🚀 The trillion-dollar space race: My chat (+transcript) with journalist Christian Davenport

🚀 The trillion-dollar space race: My chat (+transcript) with journalist Christian Davenport

From Faster, Please! — The Podcast by James Pethokoukis

November 4, 2025 · 30 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the competition in the space industry, focusing on the rivalry between American companies and China's ambitions in space exploration.

My fellow pro-growth/progress/abundance Up Wingers, China’s spacefaring ambitions pose tough competition for America. With a focused, centralized program, Beijing seems likely to land taikonauts on the moon before another American flag is planted. Meanwhile, NASA faces budget cuts, leadership gaps, and technical setbacks. In his new book, journalist Christian Davenport chronicles the fierce rivalry between American firms, mainly SpaceX and Blue Origin. It’s a contest that, despite the challenges, promises to propel humanity to the moon, Mars, and maybe beyond. Davenport is an author and a reporter for the Washington Post, where he covers NASA and the space industry. His new book, Rocket Dreams: Musk, Bezos, and the Inside Story of the New, Trillion-Dollar Space Race , is out now. In This Episode * Check-in on NASA (1:28) * Losing the Space Race (5:49) * A fatal flaw (9:31) * State of play (13:33) * The long-term vision (18:37) * The pace of progress (22:50) * Friendly competition (24:53) Below is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Check-in on NASA (1:28) The Chinese tend to do what they say they’re going to do on the timeline that they say they’re going to do it…

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