The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight news— RS-25 Testing (nasaspaceflight.com)— Gateway officially non-critical for Artemis landing (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceLogistics teams with DARPA on satellite servicing vehicle. (c4isrnet.com)— ExoMars gets delayed. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Law Loving via email on Musk and Bezos— Thanks to Emory Stagmer for the outro music! (twitter.com/VAXHeadroom)This week in SF history— March 18, 1965: The launch of Voskhod-2 (wikipedia.org) (airspacemag.com)— Next week in 2008: McEwen’s baby

Spaceflight news— Starliner update (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Last minute scrub costs Astra the DARPA Challenge (spaceflightnow.com)— DSCOVR resumes operations. (spaceflightnow.com)— SLS scheduling update (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Winning entry for the Mars 2020 naming contest (mars.nasa.gov)— Destin’s ULA tour (youtube.com) (youtube.com)This week in SF history— 14 March, 1934. Birth of Eugene Cernan (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1965: No vacuum in a vacuum.

Spaceflight news— SpaceX plans a mobile service tower (twitter.com/Falcon9Block5) (space.com) — Starship SN-1 suffered pressure failure (twitter.com/JohnRand0061) (youtube.com)— Artemis changes? (arstechnica.com) — “This is not the plan.” says Bridenstine re Moon 2024 Mission Manifest (twitter.com/JimBridenstine)Short & Sweet— NASA's safety advisory panel finds Boeing didn't perform end-to-end software check prior to Starliner demo mission. (orlandosentinel.com) (twitter.com/ChabeliH) (twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)— OmegA’s second stage has been test fired. (spacenews.com)— MEV-1 performs first ever docking between commercial spacecraft. (c4isrnet.com) (twitter.com/northropgrumman)Questions, comments, corrections— Paul via email: Lousma pronounced like “lousy.”— Jason Friesen via email: Skylab rescue was a totally different mission from Skylab-4! (en.wikipedia.org)This week in SF history— March 10, 2006: MRO enters Mars orbit (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1934: Puppetteer

Spaceflight news— InSight’s HP3 to get a lil push (www.dlr.de) (twitter.com/NASAInSight) (mars.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— JAXA going forward with sample return mission to Phobos. (spaceflightnow.com)— SpaceX has a date for a polar launch from the Cape. (teslarati.com)— CSLI, selects the next round of 18 smallsats to fly on ELaNa missions (nasa.gov)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z via email: Interesting read about Space Shuttle software development (aviationweek.com) (PDF: nasa.gov)Interview -- Laura Forczyk, space careers counselor and author— Read more about and purchase Rise of the Space Age Millennials — astralytical.com/rise-of-the-space-age-millennials — barnesandnoble.com — amazon.com — twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceMillennials— Find out more about Laura — astralytical.com — twitter.com/LauraForczyk — twitter.com/astralytical — linkedin.com/in/lauraforczykThis week in SF history— February 29, 1936, birth of Jack Lousma (wikipedia.org) — STS-3 landing (youtube.com)— Next

Spaceflight news— Discovery Program selects four finalists (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— DAVINCI+ (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (wikipedia.org)— IVO (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (wikipedia.org)— Trident (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (wikipedia.org) (HT Sam in the chat: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)— VERITAS (PDF: dlr.de) (wikipedia.org)— Abstracts for the other proposals (HT sam in the chat: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— JAXA selects partner for country’s first debris removal project (spacenews.com)— Spaceway-1 has been safely decommissioned. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert on AS-103/Pegasus (twitter.com/chairboy) — Also, Iranian space suit (twitter.com/fab_hinz) (apnews.com)— Espen via email: Starship and Starliner presser — Interesting article we forgot to mention! (forrestheller.com) — Correct pressure numbers (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Lovarro quote (twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)— Andrew via email: thoughts on StarlinerThis week in SF history— February 19, 1932: birth of J

Spaceflight news— ASAP report on CST-100 Starliner (arstechnica.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)— Astra Space emerges from stealth mode (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (astra.com) (bloomberg.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX likely to spinoff Starlink business. (bloomberg.com).— Cape Canaveral is getting a name change. (spaceflightnow.com)Interview -- Jason Batt, Editorial and Creative Director, 100 Year Starship— 100yss.org— One Sky project (space.com) (nationalgeographic.com)— Onliest, J Daniel Batt (amazon.com)This week in SF history— 16 February 1965, launch of Pegasus 1 (wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com)— Next week in 1932: Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a…

Spaceflight news— Near-miss of IRAS and GGSE-4 (c4isrnet.com) (spacenews.com) (kiro7.com) (space.com) — Image of post-conjunction trails (twitter.com/juliancd38)— NASA selects first commercial-destination module for ISS (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Voyager 2 malfunction (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov)— JWST’s launch date will likely slip again. (arstechnica.com)— CHEOPS takes big step towards coming online and taking data (sci.esa.int)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Hi-Rise returns better imagery of the Schiaparelli crash (uahirise.org)— Nick via email: skydiving parachutes have risers for reefingThis week in SF history— February 5, 1947: the birth of Mary Cleave (wikipedia.org) (historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov)— Next week in 1965: Sitting behind a boilerplate.

