Main Engine Cut Off

Caleb Henry, Director of Research at Quilty Space, joins me to talk about EchoStar’s spectrum sales and constellation cancellation, SpaceX’s spectrum purchase, and the financials of Starlink.

This epi…

Casey Handmer, Founder of Terraform Industries, joins me to talk about the state of NASA in 2025, talent acquisition and retention, productivity, and so much more.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off …

Tom Marotta of The Spaceport Company joins me to talk about the executive order this week focused on commercial space regulatory reform, what problems it seeks to solve, his experience on both sides …

Michael Moreno, VP of Strategy at Lunar Outpost, joins me to talk about what they’ve been up to at the company, the NASA Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract, the idea of services as a business on…

A special simulcast of this week’s Off-Nominal—the other show I do, if you somehow haven’t heard of it!—because it’s exactly the topic list with exactly the guest I had up next on my list. I’m joined…

Lori Garver, former NASA Deputy Administrator, joins me to talk about the chaos of the last week: the withdraw of Jared Isaacman’s nomination for NASA Administrator, Starship Flight 9, and of course,…

Mark Albrecht joins me to talk about his time on the Trump 2024 Transition Team, the thinking behind some of the policy decisions we’re starting to see in the space and national security spheres, and…

We take a tour of Marotta Controls in Montville, New Jersey, to see how they work, how they develop, produce, and test products at rate, and we learn about the most feared topic in space—valves!

This …

Caleb Henry, Director of Research at Quilty Space, joins me to talk megaconstellations, the hypersonics industry, and more.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 33 executive produc…

Jared Isaacman was in Congress for a confirmation hearing for his nomination as NASA Administrator, which was followed up by reports of huge proposed budget cuts at NASA and NOAA. And as expected, Sp…

Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about his recent interviews with Butch and Suni in the aftermath of their flight, the update NASA put out about Starliner, and how it all lands from where…

Eric Schmidt has taken a majority stake in Relativity and will serve as its CEO, so this is a good time to check in on their plans. Rocket Lab is planning to acquire Mynaric, and I have a theory I fe…

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 M…

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 M…

Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau join me to talk about their new book, Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. We talk about the economics driving the space industry today, how tra…

Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about Elon Musk and the whirlwind start of the second Trump administration, and what the future may hold for SLS.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is br…

Jonathan McDowell—astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the namesake of the McDowell Line at 80 kilometers—joins me to talk about his fundraiser to move his epic space lib…

Blue Origin flew New Glenn successfully for the first time, and SpaceX flew Starship for the seventh time. Both featured failures at different points of the flight, with the impacts on Starship being…

Axiom Space announced changes to their station build out plan, bringing free-flying capability forward in their timeline and switching to a berthing port at the ISS to avoid the US Deorbit Vehicle. F…

Jared Isaacman, the man with a private space program, has been nominated NASA Administrator, to run the nation’s space program.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 32 executive pr…