Episodes

  • Starliner’s delay and Rocket Lab’s big buy. The latest on commercial space.

    Starliner’s delay and Rocket Lab’s big buy. The latest on commercial space.
    Jul 7 2026
    A recent NASA audit says Boeing's Starliner is once again delayed from being certified. Plus, after acquiring the satellite company Iridium, Rocket Lab has its own constellation: 66 satellites and 14 spares.
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    28 mins
  • Life on Mars and the final Space Shuttle mission

    Life on Mars and the final Space Shuttle mission
    Jul 14 2026
    For the second installment of Space on Tap, a special “Are We There Yet?” live event series, we asked what scientists and their robotic coworkers are really looking for on Mars. Plus, the crew of the final shuttle mission, STS-135, reunited for the mission’s 15th anniversary.
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    28 mins
  • NASA chief’s pledge to STEM education and how VR is bringing people to the cosmos

    NASA chief’s pledge to STEM education and how VR is bringing people to the cosmos
    Jul 21 2026
    NASA Administrator Jared Issacman is donating $500,000 of his own money to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping STEM college students. Plus, one public exhibit brings space down to Earth.
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    28 mins
  • Arctic upgrades on the ISS and human missions to Mars

    Arctic upgrades on the ISS and human missions to Mars
    Jun 30 2026
    NASA’s Quantum Lab is about the size of a mini fridge, but it allows NASA and international partners to study some of the biggest physics principles. By studying these atoms at these freezing temperatures, scientists can better understand how subatomic particles work and behave throughout the universe. Plus, human missions to the Mars could soon be a reality.
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    28 mins
  • Moving data to space and rescuing a falling spacecraft

    Moving data to space and rescuing a falling spacecraft
    Jun 23 2026
    Data, it runs the world, and now one company is creating data centers in space. Plus, a rescue mission to save the falling Swift Observatory is launching later this month.
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    28 mins
  • SpaceX goes public and a Mars mission goes offline

    SpaceX goes public and a Mars mission goes offline
    Jun 16 2026
    SpaceX’s launched its initial public offering. It’s a big move for SpaceX, not only to continue to develop some of its current projects like Starship, but it also brings a new wave of people hoping to invest in the company’s future. Plus, NASA lost contact with Maven, a satellite studying Mars. After efforts to contact Maven failed, the space agency officially declared the mission unrecoverable.
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    28 mins
  • Artemis III gets a crew and Florida's push to launch at sea

    Artemis III gets a crew and Florida's push to launch at sea
    Jun 9 2026
    NASA has named the crew of the Artemis III mission that the agency is calling “one of the most highly complex missions NASA has undertaken.”
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    28 mins
  • Blue Origin's explosion and the ethics of human space exploration

    Blue Origin's explosion and the ethics of human space exploration
    Jun 2 2026
    Blue Origin says it expects to fly its New Glenn rocket by the end of this year. That’s after an explosion last week destroyed a rocket and damaged the company’s launch facility at Cape Canaveral.
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    Less than 1 minute