget cuts and their potential to hinder U.S. leadership in space exploration. Texas MARS Act: Texas Senator John Cornyn proposed allocating $1 billion for modernizing the Johnson Space Center. Intuitive Machines Update: Intuitive Machines plans to return to the moon in Q1 2026 with Intuitive Machines 3, having identified and addressed the causes of previous landing failures. SpaceX Starship Update: Elon Musk will provide an update on SpaceX's Mars plans before the next Starship test flight, frlight 9, addressing challenges like refueling the vehicle in space. The End of the Universe: Astrophysicists predict the universe's end, or "heat death", will occur sooner than previously thought, approximately 10 to the power of 78 years from now. China's Orbital Computing Sats: China launched its first 12 orbital computing satellites, part of a planned 2,800-satellite constellation designed to shift power-hungry computing and AI capabilities off-planet. Starlink Profitability: SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business has generated $11.8 billion in revenue in 2024, surpassing its space transportation business. VIPER Lunar Rover: NASA may be working to save the VIPER lunar prospecting rover mission, which was previously canceled due to lander delays. Solar Flare Activity: The sun has unleashed a strong solar flare, an X2.7 magnitude, with the potential for increased auroras on Earth. Auroras on Mars: Perseverance rover images reveal the first visible light auroras on Mars from the planet's surface. Virgin Galactic Update: Virgin Galactic plans to launch its new Spaceship Delta fleet in early 2026 and resume ticket sales, with prices increases to come. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

It's time for Rod and Tariq to catch up on headlines... and space dad jokes! We're going to update you on the ever-slimming NASA budget, the latest news on the Voyager spacecraft, what's up with the SLS, Orion capsule, and Artemis programs? SpaceX's 9th Starship test flight, AliBaba in orbit, and the end of the universe. And more space jokes than ever for you to choke on. Gilmore Space Launch Attempt: Gilmore Space's Ares rocket experienced a payload fairing separation on the pad before launch. NASA Budget Cuts & Artemis Program: Proposed budget cuts threaten NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), Orion capsule, and Lunar Gateway, sparking debate about the future of the Artemis program and a potential shift towards commercial solutions. Voyager 1 Thrusters: After 21 years of inactivity, Voyager 1 successfully fired its backup thrusters, ensuring continued communication from interstellar space. NASA Advisory Groups React: NASA advisory groups, including the Mars Exploration Program Advisory Group, expressed concern over budget cuts and their potential to hinder U.S. leadership in space exploration. Texas MARS Act: Texas Senator John Cornyn proposed allocating $1 billion for modernizing the Johnson Space Center. Intuitive Machines Update: Intuitive Machines plans to return to the moon in Q1 2026 with Intuitive Machines 3, having identified and addressed the causes of previous landing failures. SpaceX Starship Update: Elon Musk will provide an update on SpaceX's Mars plans before the next Starship test flight, frlight 9, addressing challenges like refueling the vehicle in space. The End of the Universe: Astrophysicists predict the universe's end, or "heat death", will occur sooner than previously thought, approximately 10 to the power of 78 years from now. China's Orbital Computing Sats: China launched its first 12 orbital computing satellites, part of a planned 2,800-satellite constellation designed to shift power-hungry computing and AI capabilities off-planet. Starlink Profitability: SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business has generated $11.8 billion in revenue in 2024, surpassing its space transportation business. VIPER Lunar Rover: NASA may be working to save the VIPER lunar prospecting rover mission, which was previously canceled due to lander delays. Solar Flare Activity: The sun has unleashed a strong solar flare, an X2.7 magnitude, with the potential for increased auroras on Earth. Auroras on Mars: Perseverance rover images reveal the first visible light auroras on Mars from the planet's surface. Virgin Galactic Update: Virgin Galactic plans to launch its new Spaceship Delta fleet in early 2026 and resume ticket sales, with prices increases to come. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Join Anna in this episode of Astronomy Daily as she takes you on an exhilarating journey through the latest happenings in space exploration and astronomical research. Prepare to be captivated by a series of stories that span from the Moon's surface to the far reaches of the universe's fate.Highlights:- Intuitive Machines' Lunar Lander Mishap: Discover the factors that led to the topple of Intuitive Machine's Nova C lander during its lunar touchdown. Learn how issues with laser altimeters and challenging lighting conditions at the Moon's south pole contributed to this landing anomaly and what improvements are planned for future missions.- The Universe's Ultimate End: Explore new research from Radboud University that revises predictions about the universe's demise, suggesting it may happen in about 10 to the power of 78 years. Understand the implications of Hawking radiation and how this research bridges gaps between quantum mechanics and general relativity.- Life on the International Space Station: Get an inside look at the busy lives of astronauts aboard the ISS as they conduct biotechnology experiments and research on fire behavior in microgravity. Discover how their work contributes to both space safety and advancements on Earth.- Historic Decommissioning of Galileo Satellite: Mark a significant milestone as the European Space Agency bids farewell to its first decommissioned Galileo satellite, GSAT 0104, after 12 years of service. This event underscores the importance of responsible space operations and sustainability in satellite management.- Rapid Emergence of Life on Earth: Delve into groundbreaking research suggesting that life on Earth may have emerged much more quickly than previously thought. This study provides compelling evidence supporting the hypothesis of rapid abiogenesis, raising intriguing questions about the potential for life elsewhere in the universe.For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io. Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, YouTubeMusic, TikTok, and our new Instagram account! Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.Thank you for tuning in. This is Anna signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders of our universe.Chapters:00:00 - Welcome to Astronomy Daily01:10 - Intuitive Machines' lunar lander mishap10:00 - The universe's ultimate end and Hawking radiation15:30 - Life aboard the International Space Station20:00 - Historic decommissioning of Galileo satellite25:00 - Rapid emergence of life on Earth✍️ Episode ReferencesIntuitive Machines Lunar Lander[Intuitive Machines](https://www.intuitivemachines.com/)Radboud University Research[Radboud University](https://www.ru.nl/)International Space Station Research[NASA ISS](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html)Galileo Satellite Decommissioning[European Space Agency](https://www.esa.int/)Rapid Abiogenesis Research[David Kipping's Study](https://www.columbia.edu/~dkipping/)Astronomy Daily[Astronomy Daily](http://www.astronomydaily.io/)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-exciting-space-discoveries-and-news--5648921/support.

APAC stocks traded mostly higher following the rally on Wall St owing to the US-China trade war de-escalation after both sides agreed to cut tariffs by 115ppts for an initial period of 90 days, although some of the gains were capped as the euphoria began to moderate.White House Executive Order said US will cut the minimum tariff on China shipments from 120% to 54%, and a minimum flat fee of USD 100 is to remain.DXY took a breather and gave back some of yesterday's firm gains; 10yr UST futures traded rangebound after recently suffering from a lack of haven appealEuropean equity futures indicate a lower cash market open with Euro Stoxx 50 futures down 0.2% after the cash market finished with gains of 1.6% on Monday.Looking ahead, highlights include UK Jobs, German ZEW, US CPI, Speakers include US President Trump, BoE's Pill, Bailey & ECB's Rehn, Supply from Netherlands, UK, Italy & Germany, Earnings from JD.Com, Intuitive Machines, On, Munich Re, Hannover Re, Bayer, K+S, Leg, Ferrovial & A2A.Read the full report covering Equities, Forex, Fixed Income, Commodites and more on Newsquawk

Published on April 9, 2025. Let's take a fast-paced journey through all that's new in space and astronomy, including new results from Perseverance Rover, Venusian Volcanism, Mars Sample Return (or not), Intuitive Machines' failure to land upright, Firefly Aerospace's amazing success with Blue Ghost, and tales from the launch pad.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs.  Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too!  Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://www.redbubble.com/people/CosmoQuestX/shop for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations.  Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) ------------------------------------ The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by the Planetary Science Institute. http://www.psi.edu Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at info@365DaysOfAstronomy.org.

Let's take a fast-paced journey through all that's new in space and astronomy, including new results from Perseverance Rover, Venusian Volcanism, Mars Sample Return (or not), Intuitive Machines' failure to land upright, Firefly Aerospace's amazing success with Blue Ghost, and tales from the launch pad.

0:00 La NASA, la NASA, la NASA, siempre manda cohetes 3:18 El asteroide 2024 YR4 va ahora a por la Luna 10:29 ChatGPT calcula si vamos a morir 17:49 Minuto y resultado del programa CLPS de la NASA 24:20 Ya hay fecha para mandar al espacio a Katy Perry 26:52 El parche de Artemisa II (¡avances!) 27:39 Europa ya está para lanzar cohetes 34:27 Isar Aerospace tiene éxito total fallando 39:08 Hera se da un garbeo por Marte 42:32 Donde dije Starship V2 digo Starhip V3 48:54 Elon dice que Marte será parte de EEUU 53:57 Europa quiere ser el basurero espacial 56:18 El viaje de ida de Starliner dio canguele Le hemos pedido a una IA que resuma este episodio:En este emocionante episodio de PARSEC, Matías S. Zavia y Javier Atapuerca celebran el décimo episodio de la cuarta temporada, lleno de energía y entusiasmo por los vastos misterios del espacio. La introducción comienza con un guiño a la cultura pop, donde Matías deleita a los oyentes con un divertido poema sobre la NASA y sus cohetes.A medida que avanza el programa, los presentadores abordan una variedad de actualizaciones fascinantes sobre la exploración espacial, comenzando con el asteroide 2024 YR4. A pesar de que la NASA y la Agencia Espacial Europea han disminuido la preocupación por un posible impacto en la Tierra, el asteroide vuelve a ser noticia debido a una probabilidad creciente de que impacte en la Luna. Javier comenta sobre los planes para observar y aprender de este evento, mientras que Matías subraya la importancia científica de los impactos en la Luna, que pueden revelar su composición sin la necesidad de enviar misiones costosas.No se detienen ahí; el episodio también explora las recientes y emocionantes misiones espaciales. Desde el exitoso alunizaje de Blue Ghost, la sonda que ha demostrado el potencial de las misiones comerciales hacia Luna, hasta las controversias en torno a las fallidas. Javier comparte anécdotas sobre el progreso y los tropiezos de la misión Intuitive Machines, ofreciendo contextos sobre la evolución del programa Clips, lo cual saca a la luz las luchas que enfrentan las empresas emergentes en la carrera espacial.La conversación se lanza a la geopolítica del espacio, destacando la importancia de Europa en el sector espacial y su reciente inauguración del Ariane 6. A través de este marco, Matías y Javier reflexionan sobre la necesidad de mantener una competencia sana en el lanzamiento espacial frente a las gigantes estadounidenses. Hacen un llamado a la inversión y al apoyo en la Agencia Espacial Europea, enfatizando que, a pesar de las dificultades, Europa sigue siendo un actor relevante para la ciencia y la exploración espacial.El corazón del episodio late con referencias a la reciente exposición de basura espacial, donde ambos presentadores discuten el desafío que este fenómeno representa y las ambiciosas metas de la ESA. Desde la necesidad de una mayor conciencia sobre la situación en órbita, hasta las soluciones innovadoras que la comunidad espacial está tratando de implementar. Para cerrar, el programa toca la odisea del Starliner, revelando complicaciones que los astronautas enfrentaron en su camino a la Estación Espacial Internacional, y cómo la NASA continúa aprendiendo de cada misión. PARSEC es un podcast semanal sobre exploración espacial presentado por Javier Atapuerca y Matías S. Zavia. Haznos llegar tus preguntas por Twitter: @parsecpodcast@JaviAtapu@matiass Puedes escucharnos en todas las plataformas a través de parsecpodcast.com.

Noticias de Astronomía y Exploración del Espacio – Abril 1, 2025. En este programa presentamos, comentamos y explicamos dos o tres noticias astronómicas y de exploración del espacio que fueron dadas a conocer en la semana, y que nos parecieron de particular relevancia e interés. Además, Pablo Lonnie Pacheco, de “Cielos Despejados,” nos presenta sus efemérides astronómicas. Esta semana: + 0) Premios de Obsesión por el Cielo: Marzo 2025. Constelación: La estrategia de comercialización de lanzamientos de la ESA. https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/03/esa-finally-has-a-commercial-launch-strategy-but-will-member-states-pay/ Movimiento Retrógrado: Pierden contacto con la nave espacial Odín con destino a un asteroide + Falla de la segunda misión de Intuitive Machines a la Luna. https://www.space.com/space-exploration/private-spaceflight/i-think-we-all-know-that-hope-is-fading-private-odin-asteroid-probe-is-tumbling-in-space https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/07/athena-spacecraft-mission-dead + 1) Localizan principio de la era del Universo cuando la luz comenzaba a viajar libremente. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/eary-cosmic-fog-lifted-earlier-than-expected/ https://phys.org/news/2025-03-webb-telescope-galaxy-mysteriously-fog.html https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-116 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08779-5 + 2) Los discos protoplanetarios aparentan ser más pequeños de lo esperado. https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/tiny-disks-shed-light-on-super-earth-origins/ https://phys.org/news/2025-03-protoplanetary-disks-smaller-previously-thought.html https://www.astronomie.nl/nieuws/en/protoplanetary-discs-are-much-smaller-than-previously-thought-4477 https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.19504  

SpaceX launched the second National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) mission in three days with the NROL-69 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Intuitive Machines has released their fourth quarter and full-year 2024 financial results. NASA has awarded Redwire a contract to launch four additional pharmaceutical drug investigations to the International Space Station, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Our guest today is Mark Sasson, Co-founder of Pinpoint Search Group. You can connect with Mark on LinkedIn, and learn more about Pinpoint on their website. Selected Reading NRO and U.S. Space Force partner to launch NROL-69 mission  Intuitive Machines Reports Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2024 Financial Results Redwire Awarded NASA Contract to Expand Pharmaceutical Drug Development in Space for Future Commercialization ESA - Prepare for the European Launcher Challenge To the Moon: Viasat Selected to Design Lunar Orbiting Satellite System Alongside Telespazio Planet Signs Deal with European Space Agency, Enabling Greek Government to Expand National Space Services ESA Taps Spaceo-Led Consortium to Test Inflatable Satellite Deorbit System - European Spaceflight ​​https://x.com/doge/status/1903285341835940028 China's Feitian spacesuits break records, boost spacewalks - CGTN Breakthrough: Chang'e-6 mission dates moon's oldest impact crater JAXA Selects Spirent's Industry-First Lunar PNT Simulation Solution to Support Lunar Navigation Program SpaceX launch: Glowing spiral seen above UK skies ESA - Webb unmasks true nature of the Cosmic Tornado T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

En este episodio, cubrimos los temas más relevantes que están moviendo los mercados: Mercado modera el entusiasmo por tarifas focalizadas: Los futuros caen tras el fuerte rally del lunes. Aunque los aranceles de Trump serían menos agresivos, Deutsche Bank advierte que las acciones de EE.UU. siguen expuestas ante un retroceso en la globalización. Hoy, los traders monitorean datos clave del sector vivienda y consumo. Intuitive Machines sube +30% tras reporte optimista: $LUNR se dispara gracias a un fuerte aumento en backlog y expectativas de crecimiento en contratos con NASA y seguridad nacional. ¿Está la empresa bien posicionada para capturar contratos federales clave? Oklo avanza en energía nuclear modular: El CEO anuncia un acuerdo histórico de 12 GW con Switch y nuevos desarrollos en reactores modulares para centros de datos. Además, la compra de Atomic Alchemy abre una nueva línea de negocio en radioisótopos. ¿Está Oklo liderando la próxima ola de energía limpia? Alibaba vuelve a contratar tras 3 años: $BABA muestra señales de confianza tras una mejora en relaciones con Beijing. Joe Tsai advirtió sobre una posible burbuja en IA en EE.UU., mientras Alibaba planea invertir $52.4B en nube e IA. ¿Podrá competir frente a los gigantes estadounidenses? Acompáñanos para analizar cómo estos movimientos están redefiniendo sectores estratégicos como energía, IA, aeroespacial y comercio global. ¡Un episodio lleno de análisis y visión global!

