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This Week in Space 161: The TWiS Comedy Hour!
01:09:18
With Starship, Voyager, Artemis, and more!
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- [00:00]
Tariq Malik
Coming up on this Week in Space, the top falls off a private rocket in Australia. Voyager 1 resurrects some cool thrusters in interstellar space. And it's going to be all space jokes, all space news, all this Week in Space, all the time on this episode. So tune in and don't touch that dial.
- [00:20]
Rod Pyle
Podcasts you love from people you trust. This is trit. This is this Week in space, episode number 161, recorded on May 16, 2025, the Twist Comedy Hour. Hello, and welcome to another episode of this Week in Space, the very special, I'm sorry to say it, this Week in Space Comedy Hour edition. We'll see how that plays out. I love it. I am, of course, Rod Pyle, editor chief, Badass magazine, among other things. And I'm joined by my fellow funny man, Tark Malik, editor chiefofspace.com. hello, sir.
- [00:58]
Tariq Malik
Hey. Hey, Rod. How are you today?
- [01:01]
Rod Pyle
Well, apparently not quite as jubilant as you, but I'm here. I get my participation. You know, I never got a trophy in sports. I won my sixth grade. The only thing I ever won that was sporting was my sixth grade handball competition. Not because I was any good, but because the other guy fouled himself out and I got a couple of sneers and jeers and that was it. No trophies at all. I have other trophies, but they're all for things that involve thinking.
- [01:27]
Tariq Malik
Well, I have. I have some Little League trophies and soon.
- [01:30]
Rod Pyle
You're going to have soon.
- [01:34]
Tariq Malik
Oh, yeah. The Space Pioneer Award.
- [01:35]
Rod Pyle
The Space Pioneer Award.
- [01:37]
Tariq Malik
Very exciting.
- [01:38]
Rod Pyle
Did you opt for the moon or Mars globe?
- [01:40]
Tariq Malik
I believe I opt for the Mars globe, yeah. Good.
- [01:43]
Rod Pyle
It's really cool.
- [01:44]
Tariq Malik
Maybe I'll be surprised.
- [01:45]
Rod Pyle
It's copper tinted. It's great. Okay, but before we start and waste the entirety of your hour, please don't forget, do us a solid. Make sure to, like, subscribe and do other podcast things to keep us going because we need your love or something. But we're counting on you. All right.
- [02:02]
Tariq Malik
Admiration now, jubilant praise.
- [02:04]
Rod Pyle
For right now we're going to spare you from the usual Space dad joke because a whole flotilla of them are coming up as we unleash the Twist Comedy Hour. You'll see. That's all I can say. First annual, get ready to plug. First ever. First ever. We had such a backload of jokes. Some good, some great, some squirmy.
- [02:26]
Tariq Malik
That's great.
- [02:27]
Rod Pyle
You know, let's burn through those because it's headlines week, so we're going to do headlines. Headline joke. Headline joke. Headline joke. Now, I've heard that some people want to plug us instead of their ears when it's joke time on this show. And won't that be disappointing? But you can help send your best, worst or most different space joke. And I mean it, you're lagging. I'm burning through a whole bunch of them this week. So it's time to step up. And don't just go to 101 Space Jokes on the web. Yeah, AI can do it sometimes, but it's really, its sense of humor is pretty undeveloped. It's kind of like asking a six.
- [03:01]
Tariq Malik
Year old, but you better laugh because they're coming for us all.
- [03:04]
Rod Pyle
That's right. So that's true. So make our machine overlords happy. Send us your best, worst or most indifferent space jokes to us@TwistWit TV. Until then, we're going to burn off some inventory this week. But first let's do a couple of headlines.
- [03:23]
Tariq Malik
Headline news, headline news. I got it now. Speaking of AI, Right.
- [03:33]
Rod Pyle
That'S my voice. Well, on alternate weekends. So we had an interesting launch attempt this week.
- [03:42]
Tariq Malik
That's right.
- [03:43]
Rod Pyle
Which was very reminiscent. You won't remember it probably, but the infamous Mercury Redstone 4 inch flight, which was a test of the Mercury capsule back I think 61 before. Before the first crude Mercury flight with Alan Shepard where they fired the rocket and it lifted 4 inches off the pad. And then because of a, an improper fitting of a cable and a plug. And if you ever go look at a Redstone rocket, at the bottom there's a connector about this big, around maybe 2 inches in diameter, full of big fat pins. And that was the cable that went up and talked to it while it was still on the pad. Well, that didn't disconnect properly. So the rocket stopped firing and fell 4 inches pad perfectly vertical, right back on the launch bolts. It was pretty amazing. And sat there and then the parachute popped out of the capsule and that was it.
- [04:38]
Tariq Malik
This isn't that, but this is something also embarrassing.
- [04:40]
Rod Pyle
But one more thing, one more thing. The cool part of that story is that the blockhouse, so this was in launch control was still at, at the Cape in Florida. And launch control was staffed primarily by von Braun's German team, which he brought over from Germany at the end of the war. They're trying to figure out what do we do now? This rocket still ar ticking, it's filled with fuel, it's very dangerous and what do we do? So the Germans, being ever practical, said we get the hunting rifle and shoot holes and decide to drain It. And, well, Chris Kraft said over my dead body. And they didn't. So my phone is going nuts here. Oh, I see. So. So that was that. But today we.
- [05:23]
Tariq Malik
Or this week, that is Rod Pile History Hour, brought to you by. This week.
- [05:30]
Rod Pyle
It was yesterday, but now.
- [05:31]
Tariq Malik
Now let's talk about the news this week.
- [05:33]
Rod Pyle
Yes, yes, yes. Okay, go ahead. Sorry.
- [05:35]
Tariq Malik
No, yeah, this isn't. This is a new company called Gilmore Space. They're based out of Australia, and this was going to be Australia's first ever orbital commercial launch. Like. Like, like native. Right. From. From the nation. Very exciting. This is their. Their. It's not their first attempt. They have been delaying this flight of their rocket, but as they were preparing to launch the rocket, something went wrong at their pad in Western. Or in. Where are they? There in northeastern Australia. And their Aris rocket triggered its payload fairing separation before doing anything. Yeah, on the pad. On the pad. So basically the nose cone popped off of their rocket while they were getting ready for launch, which you don't want to happen. Right. So you don't want that to happen on a normal thing. So, you know, they say that their payload, which is apparently a bunch of Vegemite, is okay.
- [06:32]
Rod Pyle
Are you serious?
- [06:33]
Tariq Malik
No, yeah, that's. That's what they say. They say, and I quote, last night during final checks, an unexpected issue triggered the rocket's payload fairing. So that's the nose cone popping off. No fuel was loaded. So that's great. No one was hurt. Even better. And early inspections show no damage to the rocket or the pad, except the fact that it has no nose cone. Right. So if you're watching our video stream, the nose cone is that pointy part at the end.
- [06:54]
Rod Pyle
Right. That's the front of the rocket, Vegemite. I mean, what a way to signal the aliens. We don't deserve to continue living.
- [06:59]
Tariq Malik
Well, I'm just saying that they say that the payload, the Vegemite payload, was unharmed, you know, in a subsequent. In a subsequent post. And so, so, yeah, you know, they're going to launch Vegemite into space. They're going to get there. They're going to have to learn what happened. Obviously, some kind of either electrical or hardware issue may be at fault for this on their pad, but you know, better. It's something like this and not like an explosion or a failure where you lose the entire vehicle if this is your first test flight. So, you know, the calendar is still out for Eris, and they're going to have to go probably get it off the pad and figure out what went wrong and then you know, prepare everything else later on. Oh but watch Gilmore Space because you know, SpaceX blew up three times before they got.
- [07:46]
Rod Pyle
That's right. So all right, next up from Mars Technica also, as was the last one. Whoa. To sls. So yeah, the new skinny budget suggests cancellation of the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule which is a little bit of a head scratcher and Lunar Gateway, which is not head scratcher, not immediately at least for SLS and Orion, probably after the first landing. Reactions to this have span from quote Artemis 3 is the last human mission we'll ever have to quote full speed ahead going commercial. But Congress of course overseeing dozens of job saturated districts may have their differences with the administration because they have to agree, at least in the majority. So we're probably looking at a long debate and possible ultimate impoundment by the Office of Management Budget if this gets stuck where they can just stop giving out money. So I guess the question marks are what about Jared Isaacman, our incoming NASA administrator, and what about a possible reboot of the National Space Council which we really ought to have because it does serve a purpose.
