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 273: Jupiter via SLS? Aug 25, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Europa Clipper might not fly on SLS (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Ball Aerospace successfully completes green-fueled smallsat mission. (smallsatnews.com)

— Blue Origin delivers its lunar lander mockup. (spacenews.com)

— SpaceX sets a reuse record. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Brian Kostka via email: there was an "iron lung" on Skylab!

This week in SF history

— 25 Aug, 2003. Launch of Spitzer Space Telescope (wikipedia.org) (irsa.ipac.caltech.edu)

— Next week in 1977: Top-heavy but retired.

Episode 272: DOWNLINK--Caty Pilachowski Aug 19, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Lucy on track for 2021 launch (americaspace.com)

— Rocket Lab increases performance (spacenews.com) (PDF: rocketlabusa.com)

— NASA to coordinate smallsat rideshares (spacenews.com)

— Heat management becomes a new bottleneck in the smallsat era (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Dragon’s first commercial crew mission (spacenews.com)

— A new industry seeks standardization (spacenews.com)

— Ingenuity recharges its batteries on its trip to Mars (phys.org)

Questions, comments, corrections

— “Fun paper Friday” (HT Andrew Z: frontiersin.org)

— ROSCOSMOS’ Chibis suit (blogs.nasa.gov)

— Csaba via email: reactors vs. RTGs, the highest flying bird, and 1976 splashdown vs 1975.

Interview -- Caty Pilachowski, Professor of Astronomy at Indiana University

— WIYN Telescope (wikipedia.org)

— IU Faculty profile (astro.indiana.edu)

— twitter.com/iuastro

This week in SF history

— 11 August 1962: Launch of Vostok 3 (russianspaceweb.com)

— Next week in 2003: A flame-retardant spacecraft.

Episode 271: The Dominator Aug 05, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Mars Perseverance and Ingenuity on their way to Mars (spaceflightnow.com) (americaspace.com)

— SHERLOC calibration target includes spacesuit samples (collectspace.com)

— Crew Dragon is coming home (arstechnica.com)

Short & Sweet

— Airbus to build Mars sample return mission’s orbital element (spacenews.com)

— Cause of Rocket Lab’s recent launch failure has been identified (spaceflightnow.com)

— Hayabusa2 releases details on its extended mission (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Andrew via email: Nuclear reactor on Moon (designdevelopmenttoday.com)

— Also from Andrew: Winged Gemini (woodtv.com)

— Alex via email: Michigan Spaceport (woodtv.com)

This week in SF history

— August 8, 1989: Launch of STS-28 (americaspace.com)

Episode 270: A Little to The Left Jul 28, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Progress MS-15 encounters KURS docking issue (rocketrundown.com) (russianspaceweb.com) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— Astra will make another attempt at orbit (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Astra)

— LauncherOne failure update (spacenews.com)

— NASA still has concerns with Starliner (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— twitter.com/amyinorbit: STS-93 wasn’t aborted (youtube.com)

This week in SF history

— July 30 1980: Svetlana Savitskaya selected in the second group of female cosmonauts (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (spacefacts.de) (spacefacts.de)

— Next week in 1989: listen in for an audio clue

Episode 269: DOWNLINK--Kathryn Crowe Jul 22, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Dream Chaser trunk, Shooting Star, finds its own life (americaspace.com) (sncorp.com) (space.com)

Short & Sweet

— Hayabusa2 now has a sample return date! (spaceflightnow.com)

— Florida’s Mk 2 Starship is being scrapped. (teslarati.com)

— Crew Dragon planned to return in early August. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: the closest images ever taken to the Sun (americaspace.com)

Interview-- Kathryn Crowe, NASA Human Landing System Deputy Lead for Integrated Performance

— twitter.com/kat_cr

— Linkedin.com

— Artemis (nasa.gov)

— Contractors on HLS (twitter.com/dynetics) (twitter.com/spacex) (twitter.com/blueorigin)

This week in SF history

— 23 July 1999: Launch of STS-93 (waynehale.wordpress.com) (astronautix.com) (spacefacts.de) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov)

— Next week in 1980: “get to work” on Soyuz

Episode 268: 80 Corrective Actions Jul 14, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Starliner has more work to do (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)

