Show Notes:

https://www.spacecom.mil/Newsroom/News/Article-Display/Article/4308024/press-release-us-and-uk-demonstrate-partnership-in-first-ever-on-orbit-operation/https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/09/rocket-lab-eyes-mto-nasa-revives-mission-concepthttps://www.blueorigin.com/news/blue-origin-mars-telecommunications-orbiterhttps://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2025/09/crs-ng-23https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/esdmd/common-exploration-systems-development-division/space-launch-system/nasa-artemis-ii-moon-rocket-ready-to-fly-crew

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Max-Q: The Podcast is a Max-Q News production, owned by the Kaidem Group LLC. Any views expressed in this podcast are not necessarily that of either Max-Q News or our parent company and should not be interpreted as such unless expressly stated.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/firefly-granted-faa-clearance-resume-alpha-rocket-launches-2025-08-26/

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-astronaut-megan-mcarthur-retires/

https://rocketlabcorp.com/updates/rocket-lab-opens-launch-complex-3-a-critical-milestone-on-the-path-to-neutrons-first-launch/

https://www.exploration.space/blog/the-exploration-companys-nyx-earth-capsule-receives-phase-1-iss-safety-approval

In this weeks show Iain and Ethan discuss all the various new contracts and missions that got announced this past week, and boy, there are some very interesting things to note here!!

Amentum secures a 4 billion dollar contract to revamp the range systems by the space force

The UK Space Agency has been shut down and absorbed by the DSIT

ESA announced a mission to asteroid Apophis

SpinLaunch raised $30 million to develop their satellite communication network

Firefly announced that they would be adding a new launch site in japan

In homage to one of our past episodes, entitled "Nothing Went Boom", we talked about a very important boom this week. For a while. Actually, we talked about a couple of booms. What booms are those? Well, tune in and find out!

Also, Beagle goes on a whole rant about funky astrophysicist naming schemes. They're... weird.

This week Ethan and Iain discuss the politics surrounding NASA and the pulled nomination of Jared Isaacman. We also discuss the fallout between Musk and Trump and what that means for SpaceX contracts. After the political bit we talk about the Hakuto R mission and StarShip's ninth test flight.

Our Links:Max-Q News website: ⁠https://max-q-news.space/%E2%81%A0Max-Q News X (formerly Twitter): ⁠https://twitter.com/MaxQ_production%E2%81%A0Max-Q News Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/JTgxuvjY7e

In this interesting episode Iain is on his own and he is less than enthused, however the news is very exciting so that helped.

Over the past month a lot has happened and we cover it all, which shockingly took only 20 minutes.

RocketLab had their quarterly review and it went quite well

IM-2 investigation is complete and it shows exactly what we expected

Dragonfly defies expectations and passes its CDR

The first satellite internet video call has been made

Stratolaunch completes the second flight of the Talon-A2

Varda completes their third mission

StarBase is now its own town despite the public backlash of six total people

StarShip granted 20 launches per year out of starbase

New Horizons turned back on and Firefly Blue Ghost did not

Redwire and Ispace sign contract for lunar landers

ULA sponsors a coffee shop

Texas senators want Space Shuttle Discovery and so do we

Jared Isaacman faced a tough confirmation hearing.

No links available go check previous ep for links.

This week Butch and Suni come home after a 9 month stint on the ISS, ISRO gets approval for another lunar lander, and SpaceX breaks a turnaround record

Crew-9 return

Blue Ghost goes offline wish potential for revival on April 1st https://x.com/Firefly_Space/status/1901414669677449256 https://x.com/firefly_space/status/1902003622201745632

Chandrayaan 5 has received mission approval https://www.deccanherald.com/india/centre-has-accorded-approval-for-chandrayaan-5-mission-isro-chief-3448873

new suborbital rocket alert! NordSpace announces SHARP (Supersonic and Hypersonic Applications Research Platform) https://x.com/nord_space/status/1901978538711855184

Max-Q News website: ⁠https://max-q-news.space/%E2%81%A0Max-Q News X (formerly Twitter): ⁠https://twitter.com/MaxQ_production%E2%81%A0Max-Q News Discord: ⁠https://discord.gg/JTgxuvjY7e

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