- [08:51]
Tariq Malik
Yeah.
- [08:51]
Rod Pyle
And what about Lunar cots? So tell us all.
- [08:55]
Tariq Malik
Osage1 this is, this is, this is a, from a friend of the show, Eric Berger over at Ars Technica. And I put this on headlines just because I really think that if you're a space fan like that you like to follow the nitty gritty of the space program. This is a must read article because Eric really went through with a fine tooth comb what could happen, what is happening and what might happen down the road for, for the Artemis program, for SLS itself and then also just for a lot of the hardware that's been, that's been built already. And it really puts into perspective kind of the weird, I want to kind of say like limbo where we are, where we don't have a NASA administrator but we have like all these budget things coming down with. The NASA administrator usually has to fight for or against. And he talks about how the Office of Management and Budget are leading to budget driven policies right now for space science that don't actually align with NASA's goals for space science and, and leading to things that don't make sense like canceling the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope for examp or souring on SLS when we haven't even gone back to the moon yet for all of that stuff. And the fact that they've I think contracted through Artemis 9 or at least laid the groundwork for that, for rockets on it. So it's just a very interesting read because right now we are in like you said Rod, this weird kind of place where the skinny budget came down just recently in the last couple of weeks said we're gonna cancel this, we're gonna put it in favor of something else. They don't say what that, something el. We don't have an administrator to help lead whatever that, that program or it's going to be. We have parts of the Gateway of other commercial moon moon flights that are all being built. We don't know what, what's going to happen with that stuff yet. And there are other things like spacesuits that are being built for, for SLS Artemis etc. That we don't have ideas of where those are going to be at this point either. Private moon rovers and that kind of thing that the NASA would lease over time and oh, go ahead.
- [11:00]
Rod Pyle
Let's just bear in mind that we are saying and have been saying that we're racing China back to the moon. We have an expensive moon rocket, we have an expensive launch system being completed. We have an expensive space capsule that we think works. And repurposing commercial stuff as it exists at this time, especially with starship not yet having flown successfully and certainly nowhere near landing on the moon successfully is very worrisome if you're going to stick with that. Which is why I think they've been talking about well maybe we'll pivot to Mars. And it's worth mentioning that there's talk of repurposing pieces of Gateway for a long duration Mars trip. But I don't know if I'd want to be that astronaut sitting.
- [11:41]
Tariq Malik
Well we, we saw that with Orion hybrid tech. Yeah we saw that with Orion right from the ship from Constellation to, to Artemis they kept.
- [11:50]
Rod Pyle
That's true but they were both going the same place and they weren't going to be in space for seven months.
- [11:54]
Tariq Malik
Yeah. So the takeaway from this, this piece by, by Eric is about like what happens to the art. And you mentioned this. I think at the get go he suspects that most likely NASA will, will revisit the COTS like system. That's the commercial orbital transportation system, the one that they created back in what, 2004, 2005, something like that to say we're going to, we're going to use commercial rockets to deliver cargo to the space station, then do astronauts which is what we use with SpaceX Dragon and Northrop Grumman's. Now Northrop Grumman's Cygnus, it was Orbital atk, I guess, at that point, Orbital right back when that came out, that he envisions that they're going to go back to that plan because it worked for them and try to use that for the Moon. And whether or not that that will solve their problems, whether or not that they can get things cheaper and faster still remains to be seen, just because of where all these companies are now. But, you know, that could be a play, a playbook that they can turn, like, open up again and say, hey, this worked last time. Now let's use it for the moon, let's use it for Mars, etc. Especially if they're going to cancel Mars Sample Return. We didn't talk about that, but we did talk about it. With the budget, they say, hey, maybe we can do commercial stuff or just send people there, too. So.
- [13:06]
Rod Pyle
All right, we need to go to a break, but before we do, I have a question for our lovely listeners. I recently did a. I do radio on WGN Chicago once every month or so and recently expanded that footprint to, I think it's WABC in New York. One of the things that came up was, and that we've been doing on the Chicago run is doing movie conversations. So we've done a few of those on the show. But what these specific things are is looking at movies and sort of extracting what's good and what ain't so good about the science of the movie and comparing a new movie to an old one. So if that sounds compelling, please send us an email at Twist tv. If that sounds revolting, please send us an email at TWiT TV. Let us know what you think and we might listen to you. All right, we're going to go to break. We'll be right back. Send. Keep those cards and letters coming, as they used to say. So here's a cool story from Space.com. thank you, Tarek.
- [14:09]
Tariq Malik
No, you're welcome. You're very welcome.
- [14:10]
Rod Pyle
Voyager lives on. So due to, as I understand it, they're plan. They're planning to do maintenance work or upgrades on one of the big dishes, I presume Goldstone, is it?
- [14:22]
Tariq Malik
I'm assuming it is, because they're re. The re. The re. What do you call it? Reviving. Re. Restoring, fixing, upgrading. They're upgrading. They're upgrading it, yeah.
- [14:32]
Rod Pyle
So to do that, they wanted to make sure before they did that that they had the backup thrusters on Voyager working because the primary thrusters, apparently there's some concern about fuel line pressure and buildup and corrosion and so forth. So they fired recently the backup thrusters which hadn't been used since 2004.
- [14:52]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, yeah. These roll thrusters on the spacecraft, as I understand it. So that means, that means I've had a whole, a whole career@space.com basically since I've been@space.com they haven't fired these thrusters and now they know that they can by I think they did some kind of workaround to understand some of the switching on some computer boards or something like that. It's very engineering the way that NASA described. In fact, this was written the, the NASA announcement by Kala Cofield, former Space.com writer now over at JPL. You know her Rod, right?
- [15:24]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [15:25]
Tariq Malik
So, but you know, to, to, you know, people don't know and you're a first time listener. The Voyager 1 spacecraft launched in 1977. So an entire tariq ago because I was also launched in 1977, but it launched now. It's out in interstellar space. What like 15 billion miles away? Something like that. And for the last 21 years it's had only one set of these role control thrusters. And they really need that role control to be able to make sure that it can stay pointed back at Earth and send back its data, such as it is, because it is 48 years old now. And as Rod you suggested earlier, they're upgrading the Deep Space Network, the primary antenna they use for Voyager. And they want to make sure that the spacecraft is as ready like any road trip, right. Want to make sure that you have all your supplies, all your fuel, all your whatever ready to go, that the car is in good shape. And so that's what they're trying to do with Voyager here. And they just thought, you know what, let's try to see what we can do. We thought these were dead thrusters. Let's see if we can figure out a way around it. And it sounds like they did it. And so now they have this roll control, these thrusters apparently in working order if Voyager needs it while they're. The Deep Space Network is offline and it can keep itself pointed properly and, and keep on going. So I think that that's great. It's just another, what is it called? The energizer moment for, for, for the, for the Voyager spacecraft. They called it a miracle save, and I quote, it was yet another miracle save for Voyager, which means that Scotty is probably the chief engineer over there at NASA JPL to keep this thing.
- [17:08]
Rod Pyle
Running on like actually Scotty's few bits of Carbonized ash out in. Did. That was just Earth orbit, right? Yeah, yeah, he went up on Celestis.
- [17:17]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, a few times, I think, actually.
- [17:20]
Rod Pyle
So, yeah, because Scotty was large enough that he had lots to go around. Okay, sorry. From Paul Woolley. Hey, Tariq.
- [17:29]
Tariq Malik
Oh, we're getting the jokes now. Yes, yes.
- [17:31]
Rod Pyle
Rod, why did the Mars Rover apply for psychotherapy?
- [17:34]
Tariq Malik
Why, Rod? Why?
- [17:35]
Rod Pyle
Because it had abandonment issues. Okay, thank you, Paul. Very good. Okay. All right, kill that laughter. Let's see. We have a little more detail on the NASA budget cuts, but I think actually we've covered this, haven't we? Is there anything new in there?
- [17:55]
Tariq Malik
Well, I think the new thing here is that people aren't staying quiet.
