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 244: DOWNLINK--Silvia Alba Jan 22, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Crew Dragon In-flight Abort Test successful (youtube.com)

— Beautiful views of in-air explosion (twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) (twitter.com/GregScott_photo)

— Second stage and interstage survivedl (twitter.com/johnkrausphotos) (twitter.com/mike_deep)

— Gorgeous shot of approaching fastboat (twitter.com/SpaceX)

Short & Sweet

— Dream Chaser on track for 2021 mission (spacepolicyonline.com)

— Second all-woman spacewalk a success (space.com)

Interview -- Silvia Alba, Visual facilitator

— instagram.com/silvia.draws

— twitter.com/silvia_draws

This week in SF history

— January 25, 2004, landing of Opportunity (citeseerx.ist.psu.edu) (wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 2003: taking a selfie

Episode 243: Ad Astra Per DARPA Jan 15, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Astra Space obtains launch permits

— Three polar launches from Kodiak (apps.fcc.gov) (www.faa.gov)

— DARPA launch from Wallops (apps.fcc.gov)

— Challenge seeks two launches from different locations with little foreknowledge of payload (darpalaunchchallenge.org

— Downselected to only candidate (spectrum.ieee.org)

Short & Sweet

— Virgin Galactic’s second spaceship passes important milestone. (satellitetoday.com)

— Another lunar lander is in the running. (spacenews.com)

— Starliner joint investigation announced (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— twitter.com/chairboy: Gridfins hydraulics

— The hydraulic system is closed loop since ~2015 (twitter.com/elonmusk)

This week in SF history

— 14 Jan 1977: first SCA, N905NA, delivered to Edwards (PDF: nasa.gov) (nationalgeographic.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)

— Next week in 2004: no need for TIRS

Episode 242: DOWNLINK--Dr. Martin Elvis Jan 08, 2020

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— ISRO confirms plans for Chandrayaan-3 (spacenews.com)

— Chandrayaan-2 imagery (nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— SpaceX plans a moveable tower for pad 39A (spaceflightnow.com)

— Christina Koch breaks a record (spaceflightnow.com)

— Early signs of the Clean Space age: Iridium announces willingness to pay for third party cleanup of failed satellites (spacenews.com)

Interview: Dr. Martin Elvis, Senior Astrophysicist, Center for Astrophysics and Smithsonian

— harvard.edu/~elvis

— Simulated population of asteroids from Mikael Granvik (helsinki.fi)

This week in SF history

— 10 January 2015: first droneship landing attempt (wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1977: Black side down

Episode 241: Clock Kerfuffle Dec 24, 2019

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Starliner OFT (nasaspaceflight.com) (collectspace.com)

— IR video (twitter.com/NASA)

— Re-entry video from the ground (twitter.com/MrTutskey)

Short & Sweet

— Omega has a payload. (spaceflightinsider.com)

— ULA selected to launch next GOES mission. (satellitetoday.com)

— SpaceX announces yet another Starlink launch. (teslarati.com)

This week in SF history

— December 23, 1968. Apollo 8 enters Lunar SOI (wikipedia.org)

— Two weeks ahead in 2015: running out of juice

Episode 240: Nightingale Dec 17, 2019

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Rocket Lab inaugurates LC 2 at Wallops. (spacenews.com)

— Reuse footage from Running Out of Fingers (youtu.be)

— OSIRIS-Rex landing site selected (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— A new European rocket gets funding. (parabolicarc.com)

— SLS core stage is complete (spacenews.com)

— Vector files for chapter 11. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Art in aerospace?

This week in SF history

— 18 December 1973: Launch of the Orion 2 space telescope onboard Soyuz 13 (wikipedia.org) (wikipedia.org)

Episode 239: DOWNLINK--Kyla Edison Dec 11, 2019

Show notes

Sorry about the links not working! Squarespace knows about the issue, but still hasn’t fixed it. Visit theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/kyla-edison for links and photos!

Spaceflight news

— First results from Parker Solar Probe! (nasa.gov) (nature.com)

Short & Sweet

— Running Out of Fingers successfully tests key elements of rocket reuse (techcrunch.com)

— Huntsville gets a new solid rocket motor maker (rocket.com)

Interview

— Kyla Edison

— Geology and Material Science Technician for PISCES Hawaii

— (linkedin.com)

— (pacificspacecenter.com)

— (instagram.com/geolo_geek)

This week in SF history

— December 15, 1984: Launch of Vega 1 (wikipedia.org)

— Balloon aerobot package (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov)

— Structures and data article (articles.adsabs.harvard.edu)

— Next week in 1973 - What’s the point of a space telescope with a lifetime of less than a week?

Episode 238: Moon Prep Dec 04, 2019

Show notes

Sorry there are no links in this episode! Squarespace has broken that feature. Please visit theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/moon-prep for links and photos.

Spaceflight news

— RS-25 integration

Short & Sweet

— Orion capsule ships to Ohio for testing

— Australian company 3D prints large rocket

Questions, comments, corrections

— Tempe meetup!

— 5 pm Sunday, December 8th

— tempe.laboccapizzeria.com

— S. Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281

This week in SF history

— December 4, 1945, Birth of Roberta Bondar

Next week in 1984: What’s the point of a weather balloon with a sample rate of 75 seconds?

Episode 237: DOWNLINK--Elena Zorzoli Rossi Nov 27, 2019

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Starship overpressure explosion (spacenews.com)

— Rumors on 4Chan, via Reddit and NSF forum (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge)(forum.nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— Some insights into failed lunar landings have come out. (spacenews.com)

— Starliner rolls out. (americaspace.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Congrats to our Soonish giveaway winners!

Interview

— After the interview, Spacety reported a successful firing of I2T5! (spacenews.com)

— Elena Zorzoli Rossi, lead experimental engineer, ThrustMe

— Thrustme.fr

— linkedin.com

This week in SF history

— November 28, 1964: Launch of Mariner 4 (wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov)

— Next week in 1945: You were discussing critical space stuff with your pals the other dayyyyyyyy

Episode 236: Panel jettison Nov 20, 2019

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Spacewalk to repair AMS (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)

— AMS overview (nasa.gov)

— Footage from the EVA

— The cover is detached from the restraint clip (youtu.be)

— Jettisoning the cover (youtu.be)

— Chris Cassidy shows off a zip tie cutter/capture device (youtu.be)

Short & Sweet

— Hayabusa2 departs Ryugu (japantimes.co.jp)

— SpaceX completes Crew Dragon Static Fire tests (spacenews.com)

— Launcher gets funding from the Air Force. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Win a book!

— Zach and Kelly Weinersmith wrote Soonish: Ten Emerging Technologies That'll Improve and/or Ruin Everything.

— We have signed copies to give away! In honor of the alternate first words featured on the new TV show For All Mankind, tweet at us with what your first words on Mars would be.

— Random winners selected from Twitter and email.

— Episode 2 is missing!

— Do you have a copy of episode-2.mp3 lying around? Squarespace ate our copy!

This week in SF history

— November 19, 1956 Birth of Eileen Collins (wikipedia.org)

— Next week in 1964: The cold, dead 1%

Episode 235: DOWNLINK--Andrew Rader Nov 12, 2019

Show notes

Spaceflight news

— Starliner pad abort test complete (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

— Chute failure caused by misplaced pin (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet