About this episode

Doug Cooke discusses NASA's challenges and plans for the Artemis mission and human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Our guest today is Doug Cooke, an aerospace consultant who spent 38 years at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. STEM-Talk host and IHMC founder Dr. Ken Ford, a former Associate Director of NASA’s Ames Research Center and Director of NASA’s Center of Excellence in Information Technology, interviewed Doug just four days after the astronauts of NASA’s Artemis II mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean following a historic 10-day roundtrip from the Earth to the Moon. In today’s episode, Ken and Doug discuss the Artemis mission as well as NASA’s plans to return humans to the lunar surface by 2028. Doug also shares his concern that China could one day surpass America’s leadership role in human spaceflight. During his 38 years at NASA, Doug played critical roles in the Space Shuttle, International Space Station and Human Exploration spaceflight programs. During the last three years of his NASA career, he served as Associate Administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, which oversees the development of systems critical to NASA’s plans for human exploration of the Moon and Mars, including the Artemis program. Show…

People in this episode

Host: Ken Ford

Guest: Doug Cooke

Topics covered

• NASA
• space exploration
• Artemis mission
• human spaceflight
• aerospace engineering

Keywords

• NASA
• Artemis II
• space race
• Moon
• Mars
• Doug Cooke
• Ken Ford
• human spaceflight
• aerospace

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NASA, Artemis, International Space Station, Space Shuttle

Places: China, Pacific Ocean, Houston, Washington, D.C.

More episodes of STEM-Talk

• Episode 196: Dominic D’Agostino discusses advances in ketogenic metabolic therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy · June 11, 2026 · 1h 11m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the STEM-Talk podcast page.