The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight News — Cargo Dragon leak ( cnet.com ) ( space.com ) — Ingenuity’s woes ( cnet.com ) ( mars.nasa.gov ) (PDF: arc.nasa.gov ) — Martian winter is dustier due to heat gradients (HT Csaba: space.com ) Breaking Madness — Astra TROPICS-1 failure ( space.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) Short & Sweet — Korean startup targets launch from Brazil later this year ( smallsatnews.com ) — NASA to lau...

Spaceflight News — xEVAS selection ( nasa.gov ) ( youtube.com ) ( theverge.com ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — Helicopter Hunkering ( spacenews.com ) ( jpl.nasa.gov ) — Shenzhou-14 has arrived ( spacenews.com ) — Release date for JWST’s first full-color images announced ( cnet.com ) — OMG SLS WDR ASAP ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: Almaz clusterbomb ( ru...

Spaceflight News — Psyche launch (sike!) ( space.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) Short & Sweet — Airbus wins contract to build LISA ( airbus.com ) — China prepares for next crewed launch ( spacenews.com ) ( cnet.com ) — Starliner, Present and Future ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) Interview – Kineo Wallace, Lead Propulsion Design Engine...

Spaceflight News — OFT-2 ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) — Debris shedding after booster sep T+3:00 ( twitter.com/elizabethtinkg ) ( youtu.be ) — Two RCS thrusters and two OMAC thrusters shut down during the flight ( twitter.com/lorengrush ) — Test Fest — ABL Space fires upper stage engine ( spacenews.com ) — Gilmour Space fires Phoenix engine ( youtube.com ) — Relativity...

Thanks to Deathkin for naming this week’s episode! Spaceflight News — Rocket 4.0 unveiling ( spacenews.com ) — Chris Kemp asks “why can’t a couple of people launch a rocket?” ( youtu.be ) — Astra announced a new UK launch site ( spacenews.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) — Astra is in the running for the TacRS-3 contract ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Axiom-1 putting strain on ISS ( spacenews.com...

Spaceflight News — Rocket Lab Helicopter Catch ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) — CAPSTONE’s up next ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Astroscale performs close approach ( spacenews.com ) — Phantom Space makes big engine purchase ( techcrunch.com ) — Russian rocket motor breaks apart on-orbit ( space.com ) — Astra preparing for Canaveral launches ( spacenews.com ) ( astra.com ) Questions, com...

Spaceflight News — Ligado stepping on GPS’ toes ( spacenews.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( fiercewireless.com ) Short & Sweet — OSIRIS-REx mission extension announced ( arizona.edu ) ( spacenews.com ) — SOFIA operations to end later this year ( spacenews.com ) — AX-1, Crew-4 swap places ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews...

Spaceflight News — Peregrine preparing for flight ( spacenews.com ) ( astrobotic.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) Short & Sweet — TDRS to be replaced ( spacenews.com ) — Starlink books a flight ( spacenews.com ) — Bad weather holds up Crew-4 ( spacenews.com ) Interview – Daniel Bock, CEO and Co-Founder of Morpheus Space — FEEP technology is a subset of ion propulsion ( en.wikipedia.org ) (VIA archiv...

Spaceflight News — Artemis-1 Wet Dress Rehearsal( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — WDR is deferring to Ax-1 landing ( spacenews.com ) — Artemis rover ( spacenews.com ) — RFI issued in August ( nasa.gov ) ( sam.gov ) — Lockheed Martin, General Motors and MDA ( spacenews.com ) — Northrop Grumman, Intuitive Machines, Michelin Tires, AVL, Lunar Outpost ( spacenews.com ) — Venturi...

Spaceflight News — Spinlaunch ( space.com ) (HT McMally: businesswire.com ) — SLS wet rehearsal modification (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/SciGuySpace ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — April 2nd, lightning strikes ( nasa.gov ) — April 3rd, fan failures ( nasa.gov ) — April 4th, vent and check valves ( nasa.gov ) ( nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — DARPA funds in-space manufacturing development ( spac...

Spaceflight News — MSR delayed and split in half ( spacenews.com ) (PDF: nasa.gov ) — Northrup Grumman eyeing its own SLD contract ( spacenews.com ) ( nasa.gov ) (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/wapodavenport ) — NG received six additional CRS-2 missions last month ( govconwire.com ) Short & Sweet — Crew Dragon production is ending ( teslarati.com ) — Slingshot Aerospace gets USSF contract ( spacenew...

Spaceflight News — Second Artemis Lander ( spacenews.com ) ( nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — NASA opens 50-year-old lunar sample ( cnet.com ) (PDF: curator.jsc.nasa.gov ) — Astra’s successful launch had a not-secret-anymore customer ( spacenews.com ) — Starship environmental review delayed… Again ( spacenews.com ) — Arianespace and SPX adjust to missing Soyuz launches ( spacenews.com ) This Week in...

Spaceflight News — Artemis I Rollout ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( americaspace.com ) Short & Sweet — SpaceX sets two new records ( spacenews.com ) — First all-cosmonaut Soyuz docks with station ( spaceflight.com ) — China satellite launch includes demonstration third-stage ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — From the intro: JWST progress ( spacenews.com ) Thi...

Spaceflight News — Astra LV0008/ELaNA 41 failure analysis ( spacenews.com ) ( astra.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — OSAM-1 completes critical design review ( nasa.gov ) — China to commercialize Tiangong spacenews.com — Soyuz embargo leaves many satellites grounded ( spacenews.com ) Questions, Comments, Corrections — Gravitational submarines — Matthew Bell ( iopscience.iop.org ) —...

Spaceflight news — More Russian fallout — Russia threatens OneWeb launch ( spaceflightnow.com ) — OneWeb looking to non-Russian rockets ( spacenews.com ) — eROSITA turned off on Russian Spektr-RG ( space.com ) — ExoMars likely to be delayed ( spacenews.com ) — South Korea worried about Russian launches ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Anahuac pleads guilty to selling tainted rocket fuel ( jus...

Spaceflight news — Sanctions on Russia — Roscosmos pulled out of French Guiana ( twitter.com/planet4589 ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/nextspaceflight ) — NASA no longer involved in Venera-D? ( spacenews.com ) — ISS is unlikely to be used as a pawn ( reuters.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — ULA has enough RD-180s (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/torybruno ) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/planet4589...

Spaceflight News — JWST Alignment (PDF: spacefoundation.org ) (HT deathkin: jwst-docs.stsci.edu ) — Follow JWST’s alignment progress on Where Is Webb? ( jwst.nasa.gov ) Short & Sweet — Chandra X-ray Observatory suspends operations ( space.com ) — China reveals human spaceflight plans and communication with U.S. govt ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) This Week in Spaceflight History — 22 Feb,...

Spaceflight news — Astra failure ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — Mysterious Moon Masher ( twitter.com/sciguyspace ) ( projectpluto.com ) ( projectpluto.com ) — James Webb is making adjustments ( spacenews.com ) — Starship testing may move to Florida ( spacenews.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — From the intro: ( nasaspaceflight.com ) ( youtube.com ) —...

Spaceflight News — JWST cryocooler — Alternative tube configurations include U-bend and coaxial (PDF p7: trc.nist.gov ) — Testing shows the cryocooler is TWICE as efficient as required! ( nasa.gov ) — JWST’s radiators are coated with BIRB (PDF: indico.cern.ch ) Short & Sweet — Curiosity’s wheels take a lickin’ but keep on tickin’ ( cnet.com ) — InSight weathers a dust storm ( spacenews.com ) (...

Spaceflight news — Shijian-21 does some space tuggin’ ( spacenews.com ) — Last November, a new object, 2021-094C, appeared near SJ-21 ( spacenews.com ) — USA 271 “buzzed” SJ-20 in August 2020 ( breakingdefense.com ) — SJ-21 might be trying net or debris lasing tech (PDF: airuniversity.af.edu — 1972 Incidents at Sea Agreement (US + USSR) ( state.gov ) Short & Sweet — NASA identifies cause of st...

Spaceflight News — Artemis rescheduling ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Gamma ray observatory suffers anomaly in LEO ( space.com ) — SpaceX wins a new contract ( spacenews.com ) — Exomars to launch this year ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — From the intro: ABL second stage anomaly ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) — From Upcoming Spaceflight Events:...

Spaceflight news — JWST deployment — A detailed timeline is available from Jonathan McDowell ( planet4589.org ) — Hexapod actuators (PDF: esmats.eu ) — A photo of an early actuator development unit (PDF, p2: sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net ) Short & Sweet — Chang’e 5 identifies water on the moon ( space.com ) ( science.org ) — Perseverance rover prepares to clear blocked sampling tube ( nasa.gov ) — SLS...

Spaceflight news — JWST finishes deployment steps! — Primary and Secondary mirror deployment ( esmats.eu ) — Aft Deployed Instrument Radiator (PDF HT MMC: ttu-ir.tdl.org ) — Cross stitch ( reddit.com/r/CrossStitch ) — Current estimate is 20 years worth of propellant (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/cbs_spacenews ) Short & Sweet — Paragon acquires spacesuit manufacturer ( spaceref.com ) — KSLV-2 failure...

Spaceflight news — JWST launched ( blogs.nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Realtra’s VIKI cameras looked fantastic! ( realtra.space ) ( theorbitalmechanics.com ) — Deployment explorer ( webb.nasa.gov ) — Port mid-boom deployment was delayed due to cover switches ( twitter.com/NASAWebb ) — Non-explosive pins were discussed in the pre-launch coverage ( youtube.com )&...

Spaceflight news — Superheavy ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — Raptor 2 will produce 230+ tons of thrust ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — McGregor will only perform Raptor 2 testing ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — B4/SN20 will be used for the orbital flight test ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — A guess about Starship stretching ( reddit.com/r/spacex ) — Possible tank volumes (HT Birkeland: forum.nasaspaceflight.com ) Sh...