TWiS 189: Privatizing Orbit - The Pioneering Work of Jeffrey Manber

This week, we talk with our favorite Newspace Buccaneer, Jeffrey Manber. When so many people were touting their private spaceflight dreams in the 1980s, Manber took the next enormous stride and actually made it happen. He formed the Office of Space Commerce within the US Department of Commerce at the invitation of the Reagan administration, forged the first commercial relations with the then-Soviet Union, bridged that into the post-USSR period, and was responsible for the first commercial spaceflight to the then-mothballed Soviet-era Mir space station with a crew that stayed there for 70 days. He then went on to develop a variety of commercial space enterprises, from the first commercial platform to release smallsats from the ISS to initiating the Bishop airlock that became part of the space station. He also started Nanoracks, the first privately developed and standardized satellite deployment mechanism to fly. Finally, he initiated Starlab, the private space station currently under development by Voyager Technologies and a consortium of aerospace companies. Join us for this very special episode with one of the key founders of NewSpace!

Headlines:

• SpaceX Plans 2026 IPO and Possible $1.5 Trillion Valuation
• NASA Loses Contact with Mars Maven Orbiter
• Discussion of Star Trek's New Starfleet Academy Series Trailer

Main Topic: Privatizing Orbit and the Roots of Commercial Space

• Jeffrey Manber Details His Early US-Russian Commercial Space Collaborations
• His Space Journalism Origins and Shaping Commercial Space Policies
• Inside the Launch of Commercial Space Fund and the Office of Space Commerce
• First US Commercial Contracts with the Soviet Union and Mir Space Station
• Navigating Washington Policy and Export Licenses for Soviet Deals
• Attempt to Privatize Mir: Mirkorp, Leasing the Space Station, and Commercial Astronaut Crews
• The Rise of Nanoracks and Commercial Payloads on the ISS
• Building Starlab: Partnerships, Scale, Launch Plans, and Commercial Design
• Comparing Starlab's Ambitions to Vast, Axiom, and China's Tiangong
• Evaluating SpaceX's Public Offering and Its Impact on Elon Musk's Strategy
• Jeffrey Manber's Other Projects: Writing About Newspace and President Lincoln
• Thoughts on America's Future in Commercial Orbit and Personal Memoir Plans

Hosts: Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik

Guest: Jeffrey Manber

Download or subscribe to This Week in Space at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts!
Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit