The Space Show

On The Space Show f or Wednesday, 10 July 2024: Ariane 6 launched: The successful inaugural flight of Europe’s newest and largest launch vehicle, Ariane 6. International Space Station de-orbit vehicle contract awarded to SpaceX: The ISS is scheduled to be de-orbited in 2030. The Rise and Fall of Skylab: On the 45th anniversary of the fall of Skylab , physician-astronaut Joe Kerwin in conversation...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 3 July 2024: Australian Space Industry 2024 — KANYINI The South Australian Space Services Mission, Kanyini , is ready to launch aboard the SpaceX Transporter 11 rideshare this month. (Audio inserts courtesy Australian Space Industry Technology Infrastructure and Investment, and Channel 9)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 26 June 2024: Space Show News: Chang’e 6 returns samples from the lunar far side. Remembering Ed Stone and Voyager - Part Two: The former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and for 50 years the Project Scientist for the Voyager spacecraft, passed away on 9 June 2024. (Insert courte...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 19 June 2024: Remembering Ed Stone: The former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and for 50 years, the Project Scientist for the Voyager spacecraft, passed away on 9 June 2024 at the age of 88. Professor of Physics at Caltech (the California Institute of Technology) and a great friend of The Space Show , Ed has been on the program no fewer than 30 times...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 12 June 2024: Remembering Apollo 8 astronaut William (Bill) Anders Starship Integrated Flight Test 4 Starliner CST-100 Crew Flight Test An update on China’s Chang'e 6 mission The Hubble Space Telescope has a problem with its gyroscopes

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 5 June 2024: Space Show News Planet Earth — Episode 64: * Launch of PREFIRE 2 * Earth science missions launched by Rocket Lab (Inserts courtesy RL, RNZ) An update on China’s Chang'e 6 and Chang'e 7 missions: Chang'e 6 retrieves a sample from the lunar far-side Australian Space Industry News: * Esper's plans to recover from the loss of its first &quo...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 29 May 2024: Australian Space Industry News: * Melbourne University's SpIRIT satellite survives global solar storm, returns picture from space * Astronaut graduation ceremony for Katherine Bennell-Pegg (Inserts courtesy ESA) * Gilmour Space still awaiting launch permit for its Eris orbital launch vehicle. Planet 9: New evidence suggests that a planet orbits in...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 22 May 2024: Planet Earth: How space technology helps us understand our home planet — S4E62 The PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) satellites: Measuring the full spectrum of polar radiant energy The GRACE-Continuity and their predecessors' findings, GRACE and GRACE-Follow-on The end of the AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) missi...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 15 May 2024: Australian Space News: * The 2024 Federal Budget * Landsat Next Chang'e 6: A progress report on China’s lunar far-side sample-return mission, and of the Pakistani iCube-Qamar lunar orbiter. Planetary Report: * The findings of the Lucy spacecraft at asteroid binary Dinkinesh/Selam * MAVEN's findings when the solar wind disappeared at Mars. (Inse...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 8 May 2024: Australian Space News: * The successful launch of HyImpulse's SR75 paraffin-fuelled suborbital rocket from Southern Launch’s Koonibba Test Range in South Australia * Alan Shepard and "Light This Candle" * Funding for Australian-Indian space projects. (Inserts courtesy SDU) Boeing CST-100 Starliner first crewed orbital flight test: * The st...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 1 May 2024: CST 100 Starliner and Other Matters: * The crew exchange on the China Space Station * Chang'e 6 due for launch * Meet the crew of the CST-100 Starliner Crew Flight Test (Inserts courtesy JSC). Australian Space News: * SR75 paraffin rocket due for launch at the Koonibba Test Range * Gilmour Space Technologies’ Eris orbital space vehicle continues to...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 24 April 2024: Marking the 10th anniversary of the Rosetta mission , we continue the story of the arrival and completion of the Rosetta and Philae missions at comet 67P, Churyumov-Gerasimenko, in vox-pops, a poem and music. Also a report on how the comet was formed. (Inserts courtesy ESA) Australian Space News: Katherine Bennell-Pegg graduates astronaut training at...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 17 April 2024: Fleet Space Technologies of Adelaide: * Centauri 6 satellite orbited on April 8 at 9:16 a.m. AEST * Centauri 4 modified to allow "push-to-talk" messages by the Australian Defence Force * Fleet's ExoSphere geodes used in mineral exploration * ExoSphere technology to be incorporated into a sensor called "SPIDER” to be placed onto the...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 10 April 2024: Marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Rosetta and Philae missions to comet 67P, Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we tell the story including vox-pops, poetry and music. (Inserts courtesy ESA)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 3 April 2024: Dragonfly science to be done on Titan New Horizons' journey to Pluto, and the findings about Pluto and its moons (Hal Weaver, Project Scientist) Parker Solar Probe enters the Sun's corona the ages of the early universe the changing rotation period of asteroid 3200 Phaethon (Sean Marshall, Arecibo Observatory) women astronomers (Fred Watson, AA...

