The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight News — Luna-25/Luna-Glob delayed ( space.com ) ( russianspaceweb.com ) ( russianspaceweb.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( russianspaceweb.com ) Short & Sweet — Firefly and York both make acquisitions ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Egypt to build space-monitoring station ( africanews.space ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 15th June, 1971: Launch of KH-9 Hexagon ( en.wikipedia...

Spaceflight News — Starliner Woes ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) — We tracked down some info on P-213 and P-213LW fiberglass tapes. (PDF: hansford.hk ) (PDF: nitto.com ) ( spacematdb.com ) Short & Sweet — UAE gives details on asteroid mission ( spacewatch.global ) — Commercial deep-space radar ( spacenews.com ) ( satellitetoday.com ) — North Korean launch failure ( spacene...

Spaceflight News — HAKUTO-R failure analysis (HT deltaV: twitter.com/DJSnM ) ( twitter.com/jeff_foust ) ( ispace-inc.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Apollo software modeled terrain to avoid this exact issue (PDF HT Mike: ibiblio.org ) Short & Sweet — Virgin Orbit assets sold off ( spacenews.com ) — ESA folds out a new heat shield (HT Andrew Z: esa.int ) ( newatlas.com ) This Week in Spaceflight Hist...

Spaceflight News — Blue Origin wins HLS contract ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( wikipedia.org ) ( nasa.gov ) (PDF: sam.gov VIA nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — CAPSTONE tests its navigation technology ( nasa.gov ) — End of Lunar Flashlight ( spacenews.com ) — Core of Roman Space Telescope completed ( spaceref.com VIA 12ft.io ) This Week in Spaceflight History &nbs...

Spaceflight News — China’s spaceplane makes maneuvers ( spacenews.com ) — Kosmos-2562 makes maneuvers as well ( twitter.com/planet4589 ) ( russianspaceweb.com ) Short & Sweet — Plutonium Depletion ( spacenews.com ) — ULA prepares for more tests ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Vast and SpaceX shoot for first commercial space station (HT Andy Z.: techcrunch.c...

Spaceflight News — Evolution Space becomes 9th private U.S. company to reach space ( twitter.com/evolutionspace_ ) ( parabolicarc.com ) — UP Aerospace rocket rapidly RUDs ( gizmodo.com ) ( youtube.com ) — Incredible footage of payload separation was captured in 2015 (HT Stygarfield: reddit.com ) ( nasa.gov ) — Swedish rocket lands in Norway ( reuters.com ) Short & Sweet — Dragonfly faces propo...

Spaceflight News — Starship update ( twitter.com/thesheetztweetz ) ( americaspace.com ) — We missed the point of the skydiving pebble story ( discord.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — H3 failure analysis ( twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin ) (PDF: mext.go.jp ) Short & Sweet — Hakuto-R likely in free-fall before loss of signal (HT Sam: twitter.com/ea4gpz ) ( space.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — China’s space...

Spaceflight News — Starship, destroyer of concrete ( youtube.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/landru79 ) (HT Iain from MaxQ: twitter.com/unrocket ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — Launch tower footage (HT Astro: reddit.com/r/space ) — Liftoff footage (note debris impacting water) ( twitter.com/SpaceX ) — High speed footage from Tim Dodd x Consider Cosmos ( twitter.com/Erdayast...

Spaceflight News — SpaceX cuts costs ( spacenews.com ) — Starship launch license ( spacenews.com ) — Relativity pivots away from Terran-1 ( spacenews.com ) ( techcrunch.com ) ( relativityspace.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: JUICE launch successful ( nasaspaceflight.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 20 Apr, 2004: The launch of Gravity Probe-B ( en.wikipedia.org ) (...

Spaceflight News — Centaur explosion ( arstechnica.com ) ( twitter.com/SciGuySpace )  ( twitter.com/torybruno ) — The test stand can be seen in 3D on Google Maps ( google.com ) Short & Sweet — Artemis II crew announced ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Dawn Aerospace completes successful spaceplane test flight ( spacenews.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) — ISRO com...

Spaceflight News — Exploring Mars Together ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Seized assets in Kazakhstan threatens Soyuz-5 program ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Virgin Orbit Layoffs ( spacenews.com ) ( qz.com ) — Rosotics announces large-scale 3D printer ( spacenews.com ) ( newatlas.com ) ( rosotics.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Tiangon...

Spaceflight News — Relativity’s Terran-1 fails to reach orbit ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( twitter.com/thetimellis ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — Private South Korean company launches suborbital rocket from Brazil ( spacenews.com ) — NS-23 anomaly identified ( parabolicarc.com ) — SWOT, key climate science satellite, instrument back online ( space.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — Aaron:...

Spaceflight News — Stoke Space prepares for hopper landing trial (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/stoke_space )  ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — NASA announces $1B deorbit tug for ISS ( spacenews.com ) — Virgin Orbit’s operational pause ( spacenews.com ) — Axiom reveals the Artemis EVA suit ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — March 24, 2006: The first launch of F...

