NASA's Artemis II Launched, But It Should Have Been a SpaceX Mission

NASA's historic launch is putting four astronauts on a mission to orbit the moon for the first time in 53 years. We explore the advanced technologies behind this achievement, the high costs of the Artemis II mission compared to SpaceX, and the ambitions of both organizations for lunar colonization. 

We look at the crew’s extensive food menu but wrap with a discussion on future moon settlements, and why NASA should consider outsourcing.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Launching Towards the Moon
4:20 Reflecting on 53 Years of Silence
5:15 The Cost of Space Exploration
8:33 Comparing NASA and SpaceX
9:54 Future Missions and Lunar Colonization
11:18 The Moon's Resources and Potential
12:34 Phased Plans for Lunar Outpost
14:00 The Astronauts' Menu
14:59 Toilet Troubles in Space
16:51 Visuals of Spacecraft Evolution
18:11 The Future of Space Travel
24:43 Closing Thoughts and Optimism for Space

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RESOURCES

Josh: https://x.com/JoshKale

Ejaaz: https://x.com/cryptopunk7213

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Creators and Guests

Host

Ejaaz Ahamadeen

Host

Josh Kale

What is Limitless: An AI Podcast?

Exploring the frontiers of Technology and AI

Josh:
Last night, a rocket left Earth carrying four human beings towards the moon,

Josh:
which hasn't happened in 53 years.

Josh:
In 1972, back the last time we did this, the computer that landed Apollo 11

Josh:
on the lunar surface ran on 43 kilohertz.

Josh:
That's less processing power than the chip inside of a $5 USB-C cable that charges your iPhone.

Josh:
And they landed on the moon with it. Last night, the most powerful rocket NASA

Josh:
has ever built, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty, launched four astronauts

Josh:
into a 10-day loop around the moon.

Josh:
We're not going to the surface. We're just going to fly by, take some photos,

Josh:
and then come back home. And I got to be honest, this is incredibly exciting.

Josh:
I sat there all day watching the live stream. I cheered them on as it took off.

Josh:
But it's a little embarrassing because we're not even reaching the point in which we left off

Josh:
a full generation ago. So there's a lot to unpack here with this mission,

Josh:
how amazing it is, how impressive it is, what it enables with the future partnerships

Josh:
with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, and also how it kind of, to some extent,

Josh:
was just a colossal waste of money.

Josh:
So there's a lot to unpack here, EJS. But to start with, oh my God, this is amazing.

Josh:
We're going back to the moon and the astronauts are currently,

Josh:
as you're listening to this, flying into space, getting ready to orbit around the moon.

Ejaaz:
I had friends yesterday that I hadn't spoken to in like months message me and

Ejaaz:
be like, dude, are you watching?

Ejaaz:
Did you know we're launching like people to the moon again?

Ejaaz:
People were just like encapsulated by this entire thing. I think a bunch of

Ejaaz:
people all over the world were watching this stream.

Ejaaz:
And it's nuts. The mission is nuts. It's 10 days.

Ejaaz:
We're sending four astronauts around the moon. So, you know,

Ejaaz:
again, we're not landing on the moon, but we're going further than any space

Ejaaz:
mission has gone before.

Ejaaz:
4,700 miles to be specific, a 10-day mission. Right now, the crew are being

Ejaaz:
propelled around Earth using Earth's gravity, and they're going to be launched

Ejaaz:
towards the moon in about, I believe, a day and a half from now.

Ejaaz:
They're going to reach the moon six days after that, traverse it for about,

Ejaaz:
I believe, maybe half a day or so.

Ejaaz:
They're going to view the dark side of the moon, and then they're going to come straight home.

Josh:
And there's a lot of firsts for this, too. This is the farthest away humans

Josh:
will have ever been from Earth.

Josh:
By a couple extra thousand miles, but still the furthest away they've ever been,

Josh:
there's also going to be a new record happening upon re-entry where this is

Josh:
going to be the fastest humans have ever moved before at 25,000 miles per hour on re-entry.

Josh:
And this is thanks to the free launch trajectory that they get from this mission.

Josh:
So basically what happens is we send these humans,

Josh:
up into the low earth atmosphere. We whip them around earth and then send them out into deep space.

Josh:
The gravitational pull of the moon pulls them into its orbit,

Josh:
wraps them around the backside and shoots them right back to earth totally for free.

Josh:
No additional propulsion needed. And I have a post here that kind of walks through

Josh:
the highlights, right? We have 252,000 miles from earth.

Josh:
These astronauts are going re-entry at 25,000 miles per hour,

Josh:
incredibly hot, incredibly fast and scary.

Josh:
And then it just kind of shows the trajectory of this, which is, it's really amazing.

Josh:
It's something that has been discovered in the past. I believe they've even

Josh:
done this exact trajectory, a very similar one, but just a little bit further

Josh:
this time and a little bit more exciting because it's happening in real time.

Josh:
We have computers that can live stream. We have real-time video feeds of these

Josh:
astronauts and we get to actually watch and participate in this pretty unbelievable

Josh:
thing that's happening.

Ejaaz:
So I've been watching the live stream since yesterday and there's

Ejaaz:
a tracker which tells you how far away from earth they

Ejaaz:
are right now and just as of recording it's around 50

Ejaaz:
000 miles now if you're wondering how far away

Ejaaz:
that is that's around four earth's diameters away

Ejaaz:
from us so they are a long long way uh away from home but the live cast is still

Ejaaz:
going on and people are generally just pumped about this josh um there was a

Ejaaz:
hilarious video um where a cnn report i believe asked this kid hey um you know

Ejaaz:
why are you here Why are you here to watch the launch? And his response was pretty hilarious.

Josh:
Why do you want to be here? Why do you love space?

Ejaaz:
Why do you love being a part of history? We're going back to the fucking moon.

Josh:
Hell yeah, brother.

Ejaaz:
That's how I felt. That's how I felt. We're going back to the damn moon.

Ejaaz:
Now, that sounds amazing. But when you put it into context as to when our last

Ejaaz:
moon mission was, and there's been quite a few.

Ejaaz:
We've put about, I think, 11 or 12 people on the moon. We've been to the moon,

Ejaaz:
maybe 12 people. and we've been to the moon maybe, what was it, three times or so?

Ejaaz:
You know, all American manned missions.

Ejaaz:
I asked the question, why has it been 53 years since we've been back?

Josh:
That's a great question, EJ. And here's a timeline that should make you moderately

Josh:
uncomfortable. Because in 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.

Josh:
We walked on it, planted a flag, and came home. Three years later,

Josh:
Apollo 17, Gene Carman becomes the last person to walk on the moon.

Josh:
And his final words on the surface, We leave as we came, and God willing,

Josh:
we shall return. Well, God was apparently not willing for 53 years because it

Josh:
has been a very long time.

Josh:
And it's funny. Like I mentioned in the intro, we did that on a computer that

Josh:
only ran 145,000 lines of hand-optimized code.

Josh:
It was 1,100,000th the power that sits in your iPhone in your pocket and 350

Josh:
times more than, you know, those TI-84 graphing calculators you used in high school? Yeah.

Josh:
It's 350 times more powerful than that. And we landed on the moon twice.

Josh:
So clearly there has been this disconnect in progress between then

Josh:
and now but nonetheless we are headed back

Josh:
and this does actually begin to open up

Josh:
the door for why this actually matters i mean this is fun we're learning we're

Josh:
doing science experiments like testing for radiation out in deeper parts of

Josh:
space but the reality is is that this is mission number one on a multi-step

Josh:
plan towards actually colonizing the moon building a lunar base on the moon

Josh:
thanks to companies like spacex.

Ejaaz:
This is where I kind of want to transition into the numbers because they sound

Ejaaz:
impressive. It's a lot cheaper than it used to be back then. So that's one win.