- [17:59]
Rod Pyle
Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. It's the user groups.
- [18:03]
Tariq Malik
Yeah. The chairs of all of the advisory committees. Some of them are people that work at NASA, some of them are just leaders in their field. And we're talking about things like the Mars Exploration Advisory Group, the Venus Exploration Advisory Group, you know, asteroids, etc. Across the board, outer solar system. They all basically joined together to file a memo to the government to say, hey, look, these budget cut plans are crazy. That they're going to cede, and I quote, our position of leadership to other nations in terms of space exploration if they go through. It was the statement that the. The Planetary Science Division's chairs gave to NASA. So it's an open letter to say, like, you need to cool your jets and take a better look. It's not just about cutting money. They really need support from the community, from the public to say this type of science is important. Abandoning, like you just said, things like the Mark Sample return mission, which they're talking about canceling, will. Will allow other countries like China, which they name check, but you know, there are other space powers out there that are rising to basically fill in that gap, make whatever advances in our absence, the, our. The collective, our United States, that they can maybe even make discoveries or other partnerships that leave us out. And so it's just another step forward. We still, you know, obviously the budget has a way to go, but we're waiting to find out what's going to happen. And again, what a new NASA administrator, an official one, will have to say about it all, you know, because they're the one that's going to get this budget and have to live by it for the next year. So.
- [19:47]
Rod Pyle
And as one of the advisory group leaders said, this is eating the seed corn, presumably, of NASA space science, which I think is that what happened at Roanoke was not the colony that disappeared early on in the settlement of the US From.
- [20:00]
Tariq Malik
I thought it was ghosts. I thought it was ghosts. No.
- [20:05]
Rod Pyle
Okay, well, hey, let's turn back to Paul Woolley for a moment. Hey, Tarek.
- [20:10]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [20:11]
Rod Pyle
What's the most overused phrase at SpaceX?
- [20:14]
Tariq Malik
I don't know.
- [20:14]
Rod Pyle
What is it this time for sure.
- [20:17]
Tariq Malik
Oh, is that a. Is that a. Is that a starship? Is that a starship joke? Because the last two blown up.
- [20:23]
Rod Pyle
I think so, yeah. Because everything else works brilliantly over there. Oh, wow. Listen to John Ashley laughing. We're going to talk about it.
- [20:34]
Tariq Malik
That's a direct quote. That's a hits an open mic right there. That's not, definitely not a sound effect, everybody.
- [20:38]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, that's right. That's right. Oh, that's even better. Oh, now we have bespoke sound effects only for us. Okay, let's package that and sell it for some extra revenue from space.com the Texas Mars act to modernize JSC. So Texas governor is suggesting a billion dollars of investment to upgrade and modernize the Johnson Space Center. This includes Mission Control, the neutral Buoyancy Lab, the food labs and so forth. And I have to tell you, having worked there for a couple years, the place can really use it. I was on that show, I was telling you about Chicago the other night. We were talking about the movie the Martian. And if you remember, in the Martian they go to JSC and they go to jpl. And when they drive into both places, the exterior is fantastic with big swooping, cool spacey metal structures. And the interior is all cool indirect light and all this stuff. And that ain't what it looks like, especially JSC when you go there. I mean, it's built in the 60s when we had robust space budget. It has not been upgraded much since. I mean, obviously important things like Mission Control consoles and stuff, but the general facility looks kind of like an Office park from 1965 because that's what it is. And as I think I've related on here before, in 2010 I was there doing some work in the back room of the mission control that was there for the Apollo and Skylab and early shuttle. And I was having to do some tweaks on a computer there. And I'm looking at this thing and I went around the back in 2010. It was a 486 SX. Those of you who love computers, you know that that thing barely worked. It was new, much less that old. So they can really use the investment. The question is a, are they going to get the money, B, where is it coming from? And see what are we upgrading it for if they keep cutting the budget?
- [22:32]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. This is, by the way, I think. I think a quick correction. I think you said Texas, Governor. It's actually Texas Senator John Cornyn.
- [22:40]
Rod Pyle
Okay, so it's federal money they're looking for.
- [22:41]
Tariq Malik
Exactly. Yeah. So this is. It's federal money. It's called the Mission to Mars Act. The Mars is not the planet Mars. It is the modernized Astronautic Resources for space.
- [22:54]
Rod Pyle
That's exactly because we do love us some acronyms.
- [22:57]
Tariq Malik
Yeah. And so this is interesting. I think that Cornwyn. Rod Perlman was telling me earlier. I think that he's one of the two Signes. Signatories also on that bill with Ted Cruz to move the space shuttle out of the Smithsonian and to Texas as well. So this is like another space bill that he's put in there, but it would be to upgrade the neutral buoyancy laboratory for commercial space stations. Because right now it's this giant pool built for the International Space Station and for. For moon stuff, which they already do. And, and for whatever reason, collaborations with the Department of Defense. I don't know why you would need a giant pool for the Department of Defense unless they're going to be doing spacewalks for the military. Space combat, I tell you. And then, and then the other part of it that I don't think got mentioned was upgrading the Ellington Field for astronaut flight training. And, and then also the. The Astro Materials Curation and Research Facility, like, giving that a big lift because they're going to want to do that for samples of the moon and Mars. What samples of the Mars? Is a big question if you're canceling the Mars Sample Return Program. But, but, you know, I think that NASA's already doing a lot of that and they, they upgraded it for the samples of Bennu as a way to prepare for moon samples. So.
- [24:13]
Rod Pyle
Benny. Bennu. Bennu. Okay, I'm. I'm channeling. What was that horrible show with Robin Williams? Mork of work.
- [24:21]
Tariq Malik
Work of work.
- [24:22]
Rod Pyle
Mark and Mindy. That was it. Okay.
- [24:24]
Tariq Malik
Mindy, I used to love that show.
- [24:25]
Rod Pyle
From. Of course you did. From David. Yeah, from David Eckard.
- [24:29]
Tariq Malik
David.
- [24:29]
Rod Pyle
Hey, Tariq.
- [24:30]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod.
- [24:31]
Rod Pyle
Athena landed sideways. Odysseus fell over. We gotta find that moon bar and close it.
- [24:39]
C
That doesn't even deserve a sound.
- [24:40]
Rod Pyle
Okay, okay, let's go to an ad. We'll be right back. Go nowhere. We got better ones coming. Sorry, David.
- [24:49]
Tariq Malik
Really quickly, just to explain that joke, Athena and Odysseus are intuitive machines landers that both crashed because they fell over after trying to land on the moon. So, so Dave's joke is now did.
- [25:00]
Rod Pyle
They fall over because they crashed or did they crash because they fell over?
- [25:03]
Tariq Malik
The matter apparently it was because they were at the bar. Right.
- [25:06]
Rod Pyle
Well, there we go.
- [25:06]
Tariq Malik
Okay, do we have by the way do we have the intune machine story on the budget? I don't, I didn't check the TLDR is that they're going to launch back to the moon in Q1 of 2026 with Intuitive Machines 3 and they have learned what caused it.
- [25:21]
Rod Pyle
Now have they at least widened the legs or reinforced them or something?
- [25:25]
Tariq Malik
No, they said that the they had their big Q1 earnings call this week and they said that it was the fact that the lighting was not as expected at the southern area of the moon that they thought from the orbital imagery and combined with some telemetry issues obviously that they had on the spacecraft itself that combined into like an issue for them to have an off nominal landing and they think they can fix it for im3 so they're all systems to go.
- [25:53]
Rod Pyle
The sun got in my eyes. Okay. That was always my excuse in softball from space.com we have we hope the next the the next number 9 Starship test flight next week and it is reported that our friend Elon Musk Wacky Elon will give a talk before the launch to outline his updated Mars plans.
- [26:15]
Tariq Malik
Yeah yeah.
- [26:16]
Rod Pyle
21St and compellingly this is a reflight of the test flight 7 first stage booster. So that's, that's an advancement. We hope to see Starship actually go into orbit this time but we'll see.
