Mars or Bust: Addressing the Shuttle in the Room
Published: May 28 2026
It’s Mars or the highway for Jon. His license plate, emblazoned with “Go2Mars”, has been bolted to his truck since 1993, serving as a red-planet expedition campaign on wheels. He says the best things in space haven’t happened yet—so what’s ahead?
From sitting in the commander’s seat in Atlantis to managing “a company called SpaceX” in a new ‘commercial crew’ program back in 2011, Jon stresses the importance of maintaining that forward momentum into the next big leap towards Mars.
Join your host Danielle and retired NASA engineer and project manager Jon Cowart in a conversation about the “amazing orchestra of things” that make up NASA’s past and present, and how it shapes future space history.
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