The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight News— Rocket 3 is dead, long live Rocket 4 (astra.com) (spacenews.com) (astra.com)Short & Sweet— Russian Satellite might be Snooping In Orbit (space.com)— Russia remains on Station (spacenews.com)— Possible Secret Chinese spaceplane (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Real Engineering visited Spin Launch (HT Espen: youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Aug 14, 1959. Explorer 6 takes first image from Earth orbit (twitter.com/NASAhistory) (nasa.gov) (youtube.com)— Next week (8/16 - 8/22) in 1993: Missing top

Spaceflight News— Helicopters join Mars Sample Return (cnet.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Eutelsat/OneWeb merger (spacenews.com)— Masten Space Files for Bankruptcy (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/jeff_foust)— OSIRIS-REx shows asteroids surfaces age quickly (nasaspaceflight.com)— SLS for Artemis, SLS for commercial launches (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: a pair of reentries — CZ-5B (twitter.com/W0lverineupdate) (vxtwitter.com/KadekDwiArista) (twitter.com/Drizzle78878087) — Dragon (twitter.com/MarcusHouse)This Week in Spaceflight History— August 2, 1993: Titan IV loss of vehicle on ascent (en.wikipedia.org) (thespacereview.com) (spaceline.org) — Pratt and Whitney had a list of known problems with grain restrictor (PDF: gobluechase.files.wordpress.com)— Next week (8/9 - 8/15) in 1959. Partial power picture.

Spaceflight News— Wentian launched (nasaspaceflight.com) — An array of new research facilities is onboard (twitter.com/CNSpaceflight) — CZ-5B may experience an uncontrolled reentry (twitter.com/TheSpaceGal)Short & Sweet— Impulse and Relativity announce joint mission to Mars (nasaspaceflight.com)— Nancy Grace has a ride to space (spacenews.com)— First private company to launch from French Guiana (isaraerospace.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Gopal via Discord: BE-4 reuse plans (discordapp.com) (twitter.com)— Unc' Willy via Discord: Titan II bwooop (discordapp.com) (youtu.be)Interview – R. Matt Villarreal, Founder and CEO of Infinite Composites— infinitecomposites.com— twitter.com/infinite_c_t— twitter.com/mattvillarreal — linkedin.com/company/infinite-composites — linkedin.com/in/rmattvillarreal— instagram.com/infinitecomposites— facebook.com/infinitecompositesThis Week in Spaceflight History— July 28 1961: NASA invitation to bids for Apollo prime contract (astronautix.com) (PDF HT Mi

Spaceflight News— ABL static fire (spacenews.com)— Rocket Factory Augsburg static fire (rfa.space)— Superheavy FOOMPF (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com) — Post-fire images/video show apparent sheet metal blow-outs (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) — New, possibly replacement, engines arrived at the pad (twitter.com/NicAnsuini) — Going forward, SPX won’t be doing simultaneous spin-starts (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Ariane 6 ground support equipment (esa.int) (spacedaily.com)Short & Sweet— New robotic arm for ISS (spacenews.com)— Rogozin moves on (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (meduza.io)— CAPSTONE completes second TCM (advancedspace.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Dennis: Parmitano’s leak was caused by tap water (youtube.com)— From the intro: JWST beauty shots (flickr.com) (PDF HT MMC: stsci.edu) (HT MMC: youtube.com/jwstobserver)This Week in Spaceflight History— 24 July, 1992. Launch of the Geotail spacecraft (PDF: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com VIA ​​wiley.com) (jaxa.jp) (eoportal.org) — The u

Spaceflight News— CAPSTONE’s gone. And now it’s back! (space.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (satellitetoday.com) — AS published a Ballistic Lunar Transfer cheat-sheet (PDF: amazonaws.com VIA advancedspace.com) — TCM-1C may not be necessary (nasa.gov) (advancedspace.com)Short & Sweet— Minotaur II explodes (thehill.com) (noozhawk.com)— X-37B beats own record on orbit (space.com)— Starship 24 readies for flight (interestingengineering.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/SpaceX) (twitter.com/SpaceX)This Week in Spaceflight History— 16th July, 2013: Luca Parmitano’s leaky suit on EVA-23 (PDF: nasa.gov) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (youtube.com) — The water separator drum holes were blocked with mineral deposits (nasaspaceflight.com) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) — Airlock Cooling Loop Recovery ion beds were implicated (PDF: ttu-ir.tdl.org) — EMU was developed with on-orbit rescue in mind. (PDF: nescacademy.nasa.gov)— Next week (7/19 - 7/25) in 1992: Electro-coccyx.