- [26:29]
Tariq Malik
Well I don't think that they're planning to go into like a do a full circle orbit because I think they're still trying to finish that flight plan that ends in in the Indian Ocean with Starship but but we'll have to see because they could be chang but as you said Elon Musk said this week, and I quote just before the starship flight next week which is which gives us the timeline for the launch I will give a company talk explaining the Mars game plan in Starbase Texas that will also be livestream on next so a couple of things there Starship flight next week that means that as of our next episode, dear Listener, we may have Starship Flight 9 although I did hear that it might be it might be slipping till later in the week right now and that he says our Mars game plan in Starbase Texas and for folks that don't recall all. Less than 100 or 200 people went to the vote. The polls in South Texas voted to make Starbase a town or a City.
- [27:25]
Rod Pyle
Most SpaceX employees, shockingly.
- [27:28]
Tariq Malik
Exactly. Exactly. So just a couple of extra things and they're going to have it live on X the talk. Elon Musk has given an annual talk almost every year since 2016 when he unveiled what has become the Starbase, or the Starship super heavy launch system to really give an update on the vehicle, its plans. What's different this year? What's not different? Like where they think they're going to be going. And so I don't think we got one last year. And so this is going to be an opportunity to hear kind of from the horse's mouth what the current plan is, what their timeline might be, what types of things need to be upgraded or changed, and what they've learned from the last two failures. There are other stuff areas that are out there. ProPublica has a big in depth investigation this week about how the UK is asking the FAA to change their starship flight path clearances. I. I suspect because they have islands like the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and they don't want Starbase chunks falling on them if they fail again.
- [28:29]
Rod Pyle
People get so picky about things falling out of the sky, you know?
- [28:32]
Tariq Malik
Right. Am I right? Don't get me started about the part.
- [28:36]
Rod Pyle
Of space flight, if it falls into your house.
- [28:38]
Tariq Malik
I was gonna say don't get me started about the planetary def at the house this week too, because that was very interesting to say the least. But. But you know, so we'll see what they say. The two things I would say, if you're going to tune into this talk to look for are a. What is their timeline for actual orbital flights as well as their testing timeline for reflight for refueling the vehicle which they have to refuel. How many times, Rod? 25 million. Right. The moon. So we don't know like 15 to 20 or so 16 to 24. Yeah.
- [29:10]
Rod Pyle
And this is where the company whose cadence so far has been to launch once every six to 10 weeks.
- [29:16]
Tariq Malik
Yeah.
- [29:17]
Rod Pyle
And you've got cryogenics up there fizzling away, boiling away. And even if you keep them chilled, you know you're going to lose a significant amount of propellant before the next tanker gets there. So you're kind of half topping up and not half, but some percentage topping up is some percentage refilling boil off and then you got to hope that the next one gets there without a problem. There's no scheduling problems on the ground. It's nuts. And let's just bear in mind when this was sold to NASA for a lunar lander, they had said six tanker flights and now it's multiples of that. So it's a little bit of a head scratcher.
- [29:55]
Tariq Malik
Well, and part of it is because you have the, the 100% reusability goal that SpaceX has. They are flying the Flight 6 booster, is that right? The Flight 6, Flight 7. The Flight 7? Yeah, the Flight 7 Super Heavy booster. That's the one that came back during the first failure this year. I think they've only changed a few engines out, which is pretty amazing, I have to say, of the 33 that are on the first stage there. But so, you know, look for that reuse performance, look for the refueling timeline for testing, look for anything about life support too, because he told me in 2019 that that was going to be a cinch. But we haven't seen anything except an empty starship from the inside with a banana.
- [30:37]
Rod Pyle
He told you personally?
- [30:39]
Tariq Malik
Well, I asked him the question in the press conference.
- [30:42]
Rod Pyle
I didn't know that.
- [30:43]
Tariq Malik
Yeah. And, and so, so he. It was, it was in the. It wasn't just me like we were having. Chewing. Chewing the fat. I don't.
- [30:49]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, but you, I bet your, I bet your taxes are still tagged for an audit now because you asked that question.
- [30:54]
Tariq Malik
Apparently. Apparently. So look, look, look for those things and then also like about docking, because they're going to have to rendezvous with Orion somehow.
- [31:03]
Rod Pyle
So. All right, from Hector, no last name. Hey, Tariq.
- [31:09]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [31:11]
Rod Pyle
Why, oh why did the rocket scientists go up on fusion propulsion?
- [31:16]
Tariq Malik
Why? I don't know.
- [31:17]
Rod Pyle
Because he had no comet meant.
- [31:20]
Tariq Malik
Oh, I love it.
- [31:23]
Rod Pyle
I love it.
- [31:23]
Tariq Malik
That's good.
- [31:24]
Rod Pyle
That one hurt me below the belt.
- [31:26]
Tariq Malik
Speaking of comets, the comet is in Fortnite OG now for people that play that, play that game. Very exciting, very exciting. So I have a video of it coming out on space later on.
- [31:36]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, but not on this show, thank God. Okay. From space.com. how shocking. The end is nigh. Look out. So it's all going to be over a little sooner than we thought. We apparently now only have 10 to the power of 78 years left in the universe as we know it. Instead of the previously calculated 10 to the 1100 from. That was from 2023, so not a very old calculation. And this is measured up to the final end of the last white dwarfs and neutron stars, the gray beards of the universe. It has something to do that makes my brain Hurt. And my cells begin to die with the cessation of Hawking radiation due to the effects of space time, not just local gravity.
- [32:21]
Tariq Malik
Yeah. Yeah. It's the ultimate end of the universe. Cashier 401Ks out now. There's no need, no reason to wait. No reason.
- [32:29]
Rod Pyle
Party like it's 1965 because the end is coming.
- [32:32]
Tariq Malik
I love this theoretical. You know, I'm a spaceship person, so I actually don't understand, let alone wrap my head around a lot of this stuff here. But, but this was a story that, that we saw coming down from. I think I'm going to say this wrong. Heino Falki, he's a theoretical astrophysicist at Radbound University in the Netherlands. I'm sure I'm saying that wrong. And, and according to their new calculations, they predict that the universe is the, the most enduring objects. These, those white dwarfs, the glowing remnants of dead stars and neutron stars. That's, that's when they're gonna fade away. You know, the decay. What do they call it? The big whimper. Is that the big, lighter.
- [33:12]
Rod Pyle
Oh, Big Bang. The final whimper? Something like that.
- [33:14]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, something like that. And that, that, that, that. It's based on Hawking's theory that the black holes evaporate, right? Over time, that radiation just vanishes. It goes away. And so they've been able to take all of that, like what they know about that kind of radiation, about how stars die, how they peter out and put that into a simulation which then mapped out the exact heat death. That's what it's called, the heat death of the universe. Right? When there is no more anything and it's just black silence.
- [33:53]
Rod Pyle
My first marriage. Okay.
- [33:55]
Tariq Malik
Right now. So.
- [33:56]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, yeah. From James.
- [34:03]
Tariq Malik
Really, really quickly. Tldr. Don't, don't worry. Don't worry about the. Hey, you had a whole preamble about, about a failed Mercury launch before we started. So just, just, just so that everyone knows, because I went through this with my daughter when she was 5. Don't worry about the heat death of the universe. Right. It's like it doesn't matter to you and to me. I want to know where my next cup of coffee is going to be. And a spoiler alert it's going to be right after this podcast downstairs. And I microwave my coffee. So that's what's important to me, you know, the fact that we lose maybe like a few hundreds of billions of years on the universe. Not so much. We'll be cavorting the multiverse by then. You know, the distant Malik droids that are out there, it's gonna be great.
- [34:45]
Rod Pyle
Why are you showing us your coffee cup? Are we supposed to get excited about that somehow?
- [34:48]
Tariq Malik
No, I'm just drinking coffee.
- [34:50]
C
The fact that you microwave your coffee is a cinema amongst his own.
- [34:54]
Tariq Malik
It's 90 seconds for Folgers instant coffee. I have.
- [34:59]
Rod Pyle
You drink Folgers instant?
- [35:01]
Tariq Malik
Yes. Yes.
- [35:01]
Rod Pyle
Oh, my Lord.
- [35:02]
C
All right, I'm done with this podcast.
- [35:03]
Tariq Malik
I don't even measure. I don't even measure it. I just pour it straight into the cup.
- [35:06]
Rod Pyle
Yep, the only time I ever drink that stuff has been Sanka on Central Pacific islands where they have nothing but instant coffee and sugar water and Creamora.
