Failure To Launch

Latest Episodes:

*PREVIEW* Ulysses 1994XF04 (Ace Combat) Sep 30, 2026

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This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest of the episode and unlock more bonus content, support Failure To Launch on Patreon at any tier.

I do not much like the Federation of Central Usea (FCU). They’ve done some bad things.

This week, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris cover Ulysses from discovery to impact to the decades of fallout we still live with today. How humanity faced a possible extinction event, how we came together to defend ourselves, and how every Shield against Ulysses was turned into a Sword for war.

[This is an in-character episode covering the Ulysses Impact Event from the video game series Ace Combat. A big thank you to all the fans who contributed to the Journey Home singalong and Kilian Croghan for the episode art!]

SOURCES:

- Encyclopedia Strangereal

- Last Christmas, Gaze Magazine (Jan 1, 1999)

- Asteroid On Collision Course With Earth, Usea Today (Apr 21, 1996)

- Titan Guns, Our Science (Sept 20, 1998)

- The Twelve Colors of the Sky, Kei Nagase

- Lines in the Sand: A Memoir, L. Foulke

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Technofascism & Space Sep 23, 2026

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What with all the history talk, we haven't really yet tackled the space elephant in the room: that the space industry is increasingly run by billionaires and open fascists. So today, we're chatting with Ziggy, a post-graduate student studying fascist movements and their ties to scifi, on how reactionary movements in the past and present have co-opted space for their political ends.

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FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

*PREVIEW* The USSA Mars Shot Project (Fallout) Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest of the episode and unlock more bonus content, support Failure To Launch on Patreon at any tier.

In the months before the Bombs Fell, the American space program was preparing for its greatest challenge yet: reaching the Red Planet. But the program wasn't as innocent as it seemed. This week, Scribe Quintus is taking Chris and Other Chris through the history of the USSA's Mars Shot Project and the XMB Booster developed by ArcJet Systems.

A big thanks to Alex the OK, Nicholas Slayton, Angry Scooter, and Kelly of CIAS for contributing audiologs to this episode.

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Flight of the Alberts [5th Anniversary Special] Sep 13, 2026

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Capsule: check. Monkey: check. Downers: check.

To celebrate our 5th anniversary as a show, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris are going back to the well to talk about our first ever topic: Project Albert. Or “that time the US Government launched a half dozen doped-up monkeys on captured Nazi V-2s”.

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SOURCES:

- Animals in Space, Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs

- Packing for Mars, Mary Roach

- A Brief History of Animals in Space, NASA

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Project 714 'Shuguang' (w. November Kelly) Sep 09, 2026

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In the summer of 1966, work at China’s top-secret space program ground to a halt as every worker spent every day putting up posters, making denunciations, and murdering each other. This week, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris are joined by November Kelly to talk about Project 714, China’s secret crewed space program and the incredibly dumb reason it died.

Check out November's work here (TF), and here (WTYP), and here (KJB), and here (BGDC), and here (NGNM)!

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SOURCES:

- Thread of the Silkworm, Iris Chang

- China in Space, Brian Harvey

- China’s Space Program, S. Chandrashekar

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

The Horrors of Early Space Food (w. Dr Kaveh Hoda) Aug 26, 2026

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The first space food was made by veterinarians instead of dieticians and was so bad that many astronauts chose to fast through their missions. And it could've been *so* much worse. This week, Quinn, Chris, and Other Chris are talking to Dr Kaveh Hoda, gastroenterologist and host of the House of Pod podcast about the wonderful, disgusting world of astronaut kibble.

Check out Kaveh's work here!

Tragically, Backstroke of the West appears to have been taken down

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Support FTL on Patreon to unlock bonus content and join our Discord community

SOURCES:

- Packing For Mars, Mary Roach

- Conference on Nutrition in Space and Related Waste Problems

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

*PREVIEW* LDSS Nauvoo (The Expanse) Aug 19, 2026

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This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest of the episode and unlock more bonus content, support Failure To Launch on Patreon at any tier.

Count the moons, duster! Today, Quinn (Belter), Chris (Martian), and Other Chris (Earther) are talking about the largest ship ever built by humans, the LDSS Nauvoo aka the OPAS Behemoth aka Medina Station. We cover its transformation from an ark for the faithful to a missile against the alien to a battleship for the Belt and to a crossroads between stars.

Nuclear Rockets (w. Scooter) Aug 12, 2026

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While most of NASA was focused on the Apollo Moon Program, a separate division was hard at work building then deliberately blowing up nuclear rocket cores all over Nevada. This week, we’re talking to train and nuclear knower Scooter about the weird and convoluted story of American nuclear rockets.

Support FTL on Patreon to unlock bonus content and join our Discord community!

SOURCES:

- Nuclear propulsion: A vital technology for the exploration of Mars and the planets beyond, NASA

- The NERVA Nuclear Rocket Reactor Program, W H Esselman

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Soyuz-23: Ice Fishing for Cosmonauts (w. Matt Lowne) Jul 29, 2026

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A secret military space station, a rookie crew, a flaky autopilot, insufficient batteries, a freak winter storm, and a frozen lake. We’re joined by space and KSP youtuber Matt Lowne to talk about Soyuz-23, the only water touchdown of a Soviet spacecraft and how it very nearly killed its entire crew.

Check out Matt’s videos here!

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Support FTL on Patreon to unlock bonus content and join our Discord community

SOURCES:

- Soyuz: A Universal Spacecraft, Rex Hall

- Salyut-5: The Last Military Lab, Anatoly Zak

- https://www.astronomy.com/space-exploration/soyuz-23-how-two-cosmonauts-almost-died-after-landing-back-on-earth/

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

*PREVIEW* Tatsumaki Class (w. Tex Talks Battletech) Jul 24, 2026

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This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest of the episode and unlock more bonus content, support Failure To Launch on Patreon at any tier.

In the wake of Operation:REVIVAL, House Kurita embarked on a crash WarShip development program to try and match the naval superiority of the Clans. Today, we are joined by Dr. Randolph P. Checkers, one of the Periphery’s finest historians, to discuss one product of this program, the ill-fated Tatsumaki Class destroyer.

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