0:00

On this episode of this of This

0:02

Week in Space, we're looking at the

0:04

coming year in at the means

0:06

maybe year flights of starship trips

0:08

to the moon maybe 25

0:11

flights of Starship, in

0:13

and see what's coming up. even

0:15

out to Venus. But tune

0:17

in and see what's coming

0:19

up. Podcasts You Love. From

0:21

People You Trust. This is

0:24

told. This is this Week

0:26

In Space Episode

0:28

No. 142, 142 on

0:30

January 3, 2025, 2025 2025

0:32

in space Hello and welcome to another

0:35

and welcome to another

0:37

episode of in in Space,

0:39

the I'm broad pile I'm

0:42

Brad manaster magazine as as

0:44

always, and I'm joined,

0:46

as always, by my

0:48

good friend, the Behatted Taric Malic editor

0:50

Space .com, It's here. Bringing credit his

0:52

career achievements with to his

0:54

career achievements with that

0:56

cool hat. is. It's tell

0:58

us what your cool

1:00

hat is. It's not

1:03

Mickey Mouse it's a North of Roman

1:05

sickness spacecraft that spacecraft we got from

1:07

one of the Antares launches way

1:09

back when out of a Wallops they

1:11

were still launching Antares rockets in

1:13

Terry's rockets out of Wallops there. So I may have

1:15

have taken it from my my My

1:17

child have may have stolen it

1:19

from your daughter Come on. She was

1:21

given it she was was given

1:23

it by given it by the President of

1:25

of Grumman Grumman Space Systems back

1:27

when I think it was

1:29

still orbit all was time ago

1:31

got it a long we're that you got it

1:33

when we're eating Rocket cream at the local

1:35

ice cream shop In Wallops, so you know how to

1:38

know how to live, all know, I thought they make

1:40

it with cayenne it with if you're anyone ever goes

1:42

to a Wallops launch go to Chinkateek Island

1:44

and go to the ice cream shop

1:46

there. You'll get, you'll get rocket fuel

1:48

get you'll to rocket fuel Or come to LA. ice cream.

1:50

It's the most, it's the most festive

1:53

hat that I have that doesn't say

1:55

anything. Cause I forgot to buy I forgot

1:57

to 25 glasses or something for this

1:59

episode. episode and I reread it now. I

2:01

have regards. Well, you'll have to

2:03

make up for it by just

2:05

being extra engaged in the headlines.

2:08

Now, before we start, even though

2:10

he kind of already did, please

2:12

don't forget to do us a

2:14

solid. Make sure to like subscribe

2:16

and do the other podcast things

2:19

because we need your love. Also,

2:21

it's time for the 2025 Twitter

2:23

audience survey. This is the annual

2:25

survey that helps us understand our

2:27

audience so we can improve your

2:30

listening experience. It only takes a

2:32

few minutes, so go to twit.TV

2:34

slash survey to take it. Don't

2:36

wait, take it before it closes

2:38

in mid-January, and thanks for helping

2:40

us make Twit even better. But

2:43

now, as our New Year's gift

2:45

to you, a space joke from

2:47

Tom Melton, who happens to be

2:49

National Space Society member 2053109. All

2:51

right. He actually sent me his

2:54

membership number with the joke. Are

2:56

you ready? I'm ready. I'm ready.

2:58

Tom, lay it on me. Why

3:00

was the request for a donut

3:02

shop on the International Space Station

3:05

denied? Why? Because it would be

3:07

full of holes. I get it.

3:09

I get what they did there.

3:11

Wow, that was the smallest laugh

3:13

bump in the wild. Nicely done.

3:15

All right. Well, before we sink

3:18

too far, let's... Oh. Hey,

3:20

I missed. Oh, here we go.

3:23

Now I've heard. That was a

3:25

bad segue. That some folks want

3:27

to drill holes in the nearest

3:30

Soyuz capsule when they hear our

3:32

jokes. Oh, you can help. Don't

3:34

use your best worst or most

3:37

of the different space joke to

3:39

us at TwistedTwit. TV. Okay, wow,

3:42

just go ahead and step in

3:44

it, Ron. Headline news. It's a

3:46

brand, it's brand new, brand new.

3:49

Headline news. Thank

3:52

you Bethany or whatever your AI name

3:54

was So did you go through these?

3:57

I don't know if you had a

3:59

chance. I did I went through the

4:01

whole thing you always doubt me you

4:03

always tell me but I come in

4:06

clutch that's like my my modus operandi

4:08

right like up sliding at the last

4:10

second I may have been adding things

4:12

like in the last five minutes I

4:15

don't know you don't know Rod you

4:17

don't know right clearly clearly I barely

4:19

even know you who the heck are

4:21

you the park solar probe did its

4:24

big thing which is oh yeah yeah

4:26

yeah and okay so I want you

4:28

to give us the whole story but

4:30

Well, just give us a little story.

4:33

Yeah, well, this is from space.com, but

4:35

also from NASA and the Johns Hopkins

4:37

University. In fact, since you and I

4:40

first mapped this out, there have been

4:42

developments in the last day, too. But

4:44

as we were all getting ready for

4:46

Christmas on Earth here on Christmas Eve,

4:49

NASA's Parker Solar probe made the closest

4:51

ever. and fastest, and hottest, yeah, whipped

4:53

by the sun. It flew within, what

4:55

is it, about 3.8 million miles of

4:58

the sun. We're 93 million miles from

5:00

the sun, if memory serves. So, and

5:02

that's the closest that we've ever get.

5:04

It's the closest that any human-made object

5:07

has gotten to the sun, and it's

5:09

as closest that Parker Solar probe is

5:11

going to get. It was its 22nd

5:13

flyby, and it was kind of like

5:16

one of those... What is that a

5:18

JPL like to call them? Like the

5:20

seven minutes of terror type things? Except

5:22

this was like over a week and

5:25

a half because on December 20th four

5:27

days before this flyby Parker Solar probe

5:29

went into like an automated mode. It

5:31

sent a ping back to Mission Control

5:34

which is over at John Hopkins Applied

5:36

Physics Laboratory in Laurel Maryland and it

5:38

says all right I'm starting my approach

5:40

you know my trench run if this

5:43

was Star Wars. Oh wow that's really

5:45

apt right because it's a star right

5:47

it's the sun. You see, are you,

5:49

are you, are you, are you picking

5:52

up when I'm putting down there, Rod,

5:54

right? Anyway, so I was taking a

5:56

little nap, but pray continue. So, so

5:59

it accelerated up to 430,000. miles an

6:01

hour, which is absolutely crazy. And it

6:03

did this not just in this flyby,

6:05

but over the course of seven different

6:08

flybyes of Venus, and then the other

6:10

21, like ever closer approaches that it

6:12

made over the last years. I think

6:14

it launched in 2018, so it's been

6:17

quite some time to make this journey.

6:19

And the really interesting thing is, like

6:21

you said, it got. It got hot

6:23

1,800 degrees is one they were expecting

6:26

to see at this point as it

6:28

flew through the sun's corona. It's the

6:30

hottest bit of the sun. So it's

6:32

flying through the atmosphere. They call it

6:35

kissing the sun or touching the sun,

6:37

essentially. And it has this really thick

6:39

heat shield on the front that's super

6:41

advanced in a way that all of

6:44

the instruments, a 110 pound package behind

6:46

that's kept that room temperature. So it's

6:48

as comfortable as comfortable like how you

6:50

run your house rod. It's about 65

6:53

degrees here. I don't know if it

6:55

was like that cool. Because we run

6:57

a cold house. But it survived. And

6:59

they didn't find out if it did.

7:02

It was all automated. They had a

7:04

lot of. a lot of confidence because

7:06

of how the spacecraft has performed to

7:08

date. But they didn't hear anything until

7:11

December 27th when at midnight it sent

7:13

like a beacon home. Like boop! Which

7:15

means, you know, hey, I'm still here.

7:17

That's literally all they got. But they

7:20

were like, hey, this is great. Our

7:22

spacecraft is beeping. And then just actually

7:24

yesterday, they got all the telemetry down.

7:27

So they got the download that says

7:29

this is how fast I'm at. This

7:31

is where I'm, you know where I

7:33

am right now. distance and speed and

7:36

whatnot. And now the long process of

7:38

getting all of that data that it

7:40

collected from the flyby is going to

7:42

begin. They don't expect to start getting

7:45

it until like the end of the

7:47

month of January as we're recording this

7:49

2025, but a smashing success for something

7:51

that we've never done before. And at

7:54

its top flyby speed of 430 miles.

7:56

if it it took

7:58

a straight line home, which it

8:00

it wouldn't because

8:03

it would take take a

8:05

long chunk of a spiral. But

8:07

if it did, it would reach earth

8:09

in nine days at that speed. at

8:11

days. That's great. days, about that? great. How

8:13

I even had my calculations checked

8:15

by a real honest to God engineer.

8:17

checked by Real Honest to God Engineer. Yeah, little

8:19

curious and I meant

8:21

to and I See if I could see if

8:23

I it up, but I ran out of time,

8:25

but of time. being that that

8:28

it dipped into the correct?

8:30

correct? Corona, protosphere, corona.

8:32

Well, yeah, the outer, outer layer. Yeah, yeah.

8:34

I mean, that region, I'm trying I mean that

8:36

region, my solar regions to remember my

8:38

the sun's regions because the sun's really

8:40

weird. You know, it's got

8:42

these areas that are hot and then

8:45

then really hot. And And I thought

8:47

the area it was going was had

8:49

hot ambience beyond just the solar just the solar

8:51

radiation part, which means that the

8:53

instrument package behind that shield

8:55

would still be exposed to fairly

8:57

high temperatures. but apparently not. They were hoping were

8:59

hoping that the that that they

9:02

went through kind of kind of that because

9:04

you are right. The Corona actually is really weird.

9:06

And this is one of the the

9:08

were hoping that this mission is

9:10

going to uncover. going to uncover. hard for

9:12

me to take myself seriously with the

9:14

hat while we're talking about the

9:16

news. the hat while we're talking about the news. I'm going to take

9:18

it We're taking seriously because Anthony just wrote,

9:20

we're not gonna get through all

9:22

these stories today. I today. I know of

9:24

your of answers, but you know you know what?

