1,000 Launches by 2030: Who Pays the $450 Million Question?
Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket finally reaches orbit from Norway, The Exploration Company banks Europe's biggest-ever Series C at $450 million, Eute
Episode archive
The whole archive, searchable. Look up a company, a program, a contract, or a launch and read what the show said the day it happened.
24 episodes
Orbit vs. Capital: Isar Flies, Stoke Bets Big Before Liftoff
Two very different bets against SpaceX's reusable-launch dominance landed the same day: Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket reached orbit on its second f
Europe's First Commercial Orbital Launch: Hype vs. Manifest
Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket reached orbit from Norway, becoming the first fully commercial European launch to make it to space — plus Cape Canave
Is Satellite Data's Biggest Beneficiary Also Its Biggest Risk?
Planet Labs posts a record quarter fueled by a defense and intelligence surge, but the four-billion-dollar pipeline behind it is still mostly a promis
Rockets, Rockets, and a Diplomatic Rupture in Paris
The weekly recap: Roman's flagship launch, Blue Origin's Mars comms win, Europe's billion-euro IRIS2 order, Orion's heat shield vindication, Isar Aero
Isaacman vs. McAlister: How Much of NASA Should Be Commercial?
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman publicly clashes with former commercial-space chief Phil McAlister over how far NASA should push commercialization a
Blue Origin's $700 Million Mars Bet
NASA hands Blue Origin a $700 million fixed-price contract to build the Mars Telecommunications Network — but the rocket that will presumably launch i
The Funding Keeps Growing, The Rocket Still Hasn't Flown
PLD Space piles another €108 million onto its already-growing Series C round as it races toward Miura 5's first flight, plus a new Chinese liquid-fuel
Inside the FAA's Power to Ground a Rocket Company
Today's episode is an Orbit 101 on the Federal Aviation Administration's role as the safety gatekeeper for commercial launch and reentry — what its li
Europe Bets Big on Beating Starlink — Can It Ship in Time?
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched successfully Sunday and drew an unusual phone-in from President Trump, SLS hardware is now moving th
Roman Telescope Launches: Did Congress Just Prove It Runs NASA's Science
Roman Space Telescope enters its launch countdown after surviving a White House push to cancel it, ESA reveals the actual euro figures behind its Euro
The Week Space Ambition Met the Launch Bottleneck
The weekly recap: NASA's Roman telescope clears its last review for a Sunday launch, LandSpace's Zhuque-3 lands a booster that then topples, the White
$72 Million: The Price of Skipping the Bid on SpaceX
The Space Force hands SpaceX a fleet-wide, sole-source Starshield contract for military aircraft — with the award value redacted. Plus: ESA's European
Europe's Launch Independence Bet: ESA Signs the First Checks
ESA signs its first European Launcher Challenge contracts today, putting real money behind Europe's bid to build launch independence from SpaceX and A
Starbase Louisiana: A $100 Billion Bet on an Unproven Rocket
SpaceX and Louisiana officials unveiled a planned $100 billion, ten-pad 'Starbase Louisiana' spaceport in Vermilion Parish — a huge bet on a Starship
Can Anyone Actually Cool a Computer in Orbit?
Nvidia spent this week backing two rival paths to orbital AI compute — SpaceX's in-house Starmind satellite and independent startup Starcloud's fresh
China's Chang'e-7 Delay and the Fight for the Lunar South Pole
China scrubbed the Chang'e-7 lunar south pole mission hours before launch, reopening a genuinely uncertain race with Blue Origin and Astrobotic for th
Weekly Recap: A $71 Billion Ask and a Launch Market in Crisis
This week's recap: a launch market so hot it's straining the operators depending on it, the White House's answer with a thousand-launches-a-year targe
A Thousand Launches by 2030 — Without the Money to Build It
The White House signed off on a new National Space Transportation Policy setting a goal of a thousand launches and reentries a year by 2030 — heavy on
Space Force's $71 Billion Ask, and Last Year's Missing $8 Billion
The Space Force wants $71 billion for FY2027, more than double its current budget — but the number splits into a likely $59.2 billion in appropriation
LandSpace Stuck the Landing — Now Comes the Hard Part
LandSpace lands the Zhuque-3 booster on its second flight, becoming the third organization on Earth to stick a leg landing — the show asks whether rec
The Launch Crunch Reaches the Balance Sheet
Launch scarcity stops being a talking point and starts showing up in corporate strategy: AST SpaceMobile tells investors it may need to buy or partner
The Launch Bottleneck: Who Inherits SpaceX's Backlog?
SpaceX has effectively closed its Falcon 9 rideshare book past 2028, and satellite operators from Telesat to Amazon are scrambling for alternatives —
$60 Million Won't Break SpaceX's Satellite Grip
The Space Force pays five companies — Amazon Leo, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rocket Lab, and York Space — sixty million dollars to prove they