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Episode 122Jul 17, 2019

Space — the final business frontier

Fifty years ago today, the Saturn V rocket took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the first men to walk on the moon. Today, we’ll mark that milestone by looking ahead to the exploration, colonization and militarization of space. By some estimates, the current space economy is worth $400 billion, and it could reach $1 trillion by 2040. Here to break it all down with Molly Wood is Marketplace’s de facto space reporter Kimberly Adams and Politico’s Jacqueline Feldscher, who co-writes their space newsletter.

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In this handout provided by NASA, Astronaut Daniel Tani, Expedition 16 flight engineer, participates in the second of five scheduled sessions of extravehicular activity as construction continues on the International Space Station October 28, 2007.
In this handout provided by NASA, Astronaut Daniel Tani, Expedition 16 flight engineer, participates in the second of five scheduled sessions of extravehicular activity as construction continues on the International Space Station October 28, 2007.
NASA/Getty Images

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Fifty years ago today, the Saturn V rocket took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, carrying the first men to walk on the moon. Today, we’ll mark that milestone by looking ahead to the exploration, colonization and militarization of space. By some estimates, the current space economy is worth $400 billion, and it could reach $1 trillion by 2040. Here to break it all down with Molly Wood is Marketplace’s de facto space reporter Kimberly Adams and Politico’s Jacqueline Feldscher, who co-writes their space newsletter. Plus, we’ll hear from a “space architect,” which is apparently A Thing.

Some additional reading/viewing mentioned in this episode: Andy Weir’s “Artemis,” Daniel Suarez’s “Delta-v,” the films Gravity and WALL-E, Kimberly’s reporting on space debris and the anime “Planetes.”

The Team