Anthony Colangelo
50 episodes listed below
Spaceflight hype meets program reality.
Main Engine Cut Off is sharp spaceflight commentary built around policy, program design, and mission execution. Anthony Colangelo follows Artemis, NASA leadership, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and commercial space with a close eye for schedule pressure and institutional incentives.
PRESS PLAY
Main Engine Cut Off is spaceflight analysis for listeners who want the programmatic story underneath the spectacle. It follows rockets, spacecraft, missions, and companies, but its main obsession is execution. Why does a roadmap change? Who is carrying schedule risk? Which piece of hardware is real, which is aspirational, and which interdependency is quietly holding everything hostage? Recent episodes place Artemis II at the center of that conversation. The show captures the thrill of humans heading back toward the Moon while still asking hard questions about SLS, Orion, Gateway, docking systems, launch cadence, and the political logic behind NASA’s choices. Anthony Colangelo’s style is quick, plainspoken, and openly analytical. He can linger on hydrogen loading, flight termination system workarounds, proximity operations, camera views, or lunar flyby symbolism, then swing back to the institutional question of whether NASA can fly often enough to learn. That rhythm gives the show its edge. It is excited by spaceflight, but rarely satisfied by ceremony alone. Guests are used for perspective rather than decoration. Pam Melroy brings experience as a former NASA Deputy Administrator and space shuttle commander. Paul Fjeld adds Apollo-era artistic and historical context to the meaning of Artemis II. Tom Mueller discusses Impulse Space, in-space transportation, Helios, Mira, and the government demand for mobility around LEO and GEO. Loren Grush helps frame wider industry news around SpaceX, Blue Origin, Artemis II, and the stories driving the space business cycle. Across these conversations, the show keeps returning to strategy: how programs are structured, how contractors make promises, how leadership clarifies or muddies a mission, and how public momentum can change once hardware finally flies. It is not a beginner’s glossary and it does not sand off the messy parts. Acronyms, vehicles, agencies, and launch architectures arrive quickly, often with the assumption that the listener wants the real argument more than a simplified recap. For space policy followers, industry watchers, and serious Artemis obsessives, that is the appeal. Main Engine Cut Off makes the lunar return feel immediate, but it also keeps asking the colder question: after the inspiring pictures, what system is actually being built?
Made for: For listeners already curious about NASA, Artemis, launch providers, and commercial space strategy. It best suits people who enjoy technical detail, policy friction, and candid assessment of whether space programs can execute.
What sets it apart: The show connects mission excitement to the less glamorous machinery of schedules, leadership, contractor promises, and architecture choices. Its strength is treating every launch and roadmap update as evidence about how the space sector actually works.
MECO is opinion and analysis of spaceflight, exploration, policy, and strategy, by Anthony Colangelo.
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · August 2026
MECO treats Artemis as an unfolding policy story, pairing NASA veterans and an industry founder across episodes rather than just covering launch news.
Main Engine Cutoff sits in Science's spacecraft-and-policy corner, hosted by Anthony Colangelo, and treats spaceflight as a set of decisions worth interrogating rather than a spectacle to narrate.
You want Moon missions explained by someone who side-eyes the roadmap while loving the liftoff.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A former astronaut weighs NASA's difficult year against its shifting space-policy direction.
Pam Melroy's public career as a former astronaut and former NASA Deputy Administrator gives the episode a useful frame: how space policy lands with the people expected to make it real.
A lunar flyby opens into a measured conversation about Apollo's memory and Artemis's uncertain forward motion.
Artemis II's lunar flyby gives Main Engine Cut Off a sturdy frame for looking at spaceflight in two directions at once: the live mission as it happens, and the long shadow of Apollo.
A grounded Artemis breakdown that turns NASA's roadmap into a clear test of execution.
NASA's Ignition event gives Anthony Colangelo a clean way into the Artemis problem: a roadmap where delays have often been easy to pass from one contractor or system to the next.
A focused, grounded look at Impulse Space's hardware choices, orbital mobility plans, and launch-market timing.
Impulse Space's rapid hardware progress gives this single-episode review a clear spine. Tom Mueller walks through a company that has already flown three times on the Mira platform while pushing Helios and landers toward larger roles.
A proposed yearly SLS pace becomes a test of whether NASA can make Artemis operate at speed.
Anthony Colangelo tracks a notable shift in NASA's Artemis planning, centered on Jared Isaacman's push to drop SLS Block 1B, the Exploration Upper Stage, the new mobile launcher, and co-manifested Gateway payloads.
A sharp spaceflight review connecting IPO chatter, Mars, and the signals behind Blue Origin's New Shepard cancellation.
