The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

This week in SF history— October 17, 1956: Birth of Mae Jemison (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Battery replacement EVAs (americaspace.com)— Commercial crew update (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com) — Eric Berger says "full panic has ensued" (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) — Dragon done in 10 weeks? (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit announces potential Martian cubesat missions. (theverge.com)— Stratolaunch is now under new ownership. (spacenews.com)— The Jason-2 mission has ended, but its satellite will remain. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 2000 October 9: HETE-2, first orbital launch from Kwajalein (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1956: listen in for an audio clue.Spaceflight news— Plans in place to fix DSCOVR (spacenews.com) — We first reported on this on Ep 218 as a S&S (spacenews.com) — Faulty gyro? (twitter.com/simoncarn) — Triana engineers considered laser gyro failures (PDF: nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— NASA Mars 2020 tests descent stage separation (jpl.nasa.gov)— NASA issues request for information on xEMU. (nasaspaceflight.com)— New Shepard will likely not fly humans in 2019. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— #TOMIAC2019 — Sunday: Off Nominal meetups (events.offnominal.space) — Monday: museum day — Udvar-Hazy and downtown Air and Space Museum — Thursday: Dinner meetup — mcgintyspublichouse.com — 911 Ellsworth Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910 — Friday: IAC no-ticket open day

This week in SF history— October 1, 1958: NASA begins operations (wikipedia.org) (archives.gov)— Next week in 2000: Sometimes a good explosion is exactly what you needSpaceflight news— InSight scientists presents three new discoveries (americaspace.com) (copernicus.org) — Images show scoop packing down regolith around mole? (twitter.com)— Starship update (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (spaceflightnow.com) — Our interview with Tess Caswell on CDRA (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— NASA awards a long-term contract to Lockheed Martin. (spacenews.com)— Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter delayed to 2022 (spaceflightnow.com)— NEO mission confirmed (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— September 27 2003: last flight of Ariane 5 G, launching E-Bird — First A5 flight, 1996, failed spectacularly (youtu.be) (wikipedia.org) (hownot2code.com) — Next week in 1958: Twelve pagesSpaceflight news— NASA planning on placing a cubesat in a Lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) — Meanwhile some Congressfolk are suggesting killing Lunar Gateway altogether (arstechnica.com)Short & Sweet— Updates on Rocket Lab and Blue Origin launch complexes (rocketlabusa.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— SpaceX is offering a buyout. (space.com)— Japan seeks to double its launch capacity. (rocketrundown.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Off-Nominal DC (aka “inside the beltway”) meetup (events.offnominal.space)

This week in SF history— 21 September 1968: Landing of zond 5 (wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week in 2003: generic no longerSpaceflight news— H-IIB launch pad fire (youtube.com) (spacenews.com) (HT Sam in the chat: twitter.com/mageshiman1025)— NASA conducts ground test of the B330. (space.com) — Tour of B330 (Mars Transporter Testing Unit) and Olympus B2100 (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Tianhe passes final review, though delays are still likely (spacenews.com)— NASA’s LRO to take images of the Vikram Lander (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— GOES-13 correction from Kevin Smith (skyriddles.wordpress.com) (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 12 September 1959: Launch of Luna 2 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Chandrayaan-2’s successful orbiter mission? (space.com) (reddit.com) — Doppler curves (twitter.com/cgbassa) — Lander crash site located (thehindu.com) (ndtv.com) — Aeolus dodges a Starlink. (space.com)Short & Sweet— Target marker operation and dress rehearsal postponed for Hayabusa2 (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp)— WFIRST passes PDR (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 7 September 1914: Birth of James Van Allen (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1962: cloud-based navigationSpaceflight news— Starhopper Completes Test Flight (spacenews.com) — Scott Manley’s excellent coverage (youtube.com) — More detailed photos (twitter.com/bocachicagal) — Updates from Elon Musk (twitter.com/elonmusk)— InSight mole update (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— The completed Rosalind Franklin rover displayed by Airbus engineers! (bbc.com)— Mars 2020 helicopter integrated into the rover (bbc.com)— JWST has now been physically assembled (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— August 30, 1931. Birth of Jack Swigert (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1914: You know what might have killed Swigert….Spaceflight news— Uncrewed Soyuz aborts docking. (spacenews.com) — Second attempt delayed to free up a new docking port. (twitter.com/roscosmos)Short & Sweet— Astrobotic chooses ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket to deliver its lunar lander (astrobotic.com)— Sierra-Nevada selects ULA. (spacenews.com)— Europa Clipper passes Key Decision Point-C (arstechnica.com)Data Relay—Hot Structures— Thanks to Ben Crews for researching and presenting this topic! (linkedin.com)— X-15 Hardware Design Challenges (PDF: nasa.gov)— NASA solicitation for research on hot structures (sbir.gov)— Multifunctional Hot Structure (HOST) Heat Shield (techbriefs.com)— Heat Shield Concepts and Materials for Reentry Vehicles (includes some familiar lifting-body vehicle form proposals!) (PDF: dtic.mil)— Advances in Hot Structure Development (Brief with link to PDF: nasa.gov)— Thermal-Structural Optimizat