Spaceflight News — VV22 investigation (HT Sam: esa.int ) ( spacenews.com ) ( arianespace.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — IBEX mission overcomes computer glitch ( space.com ) — ISS dodges a satellite ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: H3’s first flight results ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Data Relay: STS-400 — STS-400 ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( nasaspac...

Spaceflight News — TROPICS-1 mishap investigation (HT Mike Stewart: astra.com ) Short & Sweet — HST impacted by satellite trails ( nature.com ) — China’s secret spacewalk ( spacenews.com ) Interview -- D. Geoff Carter, PE — RollAide.com — artemis-space.com This Week in Spaceflight History — Mar 9, 2008: The launch of the first ATV: Jules Verne ( en.wikipedia.org ) (PDF: esa.int ) (PDF: esa.int...

Spaceflight News — Starship’s near future ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) Short & Sweet — NASA planning for first Gateway logistics mission ( spacenews.com ) — Beetlesat successfully deploys expandable antenna on orbit ( spaceref.com ) ( beetlesat.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — March 2, 1995, Launch of STS-67, Endeavour ( en.wikipe...

Spaceflight News — Soyuz MS-22 leak images (HT deltaV: russianspaceweb.com VIA twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb )  — Eric Berger posted a comparison to a confirmed MMOD strike ( twitter.com/SciGuySpace ) — Katya Pavlushchenko posted photos of orange stains on other Progresses ( twitter.com/katlinegrey ) — Uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 delayed ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/katlinegrey ) — LauncherOne fail...

Spaceflight News — Kosmos-2499 breakup ( russianspaceweb.com ) ( sattrackcam.blogspot.com ) ( space.com ) — Superheavy static fire ( nasaspaceflight.com ) (HT Ryan R: twitter.com/elonmusk ) ( spacenews.com ) (HT Alex: youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — Progress MS-21 leak ( twitter.com/katlinegrey ) ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Spaceport Camden saga continues ( independent.co.uk ) —...

Spaceflight News — SSLV launch failure investigation completed ( spacenews.com ) (​ isro.gov.in ) — VTM separation was captured on video, but payload deployment is only seen as a timestamp on a status display. ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — NASA confident in A1 software ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Peregrine has a new destination ( spacenews.com ) — Perseverance completes sample depot on Mars (​...

Spaceflight News — NASA Tests a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine ( nasa.gov ) (PDF: mdpi.com ) (Scott Manley: youtube.com ) ( ntrs.nasa.gov ) — JAXA tested an RDRE in 2021 ( futurism.com ) — China tested a CDRE January 2023 ( twitter.com/CNSpaceflight ) Short & Sweet — Starship WDR ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/SpaceX ) — Lucy mission gets new targe...

Spaceflight News — ABL failure analysis (HT Mike Stewart: twitter.com/ablspacesystems ) Short & Sweet — NASA scales back ISS scientist program ( spacenews.com ) — JUICE is ready for Jupiter ( spacenews.com ) — Lucy’s Loose Limb ( spacenews.com ) (HT Brown Pau: blogs.nasa.gov ) — ClearSpace raises funds for its first mission ( spacenews ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Vulca...

Spaceflight News — Soyuz MS-22 rescue ( spacenews.com ) ( russianspaceweb.com ) — Virgin Orbit failure ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( virginorbit.com ) — Virgin Galactic recently restructured their leadership ( spacenews.com ) — Virgin Orbit is suffering financial woes ( arstechnica.com ) — ABL RS1 failure ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) (HT Sam: twitter.com/ablspacesystems ) (HT...

Spaceflight News — LunaH-Map struggles to enter lunar orbit ( spacewatch.global ) (PDF: static1.squarespace.com VIA busek.com ) (PDF: digitalcommons.usu.edu ) — Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) enters lunar orbit ( space.com ) — Hakuto-R M1 successfully completes second maneuver ( spaceref.com ) ( ispace-inc.com VIA hobbyspace.com ) — Chandrayaan-3 fully integrated ( indiatoday.in ) ( indiat...

Spaceflight News — MS-22 coolant leak ( arstechnica.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) Short & Sweet — Lockheed Martin performs habitat burst test ( cnet.com ) ( lockheedmartin.com ) ( youtube.com ) — Zhuque-2 fails to reach orbit ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — Chris Hofmann: Honeybee purchase ( discord.com ) — Unc’ Willy and Csab...

Spaceflight News — The finalists return - HLS2 ( spacepolicyonline.com ) ( space.com ) ( spacepolicyonline.com ) Short & Sweet — New Chinese rocket debuts with a sea launch ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — dearMoon crew revealed ( americaspace.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — December 15, 1970: Landing of Venera 7, first spacecraft to return data from another planet ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( spa...