9:26

Well, I mean, we've never done this before.

9:29

This was a historic thing. historic thing. So yes,

9:31

but you're right. One of the Why is it

9:33

hotter than the is the Corona so we should

9:35

let you have your the surface of

9:37

the sun? So we on, you have your we

9:39

got a new rocket coming

9:41

up, got a new rocket 24 years years

9:43

all that stuff, going into that

9:45

factory. Finally, a big thing

9:47

extruded out the back, the back. it's

9:49

the new the new Glenn and it's

9:51

on the pad. the pad. The

9:53

recovery vessel was vessel was dispatched,

9:55

I think, yesterday, right? Jacqueline

9:57

named after after Jeff Bezos. mom.

10:00

It is it is on the well

10:02

that's okay that's the tug but the

10:04

actual platform has a SpaceX worthy goofy

10:06

name that I can't remember I thought

10:08

it was cold I thought it's called

10:10

Jacqueline it says Jacqueline right on the

10:12

top of it they wrote it on

10:14

there you talk about the boat of

10:16

the platform the platform because it I

10:18

saw another name like you know pray

10:21

to Jesus it'll come home or you

10:23

think there's a chance it's the name

10:25

of the booster it's the name of

10:27

the rocket oh Yeah. Oh, that's okay.

10:29

Okay. Well, thank you for that correction.

10:31

Yeah, yeah, that that's what I'm hearing

10:33

at least. So, okay. No, I think

10:35

you're right. We haven't heard much from

10:37

Blue War, Joe. We were talking about

10:39

this while you were, you know, getting

10:41

your dog and the answering the door

10:43

earlier before we started recording the episode.

10:45

I was talking to our fellow discord

10:48

folks about it. But yeah. So this

10:50

is this is the big moment over

10:52

the holiday break. Blue Origin got an

10:54

FAA launch license for their first new

10:56

Glenn rocket. They did a hot fire

10:58

as well of all of all seven

11:00

first stage engines and it went swimmingly

11:02

which which is great you know you

11:04

you want to see that happen and

11:06

I believe they did a hot fire

11:08

of the second stage a few weeks

11:10

prior so It seems like all of

11:12

their ducks are in a row. They

11:14

said all they had to do now

11:17

was encapsulate their blue ring adapter demonstration

11:19

payload because there isn't an actual payload.

11:21

There is not Jeff Bies's car on

11:23

this flight. They want it to be

11:25

taken seriously so they can get qualified

11:27

for military launches later in the year.

11:29

And so it seems like they're really...

11:31

set to go. The FAA license gives

11:33

them several different windows that open on

11:35

January 6th, the Monday. And so that'll

11:37

go through, I'm getting the hook here.

11:39

That'll go through January 12th and we're

11:41

waiting to find out what the actual

11:44

dates going to be. So. By this

11:46

time next week we should be talking

11:48

about an actual launch run. Well, I

11:50

hope so, because it's been an awful

11:52

long time. And I know I whine

11:54

about this continually, so I apologize. But

11:56

when you see the process, the process.

11:58

The progress of SpaceX has made in

12:00

the time that it's been around, which

12:02

is two years less than Blue Origin,

12:04

it's been a real headscratcher to watch

12:06

New Shepherd launch and then launch some

12:08

more and they get grounded and then

12:11

start launching again. But given the scale

12:13

of what they've been working on and

12:15

given the fact that they're actually selling

12:17

their rocket engines to United Launch Alliance

12:19

and a form of a cooperation to

12:21

let them launch first. It was just

12:23

a real head scratch as to what

12:25

took so long, but there we go.

12:27

I think that they, yeah, they, they,

12:29

Blue Origin, just, I don't want to

12:31

interrupt, but they have a very different

12:33

ethos than, uh, than Space, Space, Space,

12:35

uh, is really pushed by Elon to,

12:37

to test it first, and if it

12:40

fails, all right, but, you know. Let's

12:42

learn from it and make sure it

12:44

doesn't fail. Again, a Blue Origin tends

12:46

to do everything behind the scenes and

12:48

then announce something once it's successful. In

12:50

fact, when they did their first ever

12:52

suborbital hop, it didn't even go to

12:54

space. They announced that like a year

12:56

afterward or something, like three months afterwards,

12:58

something crazy like that, because they wanted

13:00

to wait until everything was done and

13:02

they understood what had happened. Now, the

13:04

delay though has been very lengthy. helm

13:07

and then come in so that he

13:09

can spend more attention on it to

13:11

get to this point. So there has

13:13

been a bit of whip cracking I

13:15

think to get things on track so

13:17

that they can get where they need

13:19

to go because this is the vehicle

13:21

that will launch the book of their

13:23

kiper satellites for Amazon and they want

13:25

to have it up there to be

13:27

a competitor for I guess Starship and

13:29

and the Falcons of the world. Yeah,

13:31

it's it's if I recall correctly its

13:33

lifting capacity is somewhere between Falcon heavy

13:36

and Starship, right? It's between Falcon heavy

13:38

and Starship just because Starship's the biggest

13:40

rocket ever built. It does have a

13:42

wider Faring size. I think it's like

13:44

seven meters instead of the normal five

13:46

and and it has it's designed to

13:48

be fully reusable as well if memories

13:50

are so eventually and so you know

13:52

as as opposed to Falcon 9, which

13:54

you throw away the upper stage. They

13:56

eventually want to be able to bring

13:58

that upper stage back, if memory serves.

14:00

I could be wrong about that, though,

14:03

if they've changed their plans. Well, in

14:05

that case, why are we doing this

14:07

podcast if you're not an expert? Well,

14:09

expert. I could be wrong. I remember

14:11

them saying that, but yeah, we'll see.

14:13

Well, and to be fair to both

14:15

of us as writers, they do change

14:17

their tune to toned on these new

14:19

companies. Not just this rocket but news

14:21

coming out of Blue Origin because for

14:23

a long time it's been getting news

14:25

out of North Korea and that's difficult

14:27

too. All right so Elon announces on

14:30

Twitter slash X that they're working on

14:32

the last crew dragon or dragon capsule

14:34

it might not have been crew dragon

14:36

it might have been cargo at Hawthorne

14:38

California before they move everything to Texas.

14:40

I didn't see this tweet. When did

14:42

he tweet this out? check the date

14:44

but I saw it yesterday so it

14:46

was probably the day before. The story's

14:48

been up for a while which is

14:50

why I put that note in there

14:52

for you which is that we knew

14:54

they were moving to Hawthorne and I

14:56

guess he just wanted to rub it

14:59

in a little bit to us Californians

15:01

who will be losing every trace of

15:03

SpaceX. I was really surprised to hear

15:05

that because when they said they were

15:07

moving to Texas I found it really

15:09

hard to believe that they would puts

15:11

that word untrenchify, decamp, decamp the whole

15:13

manufacturing apparatus. I don't know what you

15:15

call it. Yeah, yeah, because I thought,

15:17

you know, the full manufacturing apparatus out

15:19

of Hawthorne. Because Hawthorne's a big operation,

15:21

it's huge. Yeah, yeah. And, and, uh,

15:23

and, you know, as far as I

15:26

know, that was where they were building

15:28

everything, you know, and cranking everything out.

15:30

Now, if they moved the route, not

15:32

Starship. Yeah, if they move the Raptor

15:34

engine out to Starbase, then that would

15:36

explain a lot because they're building like,

15:38

they want to build I think one

15:40

of those an hour is what they

15:42

said, I think back in November. Yeah,

15:44

so. It's something something crazy

15:46

like that. if if

15:48

he's going to

15:50

relocate everything to Starbase,

15:53

let's just tap

15:55

them on the shoulder

15:57

on the can't keep

15:59

using those big he can't

16:01

keep tents those they

16:03

get tents because they they

16:05

don't have those there. Oh,

16:07

they don't have those they They

16:09

have, they buildings all buildings and

16:11

like four like four

16:13

and all of that

16:15

stuff there. stuff but

16:17

there. Yeah, but the main

16:19

fabrication plants still

16:22

those big, still those big like...

16:24

What's the name name of the company? General

16:26

or they have they have they really low low

16:28

like structures structures there now. were these big aviation

16:30

tents when I was there but that

16:32

was 2019 that they actually have a

16:34

lot of physical have a structures structures there. Because

16:37

you get to to those things. All

16:39

right, last story, and this is

16:41

a this is a quickie We saw saw the Mars

16:43

the Mars once again at the again at

16:45

the year. this year. this? Did you

16:47

see this? Did you go to

16:49

the Rose Parade unless I it's what it takes me

16:51

10 minutes get minutes to get up

16:53

there, you No, I No, I I lot

16:55

as a young person and to

16:57

do it over and over, especially

16:59

if you spend the night out

17:01

there out enough. But this was

17:03

the float for Ridge Lockeniana from I'm correct? Yeah,

17:05

is from is at Robert Perlman He's the

17:07

one that found this story. He's

17:10

but you know, we always

17:12

look for, actually, I miss

17:14

this flow. I actually, fun

17:16

fact, I have marched in

17:18

the actually, I miss this flow. I actually, fun

17:20

fact, I Bowl in 1996 Parade before.

17:22

you had to wait USC went to

17:24

My high school in in the on

17:26

January 1st. Well, you had to wait till university, my high

17:28

school band they have a float

17:31

that has the, the perseverance on

17:33

it, or a semblance of of it,

17:35

with flowers and seeds. and and

17:37

all astronaut stuff. And an astronaut And an astronaut looks

17:39

like he's about ready to fall off like

17:41

he's about ready real drone a real from the front

17:43

and then coming back and flying for

17:45

the front and coming back. Now, the interesting

17:47

thing about the front and flying for the really want

17:49

to be in the first half mile thing

17:51

it starts the west end of town want

17:53

to by the time you get to where it

17:55

starts in the the floats are broken and being

17:57

towed by tow trucks all the to get to

17:59

midtown, on position because they don't work anymore.

18:02

But you know when you're building something

18:04

out of wire frame and chicken wire

18:06

and covering it with seeds and flowers

18:08

and all that stuff they do, I

18:10

mean it's an amazing effort and fee

18:12

and every time I go to a

18:14

regular parade it's like oh these floats

18:16

are just like painted they don't have

18:18

flowers on them so if they're disturbing.

