The Space Show

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 10 September 2025: Merging Black Holes and Gravitational Waves: The Space Show is in conversation with Prof. Eric Thrane , School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University, Clayton. When scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) recently announced they had seen a bizarre pair of rapidly spinning black holes, the astrophysics c...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 3 September 2025: Eric Philips: Australian Polar Explorer to Polar Orbiting Astronaut Eric Philips OAM (born 30 April 1962) is an Australian polar explorer, adventurer, polar guide and now private astronaut aboard the Fram2 mission. To learn more about Eric Philips and the Fram2 mission, listen to our two-part special episodes of The Space Show from October 2024: *...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 28 May 2025: The State of Space: My Perspective Sir Peter Beck , Rocket Lab Founder & CEO at the SmallSat Symposium, 4-6 February 2025 , Mountain View, California. Speaking from Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Peter Beck gives his personal views on the state of space in 2025, including launch vehicles, large constellations of satellites, funding, company failures, C...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 27 August 2025: Turn Back Time: * Sixty years since the record-breaking flight of Gemini V . * Fifty years since the launch of the Viking 1 & 2 missions to Mars. Space Show News: * Starship Flight 10. * NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites and other Earth observation satellites. The five satellites scheduled in the fleet are the currently-flyin...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 20 August 2025: James (Jim) A. Lovell Jr (1928-2025) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and mechanical engineer. This two-part special episode of The Space Show celebrates the 97-year life of the Gemini 7 & 12 and Apollo 8 & 13 astronaut. Largely told in his own words, hear how the flight of Apollo 8 , which saw the first crewed mission t...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 13 August 2025: James (Jim) A. Lovell Jr (1928-2025) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and mechanical engineer. This two-part special episode of The Space Show celebrates the 97-year life of the Gemini 7 & 12 and Apollo 8 & 13 astronaut. Largely told in his own words, listen out for his story about how he was almost “selected” to be the...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 6 August 2025: A Retrospective (2016): Searching for Life in the Outer Solar System A discussion of the proposed BRINE Discovery Mission to Enceladus and the status of the United States’ commercial space projects with the late Dr David Wilson, then Vice President of the Mars Society Australia and a research and development engineer at the Space Science and Astrobio...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 30 July 2025: Eris TestFlight-1: Gilmour Space takes first step towards Australian sovereign launch capability. Bowen, Queensland, Australia - 30 July 2025: Gilmour Space Technologies has completed the maiden test launch of Australia's first locally designed and built orbital rocket — a major milestone toward offering low-cost, responsive launch services for sm...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 23 July 2025: A Cold War Handshake in Space — The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project: * Apollo 7 astronaut, Walter Cunningham , shares his unique and candid perspective on the first international joint mission with America's Soviet adversaries. * Terry Virts (@AstroTerry) , another former NASA astronaut, shares his forthright reflections on train...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 16 July 2025: Space Show News: The U.S. Globalchange.gov website has been shutdown. Remembering space historian Dr Eric M. Jones (1944—2025): Marking the death of Eric Jones, the founder and chief editor of the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal, with an interview with Eric about the artefacts left behind by Neil Armstrong. (Interviewer, Peter Aylward) For more interview...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 9 July 2025: Medicine and the Moon: A Moon Village Association event introduced and moderated by Dr Marc Jurblum, Doctor of Psychiatry, St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. Speakers: Prof. Gordon Cable , Specialist in Aerospace Medicine, University of Adelaide. Dr Omar Eduardo Rodriguez , Neuro-radiology Registrar, Royal Melbourne Hospital. Dr Rowena Christiansen , Me...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 2 July 2025: Prompted by the destruction of Kosmos 1408 , a history of anti-satellite tests, and a discussion from the European Space Agency on the problem of space debris and mitigation efforts. (Audio inserts courtesy ESA) * The Kessler Syndrome , also known as the Kessler Effect, describes a situation in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) beco...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 25 June 2025: Space Show News: The explosion of Starship 36 on the test stand at Starbase, Texas. (Insert courtesy NSF) Turn Back Time: NASA’s Scout small satellite launcher program (Feature courtesy The Space Story , NASA 1989) Is Elon Musk's plan to settle Mars a visionary dream, or a nightmare folly? * Elon Musk outlines his plan for using Starships to put a...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 18 June 2025: Australian Space Industry 2025 Part 8: * A panel discussion about the emerging Australian space industry as it stood just before the formation of the Australian Space Agency on 1 July 2018. (Recorded by The Space Show for the Space Association of Australia) * Also, the recently launched Defence Science and Technology Group's Buccaneer Main Mission...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 11 June 2025: Dr Naomi Mathers, Aerospace Engineer with Geospatial Intelligence and the Space Industry Association of Australia; Andrea Boyd, European Space Agency; and Mike Thompson, amateur astronomer with Backyard AstroScience, discussing Australian space technology applications: * puncture repair kit * using satellites * space situational awareness * 3D printin...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 4 June 2025: Breaking News: Jared Isaacman vs the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’. The 60th anniversary of the first two extravehicular activities (EVAs), or 'space walks’: Alexei Leonov exited Voskhod 2 and Ed White floated out of Gemini 4. Neither mission went as planned. The 60th anniversary of the ill-fated Luna 6 in the context of the other Soviet Luna missions.

