Is Starship still the fastest path to the Moon?

Thinking through the chaos that has ensued over the NASA Administrator role, the Artemis 3 lander acceleration movement, the SpaceX Starship HLS update, and a bit on how we actually got here.

This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 32 executive producers—Donald, Stealth Julian, Jan, Theo and Violet, The Astrogators at SEE, Joakim, Steve, Matt, Fred, Lee, Joel, Kris, Ryan, David, Josh from Impulse, Warren, Heiko, Pat, Russell, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Joonas, Better Every Day Studios, Will and Lars from Agile, Natasha Tsakos, Frank, and four anonymous—and hundreds of supporters.

Topics

• SpaceX - Updates
• SpaceX teases simplified Starship as alarms sound over Moon landing delays - Ars Technica
• Why did NASA’s chief just shake up the agency’s plans to land on the Moon? - Ars Technica
• Elon Musk just declared war on NASA’s acting administrator, apparently - Ars Technica
• How America fell behind China in the lunar space race—and how it can catch back up - Ars Technica
• China completes landing and takeoff test for crewed moon lander - SpaceNews
• China completes second hot-fire test for new moon rocket, including engine restarts - SpaceNews
• Trump pulls Isaacman nomination for space. Source: “NASA is f***ed.” - Ars Technica

The Show

• Like the show? Support the show on Patreon or Substack!
• Email your thoughts, comments, and questions to anthony@mainenginecutoff.com
• Follow @WeHaveMECO
• Follow @meco@spacey.space on Mastodon
• Listen to MECO Headlines
• Listen to Off-Nominal
• Join the Off-Nominal Discord
• Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, TuneIn or elsewhere
• Subscribe to the Main Engine Cut Off Newsletter
• Artwork photo by NASA
• Work with me and my design and development agency: Pine Works