The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight News — Artemis I Update — RS-25 analysis ( nasaspaceflight.com ) (PDF: nasa.gov VIA twitter.com/sciencepolicia ) — Reached DRO halfway point on Nov 28 ( spacenews.com ) — Departed DRO on Dec 2 ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Phantom Space Corp wins NASA launch task order ( nasa.gov ) — Bluewalker-3 reaches full brightness on orbit ( payloadspace.com ) ( iau.org ) — iROSA installa...

Spaceflight News — Artemis I progress ( americaspace.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( nasa.gov ) — NASA history report on Administrator James Webb released ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — China to test space-based solar power ( spacenews.com ) — Canada to develop lunar rover for power generation ( spacenews.com ) — ISRO tests Gaganyaan parachute system ( isro.gov.in ) This Week in Spaceflight...

Spaceflight News — Artemis I Launch ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( planetary.org ) (HT MCC: twitter.com/derekdotspace ) — SLS suffered slight hurricane damage prior to launch ( spacenews.com ) — SLS still had LH2 leaks ( nasaspaceflight.com ) (HT deltaV: twitter.com/ZachSellinger ) — A bad ethernet switch took down range assets (HT deltaV: twitter.com/thesheetztwe...

Spaceflight News — Cygnus Winged ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com )  ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — X-37B returns to Earth after record-breaking 900+ days in orbit ( spaceforce.mil ) — China changes plans for Long March 9 ( arstechnica.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Artemis I gettin’ stormy ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Com...

Spaceflight News — Rocket Lab’s Catch Me If You Can Wasn’t ( parabolicarc.com ) ( businesswire.com ) ( theorbitalmechanics.com ) Short & Sweet — Chinese Spaceplane Releases Object On-orbit ( spacenews.com ) — Spaceplane Aurora Tested at Peenemünde ( spacewatch.global ) — Fire Alarm Scrubs NG-18 Launch ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — Practical Engineering’s look at En...

Spaceflight News — VirtualAGC posts their final moonshot LM software package ( github.com/virtualagc ) ( ibiblio.org ) ( github.com/thewonderidiot ) ( youtube.com ) — Play with a virtual rope module ( apolloguidance.computer ) — If you own a rope module, or know someone who does, please get in touch! The vAGC group is happy to keep donors anonymous. Contact Ron Burkey: info@sandroid.org — Project...

Spaceflight News — ISS EVAs resumed ( spacenews.com ) ( blogs.nasa.gov ) — Back in March, Matthias Maurer had a leak in his suit ( spacenews.com ) ( phys.org ) ( blogs.nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Geotail in Jeopardy ( space.com ) — ESA turns to SpaceX ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Tiangong nears completion ( spacenews.com ) — Polaris Dawn mission scheduled for Ma...

Spaceflight News — Epsilon failure ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( youtu.be ) (PDF: jaxa.jp ) — Skyrora failure ( skyrora.com ) ( youtube.com ) — The Firefly Paradox ( spacenews.com ) ( firefly.com ) ( twitter.com/seradata ) — Rockets showing up at places ( bbc.com ) ( techcrunch.com ) Short & Sweet — Lucy flyby (NSF via web.archive.org ) ( lucy.swri.edu ) ( twitter.com/LucyMission...

Spaceflight News — Test Fest III — Ariane 6 test fires upper stage engines ( esa.int ) — Aerojet-Rocketdyne tests new solid motor ( rocket.com ) (PAYWALL: aviationweek.com ) — BE-4 full-duration firing (Video: twitter.com/torybruno ) — Stoke Space ring firing ( ifiberone.com ) ( twitter.com/stoke_space ) (MP4: uploads-ssl.webflow.com VIA stokespace.com/vision ) ( twitter.com/jenakuns ) ( arstechni...

Spaceflight News — DART ( spacenews.com ) ( planetary.org ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( twitter.com/nasa ) ( twitter.com/LICIACube ) ( twitter.com/SenBillNelson ) ( researchgate.net ) — Transformational Solar Array experiment (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Testing begins for first ViaSat-3 ( spacenews.com ) — Hubble may get a roboost ( spacenews.com ) — Firefly reaches orbit ( spacenews.c...

Spaceflight News — Rocket Lab updates ( satellitetoday.com ) — There was a presentation for investors September 21 ( youtube.com ) (PDF: rocketlabusa.com ) — The Archimedes Test Complex will be built at Stennis ( businesswire.com ) — JWST instrument suffers anomaly ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — USSF to leave GEO ( aviationweek.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Superheavy fires seven engines ( cnet...

Spaceflight News — CAPSTONE safe mode update ( advancedspace.com ) ( advancedspace.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) Short & Sweet — SLD lander RFP ( spacenews.com ) — NASA requests private missions ( spacenews.com ) — ArianeGroup reveals reusable crewed vehicle for Ariane 6 ( twitter.com/EuropeSpace360 ) (HT ArcadeEngineer: twitter.com/Melissandre_L ) — Morpheus Space raises funds ( spacenews.com...

