This week’s Pathfinder features Lori Garver, a pioneering force in the space industry known for her instrumental role in propelling NASA into the modern era of commercial spaceflight. The former Deputy Administrator of NASA joins us today to discuss how partnerships with private space firms helped to shift the landscape from government-dominated missions to a thriving commercial space sector.

In addition, Lori and Mo discuss:

NASA’s budget and priorities
Timing of Artemis and Mars
NASA as a Cold War instrument
Much needed policy changes

And much more…

• Chapters •

00:00 - Introduction

01:00 - Commercial partnerships during Lori's tenure

05:55 - Why did you write your book?

08:29 - The COTs program

10:42 - Support for the Constellation program

12:44 - Is the SLS part of the future of Artemis?

15:40 - Feasibility of NASA's Artemis plan

19:00 - NASA’s CLPS program

22:40 - View on SpaceX's launch dominance

25:52 - Future of human spaceflight

27:05 - Does NASA risk losing relevance?

29:25 - How does great power competition affect NASA?

32:48 - Policies Lori is championing

34:14 - What prompted Lori to work in the industry?

38:40 - What Lori is working on today

45:33 - Viability of asteroid mining

49:18 - Lori's bets on next Moon/Mars landing

50:52 - What does Lori do for fun?

• Show notes •

Lori's book — https://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Gravity-Quest-Transform-Launch/dp/1635767709

Lori’s socials — https://twitter.com/lori_garver

Mo's socials — https://twitter.com/itsmoislam

Payload’s socials — https://twitter.com/payloadspace / https://www.linkedin.com/company/payloadspace

Pathfinder archive — Watch: https://www.youtube.com/@payloadspace Pathfinder archive — Listen: https://pod.payloadspace.com/episodes

• About us •

Pathfinder is brought to you by Payload, a modern space media brand built from the ground up for a new age of space exploration and commercialization. We deliver need-to-know news and insights daily to 19,000+ commercial, civil, and military space leaders. Payload is read by decision-makers at every leading new space company, along with c-suite leaders at all of the aerospace & defense primes. We’re also read on Capitol Hill, in the Pentagon, and at space agencies around the world.

Payload began as a weekly email sent to a few friends and coworkers. Today, we’re a team distributed across four time zones and two continents, publishing five media properties across multiple platforms:

1) Payload, our flagship daily newsletter, sends M-F @ 9am Eastern

2) Pathfinder publishes weekly on Tuesday mornings (pod.payloadspace.com)

3) Parallax, our weekly space science briefing, hits inboxes Thursday

4) Polaris, our weekly policy briefing, publishes weekly on Tuesdays

5) Payload Research, our weekly research and analysis piece, comes out on Wednesdays

You can sign up for all of our publications here: https://payloadspace.com/subscribe/

The Architect of Change, with Lori Garver (NASA)

Valley of Depth