Landing the Moon

On July 8, 2026, Max and Blake examine NASA's ship-to-ship propellant transfer demo, the hardware milestone that must fly before design certification review can begin for Starship HLS. They also unpack SpaceX's Nasdaq-100 inclusion, which briefly pushed Elon Musk's fortune into trillionaire territory, and question whether the tiny tradeable float behind that surge has any real connection to Starsh...

June 24, 2026. The single most important Artemis development covered today: NASA's Starship HLS ship-to-ship propellant transfer demo has slipped roughly 15 months, with no confirmed launch date and Wikipedia's own Starship HLS article still listing the test as only optimistically scheduled for 2026. Without this demo, the design certification review cannot clear, and the $2.28 billion HLS congres...

June 17, 2026. The May 28 static-fire explosion that destroyed Blue Origin's NG-4 vehicle and gutted LC-36 — the company's only orbital launch pad — now threatens the entire Artemis lunar landing sequence. Max and Blake examine three specific problems the disaster created: the physical incompatibility between the Blue Moon Mk.1 lander and any available replacement rocket, the missing liquid hydrog...

June 10, 2026. Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded during a static fire test at LC-36 on May 28th, destroying the transporter-erector and raising serious questions about the Artemis III timeline. Max and Blake dig into what that means for the Blue Moon Mk.1 lander, including why moving it to Falcon Heavy isn't a simple fix — the BE-7 engine's liquid hydrogen requirement makes LC-39A a non-star...

June 3, 2026. ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher's op-ed demanding that Europe stop being a passenger in NASA's decisions sets the tone for this episode of Landing the Moon, as Max and Blake examine how the Artemis alliance is straining under repeated unilateral architecture changes. Max and Blake work through three converging pressure points: the White House FY2027 budget request cutting NASA...

June 3, 2026. NASA's inspector general projects the Artemis lunar spacesuit may not be ready until 2031 — three years after the planned 2028 Moon landing. Max and Blake break down OIG report IG-26-006 and what it means for the AxEMU program. The episode covers three specific areas: Collins Aerospace's 2024 exit after spending $37 million of NASA's money, leaving Axiom as the sole xEVAS contractor;...

May 28, 2026 — Artemis III has been restructured from a lunar landing to an Earth-orbit docking test targeting late 2027, and this episode breaks down what that shift actually means ahead of NASA's June 9 crew announcement. Max and Blake cover three specific areas: the engineering logic behind flying a non-propulsive spacer in place of the ICPS, the real readiness of Starship HLS and Blue Moon aga...