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 440This 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/orbitfabThis 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 botThis 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

Spaceflight News— Chandrayaan-3 landing (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (isro.gov.in) (indianexpress.com VIA 12ft.io)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Starship Booster 9 static fire (with deluge) (twitter.com/SpaceX)Interview -- IEEE Senior Member David Witkowski— Further reading: Public Wifi Blueprint (PDF: pages.nist.gov)— twitter.com/w6dtw— okusolutions.com — linkedin.com/company/okusolutions This Week in Spaceflight History— 30 Aug, 1984. Launch of STS-41D (space.nss.org)— Next week (9/5 - 9/11) in 2006: Icicle and pebble

Spaceflight News— Luna-25 (HT ArcadeEngineer: twitter.com/katlinegrey) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (Paywall: russianspaceweb.com)Short & Sweet— Starship booster coronation (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/SpaceX)— Intuitive Machines has a launch date (spacenews.com)— Russia explores reusable first-stage (aviationweek.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Benjamin W. via email: Juno’s angular velocity— Luis Mamakos via email: Can you desaturate momentum wheels with the spacecraft?— From the intro: Shuttle hatch (HT Mike Stewart PDF: ibiblio.org)This Week in Spaceflight History— 25 Aug, 2003: Launch of Spitzer Space Telescope (en.wikipedia.org) (spitzer.caltech.edu) (PDF: irsa.ipac.caltech.edu) (PDF: irsa.ipac.caltech.edu) (spaceflightnow.com) — Dr. Lee Bennet’s talked to us about Spitzer (theorbitalmechanics.com)— Next week (8/29 - 9/4) in 1984: Icicle

Spaceflight News— Lunar Flashlight failure (spacenews.com) (PDF: mstl.atl.calpoly.edu VIA web.archive.org) (PDF: ssdl.gatech.edu) (PDF: digitalcommons.usu.edu)Short & Sweet— Boeing aiming for six Starliner flights to ISS (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— NASA test-fires Mars Ascent Vehicle’s motor (space.com)— To Artemis three or not to three (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 16 August, 1960: Joseph Kittinger made the final Project Excelsior jump (en.wikipedia.org) (nationalmuseum.af.mil) (stratocat.com.ar)— Next week (8/22 - 8/28) in 2003: Telly McTelescopeface

Spaceflight News— Astra Layoffs (spacenews.com) (cnbc.com)Short & Sweet— Starship Activities (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Cygnus gets an upgrade (spacenews.com)— Airbus and Voyager announce commercial space station plans (spacenews.com) (europeanspaceflight.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 11 and 12 Aug, 1962: The launches of Vostok 3 and 4 (russianspaceweb.com) (russianspaceweb.com) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week (8/15 - 8/21) in 1960: That last step is a doozy

Spaceflight News— 2023 Tipping Point selections (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (PDF: nasaprs.com) — Blue Origin’s Blue Alchemist separates regolith into several important base materials (blueorigin.com) — We talked to Kyla Edison about sintering regolith (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— HALO’s added cost (spacenews.com)— Sierra Space builds a better engine (spacenews.com)— Contact with Voyager 2 lost, thought to be temporary (arstechnica.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 5 Aug, 2011. Launch of Juno (en.wikipedia.org) (nasaspaceflight.com) (PDF: pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu)— Next week (8/8 - 8/14) in 1962: The Gemini before Gemini

Spaceflight News— A Commercial Space Station Source Selection (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov) (PDF: sam.gov) (news.northropgrumman.com) (sierraspace.com) (specialaerospaceservices.com) (vastspace.com)Short & Sweet— Recently arrived GEO satellites in trouble (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (arstechnica.com)— China develops plan to land humans on Moon before decade’s end (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Aaron Sawdey: Centaur tank fix (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 29 July, 2014. Launch of ATV-5 George Lemaitre, the last ATV (danielmarin.naukas.com) (danielmarin.naukas.com) (esa.int) (blogs.esa.int) — LIRIS (Laser InfraRed Imaging Sensors) (esa.int) — Debris avoidance (blogs.esa.int) — The shallow reentry that wasn’t (issfd.org) (blogs.esa.int)— Next week (8/1 - 8/7) in 2011: Dim Sun

Spaceflight NewsVulcan Centaur delays (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet           — China begins constructing VLEO constellation (spacewatch.global)— LandSpace wins the race (nasaspaceflight.com)— Janus canceled (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— An NSF tour of Astra’s rocket factory (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 18 Jul, 2011. Launch of Spektr-R radio telescope (russianspaceweb.com) (wiki)— Zenit-3M/Fregat-SB (SB - “сбрасываемые баки” or “drop tanks”) (space.skyrocket.de)Next week (7/25 - 7/31) in 2014: He was born in Belgium, and then again in Italy.

