The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

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 fairing issue may delay JWST(spacenews.com)— Russia announces two actors, Japanese billionaire, to fly to space station (reuters.com) (spaceflightnow.com)This week in SF history— 19 May, 1996 - Launch of STS-77 (nasa.gov) (doi.org) (HT Colin: youtube.com) (HT Colin: eoportal.org) — The Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) had residual air that caused premature inflation (space.stackexchange.com)— Next week (5/25 - 5/31) in 1975: Last week we deflated something, this week we inflated something, next week let’s unite something.

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 OneWeb - LEO-based Arctic internet (spacenews.com) — Isar Aerospace - Won ESA’s Boost! Award (spacenews.com)— SN15 lands successfully (spacenews.com) (teslarati.com) (youtu.be) (nasaspaceflight.com) — There were some unknown vehicle updates (twitter.com/elonmusk) — It was a safe landing, but the crush core in the legs did activate. (twitter.com/starshipgazer) — SN15 MAY get reflown! (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Starliner nears its second test flight (spacenews.com)— European Space Agency to launch orbital debris-tracking telescope (space.com)— Firefly has a successful funding round (spacenews.

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 delayed success (space.com) (spacenews.com) — Ingenuity’s mission was extended (twitter.com/jeff_foust) (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit to launch out of Brazil (smallsatnews.com)— Blue Origin and Dynetics protest HLS award (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Nelson confirmed as NASA Administrator (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: ACES details (twitter.com/chairboy) — ACES had on-orbit refueling (arstechnica.com) — Centaur V has a hydrolox RCS… Peroxide was a typo! (twitter.com/torybruno)This week in SF history— 5 May, 1999: The failed second flight of Delta

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 Colin in the chat: youtube.com)— OneWeb and Starlink cross paths (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 1 May, 1999. Failure of the ABRIXAS X-ray telescope (adsabs.harvard.edu) (nature.com) (skyrocket.de) (sci-hub.se)— Next week (5/4 - 5/10) in 1999: In hindsight it didn’t seem like it would work.

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 Administrator could be confirmed. (twitter.com/wapodavenport) — Dynetics was planning on using on-orbit propellant transfer, not just bolting on tanks. (HT Ben Hallert: spacenews.com) (HT Ben Hallert: spectrum.ieee.org) — Subsequent acquisitions are expected, so don’t count anyone out just yet. (spacepolicyonline.com)Short & Sweet— Pam Melroy nominated as Deputy Administrator (twitter.com/Astro_Pam) (nasa.gov)— NASA’s InSight to hibernate for the winter (thehill.com)— New Shepard flies again (nasaspaceflight.com)This week in SF history— 4 Apr, 1997. STS-83 had to be aborted on-orbit due to a fuel cell anomaly (scie

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 administration asks for 6.3% increase to NASA’s budget (spacepolicyonline.com)— JWST packs its sunshield in preparation for October launch (satnews.com)— Ingenuity Flight 1 delayed (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert via Discord: Spacelab isn’t Skylab.— From the intro: no more fairing catching (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut) (spacexfleet.com)This week in SF history— April 15, 2005: DART Collides with MUBLCOM (nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org) — DART stands for Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology — MUBLCOM stands for Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Sight Communications— Next week (4/20 - 4/26) in 1997: Reduce

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)— HLS award should be here soon (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: ingenuity deployed (space.com)Last week in SF history— 4 Apr, 1983: The launch of TDRS-A aboard STS-6 (space.nss.org) (spacefacts.de) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) — Footage of TDRS-E’s deployment in 1991 was shot with much better cameras (youtu.be)— Next week (4/13 - 4/19) in 2005: Bullseye?

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 extended mission (spacenews.com)— JWST on target for launch in October (spacenews.com) (theatlantic.com)— Super Heavy is being stacked (teslarati.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Capella releases dish deployment video (cnbc.com) (directory.eoportal.org)Questions, comments, corrections— Emory S. via Discord: on-orbit servicing thoughtsThis week in SF history— 24 Mar, 2006. HiRISE takes its first images of Mars (space.com) (newscientist.com) (mars.nasa.gov)— Next week (3/30 - 4/5) in 1983. A little deeper pool.

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 glitch (spacenews.com)— Second hot fire of SLS core scheduled for Thursday (americaspace.com) (spaceflightnow.com)— China successfully launches Long March 7A (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 21 Mar, 2007: Second launch of Falcon 1 (wikipedia.org) (space.com) (amazon.com) — The second stage engine bell scraped the interstage during separation (youtube.com)— Next week (3/23 - 3/29) in 2006: First sweep of a dusty surface

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 update (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ryan via email: Cut cables on Perseverance— Ben Hallert: inclinometer vs gyro (twitter.com/chairboy)— From the intro: Smarter Every Day looks at Mighty Eagle (youtube.com)Interview: Nikolas Trawny, Ph.D., JPL GNC section— ADAPT flight test (jpl.nasa.gov) (arc.aiaa.org) (nasa.gov) — Mars 2020 LVS and TRN (science.nasa.gov)— Dr. Trawny’s LinkedIn (linkedin.com)This week in SF history— 15 March, 1986: Soyuz T-15 docks with Mir, ahead of the first (and only) station-to-station equipment transfer. (spacefacts.de) (spacefacts.de) — Soyuz-T still had an

