Explore every episode of the podcast The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

Spaceflight News

-- Starliner crew to return on Dragon (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

-- EscaPADE arrives in Florida (spacenews.com)

-- SLS gets bumped up a block (spacenews)

-- RFA first stage lost in test-firing anomaly (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com) (europeanspaceflight.com) (youtu.be)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 27 Aug, 1985. Launch of STS-51-I (PDF: nasa.gov) (youtube.com) (forum.nasaspaceflight.com) (historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (wikiarchives.space) (en.wikipedia.org)

-- Next week (9/3 - 9/9) in 1988: Shouldn’t have had that last cup of coffee

Spaceflight News

-- First polar-orbiting crewed mission announced (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com)

Short & Sweet

-- New solid rocket game in town (breakingdefense.com) (spacenews.com)

-- Spaceport Rundown (flyingmag.com) (europeanspaceflight.com) (cnbc.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From Espen Urkedal via email: Raptor 3 is not as incomplete as it looks (twitter.com/gwynne_shotwell)

Interview -- Rocket Lab’s Cristophe Mandy and Sarah Blyde

-- There’s also a brief appearance by Lane Cook, Senior Program Manager

-- Thank you so much to the Rocket Lab team for making their time and facility available to us!

-- rocketlabusa.com

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 24 Aug, 1958: The failed launch of Explorer 5 (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)

-- Next week (8/27 - 9/2) in 1985: Big Astronaut, Little Astronaut

Spaceflight News

-- Megadebris? (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (slingshot.space)

Short & Sweet

-- NEOWISE ends operations (space.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

-- Starliner still stuck at Station (spaceflightnow)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From Upcoming Spaceflight Events:

-- JUICE Earth flyby #1 on Aug 19/20 (esa.int)

-- Online FAA meeting RE: Starship launch cadence on Aug 20 (faa.gov)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- August 15, 1969: Creation of ISRO (en.wikipedia.org) (britannica.com)

-- Next week (8/20 - 8/26) in 1958: Catching a second wind

Spaceflight News

-- ADRAS-J rendezvous (HT Zach: twitter.com/CRD2_JAXA) (astroscale.com) (PDF: astroscale.com VIA astroscale.com)

Short & Sweet

-- POLARIS spaceplane startup back on track (europeanspaceflight.com)

-- Dawn does docking (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From the intro: JWST looks at Epsilon Indi A (nasaspaceflight.com)

-- Ryan R: TEA-TEB is a pre-mixed fluid (discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 10 Aug, 1992. Launch of the first major oceanographic research satellite, TOPEX/Poseidon (en.wikipedia.org) (jpl.nasa.gov) (eoportal.org) (aviso.altimetry.fr)

-- T/P data is used in this sea level rise dashboard (climate.nasa.gov)

-- Next week (8/13 - 8/19) in 1969: This agency is ro-bust

Spaceflight News

-- Falcon 9 Return to Flight (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

-- ABL Static fire failure (spacenews.com)

-- Starliner Debugging (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- The RAX bug was caused by differing clocks (youtube.com)

Interview -- Martin Frederick, Northrop Grumman Corporate Director, Civil Space Programs

-- linkedin.com

-- Further reading:

-- JWST (northropgrumman.com)

-- TRMM (gpm.nasa.gov) (trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- July 31, 1992: Launch of Atlantis on STS-46 (en.wikipedia.org)  (americaspace.com)

-- EURECA was also the subject of a TWSF about STS-57 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

-- TSS-1 was also the subject of a TWSF about STS-75 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

-- Next week (8/6 - 8/12) in 1992: The zeroth argonaut.

Spaceflight News

-- NASA nixes VIPER (spacenews.com) (newscientist.com)

European Short & Sweet

-- Ariane 6 may carry crew (europeanspaceflight.com)

-- Europe announces RAMSES mission to Apophis (arstechnica.com) (esa.int)

-- Themis gets delayed (europeanspaceflight.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 29 Jul, 1999. Deep Space 1, NASA’s first S/C with ion propulsion, flies by asteroid 9969 Braille (en.wikipedia.org)

-- We interviewed DS-1’s chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager Marc Rayman in Episode 75 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

-- Ron Garret discussed the RAX bug in his talk The Remote Agent Experiment (youtube.com)

-- Next week (7/30 - 8/5) in 1992: We’ll hang on to this one, and come back for that one later

Spaceflight News

-- Falcon 9 Failure (spacenews.com)  (spaceflightnow.com)

-- Ariane 6 anomaly (europeanspaceflight.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

-- Hyperbola-1 mishap (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

-- Europa Clipper faces last-minute obstacle (space.com)

-- Dawn gets green light for spaceplane tests (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 17 July, 1977. First launch of a complete TKS spacecraft (en.wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com) (nasa.gov)

-- Next week (7/23 - 7/29) in 1999: Is that a grid of dots on that asteroid?

Spaceflight News

-- Luch (Olymp) 2 “caught” snooping (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) (russianspaceweb.com) (thespacereview.com)

Short & Sweet

-- The Poles make it to space! (europeanspaceflight.com)

-- ISRO announces major size increase to Indian space station (x.com/ISROSpaceflight)

Interview --  MSI-DFAT

-- We talked to:

-- Alex Carrella, VP Strategy & Growth

-- Bradley Hope, Business Manager

-- Max Myers, Systems Engineer/Lead Rigger

-- Before DFAT (and RFAT), we had feet. (youtube.com)

-- msidfat.com

-- linktr.ee/msidfat

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- July 12, 2001. Launch of Artemis GEO satellite (en.wikipedia.org) (esa.int) (PDF: esa.int)

-- Next week (7/16 - 7/22) in 1977: One month now, 312 months later

Spaceflight News

-- The Vulcan train is leaving the station (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

-- Starliner’s extended-er ISS stay (spacenews.com)

-- A not-so-static test fire (spacenews.com)

-- Resurs P1 breaks up (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From the intro: (americaspace.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 8 July, 1994. Launch of STS-65 (en.wikipedia.org)

-- Next week (7/9 - 7/15) in 2001: Spiraling into control

Spaceflight News

-- Long March 10 hot firing (spacenews.com) (weixin.qq.com) (youtube.com) (spacenews.com)

-- Latest taikonaut class selected (space.com)

Short & Sweet

-- ESA gets involved in Vega C’s transfer (europeanspaceflight.com)

-- Ariane 6 gets dressed (spacenews.com)

-- Starliner’s extended ISS stay (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- Next week (7/1 - 7/8) in 1994: From rocket to lab

Spaceflight News

-- Starliner OFT (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (HT deltaV: twitter.com/cbs_spacenews) (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)

-- Suni Williams gave a tour on orbit (HT Dennis O: youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

-- Chinese space plane proximity ops (sattrackcam.blogspot.com)

-- NASA selects companies to explore Mars Sample Return methods (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)

-- VOYAGER’S BACK!!! (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From the intro: ISS replicates War of the Worlds radio drama (space.com) (twitter.com/airplaneian)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 24 Jun, 1982. Soyuz T-6 carries Jean-Loup Chrétien, the first Frenchman, to Salyut 7 (en.wikipedia.org) (spacefacts.de)

-- Next week (6/25 - 7/1) in 1983: Six seconds calls for vodka

Spaceflight News

-- Starship Test Flight 4 (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com) (spacey.space/@spmttracker)

Short & Sweet

-- Vast plans for ESA (spacenews)

-- Chang’e-6 has its moon rocks (spacenews) (spacenews.com)

-- Hubble Hobble (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- RIP Bill Anders (apnews.com)

-- Traches: Relativity and Novas (discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 11 June, 2008. Launch of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov)

-- Next week (6/18 - 6/24) in 1982: First wolf in space?

Spaceflight News

-- ThinkSubOrbital (spacenews.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (sbir.gov) (sbir.gov)

Short & Sweet

-- Starliner scrub (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

-- Indian startup Agnikul Notches launches first flight (payloadspace.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From the intro:

-- Chang’e 6 landing (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

-- Dear Moon canceled (spacenews.com)

-- Deathkin via discord.com: Centaur’s not a workhorse

-- Heads up for a recurrent nova! (planetary.org)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 8 June in 1959: Regulus Missile Mail (HT SciKyle: postalmuseum.si.edu)

-- Next week (6/11 - 6/17) in 2008: A salty Italian

Spaceflight News

-- More Starliner Delays (spacenews.com) (HT deltaV: twitter.com/jeff_foust) (spacenews.com) (HT deltaV: https://arstechnica.com)

Short & Sweet

-- U.S. accuses Russia of launching countersat weapon (spacenews.com) (payloadspace.com) 

-- Redwire wins award for European lunar lander’s robot arm (europeanspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

-- From the intro: Bepi-Colombo power failure (esa.int)

-- Ryan R: Technology Connections talked about heterodyne radios (youtube.com VIA discord.com)

Interview --  Justin Fiaschetti, CEO and Co-Founder of Inversion

-- twitter.com/InversionSpace

-- inversionspace.com

-- linkedin.com

-- linkedin.com 

This Week in Spaceflight History

--  2 Jun, 2003. Launch of Mars Express (en.wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com) (universetoday.com)

-- Next week (6/4 - 6/10) in 1959: A short-term version of the above

Spaceflight News

-- NASA Joins Rosalind Franklin Team (spacenews.com)

-- Unknown Russian sat launched (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) (russianspaceweb.com)

Short & Sweet

-- Georgia scraps Spaceport Camden (actionnewsjax.com)

-- Starliner leaks Helium (spacenews)

This Week in Spaceflight History

-- 27 May, 1999: The launch of STS-96 (nasa.gov) (nss.org) (eoportal.org) (nasa.gov) (youtu.be)

-- Next week (5/28 - 6/3) in 2003: The last opportunity that was this good was 60,000 years ago

Spaceflight News

— Chang’e-6 mission underway (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (nature.com) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Starliner delayed (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)

— Long March 6C makes first flight (cgtn.com) (spacenews.com)

— Neutron debut slips into 2025 (payloadspace.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Zubrin opinion piece on MSR (spacenews.com)

Interview -- Adam Higginbotham

— Preorder Challenger: A True Story of Heroism & Disaster on the Edge of Space (simonandschuster.com)

— adamhigginbotham.com

— twitter.com/HigginbothamA

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 14 May, 2009: Launch of Herschel Space Observatory (en.wikipedia.org) (cosmos.esa.int) (planetary.org) 

— Next week (5/21 - 5/27) in 1999: Putting schoolchildren to work

Spaceflight News

— Artemis I Lessons (spacenews.com) (PDF: oig.nasa.gov VIA oig.nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Thunder from down under (abc.net.au) (abc.net.au) (southernlaunch.space)

— JAXA’s SLIM survives third lunar night (japantimes.co.jp)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— May 9, 1963: Launch of West Ford 2 (PDF: orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov VIA orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: sci-hub.se) (stuffin.space)

— Next week (5/14 - 5/20) in 2009: The first space telescope

Spaceflight News

— Voyager is communicative! (blogs.nasa.gov)

— ESA debris removal mission finds a new target (satellitetoday.com)

Short & Sweet

— China releases a lunar landing update (spacenews)

— TESS enters safe mode… again (nasa.gov)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Dennis O: SOFIA clarifications (discord.com) (youtube.com)

— VAXheadroom shot SOFIA some footage in 2012 (youtube.com) (youtube.com)

Interview -- Jeff Williams, CEO/CTO Exum Instruments

— Jeff co-authored a paper that is a good primer on spectroscopy and Massbox (spectroscopyonline.com)

— exuminstruments.com 

— linkedin.com/in/jeffrey-williams-372118128  

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 9 Apr, 1999: Titan IVB (402) takes DSP-19 (USA 142) to GEO (astronautix.com) (klabs.org)

— 30 Apr, 1999. Titan IVB (401) takes Milstar-3 (USA 143) to GEO (washingtonpost.com) (PDF: direct.mit.edu VIA direct.mit.edu)

— Next week (5/7 - 5/13) in 1963: Not a good day for trypanophobics

Spaceflight News

— Lunar buggy selection (spacenews.com) (PDF: sam.gov VIA sam.gov) (twitter.com/DubnHG1) (nikkei.com)

Short & Sweet

— Dragonfly mission officially confirmed (nasa.gov)

— Mars Sample Revamp (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Unc Willy: Cape launch complexes (discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 26 Apr, 2007. First flight of SOFIA (en.wikipedia.org) (747sp.com) (HT Colin: youtube.com)

— Next week (4/30 - 5/6) in 1999: Taped too tightly

Spaceflight News

— Last Delta IV heavy (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (PDF: ulalaunch.com) (arstechnica.com)

Short & Sweet

— Relativity Space wins contract (spacenews)

— Japan secures a moon landing (spacenews)

— Max Space Modules (spacenews)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Csaba via Discord: SOIR means "evening" in French, pretty clever pun (discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 19 Apr, 1975. Launch of Aryabhata satellite (lowyinstitute.org) (ursc.gov.in) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (4/23 - 4/29) in 2007: Looking at stars through a wall

Spaceflight News

— Broken records and Starship’s near future (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— New Shepard Plans Crewed Flight (spacenews.com)

— Lunar Rover Mk 2 (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

—  April 11, 2006: Arrival of Venus Express at Venus (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: sci.esa.int VIA sci.esa.int)

— Next week (4/16 - 4/22) in 1975: Add four to 100, multiply by eight, and then add 62,000

Spaceflight News

— Orbital Reef Rundown (nature.com) (PDF: star.spaceops.org VIA star.spaceops.org) (genesisesi.com)

— Artemis 3 now has 3 experiments (nasa.gov) (hou.usra.edu)

Short & Sweet

— A Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine flies for first time (HT Andrew Z: autoevolution.com)

— A Nascent Solution For Voyager 1 (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 6 Apr, 1965: Launch of Intelsat I, the first commercial satellite in GEO (en.wikipedia.org) (boeing.com) (space.skyrocket.de) (astronautix.com VIA web.archive.org)

— Next week (4/9 - 4/15) in 2006: The mission that went to hell in 5 months

Spaceflight News

— Starship IFT-3 (spacenews.com) (twitter.com) (youtu.be)

Short & Sweet

— Euclid spacecraft addresses ice-buildup on optics (asdnews.com)

— Ariane 6 coming together (esa.int)

— Soyuz aborts at the pad (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: launch escape slide (youtube.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 17 Mar, 2002. Launch of GRACE spacecraft (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (esa.int) (skyrocket.de) (nasa.gov)

— Next week (4/2 - 4/8) in 1965: Catching GEO worms

Interview — Professor Dante Lauretta

— The Asteroid Hunter: A Scientist’s Journey to the Dawn of our Solar System (hachettebookgroup.com)

— facebook.com/AZAstrobiology

— threads.net/@azastrobiology

— instagram.com/azastrobiology

— Thanks to Grand Central Publishing (twitter.com/GrandCentralPub) (instagram.com/grandcentralpub)

Spaceflight News

— Stoke Space focusing on first stage (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtu.be)

Short & Sweet

— Tianhe’s solar arrays patched (space.com)

— Stratolaunch tests Talon (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

— Starship Flight 3 on its way (spacenews.com) (space.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 16 Mar, 1966. Recovery of Veterok and Ugolyok, who to this day hold the record for longest canine spaceflight (Kosmos 110) (en.wikipedia.org) (ru.wikipedia.org) (veterok-ugolyok.gmik.ru) (astronaut.ru)

— Next week (3/19 - 3/25) in 2017: Dry, wet, and lumpy

Spaceflight News

— Last big IM-1 update (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/jeff_foust)

Short & Sweet

— Orion has hatch problems (spacenews.com)

— ISRO plans for Mars helicopter (indiatoday.in)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Varda landing footage (youtube.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 8 Mar, 2001. Launch of STS-102 (nss.org) (aiaa.org)

— Next week (3/12 - 3/18) in 1966: A 154 day mission, but only for the passengers

Spaceflight News

— IM-1 landing follow-up (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— ISRO completes human-rating of engine (isro.gov.in)

— Software error responsible for Firefly’s off-nominal payload delivery (fireflyspace.com) (space.com)

— Varda’s capsule returns (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Espen via email: IM-1’s fuel loading

 This Week in Spaceflight History

— 2 March 1965: Atlas Centaur AC-5 explosion (en.wikipedia.org) (science.nasa.gov) (ntrs.nasa.gov) (youtube.com)

— Next week (3/5 - 3/11) in 2001: The first ten-person spaceflight

Spaceflight News

— IM-1 launch (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (PDF: intuitivemachines.com)

Short & Sweet

— H3 completes first successful launch (spacenews.com)

— Voyager 1 still struggles to communicate (space.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— February 21 2008, Interception and destruction of USA-193 (thespacereview.com) (PDF: unoosa.org) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (2/27 - 3/4) in 1965: Technically, that was highly elliptical

Spaceflight News

— Dream Chaser readies for first flight (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— Viasat-3 pushes forward (spacenews.com)

— Lessons from Artemis 1 (spacenews.com)

— X-37B’s orbit speculation (arstechnica.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— 2002 VE68 was officially named Zoozve! (alex-foster.com) (radiolab.org) (radiolab.org)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 15 February, 1996: Failed launch of Intelsat 708 (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (thespacereview.com) (thespacereview.com) (smithsonianmag.com) (HT Dennis O: web.archive.org)

— Next week (2/20 - 2/26) in 2008: And it’s picked off at the 380,000 yard line!

Spaceflight News

— CLPS’ second try (spacenews.com)

— Collins completes Crew Capability Assessment (prnewswire.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (youtube.com)

Short & Sweet

— Queqiao-2 readies for launch (cgtn.com)

— First metal 3D printer in space reaches ISS (europeanspaceflight.com)

— Orbit raising raising questions (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 9 Feb, 2000. First launch of a Fregat upper stage (russianspaceweb.com) (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (2/13 - 2/19) in 1996: First failure

Spaceflight News

— Ingenuity Down (HT deltaV: twitter.com/AndySaunders_1) (spacenews.com) (mars.nasa.gov)

— Slim Upside-Down (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)(global.jaxa.jp)

Short & Sweet

— Redwire to provide elements of Blue Origin’s space tug (spacenews.com)

— Two companies test reusable booster prototypes (space.com) (HT: Sam twitter.com/CNSpaceflight)

— ESA astronaut operates Earth-bound robots while on orbit (europeanspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Shuttle’s hatch lock (HT: deltaV, arstechnica.com) (spaceref.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Feb 3, 1994: First launch of the H-II rocket (en.wikipedia.org)

— Next week (2/6 - 2/12) in 2000: First kleptoparasite in space

Spaceflight News

— SLIM landing attempt (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (PDF: global.jaxa.jp)

Short & Sweet

— EUS heads to qualification (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Ingenuity contact lost during flight 72, regained (mars.nasa.gov) (npr.org)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Peregrine Reentry (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 24 Jan, 1986. Voyager 2’s closest approach to Uranus (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (PDF: sci-hub.se)

— Next week (1/30 - 2/5) in 1994: What comes between 1 and A?

Spaceflight News

— Peregrine Failure (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/astrobotic)

Short & Sweet

— Lay-offs at JPL (spacenews)

— Starship’s second flight failure explained (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Early demo of a starship game, complete with engineering section (starshipsimulator.co.uk)

— Espen via email: F9 landing legs in episode 440

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 19 Jan, 1965. Launch of Gemini-Titan 2 (en.wikipedia.org) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov)

— Next week (1/23 - 1/29) in 1986: Cheaper by the almost dozen

Spaceflight News

— NIAC 2024 Phase One (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— India launches X-ray space observatory (spaceflightnow.com)

— Space station stories (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 12 January, 1997: Launch of Atlantis on STS-81 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) (freshairarchive.org)

— Next week (1/16 - 1/22) in 1965: The there of “there and back again”

Spaceflight News

— B1058 lost at sea (spaceflightnow.com) (twitter.com/johnkrausphotos) (youtube.com) (ventusky.com) (twitter.com/edwards345) (spaceexplored.com)

— Firefly malfunction (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— China completes launch pad at first commercial spaceport (cgtn.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 3 Jan, 1999: The launch of Deep Space 2 (gsfc.nasa.gov) (wiley.com) (jpl.nasa.gov)

— Next week (1/9 - 1/15) in 1997: Merry belated Christmas. I got you a fan.

Spaceflight News

— China launches spaceplane for third time (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (youtube.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

Short & Sweet

— Refractory Starship (nasaspaceflight.com)

— iSpace hops again (spacenews.com)

— Voyager 1 suffers communication anomaly (space.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 19 Dec, 1976. The launch of the first KH-11 Kennen/Keyhole satellite (en.wikipedia.org) (space.skyrocket.de) (npr.org)

— Two weeks from now (1/2 - 1/8) in 1999: Secondary failures

Spaceflight News

— Vega propellant tank mishap  (arstechnica.com) (europeanspaceflight.com) (eoportal.org) (PDF: arianespace.com)

— AVUM 4th stage (“upper stage”) (Pic: eoportal.org)

— Transporter-9 satellite deployment malfunction (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— Iran successfully launches bio-capsule (payloadspace.com)

— Chinese methalox rocket progress continues (cgtn.com)

— Stratolaunch tests hypersonic vehicle (thedrive.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 12 Dec, 2012: NIAC releases Space Debris Elimination (SpaDE) Phase 1 report (nasa.gov)

— Next week (12/19 - 12/25) in 1976. Achievement unlocked

Spaceflight News

— Starship Shtuff (payloadspace.com) (americaspace.com) (twitter.com/ThePrimalDino)

Short & Sweet

— JAXA cyber attacked (payloadspace.com)

— U.S. watchdog agency finds Artemis III in 2025 unlikely (gao.gov) (spacenews.com)

— Gyroscope glitch halts Hubble operations (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

—  Dec 7, 1966: Launch of ATS-1, the first experimental geostationary satellite (en.wikipedia.org) (youtu.be) (science.nasa.gov VIA web.archive.org)

— Next week (12/12 - 12/18) in 2012: Digging up debris

Spaceflight News

— Starliner Crewed Flight Test stays on schedule (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Looking Towards the End of ISS (planetary.org) (spacenews.com)

— Orion still on track (spacenews.com)

— Ariane 6 hot firing test (europeanspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— Danielle Rose has some neat space art (drose.studio) (spacey.space)

— Jared Owen covers ISS construction (HT Lee youtu.be VIA discord.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 3 Dec, 2015. Launch of LISA Pathfinder (esa.int) (youtu.be) (nasa.gov) (spaceflight101.com) (PDF: esmats.eu)

— Next week (12/5 - 12/11) in 1966: It helped make Our World possible

Spaceflight News

— Starship Flight 2 (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) (twitter.com/thejackbeyer) (twitter.com/planet4589)

— Posted after recording: a quick analysis of Starships acceleration curves (twitter.com/Space_Josiah)

Short & Sweet

— SaxaVord struggles to pay contractors (europeanspaceflight.com)

— Sierra Space layoffs (cnbc.com)

— Mars Helicopter completes back-to-back flights (twitter.com/nasajpl)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 27 Nov, 1963: Launch of the first hydrolox rocket to orbit (en.wikipedia.org) (spacelaunchreport.com VIA web.archive.org)

— Next week (11/28 - 12/4) in 2015: Every journey of millions of kilometers starts with a couple meters.

Spaceflight News

— Rocket Lab Failure Analysis (spacenews.com) (space.com) (rocketlabusa.com) (PDF: q4cdn.com VIA en.wikipedia.org)

Short & Sweet

— Astra’s financial future (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)

— X-37B readies for first launch on Falcon Heavy (spaceflightnow.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Dinkinesh adds a moon (planetary.org)

Interview -- Jake Teufert CTO and Chris Carella CCO, Benchmark Space Systems

— We last talked to Chris Carella in episode 373 (theorbitalmechanics.com)

— benchmarkspacesystems.com

— linkedin.com/company/benchmark-space-systems 

— linkedin.com/in/jake-teufert-86b375133/ 

— linkedin.com/in/christopher-carella-innovate/

This Week in Spaceflight History

— Nov 15, 1988: The first and only launch of Buran (en.wikipedia.org) (buran.ru) (buran.ru) (buran-energia.com)

— Next week (11/21 - 11/27) in 1962: Clouds before Aurora

Spaceflight News

— Lucy flies past Dinkinesh and also Dinkinesh (nasa.gov) (lucy.swri.edu) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov VIA ntrs.nasa.gov)

— Aerojet Rocketdyne supplied Lucy’s thrusters (l3harris.com) (PDF: amazonaws.com)

Short & Sweet

— Starship aims for mid-November launch (nasaspaceflight.com)

— i-Space hops (spacenews.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 12 Nov, 1995. Launch of STS-74, second Shuttle-Mir docking (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (PDF: spacepresskit.files.wordpress.com) (youtu.be) (nss.org) (wikiarchives.space)

— Next week (11/14 - 11/20) in 1988: The cold wind blew but once.

Spaceflight News

— ABL Dusts Itself Off (spacenews.com) (harryohanley.substack.com)

Short & Sweet

— NASA struggles to open asteroid sample container (space.com)

— Rocket Lab to return (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Blue Origin’s latest Blue Moon mockup (spacenews.com)

— Canopée to ferry Ariane 6 (fosstodon.org/@AkaSci)

— You can register to send your name with Europa Clipper (europa.nasa.gov)

— Mike Stewart’s core rope memory reader (finally) debuted on CuriousMarc’s channel (youtube.com)

— Aaron Sawdey: Crew Dragon engine inventory  (discord.com):

Interview -- Daniel Faber, CEO and Adam Harris, CCO of Orbit Fab

— Further reading

— Furphy on ISS (issnationallab.org)

— Analysis of a potential Orbit Fab shuttle/depot architecture (researchgate.net)

— orbitfab.com

— linkedin.com/in/adam-harris-363414a6

— linkedin.com/in/danielfaber

— linkedin.com/company/orbitfab

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 4 Nov, 2011: The end of Mars-500 (space.com) (wikipedia.org) (bbc.com)

— Next week (11/7 - 11/13) in 1995: Mission extension… of 4.7 m

Spaceflight News

— Gaganyaan in-flight abort test (youtube.com) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (HT: Jatan’s Space PDF: gov.in) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/DJSnM)

— Pad abort test (https://www.youtube.com)

— Future human Indian Space ambitions (gov.in) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— PLD Test Launch (spacenews.com)

— Two Vega payloads fail to deploy (europeanspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Shuttle astronaut mass allotments (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— October 28, 2009: Launch of the Ares I-X (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (blogs.nasa.gov) (youtube.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Next week (10/31 - 11/6) in 2011: Warning: removing this sticker will void your experiment.

Spaceflight News

— Psyche launch and mission preview (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (scitechdaily.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (microdevices.jpl.nasa.gov)

Short & Sweet

— Spacewalk canceled due to Nauka leak (space.com)

— QueSST to fly in 2024 (nasa.gov)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 21 Oct, 2007. Soyuz TMA-10’s ballistic reentry (ruspace.blogspot.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (PDF: sma.nasa.gov)

— Next week (10/24 - 10/30) in 2009: Nominal tumble

Spaceflight News

— Tiangong’s expansion (hindustantimes.com) (cnn.com)

— Northrop Grumman joins Starlab team (nasa.gov)

— Orbital Reef may be abandoned (cnbc.com)

Short & Sweet

— Luna-25 failure “analysis” (spacenews.com)

— Stoke Space gets more funding (spacenews)

Interview -- Ben Reed, CTO Quantum Space

— quantumspace.us 

— linkedin.com/company/quantumspace-us/ 

— linkedin.com/in/ben-b-reed/ 

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 11 Oct, 2000: STS-92, the100th shuttle mission (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (ntrs.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov VIA web.archive.org)

— Next week (10/17 - 10/23) in 2007: Face forward

Spaceflight News

— Electron suffers upper stage failure (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (youtu.be)

Short & Sweet

— Stoke Space hops (spacenews.com)

— Sierra Space does a burst test (spacenews)

— China plans for lunar sample return (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— A big thanks to Unc’willy, Fonji, Chris S in particular for helping Ben track down and fix an issue with our Discord bot

This Week in Spaceflight History

—  29 September, 2004: Flight 16P of SpaceShipOne (en.wikipedia.org) (sma.nasa.gov) (erikmadaus.medium.com) (airbum.com)

— Next week (10/10 - 10/16) in 2000: Four forbidden cough drops

Spaceflight News

— Dawn Aerospace discusses future plans (parabolicarc.com)

Short & Sweet

— Artemis-II gets its engines (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Firefly launches Victus Nox (spacenews.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Stoke Space test fires (twitter.com/stoke_space)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 22 Sep, 1981. Colombia spills NTO before STS-2 (16streets.com) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)

— Next week (9/26 - 10/2) in 2004: Victory roll

Spaceflight News

— Aditya-L1 studyin’ the Sun (space.com) (eoportal.org) (PDF: iiap.res.in)

Short & Sweet

— Starship stands corrected (spacenews.com)

— MaiaSpace tests cryogenic second stage (europeanspaceflight.com)

Questions, Comments, Corrections

— From the intro: Apollo LOX tanks (twitter.com/DrPhiltill)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 15 Sept, 2017: End of the Cassini mission (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: lpi.usra.edu) (PDF: engineering.purdue.edu)

— Next week (9/19 - 9/25) in 1981: Big F*@&ing Red Spill

Spaceflight News

— OSIRIS-REx prep (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com) (spacenews.com)

Short & Sweet

— New Frontiers competition delayed (spacenews.com)

— Ariane 6 hot-fire test delayed (europeanspaceflight.com)

— Otter Pup detumbled! (payloadspace.com) (twitter.com/StarfishSpace)

This Week in Spaceflight History

— 9 Sept, 2006: The launch of STS-115 Atlantis (space.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (nasaspaceflight.com)

— Next week (9/12 - 9/18) in 2017: Son devoured