Space Policy Edition: Why humans matter — The philosophy of Artemis II

When Artemis II returned its crew safely to Earth, millions of people found themselves unexpectedly moved. The mission was a test flight, a proof-of-concept, and yet it felt like something far greater than the sum of its parts. In this episode, Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Planetary …

Yuri's Night 2026: Celebrating 65 years of human spaceflight

On April 12th, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Sixty-five years later, we celebrated that milestone at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA.  We began on the lawn of Griffith Observatory, where host Sarah Al-Ahmed spoke with exhibitors about the tools, dreams, and technology…

Project Hail Mary hits the big screen

“Project Hail Mary” is finally in theaters, and the science is just as thrilling as the story. This week on Planetary Radio, Sarah Al-Ahmed and senior communications adviser Mat Kaplan share their first reactions fresh from the theater. Author and producer Andy Weir tells us in his own words what t…

Book Club Edition: Founder and CEO Peter Beck on The Launch of Rocket Lab

He built a rocket-powered bike when he was a kid. Now he leads the company that has made New Zealand number three among nations that launch big rockets, following the United States and China. Sir Peter Beck joins us for a deeply revealing and entertaining conversation about “The Launch of Rocket La…

Triumph and turmoil: Artemis II and the renewed fight to save NASA science

The Artemis II crew has returned home safely after a historic 10-day journey around the Moon, the first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years. In this episode, we celebrate some of the mission's most extraordinary moments: the record-breaking Flight Day 6 when Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor G…

Artemis II launches to the Moon

Four astronauts — Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen — are on their way around the Moon, on a journey that will take them farther from Earth than any human has gone before. This week on Planetary Radio, we bring you the sounds of launch…

Space Policy Edition: Return to Launch — Cape Canaveral's unlikely history

What makes Cape Canaveral the center of U.S. spaceflight? The answer is a fascinating mix of geography, military strategy, Cold War politics, and a fair amount of historical accident. In this episode of the Space Policy Edition of Planetary Radio, host Casey Dreier, chief of space policy at The Pl…

Artemis II’s AVATAR and a sungrazing comet

Artemis II is the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17, and riding alongside the crew is one of the most ambitious biology experiments ever sent to space. It's called AVATAR, short for A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response: tiny organ chips grown from the astronauts' own cells, flying th…

The astronaut health experiments of Artemis II

Artemis II is about more than getting four humans to the Moon and back. It's an opportunity to gather data on human health in deep space that we haven’t had in over 50 years. This week, we’re joined by Steve Platts, chief scientist of NASA's Human Research Program, who walks us through the suite o…

Book Club Edition: The Giant Leap: Why Space is the Next Frontier in the Evolution of Life

Join us for an awe-inspiring conversation with astrobiologist and astronomer Caleb Scharf as he eloquently makes the case for "dispersal," the nearly inevitable advance of life and humanity across our solar neighborhood.  From the book: "The idea of Dispersal is one where the sheer scale and scope …