The Space Race Is So Back — EP 76 Ashlee Vance And Kylie Robison

About this episode

The episode discusses America's competition with China in manufacturing and space exploration, featuring insights on robotics and media controversies.

The theme for this week’s episode is tick, tick, boom . America is running out of time to catch up with China on manufacturing, and we’re physically incapable of spending an hour together without bringing it up. Release the glorious machines please!! We also go behind the scenes on Kylie’s reporting on motors and actuators — the unglamorous parts that sit in every joint of a humanoid robot, account for roughly 60% of what that robot costs to build, and come almost entirely from China. Her piece profiles the two startups trying to change that. Plus a new proposed bill out of Congress that would kick Unitree’s robot doggies to the curb. Then the rockets send Ashlee off on his space tangents. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin had an expensive mishap recently when an explosion took out the rocket, its launch pad, and possibly America’s dreams of beating China back to the moon. Ashlee walks through why a pad explosion can be a near-death moment for a rocket company, and why SpaceX — now flying roughly every two days while everyone else is grounded or behind — increasingly just wins by default. Plus the new Starfall capsule, SpaceX’s move into making medicine and maybe chips in orbit, and the…

People in this episode

Host: Ashlee Vance

Guest: Kylie Robison

Topics covered

• space race
• robotics
• manufacturing
• media drama
• China
• technology

Keywords

• space race
• robotics
• manufacturing
• Blue Origin
• SpaceX
• China
• Scott Pelley
• Unitree
• Starfall capsule

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Blue Origin, SpaceX, Congress

Products: Unitree’s robot doggies, Starfall capsule

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