The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Sorry about the links not working! Squarespace knows about the issue, but still hasn’t fixed it. Visit theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/kyla-edison for links and photos! Spaceflight news — First results from Parker Solar Probe! (nasa.gov) (nature.com) Short & Sweet — Running Out of Fingers successfully tests key elements of rocket reuse (techcrunch.com) — Huntsville gets a new solid rocket m...

Sorry there are no links in this episode! Squarespace has broken that feature. Please visit theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/moon-prep for links and photos. Spaceflight news — RS-25 integration Short & Sweet — Orion capsule ships to Ohio for testing — Australian company 3D prints large rocket Questions, comments, corrections — Tempe meetup! — 5 pm Sunday, December 8th — tempe.laboccapizzeria...

Spaceflight news — Starship overpressure explosion ( spacenews.com ) — Rumors on 4Chan, via Reddit and NSF forum ( reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge )( forum.nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — Some insights into failed lunar landings have come out. ( spacenews.com ) — Starliner rolls out. ( americaspace.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — Congrats to our Soonish giveaway winners! Interview — A...

Spaceflight news — Spacewalk to repair AMS ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) — AMS overview ( nasa.gov ) — Footage from the EVA — The cover is detached from the restraint clip ( youtu.be ) — Jettisoning the cover ( youtu.be ) — Chris Cassidy shows off a zip tie cutter/capture device ( youtu.be ) Short & Sweet — Hayabusa2 departs Ryugu ( japantimes.co.jp ) — SpaceX completes Crew Dragon Static...

Spaceflight news — Starliner pad abort test complete ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) — Chute failure caused by misplaced pin ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — SpaceX’s Mark 3 parachutes are almost ready to go! ( spacenews.com ) — China tests gridfins ( spacenews.com ) — The ISS may see reduced crew for 6 and a half months. ( spacenews.com ) Interview: Andrew Rader...

This week in SF history — 29 October 1998: Launch of STS-95 ( wikipedia.org ) (PDF: nasa.gov ) — Next week in 1974: Solidarity Spaceflight news — Upgraded H3 rocket for lunar missions ( spacenews.com ) — H-IIA had a proposed asymmetric configuration as well as liquid boosters (HT Sam in the chat: b14643.de ) Short & Sweet — Chang’e-5 to launch late next year ( spacenews.com ) — The X-37 sets a...

Bit of a weird show this week! No news, tired hosts. We talk about our favorite things from this year’s International Astronautical Congress, and we promise more information later. This show is brought to you by just over one hundred supporters on Patreon (and direct monthly supporters using Bitcoin and Paypal!) We couldn’t have done this without you , and we are so thankful for your confidence in...

This week in SF history — October 17, 1956: Birth of Mae Jemison ( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Battery replacement EVAs ( americaspace.com ) — Commercial crew update ( arstechnica.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Eric Berger says "full panic has ensued" ( twitter.com/SciGuySpace ) — Dragon done in 10 weeks? ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) Short & Sweet — Virgin Orbit announces potential Martian cubes...

This week in SF history — 2000 October 9: HETE-2, first orbital launch from Kwajalein ( wikipedia.org ) — Next week in 1956: listen in for an audio clue. Spaceflight news — Plans in place to fix DSCOVR ( spacenews.com ) — We first reported on this on Ep 218 as a S&S ( spacenews.com ) — Faulty gyro? ( twitter.com/simoncarn ) — Triana engineers considered laser gyro failures (PDF: nasa.gov ) Sho...

This week in SF history — October 1, 1958: NASA begins operations ( wikipedia.org ) ( archives.gov ) — Next week in 2000: Sometimes a good explosion is exactly what you need Spaceflight news — InSight scientists presents three new discoveries ( americaspace.com ) ( copernicus.org ) — Images show scoop packing down regolith around mole? ( twitter.com ) — Starship update ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube....

This week in SF history — September 27 2003: last flight of Ariane 5 G, launching E-Bird — First A5 flight, 1996, failed spectacularly ( youtu.be ) ( wikipedia.org ) ( hownot2code.com ) — Next week in 1958: Twelve pages Spaceflight news — NASA planning on placing a cubesat in a Lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) — Meanwhile some Congressfolk are suggesting killing...

This week in SF history — 21 September 1968: Landing of zond 5 ( wikipedia.org ) ( russianspaceweb.com ) — Next week in 2003: generic no longer Spaceflight news — H-IIB launch pad fire ( youtube.com ) ( spacenews.com ) (HT Sam in the chat: twitter.com/mageshiman1025 ) — NASA conducts ground test of the B330. ( space.com ) — Tour of B330 (Mars Transporter Testing Unit) and Olympus B2100 ( youtube.c...

This week in SF history — 12 September 1959: Launch of Luna 2 ( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Chandrayaan-2’s successful orbiter mission? ( space.com ) ( reddit.com ) — Doppler curves ( twitter.com/cgbassa ) — Lander crash site located ( thehindu.com ) ( ndtv.com ) — Aeolus dodges a Starlink. ( space.com ) Short & Sweet — Target marker operation and dress rehearsal postponed for Hayabusa2...

