Episode 1 is about propulsion testing facilities that take new technologies to the edge of flight readiness, and features Jaydee Dyess, director of test operations at Agile Space Industries, and Aimee Hubble, Senior Project Engineer at Aerospace.  

Systematic testing of chemical and electric propulsion methods is exactly as complex as it sounds, but it needs to be done in order to maximize confidence before launching a new engine or tech to space. Not only that, but every test is different.  

"Everybody is looking for a place to test. But you'll set up an entire multimillion dollar setup, and then the next guy will show up and they need something just a little bit different," said Dyess. "Everybody's custom every single time—it's wild."

Hubble helped build EP3, Aerospace's record-size electric propulsion testing chamber. But they have had to remain agile as there's more overlap between the different types of propulsion that must be tested — hence a new chamber they call "Mud Pie."  

"A lot of our chambers are named after types of pie. This is the chamber we intended to be our dirty propellants chamber, where we might test multi-mode propulsion, or other things that we don't necessarily want to spew on our very expensive, very custom cryo-pumping system we've got in the big chamber," she explained. "For this one we had to pull together a custom pumping chamber on our own in a couple weeks. It was challenging, and it went surprisingly well!"