The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Every week we cover the latest spaceflight news, discuss past, current and future exploration efforts, and take a look at upcoming events. Tune in to hear about how humans get to space, how they stay in space and how unmanned craft reach farther and farther into the universe around us.

Website : https://theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/

IPFS Feed : https://ipfspodcasting.net/RSS/168/TheOrbitalMechanicsPodcast.xml  

Last Episode : May 23, 2023 8:28pm

Last Scanned : 3.1 hours ago

Episodes

Episodes currently hosted on IPFS.

Episode 404: Not Found
1

Spaceflight News

— Centaur explosion (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)  (twitter.com/torybruno)

— The test stand can be seen in 3D on Google Maps (google.com)

Short & Sweet

— Artemis II crew announced (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Dawn Aerospace completes successful spaceplane test flight (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com)

— ISRO completes successful spaceplane test flight (isro.gov.in)

— Bathwater By Any Other Name... (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— April 16, 2016. Berthing of BEAM to ISS (en.wikipedia.org) (eoportal.org) (nasa.gov) (PDF: ttu-ir.tdl.org)

— Next week (4/18 - 4/24) in 2004: Four crystal balls

Published 04/11
Episode 403: Virgin Deorbit
1

Spaceflight News

— Exploring Mars Together (spacenews.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Seized assets in Kazakhstan threatens Soyuz-5 program (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Virgin Orbit Layoffs (spacenews.com) (qz.com)

— Rosotics announces large-scale 3D printer (spacenews.com) (newatlas.com) (rosotics.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Tiangong has trash too (twitter.com/cnspaceflight)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 5 April, 1963: A Pontiac Catalina tows M2-F1 (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (dfrc.nasa.gov VIA web.archive.org) (projecthabu.com) (dfrc.nasa.gov VIA web.archive.org)

— Next week (4/11 - 4/17) in 2016: Storage on Orbit

Published 04/04
Episode 402: Rainbow Shock Diamonds
1

Spaceflight News

— Relativity’s Terran-1 fails to reach orbit (spaceflightnow.com) (twitter.com/thetimellis) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— Private South Korean company launches suborbital rocket from Brazil (spacenews.com)

— NS-23 anomaly identified (parabolicarc.com)

— SWOT, key climate science satellite, instrument back online (space.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Aaron: toroidal aerospikes (discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 31 March, 1993. Launch of Progress M-17 from Baikonur (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: hq.nasa.gov)

— Next week (4/4 - 4/10) in 1963: Tub in tow

Published 03/28
Episode 401: Ring Around the Heatshield
1

Spaceflight News

— Stoke Space prepares for hopper landing trial (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/stoke_space)  (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— NASA announces $1B deorbit tug for ISS (spacenews.com)

— Virgin Orbit’s operational pause (spacenews.com)

— Axiom reveals the Artemis EVA suit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— March 24, 2006: The first launch of Falcon 1 (space.com) (space.com) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (3/28 - 4/3) in 1993. Low-power mode.

Published 03/21
Episode 399: DOWNLINK--D. Geoff Carter, PE
1

Spaceflight News

— TROPICS-1 mishap investigation (HT Mike Stewart: astra.com)

Short & Sweet

— HST impacted by satellite trails (nature.com)

— China’s secret spacewalk (spacenews.com)

Interview -- D. Geoff Carter, PE

RollAide.com

artemis-space.com

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Mar 9, 2008: The launch of the first ATV: Jules Verne (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: esa.int) (PDF: esa.int)

— Next week (3/14 - 3/20) in 1986: Slap a renaissance painter.

Published 03/07
Episode 398: Paint it Black
1

Spaceflight News

— Starship’s near future (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)

Short & Sweet

— NASA planning for first Gateway logistics mission (spacenews.com)

— Beetlesat successfully deploys expandable antenna on orbit (spaceref.com) (beetlesat.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— March 2, 1995, Launch of STS-67, Endeavour (en.wikipedia.org) (spaceline.org) (astronautix.com)

— Next week (3/7 - 3/13) in 2008: 20 million leagues above the sea (level)

Published 02/28
Episode 395: Salvage Mode
1

Spaceflight News

— SSLV launch failure investigation completed (spacenews.com) (​isro.gov.in)

— VTM separation was captured on video, but payload deployment is only seen as a timestamp on a status display. (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— NASA confident in A1 software (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Peregrine has a new destination (spacenews.com)

— Perseverance completes sample depot on Mars (​​cnet.com)

— See also: The Milky Way as seen from Mars (reddit.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Feb 11, 2015: Launch of the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (spaceflight101.com) (PDF: esa.int)

— Next week (2/14 - 2/20) in 1986. More computers, more beds 😴

Published 02/07
Episode 394: Partial Barber Pole
1

Spaceflight News

— NASA Tests a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (nasa.gov) (PDF: mdpi.com) (Scott Manley: youtube.com) (ntrs.nasa.gov)

— JAXA tested an RDRE in 2021 (futurism.com)

— China tested a CDRE January 2023 (twitter.com/CNSpaceflight)

Short & Sweet

— Starship WDR (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/SpaceX)

— Lucy mission gets new target (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov)

— JunoCam suffers significant anomaly during flyby (nasa.gov)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: NASA/DARPA NTP Collaboration (nasa.gov)

— Chris Hofmann: Ascent communications

This Week in Spaceflight History

— January 31, 1971. Launch of Apollo 14 (en.wikipedia.org) (hq.nasa.gov)