This week in SF history — 7 September 1914: Birth of James Van Allen ( wikipedia.org ) — Next week in 1962: cloud-based navigation Spaceflight news — Starhopper Completes Test Flight ( spacenews.com ) — Scott Manley’s excellent coverage ( youtube.com ) — More detailed photos ( twitter.com/bocachicagal ) — Updates from Elon Musk ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — InSight mole update ( spacenews.com ) Short...

This week in SF history — August 30, 1931. Birth of Jack Swigert ( wikipedia.org ) — Next week in 1914: You know what might have killed Swigert…. Spaceflight news — Uncrewed Soyuz aborts docking. ( spacenews.com ) — Second attempt delayed to free up a new docking port. ( twitter.com/roscosmos ) Short & Sweet — Astrobotic chooses ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket to deliver its lunar lander ( astrobo...

This week in SF history — August 21, 1959. Little Joe 1 failure ( pao.ksc.nasa.gov ) ( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Linkspace hover test ( spacenews.com ) — ESA confirms second Exomars parachute test has failed ( spacenews.com ) — Vector Launch closes its doors ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: vector-launch.com ) Short & Sweet — OSIRIS-REx mission selects candidate sampling sites ( nasa.gov ) — R...

This week in SF history — August 17, 1962: Carl Sagan advocates for sterilizing spacecraft ( spacemedicineassociation.org ) (PDF: pnas.org ) Spaceflight news — Rocketlab reuse ( spacenews.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — First ion thruster use on a 1U cubesat ( spacenews.com ) Interview-- Ella Atkins — Thanks to IEEE for arranging this interview! ( IEEE.org ) — Dr. Atk...

This week in SF history — 9 August 2005: Landing of STS-114 ( wikipedia.org )( space.com ) Spaceflight news — Cause of GOES-17 satellite issue identified by NOAA+NASA ( satellitetoday.com , nasa.gov ) — Issue first publicly declared in May 2018 ( arstechnica.com ) — GOES-West live data ( goes.noaa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Elon Musk to give update on Starship in three weeks ( arstechnica.com ) — O...

This week in SF history — 30 July 2008, first full firing of a Falcon 9 with all nine engines ( spacex.com ) Spaceflight news — NASA issues rare sole source contract to NGIS ( spacenews.com , fbo.gov ) Short & Sweet — Starhopper hopped ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) ( youtu.be ) — Blue Origin fires its BE-7 lunar lander engine ( geekwire.com ) — Lightsail-2 successfully deploys its sail and sends ba...

This week in SF history — 25 July 1962: Statement of work issued for LEM ( hq.nasa.gov ) Spaceflight news — Crew Dragon Explosion Conclusion ( spaceflightinsider.com ) Short & Sweet — Eight key space observatories renewed ( nasa.gov ) — Starhopper static fire ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Interview-- Ron Burkey — Virtual AGC ( ibiblio.org ) — Java port ( svtsim.com ) — Scanned original documents ( a...

This week in SF history — 18 July 1980: first successful launch of SLV, lofting Rohini RS-1 to orbit. ( wikipedia.org )( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Chandrayaan-2 summary ( planetary.org )( wikipedia.org ) — InSight Lander’s heat probe is stuck. ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — First Starhopper test hop coming up ( spacenews.com ) — Firefly partners up to build a lunar lander. (...

This week in SF history — 10 July, 1992: Giotto flies past 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup ( wikipedia.org ) — Ten instruments onboard ( nature.com ) — Magnetometer experiment results ( articles.adsabs.harvard.edu ) Spaceflight news — Orion Abort test is a success ( spacenews.com ) — Three Starlink satellites goes silent ( spacenews.com ) — Jeff Bezos files with FCC for Kuiper constellation ( geekwire.com )...

This week in SF history — July 2, 1952: birth of Linda Godwin ( wikipedia.org ) — STS-37 ( wikipedia.org ) — STS-59 ( wikipedia.org ) — STS-76 ( wikipedia.org ) — STS-108 ( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Dragonfly ( planetary.org ) ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( jhuapl.edu ) — Falcon Heavy successfully flies STP-2 mission ( spacenews.com ) ( teslarati.com ) — Center core TVC failure...

This week in SF history — 28 June 1969. First flight of Black Arrow ( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Upcoming non-Earth science missions — 2019 — Chandrayaan-2 ( wikipedia.org ) — Spektr-RG ( wikipedia.org ) — CHEOPS ( wikipedia.org ) — Chang’e 5 ( wikipedia.org ) — Lunar Scout / MX-1E ( wikipedia.org ) — 2020 — Solar Orbiter ( wikipedia.org ) — PROBA-3 ( wikipedia.org ) — Aditya-L1 ( wikipedi...

This week in SF history — 22 June 1978. Discovery of Pluto’s moon Charon by John Christy ( wikipedia.org ) Spaceflight news — Psyche review/preview ( spacenews.com ) — Just passed Key Decision Point C (PDF: nasa.gov ) — Multispectral Imager is based on MSL’s Mastcam, MAHLI, and MARDI ( hou.usra.edu ) — Deep space laser communication demo ( wikipedia.org ) Short & Sweet — India’s Chandrayaan-2...