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 353: Golden Sample Retriever Apr 05, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— MSR delayed and split in half (spacenews.com) (PDF: nasa.gov)

— Northrup Grumman eyeing its own SLD contract (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov) (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/wapodavenport)

— NG received six additional CRS-2 missions last month (govconwire.com)

Short & Sweet

— Crew Dragon production is ending (teslarati.com)

— Slingshot Aerospace gets USSF contract (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Andrew Z via email: nautical miles are actually useful!

— From the intro: ISS seat swap negotiations (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 4 April, 1984: Launch of Challenger flight STS-41-C (youtube.com VIA nss.org) (nytimes.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) (harvard.edu) (planet4589.org)

— A good book about Shuttle: The Space Shuttle Program: Technologies And Accomplishments by Davide Sivolella (vdoc.pub)

— MMU Users Guide indicates a proportional relationship between nominal “cruise” speed and length of travel (PDF p38: large.stanford.edu)

— Next week (4/12 - 4/18) in 1985: Swat that fly

Episode 352: A Nullage Mar 30, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— Second Artemis Lander (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— NASA opens 50-year-old lunar sample (cnet.com) (PDF: curator.jsc.nasa.gov)

— Astra’s successful launch had a not-secret-anymore customer (spacenews.com)

— Starship environmental review delayed… Again (spacenews.com)

— Arianespace and SPX adjust to missing Soyuz launches (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— April 4, 1968. The launch of Apollo 6 (en.wikipedia.org) (scribd.com) (PDF HT Mike Stewart: ibiblio.org) (PDF HT Mike Stewart: ibiblio.org)

— Further listening: Arin Cross’ Data Relay on combustion instability (theorbitalmechanics.com)

— Next week (4/5 - 4/11) in 1984: Pinky and the Brain… that he’s trying to fix.

Episode 351: B-B-B-Borscht Mar 23, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— Artemis I Rollout (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com)

Short & Sweet

— SpaceX sets two new records (spacenews.com)

— First all-cosmonaut Soyuz docks with station (spaceflight.com)

— China satellite launch includes demonstration third-stage (nasaspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: JWST progress (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 25 Mar, 1961: Launch of Korabl-Sputnik 5 (en.wikipedia.org) (theatlantic.com) (nasa.gov) (airandspace.si.edu)

— Next week (3/29 - 4/4) in 1968: Less than perfect, but successful, but a failure.

Episode 350: DOWNLINK--Zachary Tong Mar 16, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— Astra LV0008/ELaNA 41 failure analysis (spacenews.com) (astra.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— OSAM-1 completes critical design review (nasa.gov)

— China to commercialize Tiangong spacenews.com

— Soyuz embargo leaves many satellites grounded (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Gravitational submarines

— Matthew Bell (iopscience.iop.org)

— Andrew not-Z via email suggests Re-entry Vehicle Dynamics (google.com)

— Aaron Sawdey (twitter.com/sawdey) (en.wikipedia.org)

Interview – Zachary Tong, creator of Breaking Taps on Youtube

— youtube.com/c/BreakingTaps

— twitter.com/BreakingTaps

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 18 Mar, 2003. The authorization of Project Prometheus (everyspec.com, alt: web.archive.org)

— Next week (3/22 - 3/28) in 1961: Ghost beetroot calls home.

Episode 349: Shrapnarelli Mar 09, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— More Russian fallout

— Russia threatens OneWeb launch (spaceflightnow.com)

— OneWeb looking to non-Russian rockets (spacenews.com)

— eROSITA turned off on Russian Spektr-RG (space.com)

— ExoMars likely to be delayed (spacenews.com)

— South Korea worried about Russian launches (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Anahuac pleads guilty to selling tainted rocket fuel (justice.gov)

— Iranian launch failure (apnews.com)

— Post-recording, Iran successfully launched their second orbital payload. (reuters.com)

— SpaceX awarded 3 more commercial crew missions (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Andrew Z via email: More sanctions considerations

— MMC in the chat: loss of ISS would free up money for the Moon.

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 13 March, 1985, Launch of Geosat (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: jhuapl.edu) (earth.esa.in)

— Next week (3/15 - 3/21) in 2003. Bringing fire to icy worlds.

