This Week in Space (Audio)

What's next in deep space exploration? Dr. Alan Stern, planetary scientist and the Principal Investigator for the New Horizons mission to Pluto, joins us to discuss what we learned about Pluto, the p…

So you're on a months-long flight to Mars... seven months with five people and one computer as crewmates. You've been told to put any fears of a HAL-9000 computer takeover of your mission out of your…

The International Space Station has been serving as a major research center in space for over 25 years, but its time is coming to an end with a planned deorbit in 2030. Should we end this expensive e…

Tariq is back from the Far East and bursting with space news! This week we'll look at the passing of Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell, potential re-tasking of NASA's Juno probe from Jupiter to the inte…

If we're ever to make Mars a second home, we have some serious housekeeping to do... as in a total renovation. The Red Planet has little atmosphere, no radiation shielding, and some seriously toxic s…

The United Nations has mediated conflicts since its founding in 1945. That domain of involvement extended into space in 1967 with the Outer Space Treaty. Today, their role is increasingly active with…

Powering spacecraft, especially out in the dark, cold outer solar system, is a huge challenge. There are limits to how large solar panels can be, and they are not very efficient in the weak sunlight …

Sixty years ago this week, the Mariner 4 probe sped past Mars, the first to succeed in this then-brash undertaking. The technology was unbelievably primitive, yet effective, sending back 22 low-resol…

Welcome to the "Survivor: NASA" edition! This week, Tariq and Rod jump into the headlines, and boy are there a lot of them! NASA has a new interim administrator: former Congress member, reality TV st…

This week, we're joined by AJ Gemer of Lunar Outpost, a fast-moving company innovating in cislunar technology. This includes mini-rovers, crewed lunar rovers, and all kinds of instrumentation that wi…

Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik broadcast live from the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference in Orlando, discussing the latest Starship explosion, missing universe matter disc…

Space is rapidly becoming a critical domain for so much of 21st-century living. Banking, transport across the sea and land, agriculture, and dozens of other things we take for granted all depend on s…

What a wild week it's been for NASA. With drastic budget cuts looming—pending any action by Congress—then comes the sudden and unexpected pulling of Jared Isaacman for the role of NASA Administrator,…

This week we speak with Dr. Mike Wall, ace space reporter from Space.com, about Starship's recent test flight. What went right, what went wrong, and what are the prospects for Elon's mammoth rocket m…

If you're lucky enough to have witnessed the landing of Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969, you know what a momentous occasion that was. If you're younger than a Boomer, you've read and heard about that amaz…

It's time for Rod and Tariq to catch up on headlines... and space dad jokes! We're going to update you on the ever-slimming NASA budget, the latest news on the Voyager spacecraft, what's up with the …

Dr. Robert Goddard is known as the "Father of Rocketry," but his legacy has been largely overlooked--until now. Charles Slatkin grew up during the Space Age and has become a Goddard evangelist, going…

Seems we can't go through an hour without hearing news about artificial intelligence these days. There are a lot of exciting developments, and some of the most exciting when thinking about space are …

The Hubble Space Telescope has been one of NASA's most successful flagship missions, recently celebrating 35 years in space. Often referred to as "the gift that keeps giving," the HST has provided no…

We've all heard of it, and some of us have seen the Netflix comedy series, but what exactly is the U.S. Space Force, and what do they do? We invited Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bent…