Talking Space

When the Russian crew on board the ISS decided to perform an unusual procedure on the station’s Zvezda module, it caused quite an agreeable break in the routine of the day on board the orbiting laboratory. The crew on the US segment entered an emergency evacuation posture aboard their Crew Dragon, but all returned to normal after a few hours. The team discusses what happened and why.  The astronau...

The Talking Space Team gathers around the microphone once again to survey the horizon of spaceflight news—and what an eventful week it has been. On May 26th, NASA announced a new wave of contracts for its moon base program, along with updates on the progress of Artemis III. We break down exactly what was said during the press event and what it means for humanity's return to the lunar surface. Spac...

The full Talking Space team gathers around the microphone once more to share their thoughts and reactions to the Artemis II lunar flyby and how the 10-day mission was perceived back on Earth, especially those who seldom think about NASA. The panel examines next steps for the Artemis program, reviews highlights from NASA’s recent Ignition  event, weighs whether a new space race with China is underw...

Recorded on Sunday 29 March, 2026: Just days before the first human mission to the Moon in 53 years, Talking Space returns to discuss preflight activities and the changes within NASA’s Artemis lunar program. Mark Ratterman discusses his thoughts on the growth of activity in and around the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) since the days of the Space Shuttle program, and reflects on the L- 3 launch press...

In 2012, following the end of the Space Transportation System program, NASA faced the monumental task of finding permanent homes for the three remaining Space Shuttle Orbiters—so that their incredible stories could be preserved and shared with the public. After a lengthy and sometimes contentious selection process, the three operational orbiters—Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour—along with the pr...

The OSIRIS-APEX mission, an extension of the wildly successful OSIRIS-REx mission, is set to rendezvous with Asteroid 99942 Apophis in April 2029. This mission takes full advantage of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which still has plenty of fuel and is totally healthy after delivering samples from Asteroid Bennu to Earth on 24 September, 2023. OSIRIS-APEX will closely observe Apophis as the asteroid m...

Episode 1701: Talking Space returns after a hiatus to discuss the landing attempts by the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. First a successful soft landing of the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost 1 mission on the plans of Mare Crisium.  Then a much more perilous landing attempt for the Intuitive Machines "Athena" lander, trying to land its suite of science and technology demonstrations c...

It was September 9, 2009; aka 09/09/09. That was the easy-to-remember air date of the first episode of Talking Space. The Space Shuttle era was ending. As far as most of the public was concerned, that represented the death knell for the U.S. Space Program. But Gene, Mark and Sawyer knew better, and they were trying to figure out how to best spread the word that all was not lost. Thus, Talking Spac...

It was September 9, 2009; aka 09/09/09. That was the easy-to-remember air date of the first episode of Talking Space. The Space Shuttle era was ending. For most casual observers, that represented the death knell for the U.S. Space Program. But Gene, Mark and Sawyer knew better, and they were trying to figure out how to best spread the word that all was not lost. Back then, there were basically onl...

Environmental regulators are beginning to clamp down on Starbase. The big question is: Do these enforcement actions have enough significance to force the FAA to delay launch activities at Boca Chica? Some troubling headlines  appeared on CNBC.com on Monday, August 12, 2024 concerning SpaceX’s alleged issues regarding compliance with environmental regulations that govern their activities at the Sta...

NASA has tried to get Extra Vehicular Activity Number Ninety underway since June 13th. The first attempt was thwarted by a space suit comfort issue, the second by a water leak that created a blizzard of ice inside the  Quest airlock. Are the Shuttle-Era Extra Vehicular Mobility Units (EMU) or space suits finally showing their age? Also, what about Collins Aerospace and their recent withdrawal from...

The Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-U , launched at 5:26 PM EDT on 25 June 2024 from Launch Complex 39 A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.   A SpaceX Falcon Heavy took the 6000-pound satellite to its geostationary orbit in the Western Hemisphere. After a commissioning process, GOES –U will be renamed GOES 19 and take over the GOES EAST duties, stan...

