The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Some black voices and hashtags to amplify and listen to — twitter.com/astrotoya — twitter.com/astronaia — twitter.com/astro_eustice — twitter.com/_xPrecious — twitter.com/itsafronomics — #BlackAndStem — #BlackBirdersWeek Find local black-owned businesses — officialblackwallstreet.com/directory Learn about the problem — mappingpoliceviolence.org

Spaceflight news — Demo-2 mission: Endeavor docks with ISS ( spacenews )( twitter.com/lorengrush ) — A bell in Unity is rung twice to announce the arrival and departure of vehicles ( twitter.com/planet4589 ) — A fantastic CollectSpace thread with lots of suit zipper images ( collectspace.com ) — Note that the A7L Apollo suit had the pressure zipper on the outside. The inside zipper was just to clo...

Spaceflight news — Loverro quit! ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) ( washingtonpost.com ) — Crew Dragon launch prep (HT Andrew Z: nasaspaceflight.com ) ( planetary.org ) ( americaspace.com ) — Commercial crew is an amazing deal. ( planetary.org ) — NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future to air May 25 at 9 p.m. PT/ET on Science and at 10 p.m. PT/ET May 26 on Discovery (...

Spaceflight news — Three-part NASA Lunar News — Plans for Gateway and Artemis undergo refinement ( spacenews.com ) — NASA advisory committee skeptical of 2024 landing goal ( spacenews.com ) — Artemis Accords ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — 3D printing had a good week. ( cnbc.com ) ( upi.com ) — First real task for Space Force is… on the ground. ( spacenews.com ) — SkySat to...

Spaceflight news — China’s big Long March 5B (Chang Zheng 5B) flight — — The flight ( spaceflightnow.com ) — — The capsule landing ( spaceflightnow.com ) — — Flexible Inflatable Cargo Re-entry Vehicle ( spaceflightnow.com ) — — The unguided first-stage reentry ( spaceflightnow.com ) Short & Sweet — Next big step completed for Martian rover. ( spaceflightnow.com ) — SN4 takes a step towards fli...

Spaceflight news — NASA selects companies to develop Human Landing System (HLS) for Artemis ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( twitter.com/SciGuySpace ) — Source Selection Statement (PDF: beta.sam.gov ) — Scott Manley’s summary ( youtube.com ) — Excellent scaled image of all HLS’s, and Apollo’s LEM ( reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge ) — Superheavy update ( twitter.com/Kristennetten ) — Prepping for Crew Dragon (...

Spaceflight news — Firefly signs Launch Services Agreement with Spaceflight, Inc. ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflight.com ) — Originally autogenously pressurized tanks ( space.stackexchange.com ) — Fire in Jan due to misconfigured software ( youtube.com/watch ) — Spaceflight Industries In process of being bought by Mitsui and Yamasa ( techcrunch.com ) Short & Sweet — Starliner requires more than a...

Spaceflight news — Intuitive Machines selects lunar landing site ( spacenews.com ) — Nova-C’s publicity page ( intuitivemachines.com ) — Maps of Vallus Schröterie in Oceanus Procellarum ( cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net ) — SpaceX and Gateway Logistics Services ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: beta.sam.gov/ ) — Fan cross-section speculations ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — MEV-1 completes Intelsat-90...

Spaceflight news — Rocket Lab completes successful demonstration of mid-air capture. ( rocketlabusa.com ) ( youtube.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Tim Dodd published a great interview with Peter Beck ( youtu.be ) Short & Sweet — Mars helicopter has been attached to NASA rover. ( nasa.gov ) — Starliner gets a second flight test. ( spacenews.com ) — Long March Fails to loft Nusantara Dua ( spacenews....

Spaceflight News — Starship SN3 Collapse ( space.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — RIP Starship Mk1 ( twitter.com/NASASpaceflight ) — RIP Starship SN1 ( twitter.com/WyattJGeorge/ ) — Starship SN2’s thrust puck ( https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/41761/what-is-a-thrust-puck-on-starship ) — Jamestown Base considered for real ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: nasa.gov ) — Laura Forcz...

Spaceflight news — Gateway Logistics Services Program awarded to SpaceX ( arstechnica.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Dragon XL ( youtube.com ) ( twitter.com/Caspar_Stanley ) — OIG is investigating NASA’s acquisition strategy ( twitter.com/NASAOIG ) — Crew Dragon Mk 3 Parachute Test ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — NASA files a request for new engines. ( spacenews.com ) — As...

Spaceflight news — Artemis-1 Orion tests complete ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) — Ships to KSC March 23 ( twitter.com/NASAKennedy ) — Cubesat ridealongs ( en.wikipedia.org ) Short & Sweet — L3Harris wins NASA contract for LISA observatory. ( nasa.gov ) (Our interview on the LISA Pathfinder: theorbitalmechanics.com ) — Long March 7A is unsuccessful. ( spaceflightnow.com ) — SpaceX laun...

Spaceflight news — RS-25 Testing ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Gateway officially non-critical for Artemis landing ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — SpaceLogistics teams with DARPA on satellite servicing vehicle. ( c4isrnet.com ) — ExoMars gets delayed. ( spacenews.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — Law Loving via email on Musk and Bezos — Thanks to Emory Stagmer for the outro music! ( twitt...

