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 : January 24, 2023 9:05pm
Last Scanned : 6.2 hours ago


Episodes
Episodes currently hosted on IPFS.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Spaceflight News
— Artemis I progress (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov)
— NASA history report on Administrator James Webb released (spacenews.com)
Short & Sweet
— China to test space-based solar power (spacenews.com)
— Canada to develop lunar rover for power generation (spacenews.com)
— ISRO tests Gaganyaan parachute system (isro.gov.in)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— Dec 5, 2014: The launch of EFT-1 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) (collectspace.com)
— The clue was taken from an interview with Sesame Street’s Elmo (youtube.com)
— Orion suffered more MMOD damage than models had predicted, resulting in changes to the vehicle for Artemis I (nasaspaceflight.com) (americaspace.com)
— Next week (12/6 - 12/12) in 2010. Feeling salty.

Spaceflight News
— Artemis I Launch (nasaspaceflight.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (planetary.org) (HT MCC: twitter.com/derekdotspace)
— SLS suffered slight hurricane damage prior to launch (spacenews.com)
— SLS still had LH2 leaks (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT deltaV: twitter.com/ZachSellinger)
— A bad ethernet switch took down range assets (HT deltaV: twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)
— Post-launch photo opportunities were limited (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (twitter.com/wapodavenport)
— Artemis I Ride-alongs and little ‘uns (twitter.com/jeff_foust) (parabolicarc.com)
— CAPSTONE arrives at the Moon (spacenews.com)
— Orion completes TLI (spacenews.com) (youtu.be)
Short & Sweet
— Hermeus completes key test towards hypersonic aircraft (HT Czarified, Csaba: defenseone.com) (HT Czarified: youtube.com)
— Busy week of spacewalkin’ (space.com) (space.com) (space.com) (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)
— Japan formalizes its commitment (spacenews.com)
Questions, Comments, Corrections
— From the intro: Cygnus array jam photo (twitter.com/Space_Pete)
— Csaba: Real-time Artemis I tracker (nasa.gov) (eyes.nasa.gov)
— DeltaV: Rocket 4 Payload User’s guide (twitter.com/Astra)
Interview -- Margaret Weitekamp, Curator and Chair of the Space History department at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum
— facebook.com/margaret.weitekamp.12
— Buy the book: (amazon.com) (barnesandnoble.com) (smithsonianbooks.com)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— 27 Nov, 2012. The end of Falcon 9 Air’s development (flightglobal.com VIA 12ft.io) (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org)
— Orbital designed Pegasus II “Thunderbolt” as a replacement (space.com)
— Next week (11/29 - 12/5) in 2014: [Audio clue]

Spaceflight News
— Cygnus Winged (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)
Short & Sweet
— X-37B returns to Earth after record-breaking 900+ days in orbit (spaceforce.mil)
— China changes plans for Long March 9 (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com)
— Artemis I gettin’ stormy (spacenews.com)
Questions, Comments, Corrections
— From the intro: LOFTID was successful (nasa.gov)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— Nov 17, 1967. Surveyor 6 does a brief flight from the lunar surface (nasa.gov) (PDF: sci-hub.se) (drewexmachina.com)
— Next week (11/22 - 11/29) in 2012: Jumping off a not-yet-dead Roc

Spaceflight News
— Rocket Lab’s Catch Me If You Can Wasn’t (parabolicarc.com) (businesswire.com) (theorbitalmechanics.com)
Short & Sweet
— Chinese Spaceplane Releases Object On-orbit (spacenews.com)
— Spaceplane Aurora Tested at Peenemünde (spacewatch.global)
— Fire Alarm Scrubs NG-18 Launch (nasaspaceflight.com)
Questions, Comments, Corrections
— Practical Engineering’s look at Endeavor’s trip through LA (youtube.com)
— Vertical payload integration (youtube.com)
— Reflective Layer (youtube.com)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— November 11, 2013: Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer’s reentry (en.wikipedia.org) (articles.adsabs.harvard.edu) (spaceflight101.com)
— GOCE had sophisticated accelerometers (HT Colin: link.springer.com)
— Next week (11/15-11/21) in 1967: Actually, I thought it’d be right about this high at MECO.