Ejaaz:
But when you compare it directly towards a company like SpaceX,

Ejaaz:
which is using groundbreaking technology and cutting the cost down to a fraction

Ejaaz:
of what this mission cost, it starts to look pretty bad on NASA and on this

Ejaaz:
space mission in particular.

Ejaaz:
Now, the headline number is $4.1 billion. dollars.

Ejaaz:
That's how much it costs to launch this rocket and man this mission.

Ejaaz:
And, you know, it's understandable. There's a lot of bureaucracy in the government.

Ejaaz:
There's a lot of mouths to feed and jobs to pay. But the fact that SpaceX can

Ejaaz:
do this for $10 million, and hey, if they blow the rocket up,

Ejaaz:
what is it, like $40, $50 million, Josh?

Josh:
Yeah, so the way it works is, I mean, reusability is a big thing,

Josh:
but even in the absence of it, it is a huge delta.

Josh:
So like you mentioned $4.1 billion per launch for the SLS, which is this Artemis II mission.

Josh:
The total mission cost, by the way, about $93 billion.

Josh:
So quite a bit was spent on this. For Starship,

Josh:
it can launch for about $100 million. And that's if the Starship rocket blows up.

Josh:
So if Starship explodes, the total cost to build in materials is about $107 billion.

Josh:
If it does land, which they're planning to do just in a couple of months,

Josh:
that cost goes down to $10 million.

Josh:
From $10 million to $4.1 billion per launch.

Josh:
And actually, EJ, if you scroll a little bit further down in this article here,

Josh:
there's a visual that shows the difference in size too as it relates to payload.

Josh:
And Starship is a monster compared

Josh:
to nasa's sls it sits i want to say 25 30

Josh:
taller it has much more payload capacity it is

Josh:
just a far more impressive rocket and the fact that

Josh:
it costs a fraction of a percent less than

Josh:
one percent to launch and it can be reused and it can be overflown again and

Josh:
again and again it's a testament to the gap that has been built between i guess

Josh:
government funded industries and private industry and part of the reason is

Josh:
the the contracts are such a nightmare when nasa builds these things.

Josh:
They use it, they build them based on cost plus contracts, meaning that.

Josh:
The company decides a cost. They mutually agree on how much something is going to cost them to make.

Josh:
And then they add a fixed rate on top of it. So they get a premium.

Josh:
So Lockheed Martin says, this piece is going to cost a million dollars.

Josh:
Well, cost plus means, well, NASA will pay you a 20% premium on that.

Josh:
But there's no incentive for them to bring it down because the premium gets

Josh:
higher as the cost goes higher. So there's all the incentive in the world to

Josh:
make these things incredibly expensive.

Josh:
Where SpaceX, a private company that does not use our taxpayer dollars to fund

Josh:
its launches, has every incentive in the world to remove the costs.

Josh:
And that's why you get this thing called the Idiot Index, which is the delta

Josh:
between the cost of materials versus the actual cost it takes to get these things into orbit.

Josh:
And the Idiot Index on NASA's SLS is pretty freaking high.

Ejaaz:
I'm starting to think that this entire mission should just have been handled and managed by SpaceX.

Ejaaz:
I'm pretty sure the future missions, which NASA is going to enable putting people

Ejaaz:
on the moon and setting up a moon settlement, is going to be enabled by SpaceX.

Ejaaz:
There is no are the way that they can do it. They need reusable rockets.

Ejaaz:
They need cheaper costs to get into outer space and to the moon and back.

Ejaaz:
Now, I know they say never judge a book by its color, but I'm going to judge

Ejaaz:
these two ships directly together. Star Trek.

Ejaaz:
25% taller. It is two times heavier. It can take 4x more payload than this current rocket.

Ejaaz:
It is completely reusable and both stages are designed for reuse.

Ejaaz:
So the point I'm trying to make here is I think that NASA taking 53 years is

Ejaaz:
kind of a big discredit towards the agency and what they've achieved.