- [35:18]
Tariq Malik
No, not Folgers. No, not Folgers. Not Folgers. You're right, you're right, you're right. It's Nescafe. So.
- [35:25]
Rod Pyle
Okay, well, hey, you're suited to be an astronaut because they have to drink instant coffee too. All right, we're just about time up, but from Anonymous. Hey, Tarik.
- [35:36]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [35:37]
Rod Pyle
God, are you getting tired of answering the question, why did Saturn's name stick?
- [35:41]
Tariq Malik
I don't know. Why?
- [35:43]
Rod Pyle
Because it had a nice ring to it.
- [35:47]
Tariq Malik
Beyonce would be proud. Right.
- [35:49]
Rod Pyle
And John's not even stirring.
- [35:50]
C
No, I'm still shocked by the fact that somebody drinks instant coffee.
- [35:55]
Rod Pyle
It's revolting, isn't it? I'm surprised we haven't had Adam way in on the chat. All right, let's. Hey, I know.
- [36:05]
Tariq Malik
Yep.
- [36:05]
Rod Pyle
Hey, Tarik.
- [36:06]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [36:07]
Rod Pyle
Let's go to a commercial. We'll be right back. Okay.
- [36:12]
Tariq Malik
We got 20 minutes left. Man, we talked these.
- [36:14]
Rod Pyle
These guys, you know, you cut them loose in the back room and they're just all out of whack. All right, space News one I like to call Death by a Thousand Computers. So China has launched its first 12 orbital computing sats. They plan for a total of 2,800 designed to move power hungry computer off planet. Which is a laudable goal actually, given that AI is devouring the energy output of most of the Western world at this point and less than environmental impacts. And China, whatever particular politics is leading in green initiatives, it's a little hard to suss out exactly what they are and what depth they go to because it's all state run media, but. But they're doing it. So These will feature AI capability up to 100 gigabits per second of bandwidth from the ground via laser. And it's a collaboration between China's space program Cask and Alibaba. And the region that Alibaba is located in now I remember when Musk. And who's the guy that runs Alibaba? I forget his name. Kind of interesting looking guy.
- [37:23]
Tariq Malik
I do not know.
- [37:24]
Rod Pyle
Anyway, he, he had a, a summit with the leader of Alibaba in Shanghai which was not a good idea from the beginning because of course you're playing in, in the home of the home team. And so every time Elon said something extremely intelligent and he was very good in this talk, there was dead silence in the room. And every time what's his name said something about Alibaba like I call AI Alibaba Intelligence, the crowd went wild. So it was kind of a wacko talk.
- [37:51]
Tariq Malik
But anyway, is that the one where he danced? Is that the. No, no, Elon Musk danced.
- [37:56]
Rod Pyle
No, he was dead serious in this thing. And actually, I have to say, you know, it's funny, his news bites often come winging out of left field and you're kind of left scratching your head and like can somebody, you know, put a sock on this guy. But when you listen to his longer talks not about doge, but about SpaceX and space in general. Except for the one where he talks about oh, the sun's going to eat Earth, so we have to go to Mars and conveniently leaves out that a couple hundred billions of years from then the sun eats Mars and then you got to go live on Jupiter, but whatever. But in this talk in particular, he really held his ground. And Alibaba, Jack Ma. Jack Ma of Alibaba was completely overmatched in my opinion. But you sure wouldn't have guessed it from the reactions of the crowd who were stony silent. But anyway, so this is kind of a big deal because this puts China in the front seat for big AI.
- [38:49]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, yeah. You know, this, this isn't surprising to me because we've actually seen a fairly robust embrace of, of high tech computing in space by China. For past launches they launched quantum computing satellites into space. Quantum satellite communications satellites as, as prototypes for studying. And so now this new constellation which actually, as I understand it, these 12 satellites are the three body computing constellation, that's what the name of it is called. Built apparently by the commercial company ADA Space, which released some details. And then of course to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation cask that you mentioned earlier and other partners. And so you know, they have been really trying to push now this, this constellation eventually is going to have like 2800 satellites into it with advanced AI capabilities which I find been like really scary depending on what those are. Because I just recently read this week the AI 2027 report, which I don't recommend anyone read if you don't want to fear the immediate future of our AI takeover. But, but this. No, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's real serious stuff. It's about how, you know, how AI agents that we talked about on the show earlier in a previous episode, you know, are. Are advancing at a clip. But this shift of computing power into space I think is interesting because as Rod and I were talking, I think on a previous planning call, AI computing takes a lot of power and there is limitless powers of the sun up in space where you just have to be able to have complete direct line of sight all the time and you can have continuous sunshine all the time. Whether or not that's what they're hoping to leverage, I think remains to be seen. But I mean, the environment is there. And also one of the satellites does have a cosmic X ray polymer polarimeter. Polarimeter to detect and identify transient object like gamma ray burst, which you don't want one of those aimed at our planet either. So there is some other science being done by this, at least on these first 12 satellites. We'll see if they continue that trend on the rest of the. What, what's 2800 minus 12? 2378. Oh, I did it.
- [41:03]
Rod Pyle
That young man. A math participation trophy.
- [41:06]
Tariq Malik
No, I missed it. Let's move on. I think I was off by 10.
- [41:12]
Rod Pyle
Hey, keep those cheers in, in, in the palm of your hand because Ken Kramer has set us a stellar space joke. Hey, Tar.
- [41:20]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [41:21]
Rod Pyle
Did you hear about the guy who was charged a million dollars to send his cat into space?
- [41:25]
Tariq Malik
No, no, I didn't hear what happened.
- [41:27]
Rod Pyle
It was a cat astrophy.
- [41:29]
Tariq Malik
Oh, no.
- [41:32]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, that's kind of an oh, no. Okay. From Space News, our friends over at Space News, Starlink hits profitability. How about that?
- [41:41]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, that's. Well, I mean, everyone loves the. Everyone loves the Internet. Yeah. This was a. Actually this is a press release, an announcement from Nova Space, which is an analysis group, right? Yeah, they're, they're a space analyst group. They have estimated that SpaceX, based on their study, has generated an estimated of 11.8 billion in revenue from. In 2024, with Starlink overtaking its space transportation office. So that means that this is the first time that the satellite Internet business has outstripped their launch services business, including crewed flight with NASA, you know, since they started. Which is pretty amazing. I mean they do have what, 4,000 plus of those satellites in space right now. So it's not surprising that, that, that's a bulk of it. In fact, I think they launched. Yeah, they have more. Is that, is that, is that what you're saying, John? So they, they have been launching these, these satellites over and over again. In fact, they just recently put out a video about how they're building something like a thousand or a hundred dishes, like an hour or something like that from a factory or a day, which just seems mind boggling. But they have a business model that is clearly working for Starlink. They just signed, I believe, some new deals as we speak this week in the Middle east as part of the, it was announced along with the Trump visit to the Middle East. And so clearly there is a drive there and they are the leaders right now. Even though Amazon just launched their Kuiper satellite and there are others that are planned, they are once again the company to beat when it comes to space based satellite Internet.
- [43:19]
Rod Pyle
Oh yeah, well, Ed, if you're, if you're Amazon and you've launched, what, how, what was their first tranche? 12 satellites in the Kuiper project.
- [43:28]
Tariq Malik
I think it was in the 20s. No.
- [43:31]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, something like that. But I mean it's a tall hill to, steep hill to climb when your competitor has, you know, thousands. But, but God bless him for trying. Hey, from Sherry Shan. Hey, Tarik.
- [43:47]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [43:48]
Rod Pyle
What is a lazy guy in space called?
- [43:50]
Tariq Malik
I like, I don't know. Is it Tariq Malik? Because that would not surprise me.
- [43:53]
Rod Pyle
So it's a procrastinate.
- [43:55]
Tariq Malik
Oh yeah, I love it. Yeah, that's a good one, Sherry.
- [43:59]
Rod Pyle
Oh, come on, Ashley.
- [44:01]
Tariq Malik
No, that's, that's the good laughter.
- [44:04]
Rod Pyle
Everybody's having a good time, but it's just one guy. Okay. Hey, we have two guys. Thank you, John, for that contribution. All right, let's go to one more ad and then we're on the home streak. Stand by, everybody. From our friend Leonard David, the dean of space reporters, might we be saving Viper. Viper is a lunar prospecting rover which for those who may not remember, although I'm sure you probably do, was scheduled to fly on a private booster. As part of that whole program, Viper was completed and in the process of integration when it was realized the booster was not ready to go the rocket to launch it.
- [44:54]
Tariq Malik
You mean lander. It was going to fly on an astrobotic lander.
- [44:56]
Rod Pyle
Oh, sorry, the lander. Lander, yeah, on an astrobotic lander. Get your facts straight pile. And so instead of saying, okay, we'll wait or hey, let's switch rockets. NASA for some head scratching reason said yeah, okay, we'll cancel it. Now this thing's already. The sunk costs are pretty much done. Yeah, it would have needed integration and operational costs. The launch, the money for the launch had been allocated and it was just put into mothballs. They had talked about, they being NASA talked about, okay, we'll break it up and we'll sell the bits of it to other companies and they could do what they want with it. And the other companies were startlingly silent on that idea. So then they said, okay, other companies give us your ideas for how to launch this thing. And I think a couple of suggestions came in, but it hasn't been the kind of response they usually get from industry.
- [45:43]
Tariq Malik
Go, they put out an rfa, an RFP to basically lease or sell off the actual rover to someone and then they would come up with a business plan to get their investment back, probably by selling data to NASA, etc. From it. And now, now it sounds like they're looking at ways to try to save it. You know, it's the lunar volatile science part way. What's it called? The lunar volatile? The volatiles Investigating Polar Explorer Rover. It's gonna, it's gonna dig for water ice in the, in the, on the moon south pole.
- [46:16]
Rod Pyle
Right.
- [46:17]
Tariq Malik
And, and so, so it sounds like they, you know, they were, they were, they had this plan in place about where they were trying to get people to, to launch it to the moon, but NASA wouldn't have to pay for it. And now they're looking at other ways to try to figure out how to get Viper to the moon. They have a statement that says the agency will announce a new strategy for Viper in the future. And so we're looking to figure out like what that's going to be. So $450 million.
- [46:45]
Rod Pyle
I would say I have probably inordinate amount of affection for this program just because we haven't had a lunar rover from NASA well since the lunar rover in the Apollo program. And it was time, especially because it's going to be a prospecting mission. It was going to go drill into the surface, say hey, I found water. Like we keep saying we have up here, water is good, we can use it for a lot of things. It makes the solar system your background because we can make fuel from it and blah blah, blah. So it's going to go find us water ice. And of all the things to cancel, this seemed a little shortsighted.
- [47:20]
Tariq Malik
It's weird, right, because, and also like you said it was, it's Built already. They had just. They had just finished building it. And all that they needed to do was do all the shakeout bakeout tests, all the final. Like. Like making sure the stress test that was all ready to go and people were just blindsided by it. And it was because Astrobotics is. It. It's not Peregrine. It's the other one. I don't remember the name. Now, Griffin. The Griffin lander wasn't going to be ready in 2024. And they said it's going to cause too much. It's going to cost too much in delays, more in delays than it would cost to wait. And so they're just going to cancel.
- [47:55]
Rod Pyle
The mission is odd because that's basically keeping the people on probably halftime payroll while they're waiting to participate in the program. So I just, you know, it's. It's a little bit like in the first Trump administration when the executive branch is trying to cancel an instrument on the space station that had already been installed. Its only crime was looking back at Earth. I think it was a climate monitoring thing. It had a $1.8 million per year budget. And they're like, oh, we gotta cancel that. It's costing too much. That's the coffee creamer budget for the White House. Or.
- [48:29]
Tariq Malik
I know, right?
- [48:30]
Rod Pyle
It's like, guys just don't go play that golf game. And political.
- [48:34]
Tariq Malik
That's a lunch. That's a lunch for like a foreign. You know. Yeah.
- [48:39]
Rod Pyle
Or maybe just the air that goes in the tires of that jet. They're gonna get. Okay. Hey, thank you, Lottie Jones for this one. Hey, Tarek.
- [48:49]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [48:50]
Rod Pyle
Why don't cell phones work in space?
- [48:53]
Tariq Malik
I don't know. Why don't they?
- [48:54]
Rod Pyle
Because it's zero G. Oh.
- [49:02]
Tariq Malik
That'S good.
- [49:04]
C
That was.
- [49:04]
Tariq Malik
Forced laugh that actually don't.
- [49:06]
Rod Pyle
What?
- [49:06]
Tariq Malik
No, I thought that was pretty. No, that's really great. Don't tell Nokia, though, because they just paid like, how many million.
- [49:12]
C
No, it was actually a good joke. Right. I'm just pulling your teeth.
- [49:16]
Rod Pyle
I found what I guess would be a 1G phone. The other day. I was rooting through my drawer of abandoned technology and I found an iPhone 3.
- [49:26]
Tariq Malik
Wow. Wow.
- [49:27]
Rod Pyle
In. In pretty good shape now. I don't know if it holds the charge anymore. I didn't try to boot it up because I don't have a charger that'll work, but it's.
- [49:33]
Tariq Malik
I still have a BlackBerry. I still have my BlackBerry.
- [49:35]
C
I thought you were about to say it was one of those Nokia brick phones, those things Those things are.
- [49:40]
Rod Pyle
Okay. I have that. I have two Motorola. Oh, God. Droids with keyboards. I have two blackberries. I have two Motorola Razors, one purple, one silver. And somewhere I still have my. My Danger Lab Sidekick, which was my favorite of them. Oh, yeah, that screen that. It was the original one. So the screen twirled and popped up. Very satisfying.
- [50:07]
Tariq Malik
Nice.
- [50:07]
Rod Pyle
You had the cursors and. And keyboard and all kinds of stuff.
- [50:11]
Tariq Malik
My first one was a Nokia. I left it in the car. And it turns out that when you do that, the LCD screen turns black.
- [50:17]
Rod Pyle
And you. And I think I actually, in my storage unit, I think I still have my first cell phone, which was the size of a cigar box and with a corded handset and all that stuff. And insanely expensive to use from space.com. oh, you love these. The biggest solar flare of 2025.
- [50:38]
Tariq Malik
Yeah. Speaking of cell ph, if your signal gets a bit spotty, you're gonna see why I said that in a minute there. We just had. There's a huge active sunspot region on the sun. That's the spot joke. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Right. But you know what you signed up for when you clicked play on the podcast, so. But no, this active region called AR4087 has just turned off, turned over from the western limit, the sun, which means that it's rotating into view of the Earth, basically to line up. And it unleashed the strongest solar flare of the year, an x 2.7 flare. X flares are the strongest explosions on the Sun. They are big eruptions of plasma and radiation when they're aimed directly at Earth. They can also be accompanied with a coronal mass ejection. That's a massive eruption of solar plasma that sends these charged particles to us. Creates great and amazing solar. What do you call it? Northern lights.
- [51:40]
Rod Pyle
Amazing, Yeah.
- [51:41]
Tariq Malik
A year ago, as of recording this, there was a massive, massive influx of these. These events. And like, we saw amazing auroras all the way down to like, where I am in New Jersey, and I think even down to like Texas and stuff like that.
- [51:53]
Rod Pyle
It was crazy. Actually, if I may lodge a slight correction here, they create amazing auroral displays because if it's in winter time, it's the aurora australis. And if it's summertime, it's the aurora borealis. Correct? Correct.
- [52:06]
Tariq Malik
No Rod weighted towards the pole that's facing the sun. I know a thing that rod doesn't know, and it makes me so happy that I'm gonna stretch it out. No, the aurora borealis are the auroras that are over the north pole. The aurora australis are the auroras that are over the south pole. It's not about winter or summer because it's still the aurora australis when it's summer.
- [52:27]
Rod Pyle
No, I know, but. But won't one become more prominent in the season that it's tipped towards the sun because we have a significant polar tilt, Axial tilt.
- [52:37]
Tariq Malik
No, it's come down. When you look at the maps, it's coming down from the north pole. That's. Those are the. I get that. They didn't lap the earth and come up above the earth equator. And the auroras are happening at both poles at the same time.
- [52:50]
Rod Pyle
Okay, camera B, you're smart about this.
