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 224: Downward Vector Aug 20, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— August 21, 1959. Little Joe 1 failure (pao.ksc.nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Linkspace hover test (spacenews.com)

— ESA confirms second Exomars parachute test has failed (spacenews.com)

— Vector Launch closes its doors (spacenews.com) (PDF: vector-launch.com)

Short & Sweet

— OSIRIS-REx mission selects candidate sampling sites (nasa.gov)

— Robonaut returns to Station. (https://spacenews.com/robonaut-to-return-to-iss/)

— BEAM to stay on ISS (spacenews.com)

— Virgin Galactic updates (parabolicarc.com) (engadget.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Come play an RPG with us! Friday August 30 at 5.30pm PT/8.30pm ET (patreon.com)

Episode 223: DOWNLINK--Ella Atkins Aug 14, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— August 17, 1962: Carl Sagan advocates for sterilizing spacecraft (spacemedicineassociation.org) (PDF: pnas.org)

Spaceflight news

— Rocketlab reuse (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— First ion thruster use on a 1U cubesat (spacenews.com)

Interview-- Ella Atkins

— Thanks to IEEE for arranging this interview! (IEEE.org)

— Dr. Atkins’ profile and CV (umich.edu)

— (robotics.umich.edu)

— (aiaa.org)

Episode 222: Heat Sunk Aug 06, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 9 August 2005: Landing of STS-114 (wikipedia.org)(space.com)

Spaceflight news

— Cause of GOES-17 satellite issue identified by NOAA+NASA (satellitetoday.com, nasa.gov)

— Issue first publicly declared in May 2018 (arstechnica.com)

— GOES-West live data (goes.noaa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Elon Musk to give update on Starship in three weeks (arstechnica.com)

— OneWeb opens for production in Florida. (spaceflightinsider.com)

— EDRS shows off its abilities. (parabolicarc.com)

Episode 221: Soul Source Jul 30, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 30 July 2008, first full firing of a Falcon 9 with all nine engines (spacex.com)

Spaceflight news

— NASA issues rare sole source contract to NGIS (spacenews.com, fbo.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Starhopper hopped (twitter.com/elonmusk) (youtu.be)

— Blue Origin fires its BE-7 lunar lander engine (geekwire.com)

— Lightsail-2 successfully deploys its sail and sends back imagery (planetary.org)

Episode 220: DOWNLINK--Ron Burkey Jul 24, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 25 July 1962: Statement of work issued for LEM (hq.nasa.gov)

Spaceflight news

— Crew Dragon Explosion Conclusion (spaceflightinsider.com)

Short & Sweet

— Eight key space observatories renewed (nasa.gov)

— Starhopper static fire (nasaspaceflight.com)

Interview-- Ron Burkey

— Virtual AGC (ibiblio.org)

— Java port (svtsim.com)

— Scanned original documents (archive.org)

— Transcribed code (github.com)

Episode 219: Future Imperfect Jul 16, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 18 July 1980: first successful launch of SLV, lofting Rohini RS-1 to orbit. (wikipedia.org)(wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Chandrayaan-2 summary (planetary.org)(wikipedia.org)

— InSight Lander’s heat probe is stuck. (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— First Starhopper test hop coming up (spacenews.com)

— Firefly partners up to build a lunar lander. (spacenews.com)

— Tiangong-2 is ready to deorbit. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— RPG night scheduled! (patreon.com)

— Friday August 30 at 5.30pm PT/8.30pm ET

— Same setting, new game! (Risus)

Episode 218: Low-flying Starlink Jul 10, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 10 July, 1992: Giotto flies past 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup (wikipedia.org)

— Ten instruments onboard (nature.com)

— Magnetometer experiment results (articles.adsabs.harvard.edu)

Spaceflight news

— Orion Abort test is a success (spacenews.com)

— Three Starlink satellites goes silent (spacenews.com)

— Jeff Bezos files with FCC for Kuiper constellation (geekwire.com)

Short & Sweet

— ExoMars 2020 suffers parachute problem (spacenews.com)

— DSCOVR is in safehold. (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Andrew Zdanowicz via email: Dragonfly - why not a helicopter?

Episode 217: Ms. Tree Snags the Fly! Jul 03, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— July 2, 1952: birth of Linda Godwin (wikipedia.org)

— STS-37 (wikipedia.org)

— STS-59 (wikipedia.org)

— STS-76 (wikipedia.org)

— STS-108 (wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Dragonfly (planetary.org) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (jhuapl.edu)

— Falcon Heavy successfully flies STP-2 mission (spacenews.com) (teslarati.com)

— Center core TVC failure (twitter.com/elonmusk)

— Ms. Tree caught half a fairing (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut/)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Help name the Mars 2020 rover! (futureengineers.org)

— twitter.com/hashtag/Mars2020

— Clara Ma’s winning entry for Curiosity (nasa.gov)

— twitter.com/call_him_bob

Episode 216: Look to Windward Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 28 June 1969. First flight of Black Arrow (wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Upcoming non-Earth science missions

— 2019

— Chandrayaan-2 (wikipedia.org)

— Spektr-RG (wikipedia.org)

— CHEOPS (wikipedia.org)

— Chang’e 5 (wikipedia.org)

— Lunar Scout / MX-1E (wikipedia.org)

— 2020

— Solar Orbiter (wikipedia.org)

— PROBA-3 (wikipedia.org)

— Aditya-L1 (wikipedia.org)

— Exomars (wikipedia.org/Rosalind_Franklin, wikipedia.org/Kazachok)

— Hope Mars Mission (wikipedia.org)

— Mars 2020 (en.wikipedia.org)

— Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (wikipedia.org)

— 2021

— Astrobotic M1 (wikipedia.org)

— Luna 25 (wikipedia.org)

— SLIM (wikipedia.org)

— XRISM (wikipedia.org)

— IXPE (wikipedia.org)

— JWST (wikipedia.org)

— Double Asteroid Redirection Test (wikipedia.org)

— ASTER (wikipedia.org)

— Lucy (wikipedia.org)

— 2022

— PUNCH (wikipedia.org)

— EUCLID (wikipedia.org)

— MOM 2 (wikipedia.org)

— TEREX (wikipedia.org)

— DESTINY+ (wikipedia.org)

— Psyche (wikipedia.org)

— JUICE (wikipedia.org)

— Comet Interceptor mission approved (spaceflightnow.com)

Short & Sweet

— Stratolaunch is up for sale (cnbc.com)

— Firefly is offering free rides. (spaceflightnow.com)

— Worries raised about U.K. spaceport site in Scotland (bbc.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— arahanga.space

Episode 215: Shibboleth Jun 18, 2019

Show notes

This week in SF history

— 22 June 1978. Discovery of Pluto’s moon Charon by John Christy (wikipedia.org)

Spaceflight news

— Psyche review/preview (spacenews.com)

— Just passed Key Decision Point C (PDF: nasa.gov)

— Multispectral Imager is based on MSL’s Mastcam, MAHLI, and MARDI (hou.usra.edu)

— Deep space laser communication demo (wikipedia.org)

Short & Sweet

— India’s Chandrayaan-2 has launch date (theprint.in)

— India has plans for its own space station. (parabolicarc.com)

— SOFIA improvements (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Valentin Frank: follow up on Tereshkova’s head injury

— /u/MomoSapiensAD: Herschel mission time correction (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)

— Apollo / Mariner / Viking / Voyager oral history (twitter.com/jccwrt)

— Support the Rocket Cat fund! (gofundme.com)

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