Ако това, което правим, ви харесва, вижте как можете да подкрепите Ratio тук: ratio.bg/support Новият епизод на Ratio Weekly ни отвежда от Луната до Марс, преминавайки през най-новите космически мисии и любопитни инженерни постижения. Какво се случи с мисията Атина на Intuitive Machines и първото в историята „съкровищно търсене“ на Луната? След дълъг престой астронавтите от последната мисия на SpaceX се завърнаха на Земята на 18 март. В същото време Axiom Space обяви, че тяхната космическа станция ще бъде готова по-рано от очакваното. Китай също прави големи стъпки в космоса – тяхната космическа станция вече произвежда гориво на орбита, а нов защитен щит ще предпазва отломките в ниската околоземна орбита. Но най-голямата новина? Китай кани целия свят да се присъедини към тяхната мисия към Марс през 2028 година. А ако говорим за космоса, можем ли да пропуснем луните? Едни от тях са по-привлекателни за учените, но не всеки има време за Юпитер… Чуйте новия епизод и се потопете в света на науката и технологиите! Гледайте видео към епизода тук: https://youtu.be/FUhvThbB98Y Допълнителни бележки тук: https://podcast.ratio.bg/podcast/ratio-weekly-249/ # В епизодите на Ratio Weekly, нашата импровизирана научна новинарска емисия, молекулярният биолог Никола Кереков в компанията на харизматичния водещ Петко Желязов ви представят най-новите открития и най-любопитните постижения в сферата на науката технологиите и медицината от изминалата седмица. В тази мини-серия на Ratio Podcast говорим за неща като това как да общуваме ефективно с котките, защо китовете се самоубиват и какво живее на Венера. Това е една от шестте серии на Ratio Podcast – един подкаст за любопитни хора. С негова помощ ще си сверите часовника за всичко най-ново в света на науката и културата и ще чуете неформални разговори, свързани или вдъхновени от наука. Можете да ни слушате тук, през RSS, в Stitcher, iTunes и Spotify.

How long does it take to get to the Moon, Mars, or even Jupiter?

Today the Late Crew welcomes Air Force CMSgt (Ret) Michelle Zayatz!  We discuss Butch and Suni coming home from the ISS (27:04), the Intuitive Machines moon lander falling on its side at the lunar south pole (36:53), how 2 soldiers and an Army vet were indicted on charges of selling secrets to a Chinese agent (43:21), that the Army is losing nearly 1/4th of Soldiers in the first 2 years of enlistment (54:39), and the history of Air Force CMSgt Richard Etchberger and his Medal of Honor action on 11 Mar 1968 (01:08:38).

SpaceTime Series 28 Episode 30The Astronomy, Space and Science News PodcastEarth's Jessica Cycles, Starship's Latest Failure, and Lunar Landings in TroubleIn this episode of SpaceTime, we explore a groundbreaking discovery linking Earth's ice age cycles to its orbital shifts. Recent research indicates a predictable pattern for glacial and interglacial periods, suggesting the onset of the next ice age could occur in approximately 10,000 years. This insight stems from a million-year climate record that matches changes in Earth's orbit with significant climate shifts.Starship's Crash and BurnWe also discuss the latest mishap involving SpaceX's Starship, which experienced a dramatic failure just seconds before achieving orbit. The test flight ended in a spectacular explosion over the Caribbean, prompting multiple investigations into the incident. This marks the second consecutive failure for SpaceX's ambitious rocket program, raising concerns about its future, particularly in relation to NASA's Artemis lunar missions.New Developments on the MoonAdditionally, we report on the recent successful landing of Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander on the lunar surface, marking a milestone in commercial lunar exploration. However, not all lunar missions are faring well, as Intuitive Machines' IM2 lander appears to have landed on its side, echoing past failures. Meanwhile, NASA's Lunar Trailblazer has lost communication, raising further concerns about its operational status.00:00 Space Time Series 28 Episode 30 for broadcast on 10 March 202500:49 Linking Earth's ice age cycles to orbital shifts06:30 Predicting the next ice age12:15 Overview of SpaceX's Starship crash18:00 Implications for NASA's Artemis program22:45 Successful landing of Blue Ghost on the Moon27:00 Challenges faced by IM2 and Lunar Trailblazer missions30:15 Study on vaping and smoking cessationwww.spacetimewithstuartgary.comwww.bitesz.com

It looks like the Athena lander has toppled sideways on the lunar surface. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Astronomy Daily | Space News: S04E59In this episode of Astronomy Daily, host Steve Dunkley dives into the latest developments in space exploration, featuring a mix of political intrigue and technical challenges. From the ongoing saga of the Starliner astronauts to the latest setbacks in lunar landings, this episode is packed with stories that highlight the complexities of space travel.Highlights:- Starliner Controversy: Explore the political ramifications surrounding the Starliner mission as President Trump claims to rescue stranded astronauts aboard the ISS. We discuss the astronauts' responses and the implications of politicizing space missions, as well as the current status of their return.- Update on the Athena Mission: Get the latest on the Athena lunar lander, which faced a challenging landing and ultimately ended up on its side on the moon. We'll assess the impact of this setback on future lunar exploration missions and the goals of Intuitive Machines.- Troubles with Space Probes: Learn about the communication issues plaguing NASA's Lunar Trailblazer and Astroforge's Odin probes shortly after their launch. We'll discuss the challenges faced by these low-budget missions and what's being done to resolve the issues.- Firefly Aerospace's Success: Celebrate the achievement of Firefly Aerospace, which successfully landed its lunar lander, making it the first private company to do so. We'll delve into the implications of this landmark event for commercial lunar exploration.- The Future of Lunar Exploration: As the race to the moon intensifies, we'll discuss the ongoing efforts by various countries and private companies to establish a presence on the lunar surface and the importance of these missions for future human exploration.For more cosmic updates, visit our website at astronomydaily.io. Join our community on social media by searching for #AstroDailyPod on Facebook, X, YouTubeMusic, and TikTok. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.Thank you for tuning in. This is Steve signing off. Until next time, keep looking up and stay curious about the wonders of our universe.00:00 - Welcome back to Astronomy Daily01:05 - Starliner astronaut saga update07:30 - Athena mission landing troubles12:15 - Communication issues with Lunar Trailblazer and Odin18:00 - Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander success22:30 - Future of lunar exploration27:00 - Conclusion and upcoming content✍️ Episode ReferencesStarliner Mission Updates[NASA Starliner](https://www.nasa.gov/starliner)Intuitive Machines Information[Intuitive Machines](https://www.intuitivemachines.com/)Astroforge Mission Overview[Astroforge](https://www.astroforge.com/)Firefly Aerospace Details[Firefly Aerospace](https://fireflyspace.com/)Astronomy Daily[Astronomy Daily](http://www.astronomydaily.io/)Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/astronomy-daily-space-news--5648921/support.

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Intuitive Machines spacecraft cant complete Moon mission Bulgarians guilty of spying for Russia in the UK How six Bulgarians did Russias dirty work from the UK Reform UK refers MP Rupert Lowe to police MDMA may have protected Nova attack survivors from trauma, study suggests Actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa died of natural causes about a week apart Meghans new Netflix show renewed for second series UK weather sunny and warm weekend for most Im Danny Dyer I dont need a chat up line Trump strongly considering large scale sanctions and tariffs on Russia

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv UK weather sunny and warm weekend for most Intuitive Machines spacecraft cant complete Moon mission Meghans new Netflix show renewed for second series How six Bulgarians did Russias dirty work from the UK Im Danny Dyer I dont need a chat up line Trump strongly considering large scale sanctions and tariffs on Russia Reform UK refers MP Rupert Lowe to police MDMA may have protected Nova attack survivors from trauma, study suggests Bulgarians guilty of spying for Russia in the UK Actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa died of natural causes about a week apart

Morse code transcription: vvv vvv Trump strongly considering large scale sanctions and tariffs on Russia Im Danny Dyer I dont need a chat up line Actor Gene Hackman and wife Betsy Arakawa died of natural causes about a week apart UK weather sunny and warm weekend for most How six Bulgarians did Russias dirty work from the UK Meghans new Netflix show renewed for second series Reform UK refers MP Rupert Lowe to police MDMA may have protected Nova attack survivors from trauma, study suggests Intuitive Machines spacecraft cant complete Moon mission Bulgarians guilty of spying for Russia in the UK

Techdirt has finally accepted the inevitable and gone full democracy blog—because let's face it, politics and tech are now the same dumpster fire. Google rolled out AI Mode for Search, proving once again that the internet is just Clippy with better branding. Meanwhile, Billy McFarland insists Fyre Festival 2 is totally happening, despite Mexican officials pointing out that his coordinates literally lead to the ocean. Speaking of fraud, Tesla sales are in freefall thanks to Elon's alt-right cosplay, and people are setting Teslas on fire in protest. And in rich-guy disconnect news, Google's Sergey Brin thinks engineers should work 60-hour weeks to build the AI that will replace them. That's some late-stage capitalism poetry right there.Elsewhere, Trump Media paid Don Jr. nearly a quarter of its revenue to show up twice, while indie musicians can't afford to tour, proving once again that grifting is more profitable than making art. Technicolor shut down overnight, stranding 10,000 workers because Hollywood's financial planning is apparently as stable as a Starship rocket launch. Oh yeah, SpaceX exploded another one.Meanwhile, Netflix's attempt to upscale A Different World turned it into a Lovecraftian horror show. A quarter of Y Combinator startups now run on “vibe coding,” meaning their software is basically a Ouija board with extra steps. The AI takeover continues as OpenAI plans to charge $20,000 monthly for specialized AI "agents," proving once again that the revolution will be monetized. Meanwhile, Moscow's Pravda network has been poisoning Western AI chatbots with Russian propaganda, because if you can't convince humans, just brainwash the robots that humans increasingly trust.On the bright side, hackers brought the Humane AI Pin back to life after it was bricked, transforming an overpriced paperweight into... a slightly less useless overpriced paperweight. ChatGPT can now directly edit code in macOS development tools, making it easier for AI to introduce bugs you never would have thought of yourself. Over At the Library, check out "The Tempest" by Peter Cawdron for your first contact fix, and if you're worried about where society is heading (and who isn't?), Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny" offers a survival guide for our slow-motion constitutional collapse. Finally, in "everything is fine" news, 82% of indie artists can't afford to tour anymore.Enjoy the dystopia, kids – at least we still have our sense of humor.Sponsors:DeleteMe - Head over to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use the code "GOG" for 20% off.Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/687FOLLOW UPWhy Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)Google announces ‘AI Mode' as a new way to use Search, testing starts todayGovernment Officials for Announced Fyre Festival 2 Location Say Event “Does Not Exist”‘I'm selling the Nazi mobile': Tesla owners offload cars after Musk's fascist-style salutesTesla Just Got Even More Bad NewsTesla Just Got News About Its Sales in Germany, and It Shows That Elon Musk Has Seriously Messed UpArsonists Set Fire to a Dozen Teslas, Charging Stations Amid "Anti-Capitalist Coordination to Target Tesla"Google's Sergey Brin Says Engineers Should Work 60-Hour Weeks in Office to Build AI That Could Replace ThemEx-Amazon VP explains why rich a-holes with helicopters and personal assistants don't get why you hate your commuteTrump Media Paid Donald Trump Jr. Nearly A Quarter Of Its Annual Revenue. He Attended Just Two Board MeetingsIN THE NEWSCinema Giant Technicolor's Abrupt Shutdown Affects 10,000 Workers WorldwideUS employers cut more jobs last month than any February since 2009No part of Amazon is 'unaffected' by AI, says its head of AGIChatGPT doubled its weekly active users in under 6 months, thanks to new releasesHugging Face's chief science officer worries AI is becoming 'yes-men on servers'A well-funded Moscow-based global ‘news' network has infected Western artificial intelligence tools worldwide with Russian propagandaOnlyFans Model Amouranth Held at Gunpoint for Her Crypto in Home InvasionCrypto Soars Then Plunges Following Trump's Post About a Strategic ReserveFact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset StockpileTrump creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve one day ahead of White House crypto summitCFPB drops Zelle lawsuit in latest reversal under Trump administrationCanadian Municpalities and the Canadian Supreme Court to stop using twitter.Ontario once again promises to nix $100 million Starlink deal over Trump tariffsOpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI 'agents'Kevin Rose, Alexis Ohanian acquire DiggDoes the World Even Want Digg in 2025?Scrolling Through Social Media Has a Unique Effect on Your BodySpaceX's latest Starship test flight ends with another explosionA second Intuitive Machines spacecraft just landed on the moon — and probably tipped overTouch down on the moon with private Blue Ghost lander in this amazing videoMEDIA CANDYHow Many Episodes Should You Watch Before Quitting a TV Show? A Statistical AnalysisNetflix Is Using AI to Upscale a 1980s Sitcom and the Results Are Borderline HorrificDaredevil: Born AgainDavid Duchovny to Explore Real-Life X-Files for History ChannelBeyond Belief: Fact or FictionAncient MysteriesIn Search Of...82% of indie artists can't afford to tour anymoreAPPS & DOODADSThe Humane Ai Pin Has Already Been Brought Back to LifeChatGPT on macOS can now directly edit codeA quarter of startups in YC's current cohort have codebases that are almost entirely AI-generatedThe Vanishing Middle Class of TechWill the future of software development run on vibes?Hallucinations in code are the least dangerous form of LLM mistakesAT THE LIBRARYThe Tempest (First Contact) by Peter CawdronOn Tyranny by Timothy SnyderWarning - DomesticIs Trump preparing to invoke the Insurrection Act? Signs are pointing that waySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode 534: Neal and Toby chat about the jobs report set to come out Friday morning that should be able to paint a clearer picture of how the labor market is faring amid news of federal layoffs, government spending, and of course, tariffs. Then, the trade wars have spilled over in the alcohol section as Canada pulls American liquor off its shelves as Trump tariffs go into effect. Also, Intuitive Machines is attempting another moon landing but a toppled moon lander has put a damper on its mission. Meanwhile, Sweetgreen is adding fries to their menu and consulting firms are having to justify their work to the federal government. Finally, a roundup of the biggest headlines for the weekend!  Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here: https://link.chtbl.com/MBD Watch Morning Brew Daily Here: https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow There are risks involved with investing in ETFs, including possible loss of money. ETFs are subject to risks similar to those of stocks. Investments focus in a particular sector, such as technology, are subject to greater risks and are more greatly impacted by market volatility, than more diversified investments. Invesco Distributors, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Josh Dinner of Space.com joins me to talk about a wild week in space—Firefly's Blue Ghost 1, Intuitive Machines' IM-2, SpaceX's Starship Flight 8, Rocket Lab announcements, and more.This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 32 executive producers—Stealth Julian, Kris, Heiko, Pat, Jan, Warren, Josh from Impulse, Ryan, Lee, Joel, David, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Matt, Pat from KC, Will and Lars from Agile, Joonas, Donald, Bob, Frank, Joakim (Jo-Kim), Steve, Theo and Violet, Better Every Day Studios, Fred, Russell, The Astrogators at SEE, and four anonymous—and hundreds of supporters.TopicsJosh Dinner (@JoshDinner) / XArticles by Josh Dinner, Staff Writer, Spaceflight | SpaceIM-2 lunar lander mission ends - SpaceNewsAstroForge | Odin't: A Complete Debrief of Our Deep Space MissionStarship destroyed on second consecutive test flight - SpaceNewsStarship's Eighth Flight Test - SpaceX - LaunchesRocket Lab Announces Flatellite: A New Satellite Designed for Mass Manufacture and Tailored for Large Constellations | Rocket LabRocket Lab Reveals Ocean Platform for Neutron Rocket Landings at Sea | Rocket LabThe ShowLike the show? Support the show on Patreon or Substack!Email your thoughts, comments, and questions to anthony@mainenginecutoff.comFollow @WeHaveMECOFollow @meco@spacey.space on MastodonListen to MECO HeadlinesListen to Off-NominalJoin the Off-Nominal DiscordSubscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn or elsewhereSubscribe to the Main Engine Cut Off NewsletterArtwork photo by FireflyWork with me and my design and development agency: Pine Works