SpaceX IPO chatter, Blue Origin's New Shepard cancellation, and Artemis II give this single-episode review a useful push and pull: breaking space news keeps running into a larger question of purpose.
A grounded episode on moon ambition, booster reuse, and the harder work of building launch momentum.
This episode frames spaceflight through a useful split screen: a moon mission carrying stacked superlatives, heavy expense, and a flight rate the host sees as too low, set beside Blue Origin gaining momentum with a New Glenn booster that landed November 13 and is planned to fly…
A timely policy-minded look at NASA's budget pressures as Artemis II moves closer to flight.
NASA's FY2026 budget is framed here as a stress test for an agency moving through a messy political moment. Anthony Colangelo's conversation with Casey Dreyer of the Planetary Society follows the distance between the earlier budget request and what Congress ultimately enacted,…
KBR engineers and experts unpack wind energy, Artemis imagery, and cybersecurity compliance.
Australian headlines, quickly made human.
Aruba's public square, live on mic.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Pam Melroy, former NASA Deputy Administrator under Bill Nelson and a three-time space shuttle astronaut, on Main Engine Cut Off.
["Main Engine Cut Off's \"T+327: Artemis II, the Lunar Flyby Edition\" pairs Anthony Colangelo with Paul Fjeld, an Apollo-era NASA artist and Canadian Space Agency communications veteran who also worked with the Smithsonian lunar-module collection.", "Paul says Artemis 2 changed for him the moment \"they launched that sucker,\" and the episode spends much of its time on the crew's live descriptions of the Moon, the blackness of space, and why Victor Glover's words can beat the camera feed.", "Anthony and Paul also argue about the program around the mission, including Gateway's near-rectilinear halo orbit, Orion's environmental control system, and whether Artemis has been treated like a jobs program.", "The conversation closes by comparing Apollo-era front-page coverage and three TV networks with the fragmented attention Artemis 2 gets now, plus the way China changes the stakes."]
Anthony Flangelo discusses the successful Artemis II launch, highlighting the smooth fueling process and minor issues resolved during the countdown.
Anthony Colangelo uses NASA's Ignition event to frame a long review of Artemis 2, Gateway, Mobile Launcher 2, and a commercial-launcher roadmap.
Tom Mueller says Impulse Space has launched three spacecraft and all three are still alive on orbit, which frames this as a progress check on a company founded in July 2021.
Main Engine Cut Off centers on NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's Artemis overhaul, which would cancel SLS Block 1B and the Exploration Upper Stage.
Main Engine Cutoff host Anthony Colangelo and Bloomberg reporter Lauren Grush examine SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI, a planned IPO targeting more than $30 billion at a hoped-for $1.5 trillion valuation, Blue Origin’s two-year New Shepard pause, and an Artemis II delay to March.
Anthony Colangelo assesses Artemis II’s public and political significance, including the possibility that a mission reaching only high elliptical orbit would expose concerns about NASA’s low flight rate.
Anthony Colangelo and Casey Dreier of The Planetary Society examine NASA's enacted FY2026 budget after a proposal for a 25% NASA cut and a 47% science cut.
Main Engine Cut Off’s December 22, 2025 Headlines reviews two weeks of space news after the host prepared to visit the Pentagon and interview Space Force leadership.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews General Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, about the United States Space Force's first six years and its development during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anthony Colangelo and Stephen Clark of Ars Technica assess Jared Isaacman's second NASA nomination hearing, the leaked Project Athena document, and questions about recompeting the Artemis lunar-lander contract.
Anthony Colangelo examines Blue Origin’s second New Glenn launch, its successful booster landing, and the roadmap for New Glenn 9-4.
Main Engine Cut Off examines practical autonomy in space with Simone D’Amico of Stanford, DJ Bush of NVIDIA, and Al Tadros of Redwire.
Anthony Colangelo examines how Starship’s early-2026 failures, Jared Isaacman’s withdrawn NASA administrator nomination, and China’s lunar-lander and Long March 10 tests shaped the Artemis 3 lander dispute.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews Quilty Space research director Caleb Henry about Starlink V3, Kuiper's deployment deadline, Iridium, and Europe's Project Bromo merger.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Miles O'Brien about Starship Flight 11, NASA's lunar deadlines, and the policy consequences of falling behind China at the Moon's south pole.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews former NASA Commercial Space Division director Phil McAllister about retiring the ISS, funding commercial LEO destinations, and balancing Artemis against low-Earth-orbit research.
