Space Policy Edition: How Starship at the Moon Brings NASA Closer to Mars

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Science, Technology

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2021

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

In a surprise move, NASA chose SpaceX's Starship as the sole winner of its 3 billion-dollar human lunar lander development contract. Within days, Blue Origin and Dynetics filed official protests, forcing NASA to delay the award. Casey and Mat discuss how this selection, if it stands, is a smart move for a space agency that is serious about a true "Moon-to-Mars" program. Should we stop thinking about SpaceX as a scrappy startup and instead treat it as the world's leading aerospace company? Discover more here: https://www.planetary.org/planetary-radio/0507-2021-spe-bill-nelson-spacex-lunar-lander

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back, everybody. This is the May 2021 space policy edition of Planetary Radio.
0:21.2	It's great to have you all on board again. I'm Matt Kaplan, the host of Planetary Radio,
0:26.4	a host that is, and the co-host with Casey Dreyer of this monthly installment, which is now
0:34.2	how many years old Casey? Is it five? I think it's five. I think it's five years.
0:39.6	Congratulations, Casey. Little shows growing up. Yeah, and I don't know if you heard. We just celebrated
0:47.1	the 1,000th episode of Planetary Radio a couple of days ago, and that includes the 61 space policy
0:55.8	editions that I think we've done so far, because there was an extra one in there, some place.
0:59.8	Special one when I think there was a budget approval. So you're part of it. Well, Matt, I'm honored to
1:05.7	help you get to 1,000. That's truly astonishing. Congratulations on making it that many. That's a,
1:12.8	I mean, I know somewhat about how much work goes into every single episode that you do here,
1:18.4	and that's a lot of hours you've put into those thousand shows. Congratulations. Thank you.
1:23.3	It's a lot of hours. No one is more surprised than me, but all you have to do is, you know, keep
1:27.8	doing it. And eventually, you know, the numbers tick over to 1,000. I neglected to say that for
1:34.3	the few of you who don't realize it, Casey, of course, is the senior space policy advisor and chief
1:39.9	advocate for the Planetary Society. You must be looking forward to being able to get out and about
1:46.3	a little bit again. You had that great virtual day of action, but are you looking forward to
1:51.5	getting back to DC and person? Oh, yeah. Of course, DC is always just a fun place to visit. Of course,
1:56.9	good friends there and great to meet people, you know, and make sure that everyone I'm talking to
2:02.5	on the computer is not just some advanced AI that is passing the touring test and fooling me the
2:07.8	entire time. So I have to prove that they exist in real life. But more importantly, frankly,
2:13.1	I just want to see a rocket launch. I miss the launch of perseverance. I love politics. I love
2:18.6	space politics. I love space policy. But man, it really helps to have that visceral reminder
	...

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