Spaceflight News
— VirtualAGC posts their final moonshot LM software package (github.com/virtualagc) (ibiblio.org) (github.com/thewonderidiot) (youtube.com)
— Play with a virtual rope module (apolloguidance.computer)
— If you own a rope module, or know someone who does, please get in touch! The vAGC group is happy to keep donors anonymous. Contact Ron Burkey: info@sandroid.org
— Project Kuiper looking for a ride (spacenews.com)
Short & Sweet
— NASA launch slips (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)
— Polaris Dawn slips again (spacenews.com)
— Centaur causes a slip (spacenews.com)
Questions, Comments, Corrections
— LeonRunningMan (discord.com)
— Victus Nox contract was awarded two days before the launch.
— More info on eSR19 (defenseindustrydaily.com)
— Andrew Z via email: EMU 2.0, or an EVA pod?
This Week in Spaceflight History
— 2 Nov, 2000. Docking of Expedition 1, beginning our continuous human presence in space. (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) (Space.com VIA web.archive.org)
— Next week (11/8 - 11/14) in 2013: Like Icarus, but in reverse

Spaceflight News
— ISS EVAs resumed (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)
— Back in March, Matthias Maurer had a leak in his suit (spacenews.com) (phys.org) (blogs.nasa.gov)
Short & Sweet
— Geotail in Jeopardy (space.com)
— ESA turns to SpaceX (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com)
— Tiangong nears completion (spacenews.com)
— Polaris Dawn mission scheduled for March 2023 (space.com)
— NASA orders three more Orion spacecraft (lockheedmartin.com)
Interview – Joel C. Sercel PhD, CEO of TransAstra
— TransAstra recently formed a partnership with Celestron (spacenews.com)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— Oct 28, 2014: the failure of Cygnus Orb-3 (en.wikipedia.org) (everydayastronaut.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) (youtube.com)
— Kunetsov saved 80 NK-33s (HT Csaba: youtu.be)
— Next week (11/1 - 11/7) in 2000: Making a new home, then pulling Dennis away from it.

Spaceflight News
— Epsilon failure (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (youtu.be) (PDF: jaxa.jp)
— Skyrora failure (skyrora.com) (youtube.com)
— The Firefly Paradox (spacenews.com) (firefly.com) (twitter.com/seradata)
— Rockets showing up at places (bbc.com) (techcrunch.com)
Short & Sweet
— Lucy flyby (NSF via web.archive.org) (lucy.swri.edu) (twitter.com/LucyMission)
— TESS mission goes into safe mode (cnet.com)
— China launched ASO-S solar observatory (nasaspaceflight.com)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— 2008, Launch of Chandrayaan-1 (en.wikipedia.org) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (eoportal.org) (pds.nasa.gov)
— NASA contributed the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar experiment (nasa.gov)
— Next week (10/25 - 10/31) in 2014: Swan song.

Spaceflight News
— Test Fest III
— Ariane 6 test fires upper stage engines (esa.int)
— Aerojet-Rocketdyne tests new solid motor (rocket.com) (PAYWALL: aviationweek.com)
— BE-4 full-duration firing (Video: twitter.com/torybruno)
— Stoke Space ring firing (ifiberone.com) (twitter.com/stoke_space) (MP4: uploads-ssl.webflow.com VIA stokespace.com/vision) (twitter.com/jenakuns) (arstechnica.com)
Short & Sweet
— Ireland’s first satellite readies for launch (bbc.com) (eirsat1.ie)
— Crew-5 launches to Station (americaspace.com)
— Engineers regain control of CAPSTONE (spacenews.com)
Interview – UVic ORCASat team: Alex Doknjas, Project Manager and Biarki Weeks, Undergrad Technical Lead
— The team published a wonderful assembly timelapse (youtube.com)
— uvsd.ca
— linkedin.com/in/alexander-doknjas-5b30b310b
— linkedin.com/in/biarki-weeks-463a9579
This Week in Spaceflight History
— 11 October 1968: The launch of Apollo 7 (en.wikipedia.org) (collectspace.com)
— Next week (10/18 - 10/24) in 2008: Let’s start with a weather satellite

Spaceflight News
— DART (spacenews.com) (planetary.org) (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/nasa) (twitter.com/LICIACube) (twitter.com/SenBillNelson) (researchgate.net)
— Transformational Solar Array experiment (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov)
Short & Sweet
— Testing begins for first ViaSat-3 (spacenews.com)
— Hubble may get a roboost (spacenews.com)
— Firefly reaches orbit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)
This Week in Spaceflight History
— Oct 6, 1990. Launch of Ulysses spacecraft (esa.int) (PDF: adsabs.harvard.edu) (en.wikipedia.org)
— The Nutation Damper System was well described in a paper (nasa.gov)
— Next week (10/11 - 10/17) in 1968: Phoenix Rising