This week in SF history— August 21, 1959. Little Joe 1 failure (pao.ksc.nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Linkspace hover test (spacenews.com)— ESA confirms second Exomars parachute test has failed (spacenews.com)— Vector Launch closes its doors (spacenews.com) (PDF: vector-launch.com)Short & Sweet— OSIRIS-REx mission selects candidate sampling sites (nasa.gov)— Robonaut returns to Station. (https://spacenews.com/robonaut-to-return-to-iss/)— BEAM to stay on ISS (spacenews.com)— Virgin Galactic updates (parabolicarc.com) (engadget.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Come play an RPG with us! Friday August 30 at 5.30pm PT/8.30pm ET (patreon.com)

This week in SF history— August 17, 1962: Carl Sagan advocates for sterilizing spacecraft (spacemedicineassociation.org) (PDF: pnas.org)Spaceflight news— Rocketlab reuse (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— First ion thruster use on a 1U cubesat (spacenews.com)Interview-- Ella Atkins— Thanks to IEEE for arranging this interview! (IEEE.org)— Dr. Atkins’ profile and CV (umich.edu)— (robotics.umich.edu)— (aiaa.org)

This week in SF history— 9 August 2005: Landing of STS-114 (wikipedia.org)(space.com)Spaceflight news— Cause of GOES-17 satellite issue identified by NOAA+NASA (satellitetoday.com, nasa.gov) — Issue first publicly declared in May 2018 (arstechnica.com) — GOES-West live data (goes.noaa.gov)Short & Sweet— Elon Musk to give update on Starship in three weeks (arstechnica.com)— OneWeb opens for production in Florida. (spaceflightinsider.com)— EDRS shows off its abilities. (parabolicarc.com)

This week in SF history— 30 July 2008, first full firing of a Falcon 9 with all nine engines (spacex.com)Spaceflight news— NASA issues rare sole source contract to NGIS (spacenews.com, fbo.gov)Short & Sweet— Starhopper hopped (twitter.com/elonmusk) (youtu.be)— Blue Origin fires its BE-7 lunar lander engine (geekwire.com)— Lightsail-2 successfully deploys its sail and sends back imagery (planetary.org)

This week in SF history— 25 July 1962: Statement of work issued for LEM (hq.nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— Crew Dragon Explosion Conclusion (spaceflightinsider.com)Short & Sweet— Eight key space observatories renewed (nasa.gov)— Starhopper static fire (nasaspaceflight.com)Interview-- Ron Burkey— Virtual AGC (ibiblio.org)— Java port (svtsim.com)— Scanned original documents (archive.org)— Transcribed code (github.com)

This week in SF history— 18 July 1980: first successful launch of SLV, lofting Rohini RS-1 to orbit. (wikipedia.org)(wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Chandrayaan-2 summary (planetary.org)(wikipedia.org)— InSight Lander’s heat probe is stuck. (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— First Starhopper test hop coming up (spacenews.com)— Firefly partners up to build a lunar lander. (spacenews.com)— Tiangong-2 is ready to deorbit. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— RPG night scheduled! (patreon.com) — Friday August 30 at 5.30pm PT/8.30pm ET — Same setting, new game! (Risus)

This week in SF history— 10 July, 1992: Giotto flies past 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup (wikipedia.org) — Ten instruments onboard (nature.com) — Magnetometer experiment results (articles.adsabs.harvard.edu)Spaceflight news— Orion Abort test is a success (spacenews.com)— Three Starlink satellites goes silent (spacenews.com) — Jeff Bezos files with FCC for Kuiper constellation (geekwire.com)Short & Sweet— ExoMars 2020 suffers parachute problem (spacenews.com)— DSCOVR is in safehold. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Zdanowicz via email: Dragonfly - why not a helicopter?