In this episode of This Week in Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Jim Green, former NASA Chief Scientist. He discusses how we can search for technosignatures that might indicate advanced civilizations in other star systems, new ideas on Mars sample return, and his fascinating experience consulting on the movie, The Martian! Also: this week's robotic landings on the Moon - one successful, one partly so; what's up with the USAF X-37B mini-shuttle; and recent news on those Energizer Bunnies of space, Voyagers 1&2. Their wings have been clipped a bit, but they just keep going... join us! News Lunar Landing Week: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander achieved a flawless touchdown in Mare Chrisium, the Intuitive Machines Athena lander reached the Moon's south polar region but experienced issues with its navigation radar (and tipped over), and SpaceX's Starship test flight 8 successfully caught its booster for the third time but lost control of the upper stage, resulting in the breakup of the upper stage and debris over the Bahamas and Caribbean. NASA powered down additional instruments on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to extend their remaining power supply, including Voyager 1's cosmic ray system that helped confirm its entry into interstellar space in 2012. The secretive US Space Force X-37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base after 434 days in orbit, completing its seventh mission, which tested new orbital capabilities, including aerobraking techniques. A newly released list showcases the world's top ten locations for dark skies and stargazing, with the US only having only one location—in Hawaii—to make the list. Dr. Jim Green His Career: Dr. Green goes over his former role as NASA's Chief Scientist and highlights key aspects of his career, including running the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and leading NASA's Planetary Science Division, and how his interest in space first began. The Martian: Dr. Green also explains how he got involved as a consultant for Ridley Scott's movie, "The Martian," and how NASA got really involved with the film. He also shares his favorite scene from the movie. NASA's Search for Alien Civilizations: Dr. Green shares how he helped shift NASA's focus from traditional SETI to searching for technosignatures like Dyson Spheres and O'Neill structures in other star systems, securing $10 million in funding for research that could detect megastructures in our astronomical data while noting that humanity may need similar space habitats in 800 million years when the sun makes Earth uninhabitable. Mars Sample Return Strategy: Dr. Green explains how NASA's evolving plan to return samples fropm Mars includes developing Mars Ascent Vehicles that could eventually support human missions while revealing that Perseverance was deliberately designed to place sample tubes on the surface so any nation could retrieve them, making the mission more politically viable with budget offices and Congress. Humanity's Cosmic Future: Dr. Green reveals that he helped create NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to support new companies for lunar missions. Despite early failures, he emphasized that humanity must utilize space resources and capabilities to ensure our species' long-term survival. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Dr. Jim Green Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Jake and Anthony talk about the Moon lander mania this week has been—Firefly's Blue Ghost 1 and Intuitive Machines' IM-2 missions.TopicsOff-Nominal - YouTubeEpisode 187 - Amazon Basics Lunar Lander - YouTubeBlue Ghost Mission 1 - Firefly AerospaceAstroForge | Earning the Learnings: The Launch of OdinNASA still working to restore contact with Lunar Trailblazer - SpaceNewsIM-2 lunar lander on its side after touchdown - SpaceNewsVirgin Galactic to start assembly of first new spaceplane in March - SpaceNewsFollow Off-NominalSubscribe to the show! - Off-NominalSupport the show, join the DiscordOff-Nominal (@offnom) / TwitterOff-Nominal (@offnom@spacey.space) - Spacey SpaceFollow JakeWeMartians Podcast - Follow Humanity's Journey to MarsWeMartians Podcast (@We_Martians) | TwitterJake Robins (@JakeOnOrbit) | TwitterJake Robins (@JakeOnOrbit@spacey.space) - Spacey SpaceFollow AnthonyMain Engine Cut OffMain Engine Cut Off (@WeHaveMECO) | TwitterMain Engine Cut Off (@meco@spacey.space) - Spacey SpaceAnthony Colangelo (@acolangelo) | TwitterAnthony Colangelo (@acolangelo@jawns.club) - jawns.club

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: The Trump Administration began building border wall in Texas today. Tariff increase on Mexico delayed until 2 April. And this: Texas GOP lawmakers want to tap local law enforcement for immigration duties. First, this is a misleading headline as the main bill in question simply require Texas sheriffs to cooperate with ICE, and it is much needed. Second, the last section of the story we see in almost all stories – all about people being afraid. Guess what?! There are many times when it is appropriate that people are afraid and having broken the law and entered our country illegally is one of those times.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.New polling, from Lefties in Texas, repeats what other polls show: Texans overwhelmingly want school choice and, they favor true universal school choice as the Senate plan provides over the income limitations in the House approach.New Tesla “megafactory” appears to be slated for near Katy in Waller Co.Much Texans in space news today, keep up with Firefly, Intuitive Machines, SpaceX, and more at: https://behindtheblack.com/We remember the fall of the Alamo today:   David Price – Remember the Alamo for Texas  https://youtu.be/j5dciOAZU1Y?si=4nKQp-u3v28wEMJc Brian Burns – Ballad of the Alamo  https://youtu.be/KBA_whiuV80?si=8TkbUaypLjSvSh4f Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates, or hear the podcast of the show after 6pm Central here.

SpaceX's Starship test flight 8 ends in a dramatic fireball over the Caribbean. Intuitive Machines' IM-2 mission lunar lander, Athena, lands 250 meters from its intended landing site. ispace and SpaceData to collaborate on lunar surface digital twin creation, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Elysia Segal from NASASpaceflight.com brings us the Space Traffic Report. Selected Reading FAA briefly halts flights to several Florida airports after SpaceX rocket testing failure IM-2- Intuitive Machines ispace and SpaceData Agree to Collaborate on Lunar Surface Digital Twin Creation to Expand the Lunar Market MDA Space Reports Fourth Quarter And Fiscal 2024 Results Star Catcher Announces Strategic Partnership with Space Florida to Advance the World's First Space Energy Grid Planet and Anthropic Partner to Use Claude's Advanced AI Capabilities to Turn Geospatial Satellite Imagery into Actionable Insights- Business Wire York Space Systems Completes Vibe Check, Ready to Ship for Tyndal Mission Lunar Ice Breakthrough: A New Discovery That Could Fuel Space Exploration T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of This Week in Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Jim Green, former NASA Chief Scientist. He discusses how we can search for technosignatures that might indicate advanced civilizations in other star systems, new ideas on Mars sample return, and his fascinating experience consulting on the movie, The Martian! Also: this week's robotic landings on the Moon - one successful, one partly so; what's up with the USAF X-37B mini-shuttle; and recent news on those Energizer Bunnies of space, Voyagers 1&2. Their wings have been clipped a bit, but they just keep going... join us! News Lunar Landing Week: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander achieved a flawless touchdown in Mare Chrisium, the Intuitive Machines Athena lander reached the Moon's south polar region but experienced issues with its navigation radar (and tipped over), and SpaceX's Starship test flight 8 successfully caught its booster for the third time but lost control of the upper stage, resulting in the breakup of the upper stage and debris over the Bahamas and Caribbean. NASA powered down additional instruments on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to extend their remaining power supply, including Voyager 1's cosmic ray system that helped confirm its entry into interstellar space in 2012. The secretive US Space Force X-37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base after 434 days in orbit, completing its seventh mission, which tested new orbital capabilities, including aerobraking techniques. A newly released list showcases the world's top ten locations for dark skies and stargazing, with the US only having only one location—in Hawaii—to make the list. Dr. Jim Green His Career: Dr. Green goes over his former role as NASA's Chief Scientist and highlights key aspects of his career, including running the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and leading NASA's Planetary Science Division, and how his interest in space first began. The Martian: Dr. Green also explains how he got involved as a consultant for Ridley Scott's movie, "The Martian," and how NASA got really involved with the film. He also shares his favorite scene from the movie. NASA's Search for Alien Civilizations: Dr. Green shares how he helped shift NASA's focus from traditional SETI to searching for technosignatures like Dyson Spheres and O'Neill structures in other star systems, securing $10 million in funding for research that could detect megastructures in our astronomical data while noting that humanity may need similar space habitats in 800 million years when the sun makes Earth uninhabitable. Mars Sample Return Strategy: Dr. Green explains how NASA's evolving plan to return samples fropm Mars includes developing Mars Ascent Vehicles that could eventually support human missions while revealing that Perseverance was deliberately designed to place sample tubes on the surface so any nation could retrieve them, making the mission more politically viable with budget offices and Congress. Humanity's Cosmic Future: Dr. Green reveals that he helped create NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to support new companies for lunar missions. Despite early failures, he emphasized that humanity must utilize space resources and capabilities to ensure our species' long-term survival. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Dr. Jim Green Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

In this episode of This Week in Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Jim Green, former NASA Chief Scientist. He discusses how we can search for technosignatures that might indicate advanced civilizations in other star systems, new ideas on Mars sample return, and his fascinating experience consulting on the movie, The Martian! Also: this week's robotic landings on the Moon - one successful, one partly so; what's up with the USAF X-37B mini-shuttle; and recent news on those Energizer Bunnies of space, Voyagers 1&2. Their wings have been clipped a bit, but they just keep going... join us! News Lunar Landing Week: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander achieved a flawless touchdown in Mare Chrisium, the Intuitive Machines Athena lander reached the Moon's south polar region but experienced issues with its navigation radar (and tipped over), and SpaceX's Starship test flight 8 successfully caught its booster for the third time but lost control of the upper stage, resulting in the breakup of the upper stage and debris over the Bahamas and Caribbean. NASA powered down additional instruments on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to extend their remaining power supply, including Voyager 1's cosmic ray system that helped confirm its entry into interstellar space in 2012. The secretive US Space Force X-37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base after 434 days in orbit, completing its seventh mission, which tested new orbital capabilities, including aerobraking techniques. A newly released list showcases the world's top ten locations for dark skies and stargazing, with the US only having only one location—in Hawaii—to make the list. Dr. Jim Green His Career: Dr. Green goes over his former role as NASA's Chief Scientist and highlights key aspects of his career, including running the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and leading NASA's Planetary Science Division, and how his interest in space first began. The Martian: Dr. Green also explains how he got involved as a consultant for Ridley Scott's movie, "The Martian," and how NASA got really involved with the film. He also shares his favorite scene from the movie. NASA's Search for Alien Civilizations: Dr. Green shares how he helped shift NASA's focus from traditional SETI to searching for technosignatures like Dyson Spheres and O'Neill structures in other star systems, securing $10 million in funding for research that could detect megastructures in our astronomical data while noting that humanity may need similar space habitats in 800 million years when the sun makes Earth uninhabitable. Mars Sample Return Strategy: Dr. Green explains how NASA's evolving plan to return samples fropm Mars includes developing Mars Ascent Vehicles that could eventually support human missions while revealing that Perseverance was deliberately designed to place sample tubes on the surface so any nation could retrieve them, making the mission more politically viable with budget offices and Congress. Humanity's Cosmic Future: Dr. Green reveals that he helped create NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to support new companies for lunar missions. Despite early failures, he emphasized that humanity must utilize space resources and capabilities to ensure our species' long-term survival. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Dr. Jim Green Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

In this episode of This Week in Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik talk with Dr. Jim Green, former NASA Chief Scientist. He discusses how we can search for technosignatures that might indicate advanced civilizations in other star systems, new ideas on Mars sample return, and his fascinating experience consulting on the movie, The Martian! Also: this week's robotic landings on the Moon - one successful, one partly so; what's up with the USAF X-37B mini-shuttle; and recent news on those Energizer Bunnies of space, Voyagers 1&2. Their wings have been clipped a bit, but they just keep going... join us! News Lunar Landing Week: Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost lander achieved a flawless touchdown in Mare Chrisium, the Intuitive Machines Athena lander reached the Moon's south polar region but experienced issues with its navigation radar (and tipped over), and SpaceX's Starship test flight 8 successfully caught its booster for the third time but lost control of the upper stage, resulting in the breakup of the upper stage and debris over the Bahamas and Caribbean. NASA powered down additional instruments on both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 to extend their remaining power supply, including Voyager 1's cosmic ray system that helped confirm its entry into interstellar space in 2012. The secretive US Space Force X-37B space plane landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base after 434 days in orbit, completing its seventh mission, which tested new orbital capabilities, including aerobraking techniques. A newly released list showcases the world's top ten locations for dark skies and stargazing, with the US only having only one location—in Hawaii—to make the list. Dr. Jim Green His Career: Dr. Green goes over his former role as NASA's Chief Scientist and highlights key aspects of his career, including running the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) and leading NASA's Planetary Science Division, and how his interest in space first began. The Martian: Dr. Green also explains how he got involved as a consultant for Ridley Scott's movie, "The Martian," and how NASA got really involved with the film. He also shares his favorite scene from the movie. NASA's Search for Alien Civilizations: Dr. Green shares how he helped shift NASA's focus from traditional SETI to searching for technosignatures like Dyson Spheres and O'Neill structures in other star systems, securing $10 million in funding for research that could detect megastructures in our astronomical data while noting that humanity may need similar space habitats in 800 million years when the sun makes Earth uninhabitable. Mars Sample Return Strategy: Dr. Green explains how NASA's evolving plan to return samples fropm Mars includes developing Mars Ascent Vehicles that could eventually support human missions while revealing that Perseverance was deliberately designed to place sample tubes on the surface so any nation could retrieve them, making the mission more politically viable with budget offices and Congress. Humanity's Cosmic Future: Dr. Green reveals that he helped create NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program to support new companies for lunar missions. Despite early failures, he emphasized that humanity must utilize space resources and capabilities to ensure our species' long-term survival. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Guest: Dr. Jim Green Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Watch as Intuitive Machines' successfully lands their Nova-C lunar lander named Athena on the surface of the moon and beams back images from the descent.

