Alan Smale was welcomed to The Space Show to discuss his latest hard sci-fi alternate history book, "Radiant Sky." We also talked about his first book in the series, "Hot Moon." The story line picks up after Apollo ends with both the US and Russia having their own bases on the Moon. Alan tells the story from Boook 1 to Book 2 and hints at the continued story in the third book which is being written at this time. We talked about reality space, China on the Moon, space policy, technology, reusability, nuclear propulsion, Mars and more. Read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Dec. 13, 2024.

Joh and I welcomed Amir Notea from Israel to discuss space activities in Israel. John focused on the attempt by Israel to go to the Moon with the Beresheet project which crashed on the lunar surface in 2019 Beresheet 2 is underway looking for final funding for a second attempt at landing their lunar mission. We also talked about other aspects of Israel's space industry including launch sites, launching to the west and why, commercial space and more. Please read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.

Dr. Doug Plata returned to share his analysis with us on commercial space company success, startups, government versus commercial customers, markets and more. Doug is interested in additional comments on the blog from archive listeners so don't be shy. Please read the full summary of this program when it appears at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Dec. 8, 2024. In addtion, if you like and use our program, please donate to help us broadcast in 2025. See the PayPal button in the upper right corner of our home page.

John and I welcomed back Anatoly Zak for updates with Russian space news. As we approached the anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Flight and build up to it, Anatoly talked about the Spyuz-16 flight program in April and August of 1974 to practice for the mission. These were mostly secret flights with very little press coverate. Anatoly went through the history, what the Russians did to make sure Apollo could dock with Soyuz, astronaut spacesuits and much more. Anatoly featured this article on his website, https://russianspaceweb.com. Please read the full summary of this program when it posts at www.thespaeshow.com for this date, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024.

We welcomed back Dr. Namrata Goswami to discuss her researh and paper (see our blog) on the current space race, space great and lesser power nations, China, American commercial competition and much more. This was a very thorough discussion with our guest A standout to me was near the end of the program when I asked her to provide us with the strategy to best compete with china given their system advantages as compared ours plus disadvantages. Namrata provided us with what I thought was an excellent strategy. Let us know what you think by commenting about it on the blog. Do read the full summary of this program when it posts at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024.

Mark was back with us to talk about space with the new administration. He had much to say with the new proposed NASA Administrator selection which led to commentary about Artemis, SLS, Musk and politics, Musk and conflicts of interest and more. He talked about Artemis, lunar and Mars focused goals for the coming years, when to shut down Gateway bases on Starship success and what should be a simpler regulatory climate moving forward, something that would facilitate Starship testing. Mark had good emails on a variety of topics and near the end two excellent phone calls. Please rear the full summary at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Friday, Dec. 6, 2024.

We welcomed back Reid and Maxine to discuss their recently completed Mars analog, their Winter Solstice Analog which is the fifth such venture by their company, Mars Ocean Analogs. We discussed this voyage in detail and talked at length about a sailing venture as an analog for a Mars trip and astronaut crew training. Many issues were brought up, we easily saw the relationship to a space voyage to Mars with a sailing cruise in the open ocean. Both Reid and Maxine explained the ocean challenges and how they relate to space travel challenges. Toward the end of the discussion we heard from one of the crew members regarding his perspective on the cruise and his interest in doing a Mars trip. Please read the full summary of this program when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.

Welcome to our Open Lines discussion program for Dec. 1, 2024. I opened up with a fundraising appeal as we are now fundraising to support The Space Show for the new year, 2025. Please listen and do support us as we are listener supported live broadcast space radio. Donating details are part of our discussion & in the upper right corner of our home page, www.thespaceshow.com. We covered many topics in today's program starting with a lengthy call with Dr. Doug about two of his projects, then what to do about SLS and when. The SLS part of the discussion went on for the rest of the program and dominated what other callers talked about. Different ideas and time lines for retiring SLS were mentioned along with my estimation that it would be here for quite a while. Listen to my comments to hear why I said that. Please review the complete review of the program when it appears at wwww.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024.

Jim Muncy returned to share his commercial space and policy thoughts post our presidential election. Multiple topics were discussed but we had a focus on change going forward, big visions, Starship and what it might mean, Artemis, international space relationships, SLS, Musk and politics and more. Another must hear program! Please read the full summary when available at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024.

John and I welcomed back Eric Berger of Ars Technica to discuss the Starship demo flight 6 plus the potential for a wild space policy in the new administration given the Musk association with Trump and probably ongoing Artemis issues. We talked about flight #6, remaining test goals for the rocket system and many different policy concerns for the new year including the status of SLS Read the full summary of this program at www.thespaceshow.com for this date, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.