The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight News — Vega propellant tank mishap  ( arstechnica.com ) ( europeanspaceflight.com ) ( eoportal.org ) (PDF: arianespace.com ) — AVUM 4th stage (“upper stage”) (Pic: eoportal.org ) — Transporter-9 satellite deployment malfunction ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Iran successfully launches bio-capsule ( payloadspace.com ) — Chinese methalox rocket progress continues ( cgtn.com )...

Spaceflight News — Starship Shtuff ( payloadspace.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( twitter.com/ThePrimalDino ) Short & Sweet — JAXA cyber attacked ( payloadspace.com ) — U.S. watchdog agency finds Artemis III in 2025 unlikely ( gao.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) — Gyroscope glitch halts Hubble operations ( nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History —  Dec 7, 1966: Launch of ATS-1,...

Spaceflight News — Starliner Crewed Flight Test stays on schedule ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( blogs.nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Looking Towards the End of ISS ( planetary.org ) ( spacenews.com ) — Orion still on track ( spacenews.com ) — Ariane 6 hot firing test ( europeanspaceflight.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — Danielle Rose has some neat space art ( drose.studio )...

Spaceflight News — Starship Flight 2 ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( youtube.com ) ( twitter.com/thejackbeyer ) ( twitter.com/planet4589 ) — Posted after recording: a quick analysis of Starships acceleration curves ( twitter.com/Space_Josiah ) Short & Sweet — SaxaVord struggles to pay contractors ( europeanspaceflight.com ) — Sierra Space layoffs ( cnbc.com ) —...

Spaceflight News — Rocket Lab Failure Analysis ( spacenews.com ) ( space.com ) ( rocketlabusa.com ) (PDF: q4cdn.com VIA en.wikipedia.org ) Short & Sweet — Astra’s financial future ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — X-37B readies for first launch on Falcon Heavy ( spaceflightnow.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Dinkinesh adds a moon ( planetary.org ) Interview -- Jake...

Spaceflight News — Lucy flies past Dinkinesh and also Dinkinesh ( nasa.gov ) ( lucy.swri.edu ) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov VIA ntrs.nasa.gov ) — Aerojet Rocketdyne supplied Lucy’s thrusters ( l3harris.com ) (PDF: amazonaws.com ) Short & Sweet — Starship aims for mid-November launch ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — i-Space hops ( spacenews.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 12 Nov, 1995. Launch of STS-7...

Spaceflight News — ABL Dusts Itself Off ( spacenews.com ) ( harryohanley.substack.com ) Short & Sweet — NASA struggles to open asteroid sample container ( space.com ) — Rocket Lab to return ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Blue Origin’s latest Blue Moon mockup ( spacenews.com ) — Canopée to ferry Ariane 6 ( fosstodon.org/@AkaSci ) — You can register to send...

Spaceflight News — Gaganyaan in-flight abort test ( youtube.com ) ( timesofindia.indiatimes.com ) (HT: Jatan’s Space PDF: gov.in ) (HT DeltaV : twitter.com/DJSnM ) — Pad abort test ( https://www.youtube.com ) — Future human Indian Space ambitions ( gov.in ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — PLD Test Launch ( spacenews.com ) — Two Vega payloads fail to deploy ( europeanspaceflight.com ) Questio...

Spaceflight News — Psyche launch and mission preview ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( scitechdaily.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( microdevices.jpl.nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Spacewalk canceled due to Nauka leak ( space.com ) — QueSST to fly in 2024 ( nasa.gov ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 21 Oct, 2007. Soyuz TMA-10’s ballistic reentry ( ruspace.blogspot.com...

Spaceflight News — Tiangong’s expansion ( hindustantimes.com ) ( cnn.com ) — Northrop Grumman joins Starlab team ( nasa.gov ) — Orbital Reef may be abandoned ( cnbc.com ) Short & Sweet — Luna-25 failure “analysis” ( spacenews.com ) — Stoke Space gets more funding ( spacenews ) Interview -- Ben Reed, CTO Quantum Space — quantumspace.us   — linkedin.com/company/quantumspace-us/   — lin...

Spaceflight News — Electron suffers upper stage failure ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( youtu.be ) Short & Sweet — Stoke Space hops ( spacenews.com ) — Sierra Space does a burst test ( spacenews ) — China plans for lunar sample return ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — A big thanks to Unc’willy, Fonji, Chris S in particular for helping Ben track down and fix an iss...

Spaceflight News — Dawn Aerospace discusses future plans ( parabolicarc.com ) Short & Sweet — Artemis-II gets its engines ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Firefly launches Victus Nox ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Stoke Space test fires ( twitter.com/stoke_space ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 22 Sep, 1981. Colombia spills NTO before STS-2 ( 16streets.com )...

