The Space Show

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 17 April 2024: Fleet Space Technologies of Adelaide: * Centauri 6 satellite orbited on April 8 at 9:16 a.m. AEST * Centauri 4 modified to allow "push-to-talk" messages by the Australian Defence Force * Fleet's ExoSphere geodes used in mineral exploration * ExoSphere technology to be incorporated into a sensor called "SPIDER” to be placed onto the...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 10 April 2024: Marking the 20th anniversary of the start of the Rosetta and Philae missions to comet 67P, Churyumov-Gerasimenko, we tell the story including vox-pops, poetry and music. (Inserts courtesy ESA)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 3 April 2024: Dragonfly science to be done on Titan New Horizons' journey to Pluto, and the findings about Pluto and its moons (Hal Weaver, Project Scientist) Parker Solar Probe enters the Sun's corona the ages of the early universe the changing rotation period of asteroid 3200 Phaethon (Sean Marshall, Arecibo Observatory) women astronomers (Fred Watson, AA...

On this bonus episode of The Space Show : Australian Space Industry 2024 — Federal Space Grants 2024 — The Details of twelve funding grants awarded by the Australian Space Agency. Funding boost to grow Aussie space sector Twelve new Australian space projects are supported that will build capability in our local space sector, as well as respond to key challenges and opportunities like climate chang...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 27 March 2024: Vale Thomas P. Stafford Marking the death at age 93 of former Gemini, Apollo and Apollo-Soyuz astronaut Tom Stafford, with an explanation of how he came to be called, "The Mayor of Pad 19." (Inserts courtesy VoA) Australian Space Industry 2024 — Part 3 & Planet Earth — Episode 60 A dual topic feature: * Australian Space Agency funding g...

On this bonus episode of The Space Show: The Australian Space Industry 2024 — A detailed examination of the LiDAV technology to be supplied by the Sydney-based company Advanced Navigation to the Houston company Intuitive Machines for its Nova-C lunar lander. Includes an explanation of lasers and laser ranging. (Based on information provided by Advanced Navigation)

