This week we discuss the nuanced topic of launch independence, the ability of a single country to continue their space programs regardless of global conflict that might interrupt international partnerships like the ISS and other space ventures. Given the continuing conflict in Ukraine, this story continues to develop. NASA also rolled out the SLS for the first time from the VAB to Pad 39B, which marks a momentus moment for Artemis 1 just around the corner. Looking forward to seeing that rocket in person in a few months! We're trying to go down to Florida and take it all in! Having a moon rocket along with all of our amazing "broomsticks" here in the US provides us an opportunity to continue our progress in space without the need for the Russian Soyuz system.

US launch independence is at an all time strength given the last 10 years of work to allow America to launch its own Astronauts from American soil. What happened? How did we get here? Why are we so lucky? We attempt to answer those question throughout this episode.

We also discuss the challenge others around the world are having now, as missions are getting shuffled now that organizations like ESA & JAXA who might have relied on Russian Soyuz launches to go to space. Even competitive rivals like OneWeb and Starlink are joining together to launch on American rockets to avoid delay and collapse of millions of invested dollars. It is a complex situation, and strangely the Space Force predicted these types of changes in their outline of Space Future 2060 release in 2019.

All this and more on this weeks episode!

https://spacenews.com/u-s-general-starlink-in-ukraine-showing-us-what-megaconstellations-can-do/ https://spacenews.com/nasa-to-delay-mars-sample-return-switch-to-dual-lander-approach/

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