Main Engine Cut Off

Chris Pearson (CEO) and Lars Osborne (Chief Engineer) of Agile Space join me to talk about what they’re working on, how the company has gotten to where it is today, and what’s in store for the future. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Pat from KC, Chris, Benjamin, Pat, Jan, Joonas, The Astrogators at SEE, Tyler, Dawn Aerospace, Bob, Fred, Joel, Donald,...

Northrop Grumman has changed plans—they’ve ended their own space station project, and will contribute to Starlab . At the same time, Blue Origin and Sierra Space are reconsidering their Orbital Reef plans , amidst changing leadership and raising money . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Jan, Frank, The Astrogators at SEE, Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astrona...

Tom Marotta of The Spaceport Company joins me to talk about what they’re working on, their vision for the future of spaceflight, spaceport operations, the demonstration they did in May , the FAA and its interaction with private companies, reentry licensing, and a whole host of other topics. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 34 executive producers—Steve, Bob, Stealth Julian,...

Jake and Anthony are joined by Loren Grush of Bloomberg to talk about her new book, The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 34 executive producers—Frank, Chris, Joel, Fred, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut), Steve, David, Craig from SpaceHappyHour.com , Kris, Theo and Violet, Joonas, Lee, Bob, Stealth Julian, Pat, Sma...

Scott Tilley joins me to talk about ISRO’s success with Chandrayaan-3 , Roscosmos’ Luna-25 mission and the mystery behind it , and the state of the Deep Space Network . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 34 executive producers—Pat, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut), Joel, Fred, Craig from SpaceHappyHour.com , Steve, Pat from KC, Joonas, Jan, Kris, David, Frank, Russell, Tyler...

Amazon moved their Project Kuiper prototypes from Vulcan to Atlas V. Between that and some recent conversations I’ve had, I thought it would be a good time to check in on Kuiper and to see how they’re progressing towards deployment. I do some math, and it’s not good. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 34 executive producers—Chris, Donald, Dawn Aerospace, Will, Tim Dodd (the E...

After the most recent show , I found a few nuggets of information in the NSSL Phase 3 documents , plus some more updates came out in a call that the Space Force had with some reporters. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Donald, Lee, The Astrogators at SEE, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut), Kris, Simon, Pat, Pat from KC, Russell, Matt, Fred, Stealth Ju...

Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about the budgetary threat facing Mars Sample Return, the latest issue with ULA’s Vulcan vehicle, and the ongoing tweaks to the National Security Space Launch Program’s Phase 3 architecture. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Will, Tyler, Ryan, Stealth Julian, Lars from Agile Space, Harrison, Craig from Space...

Adrian Beil of NASASpaceFlight.com (and a long-time beloved member of the Off-Nominal Discord ) joins me to talk about the state of German and European launch, with new entrants Rocket Factory Augsburg and Isar Aerospace getting close to the launch pad, many others working their way there, and institutional launch struggling amidst delays and geopolitics. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is bro...

NASA selected Blue Moon as the second human lunar lander for Artemis— which is awesome !—yet the budget outlook for the next few years is…not good. I think through what NASA can, should, and might do in the face of a grim budget reality. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Tyler, Pat from KC, Brad, Theo and Violet, Matt, Fred, Robb, Simon, Dawn Aerospace...

Live from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss the business and finance side of spaceflight, with Caleb Henry (Quilty Space), Peter Beck (Rocket Lab), and Jonathan Baliff (CFO, Redwire). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Pat, Fred, Robb, Steve, Dawn Aerospace, Matt, Theo and Violet, Bob, Benjamin, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut), Dona...

Live from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss the commercialization effort of LEO and the Moon with Angela T. Hart (Manager, Commercial Low Earth Orbit Program Office, NASA), Dr. Molly Mulligan (Business Development, Redwire), Jana Spruce (VP of Spacecraft, Firefly), and Kevin Foley (Program Director, Commercial Space Projects, Boeing). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is broug...