Spaceflight News— Au revoir, Ariane 5 (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (Payload User’s Guide PDF: arianespace.com)— Two solids provide ~90% of Ariane 5’s thrust (esa.int)— ESA plans to lean on SpaceX launches (spacenews.com)— New test facility for Ariane 6 was built in 2019 (esa.int)Short & Sweet— Varda completes pharmaceutical manufacturing test on-orbit (arstechnica.com)— Lockheed Martin completes burst test of expandable habitat (spaceref.com)— Starlink interferes with radio astronomy (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 20 Jul, 2017: Sale of Apollo 11 bag for $1.8m (collectspace.com) (collectspace.com) (kansascity.com) (sothebys.com)— Next week (7/18 - 7/24) in 2011. Radio parasol.

Spaceflight News— Mars oxygen and helicopter sighting (space.com) (HT Stygarfield: nasa.gov) — Vega C delayed after engine test failure (europeanspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Virgin Galactic completes first fully commercial flight (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Euclid telescope prepares for launch (spacenews.com)— Dream Chaser prepares for launch (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Unc’ Willy: L2 is closer than the sun, and CMB was discovered in 1964 (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History—  July 7, 2003: The launch of MER-B (Opportunity) aboard the Delta II Heavy (en.wikipedia.org) (mars.nasa.gov) (theorbitalmechanics.com) — ULA has an excellent payload guide for Delta II (ula.bsshost.me)— Next week (7/18 - 7/24) in 2017: Do you ever feel like a sample bag/drifting through the wind, wanting to sue again?

Spaceflight News— Starship hot staging and engine firing  (spacenews.com)  (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/AshleyKillip) — Earlier description of separation flip (teslarati.com)Short & Sweet— Prometheus test fire (nasaspaceflight.com)— Anti-ASAT antipathy (spacenews)— Launcher’s second OTV fails on orbit (spacenews.com) (geekwire.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 30 Jun, 2001. Launch of Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) (en.wikipedia.org) (wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov) (wmap.gsfc.nasa.gov)— Next week (7/4 - 7/10) in 2003: The mass hasn’t changed, but now it’s too heavy

Spaceflight News— iROSA campaign complete, looking to next campaign (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— ESA reserve astronaut to fly on Axiom flight (europeanspaceflight.com)— Impulse to supply propulsion for commercial space station (vastspace.com)— Rocket Lab goes suborbital (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History—  26 Jun, 1971: The third N1 test flight (en.wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week (6/27 - 7/3) in 2001: [audio clue]

Spaceflight News— Luna-25/Luna-Glob delayed (space.com) (russianspaceweb.com) (russianspaceweb.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com)Short & Sweet— Firefly and York both make acquisitions (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Egypt to build space-monitoring station (africanews.space)This Week in Spaceflight History— 15th June, 1971: Launch of KH-9 Hexagon (en.wikipedia.org) (aiaa.zoom.us) (space.com)— Next week (6/20 - 6/26) in 1971: Tunguska 2.0

Spaceflight News— Starliner Woes (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) — We tracked down some info on P-213 and P-213LW fiberglass tapes. (PDF: hansford.hk) (PDF: nitto.com) (spacematdb.com)Short & Sweet— UAE gives details on asteroid mission (spacewatch.global)— Commercial deep-space radar (spacenews.com) (satellitetoday.com)— North Korean launch failure (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— VAXHeadroom: Soyuz roll rate (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 8 June, 2007. Launch of STS-117 (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (nss.org) (spaceflightnow.com) (spacecraftearth.com)— Next week (6/13 - 6/19) in 1971: A six-sided system

