On this episode we have some Astronomer friends on to discuss our thoughts from the Total Solar Eclipse! Matt Schricker (@Bostronomy), Andrew Abban (@aa.astro01), and Thorne Ransom (@ransomobservatory) join us to share their Astronomy Origin Stories and their experience during the Total Solar Eclipe. For some it was our first, and others were looking for redemption from 2017. But all of us were close to speechless when it happened, until we had this mega podcast for some Eclipse Talk. Maine was one of the best places in the country to see the Total Solar Eclipse, given the cloud coverage on th ..read more

On this episode we speak with Dr. Masha Petrova, the CEO of Nullspace, Inc. a company creating simulation software for electromagnetic applications in the Academic, Commercial, Aerospace, and Defense Industries. Masha shares with us her STEM origin story from a childhood love of Soviet Space SciFi to becoming a PhD Simulation Engineer in the US, which led to her "aha" moment of realizing she was actually an "Extroverted Engineer". Dr. Petrova is an experienced executive with a passion for leading multi-disciplinary global teams toward successful results by focusing on operations and creating a ..read more

In episode 339, we are talking all about Starship's 3rd Test Flight after a VERY exciting launch on March 14th, 2024 a.k.a. Pi Day. The massive Starship made lightspeed progress from the last two tests but the question is: Was IFT3 a success? Did SpaceX have a successful test flight? Don't worry - if you are new to Starship and need a quick review we got you covered! This is a great episode for anyone who was too busy to watch the flight live on Pi Day, or you want to dive a little bit deeper into what SpaceX is doing with this game-changer of a space launch system. We have our reaction to the ..read more

In this week's episode, Alex shares some of his Florida vacation and the 'magic' of branding and storytelling at both Disney and Universal Studio Themeparks. Alex also shares his rotten luck with catching Rocket launches while in Florida...and its not for a lack of launches either! It's also been over a year with our Vespera Telescope so it's time for a recap on what we've learned and what's stuck out so far. This week's Thought from an Engineer is: Why do Nebulas in my telescope appear SO BIG while the galaxies appears SO SMALL?  Here's to building a fantastic future, for all of humanity ..read more

This episode was recorded live while watching the Intuitive Machines-1 (IM-1) moon landing on February 22, 2024 around 6PM. Alex shares his live reaction and thoughts while the NOVA Command team in Houston, TX intiates landing sequence and then troubleshoots the signal after the landing attempt. Is the lander ok? Will the signal get better? That's for the future. Right now, we were just excited to be able to watch the first Lunar landing attempt by the US since 1972 for Apollo 17. It's been a while, but one thing is for sure - it's the new Moon Era and the is finally making large strides at lu ..read more

On this episode, Alex shares his thoughts on the latest Lunar Lander attempt by NASA with the IM-1 Mission. Intuitive Machine's is providing the NOVA C lunar lander as part of the CLPS program, where NASA funded commercial contracts to build out the Artemis Infrastructure around the Moon. There's no internet on the moon yet...not even running water. So there's alot to do, and this IM-1 mission aims to help NASA and multiple commercial payloads. But first, we need a successful SpaceX Falcon 9 launch to Lunar Orbit and then a soft landing. Alex shares thoughts about how treacherous landing on th ..read more

On this episode, Alex opens the podcast with a quick run through (~4 min) of some of the Space Launches to look out for in February (SpaceX, Japan, India, NASA, Rocket Lab). We deep dive on NASA's PACE Mission, flying onboard a SpaceX Falcon9 rocket NET 1:33AM ET 2/8/24 (only a few hours after this podcast is released). We discuss what the mission is, what the payloads are, and why that science will be critical for understanding the water cycle on Earth and the climate changes that come from it.  Alex closes the episode out with another 'Human Factor' segment, where we discuss the deep to ..read more

On this episode, we remember the 3 year journey of the Ingenuity Helicopter on Mars, which now has a broken rotor and is unable to fly safely anymore. We discuss how influential the Martian Helicopter was by obliterating it's original 30-day life span and providing miles of coverage inside of Jezero Crater. We discuss some facts on the first powered flight on another world, and close up with a discussion around the Wright Brothers and how influential their R&D efforts were to a young, eager to learn Engineer (me!).  Come for the Ingenuity drone talk, and stay for the Space Storytime ..read more

On this episode we speak with Madison C. Feehan, the founder of Space.Copy and Moon Trades. She has a background in lunar instrument development, global open science programs, and is a member of Women in Aerospace Canada. She’s also been an External Peer Reviewer and Executive Panelist for NASA since she was in high school.  Topics from the episode: space, ai, industry, entrepreneurship, nasa, printing, artemis, science, lunar, moon, 3dprinting, working, process, integrate, create Madison share's her wealth of know ..read more

In the second episode of 2024, we went hard and produced a list of the 24 things to look out for in Space this year. Is my voice sore from this recording? Yes. Am I still excited for what's to come? OF COURSE! There are 8 groups of what to expect in 2024: Lunar, Space Station, Orbital Human Spaceflight, Deep Space, Payloads/Sats, Space Flyers, Astronomy, and Rocket Technology. We even added updates to this list as we were editing, since NASA released their new Artemis plan and the Vulcan took flight with CERT-1 and the Peregrine Lander saga is underway. We'd love to know what YOU are looking f ..read more