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 7 May 2025: Tell him he’s dreaming: Jared Isaacman’s confirmation hearing — Part 2 vs the Trump Administration's NASA Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request — Part 1 We examine President Trump's nominee for NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman's promises to Congress, compared with the reality of the Trump Administration’s recently announced NASA budget request ....

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 26 March 2025: Australian Federal Budget 2025—2026: Some space and astronomy aspects of yesterday's Australian Federal Budget. The item includes Professor Peter Quinn (Director, International Centre for Radio Astronomy research, Perth) answering questions about the Square Kilometre Array, and a feature on Landsat and Landsat Next. (Prof. Quinn recorded at a Space A...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 19 March 2025: Blue Ghost 1 Completes Mission The successful conclusion of the Blue Ghost 1 lunar landing mission, with a description of the experiments carried. (Inserts courtesy NASA and Firefly) Athena Volatiles The objectives of the Volatile Contamination experiment on the failed Athena lunar lander. (Insert courtesy IM) Sun and Butch Return to Earth Marking th...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 12 March 2025: SPHEREx and PUNCH: The launch of the Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere satellites and the SPHEREx observatory. Athena Crash: The crash landing of the Athena spacecraft on Mons Moutan in the South Polar region of the Moon, and the purpose of the Hopper Gracie and Trident drill. The Nova-C lunar lander, named Athena, reached the surface o...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 5 March 2025: Elaine Hyde & New Shepard 30 mission The suborbital spaceflight of Melbourne raised but now Florida resident Elaine Chia Hyde aboard the New Shepard 30 mission; biography, interviews and an analysis of comments posted on Channel 9's Instagram page. Australian Space Industry 2025 Part 3: * Neumann thruster successfully tested aboard the Edison satellit...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 26 February 2025: Athena: The Intuitive Machine's second lunar mission, Athena with a NASA PRIME-1 (a payload consisting of a drill and mass spectrometer), the Micro Nova Hopper "Gracie", Lunar Outpost's Mobile Autonomous Prospecting Platform (MAPP) and Dymon's Yaoki rover. (Insert courtesy NASA HQ) PUNCH: A briefing on the four Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 5 February 2025: Stellar Fireworks: Novae and Supernovae Coronal mass ejections and the SunRISE satellites Stellar flares seen by Swift Novae — T Coronae Borealis Supernovae — SN1987a and Eta Carina SPHEREx . (Audio inserts courtesy GSFC, CXC)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 29 January 2025: Update: Perseverance and Ingenuity The Mars Perseverance rover has left Jezero Crater but what is the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter doing now that it is unable to fly? — you might be surprised.

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 22 January 2025: Australia and Transporter 12 The Australian involvement in the Transporter 12 mission, including statements from Fleet Space, HEO Robotics, Impulse Space, Varda Space Industries and Dawn Aerospace.