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75 countries, that's how many 
nations sent representatives to 

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1 conference this week not to 
talk about nuclear weapons or 

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climate change or trade deals. 
Talk about space junk. 

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The Saudi Space Agency hosted 
the second annual space debris 

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conference. 
If you want to sign. 

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The commercial space industry is
actually growing up. 

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This is the time the gold rush 
phase, launch fast, grab your 

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orbit, figure out the mess later
is giving way to something more 

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sobering. 
A global reckoning with what 

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we've left behind up there in 
the companies building mega 

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constellations like Starlink. 
They are the elephant in the 

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room. 
So today I want to walk through 

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these stories that taken 
together paint a picture of 

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where Space Flight is right now.
We've got the debris problem 

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demanding attention. 
We've got NASA pushing ahead 

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with Artemis 2 getting ready to 
send humans around the moon. 

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And we've got nuclear propulsion
tests that could reshape how we 

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think about deep space travel 
entirely. 

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Growth and accountability happen
at the same time. 

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And that's what a maturing 
industry looks like. 

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That's what the Space Flight 
industry looks like right now. 

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We're going to get into that 
right after this very short 

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break. 
So let's start with this debris 

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conference. 
The numbers here are massive. 75

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countries showed up. 
The event was organized by the 

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Saudi Space Agency, but it had 
backing from the United Nations 

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Office for Outer Space Affairs 
in partnership with the 

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International Telecommunication 
Union. 

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Here's what Artie Holimany, the 
director of UNOOSA, said. 

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Global cooperation among 
international organizations, 

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governments, industry and 
academia in addressing space 

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debris challenges is no longer 
merely A desirable objective is 

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become an absolute necessity. 
She also said that leading space

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faring nations must develop 
concrete plans to address 

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accumulated legacy debris. 
Legacy debris is a polite way of

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saying the stuff we've been 
leaving up there for decades. 

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All the junk. 
Now why does all this matter 

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though? 
The International 

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Telecommunication Union manages 
satellite orbit allocations. 

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They're the people who 
coordinate who gets to park 

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where in space. 
When they show up at a debris 

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conference, signals that orbit 
management and debris are now in

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the same conversation. 
They were kind of a side thing. 

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That debris thing was for a 
while, but now it's all coming 

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together. 
Can't talk about where new 

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satellites go without talking 
about what's already cluttering 

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up those lanes. 
Now. 

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Space is huge. 
And here's where SpaceX comes 

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into the picture, even though 
they weren't mentioned by name. 

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Starlink has thousands of 
satellites in low Earth orbit. 

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They want to get hundreds of 
thousands into low Earth orbit. 

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Thousands more are planned for 
the next few years. 

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Amazon's working on their own 
consolation. 

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China is doing the same thing. 
It's getting uncomfortable up 

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there really fast. 
And more objects mean more 

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collision risk. 
If something happens to 1 

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satellite, if one SpaceX 
Starlink satellite breaks, a 

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piece from that Starlink 
satellite could destroy numerous

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satellites. 
Could be a chain reaction. 

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More collisions equal more 
debris, and more debris means 

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more collision risk. 
It's a feedback loop that keeps 

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people up at night From the 
UNOOSA. 

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They also featured something 
called the Debris Solver 

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Competition at that conference, 
20 projects showcasing 

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innovative solutions for 
actually cleaning up space junk.

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We're not just wringing our 
hands with the problem, just 

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saying like, hey, there's debris
up there. 

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Who cares? 
It's space. 

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It's not down here. 
There's engineers and people 

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that want to make money, 
entrepreneurs actively working 

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on fixes for this. 
They want to make Nets, 

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harpoons, there's lasers, 
robotic arms. 

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If there's space junk, there's 
going to be money to be made. 

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It's like having a garbage 
person pick up your garbage in 

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front of your house. 
There's somebody there that does

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that. 
There's a business that makes a 

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lot of money doing garbage 
pickup. 

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That's what these entrepreneurs 
want to do too. 

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They want to pick up the garbage
in space. 

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They want to haul it someplace 
else. 

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So some of these ideas sound 
crazy, right? 

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Sound like science fiction, But 
so did Spacex's reusable rockets

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for about 10 years ago. 
Now, something else crazy is 

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that I've been digging into the 
analytics of the show, and 37% 

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of you are following the channel
and I am forever grateful for 

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you. 
The other 63% haven't hit the 

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follower subscribe button. 
It's OK. 

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Sometimes you listen to a show 
you're not subscribed. 

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Sometimes you listen to a few 
episodes and it's cool, but 

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eventually you do come around 
and hit the subscribe button. 

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That's what I do all the time. 
I'd listen to a show four or 

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five times and I'm like, oh 
wait, I should have subscribed. 

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So I don't have to search for 
this anymore. 

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Just comes into my feed and 
that's going to help us out 

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00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:58,040
tremendously. 
So all I ask from you, after six

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00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:00,960
or seven years of already doing 
this, I ask one second of your 

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time. 
So thank you for that for 

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hitting the subscribe or follow 
button. 

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00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,240
So there's a reckoning going on 
too. 

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There's an execution with what 
NASA is actually doing right now

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about this. 
Artemis 2 is moving forward very

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soon. 
February, NASA announced they're

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pushing ahead with what's called
a wet dress rehearsal for the 

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mission. 
And a wet dress rehearsal is 

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essentially a full simulation of
launch day. 

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You load the rocket with 
propellants, that's the wet 

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part, Run through the entire 
countdown sequence and stop just

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before ignition. 
They do everything they need to 

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do before launch, and then they 
just don't launch the rocket. 

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It's how you find problems 
before they become catastrophic.

