(Warning: please skip this episode if you’re offended by occasional Tesla-based puerile humour)
The Discussion: Balancing the argument between love and hate of SpaceX and drawing a line under the argument over when the current decade starts and what constitutes a decade.
The News: Rounding up the space exploration news this month we have:
- SpaceX is cleared for a crewed launch in April
- Further problems for Boeing
- Christina Koch takes the female spaceflight record.
- The dullest space news story ever (involving biscuits/cookies)
- A Japanese mission to return samples from Phobos!
- ESA’s launch & deployment of the Solar Orbiter.
Main news story: The import of NASA’s 2021 FY Budget.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum: The radio part of the spectrum. How it became so important for astronomy and by whom.
Q&A: What do you think was the greatest astronomical/scientific advancement that came about due to a dubious past, and do you think it was worth it? By email from Alan Beech in the UK.