Spaceflight News— HAKUTO-R failure analysis (HT deltaV: twitter.com/DJSnM) (twitter.com/jeff_foust) (ispace-inc.com) (spacenews.com) — Apollo software modeled terrain to avoid this exact issue (PDF HT Mike: ibiblio.org)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit assets sold off (spacenews.com)— ESA folds out a new heat shield (HT Andrew Z: esa.int) (newatlas.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 1 Jun, 1970: Launch of Soyuz 9 (en.wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com) (chessgames.com) (astronautix.com)— Next week (6/6 - 6/12) in 2007: Chonky boi

Spaceflight News— Blue Origin wins HLS contract (spaceflightnow.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (PDF: sam.gov VIA nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— CAPSTONE tests its navigation technology (nasa.gov)— End of Lunar Flashlight (spacenews.com)— Core of Roman Space Telescope completed (spaceref.com VIA 12ft.io)This Week in Spaceflight History — 23 May, 2016: Suborbital testflight of ISRO’s Reusable Launch Vehicle (vssc.gov.in) (delhidefencereview.com) (delhidefencereview.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (aerospace-technology.com)— Next week (5/30 - 6/5) in 1970: King to G8

Spaceflight News— China’s spaceplane makes maneuvers (spacenews.com)— Kosmos-2562 makes maneuvers as well (twitter.com/planet4589) (russianspaceweb.com)Short & Sweet— Plutonium Depletion (spacenews.com)— ULA prepares for more tests (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Vast and SpaceX shoot for first commercial space station (HT Andy Z.: techcrunch.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 16 May, 2011. Launch of STS-134 (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (nasaspaceflight.com) (lidarmag.com)— Next week (5/23 - 5/29) in 2016: Hex, one of five

Spaceflight News— Evolution Space becomes 9th private U.S. company to reach space (twitter.com/evolutionspace_) (parabolicarc.com)— UP Aerospace rocket rapidly RUDs (gizmodo.com) (youtube.com) — Incredible footage of payload separation was captured in 2015 (HT Stygarfield: reddit.com) (nasa.gov)— Swedish rocket lands in Norway (reuters.com)Short & Sweet— Dragonfly faces proposed 20% budget cut (spacenews.com)— New prospects for New Horizons (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Espen via email: Starship engine data loss, AFTS activation time— Andy Z via email: Starship separation flip— Anderson via DM: Sea launch vs pad reconstruction (HT VaxHeadroom: twitter.com/RyanHansenSpace)This Week in Spaceflight History— 13 May, 1998. AsiaSat-3’s lunar flyby (en.wikipedia.org)  (patents.google.com) (carlkop.home.xs4all.nl) (novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru VIA web.archive.org) — The DM-2M failure was caused by a duct failure between the gas generator and pump turbine (ilslaunch.com)— Next week (5/16 - 5/22) in 2011: Pass the baton

Spaceflight News— Starship update (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (americaspace.com)— We missed the point of the skydiving pebble story (discord.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— H3 failure analysis (twitter.com/Cosmic_Penguin) (PDF: mext.go.jp)Short & Sweet— Hakuto-R likely in free-fall before loss of signal (HT Sam: twitter.com/ea4gpz) (space.com) (spacenews.com)— China’s space agency sets up lunar base organization (spacenews.com)— Astrobotic books a second Falcon Heavy (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Bob via email: Starship abort capability (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Launch of LCS-1 (Lincoln Calibration Sphere) (en.wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com) (ieeexplore.ieee.org) (youtube.com)— Next week (5/9 - 5/15) in 1998: Around the elbow to get to the nose