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If there's any leaks, they find 
them before the actual launch 

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day. 
This is huge because Artemis 2 

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is the mission that sends humans
around the moon for the first 

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time since Apollo 4 astronauts. 
A loop around the far side of 

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the moon and the first crude 
flight of the Space Launch 

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System and Orion capsule working
together. 

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And that's after Artemis 1 
proved the hardware could make 

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the trip on crude. 
This is the next step. 

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And then Artemis 3 should have 
people stepping on the moon's 

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surface again. 
Now, there's also a Utah 

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connection worth mentioning 
here. 

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The solid rocket boosters, the 
power SLS during liftoff are 

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manufactured there. 
Utah has been part of NASA's 

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00:06:24,520 --> 00:06:27,080
human spaceflight story since 
the space shuttle days. 

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So we talked about Artemis. 
We're talking about supply 

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chains and expertise that span 
across the country, and the 

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University of North Dakota is 
also involved in supporting this

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mission. 
When you see universities 

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embedded in NASA programs, it's 
something about the depth of 

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those efforts. 
Together, the university and 

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NASA working hand in hand, it's 
huge. 

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They're not just building 
rockets, though. 

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They're working all across the 
nation, pulling in academic 

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research, industry partners in 
multiple states. 

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So the Artemis 2 mission needs 
to get through the orbit that 

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the debris fields are in now. 
They will plan that properly so 

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nobody gets hurt. 
But the Artemis missions going 

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forward will need to clean up 
some of this garbage. 

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Artemis 2 may face delays if the
wet dress rehearsal doesn't work

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out as planned. 
The heat shield issues from 

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Artemis 1 took a lot longer to 
resolve than anybody wanted to 

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talk about. 
In getting through this 

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rehearsal successfully would be 
signal that the program is way 

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back on track. 
So let's go beyond the moon 

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here. 
NASA is testing advances in 

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space nuclear propulsion. 
This all matters because it's 

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all tied into the orbit of all 
the space debris. 

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This is going to be a technology
that could genuinely change the 

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game for deep space exploration.
Chemical rockets are great for 

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getting off Earth. 
They produce tremendous thrust, 

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but once you're out in space, 
they're inefficient for long 

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journeys. 
You burn through fuel really 

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fast and you can only carry so 
much of it. 

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And once that fuel is gone, the 
fuel is gone. 

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You can't get more. 
Nuclear propulsion is a whole 

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different beast. 
Nuclear thermal rockets heat 

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propellant to extreme 
temperatures using a reactor, 

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generating far more efficiency 
per unit of fuel. 

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And the result of that is that 
you could cut the transit time 

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to Mars significantly. 
Some estimates suggest getting 

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there in three to four months 
instead of 7 to 9. 

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That's huge for safety. 
Less time in transit means less 

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radiation exposure for 
astronauts. 

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Fewer things can go wrong if you
shorten the time frame. 

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And NASA has been researching 
this for years, but recent tests

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suggest real progress there. 
And it's not going to be ready 

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next year. 
But we might be talking about it

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getting ready for a Mars mission
that are currently on the 

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drawing board sometime in the 20
thirties. 

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So this is the context here. 
We're serious about becoming a 

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multi planetary species, which 
is something both NASA and 

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SpaceX talk about constantly. 
We need propulsion systems that 

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can handle the distances 
involved. 

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Chemical rockets can get us to 
the moon. 

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Nuclear propulsion might be what
gets us to Mars and beyond any 

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practical time frame. 
Now we have to talk about one 

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more thing. 
Rocket Lab, a small company 

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that's sort of pseudo competitor
to SpaceX, their Neutron rocket 

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experienced a test failure 
recently. 

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We don't have all the details 
yet, but analysis seems to be 

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maintaining confidence in the 
company despite the set back. 

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Because they're going to fix it.
It's notable because Rocket Lab 

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is one of the few companies 
seriously competing against 

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SpaceX in the medium lift 
market. 

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Neutron is their answer to 
Falcon 9. 

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But you know, test failures. 
They're part of the rocket 

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development programs. 
SpaceX blew up plenty of 

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prototypes on the way to 
success. 

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And now look at the Falcon 9. 
Hundreds of launches, hundreds 

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of landings. 
The question is always whether a

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company can learn from the 
failure and move on. 

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And Rocket Lab has had a strong 
track record with their smaller 

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Electron rocket, so I'm not 
going to count them out. 

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But this business is hard, and 
they will learn from their 

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mistakes and they'll move on 
from it. 

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So where does this all tie 
together? 

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The same week that 75 countries 
gathered to talk about cleaning 

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00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:40,200
up Earth orbit, NASA was testing
the nuclear engines and 

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preparing to send humans back to
the moon. 

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This is progress, and it's going
to be a little bit longer, but 

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we're going to get there. 
And they're simultaneously 

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pushing boundaries and dealing 
with consequences the same exact

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time. 
The early years of any industry 

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are about proving the tech that 
actually works, and now the 

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00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:06,240
middle years are scaling it, and
we're heading into the later 

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years of this. 
So they need to sustain it. 

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Commercial spaceflight is 
entering that third phase. 

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The launches will keep coming. 
Hundreds of SpaceX Starlink 

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flights will happen every year. 
Starship will fly and it'll take

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thousands of Starlinks into 
orbit, amongst other things. 

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Starlink will grow, but so will 
the other competitors, and so 

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will the conversations about 
responsibility. 

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Question for SpaceX and every 
other player in the industry is 

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00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:41,240
whether they can keep doing this
and keep launching without 

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00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:44,400
somebody there to clean up their
mess and who's going to pay 

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00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:48,280
those people in those jobs to 
clean up this mess? 

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We're going to have to find that
out in the future. 

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00:11:50,280 --> 00:11:54,840
Is it going to be the countries 
or will the will the companies 

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be taxed for clean up over the 
time that they have their 

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satellites in orbit?