Why does it cost NASA $4.2 billion per launch when SpaceX predicts Starship could do the same job for $10 million?

Mark and Jeremy work through Part 3 of Space to Grow by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, the book the space industry is reading, and find two stories running in parallel: the wreckage of the space SPAC bubble, and NASA's uncomfortable reinvention in the commercial era.

This episode covers:

• How SPACs turned space startups into crypto: Virgin Orbit went from a $3.7B valuation to bankruptcy in two years; Astra went public at $2.1B with zero rockets that had ever reached orbit
• Why $100 invested in space startup stocks at IPO was worth $10 by early 2024
• The stag hunt problem: why genuinely big things in space require coordination and trust that the industry hasn't built yet
• NASA's Artemis programme explained, and why the South Pole of the Moon holds 100,000 Olympic swimming pools of frozen water that could become rocket fuel
• The $4B SpaceX and $3.4B Blue Origin contracts that signal NASA is finally learning to share
• Can NASA evolve from doing it to enabling it, before China gets there first?

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Chapters

(00:00) What is a SPAC? 

(01:30) Why space SPACs failed 

(03:20) Virgin Orbit & Astra: the worst examples 

(06:00) SPACs vs Crypto: same story? 

(08:30) The Stag Hunt: why space needs coordination 

(11:00) NASA Artemis explained 

(13:00) SLS vs Starship cost breakdown 

(17:00) SpaceX & Blue Origin lunar contracts 

(20:00) The Moon Race vs China 

(22:00) Can NASA survive the commercial space era?