Spaceflight News — Artemis I update ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Axiom selected for Artemis 3 space suits ( space.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Astrobotic wins bid for Masten assets (HT deltaV: clickorlando.com ) (HT deltaV: parabolicarc.com ) — CAPSTONE enters safe mode (HT deltaV: twitter.com/NASASpaceflight ) ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments,...

Spaceflight News — Artemis I — First attempt ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( americaspace.com ) — Second attempt ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Future attempts ( blogs.nasa.gov ) ( twitter.com/NASASpaceflight ) — Just for fun: AR Orion model ( americaspace.com ) Short & Sweet — ThrustMe and Astr...

Spaceflight News — Starship prep, Falcon repairs ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spaceexplored.com ) Short & Sweet — Intelsat loses control of satellite ( satellitetoday.com ) — Starship HLS demo will keep it simple ( spacenews.com ) — Starliner CFT delay ( spacenews.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — Sept 3, 2002: Discovery of Earth-orbiting asteroid J002E3 ( en.wikipe...

Spaceflight News — Artemis III landing site candidates released ( nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) — Artemis I rolled out August 16 ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Russian spacewalk cut short ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( cnet.com ) Short & Sweet — Northrop Grumman to start astronaut training program ( northropgrumman.com ) — Starship gets commercial satellite customer ( spacenews.com ) — Spaceplane buddies...

Spaceflight News — Artemis I lookahead ( planetary.org ) ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Starlink hits bad weather ( spacenews.com ) — Antares gets a domestic upgrade ( spacenews.com ) ( space.com ) — SSLV falls short ( spacenews.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — From the intro: a bid for Masten Space’s assets ( parabolicarc.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History —  21 Aug, 1993....

Spaceflight News — Rocket 3 is dead, long live Rocket 4 ( astra.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( astra.com ) Short & Sweet — Russian Satellite might be Snooping In Orbit ( space.com ) — Russia remains on Station ( spacenews.com ) — Possible Secret Chinese spaceplane ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Real Engineering visited Spin Launch (HT Espen: youtube.com ) This...

Spaceflight News — Helicopters join Mars Sample Return ( cnet.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Eutelsat/OneWeb merger ( spacenews.com ) — Masten Space Files for Bankruptcy ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/jeff_foust ) — OSIRIS-REx shows asteroids surfaces age quickly ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — SLS for Artemis, SLS for commercial launches ( spacenews.co...

Spaceflight News — Wentian launched ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — An array of new research facilities is onboard ( twitter.com/CNSpaceflight ) — CZ-5B may experience an uncontrolled reentry ( twitter.com/TheSpaceGal ) Short & Sweet — Impulse and Relativity announce joint mission to Mars ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Nancy Grace has a ride to space ( spacenews.com ) — First private company to launch fr...

Spaceflight News — ABL static fire ( spacenews.com ) — Rocket Factory Augsburg static fire ( rfa.space ) — Superheavy FOOMPF ( arstechnica.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Post-fire images/video show apparent sheet metal blow-outs ( twitter.com/NASASpaceflight ) — New, possibly replacement, engines arrived at the pad ( twitter.com/NicAnsuini ) — Going forward, SPX won’t be doing simultaneous spin-starts...

Spaceflight News — CAPSTONE’s gone. And now it’s back! ( space.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( satellitetoday.com ) — AS published a Ballistic Lunar Transfer cheat-sheet (PDF: amazonaws.com VIA advancedspace.com ) — TCM-1C may not be necessary ( nasa.gov ) ( advancedspace.com ) Short & Sweet — Minotaur II explodes ( thehill.com ) ( noozhawk.com ) — X-37B beats own record on orbit (...

Spaceflight News — CAPSTONE ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( space.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( nasa.gov ) ( advancedspace.com )  — Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) ( advancedspace.com ) (PDF: hou.usra.edu ) (PDF: mstl.atl.calpoly.edu ) Short & Sweet — Aerospace firm to build launch complex in Maine ( bangordailynews.com ) — Perseverance wind sensor damaged ( space.com )...

Spaceflight News — SLS WDR FIFI ( spacenews.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF ) — SRB Hydraulic Power Unit hot fire test was completed successfully (PDF p107: klabs.org ) ( twitter.com/cbs_spacenews ) Short & Sweet — Psyche launch delayed to 2023 ( spacenews.com ) — Atoms for Space ( space.com ) — Starlink interference from 5G ( engadget.com ) Questions, Comments, Correcti...

Spaceflight News — Lucy in the news with updates ( space.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( blogs.nasa.gov ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — Starliner gets its first crew ( spacenews.com ) — ISS performs debris avoidance maneuver ( nasa.gov ) — Markusic steps down as CEO of Firefly ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Perseverance sees something shiny ( planetary.or...