Main Engine Cut Off

A follow-up on my last show with Debra Werner about the war in Ukraine and all the fallout from it, both political and industrial. Everything from the NASA budgets for 2022 and 2023, NASA telling astronauts to stop tweeting , the increased importance of European human spaceflight , and how the launch industry might shift in the future. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 ex...

Debra Werner of SpaceNews joins me to talk about Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the ways that it is affecting the space industry, how their last invasion had similar effects, and how the situation solidifies several arguments that have been made over the past decade or more. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge...

A special feature of a very-MECO episode of my other podcast, Off-Nominal , that I did this week with Michael Sheetz of CNBC and Eric Berger of Ars Technica . If you have yet to check out Off-Nominal, find us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris,...

Jared Isaacman , commander of Inspiration4 , announced the Polaris Program —a privately-funded development program to “rapidly advance human spaceflight capabilities” via flights on SpaceX’s Dragon and Starship vehicles. It begins with a mission to the highest Earth orbit ever flown by humans, featuring the first commercial spacewalk, and culminates with the first crewed Starship flight. This epis...

Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about what’s on our radar in 2022, to predict when the big new rockets will fly , and to generally catch up on what’s going on in the space industry. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 39 executive producers—Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Joonas, Robb...

Last week I left my full-time gig at Big Cartel . I’m going independent to do more Main Engine Cut Off and Off-Nominal , and to make these space-focused projects the primary work that I do. I’m also going to be building some apps of my own, and doing a good bit of client work—which could include you! If you’ve got an app or a site or really anything digital to build, hit me up and let’s work toget...

Phil McAlister , Director of Commercial Spaceflight at NASA, joins me to talk about the history of and lessons learned from the Commercial Cargo and Crew programs, what things went well and not so well in those programs, the difficulty of changing NASA’s approach to human spaceflight, how to deal with varying levels of Congressional funding and buy-in, and how all of that feeds into the new Commer...

Bill Spetch, Manager of the ISS Vehicle Office at NASA, joins me to discuss the operational considerations of docking and berthing ports on the International Space Station, the recent traffic jams we’ve seen on station , why certain vehicles and systems use one port over the other, how to fit large cargo through docking ports, and what the future of ISS port operations look like in the era of comm...

Marshall Smith , Senior Vice President of Space Systems of Nanoracks , joins me to talk about Starlab , their commercial space station which recently won a contract award from NASA as part of their Commercial LEO Destinations program. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Brandon, Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob...

Brian Weeden of the Secure World Foundation joins me to talk about the technical and political fallout of Russia’s recent anti-satellite weapons demonstration, the history of anti-satellite weapons and testing , the geopolitical situation surrounding the topic, and what the future of space debris tracking and management looks like. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 execut...

Russia recklessly carried out an anti-satellite operation on a large, defunct satellite in one of the most heavily-used and most important sections of Earth orbit . I share my thoughts on the operation, Russia’s status in the space industry at large, and what the technical and political fallout may be coming out of this. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive produce...

Commercial space station mania! Blue Origin, Sierra Space, Boeing, and Redwire announced Orbital Reef , while Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin announced Starlab , all in the run up to the expected awards as part of NASA’s Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Destinations program. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Brandon, Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan...

I took a half-hour ride out to the National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center to take a tour with Glenn King, (COO, Director of Advanced Pilot & Space Training, and recent Netflix star ) about their training , what they’ve been up to lately in this busy season of people going to space, and what the future may hold for spaceflight training. We tour their altitude chamber, spatial diso...

Ryan McDevitt, CEO of Benchmark Space Systems joins me to talk all about what Benchmark has been up to lately, what mobility-as-a-service means for the industry, and their partnership with Orbit Fab . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 41 executive producers—Brandon, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel,...

At a town hall this week , NASA announced that the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate will be split in two : the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate, led by Jim Free, and the Space Operations Mission Directorate, led by Kathy Lueders. I discuss what this change might mean for the future of NASA’s human spaceflight program, and why I think it’s not something to wor...

Last week, Firefly made their first flight attempt of Alpha , and Astra launched their latest vehicle, LV0006 . Though both ended in failure, it’s a good time to check in on them and other small launchers that will debut soon like, ABL’s RS1 and Relativity’s Terran 1 , and how they may all compete with each other . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 42 executive producers—Bra...

Eric Berger of Ars Technica returns to the show to talk about the recent crewed suborbital flights by Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin , Blue Origin’s Project Jarvis and their future work , and what the chaotic arrival of Nauka means for the future of the ISS and international space politics. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 43 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, La...

Richard Branson flew to space aboard SpaceShipTwo on Virgin Galactic’s Unity 22 , and Jeff Bezos flew to space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard 16 . I share my thoughts on the flights, the vehicles, and how I’m currently looking at suborbital tourism and why it does or doesn’t matter. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 42 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, M...

Marcia Smith of SpacePolicyOnline.com joins me for a round up of space policy news, including how the Biden and Nelson administrations are doing so far, things that are being overlooked or sidelined , the Senate’s NASA Authorization bill , NASA’s Human Landing System contract and the battle for funding , the space tourism learning period, and we finish with a quick look at what China and Russia ha...

I’m joined by Matt LaPointe, Technical Director at Redwire’s Deployable Space Systems , and Andrew Rush , COO of Redwire , to talk about the newest upgrade to the International Space Station: the Roll-Out Solar Arrays that are currently being deployed over the course of several spacewalks . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 41 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lau...

Phil Bracken , Vice President of Engineering at Spaceflight , joins me to talk about their past, current, and upcoming missions , the Sherpa program , and to dive into the technical details of it all. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 41 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Morit...

Brock Howe , the Program Manager for Nanoracks ’ Bishop Airlock , joins me to talk about the final build out and launch of Bishop, its installation on ISS, some details of its operations, and its plans for the future on ISS and beyond. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee,...

Stephen Forbes, the Program Manager for DARPA’s Blackjack project, joins me to talk about DARPA and its interaction with the rest of the Department of Defense, how they approach space initiatives, where Blackjack came from, where it’s going, what they hope to accomplish with it, and how it fits into the near-future of the industry. This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 execut...

SpaceX successfully flew and landed Starship SN15 last week, amid protests of their NASA HLS award by Blue Origin and Dynetics . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, Grant, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astrona...

Eric Berger of Ars Technica returns to the show to talk about NASA selecting SpaceX’s Starship for its Artemis landings, Bill Nelson’s nomination hearing , Amazon buying 9 Atlas V launches for Kuiper, and the state of Blue Origin . This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 40 executive producers—Brandon, Matthew, Simon, Lauren, Melissa, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chr...