Anthony Colangelo and Quilty Space research director Caleb Henry examine EchoStar’s six-week sequence of a 100-satellite contract, a $23 billion AT&T spectrum sale, a $17 billion SpaceX spectrum sale, and a canceled constellation contract.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews Casey Handmer, founder of Terraform Industries and former JPL employee, about NASA losing roughly a quarter of its workforce and struggling with budgets and program planning.
Anthony Colangelo and Tom Murata examine an executive order intended to increase commercial launch cadence and support novel space activities.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews Michael Moreno, Lunar Outpost's VP of Strategy, about Eagle LTV and NASA's Lunar Terrain Vehicle Services contract.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews Adrian Beil of NASA Spaceflight about the Ship 36 explosion, Starship’s 2025 setbacks, and ESA’s November ministerial.
Main Engine Cut Off features Anthony Colangelo and former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver discussing Elon Musk’s conflict with the President, Jared Isaacman’s withdrawn NASA nomination, NASA budget cuts, Artemis funding, and Starship Flight 9.
Mark Albrecht, who led the space transition for the first Trump administration and helped lead the 2024 space transition, explains how personnel, policy, and budget planning differed between the two efforts.
Anthony Colangelo tours Murata Controls' Montville, New Jersey facility in Main Engine Cutoff episode T+302, examining how the company builds space valves and related hardware.
Main Engine Cut Off host Anthony Colangelo interviews Quilty director of research Caleb Henry about megaconstellations, hypersonics, and Henry’s forthcoming OneWeb book.
Anthony Colangelo examines Jared Isaacman’s NASA confirmation hearing, including his positions on keeping the ISS on schedule, questioning SLS’s long-term role, and pursuing both the Moon and Mars.
Main Engine Cut Off revisits Boeing’s Starliner mission with Ars Technica reporter Eric Berger after interviews with astronauts Butch and Sonny.
Anthony Colangelo examines Eric Schmidt’s takeover as CEO of Relativity Space after investing heavily in the company, with Tim Ellis remaining as co-founder and board member.
Anthony Colangelo and Josh Dinner of Space.com examine Firefly’s Blue Ghost landing, Intuitive Machines’ IM-2 mission ending, and SpaceX Starship Flight 8.
Jim Bridenstine explains how NASA converted the canceled $25 million Google Lunar XPRIZE into CLPS, a program that buys lunar payload-delivery services from commercial providers.
Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rousseau discuss their book Space to Grow, which applies economic theory to the interaction between government and markets in space.
Main Engine Cut Off examines Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration, with Eric Berger arguing that money, power, and political influence may matter more to Musk than space policy itself.
Anthony Colangelo compares Blue Origin's New Glenn Flight 1 with SpaceX's Starship Flight 7, focusing on what each test actually demonstrated and where each failed.
Anthony Colangelo examines Axiom Space's shift from an ISS-attached station plan to a Payload Power Thermal Module that can fly independently after one launch.
Anthony Colangelo evaluates Jared Isaacman’s nomination as NASA administrator by comparing Isaacman’s Polaris program with the operating model he would like NASA to adopt.
Main Engine Cut Off’s November 22, 2024 Headlines preview covers Starship Flight 6, ABL Space Systems’ shift from commercial launch to missile defense, and a week of launches.
Anthony Colangelo examines how Donald Trump’s return to the presidency and Elon Musk’s advisory role could reshape NASA and U.S.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Jared Isaacman about Polaris Dawn, the five-day Dragon mission that included a private EVA and tested Starlink laser links.
Main Engine Cutoff host Anthony Colangelo analyzes Starship Flight 5, including the booster’s tower catch over the Texas coast and the ship’s targeted splashdown.
The FAA fined SpaceX about $633,000 for two 2023 violations: $350,000 for a Falcon 9 launch on June 18 and $283,009 for a Falcon Heavy launch using a new tank farm at pad 39A.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Andy Lapsa, CEO and co-founder of Stoke Space, about building a fully reusable launch vehicle that can move through space and return from space.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Jeff Foust about NASA’s Starliner safety decision, including the possibility that Butch and Sonny return on a future Crew Dragon rather than Starliner.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Mark Albrecht about how a presidential transition could change U.S.
Anthony Colangelo interviews Andrew Rush about Starcatcher, a company founded with Mike Snyder and Brian Lionberg to beam additional solar energy between satellites.
Anthony Colangelo analyzes NASA's decision to cancel the VIPER lunar rover after its estimated cost reached $609 million, up from $250 million in 2019.
Anthony Colangelo interviews JP Ramos, Redwire's Belgium-based business development manager, about Phantom, a smaller very-low-Earth-orbit platform tied to ESA's SkimSat mission.