Failure To Launch

Latest Episodes:

Moon Tank 2: Lunokhod 2 (w. Victoria Scott) Jul 15, 2026

Show notes

The guy who made the Ultima games owns a space tank. We’re back with auto journalist and podcaster Victoria Scott to keep talking Lunokhod. In Part 2, we go over the journey of Lunokhod 2, lives saved in the Chernobyl Disaster, and the post-Soviet desperation that led to a Moon rover being sold for $68,500.

Check out Victoria’s work here and listen to Tran Girlismo!

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

SOURCES:

- Unmanned Missions toward the Moon, Anatoly Zak

- Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration, Brian Harvey

- Tank on the Moon, 2007

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Moon Tank: Lunokhod 1 (w. Victoria Scott) Jul 01, 2026

Show notes

In a desperate bid to one-up the American Apollo missions, the Soviets built nuclear Moon tanks. We’re joined by auto journalist and podcaster Victoria Scott for a series on the Soviet Lunokhod rovers. In Part 1, we talk about the three-pronged Soviet lunar program, how they built the first space tank, and how you can stay warm in winter with a kilo of Polonium-210.

Check out Victoria’s work here and listen to Tran Girlismo!

Find our merch store here

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

SOURCES:

- Unmanned Missions toward the Moon, Anatoly Zak

- Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration, Brian Harvey

- Tank on the Moon, 2007

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

Burn Space Down: The Starfish Prime Shot Jun 26, 2026

Show notes

On July 9th, 1962, the US Navy lit space on fire from Hawaii to New Zealand and fried a quarter of all active satellites in orbit. This week, we’re joined by engineer and friend of the show Ian to talk about Starfish Prime, the largest nuclear test ever conducted in space, and all the satellites that test killed.

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

SOURCES:

- Burning the Sky, Mark Wolverton

- Dark Sun: Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, Richard Rhodes

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

*PREVIEW* The Lesson (1987) Jun 25, 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.

For June’s bonus, we’re joined by Ani Mejlumyan of the Lions Led By Donkeys podcast to talk all about The Lesson, a strange Soviet-Armenian animated short about environmentalism. Or possibly John Lennon. Or being so relentlessly horny that you short-circuit a Soviet censor’s brain.

Deep Sea & Space (w. Dr Alan Jamieson) Jun 11, 2026

Show notes

The earliest manned spaceflights were universally cramped, uncomfortable, and dangerous. What if your job was to do that multiple times a year underwater? This week, we're joined by Dr. Alan Jamieson, an accomplished marine biologist, veteran of many deep sea dives, and a host of the Deep Sea Podcast to compare our respective environments and see how they line up.

Check out the Deep Sea Podcast here!

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

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

*UNLOCKED* Gleipnir (Ace Combat X) Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

More Ace Combat announcements are coming out and we're very excited about that, so we're unlocking our bonus episode from earlier this year on the Gleipnir flying stealthing aircraftlasermissilebattlecarrier.

The final boss of superweapon development. A weapon worth double digits of the GDP of Laesath. The universe's most powerful Blue Angel. This time, we're tackling a fan request topic: Diego Gaspar Navarro's Folly, the Gleipnir.

*PREVIEW* Despoiler Class (w. 40K Badcast) May 29, 2026

Show notes

This is a preview of a bonus episode. To hear the rest of the episode and unlock more bonus content, consider supporting Failure To Launch on Patreon.

The Coup of OKB-1 (w. Joe Kassabian) May 22, 2026

Show notes

A lot of people know that the Soviets canceled their manned lunar program after losing the Moon Race to Apollo. What most don’t know is how that program ended: in a backroom, cloak-and-dagger palace coup that made one man the unquestioned King of Soviet Space. This week, we’re joined by Joe Kassabian to talk about The Coup of OKB-1 by 𝓜𝓞𝓜.

Listen to Lions Led By Donkeys here and check out Joe’s upcoming book!

Find our merch store here!

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

SOURCES:

- Challenge to Apollo, Asif Siddiqi

- Rockets & People 4, Boris Chertok

- Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration, Brian Harvey

- RussianSpaceWeb, Anatoly Zak

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

NASA Cuts w. Gene Mikulka May 08, 2026

Show notes

In April 2026, while the crew of Artemis 2 was still travelling around the Moon, the Trump administration put forward a budget proposal to gut NASA. This week, we’re joined by space policy analyst and host of the Talking Space podcast, Gene Mikulka, to go over the threats to space science and the grassroots resistance to the cuts.

Check out the Talking Space podcast here and follow Gene on Bluesky!Astronauts for America interview

Find our merch store here!Support FTL on Patreon to unlock bonus content and join our Discord community!

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

NASA Railroad & Soyuz City (w. Gareth Dennis) Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

Alternate title: Railing Rockets. We're joined by Gareth Dennis, host of the RailNatter podcast, to talk about the intersections of rockets and trains. Gareth came prepared with a wonderful story of horses' arses and the NASA Railroad. Quinn, meanwhile, got sidetracked and wrote about how Soviet OKB head Sergei Korolev accidentally bankrupted a city.

Check out RailNatter and Gareth's other videos here!

Find our new merch store here!

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

FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

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