Spaceflight news— Spaceway-1 batteries (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Firefly suffers an anomaly on the test stand. (spacenews.com) (space.com)— Solar Orbiter mission’s launch slips several days (spaceflightnow.com) (twitter.com/torybruno)— Tethers Unlimited’s Terminator Tape is showing promise. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew via email: Phantom Express (spacenews.com) — Scott Manley covered this as well, with more info on the AR-22, which is actually a refurbished/retooled SSME! (youtube.com)— Espen via email: second stage might have exploded above the water??? (youtube.com)This week in SF history— January 29, 2003: Launch of XSS-10 (space.skyrocket.de)— Next week in 1947: A woman’s place is preparing meals, cleaning windows and toilets…. on the Shuttle.

Spaceflight news— Crew Dragon In-flight Abort Test successful (youtube.com) — Beautiful views of in-air explosion (twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) (twitter.com/GregScott_photo) — Second stage and interstage survivedl (twitter.com/johnkrausphotos) (twitter.com/mike_deep) — Gorgeous shot of approaching fastboat (twitter.com/SpaceX)Short & Sweet— Dream Chaser on track for 2021 mission (spacepolicyonline.com)— Second all-woman spacewalk a success (space.com)Interview -- Silvia Alba, Visual facilitator— instagram.com/silvia.draws— twitter.com/silvia_drawsThis week in SF history— January 25, 2004, landing of Opportunity (citeseerx.ist.psu.edu) (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 2003: taking a selfie

Spaceflight news— Astra Space obtains launch permits — Three polar launches from Kodiak (apps.fcc.gov) (www.faa.gov) — DARPA launch from Wallops (apps.fcc.gov) — Challenge seeks two launches from different locations with little foreknowledge of payload (darpalaunchchallenge.org — Downselected to only candidate (spectrum.ieee.org)Short & Sweet— Virgin Galactic’s second spaceship passes important milestone. (satellitetoday.com)— Another lunar lander is in the running. (spacenews.com)— Starliner joint investigation announced (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— twitter.com/chairboy: Gridfins hydraulics — The hydraulic system is closed loop since ~2015 (twitter.com/elonmusk)This week in SF history— 14 Jan 1977: first SCA, N905NA, delivered to Edwards (PDF: nasa.gov) (nationalgeographic.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)— Next week in 2004: no need for TIRS

Spaceflight news— ISRO confirms plans for Chandrayaan-3 (spacenews.com) — Chandrayaan-2 imagery (nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— SpaceX plans a moveable tower for pad 39A (spaceflightnow.com)— Christina Koch breaks a record (spaceflightnow.com)— Early signs of the Clean Space age: Iridium announces willingness to pay for third party cleanup of failed satellites (spacenews.com)Interview: Dr. Martin Elvis, Senior Astrophysicist, Center for Astrophysics and Smithsonian— harvard.edu/~elvis— Simulated population of asteroids from Mikael Granvik (helsinki.fi)This week in SF history— 10 January 2015: first droneship landing attempt (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1977: Black side down

Spaceflight news— Starliner OFT (nasaspaceflight.com) (collectspace.com) — IR video (twitter.com/NASA) — Re-entry video from the ground (twitter.com/MrTutskey)Short & Sweet— Omega has a payload. (spaceflightinsider.com)— ULA selected to launch next GOES mission. (satellitetoday.com)— SpaceX announces yet another Starlink launch. (teslarati.com)This week in SF history— December 23, 1968. Apollo 8 enters Lunar SOI (wikipedia.org)— Two weeks ahead in 2015: running out of juice

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab inaugurates LC 2 at Wallops. (spacenews.com) — Reuse footage from Running Out of Fingers (youtu.be)— OSIRIS-Rex landing site selected (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— A new European rocket gets funding. (parabolicarc.com)— SLS core stage is complete (spacenews.com)— Vector files for chapter 11. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Art in aerospace?This week in SF history— 18 December 1973: Launch of the Orion 2 space telescope onboard Soyuz 13 (wikipedia.org) (wikipedia.org)