18:20

Anyway, yeah, so that was cool. And

18:22

they are, I believe, up through the

18:24

end of today, these floats are still

18:26

viewable at the east end of Pasadena

18:28

if you go over and pay some

18:30

probably quite a massive fee to go

18:32

see them. You can walk around and

18:34

stare at them inert. Yeah, there were

18:36

two space floats this year, which is

18:38

really cool. There was this one and

18:40

there was another one with a little

18:42

astronaut guy on it. A little rocket

18:44

guy was really fun. So. All right,

18:46

well, let's go to a quick ad

18:48

break. Our listeners some relief and we'll

18:50

be right back, so don't go anywhere.

18:52

If you have a locked AT and

18:54

T phone, we're here with bolt cutters.

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is hard. But I'll tell you

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20:01

it's 2025 in space and we

20:03

have our resident space expert, Tark Malek

20:05

here, without his hat. I took the

20:07

hat off, yes. You did. But you

20:10

still look devilishly handsome. So talk about

20:12

it. So God bless moms. Because mom's

20:14

because they like us no matter what

20:16

dumb thing we do, right? Let's start

20:18

with Starship, since that's a big story.

20:20

We'll be talking about this in more

20:23

depth next week, I think. Very appropriate.

20:25

I got Starship News that just happened

20:27

before we set to record today, too.

20:29

Well, go for it, Mr. Well, yeah.

20:31

So, actually, we just ran a story

20:33

at Space, and you might have seen

20:36

other folks talking about it, too, about

20:38

2025 being the year of Starship. I

20:40

think that what you flagged here is

20:42

that SpaceX currently has an FAA launch

20:44

license to fly, maybe. 25 stock ship

20:46

launches. Is it has the license been

20:49

granted or is it out for public

20:51

comment because I don't think it's actually

20:53

been I think I think that I

20:55

thought that it was fine like there

20:57

I think that they have like a

20:59

license to fly the same type of

21:02

mission. Like basically as long as they

21:04

don't make any changes and so like

21:06

the the flight six and flight five.

21:08

test flights that we saw in October

21:10

and November were very very similar in

21:12

what their profile is which means you

21:15

know they're gonna try to do for

21:17

cats but they may land offshore they're

21:19

gonna you know splash the Starship down

21:21

in the Indian Ocean and and because

21:23

they're the same they can use the

21:25

same license that's good for five years

21:28

as long as they can get the

21:30

you know the sign-off schedule excuse me

21:32

but at least one outlet reported that

21:34

they were angling to also get a

21:36

license to land the ship upper stage

21:38

yes and we're gonna talk about that

21:41

Yeah, okay, because you're catching the big

21:43

one of the Mexila. They're going to

21:45

catch the upper stage with the second

21:47

pad with the second pad or with

21:49

the original pad after leaving the upper

21:51

stage up there. So here's the big

21:53

news, right? So the big thing for

21:56

Starship. is that SpaceX wants to launch

21:58

a lot of them. They launched like

22:00

three last year. They launched one the

22:02

year before. They want to launch up

22:04

to 25 this year if they can,

22:06

like as you say, get through all

22:09

of those FAA hurdles. Trump's going to

22:11

be president. Elon Musk is going to

22:13

be this whatever efficiency driver. So I

22:15

think they're going to get whatever they're

22:17

going to get for that. So the

22:19

big issue is that of course they

22:22

have to start flying and the next

22:24

flight is flight seven of Starship. And

22:26

just before you and I sat down,

22:28

in fact I was having lunch today

22:30

as we were getting ready for it,

22:32

Space Six basically dropped the entire profile

22:35

and plan for Flight Seven. That means

22:37

that they're probably like a few days

22:39

away to a week away. from planning

22:41

the flight itself. And I've heard some

22:43

days like January 10th or 11th, like

22:45

thrown about, which would be next Friday,

22:48

last Saturday, as we're recording this. And

22:50

this is gonna be a brand new

22:52

ship. So you're saying that you're hearing

22:54

about them wanting to land the ship,

22:56

at Star Base facility. Well, they're flying

22:58

prototype, like they're like, they're like a

23:01

strut things, like that they would catch.

23:03

the catch a little thing. Yeah, catch

23:05

points on the spacecraft. They're not flight

23:07

worthy. Like they're not designed to actually

23:09

catch the vehicle. They're going to see

23:11

what the heating environment is on reentry

23:14

to see how strong they have to

23:16

make them. So we know that they're

23:18

going to want to catch this thing,

23:20

which is interesting, because you think, because

23:22

they're experts at vertical end and they

23:24

want to land it, but no, they're

23:27

going to do that. They've moved the

23:29

flaps. They've made all these upgrades. enhance

23:31

how long the ship itself can stay

23:33

up. It's got a new heat shield

23:35

with a backup layer beneath that heat

23:37

shield. A lot of things and, and

23:40

this is what I think is the

23:42

most exciting, they're going to deploy a

23:44

set of like, like, what are they,

23:46

what is that called? It's like a,

23:48

it's like a. simulated Starlink satellites.

23:50

They're going to deploy

23:53

satellites, which means

23:55

they're going to start

23:57

spitting them out

23:59

with that start spitting them out

24:01

with that PES dispenser thing that they

24:03

need. So is going

24:06

to carry a load

24:08

of of It's going

24:10

to carry a

24:12

load of It's going to

24:14

carry a load of Starlings? It's going they're not going

24:16

to keep them in space, a they're going

24:18

to spit them out with this Pesda

24:21

Spencer thing they've got, and then they're

24:23

going to fly a similar trajectory behind

24:25

the main and then means that the to

24:27

to a to land in the the ocean and softland

24:29

whereas these things will burn up on

24:31

the way back down, kind of on

24:33

the way down behind it. on the way down behind

24:36

it. calling this like a new version. like

24:38

a new know, they like the current know like like

24:40

the is crew crew dragon is initially called. This

24:42

is like initially called this is a new variant

24:44

of it variant of they're hoping is going

24:46

to be. hoping is going to

24:48

be either major step forward if not like

24:50

the big definitive vehicle for the for the

24:52

for the next few for the for the for the next

24:54

few Anthony, look, it's not even

24:57

the half hour yet and

24:59

we're through two of our two of

25:01

our 25 we go. There we

25:03

go. Look at us. go. All

25:05

right. Let's right, over over New I

25:07

already talked about that. Yeah. talked

25:09

And this isn't really a And

25:11

story, but it will take place

25:13

during will 26, 27, which is

25:15

27, which is has announced not that

25:17

they're working on on for their

25:19

for their crude lunar mission, but that

25:21

they're ready. Really. Really.

25:23

which should be sending shockwaves

25:25

through the halls government government hill. They

25:27

did show off like a lot

25:29

of hardware at the the end

25:31

of 2024. The guy in in charge said

25:33

this stuff's ready, which may have

25:35

have been, know, know, that may

25:37

be a bit of a rounding

25:40

up of a statement, of a statement,

25:42

but know, so to

25:44

backtrack for a for a second,

25:46

we just finished an an for

25:48

for magazine, which will soon be

25:50

in your online magazine. online magazine.

25:52

Myself and Monovay of my key writers

25:54

named John Cross about why getting back

25:56

to the moon first matters. and

25:58

And that's a debate. You know,

26:00

you can say that matters, you can

26:02

say that it doesn't, this op-ed kind

26:05

of straddles the line of it matters

26:07

scientifically, and it matters for geopolitics, but

26:09

it also matters for how we look

26:11

at ourselves, because, you know, I'm old

26:14

enough to remember, the space race the

26:16

first time around, not old enough to

26:18

remember Sputnik, but certainly old enough to

26:20

remember the fact that the United States

26:23

got poked in the backside and decided,

26:25

hey, we want to get to the

26:27

moon because the Russians would beat us

26:29

and everything beat us and everything else

26:32

and everything else. That was back in

26:34

the 1960s. Now, many people perceive the

26:36

same kind of race, quote unquote, going

26:38

on with China. It's a very different

26:41

thing. But depending on how you look

26:43

at it, the geopolitics are not dissimilar.

26:45

And I think part of what John

26:47

was really going for in this op-ed

26:50

was just how we look on ourselves.

26:52

We like to be first in everything.

26:54

We really aren't anymore, depending on what

26:56

part of our global endeavor you're looking

26:58

at. But that's okay. You know, you

27:01

know, there's room to share room to

27:03

share. But the moon's kind of a

27:05

big deal and there are concerns about

27:07

what might happen if a less Western

27:10

aligned nation got there first and said,

27:12

okay, this is an exclusion zone, you

27:14

go land at the equator. And that's

27:16

really the big thing people are worried

27:19

about. So yeah, I think what you're

27:21

what you're dancing around is the big

27:23

question is, does the, does the treaty.

27:25

for outer space hold up if someone

27:28

is actually living on that other planet.

27:30

We've never tested that. So that's what

27:32

we're wondering how that's going to play.

