38: Power Struggle Over NASA and the Moon Race Guests: Douglas Messier, David Livingston Douglas Messier discusses a power struggle over NASA, including acting administrator Shawn Duffy's interest in folding NASA into the Department of Transportation and his

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.5 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Power Struggle Over NASA and the Moon Race Guests: Douglas Messier, David Livingston Douglas Messier discusses a power struggle over NASA, including acting administrator Shawn Duffy's interest in folding NASA into the Department of Transportation and his concern that the United States might lose the Moon Race 2.0 to China. Duffy has challenged SpaceX's contract for the Artemis 3 moon landing, aiming to accelerate lander development amid fears that dependence on the complex Starship/Superheavy architecture might delay the mission beyond 2029.

Transcript

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0:00.0	At Pluralsight, we don't just teach skills.
0:02.8	We are building the tech workforce, who deliver results fast, accelerated by top-tier content.
0:08.6	Lead with confidence, lead with expertise.
0:11.1	Visit us at Pluralsight.com to tap in and learn more.
0:18.7	This is CBSI in the world.
0:20.7	I'm John Battatson, Hotel Mars.
0:22.9	Episode N.
0:24.1	I'm joined by my colleague and co-host and co-pilot David Livingston, Dr. Space of the Space Show.
0:30.1	Highly recommended.
0:31.6	Panel discussions by veterans of space and geekhood combined on the space show, and there's an archive to review.
0:41.6	We're going to plunge ahead, however, to what appears to be breaking gossip, not quite news,
0:47.3	with Douglas Messier, who keeps a substack page.
0:50.2	I'd highly recommend breaking news in the spacefaring business.
0:55.1	Doug, a very good evening to you.
0:56.5	I start with gossip, breaking gossip.
0:59.1	The gossip, very safe by the Wall Street Journal in some fashion, but I've heard it from other voices,
1:04.4	none of which are quite the headline right here, that the new temporary interim administrator at NASA,
1:11.6	who is also the secretary of the Department of Transportation
1:16.6	in the cabinet, that's Sean Duffy from Wisconsin,
1:19.6	has told others that he believes NASA would be at home
1:25.6	folded into the Department of Transportation. I'm not in any
1:30.7	fashion sure what this means, but there was a lot of noise about it when it came out. Is that gossip
	...

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