The space business landscape is changing. Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin are moving at breakneck speed toward goals Americans have dreamed of since the 1960s. At the same time, a whole host of smaller startups are arriving on the scene, ready to tackle everything from asteroid mining to next-gen satellites to improved lunar missions.Today on Faster, Please — The Podcast, I'm talking with Matt Weinzierl about what research developments and market breakthroughs are allowing these companies to thrive.Weinzierl is the senior associate dean and chair of the MBA program at Harvard Business School. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Weinzierl is the co-author of a new book with Brendan Rosseau, Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier.In This Episode* Decentralizing space (1:54)* Blue Origin vs. SpaceX (4:50)* Lowering launch costs (9:24)* Expanding space entrepreneurship (14:42)* Space sector sustainability (20:06)* The role of Artemis (22:45)* Challenges to success (25:28)Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Decentralizing space (1:54). . . we had this amazing success in the '60s with the Apollo mission . . but it was obviously a very government-led, centralized program and that got us in the mode of thinking that's how you did space.You're telling a story about space transitioning from government-led to market-driven, but I wonder if you could just explain that point because it's not a story about privatization, it's a story about decentralization, correct?It really is, I think the most important thing for listeners to grab onto. In fact, I teach a course at Harvard Business School on this topic, and I've been teaching it now for a few years, and I say to my students, “What's the reason we're here? Why are we talking about space at HBS?” and it's precisely about what you just asked.So maybe the catchiest way to phrase this for folks, there was one of the early folks at SpaceX, Jim Cantrell, he was one of the earliest employees. He has this amazing quote from the early 2000s where he says, “The Great American Space Enterprise, which defeated Communism in defense of Capitalism, was and is operating on a Soviet economic model.” And he was basically speaking to the fact that we had this amazing success in the '60s with the Apollo mission and going to the moon and it truly was an amazing achievement, but it was obviously a very government-led, centralized program and that got us in the mode of thinking that's how you did space. And so for the next 50 years, basically we did space in that way run from the center, not really using market forces.What changed in various ways was that in the early 2000s we decided that model had kind of run its course and the weaknesses were too big and so it was time to bring market forces in. And that doesn't mean that we were getting rid of the government role in space. Just like you said, the government will always play a vital role in space for various reasons, national security among them, but it is decentralizing it in a way to bring the power of the market to bear.Maybe the low point — and that low point, that crisis, maybe created an opportunity — was the end of the Space Shuttle program. Was that an important inflection point?It's definitely one that I think most people in the sector look to as being . . . there's the expression “never waste a crisis,” and I think that that's essentially what happened. The Shuttle was an amazing engineering achievement, nobody really doubts that, and what NASA was trying to do with it and with their contractors was incredibly hard. So it's easy to kind of get too negative on that era, but it is also true that the Shuttle never really performed the way people hoped, it never flew as often, it was much more costly, and then in 2003 there was the second Shuttle tragedy.When that happened, I think everybody felt like, "This just isn't the future." So we need something else, and the Shuttle program was put on a cancellation path by the end of that decade. That really did force this reckoning with the fact that the American space sector, which had put men on the moon and brought them back safely in 1969, launching all sorts of dreams about space colonies and hotels, now, 40 years later, it was going to be unable to even put a person into orbit on its own rockets. We were going to be renting rockets from the Russians. That was really a moment of soul searching, I guess is one way you think about it in the sector.Blue Origin vs. SpaceX (4:50)I guess the big lesson . . . is that competition really does matter in space just like in any other business.I think naturally we would lead into talking about SpaceX, which we certainly will do, but the main competitor, Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos company, which seems to be moving forward, but it's definitely seemed to have adopted a very different kind of strategy. It seems to me different than the SpaceX strategy, which really is kind of a “move fast, break things, build them back up and try to launch again” while Blue Origin is far more methodical. Am I right in that, is that eventually going to work?Blue Origin is a fascinating company. In fact, we actually opened the book — the book is a series, basically, of stories that we tell about companies, and people, and government programs, sprinkled in with some economics because we can't resist. We're trying to structure it for folks, but we start with the story of Blue Origin because it really is fascinating. It illustrates some really fundamental aspects of the sector these days.To your specific question, we can talk more about Blue in many of its aspects. The motto of Blue from its beginning has been this Latin phrase, gradatim ferociter or, “step-by-step, ferociously,” and Bezos in the earliest days, they even have a tortoise on their company shield, so to speak, to signal this tortoise and the hair metaphor or fable. From the earliest days the idea was, “Look, we're going to just methodically work our way up to these grand visions of building infrastructure for space,” eventually in the service of having, as they always said, millions of people living and working in space.Now there's various ways to interpret the intervening 20 years that we've had, or 25 now since they were founded. One interpretation says, well, that's a nice story, but in fact they made some decisions that caused them to move more slowly than even they would've wanted to. So they didn't continue working as closely with NASA as, say, for instance SpaceX did. They relied really almost exclusively on funding from Bezos himself issuing a lot of other contracts they could have gotten, and that sort of reduced the amount of external discipline and market competition that they were facing. And then they made some other steps along the way, and so now they're trying to reignite and move faster, and they did launch New Glenn, their orbital rocket, recently. So they're back in the game and they're coming back. That's one story.Another story is, well yes, they've made decisions that at the time didn't seem to move as fast as they wanted, but they made those decisions intentionally. This is a strategy we will see pay off pretty well in the long run. I think that the jury is very much still out, but I guess the big lesson for your listeners and for me and hopefully for others in the sector, is that competition really does matter in space just like in any other business. To the extent that Blue didn't move as fast because they didn't face as much competition, that's an interesting lesson for the private sector. And to the extent that now they're in the game nipping at the heels of SpaceX, that's good for everybody, even for SpaceX, I think, to have them in the game.Do you think they're nipping at the heels?Well, yeah, I was just thinking as I said that, that might have been a little optimistic. It really does depend how you look at it. SpaceX is remarkably dominant in the commercial space sector, there's no question there. They launch 100 times a year plus and they are . . . the latest statistic I have in 2023, they launched more than 80 percent of all the mass launched off the surface of Earth, so they run more than half the satellites that are operational in space. They are incredibly dominant such that concerns about monopoly are quite present in the sector these days. We can talk about that.I think “nipping at the heels” might be a little generous, although there are areas in which SpaceX still does have real competition. The national security launch sector, ULA (United Launch Alliance) is still the majority launcher of national security missions and Blue is looking to also get into the national security launch market. With Amazon's satellite constellation, Kuiper, starting to come into the launch cadence over the next couple of years, they will have demand for lots of launch outside of SpaceX and that will start to increase the frequency with which Blue Origin and ULA also launch. So I think there is reason to believe that people in the sector will have more options, even for the heavy-lift launch vehicles.Lowering launch costs (9:24)[SpaceX] brought the cost of getting a kilogram of mass into orbit down by 90 percent in less than, really 10 or 15 years, which had been a stagnant number for going on four or five decades.People in Silicon Valley like talking about disruption and disruptors. It's hard to think of a company that is more deserving, or A CEO more deserving than Elon Musk and SpaceX. Tell me how disruptive that company has been to how we think about space and the economic potential of space.We open our chapter in the book on SpaceX by saying we believe it'll go down as one of the most important companies in the history of humanity, and I really do believe that. I don't think you have to be a space enthusiast, necessarily, to believe it. The simplest way to summarize that is that they brought the cost of getting a kilogram of mass into orbit down by 90 percent in less than, really 10 or 15 years, which had been a stagnant number for going on four or five decades. It had hovered around — depending on the data point you look at — around $30,000 a kilogram to low earth orbit, and once SpaceX got Falcon 9 flying, it was down to $3,000. That's just an amazing reduction.What's also amazing about it is they didn't stop there. As soon as they had that, they decided that one of the ways to make the business model work was to reinvent satellite internet. So in a sector that had just over a decade ago only 1000 operational satellites up in space, now we have 10,000, 6,000 plus of which are SpaceX's Starlink, just an incredibly fast-growing transformational technology in orbit.And then they went on to disrupt their own disruption by creating a rocket called Starship, which is just absolutely massive in a way that's hard to even imagine, and that, if it fulfills the promise that I think everyone hopes it will, will bring launch costs down, if you can believe it, by another 90 percent, so a total of 99 percent down to, say, $300 a kilogram. Now you may not have to pass those cost savings on to the customers because they don't have a lot of competition, but it's just amazingWhat's possible with those launch costs in that vicinity? Sometimes, when I try to describe it, I'm like, well, imagine all your 1960s space dreams and what was the missing ingredient? The missing ingredient was the economics and those launch costs. Now plug in those launch costs and lots of crazy things that seem science-fictional may become science-factual. Maybe give me just a sense of what's possible.Well first tell me, Jim, which of the '60s space dreams are you most excited about?It's hard for me, it's like which of my seven kids do I love more? I love the idea of people living in space, of there being industry in space. I like the idea of there being space-based solar power, lunar mining, asteroid mining, the whole kit and caboodle.You've gone through the list. I think we're all excited about those things. And just in case it's not obvious to your listeners, the reason I think you asked that question is that, of course, the launch cost is the gateway to doing anything in space. That's why everyone in the industry makes such a big deal out of it. Once you have that, it seems like the possibilities for business cases really do expand.Now, of course, we have to be careful. It's easy to get overhyped. It's still very expensive to do all the things you just mentioned in space, even if you can get there cheaply. Once you put humans in the mix, humans are very hard to keep alive in space. Space is a very dangerous place for lots of reasons. Even when there aren't humans in space, operating in space, even autonomously, is obviously quite hard, whether it's asteroid mining or other things. It's not as though, all of a sudden, all of our biggest dreams are immediately going to be realized. I do think that part of what's so exciting, part of the reason we wrote the book, is that there is a new renaissance of enthusiasm of startups building a bit on the SpaceX model of having a big dream, being really cost-conscious as you build it, moving fast and experimenting and iterating, who are going after some of these dreams you mentioned..So whether it's an asteroid mining company — actually, in my course later this week, we're having Matt Gialich, who's the CEO of AstroForge, and they're trying to reboot the asteroid mining industry. He's coming in to talk to our students. Or whether it's lunar mining, we have Rob Meyerson who ran Blue Origin for more than a decade, now he's started up a company that's going to mine Helium 3 on the moon; or whether you're talking about commercial space stations, which could eventually house tourists, manufacturing, R&D, a whole new push to bring the cost savings from the launch sector into the destinations sector, which we really haven't had.We've had the International Space Station for 20 plus years, but it wasn't really designed for commercial activity from the start and costs are pretty high. So there is this amazing flowering, and we'll see. I guess I would say that, in the short run, if you're trying to build a business in space, it's still mostly about satellites. It's still mostly about data to and from space. But as we look out further, we all hope that those bigger dreams are becoming more of a reality.Expanding space entrepreneurship (14:42)The laws of supply and demand do not depend on gravity.To me, it is such an exciting story and the story of these companies, they're just great stories to me. They're still, I think, pretty unknown. SpaceX, if you read the books that have been published, very harrowing, the whole thing could have collapsed quite easily. Still today, when the media covers — I think they're finally getting better —that anytime there'd be a SpaceX rocket blow up, they're like, “Oh, that's it! Musk doesn't know what he's doing!” But actually, that's the business, is to iterate, launch again, if it blows up, figure out what went wrong, use the data, fix it, try again. It's taken a long time.To the extent people or the media think about it, maybe 90 percent of the thought is about SpaceX, a little bit about Blue Origin, but, as you mentioned, there is this, no pun intended, constellation of other companies which have grown up, which have somewhat been enabled by the launch costs. Which one? Give me one of those that you think people should know about.There's so many actually, very much to your point. We wrote the book partly to give folks inside the industry a view they might not have had, which is, I'm an economist. We thought there was room to just show people how an economist thinks through this amazing change that's happening.Economics is not earthbound! It extends above the surface of the planet!The laws of supply and demand do not depend on gravity. We've learned that. But we also wrote the book for a couple other groups of people. One, people who are kind of on the margins of space, so their business isn't necessarily involved in space, but once they know all the activity that's happening, including the companies you're hinting at there, they might think, “Wait a minute, maybe my business, or I personally, could actually use some of the new capabilities in space to drive my mission forward to have an impact through my organization or myself.” And then of course the broader population of people who are just excited and want to learn more about what's going on and read some great stories.But I'll give you two companies, maybe three because I can't help myself. One is Firefly, which just landed successfully on the moon . . . 24 hours ago maybe? What a great story. It's now the second lander that's successfully landed, this one fully successfully after Intuitive Machines was a little bit tipped over, but that's a great example of how this model that includes more of a role for the commercial sector succeeds not all the time — the first lunar lander in the program that was supporting these didn't quite succeed — but try, try again. That's the beauty of markets, they find a way often and you can't exactly predict how they're going to work out. But that was a huge success story and so I'm very excited about what that means for our activity on the moon.Another really fascinating company is called K2. A lot of your listeners who follow space will have heard of it. It's two brothers who basically realized that, with the drop in launch costs being promised by Starship, the premium on building lightweight small satellites is kind of going away. We can go back to building big satellites again and maybe we don't need to always make the sacrifices that engineers have had to make to bring the mass down. So they're building much bigger satellites and that can potentially really increase the capabilities even still at low cost. So that's really exciting.Finally, I'll just mention Varda, which is a really fun and exciting startup that is doing manufacturing in automated capsules right now of pharmaceutical ingredients. What I love about them, very much to your point about these startups that are just flowering because of lower launch costs, they're not positioning themselves really as a space company. They're positioning themselves as a manufacturing company that happens to use microgravity to do it cheaper. So you don't have to be a space enthusiast to want your supply chain to be cheaper and they're part of that.Do you feel like we have a better idea of why there should be commercial space stations, or again, is that still in the entrepreneurial process of figuring it out? Once they're up there, business cases will emerge?I was just having a conversation about that this morning, actually, with some folks in the sector because there is a wide range of views about that. It is, as you were sort of implying, a bit of a chicken-and-the-egg problem, it's hard to know until you have a space station what you might do with it, what business cases might result. On the other hand, it's hard to invest in a space station if you don't know what the business case is for doing it. So it is a bit tricky.I tend to actually be slightly on the optimistic end of the spectrum, perhaps just because, as an economist, I think you are trained to know that the market can't be predicted and that at some level that is the beauty of the market. If we drive down costs, there's a ton of smart entrepreneurs out there who I think will be looking very hard to find value that they can create for people, and I'm still optimistic we'll be surprised.If I had to make the other side of the case, I would say that we've been dreaming about using microgravity for many decades, the ISS has been trying, and there hasn't been a killer app quite found yet. So it is very true that there are reasons to be skeptical despite my optimism.Space sector sustainability (20:06)Space does face a sort of structural problem with investing. The venture capital industry is not really built for the time horizons and the level of fundamental uncertainty that we're talking about with space.It's also a sector that's gone through a lot of booms and busts. That certainly has been the case with the idea of asteroid mining among other things. What do you see as the sustainability? I sort of remember Musk talking about there was this kind of “open window to space,” and I don't know what he thought opened that window, maybe it was low interest rates? What is the sustainability of the financial case for this entire sector going forward?It is true that the low interest rate environment of the early 2020s was really supportive to space in a way that. Again, opinions vary on whether it was so hot that it ended up actually hurting the sector by creating too much hype, and then some people lost their shirts, and so there was some bad taste in the mouth there. On the other hand, it got a lot of cash to a lot of companies that are trying to make really hard things happen. Space does face a sort of structural problem with investing. The venture capital industry is not really built for the time horizons and the level of fundamental uncertainty that we're talking about with space. We don't really know what the market is yet. We don't really know how long it's going to take to develop. So that's I think why you see some of these more exotic financing models in space, whether it's the billionaires or the so-called SPAC boom of the early 2020s, which was an alternative way for some space companies to go public and raise a big pile of cash. So I think people are trying to solve for how to get over what might be an uncomfortably long time before the kind of sustainable model that you're talking about is realized.Now, skeptics will say, “Well, maybe that's just because there is no sustainable model. We're hoping and hoping, but it's going to take 500 years.” I'm a little more optimistic than that for reasons we've talked about, but I think one part we haven't really mentioned, or at least not gone into that yet, which is reassuring to investors that I talked to and increasingly maybe an important piece of the puzzle, is the demand from the public sector, which remains quite robust, especially from the national security side. A lot of startups these days, even when capital markets are a bit tighter, they can rely on some relatively stable financing from the national security side, and I think that will always be there in space. There will always be a demand for robust, innovative technologies and capabilities in space that will help sustain the sector even through tough times.The role of Artemis (22:45)Artemis is a really good example of the US space enterprise, broadly speaking, trying to find its way into this new era, given all the political and other constraints that are, of course, going to impinge on a giant government program. I can imagine a scenario where most of this book is about NASA, and Artemis, and what comes after Artemis, and you devote one chapter to the weird kind of private-sector startups, but actually it's just the opposite. The story here is about what's going on with the private sector working with NASA and Artemis seems like this weird kind of throwback to old Apollo-style way of doing things. Is Artemis an important technology for the future of space or is it really the last gasp of an old model?It's a very timely question because obviously with all the change going on in Washington and especially with Elon's role —Certainly you always hear rumors that they'll cancel it. I don't know if that's going to happen, but I certainly see speculations pop-up in the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times from time to time.Exactly, and you probably see debates in Congress where you see some Congress-people resistant to canceling some contracts and debates about the space launch system, the SLS rocket, which I think nobody denies is sort of an older model of how we're going to get to space. On the other hand, it's an incredibly powerful rocket that can actually get us to the moon right now.There's a lot of debate going on right now. The way I think about it is that Artemis is a really good example of the US space enterprise, broadly speaking, trying to find its way into this new era, given all the political and other constraints that are, of course, going to impinge on a giant government program. It's a mix of the old and the new. It's got some pieces like SLS or Gateway, which is a sort of station orbiting the moon to provide a platform for various activities that feel very much like the model from the 1980s: Shuttle and International Space Station.Then it's got pieces that feel very much like the more modern commercial space era with the commercial lunar payload services clips contracts that we were briefly talking about before, and with some of the other pieces that are — whether it's the lander that's also using commercial contracts, whether it's those pieces that are trying to bring in the new. How will it all shake out? My guess is that we are moving, I think inexorably, towards the model that really does tap into the best of the private sector, as well as of the public, and so I think we'll move gradually towards a more commercial approach, even to achieving the sort of public goods missions on the moon — but it'll take a little bit of time because people are naturally risk averse.Challenges to success (25:28)We're going to have some setbacks, some things aren't going to go well with this new model. There's going to be, I'm sure, some calls for pulling back on the commercial side of things, and I think that would be a real lost opportunity. . .How do we not screw this up? How do we not end up undermining this momentum? If you want to tell me what we can do, that's great, but I'm also worried about us making a mistake?There are threats to our ability to do this successfully. I'll just name two which are top of mind. One is space debris. That comes up in virtually every conversation I have. Especially with the increasing number of satellites, increasing number of actors in space, you do have to worry that we might lose control of that environment. Again, I am on the relatively more optimistic end of the spectrum for reasons we explain in the book, and I think the bottom line there is: The stakes are pretty high for everybody who's operating up there to not screw that part up, so I hope we'll get past it, but some people are quite worried.The second, honestly, is national security. Space has always been a beacon, we hope, of transcending our geopolitical rivalries, not just extending them up there. We're in a difficult time, so I think there is some risk that space will not remain as peaceful as it has — and that could very much short-circuit the kind of growth that we're talking about. Sadly, that would be very ironic because the economic opportunities that we have up there to create benefit for everybody on Earth and are part of what hopefully would bring people together across borders up in space. It's one of those places where we can cooperate for the common good.How could we screw this up? I think it's not always going to be smooth sailing. We're going to have some setbacks, some things aren't going to go well with this new model. There's going to be, I'm sure, some calls for pulling back on the commercial side of things, and I think that would be a real lost opportunity. 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Watch as Intuitive Machines' successfully lands their Nova-C lunar lander named Athena on the surface of the moon and beams back images from the descent.