27:34

Well, living or even if there's just

27:37

a robotic base setup that's in operations,

27:39

extracting resources, can somebody then use that

27:41

as logic to try and twist an

27:43

argument of, well, I know what the

27:46

outer space treaty says, but we all

27:48

know the outer space treaty which was

27:50

signed in 1967 by the then flying

27:52

space for our nations. is kind of

27:55

thin. You know, it's not as specific

27:57

as we'd like. The US has tried

27:59

to sort of augment that argument. politically

28:01

by saying, well, it is OK to

28:04

take research out of the moon, but

28:06

not everybody's agreed to that. So we've

28:08

got us with the Artemis Accords trying

28:10

to leverage what we want, that we've

28:13

got China and Russia with the International

28:15

Lunar Research Station trying to leverage their

28:17

goals, saying, no, no, we want to

28:19

do science. It's those. I think since

28:22

we're talking about the moon, because like,

28:24

you know, you mentioned that China said

28:26

that their spacecraft are ready, but like

28:28

a landing by 2028, 2029 is what

28:30

I think is, as you were alluding

28:33

to there, still is pretty far beyond

28:35

2025. What we wanted to see in

28:37

2025 is Artemis II, sent astronauts back

28:39

around the moon in September, and we

28:42

know that that's not happening. I think

28:44

that's one big disappointment. I thought I

28:46

remember somebody telling me that we're going

28:48

to land on 2024. Well, technically, weren't

28:51

we supposed to land in 2020? That

28:53

was like the whole big thing. Don't

28:55

get me started. We've had this discussion

28:57

like so many times, Rod. So, so

29:00

annoyed. Okay, well, let's leave this one

29:02

behind because that's really not a 2025

29:04

story. I just wanted to sort of

29:06

squat on that for a minute. But

29:09

in 2025, we are going to have

29:11

a new NASA administrator that at least

29:13

putatively is. Jared Isaacman so far that's

29:15

been Trump's recommendation so unless he changes

29:18

his mind and we have In the

29:20

video we have a cool picture of

29:22

Jared looking longingly at the stars in

29:24

his cool SpaceX helmet and it's impossible

29:27

not to like this guy Yeah, he's

29:29

a nice guy. I've been looking He's

29:31

very nice. We both met him. I

29:33

think I met him more than you,

29:36

but that's okay and he's he's incredibly

29:38

charitable. He's kind He's great with kids

29:40

for God's sakes. I mean, it's like,

29:42

you know, as I've said before, his

29:45

base Jesus. So if he's in charge,

29:47

how is this different than what we've

29:49

seen with Bill Nelson than people like

29:51

Bryden Stein? Because this is a huge

29:54

step outside. traditional circle of NASA. It

29:56

is. It is. We've seen this type

29:58

of a departure before, right, when you

30:00

got into faster, better, cheaper for NASA

30:02

back in the 90s, right? Oh, Dan

30:05

Golden. Yeah, that was a change at

30:07

that point in time. It was a

30:09

change that left a lot of people

30:11

caught of unhappy. Yeah, and I would

30:14

say after Dan Sean. Sean O'Keefe also

30:16

was a bit of a departure to

30:18

me at least from what I would

30:20

think and then of course they swung

30:23

around a Charlie Bolden and I'm not

30:25

Charlie but Mike Griffin who really I

30:27

think like got the the the the

30:29

shuttle program on track for it's its

30:32

ending and I think that had Mike

30:34

Griffin been given the the paycheck that

30:36

he said that they needed from Congress,

30:38

then he would have gotten us up

30:41

to the moon by 2020, like constellation

30:43

would have done. But anyway, I think

30:45

it's really too early to tell. I

30:47

think that the intention like the good

30:50

intentions are there. I think that the

30:52

passion is clearly there. This is a

30:54

man who, you know, founded, left high

30:56

school to found a payment system that

30:59

has made him a multi-billionaire if you

31:01

can afford more than like one private

31:03

mission. I think about Jared Isaacman every

31:05

day when I check out at the

31:08

counter because I see that shift for

31:10

machine that I waive my credit card

31:12

on and I'm like, well, that's, thank

31:14

you Jared. You know. So, but I

31:17

think we'll have to wait and see.

31:19

Now, of course, later this month is

31:21

the inauguration. That's when Trump will become

31:23

the 47th president. After that, all of

31:26

the nominations are going to flow out,

31:28

and then they all have to be

31:30

approved by Congress. I would expect that

31:32

on paper, there really isn't too much.

31:34

about Isaac Lane, except that he's a

31:37

businessman, you know, he's flown to space,

31:39

he has a good grasp, he's, he's

31:41

overseen a very complex aviation as well

31:43

as business aspects, so we'll have to

31:46

see how that, how that, how that

31:48

plays on Capitol Hill. So, so, you

31:50

know, I would, I would be optimistic

31:52

if, optimistically speaking, I would expect there

31:55

to be a NASA administrator in place

31:57

by June, most likely before, but June

31:59

seems pretty safe to. to not bet

32:01

the chair on I guess if it

32:04

will do that right well and if

32:06

they can I mean this is the

32:08

earliest suggested yeah nominee we've ever seen

32:10

at least in modern times all right

32:13

let's do the exciting thing we're gonna

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33:00

line for $25 per line for $25

33:02

per line for $25 per line for

33:04

$25 per line for $25 per line

33:06

for $25 per line per line for

33:09

$25 per line per line for $25

33:11

per line per line per line per

33:13

$25 per line per line per line

33:15

per line per line per line per

33:18

line per So here's kind

33:20

of a twofer that I'd like you

33:22

to comment on. We've got Trump coming

33:25

in with Elon Musk hearted his ear,

33:27

you know, saying, hey, do this, do

33:29

that. Here's the best way to go

33:32

about things. And there are some that

33:34

have expressed concern about the specter of

33:36

the monopoly of SpaceX, which to be

33:39

fair. It's kind of hard at this

33:41

point anyway for it not become a

33:43

monopoly because they're doing most of the

33:46

work They're getting most of the payloads.

33:48

They're moving faster better and cheaper than

33:50

anybody else to invoke the Dan Golden

33:53

Spirit and You know they've taken over

33:55

half the global launch market at least

33:57

a little bit more I think so

34:00

You know they kind of almost can't

34:03

help sliding into the status of a

34:05

semi monopoly Yeah, but then we have

34:07

blue origin coming up with the new

34:09

Glenn which NASA and others have Confirmed

34:12

that they're going to use and also

34:14

possibly launching their first lunar lander Pathfinder

34:16

this year. We hope the blue moon

34:18

mark one. So how do you see

34:21

that playing out? Well, I think that

34:23

I think that it could really kickstart

34:25

like a much wider market. It does

34:27

depend on if these vehicles are successful

34:30

and if they can fly them at

34:32

the rate that SpaceX flies. I mean,

34:34

as we're speaking, SpaceX is counting down

34:36

to launch their first mission of 2025,

34:39

the Thriya for communication satellite for Space

34:41

42 out in the UAE. This is

34:43

a rocket that they're using that that

34:45

has made, it's making its 20th flight

34:47

and this is a company that just

34:50

finished 134 Falcon flights, just Falcon. flights

34:52

in 2024, right? And so they're looking

34:54

at Starship. So you're talking about Falcon

34:56

9, right? Falcon 9. Yeah. And so

34:59

and they also launched a Falcon Heavy

35:01

or two over the year over the

35:03

year. So I mean, they launched quite

35:05

a bit last month and they were

35:08

the not only like the the smashing

35:10

their own records, they were the leader

35:12

in the world. And in fact, they're

35:14

because of their Starlink flights, they raised

35:17

the global record to its highest ever

35:19

according to a space news analysis that

35:21

came out this week. So I think

35:23

it's really hard to make your mark

35:26

when they've got that rundown. Now they

35:28

will finish at least a nominal Starlink

35:30

constellation at some point in time and

35:32

they will have to ease back on

35:35

that launch rate and just go to

35:37

replacements and whatnot. So that a lot

35:39

of that launch rate is SpaceX. Losing

35:41

money because they're launching their own stuff

35:44

into space and paying for it themselves

35:46

So we have to put that into

35:48

perspective There's a lot of other missions

35:50

out there I think that New Glen

35:52

has at least eight that already They're

35:55

already trying to get qualified for national

35:57

security payloads That's a fast-track type of

35:59

a thing that usually takes a lot

36:01

of time They're thinking ahead on that.

36:04

So I think they're going to chip

36:06

away at it and they're not alone

36:08

rocket lab And I've got it on

36:10

the list for later on but we

36:13

can talk about it now rocket lab

36:15

is going to launch their own kind

36:17

of answer to the Falcon 9 and

36:19

that's their neutron rocket. That's a crazy

36:22

rocket that has put the second stage

36:24

inside the first stage and it's going

36:26

to spit it out like a hippo

36:28

mouth when it gets up to altitude.

36:31

Now I'm really excited about that one

36:33

because it has a hippo mouth I

36:35

think that's amazing. So I don't think

36:37

I don't think I don't think I

36:40

don't think that SpaceX has a monopoly

36:42

It's just like they're the ones that

36:44

have all the stuff to launch as

36:46

much if you take away all of

36:48

the star-length missions and there are many

36:51

dozens upon dozens You you are left

36:53

with maybe 40 or 50 Like like

36:55

customer flights again They win it because

36:57

they have the success and they can

37:00

sell us but they're not undercutting prices

37:02

yet because they have to recoup everything

37:04

that they put into the Falcon 9

37:06

to make it reusable. And I think

37:09

they're still doing that if memory serves.

37:11

So Elon Musk has said I think

37:13

in recent years. that they're not going

37:15

to do it for at least five

37:18

years or so on Twitter that until

37:20

they can get get get that sorted

37:22

so so this is this gives them

37:24

some breathing room because eventually they'll stop

37:27

launching as much because of the starling

37:29

stuff and and then the customers like

37:31

one web like uh... cliper which is

37:33

going to be flying on which is

37:36

Amazon's own constellation broadband yeah so is

37:38

one web still a business I thought

37:40

so. They just actually recovered one of

37:42

their satellites. It got, they lost communications

37:45

with it for two days. So, what

37:47

you don't really want in a mega

37:49

constellation generation. So, but they were able

37:51

to get it back. All right. Boy,

37:53

there's a lot of juicy stories here,

37:56

but we just got to talk about

37:58

this one. So we got a shotgun

38:00

through them. You know, the bar sample

38:02

return is next. Let's talk about that.

38:05

You, of all people, we have to

38:07

shotgun through them. Let me give you

38:09

an answer. It's a sentence 10 minutes

38:11

long. I'll do my best. Mars Sample

38:14

Return. So just a bit of backstory,

38:16

as the listeners, regular listeners, we'll know.

38:18

Mars Sample Return has been going on

38:20

for years trying to develop this thing.

38:23

It got hung up. I mean, actually

38:25

it's been a development since the 70s

38:27

and one where another, both here and

38:29

in the Soviet Union, but started seriously

38:32

about a decade ago. Okay, we're going

38:34

to go. We're going to take samples

38:36

of perseverance. We're going to drop them

38:38

in certain places and keep some on

38:41

the rover, and then we'll go collect

38:43

them and bring them home. Record scratch.