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 20 March 2024: Australian Space Industry 2024: New Space In Australia ( Tim Parsons , Co-founder, X-Lab) Technology Safeguards Agreement to protect United States' rocket technology, but not everyone is happy Gilmour Space awarded orbital spaceport licence Australian technology on Space Machines Company 's Optimus satellite HEO (High Earth Orbit) Robotics co...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 13 March 2024: Space Show News — * Juno flies by Europa and Io and measures oxygen production on Europa according to a recent paper in the scientific journal Nature Astronomy (Szalay, J.R., Allegrini, F., Ebert, R.W. et al. Oxygen production from dissociation of Europa’s water-ice surface. Nat Astron (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-024-02206-x ) * Installati...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 6 March 2024: Optimus takes flight: The Australian company Space Machine's satellite Optimus was launched yesterday on the SpaceX Transporter 10 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base. (Inserts courtesy SpaceX) Odysseus — End of Mission: Details of Intuitive Machine's Odysseus's semi-hard landing on the higher-than-planned site near Malapert A; the ru...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 28 February 2024: Odysseus on the Moon The story of Intuitive Machine's Nova-C “Odysseus” IM-1 mission to a landing at Malapert A near the lunar South Pole; the frantic efforts to replace Intuitive's laser landing system with NASA's Navigation Doppler Lidar; the landing accident; incorrect reports; EagleCam; fuel tank gauge; and future prospects. (Inser...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 21 February 2024: Odysseus on its way to the Moon The plan for Intuitive Machine's Nova-C “Odysseus” IM-1 mission to Malapert A near the lunar South Pole; the launch and commissioning of the lunar lander; and a reminder that the lunar South Pole is at the TOP of the Moon, as seen from the southern hemisphere. (Inserts courtesy IM, NASA) Planet Earth: Season 5 —...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 14 February 2024: Dr Joe Kerwin, Skylab 2 Physician-Astronaut The conclusion of our conversation with Joe Kerwin to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Skylab 4 mission. (Interview by Peter Aylward) Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham reflects on the legacy of the Skylab program. (Audio insert courtesy NASA) Modern day in-space duration records set to tumb...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 7 February 2024: XPoSat: India's X-ray Polarimeter Satellite was launched on New Year's day 2024. (Audio inserts courtesy ISRO) Peregrine 1 Mission summary: John Thornton (CEO, Astrobotic, Pittsburgh) explains what happened to the Peregrine 1 spacecraft. (Courtesy Astrobotic) Celestis Memorial — Tranquility Flight: Human remains were aboard the Centaur stag...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 31 January 2024: The demise of Ingenuity: Marking the end of the Ingenuity Mars helicopter, comments by Bill Nelson (NASA Administrator); media teleconference briefing and Q&A. (Inserts courtesy NASA) SLIM awake again: After taking a tumble, SLIM is awake again. A full report from JAXA on what happened to SLIM. Celestis Memorial Flights: Human remains were aboa...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 24 January 2024: Artemis: Return to the Moon — Part 2 The Space Show’s Andrew Rennie continues his conversation with Space Association of Australia Committee member, Angelo Di Grazia ( @GoCats2007 ) about the delay to the Artemis II and Artemis III crewed lunar missions and the future of the Artemis lunar exploration program, including commentary on: Orion heat shi...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 17 January 2024: Peregrine 1: The perilous flight of the falcon The Space Show examines the failure of the Peregrine 1 lunar lander after a successful launch on the maiden flight of the Vulcan Centaur rocket. Artemis II & III Delay with Angelo Di Grazia ( @GoCats2007 ) Angelo discusses the announcement that the Artemis II and Artemis III crewed lunar missions h...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 10 January 2024: SpIRIT in the Sky: The Space Show in conversation with Clint Therakam, Thermal Engineer, Melbourne Space Laboratory at the University of Melbourne, discussing the SpIRIT satellite , its experiments, and Clint’s role in the project. Also, his work on the design of the Australian Roo-ver lunar rover. Space Show News — Artemis and Peregrine 1: Announc...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 3 January 2024: The loss of the Mars Polar Lander: The story of the ill-fated Mars Polar Lander, which was launched 25 years ago today. (Audio inserts courtesy JPL) Moon Month — SLIM and Peregrine 1: This month will see the attempted landing of Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon or SLIM near Shioli Crater on the Moon, and the launch of Astrobotic's...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 27 December 2023: Apollo 8: The Journey Home The homeward journey, President Johnson's remarks, and musical tributes. Final call to send your “Message in a Bottle” to Jupiter aboard the Europa Clipper spacecraft SLIM and Peregrine 1 The arrival into lunar orbit of Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) lunar lander, and a description of the inst...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 20 December 2023: Planet Earth — Season 4 Episode 58: Launch of iQPS-SAR-5, otherwise known as Tsukuyomi 1, by an Electron rocket from New Zealand, with a synthetic aperture radar to collect high-resolution images of the Earth. Skylab 4 — Part II: Continued from last week, how the three Skylab 4 crewmen earned the one-armed paper-hanger's award, played midwife...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 13 December 2023: Space News: * Neumann Space electric propulsion engine successfully tested in space aboard an unidentified Skykraft 3 air traffic control satellite. * Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket is scheduled to launch the Earth-imaging satellite QPS-SAR-5 * Sydney based company HEO is a space technology company delivering on-demand non-Earth imagery and intellig...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 6 December 2023: SpIRIT launched: The Sp ace I ndustry R esponsive I ntelligent T hermal satellite, or SpIRIT, was launched for the Melbourne Space Laboratory by a Falcon 9 rocket after pre-launch secrecy. (Audio inserts courtesy Melbourne University, SpaceX, Neumann Space) Message in a bottle: Join the mission and have your name engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper s...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 29 November 2023: Space Show News InSight Mars Lander : Marking the 5th anniversary of the landing of the InSight spacecraft on Mars (Audio inserts courtesy BBC, DLR) WRESAT (Weapons Research Establishment Satellite) : With the launch of Melbourne University's SpIRIT satellite pending, a look back to the launch, 56 years ago, of WRESAT and six years ago of Bucc...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 22 November 2023: Marking the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, this special episode of The Space Show plays and interprets both JFK’s public speeches about space in 1963 and the secretly recorded private Oval Office conversations in which space was discussed. These recordings reveal the president’s doubts and conflicted attitude t...

On The Space Show for Wednesday, 8 November 2023: Remembering Thomas Kenneth Mattingly II: American aviator, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, rear admiral in the United States Navy, and astronaut who flew as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 16 and Space Shuttle Commander on the STS-4 and STS-51-C missions. Ken Mattingly, helped bring the Apollo 13 mission home safely. (Inserts courtesy AAB) New Ho...