This Week in Space (Audio)

In the 1980s, as the US space shuttle was just starting operations, the UK embarked on an ambitious project called HOTOL—short for Horizontal Take Off and Landing, a radical, air-breathing spaceplane design. Poilitical...

Hold onto your phasers, but it's been 60 years since Star Trek 's debut, and the franchise is still going strong. For 40 of those years, Mike Okuda, working with a gifted team that included his wife Denise, has been...

Capitalism—and a strong profit motivation—has driven enterprise for centuries. Two notable examples are the East India Company and the US transcontinental railroad, and the various tycoons who built it. In neither case...

The mitigation of orbital debris is an increasingly serious problem that has not gotten enough attention, but this is changing. Commercial companies are addressing orbital debris, and one of them, KMI Space, has flown...

It has been said that the Moon is a harsh mistress, and nowhere is this more apparent than at the lunar south pole. That is, however, where the Artemis program is headed, and we need to figure out how to best explore...

We're headed for a space renaissance, and it will be focused on the Moon. The US, China, and international partners of both are vying to land people there and construct a permanent lunar base. Meanwhile, NASA is...

We've all seen the movies... the aliens come to Earth, the aliens overcome the inferior humans, and the aliens fall prey to something dumb they overlooked, like microbes, Windows 95, or most absurdly, water. From the...

Rod Pyle is out this week, so Rick Jenet of the National Space Society joins Tariq Malik this week to talk about SpaceX's Starship Flight 13, which deployed new Starlink V3 satellites and stunned viewers when the ship...

This week, we cover how Starship Flight 13 finally prepares to launch amid a legal battle over SpaceX's proposed land swap at Starbase, plus a Chinese Long March 3B rocket gets struck by lightning during liftoff, yet...

<p>This week we're jumping into the space headlines for the past few weeks. It's been busy, and some exciting things are happening! A couple of companies are moving into the space solar power arena--something we've long...

This week we're jumping into the space headlines for the past few weeks. It's been busy, and some exciting things are happening! A couple of companies are moving into the space solar power arena--something we've long...

We've been hearing a lot about NASA's new moonbase plans, and they are ambitious. Starting with Artemis V (so far), the US plans to begin preparations for a permanent base situated in the south polar regions of the...

<p>We've been hearing a lot about NASA's new moonbase plans, and they are ambitious. Starting with Artemis V (so far), the US plans to begin preparations for a permanent base situated in the south polar regions of the...

Since 1958, the United States has been part of the spaceflight adventure, and since the mid-1960s has led in just about any category that counts. In this episode, we discuss the progression of American space efforts...

<p>Since 1958, the United States has been part of the spaceflight adventure, and since the mid-1960s has led in just about any category that counts. In this episode, we discuss the progression of American space efforts...