- [52:54]
Tariq Malik
It's not the direction right of the time. The fact that it's all getting folded into the pole poles anyway.
- [53:00]
Rod Pyle
Oh, actually, there's another problem I just thought of. You don't see them at the north pole in the summer or the south pole in our winter because the sun's up all the time. That's why they're less prominent. Oh, good Lord. Why?
- [53:12]
Tariq Malik
Tldr? We could get a big spike in auroras from the sunspot in, like, the next few weeks because that's when the sun's about. We aimed right at Earth, so.
- [53:20]
Rod Pyle
I can't believe I just went through that whole rigmarole. And I've been there. I've looked at the sky at midnight and seen the sun cresting the horizon. Okay. From Sherry Clark.
- [53:32]
Tariq Malik
Sherry? Yes, Rod?
- [53:33]
Rod Pyle
Why did the moon stop eating?
- [53:35]
Tariq Malik
I don't know. Too much cheese was full. Oh, I love it. Okay.
- [53:40]
Rod Pyle
All right.
- [53:40]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, that's solid.
- [53:42]
Rod Pyle
I think John's out of sound effects because we're getting live.
- [53:45]
Tariq Malik
Yep.
- [53:46]
C
No, I'm just trying to add a little variety because do people really want to constantly hear things like this? Just like.
- [53:52]
Rod Pyle
No, I don't think people.
- [53:53]
C
I mean, with all the jokes we're.
- [53:55]
Rod Pyle
Getting, I don't think they even want to hear the jokes. Honestly, I like this.
- [53:59]
C
I want to hear the jokes.
- [54:01]
Tariq Malik
I. I think this is fun. I don't. I hope. I don't know what the listeners online think, but I'm having a good old time, so.
- [54:08]
Rod Pyle
Well, I'm glad you're easy to please. That makes my life a lot easier. Okay, speaking of auroras, Aurora. We have images of the first AWAs on Mars from the perseverance rover. That's cool.
- [54:19]
Tariq Malik
Well, just to be a little nitpicky, it's not the first images of auroras on Mars. It's the first visible light Auror on Mars from the surface of Mars. And this actually comes from the Perseverance Rover. Right, I stand corrected. No, this is. But it's really exciting because it means that potentially an observer on the surface would be able to see one way or another, these auroras too. It's not just something that we're seeing from space, like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter or, or. Or some kind of computer eye. But these are our photos that we're seeing right now from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory from the Perseverance Rover. Where you see on. On one side, the auroras show up as green. So one. One side is kind of more green than the other. That's the auroras themselves. And this happened in March 15th of 2024. And they, I guess, mined it out of the image data when they were doing studies. This is how they found it. And it was from a cme. We were just talking about the coronal mass ejection that. That reached Mars and it triggered these auroras. And so they were able to detect them from the surface of the planet for the first time. They said it's an exciting discovery that opens up new possibilities of aurora research and confirms that auroras can be visible to future astronauts on the surface of Mars. You know, when we retire on Planum Meridiani, you know, using Opportunity as our coaster, right. As we drink our beers and our spacesuits or whatever, we can. We can marvel at the. At the. The auroras on the surface.
- [55:57]
Rod Pyle
Now, I'm gonna enjoy watching you put your visor up to take that first sip of your beer. And then I'll watch your eyes pop out of their sockets and your mouth turn inside out like.
- [56:07]
Tariq Malik
Like Total Recall. Like Arnold.
- [56:08]
Rod Pyle
Yeah. Hey, Tarik.
- [56:13]
Tariq Malik
Yes, Rod?
- [56:13]
Rod Pyle
From Mike Jeter. Why did the moon run out on its bar tab?
- [56:18]
Tariq Malik
I don't know.
- [56:18]
Rod Pyle
Why?
- [56:18]
Tariq Malik
Why?
- [56:19]
Rod Pyle
Because it was down to its last quarter.
- [56:23]
Tariq Malik
That's good. That's good. So, okay.
- [56:27]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, I got.
- [56:28]
Tariq Malik
I got. I know we're at the end, but I have another news story if you want to fit in.
- [56:31]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, actually, I was going to ask you about Virgin Galactic.
- [56:34]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, that's the one. I was.
- [56:35]
Rod Pyle
Because I did. This is from Bloomberg, and I wasn't. I personally was kind of having my doubts that they'd finished this thing, given the condition they're in, but apparently they are.
- [56:45]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, this is. It's not just from Bloomberg. It's from Bloomberg and Space News, too. But Virgin Galactic, like intuitive machines, had their first quarter earnings call this week. I actually listened to the whole thing. And went through the presentation and I added Bloomberg and Space News here because they both hit on two different aspects of what's going on at Virgin Galactic. You know, we talked a lot about SpaceX and how they're launching private astronauts into orbit. The next one, AX4, is going to launch in June with India's first astronaut, Poland's first astronaut, Hungary's first astronaut, and Peggy Whit's astronaut extraordinaire. We've talked about Blue Origin, which launched Katy Perry famously along with others to space just last month as we're recording this. But Virgin Galactic hasn't been launching anybody anywhere for the last year or two. And that's because they stood down from their Spaceship two flights in order to build a new fleet of ships called Spaceship Delta.
- [57:34]
Rod Pyle
Excuse me, but did we ever hear, I suspect airframe where. But did we ever hear why they were replacing.
- [57:43]
Tariq Malik
Well, what they say is that they want to go directly up to scale, that they want to have a version of Spaceship 2 that is more robust and can fly twice a week. Right. Not once, every like few weeks or something like that.
- [57:54]
Rod Pyle
And same number of passengers.
- [57:56]
Tariq Malik
Same number of passengers.
- [57:57]
Rod Pyle
But they're making citizen astronauts.
- [58:00]
Tariq Malik
Citizen astronauts? Yes. So Spaceship two can, can conceit up to eight. Two pilots. Pilots, six passengers. They have been flying four passengers or ticket playing ticket paying people or scientists at the time. And so it's going to have that same kind of crew size. But the whole idea is that this plan for their new Delta ships, and I think they're building a couple of them, is that they're on track and they're going to start their initial flights of the first one in early 2026. So they're on track with the ships. The first launches would be in like summer of 2026. The first passenger flights, if everything checks out, would be in the fall of 2026. So that's really important for them because they need to get cash positive. They have. They have been in the red for the last several years with money coming in from investment while they spend it on building the ships themselves. That that picture apparently is getting a lot better now. Like they were in the red less this year than they were year on year. But they really need to get that, that the money from ticket sales coming in and ticket sales will reopen now in a January or at least Q1 of 2026. Why you might want to think about, you know, maybe think before you book that flight is because the ticket price is going to go up. Mike Moses and team said that they're going to raise the ticket price from the 600,000 per tick per seat that it is now to something quote, unquote, that is higher. And they're going to sell the tickets in batches at a rate determined by those passengers in those batches. So that suggests that the tickets will be higher. Also that the tickets, the price might be variable. They didn't say this, but it seems like they could tailor the ticket price to what the people in those batches are able to afford. Something that I suspect, and I have zero proof to this, but I do believe that Blue Origin doesn't say how much your flights cost because they tailor it to what the people are bidding on on at that point in time because they had an auction for the first flights. And I think everything is based on. On that. So I don't know. I could be wrong. Someone at Blue Origin leaked me some files. Tell me how much the tickets cost. Let me know. So I do know you got to put 150,000 down just to ask to, to try to find out how to.
- [60:10]
Rod Pyle
Show your that much. Right? I mean, your family doesn't need a house to live in.
- [60:18]
Tariq Malik
That's like, that's like. Yeah, that's. It's all in the house. I'll sell that part of the house off. Right.
- [60:23]
Rod Pyle
So, yeah, there you go. I mean, that's probably what you paid just to get your kitchen fixed. Hey. From Scooter X. Thank you, Scooter X. Scooter. Scooter, yeah. What do you call an alien with three eyes?
- [60:35]
Tariq Malik
I don't know.
- [60:36]
Rod Pyle
An A. Len.
- [60:40]
Tariq Malik
That's good. That's a good one. I like it. I like it a lot.
- [60:45]
Rod Pyle
Well, so I have a coffee confession to make myself.
- [60:49]
Tariq Malik
Yes, tell me, tell me.