Spaceflight News— CAPSTONE (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (space.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (advancedspace.com) — Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System (CAPS) (advancedspace.com) (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (PDF: mstl.atl.calpoly.edu)Short & Sweet— Aerospace firm to build launch complex in Maine (bangordailynews.com)— Perseverance wind sensor damaged (space.com)— Two out of two xEVAS ain’t bad! (spacenews.com) (PDF: sam.gov)This Week in Spaceflight History— 5 Jul, 1966. Launch of AS-203 (en.wikipedia.org) (drewexmachina.com) (youtube.com) (hq.nasa.gov)— Next week (7/12 - 7/18) in 2013: No alarms and no surprises, except the one

Spaceflight News— SLS WDR FIFI (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)— SRB Hydraulic Power Unit hot fire test was completed successfully (PDF p107: klabs.org) (twitter.com/cbs_spacenews)Short & Sweet— Psyche launch delayed to 2023 (spacenews.com)— Atoms for Space (space.com)— Starlink interference from 5G (engadget.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Bill Baobab via email: Occultation techniques — 90 Antiope was “richly” imaged using a multiple observer technique (PDF HT Bill: hal.archives-ouvertes.fr VIA hal.archives-ouvertes.fr) — Lucy targets - occultation maps (swri.edu) — 2022-03-27 Polymele occultation (swri.edu)— From the intro: Cygnus reboosts (blogs.nasa.gov)This Week in Spaceflight History— 28 June, 1979. Progress 7 brings first deployable telescope, KRT-10, to Salyut 6 (stackexchange.com) (ru.wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com) (spacefacts.de)— Next week (7/5 - 7/11) in 1966: If a rocket explodes, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Spaceflight News— Lucy in the news with updates (space.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (blogs.nasa.gov) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Starliner gets its first crew (spacenews.com)— ISS performs debris avoidance maneuver (nasa.gov)— Markusic steps down as CEO of Firefly (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Perseverance sees something shiny (planetary.org)This Week in Spaceflight History— June 27, 1982: Launch of Columbia, STS-4 (en.wikipedia.org) (spacefacts.de)  — This was one of the Scotchguard flights (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (twitter.com/DrPhiltill) — Ejection seats were installed (and enabled) for only a handful of early Shuttle flights (PDF: nasa.gov) — Neither SRB was recovered (core.ac.uk) (aero-news.net) — Science payload included MLR (ntrs.nasa.gov)— Next week (6/28 - 7/4) in 1979: Really big eye-in-the-sky.

Spaceflight News— Cargo Dragon leak (cnet.com) (space.com)— Ingenuity’s woes (cnet.com) (mars.nasa.gov) (PDF: arc.nasa.gov) — Martian winter is dustier due to heat gradients (HT Csaba: space.com)Breaking Madness— Astra TROPICS-1 failure (space.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet— Korean startup targets launch from Brazil later this year (smallsatnews.com)— NASA to launch from Australia (phys.org)— JWST struck by micrometeoroids (space.com) (HT Colin: (theverge.com) (HT DeltaV: blogs.nasa.gov)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Spinlaunch’s sabot (twitter.com/djsnm)This Week in Spaceflight History— 16 Jun, 1961: The Final Fleming Committee Report submitted (hq.nasa.gov) (hq.nasa.gov) (PDF HT Mike Stewart: ntrs.nasa.gov) — Saturn C-3 and Nova were the main options at this point (wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (6/21 - 6/27) in 1982: Enjoy the extra leg room while it lasts!