38:45

They set in a memo to NASA

38:47

upon NASA's headquarters request saying, how much

38:50

is going to cost? They said, well,

38:52

between 6.5 and 11 billion, which the

38:54

NASA administrator decided to announce a press

38:56

conference, well I'm looking at that as

38:58

11 billion and that's too much so

39:01

hey private industry step up and save

39:03

this mission. So so far to my

39:05

knowledge that hasn't happened, then the Chinese

39:07

say hey you know we've been doing

39:10

really well on the moon and we've

39:12

done pretty well on Mars and we

39:14

think we're going to be able to

39:16

a sample return by 2027. So we

39:19

got to make a decision this year

39:21

whether we're going to continue with Mars

39:23

sample return as the possible runner-up in

39:25

2030. X somewhere in there or if

39:28

we just like handed away. That decision

39:30

is going to come sooner than you

39:32

would think. Basically, Bill Nelson just at

39:34

the close of 2024 said that they

39:37

are looking to refine their plan for

39:39

Mark's Apple return before the next administration

39:41

takes charge. That means sometime this month

39:43

in the next couple of weeks before

39:46

January 20th or whatever when the inauguration

39:48

is. NASA should be releasing some sort

39:50

of new updated plan. Like inconceivable when

39:52

you see how they did sample return

39:55

for the moon, they launched an orbiter,

39:57

a return vehicle, and a lander that

39:59

had its own return vehicle that they

40:01

landed, they scoop some dirt, they put

40:03

it in the sample container, it launched

40:06

off. very very tight very quick very

40:08

succinct the current Mars sample return plan

40:10

as it is at NASA is hey

40:12

we sent a big rover there it

40:15

collected a dozen samples it dropped a

40:17

bunch of them in a big pile

40:19

you know and and it also has

40:21

other ones on it so then we

40:24

can go and scoop those ones up

40:26

maybe we'll use a helicopter no we're

40:28

not going to use a helicopter now

40:30

you know we'll maybe we'll send two

40:33

rovers no we'll just send one rover

40:35

it's very complicated you know you could

40:37

just say we're going to land and

40:39

scoop some dirt and then come back.

40:42

You know, and I think that's the

40:44

decision that they're looking to make, because

40:46

that stuff is still there. They could

40:48

always go back and go get it.

40:51

Eventually. I don't know. I don't know.

40:53

But that's what we're, we expect to

40:55

get a refined update within the next

40:57

few weeks, perhaps, in the next week.

41:00

So China basically grabs a contingency, the

41:02

equivalent of an Apollo contingency sample comes

41:04

back. Contingency sample is when Neil Armstrong

41:06

got down the ladder, was looking around

41:08

going, wow, this is cool here, NASA's

41:11

going, Neil, get the contingency sample. Which

41:13

is basically, look, just grab something in

41:15

case you have to come home right

41:17

away, at least you make it worthwhile.

41:20

We got some dirt. Put it in

41:22

the baggie, put it in your pocket,

41:24

right? And you know, yeah, and I'm

41:26

simplifying it. I mean, China's sample was

41:29

better than that. But again, NASA makes

41:31

these big complicated multi-stage plans, which, I

41:33

mean, they're good for science, but to

41:35

have this rover driving around for five

41:38

years now. And when it was launched,

41:40

we didn't even have approval for a

41:42

budget for Mars sample return. It was

41:44

still kind of in head-scratching state, at

41:47

least in the halls of government. And

41:49

last time I saw at JPL, what

41:51

was that, 2017 maybe, I was doing

41:53

a write-up on the lab that was

41:56

working on the six degrees of freedom

41:58

arm that they would have to have

42:00

for the fetch rover before they were

42:02

going to use a helicopter, which would

42:04

land on the Marsam. or turn craft,

42:07

drive over to perseverance, have this very

42:09

involved multi-axis arm that would be able

42:11

to extract the samples because that's very

42:13

hard to do, and also be able

42:16

to drive if necessary over to wherever

42:18

the samples that have been dropped had

42:20

been dropped, pick them up, which means

42:22

being able to reach under rock overhangs

42:25

and around boulders and that kind of

42:27

thing. So. I don't want to say

42:29

it wasn't well thought out because there

42:31

are a lot of very smart people

42:34

working on it. Yeah, but it was

42:36

so complicated. And they know those samples,

42:38

those samples, they know, those dozen, whatever,

42:40

they know exactly what's in them, they

42:43

know where they got it from, and

42:45

they're very varied, they got maybe more

42:47

than they would have just landed in

42:49

one spot. You know, they should do,

42:52

just build a reverse sky crane and

42:54

they'll go catch it. Just bring the

42:56

whole, the whole rover back over over

42:58

over back, you know, you know, you

43:01

know, you know, but that includes what

43:03

do they call the ones they have

43:05

like ground truth samples that they bring

43:07

from earth there's a phrase for those

43:09

I can't remember but basically it's like

43:12

okay you know here's earth air let's

43:14

make sure that that it's compared to

43:16

this and so forth so anyway yeah

43:18

so that's frustrating and we're probably gonna

43:21

lose that one but that's okay you

43:23

know it's good for science no matter

43:25

who brings it back and of course

43:27

there is the conversation on the side

43:30

from Mr. about, well, why would you

43:32

do all that when I can send

43:34

an entire spacecraft the size of a

43:36

big rig to Mars and you could

43:39

lower a robot out of that? Because

43:41

he's building robots too, right? So he

43:43

could lower a robot out of that

43:45

cargo hold by rope if he had

43:48

to have it stomp around and pick

43:50

up some samples and stick it in

43:52

its mouth and bring them back. I

43:54

think make that a contest, make that

43:57

a commercial challenge, who gets there first

43:59

to get those samples back, you'll get

44:01

something, you'll get some ideas, right? You'll

44:03

get something. Yeah, and disturbingly, and I

44:06

just want to extend the story very

44:08

quickly. So we've seen what probably is

44:10

the demise of Mars sample return in

44:12

this decade, along with the really aggravating

44:14

devise of the Viper lunar rover, which

44:17

is supposed to land in the South

44:19

Pole this year, and go collect samples

44:21

of resources, or at least try and

44:23

prospect resources, see if they're there, for

44:26

volatoles like water and so forth. And,

44:28

you know, the headscratcher, as we've talked

44:30

about, is it was finished, it was

44:32

tested. Everything seems to be going right

44:35

and then it gets canceled because it's

44:37

going to do a budget overrun Well,

44:39

hello how many NASA pro big programs

44:41

have had budget overruns We have new

44:44

rules that it can only be what

44:46

33% or something But come on guys

44:48

you built the thing they do a

44:50

press another late Friday afternoon press conference

44:53

saying yeah, it's working really well, but

44:55

we're going to cancel it and take

44:57

it apart and give the pieces to

44:59

all comers who want to send them

45:02

on commercial flights what what? Yep So

45:04

far not a lot of takers on

45:06

that either. So we'll have to wait

45:08

and see how that goes. Well, and

45:11

I wrote somebody who's kind of an

45:13

insider about this. And he was saying,

45:15

you know, it just didn't have a

45:17

lot of, which I found interesting, that

45:19

he said anyway, it didn't have a

45:22

lot of support within NASA because it

45:24

didn't really align well with the Artemis

45:26

goals, which I don't completely understand. But,

45:28

you know. Whatever. Well, speaking of moon

45:31

missions, we should talk about that for

45:33

2025. Or are we going to go

45:35

to a break? What do we want

45:37

to do? Anthony, are we do for

45:40

a break? Oh. He knows

45:42

we're at a point. This is like

45:44

Carol Merrill in an old game show.

45:46

Go, go forth, young Tark. Yeah, so

45:49

you were just talking about Viper and

45:51

that was like a mission that I

45:53

think we all had a lot of

45:55

hopes for 2025 on actually for 2024.

45:57

It was slated to fly by the

46:00

end of 2024. before it kept getting

46:02

delayed and pushed back, yada yada yada.

46:04

By the delivery company, not by the

46:06

by the rover itself. Exactly, exactly, by

46:08

AstroBotic, the builders of the Griffinlander that

46:11

we're supposed to do it. In fact,

46:13

I don't think that they're done yet

46:15

with that. So we're still waiting to

46:17

figure out what's going on there. But

46:19

2025 is going to be a year

46:22

of the moon. of sorts, much like

46:24

what we saw around this early part

46:26

of the year in 2024. We're seeing

46:28

another flurry of commercial and international missions

46:30

to the moon. In fact, this month,

46:33

Firefly is supposed to launch their Blue

46:35

Ghost mission. I think it's launching on

46:37

a SpaceX rocket, if memory service, but

46:39

they're going to launch their Blue Ghost

46:41

Lander to... fly different cots things and

46:44

whatnot there and plus intuitive machines is

46:46

launching their IM2 mission near the South

46:48

Pole 2 and I think they might

46:50

be launching on both I think I

46:52

think Firefly and Jackson's Hakuto are on

46:55

the same one right both flying on

46:57

the same Falcon 9 I think intuitive

46:59

machines under for flight Yeah, and so

47:01

you've got at least three quick missions

47:03

already, and then there's another mission, I

47:06

think, in the background there is a

47:08

Japan's M2 mission to the moon, which

47:10

is going to fly on an epsilon,

47:12

is that right? Or is it an

47:14

H3? I'm not certain which one's flying

47:17

on. But that listen to us, the

47:19

experts, we should just have the listeners

47:21

come on and say, well, I think

47:23

it's going to, the fact that the

47:25

fact that we, that I'm unclear is

47:28

because there's so many new missions, right?

47:30

And so that's the exciting part is

47:32

that while we don't have a viper,

47:34

which I really think, like you were

47:36

saying, it's a tragedy that we're going

47:39

to take this thing that has been

47:41

built and it's ready to go and

47:43

it's ready to say, you know what?

47:45

scrap it because we change our mind

47:47

yeah exactly but but there are these

47:50

other ones that are waiting in the

47:52

wings will they be a hundred percent

47:54

successful experience says no right we saw

47:56

that last year with

47:58

Astrobotic, with a

48:01

few others, a few others, but

48:03

it does seem it does seem

48:05

like is that the momentum is I

48:07

there. And I think that if

48:09

you've got least least one in one

48:11

year, one of them is going

48:13

to succeed at least. And that's

48:15

what we saw. We saw what we saw.