— Next week (2/7 - 2/13) in 2015: Penguin Paratrooper

Published 01/31
Episode 393: Sequential Signal Loss
1

Spaceflight News

— ABL failure analysis (HT Mike Stewart: twitter.com/ablspacesystems)

Short & Sweet

— NASA scales back ISS scientist program (spacenews.com)

— JUICE is ready for Jupiter (spacenews.com)

— Lucy’s Loose Limb (spacenews.com) (HT Brown Pau: blogs.nasa.gov)

— ClearSpace raises funds for its first mission (spacenews)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Vulcan delivered to the Cape (twitter.com/SpaceFlorida)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Jan 24, 1985: Launch of STS-51-C (en.wikipedia.org) (satelliteobservation.net)

— Next week (1/31 - 2/6) in 1971: I re-read the specs, let’s give it another shot.

Published 01/24
Episode 392: Virgin Suborbital
1

Spaceflight News

— Soyuz MS-22 rescue (spacenews.com) (russianspaceweb.com)

— Virgin Orbit failure (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (virginorbit.com)

— Virgin Galactic recently restructured their leadership (spacenews.com)

— Virgin Orbit is suffering financial woes (arstechnica.com)

— ABL RS1 failure (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT Sam: twitter.com/ablspacesystems) (HT Sam: twitter.com/shaggrugg) (twitter.com/Harry__Stranger)

Short & Sweet

— Soyuz-OneWeb hostage negotiations underway (russianspaceweb.com)

— JWST Killing It (spacenews.com) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/jeff_foust)

— Starship approaches a launch date? (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— January 22, 1968: Launch of Apollo 5 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (PDF HT Mike Stewart: ibiblio.org)

— Destin of Smarter Every Day interviewed a U.S. Space and Rocket Center Docent and Apollo engineer (youtube.com) (youtube.com)

— LEM study guides are a great resource for finding answers to systems questions. (ibiblio.org) (ibiblio.org)

— Next week (1/24 - 1/30) in 1985. From Lunar Orion to Listening Orion.

Published 01/17
Episode 391: Galloping Gertie
1

Spaceflight News

— LunaH-Map struggles to enter lunar orbit (spacewatch.global) (PDF: static1.squarespace.com VIA busek.com) (PDF: digitalcommons.usu.edu)

— Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) enters lunar orbit (space.com)

— Hakuto-R M1 successfully completes second maneuver (spaceref.com) (ispace-inc.com VIA hobbyspace.com)

— Chandrayaan-3 fully integrated (indiatoday.in) (indiatimes.com)

Short & Sweet

— China to expand Wenchang spaceport (spacenews.com)

— Impulse Space has a mission (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Dennis is reading Dragonfly by Bryan Burrough (bryanburrough.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 14 Jan, 2009: Russian thruster firing shakes the ISS (spacenews.com) (space.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (nbcnews.com) (youtube.com)

— Next week (1/17 - 1/23) in 1968: Fire in the hole

Published 01/10
Episode 390: Baby, It’s Coolant Outside
1

Spaceflight News

— MS-22 coolant leak (arstechnica.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

Short & Sweet

— Lockheed Martin performs habitat burst test (cnet.com) (lockheedmartin.com) (youtube.com)

— Zhuque-2 fails to reach orbit (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Chris Hofmann: Honeybee purchase (discord.com)

— Unc’ Willy and Csaba: Pyrophoric vs. hypergolic (discord.com) (discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Dec 24, 1968. The Earthrise photograph was taken by Apollo 8 (en.wikipedia.org) (​​smithsonianmag.com) (nasa.gov) (thespaceaboveus.com)

— LM4 has an excellent archive of the radio recordings, with visuals! (youtube.com)

— A few weeks from now (1/10 - 1/16) in 2009: Tacoma Narrows at Mach 25

Published 12/20
Episode 389: The Emperor's New Alpaca
1

Spaceflight News

— The finalists return - HLS2 (spacepolicyonline.com) (space.com) (spacepolicyonline.com)

Short & Sweet

— New Chinese rocket debuts with a sea launch (nasaspaceflight.com)

— dearMoon crew revealed (americaspace.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— December 15, 1970: Landing of Venera 7, first spacecraft to return data from another planet (en.wikipedia.org) (spaceflightinsider.com) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (vpk.name)

— V7 was built on a 3MV bus (mentallandscape.com)

— Next week (12/20 - 12/26) in 1968: Just calm down.

Published 12/13
Episode 388: NASA Cuts Carbs
1

Spaceflight News

— Artemis I Update

— RS-25 analysis (nasaspaceflight.com) (PDF: nasa.gov VIA twitter.com/sciencepolicia)

— Reached DRO halfway point on Nov 28 (spacenews.com)

— Departed DRO on Dec 2 (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Phantom Space Corp wins NASA launch task order (nasa.gov)

— Bluewalker-3 reaches full brightness on orbit (payloadspace.com) (iau.org)

— iROSA installation + power issue (nasaspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: ABL released a scrub summary (HT Sam: twitter.com/ablspacesystems)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Dec 7, 2010. AKATSUKI fails to enter Venusian orbit (PDF: arxiv.org) (PDF: lpi.usra.edu) (planetary.org) (jaxa.jp)

— Next week (12/13 - 12/19) in 1970: That’s a long way to go to hard boil an egg

Published 12/06