Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about the Artemis Program’s space suits, expensive launch sites, maybe-cheaper-but-at-least-not-as-delayed launch sites, vehicles, and its manifest over the next decade. Plus, a few bonus topics like Astra, Firefly, and Lori Garver’s new book.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 42 executive producers—Simon, Lauren, Kris, Pat, Matt, Jorge, Ryan, Donald, Lee, Chris, Warren, Bob, Russell, Moritz, Joel, Jan, David, Joonas, Robb, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Frank, Julian and Lars from Agile Space, Tommy, Matt, The Astrogators at SEE, Chris, Aegis Trade Law, Fred, Hemant, Dawn Aerospace, Andrew, Harrison, Benjamin, and seven anonymous—and 804 other supporters.

Topics

• Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) / Twitter
• Eric Berger | Ars Technica
• NASA Partners with Industry for New Spacewalking, Moonwalking Services | NASA
• NASA chooses two companies to build spacesuits for its 21st-century Moonwalkers | Ars Technica
• After years of futility, NASA turns to private sector for spacesuit help | Ars Technica
• NASA’s second mobile launcher is too heavy, years late, and pushing $1 billion | Ars Technica
• Artemis II Engine Section Moves to Final Assembly | NASA
• FAA Requires SpaceX to Take Over 75 Actions to Mitigate Environmental Impact of Planned Starship/Super Heavy Launches | Federal Aviation Administration
• Eric Berger on Twitter: “Another Astra second stage failure today with Rocket 3. Overall the company is now 2 of 7 in orbital launch attempts, with 2 of the last 4 being successful.”
• After 9 difficult months, Firefly is set to take its next shot at orbit | Ars Technica
• Eric Berger on Twitter: “Effective tomorrow, Tom Markusic will no longer be CEO of Firefly. Move comes three months after major investment in the company by AEI.”
• Episode 66 - My Next One is “Fiction” - Off-Nominal
• Escaping Gravity: My Quest to Transform NASA and Launch a New Space Age: Garver, Lori, Isaacson, Walter: 9781635767704: Amazon.com: Books

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• Artwork photo by NASA