NASA should take on the work private space firms cannot

Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

1. 44:02

   In an economically viable way, going to the moon, going to Mars. Why shouldn't NASA be more fully embracing of this private industry capability? Is it because it's Elon? Or is it because it reduces money going to defense contractors? What is the motivation against going all in on this company, SpaceX, or companies like it, that have built these competencies that would have been unfathomable just a few decades ago, but are real here today?

2. 44:37

   Oh, this is such a deep conversation. So, look, one thing I'd say is, like, obviously, I love SpaceX, and they safely put me into space twice, and two awesome missions brought me home, and I'm cheering them on. I'm happy what SpaceX is doing. I'm thrilled about the investments that Blue Origin is doing, that Rocket Lab is doing, you know, Firefly. So it's like, we have a great industry. So the broader question is just why isn't NASA leaning more into commercial? Well, like it's NASA's foresight that gave birth to the commercial crew program that enabled even me to go to space. So like they are thinking in that direction, but there are politics in play. And the nice thing is, is those winds are shifting. Throughout my, you know, whole confirmation process, you know you are educated heavily by some very smart political folks uh they sherpa you around

3. 45:24

   every senator and they were like look the you know a year ago two years ago the idea of talking to senators that are in sls states and convincing them we need to be looking a little bit more to the future with commercial and maybe pivoting to things like nuclear propulsion would be a non-starter and i'll tell you they were very reasonable all of them were very reasonable that they know that this rocket built on 60-year-old technology that's $4.5 billion a launch has an expiration date. So I do think that ship is turning. It's just this isn't a speedboat.

4. 45:56

   The government, it's turning like it's a giant shipping container. It turns a half a degree like a year. And that's not obviously fast enough for a lot of us. But I would say it's moving in that direction. And then NASA also has to repurpose its resources on things that a SpaceX or a Blue Origin won't do. They're not going to build a nuclear reactor and launch it. You're not going to get the indemnities for that. Even shipping highly enriched uranium is a nightmare. That is what the government should be doing. So NASA should be doing what the commercial industries can't. And that, by the way, takes so much stress off a company like SpaceX trying to get to Mars.

5. 46:32

   like if you can minimize the number of space-based refueling or the in-situ resource manufacturing look even when a starship gets to mars you're betting on like you know 100 consecutive miracles happening to top to mine propellant there and bring it back nasa should be helping the government should be helping with that because it it creates a lot of other optionality we can have you know nuclear battle stars in low earth orbit um you know as part of uh golden dome there's a lot of reasons why you know it's not all spacex all commercial versus nasa it's both