This week in SF history— July 2, 1952: birth of Linda Godwin (wikipedia.org) — STS-37 (wikipedia.org) — STS-59 (wikipedia.org) — STS-76 (wikipedia.org) — STS-108 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Dragonfly (planetary.org) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (jhuapl.edu)— Falcon Heavy successfully flies STP-2 mission (spacenews.com) (teslarati.com) — Center core TVC failure (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Ms. Tree caught half a fairing (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/)Questions, comments, corrections— Help name the Mars 2020 rover! (futureengineers.org)— twitter.com/hashtag/Mars2020— Clara Ma’s winning entry for Curiosity (nasa.gov)— twitter.com/call_him_bob

This week in SF history— 28 June 1969. First flight of Black Arrow (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Upcoming non-Earth science missions — 2019 — Chandrayaan-2 (wikipedia.org) — Spektr-RG (wikipedia.org) — CHEOPS (wikipedia.org) — Chang’e 5 (wikipedia.org) — Lunar Scout / MX-1E (wikipedia.org) — 2020 — Solar Orbiter (wikipedia.org) — PROBA-3 (wikipedia.org) — Aditya-L1 (wikipedia.org) — Exomars (wikipedia.org/Rosalind_Franklin, wikipedia.org/Kazachok) — Hope Mars Mission (wikipedia.org) — Mars 2020 (en.wikipedia.org) — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (wikipedia.org) — 2021 — Astrobotic M1 (wikipedia.org) — Luna 25 (wikipedia.org) — SLIM (wikipedia.org) — XRISM (wikipedia.org) — IXPE (wikipedia.org) — JWST (wikipedia.org) — Double Asteroid Redirection Test (wikipedia.org) — ASTER (wikipedia.org) — Lucy (wikipedia.org) — 2022 — PUNCH (wikipedia.org)

This week in SF history— 22 June 1978. Discovery of Pluto’s moon Charon by John Christy (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Psyche review/preview (spacenews.com) — Just passed Key Decision Point C (PDF: nasa.gov) — Multispectral Imager is based on MSL’s Mastcam, MAHLI, and MARDI (hou.usra.edu) — Deep space laser communication demo (wikipedia.org)Short & Sweet— India’s Chandrayaan-2 has launch date (theprint.in)— India has plans for its own space station. (parabolicarc.com)— SOFIA improvements (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Valentin Frank: follow up on Tereshkova’s head injury— /u/MomoSapiensAD: Herschel mission time correction (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)— Apollo / Mariner / Viking / Voyager oral history (twitter.com/jccwrt)— Support the Rocket Cat fund! (gofundme.com)

This week in SF history— 16 June 1963. Launch of Vostok 6 with Valentina Tereshkova (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Planned retirement of Spitzer (spaceflightnow.com) — Final GO, launched in 2003 at ~1:30am (boeing.mediaroom.com) — Private Funding (spaceflightnow.com) — Iconic image of Andromeda Galaxy (spitzer.caltech.edu) — Another iconic image, the Helix Nebula (spitzer.caltech.edu)Short & Sweet— ISS wants to go commercial (spacenews.com)— NASA tries new strategy for stuck Martian instrument (mars.nasa.gov)— China carries out a successful sea launch. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— June 8, 1965: Launch of Luna 6 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Stratolaunch rumors (reuters.com)— OmegA failure (youtube.com) (space.com)Short & Sweet— All 60 Starlink satellites are doing well. (spacenews.com)— Hayabusa2 successfully deploys target marker after earlier aborted attempt (twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa)— An update on the Crew Dragon anomaly. (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Let us know what you’d like to see in our RSS feed.— Buy a paper Falcon Heavy! Use code ORBITAL for free shipping. (worldflightstore.com)Interview: Laura Forczyk— Astralytical.com— twitter.com/astralytical— twitter.com/lauraforczyk— linkedin.com/in/lauraforczyk