Main Engine Cut Off

Mar 14 2025 299 ep. 33 mins 5.3k
Main Engine Cut Off Podcast artwork

MECO is opinion and analysis of spaceflight, exploration, policy, and strategy, by Anthony Colangelo.

  Science  Technology
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T+298: Eric Schmidt Takes Over at Relativity, Rocket Lab Plans Mynaric Acquisition

Mar 14 2025 20 mins  
Eric Schmidt has taken a majority stake in Relativity and will serve as its CEO, so this is a good time to check in on their plans. Rocket Lab is planning to acquire Mynaric, and I have a theory I felt like I needed to float.

T+297: Firefly Blue Ghost 1, Intuitive Machines IM-2, SpaceX Starship Flight 8 (with Josh Dinner)

Mar 07 2025 52 mins  
Josh Dinner of Space.com joins me to talk about a wild week in space—Firefly’s Blue Ghost 1, Intuitive Machines’ IM-2, SpaceX’s Starship Flight 8, Rocket Lab announcements, and more.

T+296: Jim Bridenstine on Space Policy

Mar 03 2025 25 mins  
Former Congressman and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine joins me to talk space policy, then and now: CLPS, Commercial Space Stations, Artemis, international partnerships, and more.

T+295: The Economics of Space (with Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau)

Feb 19 2025 41 mins  
Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau join me to talk about their new book, Space to Grow: Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier. We talk about the economics driving the space industry today, how traditional economic theories apply—or not!—to the industry, and how to use economics as a lens to shape your business and policy approach to the future.

T+294: Elon Musk and the Trump Administration, Potential SLS Cancellation (with Eric Berger)

Feb 10 2025 42 mins  
Eric Berger of Ars Technica joins me to talk about Elon Musk and the whirlwind start of the second Trump administration, and what the future may hold for SLS.

T+293: Jonathan’s Space Report Library Transition (with Jonathan McDowell)

Jan 23 2025 14 mins  
Jonathan McDowell—astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the namesake of the McDowell Line at 80 kilometers—joins me to talk about his fundraiser to move his epic space library to a new, permanent home. Let’s help him out!

T+292: New Glenn Flight 1, Starship Flight 7

Jan 21 2025 22 mins  
Blue Origin flew New Glenn successfully for the first time, and SpaceX flew Starship for the seventh time. Both featured failures at different points of the flight, with the impacts on Starship being significantly bigger than those on New Glenn.

T+291: Axiom Updates Station Plans, Firefly Wins Another CLPS Mission

Dec 21 2024 20 mins  
Axiom Space announced changes to their station build out plan, bringing free-flying capability forward in their timeline and switching to a berthing port at the ISS to avoid the US Deorbit Vehicle. Firefly won another CLPS task order, this time for a lander with a rover, and for quite a bit more money than the last few.

T+290: Jared Isaacman Nominated NASA Administrator

Dec 06 2024 21 mins  
Jared Isaacman, the man with a private space program, has been nominated NASA Administrator, to run the nation’s space program.

T+289: Starship Flight 6, ABL’s Pivot, NS-26 (Headlines Preview)

Nov 22 2024 30 mins  
A special preview of MECO Headlines, covering Starship Flight 6, ABL’s pivot to missile defense, and much more. Subscribe today to get Headlines regularly!