Spaceflight News— xEVAS selection (nasa.gov) (youtube.com) (theverge.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Helicopter Hunkering (spacenews.com) (jpl.nasa.gov)— Shenzhou-14 has arrived (spacenews.com)— Release date for JWST’s first full-color images announced (cnet.com)— OMG SLS WDR ASAP (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Almaz clusterbomb (russianspaceweb.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— June 13, 2012: Launch of NuSTAR X-ray observatory (caltech.edu) (caltech.edu) (youtube.com) (PDF: sci-hub.se) (PDF: authors.library.caltech.edu) (PDF: axion-wimp2012.desy.de) (patents.google.com)— Next week (6/14 - 6/20) in 1961: C3PO is not a no-go.

Spaceflight News— Psyche launch (sike!) (space.com) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet— Airbus wins contract to build LISA (airbus.com)— China prepares for next crewed launch (spacenews.com) (cnet.com)— Starliner, Present and Future (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)Interview – Kineo Wallace, Lead Propulsion Design Engineer and Mickael “Buzzy” Buswell, Primary Structures Engineer of Vaya Space— Further reading: ABS 3D printed fuel grain studies at the University of Tennessee (sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net) (sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net)— Kineo and Buzzy — linkedin.com/in/kineowallace — twitter.com/kineo_wallace  — instagram.com/buzzedwell— Vaya Space — Vayaspace.com — twitter.com/vayaspace — instagram.com/vayaspace — facebook.com/VayaSpace — linkedin.comThis Week in Spaceflight History— June 4, 1996: The maiden launch of Ariane 5, flight V88 (en.wikipedia.org) (bugsnag.com) (mit.edu) (HT Csaba: hownot2code.com)— Next week (6/7 - 6/13) in 2012: Mak

Spaceflight News— OFT-2 (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) — Debris shedding after booster sep T+3:00 (twitter.com/elizabethtinkg) (youtu.be) — Two RCS thrusters and two OMAC thrusters shut down during the flight (twitter.com/lorengrush)— Test Fest — ABL Space fires upper stage engine (spacenews.com) — Gilmour Space fires Phoenix engine (youtube.com) — Relativity Space fires upper stage engines (youtube.com) — ISRO fires human-rated solids for Gaganyaan (isro.gov.in)Short & Sweet— Voyager 1 returning bad telemetry (cnet.com)— NASA investigates spacesuit water leaks (space.com) (spacenews.com)— End to InSight mission… is in sight (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)— Ingenuity back in action (mars.nasa.gov)Questions, Comments, Corrections— twitter.com/LauraForczyk: X-Bow is pronounced Crossbow. That threw me off at first, too.— From the intro: Tim Dodd tours Starbase (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 24 May, 2000. First launch of Atlas III (en.wikipedia.org) (

Thanks to Deathkin for naming this week’s episode!Spaceflight News— Rocket 4.0 unveiling (spacenews.com) — Chris Kemp asks “why can’t a couple of people launch a rocket?” (youtu.be) — Astra announced a new UK launch site (spacenews.com) (en.wikipedia.org) — Astra is in the running for the TacRS-3 contract (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Axiom-1 putting strain on ISS (spacenews.com)— Tianzhou-4 successfully reaches Chinese Space Station (spacenews.com)— Non-GPS satellite slated for launch (spacenews.com)— JWST final steps before science career (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov) (blogs.nasa.gov)Questions, Comments, Correction Burns— Joel R. via email: Rover steering wheel, Shuttle drag chute — Further reading: Mobility Performance of the Lunar Roving Vehicle: Terrestrial Studies - Apollo 15 Results (PDF: lpi.usra.edu)— From the intro: Canoo taking on water? (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 19 May, 1961. First flyby of Venus, by Venera 1 (nasa.gov) (drewexmachina.com) — Launched on

