This week, we talk with our favorite Newspace Buccaneer, Jeffrey Manber. When so many people were touting their private spaceflight dreams in the 1980s, Manber took the next enormous stride and actually made it happen. He formed the Office of Space Commerce within the US Department of Commerce at the invitation of the Reagan administration, forged the first commercial relations with the then-Soviet Union, bridged that into the post-USSR period, and was responsible for the first commercial spaceflight to the then-mothballed Soviet-era Mir space station with a crew that stayed there for 70 days. He then went on to develop a variety of commercial space enterprises, from the first commercial platform to release smallsats from the ISS to initiating the Bishop airlock that became part of the space station. He also started Nanoracks, the first privately developed and standardized satellite deployment mechanism to fly. Finally, he initiated Starlab, the private space station currently under development by Voyager Technologies and a consortium of aerospace companies. Join us for this very special episode with one of the key founders of NewSpace!
Headlines:
SpaceX Plans 2026 IPO and Possible $1.5 Trillion Valuation
NASA Loses Contact with Mars Maven Orbiter
Discussion of Star Trek's New Starfleet Academy Series Trailer
Main Topic: Privatizing Orbit and the Roots of Commercial Space
Jeffrey Manber Details His Early US-Russian Commercial Space Collaborations
His Space Journalism Origins and Shaping Commercial Space Policies
Inside the Launch of Commercial Space Fund and the Office of Space Commerce
First US Commercial Contracts with the Soviet Union and Mir Space Station
Navigating Washington Policy and Export Licenses for Soviet Deals
Attempt to Privatize Mir: Mirkorp, Leasing the Space Station, and Commercial Astronaut Crews
The Rise of Nanoracks and Commercial Payloads on the ISS
Building Starlab: Partnerships, Scale, Launch Plans, and Commercial Design
Comparing Starlab's Ambitions to Vast, Axiom, and China's Tiangong
Evaluating SpaceX's Public Offering and Its Impact on Elon Musk's Strategy
Jeffrey Manber's Other Projects: Writing About Newspace and President Lincoln
Thoughts on America's Future in Commercial Orbit and Personal Memoir Plans
Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik
Guest: Jeffrey Manber
Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.
Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit