The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight news — ESA spacecraft to join Venusian fleet ( space.com ) ( esa.int ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) ( arxiv.org ) — Jean-Luc Margot et al recently made rough measurements of Venus’ moment of inertia ( youtube.com ) ( arxiv.org ) — Planetary Society did a writeup on DAVINCI+ and VERITAS ( planetary.org ) Short & Sweet — First commercial deep-space antenna begins official operations in UK (...

Spaceflight news — Discovery 15 and 16 selected - we’re heading for Venus! ( space.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — NASA Presidential Budget Request ( planetary.org ) — House bill wants to designate space as critical infrastructure ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — South Korean rocket prepares for October test ( theregister.com ) — Axiom, SpaceX reach agreement to send three more private crews to ISS...

Spaceflight news — Megaconstellations in the news — Viasat asking for halt to building out Starlink ( spacenews.com ) — Chinese Guowang constellation ( spacenews.com ) — SATCON2 is coming up on July 12-16 ( aas.org ) — New Frontiers 5 will be delayed ( spacenews.com ) ( wiki ) Short & Sweet — Mars helicopter lands safely despite computer glitch ( space.com ) — Multiple new Lunar Rovers planned...

Spaceflight news — Zhurong rover dismounts from lander ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — Rocket Lab failure analysis ( spacenews.com ) ( rocketlabusa.com ) — Crew-3 Finalized ( americaspace.com ) — SpaceShipTwo returns to the skies! ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) Questions, comments, corrections — Not catching is different than not recovering! ( twitter.com/chairboy ) — From the intro: Blue...

Spaceflight news — Rocket Lab Recovery ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( rocketlabusa.com ) — Scott Manley demonstrated the TVC angle on 2nd stage ignition ( twitter.com/DJSnM ) — SpaceX files for Starship orbital launch radio license ( spacenews.com ) — SPX may have competition for HLS ( spacenews.com ) Short & Sweet — China successfully lands rover on Mars ( spacenews.com ) — Ariane 5 fa...

Spaceflight news — Awards, awards, awards — Eta Space - In-orbit cryogenic refueling ( spaceref.com ) — JPL - Lunar Crater Radio Telescope ( cnet.com ) ( jpl.nasa.gov ) — Loft Orbital - Edge computing on spacecraft ( spacenews.com ) — Northrop - Navigation payloads on Blackjack sats ( spacenews.com ) — Raytheon - Update NASA’s EO IT system ( govconwire.com ) ( earthdata.nasa.gov ) — Hughes and One...

Spaceflight news — Long March 5B set for uncontrolled re-entry ( spacenews.com ) — The module raised and is maintaining orbit (HT Colin: heavens-above.com ) — The booster is slowly deorbiting (HT Mike: heavens-above.com ) — Amateur video shows the booster in a 2.4 hz tumble ( twitter.com/dfuji1 ) — BIG Ingenuity Update! — Flight 3 was a success ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) — Flight 4 was a de...

Spaceflight news — Renewable Space Updates ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — ACES scrapped, but lives on in Centaur V ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/torybruno ) — Centaur III features the optional Aft Bulkhead Carrier (PDF: ulalaunch.com ) Short & Sweet — MOXIE operates for the first time on Mars ( space.com ) — Ingenuity flight 2 ( mars.nasa.gov ) ( mars.nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) (HT...

Spaceflight news — HLS downselection - Starship chosen (PDF: nasa.gov ) ( twitter.com/jeff_foust ) — HLS Base Period Source Selection occurred last year. (PDF: beta.sam.gov ) — Berger/Davenport were assumed to be wrong by some. ( twitter.com/lavie154 ) — NASA internally apologized for the leak. ( twitter.com/joroulette ) — The US Senate wasn’t happy this selection occurred before a new Administrat...

Spaceflight news — ISS’s crew of ten ( spacepolicyonline.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Rocket Lab to test booster recovery from space this May ( rocketlabusa.com ) — Two new Chinese spaceports planned ( spacenews.com ) — End-to-end testing of Lunar Gateway SEP system completed ( americaspace.com ) Short & Sweet — Space startup Phase Four wins government contract ( spacenews.com ) — Biden administr...

Spaceflight news — Failed data bus on Crew Dragon (HT Kevin Smith: blogs.nasa.gov ) — SN11 landing failure ( space.com ) ( twitter.com/Bojay_stellar ) ( twitter.com/TrevorMahlmann ) Short & Sweet — Rocket Lab preparing for Moon Mission ( twitter.com/RocketLab ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — Everyday people in space ( spaceflightnow.com ) — NASA buys lunar gravity from Blue Origin ( nasa.gov ) — HL...

Spaceflight news — Bill Nelson to be nominated as next NASA head ( spacenews.com ) ( whitehouse.gov ) — Debris mayhem — Space Force would hire deorbiting satellites ( spacenews.com ) — Astroscale’s demo will launch on the GK Launch Services rideshare Soyuz ( spacenews.com ) — NOAA-17 broke up ( spacenews.com ) (HT Mike Stewart: archive.org )  Short & Sweet — Chang’e 5 orbiter begins exten...

Spaceflight news — Ukrainian startup looks at in-orbit servicing ( spacenews.com ) ( kursorbital.com ) — Northrup’s MEV-2 prepares for docking attempt with geostationary satellite ( spacenews.com ) — Market analysis for on-orbit service demand by Northern Sky Research ( nsr.com ) — CONFERS is working on docking standards ( satelliteconfers.org ) Short & Sweet — HST back online after software g...

Spaceflight news — Rocket Lab reveals Neutron, goes public ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( rocketlabusa.com ) Short & Sweet — Starship burned down, fell over, and only then sank into the swamp ( spacenews.com ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — SpaceX wins a contract ( spacenews.com ) — Price changes announced for ISS and lunar mission ( spacenews.com ) ( spacenews.com ) — Perseverance updat...

Spaceflight news — Perseverance update! — Parachute message ( twitter.com ) — MATLAB solution (HT trbinsc in the chat: cdn.discordapp.com ) — Make your own custom message! ( sjwarner.github.io ) — Perseverance photos and video ( planetary.org ) ( spacenews.com ) ( mars.nasa.gov ) ( youtube.com ) — Opportunity visited its heat shield’s crash site (HT Mike Stewart spaceref.com ) — Dynetics completes...

Spaceflight news — Perseverance has landed! ( arstechnica.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( uahirise.org ) — HiRISE managed to snap a photo of Perseverance under its parachute ( uahirise.org ) (HT Mike Stewart: twitter.com/HiRISE ) — Interview with Ingenuity’s Operations Lead (HT Colin-in-the-chat: spectrum.ieee.org ) — Ingenuity runs open source control software called f’ ( github.co...

Spaceflight news — Mars Hope and Tianwen-1 arrive — Great video from Tianwen-1 as it passes its first periareion ( twitter.com/AJ_FI ) — Tianwen-1 will lower to a reconnaissance/landing orbit, then two different science orbits. ( twitter.com/PRCMarsRover ) — Mars Hope sent back a fantastic image ( bbc.com ) Mars fleet arriving soon — Perseverance ( americaspace.com ) ( everydayastronaut.com ) — In...

Spaceflight news — Starship SN9 update ( spacenews.com ) — Lots of leftover LOX visible on IR footage ( youtube.com ) — SN8’s FAA violation ( spacenews.com ) — Firefly wins CLPS contract ( spacenews.com ) ( nasa.gov ) — They will be flying the Blue Ghost lander and a number of science payloads ( firefly.com ) — Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) (Image at parabolicarc.com ) — Lunar Magnetot...

Spaceflight news — Starship, Elon, and the FAA   — SN8 violated launch license ( theverge.com ) — SN9 had to contend with the outcome ( spacenews.com ) ( arstechnica.com ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) Short & Sweet — Problems revealed for SXM-7 satellite in orbit. ( spacenews.com ) — Two more Dragon astronaut crews announced. ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) — Second Green Run Stat...

Spaceflight news — SLS Green Test hotfire followup ( americaspace.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( spaceflightnow.com ) ( youtube.com ) Short & Sweet — SpaceX buys offshore oil platforms to convert to spaceports. ( chron.com ) ( nasaspaceflight.com ) — ThrustMe performs on orbit. ( spacenews.com ) — Starliner up and running? ( spacenews.com ) (HT Andrew Z: spaceflightnow.com ) Interview--Dr. Panagiot...

Spaceflight news — ISS to get more solar panels! ( space.com ) ( spacenews.com ) ( americaspace.com ) ( nasa.gov ) — 2017 Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) demo ( americaspace.com ) ( en.wikipedia.org ) (jettison GIF) — Cassidy and Behnken removed H-fixtures from the base of two port-side arrays Last July ( youtu.be ) Short & Sweet — InSight’s mole is finally retired. ( spacenews.com ) ( airspacemag...

Spaceflight news — NASA selects four small-scale missions to further develop ( nasa.gov ) ( spacenews.com ) — Pioneers program ( science.nasa.gov ) — Aspera ( news.arizona.edu ) — Pandora ( twitter.com/elsisrad ) — StarBurst ( twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ ) — PUEO - Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PDF: arxiv.org ) Short & Sweet — Dynetics submits details for its HLS bid. ( executivebiz.co...

Spaceflight news — Landing Super Heavy ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) ( reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge ) — Scott Manley covered this technique ( youtube.com ) — Possible claw-on-cables steadying mechanism ( youtube.com ) — Small SN9 update ( nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — Long March 8 successfully debuts ( spaceflightnow.com ) — Protection of lunar heritage sites signed into law. ( spacepolicyonli...

Spaceflight news — Astra makes it to space! ( twitter.com/lorengrush ) ( spacenews.com ) ( space.com ) — Orbital parameters (HT Mike Stewart twitter.com/planet4589 ) — Chang’e-5 sample recovery ( spacenews.com ) — Now headed to L1 (with DSCOVR) (HT Sam in the chat: twitter.com/AJ_FI ) Short & Sweet — Project Kuiper reaches a milestone ( parabolicarc.com ) — CSA is sending two astronauts to the...

Spaceflight news — SN8 high-altitude flight ( spacenews.com ) ( youtube.com ) ( youtube.com ) — SNM analysis/discussion ( youtube.com ) — Accomplished all four main goals ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) ( twitter.com/elonmusk ) — Reduced goal altitude due to high atmosphere winds (HT Mike Stewart: nasaspaceflight.com ) Short & Sweet — Artemis astronauts announced! ( spacenews...