Spaceflight News— Rocket Lab Helicopter Catch (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) — CAPSTONE’s up next (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Astroscale performs close approach (spacenews.com)— Phantom Space makes big engine purchase (techcrunch.com)— Russian rocket motor breaks apart on-orbit (space.com)— Astra preparing for Canaveral launches (spacenews.com) (astra.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Lockheed Martin’s MAP docking port model (cad.onshape.com)Interview – Awais Ahmed, CEO and Co-Founder, PIXXEL— Shakuntala/TD-2 was one of the three demos, and it flew on Transporter-4 (pixxel.space)— The AVIRIS program also collects hyperspectral data, but from a much lower altitude (aviris.jpl.nasa.gov) (avirisng.jpl.nasa.gov)— Read more and get in contact: — pixxel.space — twitter.com/awaisahmedna — twitter.com/PixxelSpace — in.linkedin.com/in/awaisahmedna — linkedin.com/company/pixxelspace — contact@pixxel.spaceThis Week in Spaceflight History— 13 May, 1992: Intelsat VI captured b

Spaceflight News— Ligado stepping on GPS’ toes (spacenews.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (fiercewireless.com)Short & Sweet— OSIRIS-REx mission extension announced (arizona.edu) (spacenews.com)— SOFIA operations to end later this year (spacenews.com)— AX-1, Crew-4 swap places (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 5 May, 1997. Maiden launch of Iridium satellites (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) — A view of Iridium from the business side (PDF: jitm.ubalt.edu) (cnn.com)— Next week in (5/10 - 5/16) 1992: Two’s company, three’s a record.

Spaceflight News— Peregrine preparing for flight (spacenews.com) (astrobotic.com) (en.wikipedia.org)Short & Sweet— TDRS to be replaced (spacenews.com)— Starlink books a flight (spacenews.com)— Bad weather holds up Crew-4 (spacenews.com)Interview – Daniel Bock, CEO and Co-Founder of Morpheus Space— FEEP technology is a subset of ion propulsion (en.wikipedia.org) (VIA archive.org: morpheus-space.com)— Some of Bock’s prior research (researchgate.net) (researchgate.net)— Flown on UWE4 (PDF: digitalcommons.usu.edu)— LISA Pathfinder also used FEEP propulsion (PDF: sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net)— linkedin.com— twitter.com/DanMorpheus— twitter.com/morpheusspace — morpheus-space.com— facebook.com/MorpheusSpaceThis Week in Spaceflight History— Apr 29, 2002. Cancellation of the X-38 (nasa.gov) (astronautix.com) (nasa.gov) (youtube.com)— Next week (3/5 - 9/5) in 1997: MORE TINFOIL!

Spaceflight News— Artemis-1 Wet Dress Rehearsal(spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) — WDR is deferring to Ax-1 landing (spacenews.com)— Artemis rover (spacenews.com) — RFI issued in August (nasa.gov) (sam.gov) — Lockheed Martin, General Motors and MDA (spacenews.com) — Northrop Grumman, Intuitive Machines, Michelin Tires, AVL, Lunar Outpost (spacenews.com) — Venturi Astrolab (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Astranis Improvement (spacenews.com) (en.wikipedia.org)— House Science Committee vs NTSB (spacenews.com)— Astra Electric (spacenews.com)— ULA puts in a big order (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— LeonRunningMan: LEASAT didn’t use a Minuteman-III motor, exactly (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History—  21 April 2013, Launch of Antares A-ONE, maiden flight of Antares (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (northropgrumman.com) — Orbital Sciences contracted with Aerojet Rocketdyne to use modified NK-33’s. (PDF: lpre.de)— Next week (4/26 - 5/2) in 2002: The end of

Spaceflight News— Spinlaunch (space.com) (HT McMally: businesswire.com)— SLS wet rehearsal modification (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) — April 2nd, lightning strikes (nasa.gov) — April 3rd, fan failures (nasa.gov) — April 4th, vent and check valves (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— DARPA funds in-space manufacturing development (spacedaily.com)— Spaceport Camden: Back from the grave? (news4jax.com)— Warpspace comes to the U.S. (spacenews.com)— Astroscale preparing to restart demonstration (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro — Sentinel on Vega-C (spacenews.com) — Axiom’s arrival (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 12 Apr, 1985: the launch of STS-51-D with LEASAT-3 onboard (en.wikipedia.org) (hughesscgheritage.com) — Further reading: Bold They Rise, The Space Shuttle Early Years, 1972-1986, by David Hitt and Heather R. Smith (nebraskapress.unl.edu) — The successful deployment of LEASAT-4 (youtu.be) — Ox

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

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.