1957
Tyson says the United States created NASA within a year of Sputnik's launch.
“No different, really, from when Russia first launched the satellite Sputnik, put a flame under our ass. Within a year, we created NASA.”
Topic
NASA
20 facts from 11 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
1980s
Matthew Walker says NASA research in the 1980s found that naps of twenty minutes to an hour raised task productivity by about 34% and alertness by over 50%.
“these naps, anywhere between twenty minutes to an hour, could increase productivity on these different tasks by about 34% and increase general alertness by over 50%.”
1990s
Matt Walker says NASA pioneered nap research in the 1990s with astronauts.
“NASA pioneered this back in the 1990s, and during the missions, they were experimenting with naps for their astronauts.”
1990s
Matt Walker says NASA found 26-minute naps improved mission performance by 34 and alertness by 50.
“naps of little as 26 minutes improved, um, uh, mission performance by 34, and improved daytime alertness by 50.”
2008
In December 2008 NASA split its commercial resupply contract between two companies, with SpaceX receiving about $1.6 billion for 12 cargo missions.
“They have one there, they're two winners, two companies get the contract, split the contract. SpaceX gets a big part of it. 1.6 billion dollar payment from NASA to fund.”
2010s
Tyson says NASA's Artemis moon program began under the first Trump administration, prompted by China's lunar plans.
“Happened under the first Trump administration, so the Artemis mission gets birthed.”
2014
In September 2014 NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.6 billion contract to fly astronauts to the ISS, with Boeing winning the second contract.
“in September, 2014, NASA bid out a $2.6 billion contract to, to do this.”
2018
A 2018 NASA audit showed SpaceX had received $7.7 billion in contracts from NASA.
“SpaceX has received $7.7 billion in contracts from NASA for launches”
Undated
Developing Falcon 9 and Dragon cost about $400 million of NASA's money and about $450 million of SpaceX's own.
“Developing the sum total, the Falcon 9, which we're about to go into the story of, and the Dragon, that cost about $400 million of NASA's money.”
Undated
A NASA internal estimate put the cost of developing the vehicles in the traditional way at about $4 billion.
“And it basically, what they find is the number is about $4 billion.”
Undated
Adam Selipsky cited AWS's role in controlling NASA's Mars Rover as evidence that mission-critical workloads run in the cloud.
“controlling, uh, NASA's Mars Rover, you know, SUV-sized vehicles on the surface of Mars”
Undated
Jeff Bezos says Blue Origin's Mark II lander for NASA's Artemis program is designed to be reusable and to land and take off as a single stage.
“so that lander is designed to be reusable. It can land on the surface of the moon in a, in a single stage configuration and then take off.”
Undated
Kahn spoke with NASA's Jessica Marquez, who researches human factors engineering, the study of how humans work with automated systems.
“I spent some time with this woman Jessica Marquez at NASA who is does a lot of their research on what they call human factor engineering”
Undated
According to NASA research cited by Kahn, humans who only monitor automated systems perform badly because they cannot stay vigilant for long.
“if you put a human in a in this babysitting role, they almost always perform very badly. They can't remain vigilant for that long.”
Undated
Kahn says NASA found it could keep astronauts vigilant around automated systems only by introducing faults at random intervals.
“Except by introducing faults at like random intervals so that the people were constantly on guard, which was an interesting insight.”
Undated
Vandi Verma says NASA has researched 'novelty detection,' which would help the rover find things it hasn't already examined, but it was not yet deployed.
“it's called novelty detection, which we don't actually yet have deployed, but find what we haven't already looked at.”
Undated
Tyson says NASA has an In Situ Resource Utilization branch, and that the Moon's South Pole is thought to hold water.
“NASA has an entire branch of itself called In Situ Resource Utilization ISRU. You go there, we think there's water at the South Pole, so you go get the water.”
Undated
Trump said under NASA's Artemis program American astronauts will return to the Moon to establish a permanent presence, followed by Mars.
“Under NASA's Artemis program, American astronauts will soon return to establish a permanent American presence on the moon.”
Undated
Sokhal did machine learning research in the US, publishing at ICLR with Stability AI and working with NASA.
“was deep in machine learning research, published at I C L R with Stability A I, worked in collaboration with NASA”
Undated
Sokhal says most of Moshi's team has worked with NASA in some capacity.
“most of the team has in some capacity worked with NASA.”
Episodes
- 2 Aug 2021The Science & Practice of Perfecting Your Sleep | Dr. Matt Walker3h 1m
- 26 May 2020SpaceX2h 45m
- 9 Jul 2026Neil deGrasse Tyson On Aliens, Simulation Theory, and What Happens Inside A Black Hole1h 49m
- 9 Mar 2023Matthew Walker: The World’s No.1 Sleep Expert (The 6 Sleep Hacks You NEED!)2h 11m
- 14 Dec 2023#405 – Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin2h 20m
- 9 Oct 20261066. Andy & DJ CTI: Dell CEO's Wife Susan Dell's Appearance At White House, Trump Admin Cuts Off Microsoft From Visa Program & 9/11 Confessions Thrown Out1h 33m
- 22 Oct 2026The Recommendation Engine for Commodity Traders — Anekha Sokhal, Moshi26m
- 17 Dec 2024Collective Learning With Generative AI27m
- 29 Oct 2024The Risks of Too Much AI: Fortune’s Jeremy Kahn31m
- 6 Dec 2023CEO of Amazon Web Services: Cloud, GenAI, two pizza rule and customer obsession.50m
- 9 Oct 2024Debunking AI myths, with Jeremy Kahn39m