48:17

kind of Jackson's approach type

48:19

approach with their succeed really

48:21

succeed. some striking pictures of what

48:23

a nose plant on the moon

48:25

looks like like with their their lander but but

48:27

it was still able to do

48:29

stuff. So that's pretty cool. pretty cool

48:31

well and and the first intuitive of course, top.

48:34

to course toppled landing legs collapse legs collapse this intuitive

48:36

flight by the way and then

48:38

we'll go to our we'll go to our be

48:40

landing near the South near and Pole

48:42

a mass spectrometer which is a very

48:44

valuable thing when you're looking for looking

48:47

like resources or organics and

48:49

a a meter drill package, which is

48:51

pretty cool. So this is is it's

48:53

a pretty small and light machine. And

48:55

I, as far as I could

48:57

tell tell, it's, it's static. so it's not So

49:00

it's not gonna be driving around and

49:02

drilling. Yeah. I don't know how we assure And

49:04

I don't know how we assure that

49:06

it's inside a permanently which region, which

49:08

is where you want to look

49:10

for these things, but they must have,

49:12

um, navigation sufficient navigation capability to make

49:14

adjustments at the last minute. And I do

49:16

see in the notes here, I wrote

49:18

down. wrote down. It it is carrying some hoppers.

49:21

So while they they going to be able to,

49:23

I I don't think get samples, at

49:25

least they least be able to characterize

49:27

regular with the landing site. site. Okay, let's

49:29

let's go to another break

49:31

because we love these. And we'll be right

49:34

we'll be right back to our our

49:36

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number, and keep more of your

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mullah at T-Mobile.com. So I'm going

50:01

to skip a couple because I want

50:03

to make sure we include this story

50:05

about vast, we've had a required card,

50:07

has no cash access, and expires in

50:10

six months. So I'm going to skip

50:12

a couple because I want to make

50:14

sure we include this story about vast.

50:17

So vast, we've had people vast on

50:19

the show before vast. The CEO? Yes,

50:21

thank you. Vast as a company, another

50:24

comer in the space station area to

50:26

replace and or augment, in this case,

50:28

replace the ISS when it's decommissioned around

50:31

2030. But what's interesting about Vast is

50:33

they're pouring, oh can I say it,

50:35

vast amounts of capital into building their

50:38

haven one space station without one of

50:40

the NASA contracts that companies like Blue

50:42

Origin and Voyager. have received so they're

50:45

getting money those two to design and

50:47

test space station replacement modules vast is

50:49

doing it on their own and they're

50:52

actually apparently gonna be the first to

50:54

launch this year with that's really exciting

50:56

that's really exciting it's kind of amazing

50:59

actually full disclaimer you know as we

51:01

have talked about on the show, my

51:03

sister works at Vast, so I don't

51:06

get insider knowledge from her. I made

51:08

sure that she's really careful about that.

51:10

I know, right? Right? But this is

51:13

really exciting. The Haven one, you know,

51:15

it's basically, they've been, They've been building

51:17

their own module, basically like a free-flying

51:20

module for a station, but they could

51:22

also, if they wanted to attach it

51:24

to something else, something that is potential.

51:27

We heard Max talk about that. But

51:29

it is fully modular too, that they

51:31

could put it together with other things.

51:34

And they did contract with SpaceX to

51:36

launch that, which is why you see

51:38

in a lot of their animations, a

51:41

dragon. vehicle visiting it because you know

51:43

they've got that that relationship in place

51:45

already uh... and i think that this

51:48

would be like a big game changer

51:50

the big open question right now what

51:52

is next For space stations NASA and

51:55

Russia have both committed to an end

51:57

of life of around 2030 But that

51:59

could change for the international space station.

52:02

They're going to burn it up in

52:04

a fiery blaze of glory over the

52:06

Pacific Ocean. What is that point Nemo?

52:09

Isn't that? Yeah, that that that piece

52:11

of nowhere in between landmasses in the

52:13

vast Pacific where we think it's safe

52:16

to crash these things. However, you and

52:18

I are going to get on my

52:20

boat and drive out there so we

52:23

can watch it. So this will be

52:25

that experience where you see the white

52:27

dot in the sky that gets bigger

52:30

and bigger, but doesn't move to the

52:32

side. And then you realize the last

52:34

minute. Oh, that means it's coming right

52:37

at me. It was right when Space

52:39

Space.com was like a little baby and

52:41

I have been told that they chartered

52:44

a plane to chase mirrors reentry and

52:46

they missed it. They didn't see anything.

52:48

That was that was sad. That was

52:51

sad. But let's hope that you and

52:53

I can can get on a jet

52:55

or a boat and watch this thing

52:58

come back and Anyway, we're getting I'm

53:00

getting sidetracked Wow, you're going to include

53:02

me in one of your junkets. How

53:05

nice. That's a first. The big thing

53:07

about Haven though is that if they're

53:09

able to get this up this year

53:12

if they're able to even get a

53:14

crew to it in the next year,

53:16

right? Then that is a viable replacement

53:19

or a destination, an overlapping destination that

53:21

NASA could have access to. They can't

53:23

have access to the Chinese space station

53:26

right now. They don't have those partnerships

53:28

in place. That's the only other destination

53:30

currently. Russia has said they're going to

53:33

build their own thing or maybe they'll

53:35

take like the existing parts of the

53:37

space station and split them off. I

53:40

don't know how that would work. So

53:42

they don't have the power system for

53:44

us. Excuse me, but that would be

53:47

interesting. So they have the power and

53:49

propulsion propulsion propulsion unit. and the life

53:51

support unit, right? Yeah, Zarya and Zuz.

53:54

Those are the primary modules. have a

53:56

bunch of docking compartments. But let's bear

53:58

in mind the one that's having the

54:01

cracking problems right now, which if they're

54:03

going to reuse it they got to

54:05

undock it and probably weld up those

54:08

cracks, was built in 1985. It's much

54:10

older, it's bad enough, the space station's

54:12

25 years old now, closer to 30,

54:15

if you count when pieces are built,

54:17

but the Russian stuff was really old

54:19

and creaky and it was built from

54:22

mere two. So the idea of reusing,

54:24

who has a much, let's say, a

54:26

wider tolerance for hardware, legacy hardware, I'm

54:29

being kind, that's crazy, you know? I

54:31

suspect that they would build something new

54:33

with some sort of... Well, they supposedly

54:36

were, but last I read their space

54:38

budget was down to about 19 cents.

54:40

Yeah, yeah, I don't know. or something.

54:42

But that's why I think this mission

54:45

is really important, to be able to

54:47

have that crossover station, that crossover destination

54:49

is really important to continuing the momentum

54:52

of your space flight program. And it

54:54

might put them in real hot demand,

54:56

right? To have the only new game

54:59

in town, that they might be able

55:01

to tailor to customers for, you know,

55:03

oh, we'll launch this rack up for

55:06

three months for you or whatever, because

55:08

they can deliver it with SpaceX. I

55:10

don't know. Be very interesting. So going

55:13

completely off the ranch here, will it

55:15

be armed? Because the Russians did that

55:17

once, which I thought was remarkable. I

55:20

only read about this, I don't know,

55:22

10 years ago. The almaas slash salute,

55:24

which is one of their earliest space

55:27

stations. One of them was launched with

55:29

a Gatling gun mounted on the end,

55:31

same thing that was used on the

55:34

back of I think their bare propeller

55:36

driven bombers. They fired it too. About

55:38

a thirty three. Well, so they wanted

55:41

to test it and the crew said,

55:43

no, let's do it after we leave.

55:45

And so control says, okay. So those

55:48

guys packed up and left in their

55:50

soil use and then they test fired

55:52

it. And according to calculation. those slugs

55:55

that they fired from that thing, I

55:57

think it was about 30 rounds, have

55:59

probably re-entered by now, but what a

56:02

great way to add more pollution to

56:04

the orbital environment, right? That's right. It's

56:06

like you think if you watch all

56:09

the sci-fi from the expanse when they're

56:11

shooting the point defense systems, all that

56:13

stuff is still out there indeed space,

56:16

just like hurtling out there. Still speeding

56:18

along, right. And this did work, although

56:20

apparently it rattled the station pretty badly,

56:23

but, you know. mounted monolithicly so basically

56:25

you had to reorient the whole station

56:27

to aim the gun yeah so unless

56:30

something large was coming at you very

56:32

slowly it just didn't make any sense

56:34

but you know somebody's got to try

56:37

crazy things so in lack of Elon

56:39

we have the Russians well space force

56:41

turned five last year we didn't talk

56:44

about that that'd be good well okay

56:46

so yeah well it's on here it's

56:48

the last story so why don't you

56:51

that you just aggressively moved at the

56:53

top go for it Spaceforce, Space Force,

56:55

and there was some question, there was

56:58

a story I saw recently, I don't

57:00

think it was one of yours, sorry,

57:02

that was basically saying, hey the public

57:05

wants to know what Space Force has

57:07

been up to, and I think that's

57:09

interesting, what I think is more interesting

57:12

is how much money are they getting,

57:14

because there's the budget we see in

57:16

the budget we don't, but there's a

57:19

lot to be said about Space Force,

57:21

so. Yeah, in fact, the Space Force

57:23

and Patrick, well, the Cape Canal Space

57:26

Force Station in particular, sent out an

57:28

announcement at the end of the year

57:30

to say basically that they have been

57:33

more active than ever before. They had

57:35

more launches from Florida, from the Space

57:37

Coast, that the Space Force oversaw, and

57:40

so they're expecting like a much busier

57:42

in 2025. Excuse me, but same with

57:44

Vandenberg. The same event, yeah, you are

57:47

pretty busy. We see a couple launches

57:49

a week frequently. And most of them

57:51

are SpaceX too. Yeah. So the, the,

57:54

but I think, I think there's two

57:56

kind of open questions. Number one is,

57:58

as we have said, there is a

58:01

new administration coming. it. Trump has actually

58:03

mentioned the space force a few times.