Spaceflight News— Starship, destroyer of concrete (youtube.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/landru79) (HT Iain from MaxQ: twitter.com/unrocket) (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Launch tower footage (HT Astro: reddit.com/r/space) — Liftoff footage (note debris impacting water) (twitter.com/SpaceX) — High speed footage from Tim Dodd x Consider Cosmos (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut) — Aborted launch attempt at the beginning of the week (spacenews.com) — Listener Sam spotted eight engines out, not six (discord.com) — Leaked (?) final frame before termination (discord.com) — NWS spotted the launch (twitter.com/NWSBrownsville) — “Aspiring” to have no diverter as of 2020 (twitter.com/elonmusk) — NSF forums user speaks about the loss of pad experts (HT Sam: forum.nasaspaceflight.com) — Canaveral Starship infrastructure also lacks flame diverter (twitter.com/Cosmic_Andrew1)Short & Sweet— Swedish astronaut may fly on Axiom mission to ISS (spacenews.com)— Rocket Lab to reuse flown engine (satellitetoday.com) (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Unc’ Willy: A skydiver encounters a rock, and Apollo 12 helps out (planetary.org)— Andrew Z: Lifting body footage — M2-F1 (youtube.com) — M2-F2 (youtube.com) — M2-F2, M2-F3, HL-10 (youtube.com) — X-24A (youtube.com) — X-24B (youtube.com) — Bonus: Soviet mini spaceplane Spiral MiG-105 (youtube.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Apr 28, 1985. The day before the launch of STS-51-B (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: spacepresskit.files.wordpress.com) (wikiarchives.space) — An experiment transport bag was on auction (historical.ha.com)— Next week (5/2 - 5/8) in 1965: 2 score and 18 years and still going

Spaceflight News— SpaceX cuts costs (spacenews.com)— Starship launch license (spacenews.com)— Relativity pivots away from Terran-1 (spacenews.com) (techcrunch.com) (relativityspace.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: JUICE launch successful (nasaspaceflight.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 20 Apr, 2004: The launch of Gravity Probe-B (en.wikipedia.org) (web.archive.org) (einstein.stanford.edu) (dontpanicgeocast.com)— Next week (4/25 - 5/1) in 1985. Shuttle spelunkin’.

Spaceflight News— Centaur explosion (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)  (twitter.com/torybruno) — The test stand can be seen in 3D on Google Maps (google.com)Short & Sweet— Artemis II crew announced (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Dawn Aerospace completes successful spaceplane test flight (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com)— ISRO completes successful spaceplane test flight (isro.gov.in)— Bathwater By Any Other Name... (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— April 16, 2016. Berthing of BEAM to ISS (en.wikipedia.org) (eoportal.org) (nasa.gov) (PDF: ttu-ir.tdl.org)— Next week (4/18 - 4/24) in 2004: Four crystal balls

Spaceflight News— Exploring Mars Together (spacenews.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Seized assets in Kazakhstan threatens Soyuz-5 program (nasaspaceflight.com)— Virgin Orbit Layoffs (spacenews.com) (qz.com)— Rosotics announces large-scale 3D printer (spacenews.com) (newatlas.com) (rosotics.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Tiangong has trash too (twitter.com/cnspaceflight)This Week in Spaceflight History— 5 April, 1963: A Pontiac Catalina tows M2-F1 (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (dfrc.nasa.gov VIA web.archive.org) (projecthabu.com) (dfrc.nasa.gov VIA web.archive.org)— Next week (4/11 - 4/17) in 2016: Storage on Orbit

Spaceflight News— Relativity’s Terran-1 fails to reach orbit (spaceflightnow.com) (twitter.com/thetimellis) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Private South Korean company launches suborbital rocket from Brazil (spacenews.com)— NS-23 anomaly identified (parabolicarc.com)— SWOT, key climate science satellite, instrument back online (space.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Aaron: toroidal aerospikes (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 31 March, 1993. Launch of Progress M-17 from Baikonur (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: hq.nasa.gov)— Next week (4/4 - 4/10) in 1963: Tub in tow

Spaceflight News— Stoke Space prepares for hopper landing trial (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/stoke_space)  (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— NASA announces $1B deorbit tug for ISS (spacenews.com)— Virgin Orbit’s operational pause (spacenews.com)— Axiom reveals the Artemis EVA suit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— March 24, 2006: The first launch of Falcon 1 (space.com) (space.com) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (3/28 - 4/3) in 1993. Low-power mode.