Ejaaz:
Not to discredit that the mission itself is very impressive,

Ejaaz:
but I think the future is going to be with companies like SpaceX that is able

Ejaaz:
to lower down the cost for things like this and produce better efficiencies

Ejaaz:
versus what we just watched yesterday.

Josh:
Yeah, it's totally right. And it's so important not to discredit what's happening

Josh:
here because this is amazing, right? It's like we do have humans that are on

Josh:
their way to the moon right now built by an unbelievable engineering team that did this.

Josh:
It's not their fault. A lot of these people weren't even alive 53 years ago.

Josh:
They are doing their best to get these people to the moon and they're doing

Josh:
a great job. The mission so far outside of that one little toilet anomaly has been a wild success.

Josh:
Everything is working really well and that serves a tremendous amount of credit.

Josh:
But like you mentioned, SpaceX is just far superior and we're going to see that

Josh:
handoff happen as we progress through this artemis program so artemis 3 which

Josh:
is scheduled for mid-2027 so a year from now uh the crew is going to test docking

Josh:
with the spacex starship or perhaps blue origin but i would imagine that spacex

Josh:
is probably going to win over that contract there's no.

Ejaaz:
Way bezos gets this no way

Josh:
Unlikely unlikely but possible they have the

Josh:
option then artemis 4 is the big one that's happening in

Josh:
early 2028 and that's when we are targeting for the first lunar

Josh:
lander to actually land on the moon with human beings inside so spacex is probably

Josh:
going to be handling that one that's coming in two years and then just a little

Josh:
bit later in the year in the second half of 2028 there's going to be a second

Josh:
crew landing planned in which nasa is going to target twice per year landings

Josh:
on the moon going forward.

Josh:
And this is going to begin the production and the building of our lunar Mars

Josh:
base, which is really cool.

Josh:
I mean, NASA's administrator, Jared Isaacman, he's the new guy.

Josh:
Everyone loves him. He's amazing.

Josh:
He announced a $30 billion decade-long plan to build a permanent lunar outpost

Josh:
on the South Pole of the moon by 2036.

Josh:
So the Artemis launch today, while we may have some choice words to say about

Josh:
it, is very much the gateway to a lunar base.

Josh:
And this is step one in a multi-step process that's going to happen.

Josh:
And they're going to bring in SpaceX.

Josh:
They're going to bring in Starship. The costs are going to decrease.

Josh:
It's just, you know, it took a little while to get here.

Ejaaz:
I think it's also important to set the context as to why on Earth we have two

Ejaaz:
major companies or agencies trying to land humans and set up a supplement on the moon itself.

Ejaaz:
Elon has his own specific reasons for SpaceX. He wants to get closer to the sun.

Ejaaz:
He wants to train AI with data centers out in space and harness sun's energy

Ejaaz:
and turn us into a Kardashev 2 or Type 2 civilization.

Ejaaz:
With NASA, it is part of that, but they've also realized that some parts of

Ejaaz:
the Moon is potentially habitable.

Ejaaz:
You know, they've found or confirmed water on the South Pole.

Ejaaz:
They've got drinkable water, breathable oxygen. And one of the reasons why this

Ejaaz:
is so important is it gives us more access to resources that we didn't have

Ejaaz:
access to before, more space.

Ejaaz:
And also, it's easier to manufacture things with one-sixth of the gravity of Earth.

Josh:
Yeah, well, it's also, I mean, mass driver, dude, we're, we're doing AI in space.

Josh:
Don't forget that. So the plan for, I mean, space extensively is to help build

Josh:
this Mars base, but also to build that mass driver that we talked about in an episode prior,

Josh:
which is a way of distributing satellites into orbit very cheaply and very quickly

Josh:
and harnessing a lot more energy.

Josh:
There's essentially unlimited free energy on the moon because we're able to

Josh:
capture all of it via solar and when you apply that at scale it's it's a really

Josh:
amazing way to begin to scale.

Josh:
Intelligence energy capture we start to build these mini

Josh:
dyson storms because the cost per satellite becomes so low

Josh:
and this is going to happen over this phased structure they

Josh:
have like phase one which is happening through 2028 they're planning 25

Josh:
launches 21 landings to deliver 4 000 kilograms

Josh:
of equipment that's going to include like rovers

Josh:
drones communication systems things of the nature phase two

Josh:
happens in the following years between 2029 and 2032 where

Josh:
they're going to start building power systems and communications and

Josh:
habitat modules where humans can actually live on the moon for weeks

Josh:
or months at a time phase three happens just after that

Josh:
which is 2033 to 2036 which is

Josh:
the fully operational lunar outpost so this happens fairly

Josh:
quickly a decade from now there's a very high probability

Josh:
that's or i guess not very high there's a

Josh:
strong probability that we have humans permanently stationed on

Josh:
the moon with rocket chips that go back and forth on a regular basis and we

Josh:
see it doesn't take that long this whole mission for these astronauts takes

Josh:
10 days if you go direct i think it's way less than that it's probably half

Josh:
or something um so the moon is going to change a lot and this is very much the

Josh:
gateway mission that enables that that change to start happening.

Ejaaz:
That still is almost a decade away. And I want to bring us back to the mission

Ejaaz:
that's happening right now.

Ejaaz:
We've talked about a lot of impressive things. The tech, the ship itself,

Ejaaz:
the crew, very accomplished. But I want to talk about the thing that impressed me the most.

Ejaaz:
The menu that they have for the next 10 days. Oh boy.

Ejaaz:
Artemis 2 crew menu was leaked. And they have 189 unique menu items.

Ejaaz:
They also have spice levels for those who prefer spicier versus something more

Ejaaz:
milder. And I have to say, this is more impressive than any space mission or

Ejaaz:
arguably anything that I eat on a daily basis at my local restaurant,

Ejaaz:
my neighborhood restaurants.

Ejaaz:
We've got coffee, green tea, mango, peach, smoothie, chocolate breakfast drink.

Ejaaz:
I've never had that before.

Ejaaz:
Apple cider, pineapple drink, cocoa, strawberry bread. Like that's just a drink

Ejaaz:
section, by the way. Then you've got common food items.

Ejaaz:
This seems like a lot for 10 days, but it is my favorite ever thing.

Ejaaz:
You've got to keep the crew happy. I don't think the space station has this

Ejaaz:
variety of different things.

Ejaaz:
Five Canadian products by the way I just want to point out it's not just all America but

Josh:
I love this. And to my understanding also, this is the first time there's like

Josh:
a fully functional toilet bowl in a spacecraft. So that's pretty...

Ejaaz:
Questionable.

Josh:
Okay, questionable. Why do you say questionable?

Ejaaz:
Well, the good news is that we launched with everyone being saved.

Ejaaz:
The rocket did not explode. Thank goodness.

Ejaaz:
The bad news is almost immediately the toilet got clogged. It got throttled

Ejaaz:
and they couldn't use the toilet.

Josh:
Wait, did it get clogged? It didn't get clogged.

Ejaaz:
It got they're troubleshooting the toilet um what does that tell you josh i

Ejaaz:
don't know but the important update is it has finally been fixed so the people

Ejaaz:
will be able to reuse the toilet but the question i have on my mind is what

Ejaaz:
would they have done if that was you know unfixed

Josh:
You know i'm actually not sure how astronauts use the

Josh:
bathroom in space generally speaking so that's gonna have to be some additional research

Josh:
we do after that perhaps if you know you could leave a comment so i

Josh:
would be curious i think the menu is very funny um i

Josh:
they need to be careful tread lightly because we know that toilet's a little fickle so

Josh:
don't go too overboard on the menu but i think it's fun right it's like

Josh:
if you're gonna blow all this money do it have fun

Josh:
like make it entertaining make it fun and exciting for

Josh:
the astronauts make it fun for everyone to watch and i

Josh:
think that's what's really interesting about having the live stream is that we

Josh:
get to watch and participate this participate in this in real

Josh:
time as it's happening now i do have some choice comments about the

Josh:
live stream they were standing on the launch pad and i

Josh:
was looking into the cockpit and it looks like it was being shot on a potato

Josh:
like perhaps they could have used this spacex partnership to partner with starlink

Josh:
that would have been cool to give slightly higher resolution uh imagery maybe

Josh:
they did because the image we just watched earlier was pretty good but there

Josh:
was this really funny um meme that i saw that showed the cockpits comparison between.