On this bonus episode of The Space Show : Australian Space Industry 2024 — Federal Space Grants 2024 — The Details of twelve funding grants awarded by the Australian Space Agency. Funding boost to grow Aussie space sector Twelve new Australian space projects are supported that will build capability in our local space sector, as well as respond to key challenges and opportunities like climate chang...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 27 March 2024: Vale Thomas P. Stafford Marking the death at age 93 of former Gemini, Apollo and Apollo-Soyuz astronaut Tom Stafford, with an explanation of how he came to be called, "The Mayor of Pad 19." (Inserts courtesy VoA) Australian Space Industry 2024 — Part 3 & Planet Earth — Episode 60 A dual topic feature: * Australian Space Agency funding g...

On this bonus episode of The Space Show: The Australian Space Industry 2024 — A detailed examination of the LiDAV technology to be supplied by the Sydney-based company Advanced Navigation to the Houston company Intuitive Machines for its Nova-C lunar lander. Includes an explanation of lasers and laser ranging. (Based on information provided by Advanced Navigation)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 20 March 2024: Australian Space Industry 2024: New Space In Australia ( Tim Parsons , Co-founder, X-Lab) Technology Safeguards Agreement to protect United States' rocket technology, but not everyone is happy Gilmour Space awarded orbital spaceport licence Australian technology on Space Machines Company 's Optimus satellite HEO (High Earth Orbit) Robotics co...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 13 March 2024: Space Show News — * Juno flies by Europa and Io and measures oxygen production on Europa according to a recent paper in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy (Szalay, J.R., Allegrini, F., Ebert, R.W. et al. Oxygen production from dissociation of Europa’s water-ice surface. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02206-x ) * Installati...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 6 March 2024: Optimus takes flight: The Australian company Space Machine's satellite Optimus was launched yesterday on the SpaceX Transporter 10 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. (Inserts courtesy SpaceX) Odysseus — End of Mission: Details of Intuitive Machine's Odysseus's semi-hard landing on the higher-than-planned site near Malapert A; the ru...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 28 February 2024: Odysseus on the Moon The story of Intuitive Machine's Nova-C “Odysseus” IM-1 mission to a landing at Malapert A near the lunar South Pole; the frantic efforts to replace Intuitive's laser landing system with NASA's Navigation Doppler Lidar; the landing accident; incorrect reports; EagleCam; fuel tank gauge; and future prospects. (Inser...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 21 February 2024: Odysseus on its way to the Moon The plan for Intuitive Machine's Nova-C “Odysseus” IM-1 mission to Malapert A near the lunar South Pole; the launch and commissioning of the lunar lander; and a reminder that the lunar South Pole is at the TOP of the Moon, as seen from the southern hemisphere. (Inserts courtesy IM, NASA) Planet Earth: Season 5 —...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 14 February 2024: Dr Joe Kerwin, Skylab 2 Physician-Astronaut The conclusion of our conversation with Joe Kerwin to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Skylab 4 mission. (Interview by Peter Aylward) Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham reflects on the legacy of the Skylab program. (Audio insert courtesy NASA) Modern day in-space duration records set to tumb...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 7 February 2024: XPoSat: India's X-ray Polarimeter Satellite was launched on New Year's day 2024. (Audio inserts courtesy ISRO) Peregrine 1 Mission summary: John Thornton (CEO, Astrobotic, Pittsburgh) explains what happened to the Peregrine 1 spacecraft. (Courtesy Astrobotic) Celestis Memorial — Tranquility Flight: Human remains were aboard the Centaur stag...