Spaceflight News — Aditya-L1 studyin’ the Sun ( space.com ) ( eoportal.org ) (PDF: iiap.res.in ) Short & Sweet — Starship stands corrected ( spacenews.com ) — MaiaSpace tests cryogenic second stage ( europeanspaceflight.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Apollo LOX tanks ( twitter.com/DrPhiltill ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 15 Sept, 2017: End of the Cassini missio...

Spaceflight News — OSIRIS-REx prep ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( youtube.com ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — New Frontiers competition delayed ( spacenews.com ) — Ariane 6 hot-fire test delayed ( europeanspaceflight.com ) — Otter Pup detumbled! ( payloadspace.com ) ( twitter.com/StarfishSpace ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 9 Sept, 2006: The launch of STS-115 Atlantis ( space.com ) ( en.w...

Spaceflight News — Chandrayaan-3 landing ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( isro.gov.in ) ( indianexpress.com VIA 12ft.io ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Starship Booster 9 static fire (with deluge) ( twitter.com/SpaceX ) Interview -- IEEE Senior Member David Witkowski — Further reading: Public Wifi Blueprint (PDF: pages.nist.gov ) — twitter.com/w6dtw —...

Spaceflight News — Luna-25 (HT ArcadeEngineer: twitter.com/katlinegrey ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) (Paywall: russianspaceweb.com ) Short & Sweet — Starship booster coronation ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( twitter.com/SpaceX ) — Intuitive Machines has a launch date ( spacenews.com ) — Russia explores reusable first-stage ( aviationweek.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — Benjamin W....

Spaceflight News — Lunar Flashlight failure ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: mstl.atl.calpoly.edu VIA web.archive.org ) (PDF: ssdl.gatech.edu ) (PDF: digitalcommons.usu.edu ) Short & Sweet — Boeing aiming for six Starliner flights to ISS ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — NASA test-fires Mars Ascent Vehicle’s motor ( space.com ) — To Artemis three or not to three ( spacenews.com ) This Week in...

Spaceflight News — Astra Layoffs ( spacenews.com ) ( cnbc.com ) Short & Sweet — Starship Activities ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — Cygnus gets an upgrade ( spacenews.com ) — Airbus and Voyager announce commercial space station plans ( spacenews.com ) ( europeanspaceflight.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 11 and 12 Aug, 1962: The launches of Vostok 3 and 4 ( russians...

Spaceflight News — 2023 Tipping Point selections ( nasa.gov ) ( nasa.gov ) (PDF: nasaprs.com ) — Blue Origin’s Blue Alchemist separates regolith into several important base materials ( blueorigin.com ) — We talked to Kyla Edison about sintering regolith ( theorbitalmechanics.com ) Short & Sweet — HALO’s added cost ( spacenews.com ) — Sierra Space builds a better engine ( spacenews.com ) — Cont...

Spaceflight News — A Commercial Space Station Source Selection ( spacenews.com ) ( nasa.gov ) (PDF: sam.gov ) ( news.northropgrumman.com ) ( sierraspace.com ) ( specialaerospaceservices.com ) ( vastspace.com ) Short & Sweet — Recently arrived GEO satellites in trouble ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) — China develops plan to land humans on Moon before decade’s end ( spacen...

Spaceflight News Vulcan Centaur delays ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) Short & Sweet            — China begins constructing VLEO constellation ( spacewatch.global ) — LandSpace wins the race ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Janus canceled ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — An NSF tour of Astra’s rocket fac...

Spaceflight News — Au revoir, Ariane 5 ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) (Payload User’s Guide PDF: arianespace.com ) — Two solids provide ~90% of Ariane 5’s thrust ( esa.int ) — ESA plans to lean on SpaceX launches ( spacenews.com ) — New test facility for Ariane 6 was built in 2019 ( esa.int ) Short & Sweet — Varda completes pharmaceutical manufacturing test on-orbit ( arstechnica.co...

Spaceflight News — Mars oxygen and helicopter sighting ( space.com ) (HT Stygarfield: nasa.gov )  — Vega C delayed after engine test failure ( europeanspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Virgin Galactic completes first fully commercial flight ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Euclid telescope prepares for launch ( spacenews.com ) — Dream Chaser prepares for launch ( sp...

Spaceflight News — Starship hot staging and engine firing  ( spacenews.com )  ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( twitter.com/AshleyKillip ) — Earlier description of separation flip ( teslarati.com ) Short & Sweet — Prometheus test fire ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Anti-ASAT antipathy ( spacenews ) — Launcher’s second OTV fails on orbit ( spacenews.com ) ( geekwire.com ) This Week in Spaceflight...

Spaceflight News — iROSA campaign complete, looking to next campaign ( americaspace.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — ESA reserve astronaut to fly on Axiom flight ( europeanspaceflight.com ) — Impulse to supply propulsion for commercial space station ( vastspace.com ) — Rocket Lab goes suborbital ( spacenews.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History —  26 Jun, 1971: The third N1...