58:05

Remember Trump was the one that started

58:08

the space force in his first term

58:10

as 45th president and he has said

58:12

that that you know space security is

58:15

going to be a bit of a

58:17

focus that he wants to ensure that

58:19

all of the the assets and whatnot

58:22

that we have in space are protected.

58:24

So you could see more investment. come

58:26

through that goal, that discussion as well.

58:29

And then also just the fact that

58:31

we have so much more infrastructure, even

58:33

in the last four years, five, you

58:36

know, six years or so, since Trump

58:38

started the five years, right, since he

58:40

started the space force, you could see

58:43

much more development in that sector too.

58:45

One thing that will be very interesting,

58:47

though, is to find out how space

58:50

command will. be settled out. There's a

58:52

lot of discussion right now. about is

58:54

Space Command staying in Colorado? Are they

58:57

moving to Alabama? That's been heating up

58:59

since the Trump administration was elected, you

59:01

know, or since Trump was elected back

59:04

in November. I'm not sure if that's

59:06

going to pan out, if they are

59:08

going to say that they're going to

59:11

move Space Command out of Colorado to

59:13

Alabama to try to do things. But

59:15

similarly, as we expect some sort of

59:18

reorganization at NASA, because of this efficiency

59:20

push that Elon Musk is going to

59:22

be bringing to the administration with Vivek

59:24

Romasamami, I would expect some sort of

59:27

fine tuning on that score as well,

59:29

right? Where they're going to say, hey,

59:31

stop talking about this, we've got a

59:34

mission to do, or they're going to

59:36

say, yes, we're going to do it,

59:38

and this is why it's more efficient.

59:41

But we'll have to see how that

59:43

pans out. Yeah, and what

59:45

you're kind of driving at in the

59:47

NASA side is the possible consolidation of

59:50

a couple of the field centers and

59:52

the possible closure of the remaining field

59:54

centers left behind The ones I've seen

59:56

on that possible list were Ames, what

59:58

was the other one? Not Goddard. Lewis?

1:00:00

Marshall? No, I think it was Ames

1:00:03

and Lewis. Marshall would be part of

1:00:05

the new space force operation, wouldn't it?

1:00:07

Well, they've got, they've got, was it

1:00:09

Goddard then you're talking about? No, I

1:00:11

don't think it was, I think it

1:00:13

was Lewis and Ames. Yeah, which I

1:00:15

don't know much about Lewis, I've been

1:00:18

to Ames, I've never been to Lewis,

1:00:20

but anyway, I mean, you could expect

1:00:22

NASA and parts of Congress to fight

1:00:24

that to fight that tooth and nail,

1:00:26

but. You know we got a lot

1:00:28

of field centers and these things were

1:00:30

stood up in the 50s and 60s

1:00:33

and it may be that it's more

1:00:35

efficient not to have that many. Let's

1:00:37

take our last ad break and then

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$25 per line for $25 per line

1:01:24

for $25 per line for $25 per

1:01:27

line for $25 per line per line

1:01:29

per line per line per line per

1:01:31

line per line per line per line

1:01:33

per line per line per line per

1:01:35

line per line per line per line

1:01:37

per line per line per line per

1:01:39

line per line per line per line

1:01:42

per line per line per line per

1:01:44

month with with We've got one minute

1:01:46

in the hour to do this, right?

1:01:48

One minute, we'll get it all done.

1:01:50

Hush you. So, so just because it's

1:01:52

got a cool name, tell us about

1:01:54

the European Space Agency's Space Rider. Space

1:01:57

Rider. Yeah, I love that. That's my,

1:01:59

that's my, I want to be the

1:02:01

space writer, right? So, you're a space

1:02:03

writer. a space transportation system. I don't

1:02:05

want to call it a space plane

1:02:07

because it doesn't have like wings and

1:02:09

a tail and all of that stuff.

1:02:12

It's kind of like a lifting body.

1:02:14

But this is really supposed to be

1:02:16

kind of their next generation space vehicle.

1:02:18

that they'd be able to use for

1:02:20

many different things. Things like experiments, orbital

1:02:22

experiments, that it would be autonomous, robotic.

1:02:24

It's about the size of, I think

1:02:27

you have here, two minivans, I think,

1:02:29

and I've been told that the space

1:02:31

shuttle had about as much internal space

1:02:33

as like a minivan, a big minivan.

1:02:35

So that would be some size. You

1:02:37

know, you're talking about this. pressurize space,

1:02:39

pressurize space, pressurize, yes. So this is

1:02:42

not a crude vehicle. No, this is

1:02:44

robotic. And the idea is that they

1:02:46

would launch it on, I think a

1:02:48

Vega rocket is what they have shown.

1:02:50

And they would be able to load

1:02:52

it up with experiments. They would say

1:02:54

up, it could loiter for a bit

1:02:57

with its orbital module, and then it

1:02:59

would reenter, and they could collect everything

1:03:01

back in space. And then that could

1:03:03

be a foundation for using it for

1:03:05

using it for other types of. in

1:03:07

the future. It's been a long road

1:03:09

for this. They did test some prototypes

1:03:12

in the past and they were fairly

1:03:14

successful, but they have seen... It just

1:03:16

seems like we were going to get

1:03:18

this a few years ago, and it

1:03:20

still didn't come back in. But it's

1:03:22

got like payload doors, it can carry

1:03:24

up payloads, it can deploy satellites, it

1:03:27

can bring them back. It'll be very

1:03:29

interesting to see how it comes back.

1:03:31

It looks very similar to Dreamchase, the

1:03:33

Sierra, the Sierra Nevada space systems vehicle,

1:03:35

except that it doesn't have that kind

1:03:37

of twin tail that they've got on

1:03:39

that thing, or the foldable wings. It's

1:03:42

really much a much a lifting body

1:03:44

body body. And capability-wise, although it may

1:03:46

be a little larger, it doesn't look

1:03:48

completely dissimilar from the X-37B, which is

1:03:50

very, the concept is very similar, yeah,

1:03:52

and it's not, it's one that we've

1:03:54

seen proven out, too, right? The X-37B,

1:03:57

built by Boeing, for NASA, and then

1:03:59

given to the space force, you know,

1:04:01

has those wings, it's a very much

1:04:03

mini space shuttle, China's Shen Long. is

1:04:05

a very much influenced copy of that.

1:04:07

I'm not sure how much of it

1:04:09

is home grown or not. But this

1:04:12

This one is fully, like they've been

1:04:14

developing it throughout, well, the time that

1:04:16

I've been here at space.com for a

1:04:18

good long time, and it just seems

1:04:20

like they're finally getting, getting, getting rid

1:04:22

of it. So wait, this thing comes

1:04:25

back by parachute? It has a parafoil,

1:04:27

yeah. Huh, as a lifting body, I

1:04:29

assumed it would just land like all

1:04:31

the other lifting bodies that have been

1:04:33

tested, okay? Yeah. So it's very interesting,

1:04:35

Rod is referring to our animation that

1:04:37

is playing. on the video. All on

1:04:40

the video which you should be watching

1:04:42

if you're watching this show or listing

1:04:44

the show. All right let's jump because

1:04:46

we're getting cramped here. Make sure we

1:04:48

get to China. They've got an asteroid

1:04:50

sample return mission coming. Tianwen too. It's

1:04:52

a very interesting mission because it's gonna.

1:04:55

It's going to launch to a near-earth

1:04:57

asteroid, like one of the ones that

1:04:59

kind of accompanies us in our orbit,

1:05:01

collects some samples, and send those back

1:05:03

to Earth. And then it's going to

1:05:05

go off to the belt, to the

1:05:07

main belt, to look at some other

1:05:10

asteroids too, which is a very ambitious

1:05:12

mission. And if they're able to get

1:05:14

all of that off, even the asteroid

1:05:16

sample return at first for them, that

1:05:18

would be a big one. And Tion

1:05:20

Wen is the family of planetary missions.

1:05:22

So Tion 1. sequel to that. So

1:05:25

that'll be really interesting to see if

1:05:27

they can get all of the asteroid

1:05:29

goals put together for that because of

1:05:31

the fact that they're not just going

1:05:33

to visit one asteroid, they're going to

1:05:35

visit one, land there for some time,

1:05:37

collect the samples, return those, and then

1:05:40

the primary vehicle, yeah, the target is

1:05:42

called, I'm going to say this wrong.

1:05:44

Kamo Alawaya, I think is the name

1:05:46

of it. And once they get that

1:05:48

back, then they're going to go out

1:05:50

to the main belt to look at

1:05:52

some other targets. I think it's a

1:05:55

comet. They're going to go see comet

1:05:57

311P 10 stars. But they won't get

1:05:59

there until the 2030s or so. So

1:06:01

they've got two big ambitious checkmarks for

1:06:03

this one. That's pretty neat. Yeah, that's

1:06:05

pretty exciting. And also. So incredibly unique

1:06:07

and I really want to make sure

1:06:10

we get this one in because it's

1:06:12

just so wild. Private companies have talked

1:06:14

about planetary robotic missions before but appears

1:06:16

that rocket lab will be the first

1:06:18

to do it. And I just have

1:06:20

to say, I know a very small

1:06:22

handful of billionaires. I don't know them

1:06:25

well. I'm dying to ask them all,

1:06:27

especially the ones that have many billions.

1:06:29

Why don't you just have your own

1:06:31

space program? Put us out of our

1:06:33

misery watching NASA cancel Viper and all

1:06:35

that. You could afford to do it

1:06:37

yourself. I would, but that's why I'm

1:06:40

not rich because I spend my money

1:06:42

foolishly. So Rocket Labs talking about a

1:06:44

Venus lifefinder mission. That's very cool. Yeah,

1:06:46

this is a mission that Rocket Lab

1:06:48

CEO and founder Peter Beck announced a

1:06:50

few years back when they also announced

1:06:52

that they had their free flying. kind

1:06:55

of a vehicle like a bus to

1:06:57

carry these types of things on and

1:06:59

Venus Lifefinder is a mission that they're

1:07:01

teaming up with with MIT I believe

1:07:03

too but he Peter Beck I remember

1:07:05

saying that he thought Venus was cool

1:07:07

that's why he wanted to go there

1:07:10

and I think so too I agree.

