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The first all-civilian crew space mission is set to launch as Inspiration4. SPEXcast sits down to discuss the importance of this mission in the context of American space flight, commercial space flight, and private space flight. We discuss the crew selection and inside peeks into the SpaceX Crewed Spaceflight program via the Netflix documentary for the mission. We also explore how this mission will impact future crewed missions going forward.

After 10 months of exploratory work, NASA has selected SpaceX's Starship to return humans to the Moon. We analyze NASA's announcement and break down NASA's own Source Selection Document to understand how Blue Origin and Dynetics stacked up against SpaceX's proposal.

23 years after the first module of the International Space Station was launched into space, the station is getting another major upgrade! On January 11th, NASA announced 6 new advanced solar panels will be installed on the ISS starting later this year. These panels are much more efficient than the originals that were installed in the early 2000s, and will enable exciting new experiments on the ISS going forward. Today we dive into what makes these panels special, as well as the impact they will have on the ISS and its commercial successors.

On this episode, nTopology CEO Brad Rothenberg walks us through how generative design techniques and new engineering tools are changing the way we design spacecraft.

SpaceX's Starlink constellation claims to serve low-latency, high-bandwidth internet access to anyone in the United States with a Starlink base station. In New York, another company has a head start connecting businesses with high-speed internet. Shrihari Pandit is the CEO of Stealth Communications. His company serves gigabit internet to NYC over their own fiber optic network.
On this episode, Shrihari takes us through the ins and outs of how LEO constellations like Starlink and Project Kuiper will play a role in delivering high speed internet to people across the globe.

This week on SPEXcast, Vice President of Special Projects & Brand at Virgin Orbit, Will Pomerantz, talks about the origins of Virgin Orbit, mentorship, and diversity in today's aerospace industry. You can check out additional links and references at https://blog.spexcast.com/78-will-pomerantz-virgin-orbit .