Josh:
Spacex and artemis 2 and looking at

Josh:
these two it is pretty stark the difference right it's

Josh:
like one of these looks like it is from the 1960s and the other one looks like

Josh:
it is out of a sci-fi movie and i think that's another testament to kind of

Josh:
where we've come from and where we're going where nasa's very much riding the

Josh:
coattails of its history which is unbelievably impressive and powerful and strong

Josh:
but it's a new era and they're,

Josh:
There is a new kid in town who is building some really badass engineering,

Josh:
some really badass rockets.

Josh:
And based on this photo, like SpaceX, SpaceX looks like what I would imagine the future looks like.

Ejaaz:
Yeah, it looks like something out of the Interstellar movie,

Ejaaz:
you know, where Matthew McConaughey is like, you know, we're going to land this TARS.

Ejaaz:
Yeah, I think it's way more advanced. It's way less cluttered.

Ejaaz:
I think, I hate to say it, but I think there's been a lot of bureaucracy in

Ejaaz:
NASA and in government agencies and putting people focusing on space in particular.

Ejaaz:
I think in that time in the 53 years since we did our last moon mission,

Ejaaz:
private companies have caught up.

Ejaaz:
SpaceX being the prominent one, Blue Origin from Jeff Bezos being probably the one that is in second.

Ejaaz:
I think we're going to start, like when I zoom out, I think that net net,

Ejaaz:
we're going to see more space launches and more space missions.

Ejaaz:
Before we started recording, Josh, I told you, like, I hope one day in my life

Ejaaz:
before I die, I get to go to the moon or into outer space in general.

Ejaaz:
I think that's going to become a reality.

Ejaaz:
Elon is targeting a launch every hour in the next, I believe,

Ejaaz:
five years or within a decade.

Ejaaz:
I can't remember the time span, but that would be awesome. That's something

Ejaaz:
out of Star Trek, something straight out of sci-fi.

Josh:
Yeah, it feels very high conviction to say that you will have the option to

Josh:
go to the moon in your lifetime.

Josh:
And if you want to, you will have the chance to do that. And I think that's

Josh:
a really cool thing that this enabled and this recent focus on space is going to enable.

Josh:
We are very much back into our space era. And this is unbelievably exciting.

Josh:
Like right now, four humans are in a spacecraft hurling towards the moon.

Josh:
And by Monday, they'll fly over the side, which just for a moment,

Josh:
they will see a part of the moon that no human eyes have ever directly seen before.

Josh:
It's really exciting. And this opens up not only the enthusiasm,

Josh:
because this has gotten quite a bit of publicity, but also just the velocity

Josh:
and all of the approvals needed to actually start building and making progress towards the lunar base.

Josh:
SpaceX pivoting from Mars to the moon is really important. There is now a clear

Josh:
path to building a lunar base.

Josh:
And what that unlocks is really cool in terms of technology,

Josh:
but also just in terms of awe and curiosity and getting excited about what it's

Josh:
like to explore beyond the current planet that we've lived on since the beginning of time.

Josh:
And the progress is, it's just so awesome to see. And even though it,

Josh:
sure, it was inefficient.

Josh:
Sure, there were a lot of mistakes. Sure, it took us a long time. We're here, we're back.

Josh:
And we are back in a way that is sustainable and durable. And the window is open to do this now.

Josh:
And assuming things continue to go well, assuming there is no catastrophe within

Josh:
our country between now and like maybe 15, 20 years from now,

Josh:
Ejaz, you can go to the moon.

