Main Engine Cut Off

Robin Seemangal joins me for a free-flowing discussion on the stories we found most important in 2017 and what we’re looking forward to in 2018, including SpaceX’s huge year, Blue Origin’s under-the-…

Mike Lewis, CTO of NanoRacks joins me to talk about what they’re working on today, as well as their big plans for the future, including their upcoming airlock and the Ixion project—their ongoing work…

A special preview of the MECO Headlines shows: Elon Musk kinda-sorta-maybe announces the Falcon Heavy demo payload, Russia and China carry out successful military launches, NASA announces some very i…

I was in Houston last week and I visited NanoRacks for a bit. And Virgin Orbit piqued the interest of the Department of Defense, which has some interesting implications.

This episode of Main Engine C…

SES gives us a preview of their new GEO strategy (which may be a harbinger of the future), Orbital ATK tests a new composite case to be used for their Next-Generation Launcher and future SLS boosters…

Blue Origin fired up their BE-4 engine for the first time, which is a big moment. And I share some meandering thoughts on the future of commercial and military launch.

This episode of Main Engine Cut…

Tory Bruno wrote an op-ed in SpaceNews regarding Vulcan and its future, and he announced that ULA will be upgrading Centaur. Elon Musk spent some time on reddit talking about BFR and updating us on s…

Chris Gebhardt of NASASpaceflight joins me to discuss Elon Musk’s presentation last week, in which he provided an update to the BFR.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 20 execut…

Northrop Grumman is acquiring Orbital ATK in a $9.2 billion deal. Lockheed Martin unveiled a new family of satellite busses, positioning themselves for the next era of satellite bus production.

This …

Blue Origin announced a size increase to New Glenn’s fairing, and OneWeb has decided to keep their Toulouse factory open for other customers after their initial 10-satellite production run is over. B…

Jake Robins of the WeMartians Podcast joins me to discuss the state and future of the Mars exploration program, lean sample return, and more.

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I spent 2 minutes and 40 seconds in the shadow of the Moon in Gallatin, TN. Totality was an incredibly powerful experience, and I wanted to share what it was like to be there as best I could.

This ep…

Caleb Henry of SpaceNews joins me to discuss the slowdown in GEO satellite orders, the latest on the big LEO constellations, and what’s up with the sky falling.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is…

Rocket Lab completed their investigation into what went wrong on their first launch, Virgin Orbit’s carrier 747 arrived in Long Beach, and I discuss a few NASA-backed advanced propulsion projects.

Th…

I spend some time thinking through what the future of the ISS holds, and what may come after it.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 17 executive producers—Kris, Mike, Pat, Matt,…

Eric Berger returns to the show to talk about Elon Musk and SpaceX’s crusade against cost-plus contracting, the end of Red Dragon, where NASA policy is heading, and what SpaceX may have in store for …

Loren Grush of The Verge joins me to talk about Falcon Heavy, SpaceX cancelling Dragon 2 propulsive landings, Red Dragon riding off into the sunset, Moon Express, US space policy, and a whole lot mor…

XCOR laid off the rest of its staff and is closing up shop after losing a contract with ULA, which leaves ULA in an interesting spot for Vulcan-ACES. On the ULA side, they won their first Phase 1A co…

SpaceX launched two missions last weekend, flew new titanium grid fins on Falcon 9, and are really picking up the pace. And Blue Origin got cozy with the Alabama Launch Alliance by announcing that th…

Boeing’s proposal won Phases 2 and 3 of DARPA’s XS-1 program, and I’m pretty bummed about it. And the Air Force announced that SpaceX will launch the fifth X-37B mission in August.

This episode of Ma…