At least one tornado has been confirmed and a dozen confirmed reports of wind damage across the Carolinas today. A line of severe storms moved across both North Carolina and South Carolina today, Wednesday, March 5, 2025.The Carolina Weather Group's James Brierton tours the damage of EF-1 tornado damage in Union County, North Carolina. The damage seen near Porter Ridge schools as the tornado moved from Indian Trail into Unionville.Plus we talk about the federal cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service. Where does that leave the agency's life-saving weather operations? We discuss.The latest on the Carolina Forest Fire near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Scotty Powell is there in Horry County with the latest.Intuitive Machines and NASA are set to land the second privately owned spacecraft on the moon this week.And a special shoutout to our friends at @WeatherBrains , who are getting ready to celebrate their 1,000th episode!

This week we talk about Luna 2, soft-landings, and Firefly Aerospace.We also discuss the private space launch industry, lunar landers, and regolith.Recommended Book: The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. CoreyTranscriptIn 1959, Luna 2, a Soviet impactor-style spacecraft, successfully reached the surface of the Moon—the first-ever human-made object to do so.Luna 2 was very of its era; a relatively simple device, similar in many ways to the better-known Sputnik satellite, but getting a craft to the moon is far more difficult than placing something in orbit around Earth, in part because of the distance involved—the Moon is about 30-Earth's from the surface of the earth, that figure varying based on where in its elliptical orbit it is at the moment, but that's a good average, around 239,000 miles which is about 384,000 km, while Sputnik's orbit only took it something like 359 miles, around 578 km from the surface. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of 670-times the distance.So new considerations, like fuel to get there, but also charting paths to the moon that would allow the human-made object to actually hit it, rather than flying off into space, and even figuring out whether craft would need to be designed differently if they made it out of Earth's magnetic field, were significant hurdles that had to be leapt to make this mission a success; everything was brand new, and there were gobs of unknowns.That said, this craft didn't settle onto the moon—it plowed into it like a bullet, a so-called ‘hard landing.' Which was still an astonishing feet of research and engineering, as at this point in history most rockets were still blowing up before making it off the launch pad, including the projects that eventually led to the design and launch of Luna 2.The US managed their own hard landing on the Moon in 1962, and it wasn't until 1966 that the first soft landing—the craft slowing itself before impact, so that some kind of intact device would actually continue to exist and function on the surface of the moon—was accomplished by the Luna 9.The Luna 9 used an ejectable capsule that was protected by airbags, which helped it survive its 34 mph, which is about 54 kmh impact. This successful mission returned the first panoramic photographs from the surface of the moon, which was another notable, historic, incredibly difficult at the time feat.A series of rapid-fire firsts followed these initial visits, including the first-ever crewed flight to the Moon, made by the US Apollo 8 mission in 1968—that one didn't land, but it did circle the Moon 10 times before returning to Earth, the first successful crewed mission to the surface of the Moon made by the Apollo 11 team in 1969, and by the early 70s humans had made several more moon landings: all of them were American missions, as the US is still the only country to have performed successful crewed missions to the Moon's surface, but the Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 missions all put people on the lunar surface, and then returned them safely to Earth.The Luna 24, another Soviet mission launched in 1976, was the last big space race era mission to return lunar samples—chunks of moon rock and regolith—to earth, though it was a robotic mission, no humans aboard. And by many measures, the space race actually ended the previous year, in 1975, when Apollo and Soyuz capsules, US and Soviet missions, respectively, docked in orbit, creating the first international space mission, and allowing US astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts to shake hands, symbolically burying the hatchet, at least in terms of that particular, non-earthbound rivalry.What I'd like to talk about today is a recent, successful soft landing on the lunar surface that's historic in nature, but also contemporarily significant for several other reasons.—Firefly Space Systems was founded in the US in 2014 by a team of entrepreneurs who wanted to compete with then-burgeoning private space companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic by, like these competitors, reducing the cost of getting stuff into low Earth orbit.They were planning to become profitable within four years on the back of the also-burgeoning small satellite industry, which basically means selling space on their rockets, which are capable of carrying multiple small satellites on what's often called a ‘rideshare' basis, to companies and agencies that were keen to launch their own orbital assets.These smaller satellites were becoming increasingly popular and doable because the tech required was shrinking and becoming cheaper, and that meant you no longer needed a boggling amount of money to do basic research or to lob a communications satellite into orbit; you could spent a few million dollars instead of tens or hundreds of millions, and buy space on a rocket carrying many small satellites, rather than needing to splurge on a rocket all by yourself, that rocket carrying only your giant, extremely costly and large conventional satellite.This path, it was hoped, would provide them the benefits of economies of scale, allowing them to build and launch more rockets, which in turn would bring the costs of such rockets and launches down, over time.And the general concept was sound—that's basically what SpaceX has managed to do, with mammoth success, over the past decade completely rewiring how the space launch industry works; their many, reusable rockets and rocket components, and abundant launches, many of which are used to lob their own StarLink in-orbit satellites into space, while also usually carrying smaller satellites provided by clients who pay to go along for the ride, bringing all of these costs down dramatically.So that model is basically what Firefly was aiming for, as well—but the Firefly team, which was made up of folks from Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and other industry entities was sued by Virgin Galactic, which alleged that a former employee who left them to work for Firefly provided Firefly with intellectual property and committed what amounts to espionage, destroying data and hardware before they left.These allegations were confirmed in 2016, and some of Firefly's most vital customers and investors backed out, leaving the company without enough money to move forward. A second lawsuit from Virgin Orbit against Firefly and some of its people hit that same year, and that left the company insolvent, its assets put up for auction in 2017.Those assets were bought by an investment company called Noosphere Ventures, which relaunched Firefly Space Systems as Firefly Aerospace. They then reworked the designs of their rockets a bit and relocated some of the company's research assets to Ukraine, where the head of Noosphere Ventures is from.They picked up a few customers in the following years, and they leased a private launch pad in Florida and another in California. In 2021, they were awarded more than $90 million to develop exploration tech for the Artemis Moon program, which was scheduled for 2023 and was meant to help develop the US's private space industry; NASA was trying out a model that would see them hire private companies to deliver assets for a future moon-based mission, establishing long-term human presence on the moon, over the course of several years, and doing so on a budget by basically not having to build every single aspect of the mission themselves.That same year, the head of Noosphere Ventures was asked by the US Committee on Foreign Investment to sell nearly 50% of his stake in Firefly for national security reasons; he was born in Ukraine, and the Committee was apparently concerned about so much of the company's infrastructure being located in a country that, even before Russia invaded the following year, was considered to be a precarious spot for security-vital US research and development assets.This is considered to be something of a scandal, as it was implied that this Ukrainian owner was himself under suspicion of maybe being a Russian asset—something that seems to have been all implication and no substance, as he's since moved back to Ukraine and has gone on to be something of a war hero, providing all sorts of tech and other resources to the anti-invasion effort.But back then, he complied with this request, though not at all happily—and it sounds like that unhappiness was probably justified, though there are still some classified documents on the matter that maybe say otherwise; we don't know for sure publicly right now.In any event, he and Noosphere sold most of their stake in Firefly to a US company called AE Industrial Partners, and the following year, in 2022 it successfully launched, for the first time, its Alpha rocket, intended to be its core launch option for small satellite, rideshare-style customers.The satellites placed in orbit by that first launch didn't reach their intended height, so while the rocket made it into orbit, another launch, where the satellites were placed where they were supposed to go, actually happened in 2023, is generally considered to be the first, true successful launch of the Alpha rocket.All of which is interesting because this component of the larger space industry has been heating up; SpaceX has dominated, soaking up most of the oxygen in the room and claiming the lion's share of available contracts. But there are quite a few private space companies from around the world profitably launching rockets at a rapid cadence, these days. And many of them are using the same general model of inexpensive rideshare rockets carrying smaller satellites into orbit, and the money from those launches then funds their other explorations, ranging from government mission components like rovers, to plans for futuristic space stations that might someday replace the aging International Space Station, to larger rockets and launch craft that might further reduce the cost of launching stuff into space, while also potentially serving as in-orbit or off-planet habitations—as is the case with SpaceX's massive Starship craft.This is also notable, though, because Firefly launched a lander as part of its Blue Ghost mission, to the Moon on January 15 of 2025. That craft reached the moon, and successfully soft-landed there, on March 2 the same year.This lander was partly funded by that aforementioned 2021 Artemis award by NASA—it ultimately received just over $100 million from the agency to conduct this mission—and it was launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, as the company's own Alpha rockets don't yet have the right specs to launch their lander, the Blue Ghost M1; which interestingly shared space in this rocket with another lander produced by a Japanese company called ispace, whose name you might recognize, as ispace managed to get a previous lunar lander, the Hakuto-R 1, to the moon in 2023, but communication was lost with the craft a few seconds before it was scheduled to land. It was confirmed later that year that the lander crashed; though again, even just getting something to the moon is a pretty impressive feat.So this SpaceX rocket, launched in mid-January of 2025, had two competing lunar landers on it, one made by Firefly and one made by ispace. That latter lander is scheduled to arrive on the surface sometime in early May of this year, though that might change, based on all sorts of variables. But the former, Firefly's Blue Ghost, successfully touched-down, soft-landing on the lunar surface on March 2.There's another lander from Intuitive Machines—the American company that can claim to be the first to successfully soft-land on the lunar surface, but whose first effort tipped over. Their new lander could arrive as soon as March 6, just days after Blue Ghost, and it'll be aiming for an area just 100 miles from the moon's south pole; an area that's of particular interest because of water ice contained in permanently shadowed areas thereabouts, which could be vital for long-term human occupation of the moon.So things are heating up on the lunar surface these days, but soft-landing something on the moon is still an accomplishment that few nations, much less private companies, have managed.In the past decade alone, India, Russia, and a nonprofit based in Israel have attempted and failed to achieve soft-landings, and those aforementioned Japanese and US companies managed to soft-land on the moon, but their landers tipped over, limiting the amount of research they could conduct once there. China is the only nation to have successfully achieved this feat on their first attempt, and they benefitted from decades of preexisting research and engineering know-how.And it's not surprising that this is such a rare feat: in addition to the incredible distances involved, the Blue Ghost lander was traveling at around 3,800 mph, which is more than 6,100 kpm just 11 minutes before it landed. It then had to slow itself down, while also adjusting its orientation in order to safely land on an uneven, crater-paved moonscape; it slowed to the pace of a slow walk just before it touched down.Science-wise, this lander is carrying tools that will help it measure the stickiness of regolith on different materials, that will allow for more precise measurements of the distance between earth and the moon, and that will help researchers study solar winds, radiation-tolerant technologies, and the moon's mantle. It has equipment that allowed it to detect GPS and Galileo signals from earth, which suggests these satellites might be used by craft and rovers on the moon, for navigation, at some point, and it has a drill that will allow it to penetrate the lunar regolith up to nine feet deep, among several other project assets.This has also served as a sort of proof of concept for this lander and mission type, as another Blue Ghost lander is scheduled to launch in 2026, that one aiming for the far side of the moon, with a third currently meant to head out in 2028, destined for a currently under-explored volcanic region.The aggregate goal of these US missions, alongside the research tools they deliver, is to eventually start building-out and supplying the necessary infrastructure for long-term human occupation of the moon, culminating with the construction of a permanently crewed base there.These sorts of ambitions aren't new, but this approach—funding companies to handle a lot of the legwork, rather than keeping those sorts of efforts in-house, within NASA—is novel, and it arguably recognizes the nature of the moment, which is increasingly defined by cheaper and cheaper, and in most ways better and better offerings by private space companies, while those deployed by NASA are still really solid and impressive, but incredibly slow and expensive to develop and deploy, in comparison.This is also happening at a moment of heightened geopolitical competition in space, and one in which private entities are equipping the nation states that would have traditionally dominates this industry.China's space agency has enjoyed a flurry of moon-related successes in recent years, and many of these missions have relied at least in part on efforts by private, or pseudo-private, as tends to be the case in China, companies.Business entities from all over the world are also regularly making the satellites and probes and components of landers that make these things work, so solar system exploration and space travel are no longer the exclusive wheelhouses of government agencies—the private sector is becoming a lot more influential in this area, and that's led to some novel security issues, alongside massive swings in influence and power for the folks running these companies: perhaps most notably SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's increasing sway over governments and even inter-governmental conflict, due in part to his company's space launch capabilities, and their capacity to beam internet down to conflict zones, earthside, via their StarLink satellite array.So this is an area that's heating up, both for earthbound and space-faring reasons, and the incentives and peculiarities of the private market are increasingly shaping the type of research and missions being conducted, while also changing the math of what's possible, how quickly, and maybe even what level of risk is acceptable within a given mission or program.Show Noteshttps://www.cnn.com/science/live-news/moon-landing-blue-ghost-03-02-25/index.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuto-R_Mission_1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuto-R_Mission_2https://spacenews.com/ae-industrial-partners-to-acquire-stake-in-firefly-from-noosphere/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_programhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_Alphahttps://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-selects-firefly-aerospace-for-artemis-commercial-moon-delivery-in-2023/https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/22/18234604/firefly-aerospace-cape-canaveral-florida-launch-site-slc-20https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25861-next-generation-of-space-cowboys-get-ready-to-fly/https://apnews.com/article/moon-landings-failures-successes-545ea2f3ffa5a15893054b6f43bdbb98https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/science/blue-ghost-firefly-mission-1-moon-landing.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_Aerospacehttps://www.space.com/the-universe/moon/were-on-the-moon-private-blue-ghost-moon-lander-aces-historic-lunar-landing-for-nasahttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd9208qv1kzohttps://www.reuters.com/technology/space/us-firm-fireflys-blue-ghost-moon-lander-locks-lunar-touchdown-2025-03-02/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/science/intuitive-machines-second-moon-landing-launch-how-to-watch.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_south_polehttps://www.livescience.com/space/the-moon/how-far-away-is-the-moonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landinghttps://www.space.com/12841-moon-exploration-lunar-mission-timeline.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luna_24 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost 1 mission on the moon on March 2, 2025, as part of NASA's CLIPS program. They became the 1st Commercial Company to touchdown safely and land on the moon!  The mission, which cost 1/10th of a NASA-led mission, carried 10 NASA instruments onboard (among some other payloads as well). The mission's instruments will study lunar dust, solar wind interactions, and other scientific phenomena. Future missions, including Intuitive Machines' IAM-2, are expected to build on the Lunar Momentum, with significant scientific data expected in the coming weeks before the bitter cold of lunar darkness. Buckle up, and let's dive in! Thanks for joining us for another episode of Today In Space Keywords:  Firefly Aerospace, Blue Ghost One, moon landing, NASA, CLIPS program, lunar payloads, SpaceX Falcon 9, Mare Crisium, autonomous descent, lunar dust, scientific instruments, NFT digital art, Artemis mission, lunar night, space exploration. Sources: https://fireflyspace.com/missions/blue-ghost-mission-1/ https://fireflyspace.com/news/ https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-2 https://lifeship.com/blogs/lifeship-mission-control/successful-launch-we-are-on-our-way-to-the-moon Timestamps: 00:00 Firefly Aerospace's Historic Moon Landing 01:17 Firefly Space Lander Cost & NASA CLPS 02:28 Firefly Mission & Landing Breakdown 06:50 What's onboard for Science & Payloads? 09:19 What to expect in Week 1 on the Moon? 10:41 Final Thoughts Here's to building a fantastic future - and continued progress in Space (and humanity)!  Spread Love, Spread Science  Alex G. Orphanos  We'd like to thank our sponsors:  AG3D Printing (ag3d-printing.com to learn more & start 3D printing today!)  Follow us: @todayinspacepod on Instagram/Twitter @todayinspace on TikTok /TodayInSpacePodcast on Facebook  Support the podcast: • Buy a 3D printed gift from our shop - ag3dprinting.etsy.com • Get a free quote on your next 3D printing project at ag3d-printing.com • Donate at todayinspace.net #spacecraft #technology #aerospace #spacetechnology #engineer #stem #artemis #astronaut #fireflyaerospace #fireflyspace #tothemoon #moonlanding #moonlander #lunarlanding #lunarlander #todayinspace #blueghost1 #BGM1 #ghostridersinthesky

On Tuesday's show: Stormy weather is headed our way this morning. We get the latest details from Houston Chronicle meteorologist Justin Ballard.Also this hour: While DEI programs may be on the decline, that doesn't mean businesses aren't interested in a diverse workforce. We consider how they can accomplish that.And a pair of lunar landers from Texas are in space right now. One landed on the moon over the weekend, and a second is slated to land Thursday. That one, called Athena, is from the Houston-based aerospace company Intuitive Machines, which welcomed longtime NASA chief flight director Gene Kranz to its mission control last weekend. We revisit our 2023 conversation with him about the lessons he learned from the Apollo missions.