— Starship construction update (HT Andrew Z: wccftech.com)

Short & Sweet

— X-ray space telescope’s launch date delayed. (spaceflightnow.com)

— Cost overruns result in changes to Europa Clipper instruments. (spacenews.com)

— NASA has new planetary protection directives. (spacenews.com)

— NASA doesn’t own a Falcon 9. (americaspace.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Mentioned in the intro: 360° video front he first F9 landing (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/PPathole)

This week in SF history

— July 15, 1975. The start of Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com)

— Next week in 1999: Pumpkin in a paper bag

Episode 267: DOWNLINK--John Z. Kiss Jul 08, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Perseverance launch slips again (spacenews.com)

— Centaur has been repaired (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)

Short & Sweet

— Rocket Lab suffers second-stage failure and loss of vehicle. (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/RocketLab)

— ULA receives its first BE-4. (spacenews.com)

— First indigenous-owned ground station to be built in Australia (satnews.com)

Interview: John Z. Kiss, Professor of Biology and Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina Greensboro

— twitter.com/jzk60

— linkedin.com

— UNC bio and publication list (biology.uncg.edu)

— Read more

— Exploratory study ahead of sending Arabidopsis on CLPS (content.sciendo.com)

— Feature article on Dr. Kiss’ work (researchmagazine.uncg.edu)

— TedX talk “Someday We Will Live on Mars) (youtu.be)

— Seedling Growth-2 (youtube.com)

— Seedling Growth-3 (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history

— 7 July 1998: first orbital launch from a sub (en.wikipedia.org)

— Based on R-29RM (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1975: How long does it take an astronaut to flip a patch upside-down? 7.5 hours.

Episode 266: Demo-2 and the Spacewalks Jun 30, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Demo-2 and spacewalks (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com)

— Suborbital Crew (spacenews.com)

— SpaceShip Two news (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— ISRO opens up spaceflight to the private sector. (deccanchronicle.com)

— ULA completes wet dress rehearsal ahead of Perseverance launch (americaspace.com) (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/TJ_Cooney)

— SpaceX plans a booster recovery for a military satellite. (spacenews.com)

— Canadarm3 contract signed (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history

— 4 July, 2005. Deep Impact strikes comet Tempel-1 (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1998: Low slung rocket

Episode 265: VIPER Will Zoot Jun 24, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Astrobotic to deliver VIPER rover to Moon (spaceflightinsider.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Some instruments will fly on earlier CLPS payloads (geekwire.com) (nasa.gov)

— Crew Dragon Endeavour is still nominal. (teslarati.com)

Short & Sweet

— Another trickle of Boeing Artemis HLS information (HT deltaV: washingtonpost.com)

— Small launch company Astra to make new orbital attempt. (spacenews.com)

— NRO awards Rocket Lab with back-to-back launches. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— From the intro: Crew Dragon reuse: (spacenews.com) (HT Ben Hallert: spaceflightnow.com)

This week in SF history

— June 25, 1997: Progress M-34 collides with Mir (history.nasa.gov) (books.google.com) (astronautix.com) (PDF: spaceflight.nasa.gov) (youtube.com)

— Ben Hallert’s excellent photoshop (twitter.com/chairboy)

— Next week in 2005: Smarter than a deformed copper disc

Episode 264: Ad Astra Per Justitia Jun 16, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Loverro misconduct update (wsj.com via marketscreener.com)

— Kathy Lueders selected to lead HEO Mission Directorate (twitter.com/JimBridenstine) (arstechnica.com)

Short & Sweet

— InSight’s mole is fully underground (livescience.com) (reddit.com/r/InSightLander) (twitter.com/InSightImageBot)

— Northrup Grumman received contract to develop Gateway module (spaceflightnow.com)

— Raytheon gets a DARPA contract. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Ben Hallert: Demo-2 things (twitter.com/chairboy) (twitter.com/chairboy)

This week in SF history

— 1977 June 15: First shuttle SRB drop test from NB-52 Balls 8 (PDF: commons.erau.edu) (youtube.com)

— Next week in 1997: Full of menace, like a shark

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