Episode 348: #0057B7 / #FFD700 Mar 02, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Sanctions on Russia

— Roscosmos pulled out of French Guiana (twitter.com/planet4589) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/nextspaceflight)

— NASA no longer involved in Venera-D? (spacenews.com)

— ISS is unlikely to be used as a pawn (reuters.com) (spacenews.com)

— ULA has enough RD-180s (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/torybruno) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/planet4589) (twitter.com/torybruno) (spacenews.com)

— Starliner uses Russian power converters (HT Ben Hallert: spacedaily.com)

— Post-Crimea sanctions were likely more impactful on the space industry (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Relativity qualifies rocket with structural test (satnews.com)

— Dream Chaser looking at landing in Japan (spacenews.com)

— China says moon impactor not Chang’e-5 (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 2 Mar, 2004. Launch of Rosetta (books.google.com) (sci-hub.se) (harvard.edu) (esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (3/8 - 3/14) in 2013: Watery potato

Episode 347: Another JWST Episode Feb 23, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— JWST Alignment (PDF: spacefoundation.org) (HT deathkin: jwst-docs.stsci.edu)

— Follow JWST’s alignment progress on Where Is Webb? (jwst.nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Chandra X-ray Observatory suspends operations (space.com)

— China reveals human spaceflight plans and communication with U.S. govt (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 22 Feb, 1996. The launch of Columbia, STS-75 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (space.skyrocket.de) (youtu.be) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov)

— Next week (3/1 - 3/7) in 2004: 5-7 = 46+21

Episode 346: Not Fairing Well Feb 16, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Astra failure (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— Mysterious Moon Masher (twitter.com/sciguyspace) (projectpluto.com) (projectpluto.com)

— James Webb is making adjustments (spacenews.com)

— Starship testing may move to Florida (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com)

— BreakingTaps made an excellent video and 3D model of JWST’s hexapod actuator! (youtube.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 17 Feb, 2007. Launch of THEMIS (en.wikipedia.org) (ucla.edu)

— Constraints on the moon-bound trajectory were many (PDF: igpp.ucla.edu)

— Next week (2/22-2/28) in 1996: This is why we keep the mezuzah rolled up

Episode 345: DOWNLINK--Dr. Tupper Hyde Feb 09, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight News

— JWST cryocooler

— Alternative tube configurations include U-bend and coaxial (PDF p7: trc.nist.gov)

— Testing shows the cryocooler is TWICE as efficient as required! (nasa.gov)

— JWST’s radiators are coated with BIRB (PDF: indico.cern.ch)

Short & Sweet

— Curiosity’s wheels take a lickin’ but keep on tickin’ (cnet.com)

— InSight weathers a dust storm (spacenews.com) (reddit.com/r/InSightLander)

— Astra receives first Part 450 (twitter.com/Astra) (spacepolicyonline.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Uncle_Willy via Discord: four reasons why running Oxy-rich is bad

— BreakingTaps on YT made a JWST Hexapod Actuator model!!! More on this next week. (youtube.com)

Interview – Tupper Hyde, Chief Engineer at NASA's Goddard Center

— twitter.com/TupperHyde

— linkedin.com/in/tupperhyde

— nasa.gov/goddard

— etd.gsfc.nasa.gov

— Also discussed: the next generation of space telescopes is LUVOIR (en.wikipedia.org)

This week in Spaceflight history

— February 10th 2009, The collision of Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (PDF: castor2.ca) (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikibooks.org)

— Next week (2/15-2/21) in 2007: BC? More like BSee-you later!

Episode 344: Dirty Deeds Done in Geo Feb 02, 2022

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Shijian-21 does some space tuggin’ (spacenews.com)

— Last November, a new object, 2021-094C, appeared near SJ-21 (spacenews.com)

— USA 271 “buzzed” SJ-20 in August 2020 (breakingdefense.com)

— SJ-21 might be trying net or debris lasing tech (PDF: airuniversity.af.edu

— 1972 Incidents at Sea Agreement (US + USSR) (state.gov)

Short & Sweet

— NASA identifies cause of stuck solar panel on Lucy (spacenews.com)

— JMS is officially shut down (spacenews.com)

— Anomaly pauses Astroscale’s demo mission (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 7 Feb, 2008. Launch of STS-122 with Columbus module (en.wikipedia.org)

— ECO sensor system factsheet (PDF: nasa.gov)

— Launch damage included a lost LOMS stinger tile (PDF p18: nasa.gov, VIA spaceref.com)

— STS-93 is a good example of when the ECO fuel sensors might be a critical safety measure (TWSF: theorbitalmechanics.com)

— Next week (2/8 - 2/14) in 2009: 102.2 degrees and 77 protons.

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