Live from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss news, announcements, and happenings from the conference, then talk with a trio of drop-in guests: Sean Bedford (Director of Business Development, Astrobotic), Mike DeRosa (Co-Founder & CMO, Gravitics), and Jason Hopkins (Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, Crescent Space). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought...

Live from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I discuss current space policy topics with Lori Garver (former Deputy Administrator of NASA), and Karina Drees (President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Steve, SmallSpark Space Systems, Pat from KC, Matt, Chris, Tyler, Bob, Harrison, Ryan, Frank, Simon, Dawn Ae...

Live from the Redwire booth at Space Symposium 2023! I talk about the state and future of international partnerships in space with Mike Gold (Chief Growth Officer, Redwire) Masami Onoda (Director of Washington, DC Office, JAXA), and Josh Wolny (Foreign Affairs Officer, US Department of State). This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Fred, Joonas, SmallSpark...

Starship finally(?) flew its first test flight ! Jake Robins of Off-Nominal joins me to sort through our thoughts on how it went ( it was janky ), what’s next for Starship, and to try and figure out if SpaceX wasted more steel or time this week. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 36 executive producers—Tyler, Pat from KC, Brad, Theo and Violet, Matt, Fred, Robb, Simon, Dawn A...

After an unsuccessful first flight of Terran 1, Relativity has announced that they’ve moved on to a newly-redesigned Terran R . Overall I think this a good direction, but there are some serious questions to be asked of and headwinds to be managed by Relativity. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Warren, Lars from Agile Space, Donald, Lee, Andrew, Russel...

Stefan Powell, CEO of Dawn Aerospace , joins me to talk about their big news announced today : last week, they completed three rocket-powered flights of their Mk-II Aurora spaceplane in 3 consecutive days. We talk about that achievement, what the company is up to overall, what their vision and plans are for the future, and how they’re approaching the market in a unique way. This episode of Main En...

I share some big news about MECO and Off-Nominal live at Space Symposium 2023, and then dive into some recent launch stories: Relativity’s first flight of Terran 1 , and Virgin Orbit nearing its end . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Benjamin, Ryan, Joel, Jorge, Andrew, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Russell, Donald, Frank, Joonas, Robb, The Astr...

Casey Dreier of The Planetary Society joins me to talk about the NASA FY2024 budget request and what it means for Artemis, the ISS , and planetary science . Correction: At some point in the show, we said DAVINCI is managed out of APL, but it’s actually run out of Goddard. Sorry, Maryland! This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Pat, Joonas, Bob, The Astrogat...

Eric Berger has three sources saying United Launch Alliance is being shopped around the market right now, so I kick around some thoughts on who may buy ULA, if an offer comes to fruition. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 35 executive producers—Matt, Russell, Pat, Warren, Lee, Kris, Frank, Joel, Lars from Agile Space, Jorge, Benjamin, Pat from KC, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astr...

The Space Force rolled out the draft RFP for Phase 3 of the National Security Space Launch program, and it looks pretty good ! Elsewhere, NASA selected New Glenn to launch ESCAPADE in 2024, so I check in on the state of things over at Blue Origin—as always, it’s about the engines . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 44 executive producers—Simon, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan,...

Lori Garver , former NASA Deputy Administrator, joins me to talk about a whole host of space policy topics, including Artemis and lunar politics, the legacies of Commercial Cargo and Crew, the status of Commercial LEO Destinations, and also Lance Bass. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 42 executive producers—Simon, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bo...

Caleb Henry of Quilty Analytics and I took a trip down to Wallops Island to watch Rocket Lab’s first Electron launch from the US . Listen to our conversation on the drive down to Virginia, a bit of me at the press site before launch, and the launch itself in wonderful stereo audio. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 43 executive producers—Simon, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan,...

Virgin Orbit’s first launch from the UK ended in failure , putting them in an even more precarious financial position . And on the other side of the North Pole, ABL’s first launch attempt ended in failure right on the launch pad in Alaska. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 43 executive producers—Simon, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, M...