Former Congressman and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine joins me to talk space policy, then and now: CLPS, Commercial Space Stations, Artemis, international partnerships, and more.This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 32 executive producers—Stealth Julian, Kris, Heiko, Pat, Jan, Warren, Josh from Impulse, Ryan, Lee, Joel, David, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Matt, Pat from KC, Will and Lars from Agile, Joonas, Donald, Bob, Frank, Joakim (Jo-Kim), Steve, Theo and Violet, Better Every Day Studios, Fred, Russell, The Astrogators at SEE, and four anonymous—and hundreds of supporters.TopicsHome | The Artemis GroupTouchdown! Carrying NASA Science, Firefly's Blue Ghost Lands on Moon - NASAFirefly's Blue Ghost 1 lands on the moon - SpaceNewsBlue Ghost Mission 1 - Firefly AerospaceFalcon 9 launches second Intuitive Machines lunar lander - SpaceNewsHouse Committee Backs Moon-to-Mars, But Changes May Be Needed – SpacePolicyOnline.comThe ShowLike the show? Support the show on Patreon or Substack!Email your thoughts, comments, and questions to anthony@mainenginecutoff.comFollow @WeHaveMECOFollow @meco@spacey.space on MastodonListen to MECO HeadlinesListen to Off-NominalJoin the Off-Nominal DiscordSubscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn or elsewhereSubscribe to the Main Engine Cut Off NewsletterArtwork photo by FireflyWork with me and my design and development agency: Pine Works

NASA is paving the way for human exploration of the Moon—starting with robots!

On episode 150 of This Week in Space, it's our Listener Special edition! Not only do we answer your questions and respond to your comments, but we lined up a number of your most tummy-tickling space jokes in the humor shooting gallery. This one is more fun than wearing new shoes! Join us as we talk about asteroid 2024YR4, the Space Launch System's prospects, Katy Perry in space, the newest lunar missions, the X-37B "secret shuttle," Apollo-era flight director Gene Kranz and astronaut Buzz Aldrin, solar sails, the cage match between Elon and astronaut Andreas Morgenson, and the best meteor shower of the year! Headlines Asteroid 2024 YR4 no longer a threat - The Earth-shattering asteroid that briefly had a record high 3.2% chance of impact has been downgraded to a 1 in 20,000 risk after pre-discovery data was analyzed, sparing Barstow and the rest of Earth. SLS faces uncertain future - Even long-time supporters like Scott Pace (former National Space Council secretary) are suggesting an "off-ramp" from the SLS rocket to commercial providers, signaling a potential shift in NASA's approach to lunar missions. Lunar Trailblazer mission communication issues - The recently launched lunar orbiter briefly lost contact after launch on a Falcon 9 but has since established a heartbeat. Blue Origin announces all-female crew for NS-31 - The upcoming mission will feature singer Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, and four other accomplished women, marking the first all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova's solo flight in the 1960s. Blue Ghost lunar landing imminent - Firefly Aerospace's first moon lander is scheduled to touch down on March 2nd, joining two other private landers (from Intuitive Machines and ispace) headed to the moon in the coming weeks. Listener Questions X-37B space plane purpose - The hosts discussed the secretive Space Force vehicle that's been in orbit for 908 days, likely testing technologies like hall thrusters and conducting reconnaissance. Elon Musk vs. astronauts controversy - The hosts addressed the Twitter/X confrontation between Elon Musk and astronauts (including Andreas Morgensen) regarding claims that astronauts were "stranded" on the ISS for political reasons. Gene Kranz's impact during Apollo - Rod shared his experience interviewing the legendary flight director, highlighting Kranz's "dictum" speech after the Apollo 1 fire and his transition to a more reflective persona later in life. Meeting Buzz Aldrin - The hosts described Aldrin as passionate, technically brilliant, and candid about his personal struggles, with Tariq sharing how Aldrin was the subject of his first professional space article in 1999. Solar sail technology potential - They discussed the success of Planetary Society's LightSail 2 and other solar sail missions, lamenting that the technology hasn't been utilized more extensively for deep space missions. Best meteor showers to observe - The hosts recommended the Perseids (August), Geminids (December), and Leonids (November) as the most impressive annual meteor showers, emphasizing the importance of dark skies for optimal viewing. Convincing moon landing deniers - They discussed the challenge of persuading conspiracy theorists, citing evidence including Soviet tracking confirmation and modern lunar reconnaissance photos showing Apollo landing sites. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

On episode 150 of This Week in Space, it's our Listener Special edition! Not only do we answer your questions and respond to your comments, but we lined up a number of your most tummy-tickling space jokes in the humor shooting gallery. This one is more fun than wearing new shoes! Join us as we talk about asteroid 2024YR4, the Space Launch System's prospects, Katy Perry in space, the newest lunar missions, the X-37B "secret shuttle," Apollo-era flight director Gene Kranz and astronaut Buzz Aldrin, solar sails, the cage match between Elon and astronaut Andreas Morgenson, and the best meteor shower of the year! Headlines Asteroid 2024 YR4 no longer a threat - The Earth-shattering asteroid that briefly had a record high 3.2% chance of impact has been downgraded to a 1 in 20,000 risk after pre-discovery data was analyzed, sparing Barstow and the rest of Earth. SLS faces uncertain future - Even long-time supporters like Scott Pace (former National Space Council secretary) are suggesting an "off-ramp" from the SLS rocket to commercial providers, signaling a potential shift in NASA's approach to lunar missions. Lunar Trailblazer mission communication issues - The recently launched lunar orbiter briefly lost contact after launch on a Falcon 9 but has since established a heartbeat. Blue Origin announces all-female crew for NS-31 - The upcoming mission will feature singer Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, and four other accomplished women, marking the first all-female crew since Valentina Tereshkova's solo flight in the 1960s. Blue Ghost lunar landing imminent - Firefly Aerospace's first moon lander is scheduled to touch down on March 2nd, joining two other private landers (from Intuitive Machines and ispace) headed to the moon in the coming weeks. Listener Questions X-37B space plane purpose - The hosts discussed the secretive Space Force vehicle that's been in orbit for 908 days, likely testing technologies like hall thrusters and conducting reconnaissance. Elon Musk vs. astronauts controversy - The hosts addressed the Twitter/X confrontation between Elon Musk and astronauts (including Andreas Morgensen) regarding claims that astronauts were "stranded" on the ISS for political reasons. Gene Kranz's impact during Apollo - Rod shared his experience interviewing the legendary flight director, highlighting Kranz's "dictum" speech after the Apollo 1 fire and his transition to a more reflective persona later in life. Meeting Buzz Aldrin - The hosts described Aldrin as passionate, technically brilliant, and candid about his personal struggles, with Tariq sharing how Aldrin was the subject of his first professional space article in 1999. Solar sail technology potential - They discussed the success of Planetary Society's LightSail 2 and other solar sail missions, lamenting that the technology hasn't been utilized more extensively for deep space missions. Best meteor showers to observe - The hosts recommended the Perseids (August), Geminids (December), and Leonids (November) as the most impressive annual meteor showers, emphasizing the importance of dark skies for optimal viewing. Convincing moon landing deniers - They discussed the challenge of persuading conspiracy theorists, citing evidence including Soviet tracking confirmation and modern lunar reconnaissance photos showing Apollo landing sites. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Intuitive Machines' lunar lander Athena is heading to the Moon. Varda's W2 spacecraft lands back in the Australian outback after completing its second mission. Astroscale Japan has been awarded a 7.27 billion yen contract by Japan's Ministry of Defense to develop a responsive space system demonstration satellite prototype, and more. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram. T-Minus Guest Our guest today is Colleen McLeod Garner, Commercial Strategist and Brand Developer. You can connect with Colleen on LinkedIn.  Selected Reading IM-2 | Intuitive Machines Astroscale Japan Secures Contract with Japanese Ministry of Defense to Develop a Responsive Space System Demonstration Satellite Prototype Nikon Selected to Implement the Space Strategy Fund at JAXA "Innovative Technology for Lightweight, High Performance, and Lower Cost Space Transportation Systems"  Lumen Orbit changes name to Starcloud and raises another $10M for space data centers Weather Stream Awarded ONR Contract to Advance SPECTRUM for Environmental Remote Sensing Satellogic EarthView Dataset Now Openly Accessible via Registry of Open Data on AWS Virgin Galactic Announces Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2024 Financial Results and Provides Business Update Etihad-SAT  Blue Origin Announces Crew For New Shepard's 31st Mission T-Minus Crew Survey We want to hear from you! Please complete our 4 question survey. It'll help us get better and deliver you the most mission-critical space intel every day. Want to hear your company in the show? You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here's our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info. Want to join us for an interview? Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal. T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Federal government is planning to shut down its EV charging infrastructure, Apple is planning to combine its modem with future processors as a single package, and Intuitive Machines is expected to launch its second lunar lander this week. It's Monday, February 24th and this is Engadget News. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of This Week in Space, hosts Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discuss the latest space news, including a potentially hazardous asteroid, SpaceX's plans to launch and land in the Bahamas, and the ongoing debate surrounding the retirement of the International Space Station. They also touch on NASA's budget cuts, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the development of new radiation protection technology for deep space missions. - Asteroid 2024 YR4: While initially considered a potential threat, the chances of this asteroid impacting Earth have significantly decreased as more data has been collected. Rod and Tariq discuss the changing odds and the importance of tracking near-Earth objects. - NASA budget cuts: The hosts discuss the proposed 20% budget cut for the James Webb Space Telescope and its potential impact on the groundbreaking observatory's operations and scientific output. - Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Moon lander: Launched weeks ago, the lander is now in lunar orbit and scheduled to land on or about March 2nd, carrying 10 experiments to Mare Crisium. With several other lunar missions on the horizon, including those from Intuitive Machines and Japan's iSpace, the hosts discuss the exciting developments in the new lunar exploration era. - SpaceX in the Bahamas: Elon Musk's company is in talks with the Bahamian government about launching and landing rights. The hosts speculate on the reasons behind this move and its potential implications for future missions. - The retirement of the ISS: Elon Musk suggests de-orbiting the station as soon as possible and to press on to Mars, while others argue for maintaining it until suitable replacements are ready. - "Stranded" astronauts controversy: The hosts address the recent claims that astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore were "stranded" or "abandoned" on the ISS due to political motives. They clarify the situation and express their disappointment with the misleading narrative. - Radiation shielding technology: The development of 3D-printed hydrogels offers a promising solution for protecting astronauts from harmful radiation during deep space missions. The hosts explore the potential applications and benefits of this innovative technology. - Search for Extraterrestrial Life: The COSMIC project, working with the Very Large Array telescope, has been using advanced computer processing to seek out focused radio transmissions that might indicate the presence of alien civilizations. While no signals of interest have been found yet, the search continues, and the project serves as a valuable educational tool for aspiring radio astronomers. - NASA workforce reduction: While NASA has not yet implemented the anticipated workforce reduction, the hosts discuss the potential impact of such cuts on the agency's future and the importance of maintaining a skilled workforce in the face of increasing competition from China. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services project scientist and Intuitive Machines President and CEO discuss upcoming IM-2 mission and what's in store for this delivery to the lunar surface. HWHAP 373.  

In this episode of This Week in Space, hosts Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discuss the latest space news, including a potentially hazardous asteroid, SpaceX's plans to launch and land in the Bahamas, and the ongoing debate surrounding the retirement of the International Space Station. They also touch on NASA's budget cuts, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the development of new radiation protection technology for deep space missions. - Asteroid 2024 YR4: While initially considered a potential threat, the chances of this asteroid impacting Earth have significantly decreased as more data has been collected. Rod and Tariq discuss the changing odds and the importance of tracking near-Earth objects. - NASA budget cuts: The hosts discuss the proposed 20% budget cut for the James Webb Space Telescope and its potential impact on the groundbreaking observatory's operations and scientific output. - Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Moon lander: Launched weeks ago, the lander is now in lunar orbit and scheduled to land on or about March 2nd, carrying 10 experiments to Mare Crisium. With several other lunar missions on the horizon, including those from Intuitive Machines and Japan's iSpace, the hosts discuss the exciting developments in the new lunar exploration era. - SpaceX in the Bahamas: Elon Musk's company is in talks with the Bahamian government about launching and landing rights. The hosts speculate on the reasons behind this move and its potential implications for future missions. - The retirement of the ISS: Elon Musk suggests de-orbiting the station as soon as possible and to press on to Mars, while others argue for maintaining it until suitable replacements are ready. - "Stranded" astronauts controversy: The hosts address the recent claims that astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore were "stranded" or "abandoned" on the ISS due to political motives. They clarify the situation and express their disappointment with the misleading narrative. - Radiation shielding technology: The development of 3D-printed hydrogels offers a promising solution for protecting astronauts from harmful radiation during deep space missions. The hosts explore the potential applications and benefits of this innovative technology. - Search for Extraterrestrial Life: The COSMIC project, working with the Very Large Array telescope, has been using advanced computer processing to seek out focused radio transmissions that might indicate the presence of alien civilizations. While no signals of interest have been found yet, the search continues, and the project serves as a valuable educational tool for aspiring radio astronomers. - NASA workforce reduction: While NASA has not yet implemented the anticipated workforce reduction, the hosts discuss the potential impact of such cuts on the agency's future and the importance of maintaining a skilled workforce in the face of increasing competition from China. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

In this episode of This Week in Space, hosts Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik discuss the latest space news, including a potentially hazardous asteroid, SpaceX's plans to launch and land in the Bahamas, and the ongoing debate surrounding the retirement of the International Space Station. They also touch on NASA's budget cuts, the search for extraterrestrial life, and the development of new radiation protection technology for deep space missions. - Asteroid 2024 YR4: While initially considered a potential threat, the chances of this asteroid impacting Earth have significantly decreased as more data has been collected. Rod and Tariq discuss the changing odds and the importance of tracking near-Earth objects. - NASA budget cuts: The hosts discuss the proposed 20% budget cut for the James Webb Space Telescope and its potential impact on the groundbreaking observatory's operations and scientific output. - Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Moon lander: Launched weeks ago, the lander is now in lunar orbit and scheduled to land on or about March 2nd, carrying 10 experiments to Mare Crisium. With several other lunar missions on the horizon, including those from Intuitive Machines and Japan's iSpace, the hosts discuss the exciting developments in the new lunar exploration era. - SpaceX in the Bahamas: Elon Musk's company is in talks with the Bahamian government about launching and landing rights. The hosts speculate on the reasons behind this move and its potential implications for future missions. - The retirement of the ISS: Elon Musk suggests de-orbiting the station as soon as possible and to press on to Mars, while others argue for maintaining it until suitable replacements are ready. - "Stranded" astronauts controversy: The hosts address the recent claims that astronauts Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore were "stranded" or "abandoned" on the ISS due to political motives. They clarify the situation and express their disappointment with the misleading narrative. - Radiation shielding technology: The development of 3D-printed hydrogels offers a promising solution for protecting astronauts from harmful radiation during deep space missions. The hosts explore the potential applications and benefits of this innovative technology. - Search for Extraterrestrial Life: The COSMIC project, working with the Very Large Array telescope, has been using advanced computer processing to seek out focused radio transmissions that might indicate the presence of alien civilizations. While no signals of interest have been found yet, the search continues, and the project serves as a valuable educational tool for aspiring radio astronomers. - NASA workforce reduction: While NASA has not yet implemented the anticipated workforce reduction, the hosts discuss the potential impact of such cuts on the agency's future and the importance of maintaining a skilled workforce in the face of increasing competition from China. Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space. Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free shows, a members-only Discord, and behind-the-scenes access. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit

In this episode of The Building Texas Business Podcast, I spoke with Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, about the region's economic development. We explored the five major industry clusters shaping the area: maritime logistics, aerospace, tourism, healthcare, and petrochemicals. Brian shared updates on aerospace innovations at Ellington Field, including projects by Intuitive Machines and Axiom, while highlighting new opportunities in defence manufacturing. I learned about Project 11, an initiative to expand the Houston port's capacity for larger vessels. Brian explained how this infrastructure project connects to the broader transportation network, particularly the role of trucking in regional commerce. We discussed how the partnership works with legislators and industry leaders to address challenges like insurance costs and maintain economic momentum. The conversation shifted to leadership approaches and team dynamics in Texas business. Brian described how maintaining diverse projects keeps his team engaged and motivated. We explored how the Houston area supports entrepreneurs through community partnerships and mentorship programs while adapting to technological changes like AI integration. Our discussion wrapped up with a look at workforce development in the region. Brian explained how educational partnerships are building talent pipelines across industries. We covered the importance of aligning training programs with business needs while fostering collaboration between municipalities, educational institutions, and industry partners. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS In this episode, I spoke with Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership, about the economic development in the Houston Bay Area, focusing on the recruitment, retention, and expansion of primary employers. We discussed the significant industry clusters in the region, including maritime logistics, aerospace, tourism, healthcare, and petrochemicals, and their impact on the area's economic growth. Brian highlighted developments at Ellington Field, including contributions from companies like Intuitive Machines and Axiom, as well as the emerging opportunities in defense manufacturing and procurement. The episode explored the scale and impact of the Houston port, emphasizing Project 11's role in expanding the port's capacity and the importance of logistics and innovation for regional prosperity. We delved into the leadership style necessary for motivating teams and managing diverse projects, underscoring the Texan entrepreneurial spirit characterized by ambition and a collaborative approach. Brian shared insights on the vibrant business ecosystem in Texas, driven by a skilled workforce, affordability, and a supportive community fostering partnerships and mentorship opportunities. Finally, we addressed challenges like insurance costs and the importance of regional solidarity, as well as efforts to mitigate natural disaster risks and promote responsible development in the area. LINKSShow Notes Previous Episodes About BoyarMiller About BAHEP GUESTS Brian FreedmanAbout Brian TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Chris: In this episode you will meet Brian Freedman, president of the Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership. Brian shares how his organization works to recruit, retain and expand primary employers in the greater Houston Bay Area region. Brian, I want to welcome you to Building Texas Business. Thanks for joining us today. Brian: Hey, thank you, Chris. Honored to be here and great to catch up. Chris: Yes, likewise. So let's start with you. You're the president and the organizational name's kind of long it's Bay Area, houston Economic Partnership. Tell the listeners a little bit about what that organization is and what it does, to kind of put the rest of our conversation into context. Brian: Sure, so BayHEP is the short version of it. So we're the Regional Economic Development Group and kind of the, as I like to say, in the Houston-Galveston region. We're three o'clock to six o'clock on the watch, face right. So we kind of go out 225, all the municipalities and cities going out east and then going down south 45. We go a little west of 45, but really that 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock and we're really focused on how do you recruit, retain and expand primary employers in the region with the idea that if you can get great companies located here and have a group of industry clusters that are cranking away every day, that we can have a great place to live. We have great involved residents that are in this area and opportunities for the folks who live here and kind of build what the future will look like for this region. So a lot of good stuff going on and, happy to get into that a little further, we do economic development, recruitment, retention projects. So how do we get companies here? We do some grants and then we're a membership organization is how we're funded. So we have about 300 members, 19 municipal members, Harrison-Galveston County, the port, the airport system. It's really how do you get the leaders of a region to work together to advance what we're doing here. Chris: Wow, I mean that's it sounds like it's easier to say and harder to do coordinating that many organizations and trying to get everybody pulling the same direction. Brian: Yeah, it's a lot of fun and we get to work with a lot of great folks. That's how we met Chris, is that, you know, through some of our mutual connections. But yeah, you know, it's really when you can get generally like-minded folks thinking about what the future of a region will look like and pretty aligned and working towards that effort, it's more of a well, it's just fun and you can create a lot of impact and we're seeing that and I'll be happy to dive into some of the specific projects we're working down here. But I mean, you guys do it too at Boyer Miller. Y'all are working with clients all over the spectrum of types of industry and you have to adapt to what's coming up, what's at you, and be ready for that kind of stuff. Chris: Yeah, no doubt. So yeah let's jump into some stuff. Let's talk first, because when I think of your area, obviously the first thing that comes to mind is NASA and all that's going on around that, and that leads me to technology and innovation. So what are some of the emerging technologies or trends that you're seeing that are kind of helping shape the future of Texas and kind of the business opportunities, at least in your region and for Texas? Brian: Yeah, so I call it kind of the big five on the industry cluster. So everybody thinks about this area for NASA, which we love right, because it really is a crown jewel out here, but I call it the big five right Maritime and all the associated logistics with the port aerospace and aviation, so nasa, but also the great work that the airport system is doing with ellington and hobby, tourism and recreation, health care and all the hospitals that have campuses down here, and then specialty and petrochemical and the energy industry partners and every one of those ecosystem has a ton of stuff going on. So I'm happy to talk about some of those more granular. But a couple of observations. One is that often overlooked in this community and really an asset to the greater Houston region is Ellington Field, ellington Airport, the Spaceport and, if you haven't seen or heard about it, the work that's going on at the Spaceport. They have three new beautiful buildings. One is occupied by Intuitive Machines who just put the first commercial lander payload on the surface of the moon. One is occupied by a company called Axiom that's building the next generation of commercial spacesuits and the next generation space station, and Collins who do spacesuit design in our building and maintaining the current spacesuits. They've set up huge facilities down there and so new stuff coming on. But I'm equally excited about just across the runway is the 147th Reserve Group. So there's a reserve unit out there, a reserve base, and the defense opportunities are pretty exciting. So that's highlighted by the 147th. But almost every branch has a reserve unit out there, save the Space Force, and we're working on that. And so the opportunities with defense manufacturing to come out to do more work in Houston and some of their innovation units and, as mundane as it sounds, some of the procurement opportunities, because when it comes to contracting, having a group of folks here would be a great opportunity for Houston businesses to then pipeline the work that they're doing into the broader defense industry, which can be really exciting. One other thing I'll mention, chris, is if you just look at the path of predictable growth for Houston, right, it keeps going out and we see that on our freeways every day. So there are growing pains that come with that, but for our region it's that steady march down Interstate 45. And so while Clear Lake Lake City are starting to get to fully built out and we're looking at what is the next generation of building look like, what's redevelopment look like For communities Dickinson, hitchcock, santa Fe, to some extent Texas City. Although they've got quite an industrial complex too, there's still space, and so it really brings up the opportunity of we can handle big projects, and whether they're industrial or tourism, there's a lot of opportunity that comes with that. And so, as folks you know, as we get built out further and further, those cities that were, they've always been important cities for the regional ecosystem, but they become major players, and so it's exciting to be able to work with them on that stuff. Chris: Sounds like a lot of opportunity for real estate development. Both residential, retail, commercial, industrial kind of all sectors are going to be playing a big part in that ongoing development in your region. Brian: Exactly right, and part of the the fun part is, you know, every municipality has different targets of what they view their economic development to look like, and so we get to work with all those cities where some may be really focused on industrial, some may want to be bedroom communities and be focused on residential. Our task is to support those municipalities in this region and identifying good players to bring to the table. So who are people that we do want to partner with that can follow through on the projects that can complete them and make them successful? Chris: That's great. I think I saw recently in the news the state of Texas, I think it's had something along these lines, but it's like a fund for the space-related projects and I know I don't know the name and you'll help me with that, but I seem to recall the governor being in town and making some big announcement right after the first of the year. Tell us a little more about that. Brian: Recall the governor being in town and making some big announcement right after the first of the year. Tell us a little more about that, exactly, right? So last legislative session, primarily spearheaded by State Representative Greg Bonin, who's also a Princewood resident he's a neurosurgeon by day and State Representative Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee during the legislative session he had this kind of vision of how does the state become a major player in the aerospace community. That's been primarily a federal and private industry ecosystem and so under his vision and with support of the state legislature and certainly the governor, they put a bill that kind of outlined a direction for the state to engage and the resources behind it. It does a couple of things. One was it allocated about $200 million that would go to Texas A&M to build this A&M Space Institute, and they've actually located that property. It will be built on the edge of the campus of Johnson Space Center, so for those familiar with this area, right on Saturn Lane. $200 million building and, as A&M's laid it out, it will have a giant lunar rock yard and a giant Mars rock yard, with the idea that everybody who's going to be doing hardware testing to send vehicles to the moon or Mars is trying to figure out where they're going to do that testing. And it's very expensive to build, obviously. And so companies are making the decision whether they're going to build that themselves and own it or go lease it somewhere. And if they're going to lease it, where do you go to find a giant brockyard to simulate the surface of the moon? And well, the state of Texas answered that question. So what was so unique about that vision was that everybody who's in that ecosystem now wants to come through Houston Texas to do that work. And so with that comes the. You know they'll be have their lab space there, but they may need offices, they're going to be hiring people, and so you know it really is an exciting project. They had their groundbreaking right at the end of last year. I've seen surveyors out there and they think they're going to have it open in 2026. So an aggressive timeline to get that bill. The other part to that bill was they appropriated $150 million for a grant program to incentivize sort of space leadership projects in the state of Texas, and so they have to set up a whole, basically administration portion of this. So they selected nine individuals to serve on the Texas Space Commission who will review those proposals and evaluate them and make awards. Who will review those proposals and evaluate them and make awards, and then they'll also help advise the state on how they can keep their leadership position in the space industry. The first of those awards about 20 million were released a little over a week ago. A couple of them were studies for best use for really cool stuff hypersonic corridors where to be landing sites. And then another one that is to build assets and capabilities for the Space Force in El Paso to have more of a Space Force presence in the state of Texas, which is pretty exciting. So I'm optimistic about what's to come for them. Chris: Yeah, that sounds very exciting, especially the concept of the $200 million grant to A&M and what that will do to attract other businesses that might relocate somewhere else and bring them here, and then all the ancillary things around hiring and jobs et cetera. So that's very exciting news and I think it'll be just around the corner. Let's maybe talk a little bit about. You mentioned Maritime and the port, and most Houstonians People know the Houston port is a significant asset for our area. Anything going on there that's new and exciting, any kind of innovation that you see when you're working with those entities and, I guess, the port authority itself. Brian: Yeah, well, maybe the first thing when you talk about the port is you're absolutely right just how important they are to this well, to all of Houston, but to the country I mean. The scale of the port is hard to appreciate when you just look at the numbers. But the numbers are just staggering. The amount of capability that comes through there and the innovation really is on the logistics and management for how they move, whether it's container, you know, container containers, the container terminal organization and how that whole orchestra is operated, and the capabilities from there is that the crane's getting stuff unloaded, then onto the trucks or rail or whatever. The mechanism to get it out and then get it distributed to wherever it's going is pretty incredible, and so we're fortunate to have them. We just hosted the new port CEO, charlie Jenkins, who's a phenomenal leader, has a career in service of the port, is the right guy to lead that organization into their next chapter. But he made this comment kind of in passing that the port's operations are about a $3 billion a day operation, you know, and you just go like a day of economic impact that go into that. The scale is really something impressive and that's all the trickle out and secondary effects. But it's amazing, the big thing that's going on with them right now is Project 11. That's the deepening and widening of the channel that'll allow additional capacity to go in there, and it's really writing the story for what the next chapter of the port's future is and Houston as a trading hub is, and so it'll allow for larger ships to come through. The additional investments they're making will allow faster turn and movement of all the goods that are on there. So a lot of good stuff going on. I guess the last thing I'll say is anybody who's driven 225 sees all those trucks and I drive it pretty regularly and see that too and as much as nobody likes driving next to a giant 18 wheeler, every one of those trucks is jobs and prosperity for our region, and so the next time you're driving there and you see a hundred trucks going down 225, that's our economic prosperity moving around our region and, candidly, around the country. It's good stuff. Chris: It's a good point. Yeah, I mean it's. You wouldn't want the roads to be empty and no trucks moving. I mean that's not a good sign. So feel blessed that we have all that you know in our area and driving all kinds of different prospects and opportunities for people. So when you are working with, let's talk a little bit about these member organizations and all the different moving parts you know what are you doing? How do you, I guess, keep things organized and people kind of moving in the same direction? Just, I would think that in itself is a full-time job. Brian: Yeah, it's a lot, but you know it's good stuff. I guess I'll start with a phrase that I kind of live by, which is we have a lot of stuff going on and so we'll find something to get on about. Right, we can always find something to work together on, and so, if you kind of start with that attitude, there's a lot of common issues that really require a lot of work but you can get maybe not perfect alignment, but general directional alignment. And so you know, one of the big issues we're working with right now is insurance. Right, we're all dealing with it. I'm sure you've gotten your insurance bill, but whether it's home or your business insurance, all those things, and so you can find a lot of commonality and ideas about hey, how can we work with our state leaders, potentially our federal leaders, with the insurance companies themselves, to try to manage the cost of doing that and find ways could it be grouping, doing kind of what they do in medical where you can have these larger groups or other mechanisms to try and help mitigate some of the costs? For that I'm getting a little granular, but you can find these little pockets where you can go move the ball down the field and get general alignment and so we spend a lot of time doing that. But we are very fortunate that our membership and generally this is kind of a Texan spirit type thing is hey, how do we go get some stuff done? Right, we want to go work on some stuff we want to go work on together. Generally it's a rising tide mentality and I spent a good portion of my career in industry and there are times where we compete like crazy and that's fun and, you know, makes great products and great opportunities for our customers. There are a lot of times where we need the tide to rise and finding alignment about that we try to be an outlet for that and keep things running. Right Is that we have not a big staff but a staff that can help make sure that. You know, our members are doing a lot of this stuff as volunteers, right, but they're bringing ideas to the table. So how can we make sure that they're staying engaged, that we're checking in on them, that we're helping carry these things and that we're creating a forum to have the right discussions and bring leaders together so we can invite in elected officials over relevant stuff, the right industry players, and bring them to the table and figure out what we can do, and then I guess the last thing I'll say is that manifests itself. We have a very active state legislative agenda. That we're going to be spending a fair amount of time in Austin, federal priorities. That we work with our congressional delegation and then very on the ground working with our municipalities and all the companies that are out down here to make movement. Probably talk all day about little one-offs. Advert Hello friends, this is Chris Hanslick, your Building Texas business host. Did you know that Boyer Miller, the producer of this podcast, is a business law firm that works with entrepreneurs, corporations and business leaders? Our team of attorneys serve as strategic partners to businesses by providing legal guidance to organizations of all sizes. Get to know the firm at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show at boyermillercom. And thanks for listening to the show. Chris: Well it is. You know legislature is in session, so I know that creates a busy time for you. You talked a lot about some of the opportunities and I hope we can talk some more about that, but I do want to ask you at this point what are some of the headwinds that you see you know this region and specifically kind of where you are. You know that could be out there. That you see you know this region and specifically kind of where you are. You know that could be out there that you've got to try to deal with, to get ahead of or navigate through. Brian: I'll start with. It's a great time down here. Just the way that each one of those big five industry clusters is going about is that it's a. You know they're all doing well and have a lot of opportunity that's on the horizon or that they're in the midst of right now, but certainly you know, a few headwinds. One of the things that we're always worried about and we work actively is just natural disaster flood mitigation and storm surge and making sure that we're resilient and prepared for the future, and so the risk from some incident happening. I'm more excited to talk about, when it comes to that, all the things that we're doing to mitigate that. In terms of flood mitigation, the coastal barrier protection work that we've been spending a lot of time on. That's the Ike Dike. It has a lot of names, but most commonly known is that but a system to protect us from storm surge. So one is the risk of natural disaster I don't like it, but it's a real thing, right? The second is that we're in the you know how do we have responsible development? And so when you have a project that comes online, there are, you know, reasonable concerns from citizens saying, hey, is this the best thing to be doing with this piece of land, and so anytime you're talking about a development that's going to take a field and turn it into a thing, people get concerned about that and that's perfectly reasonable for them to be concerned and want to do that. And so part of what I spend time doing is addressing like, hey, here's why this is worthwhile, here's why this funds your local municipality and build more parks so we can have the resources and the tax base that justify expenditures that come elsewhere and make through that. But just the ability for the public's ability to impact development, as it happens, is important. But for them to do that knowing all the ground truth, knowing what the trades are and understanding that, so that if they are concerned about something that they come with that from an educated knowledge base and so that's out there. And then I certainly don't want to get political, but anytime there's an administration change, there's just priorities that get changed. And so we're still waiting to understand all of those. We're kind of watching how things are shaken out in Washington DC and we'll adapt and make sure that we're doing everything we can to put our region in a great posture with whatever those priorities are at the end of the day. Chris: So yeah, to that last point where you're kind of right in throws that change. Right now that's happening pretty fast, so you got to stay on your toes. Let me take you back to the Ike Dike, because that you know something to get after Harvey. Hurricane Harvey got talked about a lot. You don't hear much about it anymore. Any kind of updates for the listeners. That might be curious. Is it really going to happen and, if so, what's really going on down there to make sure it doesn't happen? Brian: And if so, what's really going on down there to make sure it doesn't happen? Yeah, so it's still moving along, you know, and with some enthusiasm. So a couple of big milestones. One is that in December of 22, it became a formal project of the US Army Corps of Engineers. It was authorized by Congress as a project, so that says, you know, they can now go focus on that. And so the next big question becomes how do we pay for it? To answer that, the state stepped up in a big way in the last legislative session and they had previously formed what's called the Gulf Coast Protection District. That is the local entity for that project. That will work with the US Army Corps of Engineers. So that group exists and has monthly meetings. They actually have an office in our suite. We lease an office to them them and they have their meeting in our conference room two out of every three months and then they do a rotation on that. Third, and they've been funded to the tune of about a half a billion dollars from the state of Texas. So they're ready to take significant action. We've been working with our federal partners about identifying where the big dollars come from for that project. It's going to be expensive and it's going to take a long time, but it will be likely done in phases and so that allows it. Where you don't need this one giant tranche of money all at once, you can do it sort of in a series and address the most important aspects of that, like the gates, some of the initial most highly populated areas, in phases. But we got to get federal appropriations for it. So in addition to the state entity being in our office, actually the US Army Corps of Engineers is on the fourth floor of this building and so all of the players for that project are in one building in our area right here, so that when what I'm hopeful for is if Corps moved in about six months ago, anytime an elected leader wants to come down and meet, they'll get every leader for that project in the same building and often meeting in our conference room or one of the core conference rooms. But a lot more can get done. There's sort of the opportunity for water cooler conversations between the state and the fed folks, and so I'm optimistic that the cadence just from that proximity will be helpful to that effort. Chris: Very good, that's good to hear. Let's change conversation a little bit. So, as I said, you're the president of BHEP. You mentioned your staff. Let's talk a little about leadership. How would you describe your leadership style and how do you think that's evolved kind of as you've been in this role? Brian: Yeah, well, I don't know that I can quantify terribly well, but I'm a kind of hey, all hands on deck and let's all just lean into wherever we're going. Right, and I kind of have that expectation of our team that we're have a clear set of priorities generally around the growth of this region and the projects that we're undertaking and that we're just leaning into them all the time and focusing. That I've been. You know I love getting down and into projects and so that's as I've been on this journey. That's been one of the big focus points to me is that you know you need a team to get this amount of stuff done and the size of these projects and the scope and so the ability to trust in the team and lean on them and let them go run with the ball is really important. I've been extremely fortunate that we have a great staff and we have a great membership base that we can lean on to help go bring those things to fruition. But it's a lot of fun coming to work. I think the team has a great time and enjoy the work that we do and you can see the difference that we make because there are buildings. We can point to that, wouldn't, you know, if not for the work of us and the leaders in this community wouldn't be there, and I'm looking forward to seeing that one on Saturn Lane with giant Texas A&M buildings sticking out of it coming through. Chris: It sounds like it's going to be impressive with the rockyards and all. But, you know, it made me think, though your team has a lot on its plate, I would think at times it may feel overwhelming. So, you know, what do you do to kind of help keep the motivation and keep the energy level up for a team that probably, at some points is, you know, starting to get to the end of the rope or run out of gas? Brian: Yeah, diversity of projects and lots of different stuff to work on. I'm guessing and actually I'd kind of turn that question on you, chris, because I can only imagine the type of stress that you guys live under, especially working big cases and big projects. There's one part that is, hey, we're just all in this together, right, and the esprit de corps that comes with. We're tackling big projects and that's just part of what comes with it. But there's another part where you just need to shift gears for a little bit and work on something different and give yourself a little recharge time. But how do you guys deal with it? I'm curious how? Chris: Boyer Miller, yeah that's a fair question to turn around on me. I would say it's similar. I think it's. You know to me that you can't underestimate the power of a team and if you have the right people on the team, there's some self-motivation just within that group, Right. And then I think it is the. We are fortunate to have very diverse type projects. We practice in all industries. So we may be doing a, a deal or a project, but it's in a different industry and there's different nuances that make it exciting. And at the end of the day I think it's the one point you highlighted on you can point to something and we're helping clients achieve their goals. So we can, you know, point to a deal that's been done or, you know, maybe it's a merger of two companies, or one that's grown and now has a new building and doing whatever. But you can point to those successes that you, where you've helped the client achieve, you know something really big for them and their business and their life. And so I think all of that continues the motivation. Yes, sometimes at the end of a big deal, you need just a little bit of a breather, but you just jump right back in and get going. So it makes it fun. Brian: Well, if you'll let me share. So you and I first met in person, had an opportunity to meet at one of your big forums, and that was a bunch of your customers and clients were there, and I love meeting new folks, as you probably saw, and I you know, walking around just saying, hey, I'm Brian, what do you do? And almost every one of them I would ask like, hey. So how do you know Chris, how do you know this group? You know, have you worked with them? And they all had a story. That was exactly that. You know, whatever thing it was that you helped them. We did XYZ project and it was awesome. We use them all the time for all these things. It was just very striking how passionate your customers, your clients, are with the help they've gotten from you guys, and so, anyway, that is extremely commendable and what I've seen from your team has just been amazing. Chris: Well, I appreciate the feedback. It's always good to get that, especially from different sources. So you know, like I think, we're always trying to create raving fans so that they'll keep coming back and tell their friends. So you get a unique seat and I think it's similar. You kind of analogize back to us. I think we get a unique seat to work with Texas entrepreneurs, and that's a pretty cool thing to do, in my view. What's, what would you or how would you describe the Texas entrepreneurial spirit if you could, based on your experience? Brian: Yeah well, I'm a native Texan. I have this hypothesis that part of the reason we're such a proud bunch is that when you go through I don't know if you grew up in Texas, chris but then also this sense of like we can do big things and big audacious things and we can make big asks and ask big questions and go get it done. And so we see a lot of that down here. And so you know, if you were sitting in I'll make this up Iowa and you said you know I want to have a space business and we want to go put hardware on the moon, and you know your neighbors would look at you and kind of scratch their head and in Texas they'd go oh yeah, that's intuitive machines and they're down the street, you should go. You know, go talk to them. They'd love to work with you. So that kind of spirit is really something special. When I was in industry I traveled all over the country working projects. There's something very special about this region, this community, this state, and that translates into why people want to come here. You know we keep Texas and Houston keep winning all these awards for business, new businesses coming here, people moving here, and that's not by accident, it's not by coincidence. It's because we have a great, great story to tell, whether that's workforce and the capabilities, the affordability of being here, the caliber of people you can work with and who your competitors are, and the level of intensity in the game that we play here is high and that creates the right ingredients for a really thriving community, for entrepreneurs, but also for industry any size. Chris: Right, very good. So what advice would you give to entrepreneurs out there that might be looking to start a business, let's say specifically, kind of within your region? If not, maybe beyond that in Houston? What's? Some of the advice you might give them if they wanted to get involved in some of the all the things you've been talking about. Brian: Yeah, dive in. It's a great community and a great ecosystem and there's a reason people are investing here and making a great run at it. We try to make that as easy as it can be. Now it is not easy. There's no illusions that starting a company you know scaling and growing a company all those things are very challenging. So the question I find myself asking I don't know that I'm in a position to give you know this immense amount of wisdom about these things, but what can we as a community and we as an organization be doing to help that entrepreneur? How do we help them build a relationship so that if they're having trouble with a permit, they know who to go ask, who to go talk to If they have a big idea, who might be good partners If they want to bounce something off, a retired executive who they might go talk to about that has the right skillset, so that we can create the conditions for them to be successful? And so that's really how we find ourselves interfacing that ecosystem is how do we put the right players together to go make things happen? Chris: Very good. So the other thing I'm curious to know is what do you see? You mentioned your five big industries. What have you observed of those industries working together to create innovative ideas to help each other? You got to move forward. Brian: Yeah, there's been a lot of. So workforce has been one of the biggest, especially over the last few years, where there's been this really high intensity competition amongst folks. And I wouldn't be surprised if you have been in some of that with, you know, recruiting and retaining high talent attorneys, right Is that? That's been, and so we've spent a lot of time and I've observed a lot of our members in this community go with that as a spirit of, hey, we're not really doing anybody any good If we're just poaching each other's people and you know, and creating pain points and friction between senior executives and those kinds of things. Let's go look at other communities and go figure out hey, what are the best universities and how do we get the professors that are training the students in it to send resumes to our area, right, and that we have a coalition of companies, not just one company has a relationship with one professor and that company benefits from that it's. How do we build that relationship as a community and say to them hey, we have a very strong demand signal, let's work together on things like that and so feeding that workforce pipeline so we're not divvying up the pie, we're growing it. And so, on the workforce side. I hate to be cliche because everybody's talking about AI, but we've had a couple of membership meetings about it. We've been working with partners about integration of it. We've adopted different technologies that have come out of it. But that stuff really, I mean it's the wave that we're living in right now, and so the integration of that into systems, both the how to do it and the mitigation of risk. I think I saw over the weekend that the new DeepSeek had a big not terribly surprised, but had a giant data leak and compromise, and so when you know when you're using that, I can only imagine, chris, I'd be curious how y'all are integrating it. But you know everything you put in there. You got to assume that at some point, somebody you don't want to have access will at least have the opportunity to have access to it, and so you have to be quite careful about how you integrate it. I, just as an aside, how are you guys using it much? Have you all banished it? What's the? Chris: Well, I'd say it's a little bit of both. I mean, we are definitely looking at and finding ways to integrate it. We've adopted a policy, but it starts with, as you mentioned, with us. It starts and stops with maintaining client confidentiality. So there's some systems out there through recognized kind of legal researchers. So Westlaw comes to mind, where they developed AI tool that is solely within their database. So it's secure, it's, it's all legal. You don't have to worry about we were still spot. You still have to check things right the human element of that. But if you're searching, for example, using the AI tool within Westlaw, you don't have to worry about the fake cases you've seen in the news. But our attorneys, you know, if you're going to use it, it has to be approved through the firm which are only a handful. You can't use anything outside and everything has to be double checked by a person to make sure for accuracy, etc. But so it is. I mean, the confidentiality side is a real concern, not just for law firms, for everybody, any company using it, and unfortunately that's just gonna be more and more what we see right. The more that we're moving everything to cloud, you're going to have people coming after it to try to. You know, on the bad side of that and certain countries it's not illegal to be a hacker. So it's just, you know, that's the world we live in now. Yeah Well, you know, brian, this has been a very interesting conversation and the you know, the last time we spoke I came away with the same feeling, and that is, we talked a lot about a lot of opportunity going on in the three to six o'clock region of greater Houston and we didn't even scratch the surface, I'm sure. But my takeaways have been it doesn't matter what industry again, I said earlier, you always kind of automatically think of space and NASA, but it's every type of business you could think of. An industry you could think of Sounds like you've got ample opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to start, grow, expand and be there and thrive. Brian: Well, perfectly said, and I think we get a recording. I may use that in some of our promotional material. Chris, that's exactly right. Great time, great place to be and welcome folks to reach out to us to help however we can if they're interested in looking at opportunities down here for that Before I lose you. Chris, one of the favorite questions that you had sent over that I wanted to ask you that you didn't get a chance to ask is what your favorite recreation vacation spot in the state of Texas is. Chris: Well, I'll answer that. I was about to ask you that. I would say if it's kind of a vacation spot in Texas, it would probably be anywhere along the Texas coast to relax a little bit and get some fishing in. Brian: Perfect. Chris: How about you? Brian: We are huge campers, like we love going camping. My kids are eight and 11 and we have state parks pass, and so any day I'm in a state park is a good day for me. But Inks Lake is one of my favorites and McKinney Falls between the two of those. Those are my top two right now, but we've probably been to Keene and we're just checking off the box to hit them all, and maybe we'll upgrade to National Parks as we get a little bit older. But I love our visiting our state park system. They're just absolutely wonderful. Chris: That's great. Okay, last question You're native Texan, so do you prefer Tex-Mex or barbecue? Brian: Oh, I feel like that question is going to get me in trouble, but if you made me choose, I'd pick barbecue. I'll eat it all day, every day, as it shows how about you, how about you? Chris: I think it's a tough one, so I've had some guests. You know, it depends on the day. I probably lean Tex-Mex more than barbecue. But I love the restaurants now that are combining the two, so brisket tacos or brisket nachos or something like that. It's a great combination. Brian: Yeah, there should be an answer all of the above there. Chris: So we're getting close to the rodeo time in Houston, so I have to go with barbecue for now and then back to Tex-Mex, I guess. Brian: Well, I look forward to seeing you at the kickoff event, where we get to go sample a little everything. Deal, that sounds good. Well, I look forward to seeing you at the kickoff event, where we get to go sample a little everything. Chris: Deal. That sounds good. Brian, thanks again for taking the time. Really appreciate your friendship and definitely appreciate what you and your team are doing for all the things business down in the Bay Area. Brian: Well, right back at you, Chris. Thanks for your leadership and all the great work you're doing with your team. Appreciate the opportunity to visit with you today. Thank you. Special Guest: Brian Freedman.

Intuitive Machines made history in 2024 with the first successful private lunar lander mission. Now, the company aims to do it again with its Athena spacecraft next month, carrying a collection of payloads. Intuitive Machines CEO Steve Altemus joins Morgan Brennan to discuss the mission, the business model and the company's long-term vision.