Spaceflight news — Starliner update ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — Last minute scrub costs Astra the DARPA Challenge ( spaceflightnow.com ) — DSCOVR resumes operations. ( spaceflightnow.com ) — SLS scheduling update ( spacenews.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — Winning entry for the Mars 2020 naming contest ( mars.nasa.gov ) — Destin’s ULA tour ( youtube.com ) ( youtu...

Spaceflight news — SpaceX plans a mobile service tower ( twitter.com/Falcon9Block5 ) ( space.com ) — Starship SN-1 suffered pressure failure ( twitter.com/JohnRand0061 ) ( youtube.com ) — Artemis changes? ( arstechnica.com ) — “This is not the plan.” says Bridenstine re Moon 2024 Mission Manifest ( twitter.com/JimBridenstine ) Short & Sweet — NASA's safety advisory panel finds Boeing didn't pe...

Spaceflight news — InSight’s HP3 to get a lil push ( www.dlr.de ) ( twitter.com/NASAInSight ) ( mars.nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — JAXA going forward with sample return mission to Phobos. ( spaceflightnow.com ) — SpaceX has a date for a polar launch from the Cape. ( teslarati.com ) — CSLI, selects the next round of 18 smallsats to fly on ELaNa missions ( nasa.gov ) Questions, comments, correction...

Spaceflight news — Discovery Program selects four finalists ( nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — DAVINCI+ (PDF: hou.usra.edu ) ( wikipedia.org ) — IVO (PDF: hou.usra.edu ) ( wikipedia.org ) — Trident (PDF: hou.usra.edu ) ( wikipedia.org ) (HT Sam in the chat: forum.nasaspaceflight.com ) — VERITAS (PDF: dlr.de ) ( wikipedia.org ) — Abstracts for the other proposals (HT sam in the chat...

Spaceflight news — ASAP report on CST-100 Starliner ( arstechnica.com ) ( blogs.nasa.gov ) — Astra Space emerges from stealth mode ( spacenews.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) ( astra.com ) ( bloomberg.com ) Short & Sweet — SpaceX likely to spinoff Starlink business. ( bloomberg.com ). — Cape Canaveral is getting a name change. ( spaceflightnow.com ) Interview -- Jason Batt, Editorial and Creative Di...

Spaceflight news — Near-miss of IRAS and GGSE-4 ( c4isrnet.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( kiro7.com ) ( space.com ) — Image of post-conjunction trails ( twitter.com/juliancd38 ) — NASA selects first commercial-destination module for ISS ( nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Voyager 2 malfunction ( voyager.jpl.nasa.gov ) — JWST’s launch date will likely slip again. ( arstechnica.com ) — CHE...

Spaceflight news — Spaceway-1 batteries ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Firefly suffers an anomaly on the test stand. ( spacenews.com ) ( space.com ) — Solar Orbiter mission’s launch slips several days ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( twitter.com/torybruno ) — Tethers Unlimited’s Terminator Tape is showing promise. ( spacenews.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — Andrew via ema...

Spaceflight news — Crew Dragon In-flight Abort Test successful ( youtube.com ) — Beautiful views of in-air explosion ( twitter.com/SpaceflightNow ) ( twitter.com/GregScott_photo ) — Second stage and interstage survivedl ( twitter.com/johnkrausphotos ) ( twitter.com/mike_deep ) — Gorgeous shot of approaching fastboat ( twitter.com/SpaceX ) Short & Sweet — Dream Chaser on track for 2021 mission...

Spaceflight news — Astra Space obtains launch permits — Three polar launches from Kodiak ( apps.fcc.gov ) ( www.faa.gov ) — DARPA launch from Wallops ( apps.fcc.gov ) — Challenge seeks two launches from different locations with little foreknowledge of payload ( darpalaunchchallenge.org — Downselected to only candidate ( spectrum.ieee.org ) Short & Sweet — Virgin Galactic’s second spaceship pas...

Spaceflight news — ISRO confirms plans for Chandrayaan-3 ( spacenews.com ) — Chandrayaan-2 imagery ( nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — SpaceX plans a moveable tower for pad 39A ( spaceflightnow.com ) — Christina Koch breaks a record ( spaceflightnow.com ) — Early signs of the Clean Space age: Iridium announces willingness to pay for third party cleanup of failed satellites ( spacenews.com ) Interview...

Spaceflight news — Starliner OFT ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( collectspace.com ) — IR video ( twitter.com/NASA ) — Re-entry video from the ground ( twitter.com/MrTutskey ) Short & Sweet — Omega has a payload. ( spaceflightinsider.com ) — ULA selected to launch next GOES mission. ( satellitetoday.com ) — SpaceX announces yet another Starlink launch. ( teslarati.com ) This week in SF history — Dece...

Spaceflight news — Rocket Lab inaugurates LC 2 at Wallops. ( spacenews.com ) — Reuse footage from Running Out of Fingers ( youtu.be ) — OSIRIS-Rex landing site selected ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — A new European rocket gets funding. ( parabolicarc.com ) — SLS core stage is complete ( spacenews.com ) — Vector files for chapter 11. ( spacenews.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — Art i...