1:07:12

No well you know you wouldn't want

1:07:14

to live there but it'd be a

1:07:16

nice place to visit right and and

1:07:18

Venus Lifefinder is one of those missions

1:07:20

where it's it's it's it's fairly interesting

1:07:22

because it's a dedicated mission to go

1:07:25

to go to Venus to look for

1:07:27

like look through its atmosphere its clouds

1:07:29

for for you know signs of ingredients

1:07:31

that would be necessary for life it

1:07:33

would drop a probe into the venous

1:07:35

atmosphere to scan for organic molecules which

1:07:37

is you know an ingredient that we

1:07:40

that we we it's that we expect

1:07:42

like life would need and it would

1:07:44

test a lot of other things we

1:07:46

haven't done that we haven't gone to

1:07:48

the other lander just to be clear

1:07:50

no no it's it's like a it's

1:07:52

gonna drop like a like a probe

1:07:55

into the atmosphere itself so i think

1:07:57

they should bring back a sample but

1:07:59

that's just that's just me you know

1:08:01

But the surface is a really horrible

1:08:03

place. It's so much worse than just

1:08:05

dipping in the, I mean, there are

1:08:07

parts of the atmosphere as we've discussed

1:08:10

the past with the whole idea of

1:08:12

Venus settlements, quote unquote, meaning floating cities

1:08:14

or floating compounds. There are parts of

1:08:16

the atmosphere at certain altitudes that are

1:08:18

actually very much like Earth except for

1:08:20

the fact the atmosphere is toxic. But

1:08:22

in terms of atmospheric pressure, temperature and

1:08:25

all that, if you can float. in

1:08:27

the upper cloud layer, you can actually

1:08:29

hang out there. That's pretty cool. The

1:08:31

surface is nasty, Bill. Yeah, and Rocket

1:08:33

Lab built this photon vehicle to be

1:08:35

kind of an all-purpose, like, tugged, so

1:08:37

they could be... it could carry payloads

1:08:40

out beyond your low-width orbit, it could

1:08:42

be used as a kick stage and

1:08:44

whatnot, that's what would carry this payload

1:08:46

to Venus itself, and it would be

1:08:48

fairly light, 45 pounds, I mean very

1:08:50

small type of a thing, but the,

1:08:52

and a 10 million dollars at that,

1:08:55

a steel, right, when you come to

1:08:57

interplanetary dams. So, you know, Da Vinci

1:08:59

and Veritas were two NASA missions that

1:09:01

are kind of on... troubled water as

1:09:03

if not outright gone, that were each

1:09:05

going to be like a half a

1:09:07

billion dollars. And so we'll have to

1:09:10

see about the success of this, but

1:09:12

it could, I mean, we were talking

1:09:14

about private space programs. If it's that

1:09:16

affordable and they've got the backers for

1:09:18

it, it might make it a lot

1:09:20

easier for different types of this. They

1:09:22

have a universal bus, launch it to

1:09:25

the moon, launch it to Mars, that

1:09:27

that kind of a thing that you

1:09:29

could see. We should do a. story

1:09:31

about how Elon Musk is an episode

1:09:33

about how Elon Musk has turned into

1:09:35

Dan Randolph from the Ben Boba books

1:09:37

because of the fact that he's built

1:09:40

his own reusable rocket program out of

1:09:42

a South Padre Island. I think that's

1:09:44

a key point there. But stepping back

1:09:46

to your point about the affordability of

1:09:48

this, if this works, and of course,

1:09:50

you know, you're using off-the-shelf components, they're

1:09:52

not paying half a million dollars for

1:09:55

a single outdated processor chip and all

1:09:57

that, like you do if you're buying

1:09:59

the flight-rated stuff, if that works. It

1:10:01

could really change the way JPL does

1:10:03

business too. Say, okay, just, you know,

1:10:05

take the Russian approach, throw five of

1:10:07

them at the planet instead of just

1:10:10

one, and let's hope that it works.

1:10:12

All right, this is your chance for

1:10:14

the big wrap-up story. I have one

1:10:16

last one. I mean, like, there's a

1:10:18

few others that we had, we had

1:10:20

hoped to talk about, you know, East

1:10:22

Europe's juice, juice mission is going to

1:10:25

do some Venus fly-byes, the Lucy mission

1:10:27

is going to, is going to, you

1:10:29

know, you know, you know, you know,

1:10:31

you know, keep going to keep going

1:10:33

to keep going to keep going to

1:10:35

keep going to keep going to keep

1:10:38

going, and I think that, and I

1:10:40

think that, and I think that What's

1:10:42

the one we just launched at Europa?

1:10:44

The Europa Clipper is going to do

1:10:46

a Venus fly, a Mars fly by

1:10:48

later this year. Those are ones to

1:10:50

watch. But there is a new mission

1:10:53

from Japan Destiny Plus that I wanted

1:10:55

to flag just because I think it's

1:10:57

really, really cool. They are going to

1:10:59

launch a spacecraft to asteroid 3200 Faithon.

1:11:01

Faithon? Is that might be not in

1:11:03

that right? Faithon. And the reason I

1:11:05

think it's cool is because Faithon is

1:11:08

the source of... the geminant meteor shower

1:11:10

one of the most prolific meteor showers

1:11:12

of every year and it's a weird

1:11:14

asteroid that kind of off gases and

1:11:16

we've talked about in the past some

1:11:18

people used to think it was a

1:11:20

comment now they know it's an asteroid

1:11:23

yadi yada but this is their their

1:11:25

mission and and I just think that

1:11:27

if there is ever a mission that

1:11:29

has really stretched the use of an

1:11:31

acronym It is this one. Right? Because

1:11:33

space people like their acronyms. But man,

1:11:35

so this is called Destiny Plus with

1:11:38

a plus sign. And that stands for

1:11:40

demonstration and experiment of space technology. So

1:11:42

that's the desk part. For interplanetary, that's

1:11:44

the in voyage. The Y is the

1:11:46

Y in the middle of the word.

1:11:48

with faith on flyby the L and

1:11:50

flyby is as capitalized for I don't

1:11:53

know why and dust oh this is

1:11:55

the plus so faith on is the

1:11:57

P the L and flyby is that

1:11:59

is the L and dust the U

1:12:01

and dust is the is the U

1:12:03

and the U and then science so

1:12:05

this is what we call tortured acrony

1:12:08

really really went for it you know

1:12:10

but hey hey and it's in because

1:12:12

they're going to use ion engines to

1:12:14

basically launch it into orbit, increase that

1:12:16

orbit over time until it does a

1:12:18

moon fly by, and then flings itself

1:12:20

out into deep space to get some

1:12:23

favorite. And that'll be really, really cool

1:12:25

to see if they can make that

1:12:27

work. And then what, Phaithon's going to

1:12:29

look like up close. And they're going

1:12:31

to use their epsilon solid rocket too,

1:12:33

which is cool to launch it. I

1:12:35

mean, it's just a lot of weird

1:12:38

things about this mission that I really

1:12:40

hope go well, because... I don't know,

1:12:42

like the Faith Fund is an interesting

1:12:44

target. Destiny, they've really worked hard to

1:12:46

make that acronym work. You want to

1:12:48

see that succeed, so. Just for the

1:12:50

acronym makers. All right, well, that was

1:12:53

a good one. Thank you for that

1:12:55

wrap-up, and I want to thank everybody

1:12:57

who's listening, watching, and hanging out for

1:12:59

joining us today for episode 142, 2025,

1:13:01

and spaceflight. Mr. Malek, where can we

1:13:03

find you polishing your high-fidelity Vulcan rocket

1:13:05

model these days? Well, you can see

1:13:08

it right behind me. But no, you

1:13:10

can find me at space.com as always

1:13:12

on the Twitter at Tarik, Jay Malek

1:13:14

on YouTube at Space Drawn plays. A

1:13:16

lot of good games. It's a new

1:13:18

year, which means new games to play.

1:13:20

Rod. So if anyone has recommendations, I

1:13:23

got a few that I want to

1:13:25

try this year. I work for a

1:13:27

living, so I would give me a

1:13:29

shout. But most most importantly, looking forward

1:13:31

to will New Glen fly on January

1:13:33

6th, will it fly next week at

1:13:35

all? That is what I am waiting

1:13:38

for. So yeah, that's what Monday, right?

1:13:40

Yeah, it's sometime next week. By the

1:13:42

time you and I talk, it may

1:13:44

have gotten off the ground. So. By

1:13:46

the time you and I talk with

1:13:48

Leonard David. That's right. Coming up next.

1:13:50

Spoilers. That's right. All right. And you

1:13:53

can find me at pilebooks.com or at

1:13:55

Astor Magazine.com or I was looking last

1:13:57

night just to make sure nobody was

1:13:59

impugning me the first 18 pages of

1:14:01

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1:14:38

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1:14:40

I hope it's a good thing. And

1:14:42

bringing you great guests and horror jokes,

1:14:44

because we're good at both of those.

1:14:46

You can also get all the great

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programming with Video streams on the Twitter

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network ad-free on Club Twit, as well

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as some extras that are only available

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there for Just. Can I hear it

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from Tarak? Seven seven seven dollars seven

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ninety nine seven dollars no seven even

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seven dollars a month. What else can

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you get for seven dollars a month

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that's as much fun as this I

1:15:08

ask you. I'm asking you asking me

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yeah. Apparently apparently a Stanford banner to

1:15:12

put on your astronaut which I just

1:15:14

noticed after recording this whole session that

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that's new for the 2020. No it's

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been there for about six weeks, but

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that's okay. But that's okay. And it

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was a lot more than seven dollars

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by the way, but that's you know

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That's just how it is with college

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collectibles as you know because you went

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to one of the most expensive ones

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in the world I will show you

1:15:35

my Letterman jacket from USC that I

1:15:38

brought back from stuff Don't you dare

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save it for next week We appreciate

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it seven bucks a month well spent

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and it keeps the processes warm and

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the electrons flowing to you and you've

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heard Leo talk about how tough it's

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gotten with the advertising drought so Be

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our supporters and step up and be

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counted. Finally, you can follow the Twitter

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Tech Podcast Network at Twitter. Twitter slash

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X and on and on

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Facebook TV on on

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Instagram. Thank you, gang. It's It's

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been great, and we'll see you next

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