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On this edition of the Ex Terra Podcast, we talk with retired NASA engineer Edgar Zapata about his views of space commerce.

Zapata spent 32 years as a NASA engineer before retiring in March of 2021. Currently, he works with the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, which nurtures visionary ideas that could transform future NASA missions with the creation of breakthroughs \\u2014 radically better or entirely new aerospace concepts \\u2014 while engaging America\'s innovators and entrepreneurs as partners in the journey. 

Zapata has an engineering degree from the University of Puerto Rico, and interviewed with NASA his last summer in college. He spent 12 years working on the space shuttle program before shifting to systems engineering and a full-time focus on future missions. He also worked with DARPA on the Experimental Spaceplane in his final years at the agency.

Now, the retired NASA engineer is a freelance consultant and spends a good deal of his time writing, including his blog Zapata Talks NASA. In the blog, Edgar shares his experience, thoughts and occasional analysis and numbers about NASA, space exploration and development, for the kind of growth that always seems just around the corner. There are stories about where we have been, where we might head, and what must change to go anywhere. Building on his prior (public) work, he leans toward the numbers, but also works to add the context that is necessary for insight about what it all means.

How does what happens in space affect your everyday life? The Ex Terra podcast is dedicated to introducing you to many of the interesting people involved in the commercial space industry, and taking you behind the scenes with many of the companies making significant contributions to the new space economy. The podcast is available on Anchor, Spotify, Apple Music, Google Podcasts, Breaker, Overcast, Pocketcasts and Radio Public.