The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

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Natural Sciences
**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.

Latest Episodes:

Episode 403: Virgin Deorbit Apr 05, 2023

Show notes

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

Episode 402: Rainbow Shock Diamonds Mar 29, 2023

Show notes

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

Episode 401: Ring Around the Heatshield Mar 22, 2023

Show notes

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.

Episode 400: Dramatic Dogleg Mar 15, 2023

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— VV22 investigation (HT Sam: esa.int) (spacenews.com) (arianespace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— IBEX mission overcomes computer glitch (space.com)

— ISS dodges a satellite (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: H3’s first flight results (nasaspaceflight.com)

Data Relay: STS-400

— STS-400 (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Two gap fillers removed during EVA on STS-114 (spaceflightnow.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 14 March 1986: Giotto flies past 1P/Halley. (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Thanks to Peter for suggesting this topic (twitter.com/PeterMcMally)

— Next week (3/21 - 3/27) in 2006: It’s fine. It’s in what we call a “storage orbit”

Episode 399: DOWNLINK--D. Geoff Carter, PE Mar 08, 2023

Show notes

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.

Episode 398: Paint it Black Mar 01, 2023

Show notes

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)

Episode 397: Loss of Cool Feb 22, 2023

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— Soyuz MS-22 leak images (HT deltaV: russianspaceweb.com VIA twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb)

— Eric Berger posted a comparison to a confirmed MMOD strike (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)

— Katya Pavlushchenko posted photos of orange stains on other Progresses (twitter.com/katlinegrey)

— Uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 delayed (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/katlinegrey)

— LauncherOne failure (virginorbit.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— H3 rocket aborts at pad (spacenews.com)

— Plans for Starship comes back to shore (spacenews.com)

— Blue Origin wins ESCAPADE contract (space.com)

— Launcher’s orbital transfer vehicle fails on orbit (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Nate Perkins via email: RS-25 certification (youtube.com)

— Biarki Weeks: ORCASat summary video (youtube.com VIA: discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 24 Feb, 2009. Loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (justice.gov) (llis.nasa.gov)

— Next week (2/28 - 3/6) in 1995: Everyone get off the phone. I need to log into space.

Episode 396: Valentine Breakup Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— Kosmos-2499 breakup (russianspaceweb.com) (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) (space.com)

— Superheavy static fire (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT Ryan R: twitter.com/elonmusk) (spacenews.com) (HT Alex: youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— Progress MS-21 leak (twitter.com/katlinegrey) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Spaceport Camden saga continues (independent.co.uk)

— Kuiper gets conditional approval (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Feb 20, 1986: Launch of DOS-7, the Mir core module (russianspaceweb.com) (youtube.com) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (2/21 - 2/27) in 2009: Nothing some Wite-Out/Tipp-Ex can’t fix.

Episode 395: Salvage Mode Feb 08, 2023

Show notes

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 😴

Episode 394: Partial Barber Pole Feb 01, 2023

Show notes

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

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