Sorry about the links not working! Squarespace knows about the issue, but still hasn’t fixed it. Visit theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/kyla-edison for links and photos! Spaceflight news— First results from Parker Solar Probe! (nasa.gov) (nature.com)Short & Sweet— Running Out of Fingers successfully tests key elements of rocket reuse (techcrunch.com)— Huntsville gets a new solid rocket motor maker (rocket.com)Interview— Kyla Edison— Geology and Material Science Technician for PISCES Hawaii— (linkedin.com)— (pacificspacecenter.com)— (instagram.com/geolo_geek)This week in SF history— December 15, 1984: Launch of Vega 1 (wikipedia.org)— Balloon aerobot package (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov)— Structures and data article (articles.adsabs.harvard.edu)— Next week in 1973 - What’s the point of a space telescope with a lifetime of less than a week?

Sorry there are no links in this episode! Squarespace has broken that feature. Please visit theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/moon-prep for links and photos.Spaceflight news— RS-25 integrationShort & Sweet— Orion capsule ships to Ohio for testing— Australian company 3D prints large rocketQuestions, comments, corrections— Tempe meetup! — 5 pm Sunday, December 8th — tempe.laboccapizzeria.com — S. Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281This week in SF history— December 4, 1945, Birth of Roberta BondarNext week in 1984: What’s the point of a weather balloon with a sample rate of 75 seconds?

Spaceflight news— Starship overpressure explosion (spacenews.com) — Rumors on 4Chan, via Reddit and NSF forum (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge)(forum.nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Some insights into failed lunar landings have come out. (spacenews.com)— Starliner rolls out. (americaspace.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Congrats to our Soonish giveaway winners!Interview— After the interview, Spacety reported a successful firing of I2T5! (spacenews.com)— Elena Zorzoli Rossi, lead experimental engineer, ThrustMe — Thrustme.fr — linkedin.comThis week in SF history— November 28, 1964: Launch of Mariner 4 (wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov)— Next week in 1945: You were discussing critical space stuff with your pals the other dayyyyyyyy

Spaceflight news— Spacewalk to repair AMS (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) — AMS overview (nasa.gov) — Footage from the EVA — The cover is detached from the restraint clip (youtu.be) — Jettisoning the cover (youtu.be) — Chris Cassidy shows off a zip tie cutter/capture device (youtu.be)Short & Sweet— Hayabusa2 departs Ryugu (japantimes.co.jp)— SpaceX completes Crew Dragon Static Fire tests (spacenews.com)— Launcher gets funding from the Air Force. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Win a book! — Zach and Kelly Weinersmith wrote Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything. — We have signed copies to give away! In honor of the alternate first words featured on the new TV show For All Mankind, tweet at us with what your first words on Mars would be. — Random winners selected from Twitter and email.— Episode 2 is missing! — Do you have a copy of episode-2.mp3 lying around? Squarespace ate our copy!This week in SF history— November

Spaceflight news— Starliner pad abort test complete (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) — Chute failure caused by misplaced pin (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX’s Mark 3 parachutes are almost ready to go! (spacenews.com)— China tests gridfins (spacenews.com)— The ISS may see reduced crew for 6 and a half months. (spacenews.com)Interview: Andrew Rader, author, Beyond the Known— andrew-rader.com— twitter.com/marsrader— (amazon.com)This week in SF history— 15 November 1974 Launch of AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (wikipedia.org) (hackaday.com) — List of all OSCAR satellites (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1965: How about some nice lemon, gin and bob cut?

This week in SF history— 29 October 1998: Launch of STS-95 (wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)— Next week in 1974: SolidaritySpaceflight news— Upgraded H3 rocket for lunar missions (spacenews.com) — H-IIA had a proposed asymmetric configuration as well as liquid boosters (HT Sam in the chat: b14643.de)Short & Sweet— Chang’e-5 to launch late next year (spacenews.com)— The X-37 sets another record. (spacenews.com)— NASA gives funding to look into extended mission to Pluto (americaspace.com)— Another plot twist for the mole on Mars. (spacenews.com)

Bit of a weird show this week! No news, tired hosts. We talk about our favorite things from this year’s International Astronautical Congress, and we promise more information later.This show is brought to you by just over one hundred supporters on Patreon (and direct monthly supporters using Bitcoin and Paypal!) We couldn’t have done this without you, and we are so thankful for your confidence in our ability to bring you educational and entertaining content.