Josh:
I'll be able to go to the moon. And it will be very cost effective.

Josh:
Because when you think about the launch costs, I mean, $10 million to send a

Josh:
starship to the moon today, what is that going to cost like a decade from now?

Josh:
Probably significantly less. And I assume it's going to be something like an

Josh:
airplane because at the end, at the limit, that's the only way that this becomes.

Josh:
Sustainable business model is if they are able to do that at a cost that's competitive.

Josh:
And that seems to be the goal. And over the next 10 years, we're going to build something that,

Josh:
is indistinguishable from sci-fi. Like it's really going to start to look like

Josh:
the future. And that is so unbelievably exciting.

Ejaaz:
I remember last year, Elon was speaking about the launch economics of putting stuff into outer space.

Ejaaz:
And he mentioned that there might in the short term be this new type of transportation

Ejaaz:
system for people who want to get to countries quicker.

Ejaaz:
So what he modeled out was going straight up in a SpaceX shuttle and coming

Ejaaz:
down about 44 minutes later in Japan.

Ejaaz:
And so you've done the journey from the US to Japan in 44 minutes,

Ejaaz:
where usually it would take like 13 to 19 hours, depending on airline and flight time.

Ejaaz:
So there are a lot of intermediary benefits that are going to happen with all of this.

Ejaaz:
But hey, I'm so proud of all of this. And as a foreigner and a tourist living

Ejaaz:
in this country, I'm wearing my American flag here.

Ejaaz:
I don't know if you guys can see it, but I'm proud of us.

Ejaaz:
And I'm super excited to see. I hope the mission is successful and hopefully

Ejaaz:
it'll lead to more missions in the future.

Josh:
Yeah, we got to keep but real we got a clap back where it's deserved that uh

Josh:
descriptor that you're saying about spacex that's

Josh:
the vertical takeoff and landing rockets the vetols and i

Josh:
believe the video where they initially pitched that idea is probably

Josh:
close to seven or eight years old and they made a total of zero progress towards

Josh:
that so damn space is hard man and priorities change like spacex was going to

Josh:
build vtol rockets and go to the mars uh now they're going to the moon and nasa

Josh:
hasn't really had the opportunity to go to the moon no they're doing it now

Josh:
so priorities change things shift, but right now we have a very clear trajectory.

Josh:
Jared Isaacman has said, we are going to the moon. We are colonizing it.

Josh:
We are building a lunar base. 10 years.

Josh:
And we actually have momentum. There are astronauts in the air right now and

Josh:
a very clear trajectory to continuing that. So,

Josh:
Really cool. If you're listening to this, chances are they're still in space.

Josh:
You can go to NASA's YouTube channel and watch this live in real time.

Josh:
And it's pretty amazing.

Josh:
You could just see these guys kind of hanging out. They were taking pictures with their iPhones.

Josh:
I think the idea of this is to run some science experiments,

Josh:
sure, but also just to get people excited about space and to make it more relatable,

Josh:
to make it more accessible.

Josh:
And I mean, it's really exciting. So I would encourage anyone to go and check

Josh:
out the live stream, share maybe in the comment section what's most exciting.

Josh:
I don't know, Eijas, any final thoughts before we head out today?

Ejaaz:
I want people's over-under on SpaceX getting us to a moon settlement fully living

Ejaaz:
by 2028 versus NASA doing it themselves.

Ejaaz:
What do you people, folks listening to us think? My bet is SpaceX.

Josh:
Josh, anything? Yeah, I mean, NASA, they already said they're not doing it.

Josh:
It's either SpaceX or Blue Origin.

Josh:
So Blue Origin is doing well. They're really strong in low Earth orbit.

Josh:
They're less strong anywhere else. i think starship is going to i'm almost 100

Josh:
positive starship will be the rocket and perhaps blue origin could do stuff

Josh:
with space station like falcon heavy is doing with the dragon cat how far.

Ejaaz:
Behind is blue origin on spacex now relatively do you think

Josh:
It depends how you measure it

Josh:
but blue origin does not have a starship and

Josh:
okay a starship is really the only thing that matters in

Josh:
space because again the cost of kilogram is is the singular

Josh:
metric that matters and the cost per kilogram of starship

Josh:
is dramatically lower than anything that blue origin has

Josh:
or will have in the near future so blue origin will have

Josh:
the capacity to do specific things it could send satellites

Josh:
into low earth orbit kind of like what starlink's doing they're trying their own thing in

Josh:
fact amazon um just recently purchased yesterday global star telecommunications

Josh:
which is a satellite company to help compete with starlink so there is going

Josh:
to be this competition for low earth orbit in terms of lunar orbits or moving

Josh:
mass further out or moving large amounts of mass so these Starlink V3 terminals

Josh:
that are coming are huge.

Josh:
Blue Origin cannot carry those, but SpaceX and Starship can. So there's going to be.

Josh:
I wouldn't say Blue Origin is behind in the sense that they're behind on getting

Josh:
to orbit. They're just behind on getting mass to orbit, large amounts of it at a cheap quantity.

Josh:
And that's what makes the big difference. So SpaceX is very far ahead in that

Josh:
sense. But there's a lot of companies that are now competing.

Josh:
And there's a ton of public stocks that actually have been doing incredible

Josh:
recently in the market over the last few weeks.

Josh:
Because people are starting to realize the space race is back, baby.

Josh:
And it's all America. It's all the USA. all these companies are fighting for

Josh:
getting mass into orbit creating these networks putting stuff into space so

Josh:
it's a really exciting time i'm feeling very optimistic about the future of

Josh:
space travel and i'm glad that everyone's aligned government private industry

Josh:
the people everyone's stoked about this.

Ejaaz:
You would think that AI is like the hottest stock in industry to invest in right

Ejaaz:
now, but SpaceX just filed for a discretionary IPO. So it's happening.

Ejaaz:
They're targeting a June launch and the valuation that they're going for is $1.75 trillion.

Ejaaz:
It'll be the biggest, largest IPO that we've ever seen before.

Ejaaz:
The over-under that I've seen on a lot of websites as well is it's going to

Ejaaz:
be valued above $2 trillion by the close of day on its initial day.

Ejaaz:
So people are excited about space.

Ejaaz:
They realize that there is so much of a bigger opportunity outside of Earth

Ejaaz:
than just constrained to Earth's resources.

Ejaaz:
And I'm excited to see this manifest and become real.

Ejaaz:
Just truly a great day for the world and America in general.

Ejaaz:
I wish the astronauts and the mission the best of success. I'm going to be tracking

Ejaaz:
this for the next six days.

Ejaaz:
Sorry, the next 10 days. There's not going to be anything else I'm going to be watching.

Josh:
That's great. Big week for the optimists, man. Space is back.

Josh:
We are so back. And we got 10 days to enjoy this.

Josh:
250th anniversary of the united states painted on both

Josh:
of those boosters that are going to be burning up in orbit

Josh:
as they return back to earth and it's really cool i

Josh:
mean this is awesome this is exciting it leaves me optimistic i'm curious your

Josh:
takes on whether you are also joining us in the optimism

Josh:
or not but anyways thank you so much for watching

Josh:
if you enjoyed this episode do not forget to share it with your friend who

Josh:
is also perhaps a space nerd or maybe you just

Josh:
want to joke about how inefficient nasa is or how their

Josh:
menu is more sufficient than the menu at the restaurant you went

Josh:
to last night whatever it is don't forget to rate us

Josh:
um however you believe we deserve to be rated five stars is pretty awesome on

Josh:
your favorite podcast player we have a newsletter i just published a new issue

Josh:
that went live yesterday all about this mission in a little bit more detail

Josh:
so if you're interested in that you can go subscribe all of the links are found

Josh:
in the description below and yeah i think that wraps up our episode today thank

Josh:
you guys so much for watching.