Failure To Launch

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!
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FTL theme song by DJ Danarchy

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.

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.

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

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