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 preliminary design review for HLS lander (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)— NASA’s human spaceflight program and safety (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/wapodavenport) — We talked to Emory Stagmer about Starliner’s issues in episode 241 (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— Culprit identified for failed Falcon 9 booster landing (spacenews.com) — Post-recording followup: sounds like this may have been an issue isolated to retrofire! (HT Mike Stewart: spacenews.com)— Blockchain transaction tested on orbit (parabolicarc.com)— Relativity is going reusable (cnbc.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Hartv

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.com/nasa)Short & Sweet— China prepares to launch first segment of space station (spacenews.com)— SpaceX demonstrates more data collection leads to more system knowledge (youtube.com)— Test flight of Starliner slips to April (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 1 March 2002: Launch of the world’s largest civilian earth observation satellite (earth.esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org) — Succeeded European Remote Sensing Satellites (en.wikipedia.org) (esa.int) — Eventually replaced by Sentinel (wikipedia.org)— Next week (3/2 - 3/8) in 1999: Once you pop, the fun don’t start.

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) — Ingenuity (jpl.nasa.gov) (jpl.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov) — We previously talked to Ella Atkins about autonomous robotics (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— DARPA looks into off-earth manufacturing (rocketrundown.com)— Turkey aims for 2023 lunar landing (reuters.com)— The Vulcan pathfinder arrives (spaceflightinsider.com)— Doors open at Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/WordsmithFL)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z and Espen via email: SN9 violation — Andy pointed out debris separation (6:20 and 6:23: youtube.com) — Espen pointed us at some illuminating tweets (HT Espen:

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 Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) (hou.usra.edu) — Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) (today.ttu.edu) — Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) (parabolicarc.com) — Blue Ghost Payload User’s Guide (firefly.com) — Space Utility Vehicle will be the service module/kick stage to get BG to the moon (firefly.com)Short & Sweet— Dragon breaks a record (americaspace.com)— Nanoracks’ Bishop airlock powers on (houstonchronicle.com)— OSIRIS-REx to return home (americaspace.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Koenigsmann retiring (HT Colin: cnbc.com)— Game night!

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 Static Fire (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Hofmann (via DM), Ben Hallert (twitter.com/chairboy): SLS Core Stage tanking limits (twitter.com/NASA_SLS) (blogs.nasa.gov) — The nine-tank mistake might be traced back to a press call (clickorlando.com)This week in SF history— Soyuz 24 mission to Salyut 5 (wikipedia.org) (astronotix.com) (spacefacts.de) (nytimes.com)— Next week (2/9 - 2/15) in 2001: Do you smell that? No?

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. Panagiotis Tsiotras, IEEE Fellow and Professor and David and Andrew Lewis Chair, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.— Chapter 8.2 of Ulrich Walter’s Astronautics is a good resource for learning about Lambert Transfers (books.google.com)— Dr. Tsiotras wrote a paper called Optimal Two-Impulse Rendezvous Using Multiple-Revolution Lambert Solutions (PDF: researchgate.net)This week in SF history— 1 Feb, 1990: The first test of the Soviet SPK/21KS maneuvering unit (americaspace.com) (astronautix.com) (astronautix.com) (spacefacts.de) (books.google.com) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week (2/2 - 2/8) in 1977: A farew

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.com)— SLS test fire shuts down early. (americaspace.com) (twitter.com/waynehale) (blogs.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)— China proposes Jupiter mission that may include Callisto landing. (planetary.org)This week in SF history— 20 Jan, 1967. S-IVB-503 explodes at Douglas due to incorrect weld fill material. (astronautix.com) (uah.contentdm.oclc.org)— Next week (1/26 - 2/1) in 1990: Like a маятник.

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.com)— NASA extends Juno and InSight (nasa.gov)— DARPA satellites damaged (HT Mike Stewart: spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 17th January, 1997: Loss of GPS-IIR-1 on Delta II (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (youtube.com) — Richard Gariott’s interview on Off-Nom (HT Ben Hallert: youtube.com)— Next week (1/19 through 1/25) in 1967: simulated launch, not-so-simulated conflagration

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. (spacepolicyonline.com)This week in SF history— 7 Jan, 1985: launch of Sakigake (isas.jaxa.jp) (solarsystem.nasa.gov)— Next week (1/12 through 1/18) in 1997, Rip, or R.I.P.

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 Moon (asc-csa.gc.ca) (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Call for help reconstructing Apollo 10 software (github.com/virtualagc) — Quick software setup guide and code structure/syntax overview (youtube.com)This week in SF history— 25 Dec, 2003. Beagle 2 lands on Mars (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org) (PDF: sci.esa.int)— Next week (1/5 - 1/11)  in 1985: Headed for a first close to home.