T+312: Starship Flight 11, Space Policy, and Priorities (with Miles O’Brien)

Miles O’Brien, science correspondent for PBS News and CNN space analyst, joins me to talk about Starship Flight 11, the current space policy landscape including the ongoing government shutdown, the possible return of Jared Isaacman, and what to do about all the competing budget priorities at NASA.
This episode of Main Engine Cut Off is brought to you by 32 executive producers—Joakim, David, Heiko, Ryan, Jan, Kris, Frank, Josh from Impulse, Steve, Russell, Joonas, Joel, Matt, Will and Lars from Agile, Natasha Tsakos, Donald, Lee, Better Every Day Studios, Warren, Theo and Violet, Pat, Fred, The Astrogators at SEE, Tim Dodd (the Everyday Astronaut!), Stealth Julian, and four anonymous—and hundreds of supporters (mainenginecutoff.com/support).
Topics
• Miles O'Brien Productions - Miles O'Brien (milesobrien.com)
• Miles Ahead | Miles O'Brien | Substack (milesobrien.substack.com)
• SpaceX finally got exactly what it needed from Starship V2 - Ars Technica (arstechnica.com/space/2025/10/after-year-of-ha…)
• More layoffs at JPL - SpaceNews (spacenews.com/more-layoffs-at-jpl)
• Trump, Billionaire Isaacman Said to Meet About Top NASA Job - Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-09/billion…)
• Former NASA nominee Jared Isaacman in talks to become agency's chief | Reuters (reuters.com/science/former-nasa-nominee-jared-…)
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