“Starliner Stuck In Space!!!”, “Starliner Stranded at the ISS!!”, “Space-X To Rescue Starliner Crew!!!” These were the various outrageous headlines being thrown around by various space media outlets this week, concerning the Boeing Starliner Mission and its progress. None of these sensational headlines are true, the ship and crew are in good condition but the media claims that the Starliner missio...

A quick special report on the status of the joint NASA/Boeing Starliner Mission based on a Blog Post prepared by   NASA and Boeing for our listeners. 

After years of development, testing, disappointment, and perseverance,  NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Willams took Boeing's CST 100 Starliner to the International Space Station for its first flight with a human crew. The team discusses all facets of the launch, rendezvous, docking (not without its moments of drama), and public reaction to the mission thus far. Also this week, the fourth t...

May 6th was going to be the date that Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams were going to take the Boeing CST 100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station for the first time with astronauts on board. Starliner has undergone a rather stormy development period and is several years behind schedule as a result but NASA, Boeing, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) teams after the earl...

In this special episode of Talking Space, we delve into a rarely discussed, but crucial aspect of living in space: health and sickness. We're putting the spotlight on the unique challenges posed by bacterial and viral infections aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and future long-duration missions. We're bringing you a deep dive into a groundbreaking experiment, GEARS (Genomic Enumeration...

Welcome to another episode of Talking Space, where we bring you the latest updates on space exploration and technology. In this episode, we're excited to introduce our new team member, Heather Smith, who brings her passion for space to our discussions. Welcome, Heather! The episode kicks off with news about Slovenia signing the Artemis Accords. These accords outline best practices for sustainable...

Is the NASA Advisory Council (NAC) system becoming unglued? During the NAC Science Committee meeting on March 21st, there were significant questions about the Primary NAC and its ability to deliver recommendations to NASA's leadership expeditiously so they can be acted upon by NASA Leadership . That wasn't the only thing on the minds of NASA's scientists and advisors. The Hubble Space Telescope an...

We’re giving up on new ways to describe how busy it is now in the world of space-related news. Nonetheless, we still have a Starship Flight 3 recap, a look at the next (and last) Delta IV Heavy launch, and we also focus on the upcoming total solar eclipse. But first, in the News Roundup, even more, including: Crew 7 returns from the ISS; RocketLab’s Electron booster launches the “Owl Night Long” m...

There’s a ton of space news to discuss this time around, and we made the time to do it in this lengthy episode. Not to worry, there’s lots of good stuff in here, including: Blue Origin’s New Glenn Rolls out to LC-36; Changes in the ISS management team; ISS Leak in the Zvezda increases ; Roscosmos selling off $124 Million in assets due to Ukraine war fallout; Former astronaut and NASA Admin Richard...

It’ll do your heart good to have a listen to the IM-1 launch audio snippet at the opening of this episode. This episode finds us still focusing on the Intuitive Machines IM-1 lunar lander launch and lunar landing attempt to come later this week. Chantelle Baier from 4Space joins us once again to talk about the launch and the lunar landing, scheduled for February 22, 2024. Both Larry and Mark witne...

Welcome to the First Talking Space of 2024! The Intuitive Machines IM-1 mission is the second flight of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) missions. Its purpose is to have commercial entities be responsible for sending NASA science payloads and eventually cargo to the lunar surface to support human exploration of the Moon. NASA isn't the lead of the mission, but simply one customer of...

First off, apologies are in order for our extended absence from your podcast-hungry ears. We try our best to record on a consistent basis, but sometimes there’s a perfect storm of Life Events getting in the way for the Talking Space team when it comes down to getting an episode in the can. We DID even record an episode with Gene and Larry that we could not air because Larry’s audio track for the r...

There’s a lot going on this time around, as usual. First, in the news roundup: Starship: The Lawsuit pitting the Center for Biological Diversity against the FAA and SpaceX proceeded mostly as expected ( with a notable exception ). The FAA awaits the US Fish and Wildlife Service to complete their Biological Assessment portion for review of the Starship’s next launch license. Here’s the Wallops Spac...