- [60:51]
Rod Pyle
I do drink Starbucks instant. Because if you go to Starbucks and get theirs, it tastes like burnt dog hair. But if you get there instant and concoct it properly, it actually tastes to me anyway a lot better. I do still make real.
- [61:07]
C
You know why it tastes like burnt dog hair, right?
- [61:10]
Rod Pyle
Because it is burnt dog hair.
- [61:12]
C
Well, no, they actually. The how they actually, actually brew the coffee there. They actually kind of burn the beans.
- [61:17]
Rod Pyle
Why?
- [61:17]
C
So that's just a roasting process. It's bad.
- [61:21]
Rod Pyle
It's nasty stuff. I think what did I finally buy? I think it's called volcania or something. Some weirdo overpriced brand of beans that you can grind yourself and all that. But I just, you know, in the morning it's like the idea of actually getting beans, grinding them, sniffing them, having that that Maxwell House moment where you sit it. I used to work in commercials and I always loved. We'd have these kitchen sets that we build and you're banging all this light in the window as if it's the morning. And of course none of our kitchens look like this because they're perfect and they're clean and the curtains are brand new and all that. And you'd always have some 26 year old mother with a 14 year old kid. And you're doing the math in your head thinking that doesn't work except in certain states. How can that be so? Yeah, it was a very strange concoction of middle America. But hey, that's the commercial business lying for your benefit. Any comments? John, this is your big chance.
- [62:22]
C
Stop drinking instant coffee anyways.
- [62:25]
Rod Pyle
Fair enough.
- [62:25]
C
And don't microwave your coffees.
- [62:28]
Tariq Malik
You know, I could just make a pot of coffee. I ran out of regular coffee. I went to the supermarket and I forgot to buy more regular coffee too. I got to buy more. So.
- [62:35]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, but when you say bye, are we talking Folgers here?
- [62:38]
Tariq Malik
No, no, I usually get like a Zaragoza from Whole Foods or, or an Ethiopian Yerkachev. I like that. That's really good coffee.
- [62:49]
Rod Pyle
Have you ever drunk the coffee that is supposed to be so good because it goes through an animal's digestive system?
- [62:55]
Tariq Malik
No, I'm not that interested.
- [62:57]
Rod Pyle
I think it's a fascinating idea.
- [62:59]
Tariq Malik
But yeah, it's the poop coffee. The, the. Some kind of calf cat or something eats it and then.
- [63:05]
Rod Pyle
Civet cat.
- [63:06]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, it poops it out and then they take the beans and they may be washing. Yeah, they washed them, I'm pretty sure.
- [63:12]
C
You know what? I think it's time to wrap up the show.
- [63:18]
Rod Pyle
Well, I'm gonna try an experiment, you know, because an extended space flight, you won't have civet cats.
- [63:22]
Tariq Malik
That's right. That's right.
- [63:24]
Rod Pyle
I'm gonna eat some coffee beans. I'm gonna eat some coffee beans tonight and then in the morning I'll prepare them and let you know how it goes.
- [63:33]
Tariq Malik
Hey, on that, let's end on a high note, right? Don Pettit written up in the New York Times this week about his amazing space photography and everything. Everyone do check it out. Ken Chang wrote that story and if I find that, I'll put it in our rundown. But Don Pettit famously, when he got put in as backup crew for his first space station mission, I believe did not according to the book that I read. I could be wrong. The book could be wrong. It was such A late addition that he didn't have his menu on the space station waiting for him. So because he loves coffee, he had to spend his weight allotment to get as much instant coffee as he could take with him on that flight. And when he went back, he planned everything in advance and he invented the world's first space coffee cup. And on this last mission that he just came back from at age 70 as NASA's oldest active astronaut, he had that space coffee that he invented from the cup that he invented in space. And it was amazing. I just think that that's awesome and that's instant coffee, but it's instant coffee in space, my friends.
- [64:38]
Rod Pyle
I'm sorry. I fell asleep there for a moment. Okay. Just.
- [64:41]
Tariq Malik
Wow.
- [64:42]
Rod Pyle
Speaking of astronauts and. Cool. Just a preview on June 13. What are you laughing at?
- [64:51]
Tariq Malik
Oh, John's like, you're the one, Rodney. Sort of talking about the poop comics.
- [64:54]
Rod Pyle
On June 13, we're scheduled to have Nick Hague on the show.
- [64:58]
Tariq Malik
Yeah, Nick Hagg, Space Force. Space Force. Space Force. Space Force.
- [65:03]
Rod Pyle
Yeah, let's play that.
- [65:04]
Tariq Malik
Also an astronaut.
- [65:05]
Rod Pyle
No, that's not. All right. Hey, everybody. Hey, Tarek. Yes, Rod, thanks for joining us Today for episode 161, the Twist Comedy Hour. Where can we find you entertaining the masses these days with your jokes?
- [65:19]
Tariq Malik
Well, I'll tell you where you won't be finding me, and that's on a New Jersey transit train into my office in New York because they're on strike and we don't know when I can get on a train again. But you can find me@space.com as always, on the Twitter and the Xarekj Mallic on YouTube at spacetronplays, where I will be playing with the AI Darth Vader and asking him questions. He will talk back to you. The brand new update today. That's going to be exciting. And tomorrow I'll be at a Renaissance fair, so I'll get the AI Darth Vader talk and I will talk to, I guess some pirates at the Renaissance fair. It's going to be amazing.
- [65:53]
Rod Pyle
Talk back. You will. Okay. And of course, you can find me with my horrible impressions and inappropriate comments@pilebooks.com or@astromagazine.com and soon at the International Space Development Conference, which is on June 19th through the 22nd in Orlando, Florida, where people will be coming by the thousands to see Tarik. And my three loyal fans may show up as well. Always remember, huh?
- [66:23]
Tariq Malik
I said book your tickets now.
- [66:25]
Rod Pyle
Oh, wait, I'm sorry. Your thousand fans are just your family. That we're accommodating. And always remember, you could drop us a line at Twist@TwistWit TV. We welcome your comments, jokes, suggestions and criticism if you must. New episodes of this podcast publish every Friday and your favorite podcaster. So make sure to subscribe, tell your friends, give us reviews. We live and die by your reviews and your love and your five stars and all that. Don't forget, we're counting on you to step up and join club twit in 2025. Besides supporting this show, you'll help support TWIT in general, which brings you all the best in technology and other programming. Well, and stuff like this and. And horrid space jokes. And you get all the great content with video streams, stuff you can't see anywhere else. And monthly. Sorry, annual subscriptions are back. Did I get that right, John?
- [67:21]
C
No, you did. And also, just a note, there's a good likelihood we might be raising the prices down the road, so.
- [67:28]
Rod Pyle
So get grandfathered in. Yeah, because if you do it now, you'll get to keep your low, low, low price. You can also follow the twittech podcast network at Twit on Twitter and on Facebook and Twitter TV on Instagram. Thanks everybody for sticking with us for this whole hour full of. Of terrible jokes and tars, meandering experiences.
- [67:46]
C
And poop coffee and that.
- [67:48]
Tariq Malik
That was all Rod. I'm just saying.
- [67:51]
Rod Pyle
It was not. I did not use the P word. That was one of you guys.
- [67:55]
C
Hey, you're the one that kept talking about it, really going, the details of it, and we're looking to contribute.
- [68:01]
Rod Pyle
Everybody's got to have their fetish. Okay, everybody.
- [68:04]
Tariq Malik
Oh my God.
- [68:05]
Rod Pyle
We'll see you next time. Take care, Tata.
- [68:10]
D
Hey, focus up. That is what I said to Hands On Tech when we looked at the relaunch. It is time for us to focus on one topic at a time and make sure we're answering that question. I am answering that question as thoroughly as possible. If you are a member of Club Twit, you can watch the video version of this show completely ad free. Of course, listen to the audio version ad free. If you're not a member, the show will still be available to you in both ways. You can watch the video on YouTube with ads, or you can watch the audio as you always have. I mean, listen to the audio as you always have in our feeds. In any case, you gotta tune in to Hands On Tech because I guarantee there's going to be a question you're going to want to have the answer to. And from time to time. I always also review a gadget, a gizmo or something of the sort. You gotta check out hands on tech and I can't wait to get your question.