Spaceflight News— VV22 investigation (HT Sam: esa.int) (spacenews.com) (arianespace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— IBEX mission overcomes computer glitch (space.com)— ISS dodges a satellite (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: H3’s first flight results (nasaspaceflight.com)Data Relay: STS-400— STS-400 (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) — Two gap fillers removed during EVA on STS-114 (spaceflightnow.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 14 March 1986: Giotto flies past 1P/Halley. (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) — Thanks to Peter for suggesting this topic (twitter.com/PeterMcMally)— Next week (3/21 - 3/27) in 2006: It’s fine. It’s in what we call a “storage orbit”

Spaceflight News— TROPICS-1 mishap investigation (HT Mike Stewart: astra.com)Short & Sweet— HST impacted by satellite trails (nature.com)— China’s secret spacewalk (spacenews.com)Interview -- D. Geoff Carter, PE— RollAide.com— artemis-space.comThis Week in Spaceflight History— Mar 9, 2008: The launch of the first ATV: Jules Verne (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: esa.int) (PDF: esa.int)— Next week (3/14 - 3/20) in 1986: Slap a renaissance painter.

Spaceflight News— Starship’s near future (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— NASA planning for first Gateway logistics mission (spacenews.com)— Beetlesat successfully deploys expandable antenna on orbit (spaceref.com) (beetlesat.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— March 2, 1995, Launch of STS-67, Endeavour (en.wikipedia.org) (spaceline.org) (astronautix.com)— Next week (3/7 - 3/13) in 2008: 20 million leagues above the sea (level)

Spaceflight News— Soyuz MS-22 leak images (HT deltaV: russianspaceweb.com VIA twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb)  — Eric Berger posted a comparison to a confirmed MMOD strike (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) — Katya Pavlushchenko posted photos of orange stains on other Progresses (twitter.com/katlinegrey) — Uncrewed Soyuz MS-23 delayed (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/katlinegrey)— LauncherOne failure (virginorbit.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— H3 rocket aborts at pad (spacenews.com)— Plans for Starship comes back to shore (spacenews.com)— Blue Origin wins ESCAPADE contract (space.com)— Launcher’s orbital transfer vehicle fails on orbit (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Nate Perkins via email: RS-25 certification (youtube.com)— Biarki Weeks: ORCASat summary video (youtube.com VIA: discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 24 Feb, 2009. Loss of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (justice.gov) (llis.nasa.gov)— Next week (2/28 - 3/6) in 1995: Everyone get off the phone. I need to log into space.

Spaceflight News— Kosmos-2499 breakup (russianspaceweb.com) (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) (space.com)— Superheavy static fire (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT Ryan R: twitter.com/elonmusk) (spacenews.com) (HT Alex: youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Progress MS-21 leak (twitter.com/katlinegrey) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Spaceport Camden saga continues (independent.co.uk)— Kuiper gets conditional approval (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Feb 20, 1986: Launch of DOS-7, the Mir core module (russianspaceweb.com) (youtube.com) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (2/21 - 2/27) in 2009: Nothing some Wite-Out/Tipp-Ex can’t fix.

Spaceflight News— SSLV launch failure investigation completed (spacenews.com) (​isro.gov.in) — VTM separation was captured on video, but payload deployment is only seen as a timestamp on a status display. (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— NASA confident in A1 software (nasaspaceflight.com)— Peregrine has a new destination (spacenews.com)— Perseverance completes sample depot on Mars (​​cnet.com) — See also: The Milky Way as seen from Mars (reddit.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Feb 11, 2015: Launch of the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (spaceflight101.com) (PDF: esa.int)— Next week (2/14 - 2/20) in 1986. More computers, more beds 😴

Spaceflight News— NASA Tests a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (nasa.gov) (PDF: mdpi.com) (Scott Manley: youtube.com) (ntrs.nasa.gov) — JAXA tested an RDRE in 2021 (futurism.com) — China tested a CDRE January 2023 (twitter.com/CNSpaceflight)Short & Sweet— Starship WDR (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/SpaceX)— Lucy mission gets new target (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov)— JunoCam suffers significant anomaly during flyby (nasa.gov)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: NASA/DARPA NTP Collaboration (nasa.gov)— Chris Hofmann: Ascent communicationsThis Week in Spaceflight History— January 31, 1971. Launch of Apollo 14 (en.wikipedia.org) (hq.nasa.gov)— Next week (2/7 - 2/13) in 2015: Penguin Paratrooper

Spaceflight News— ABL failure analysis (HT Mike Stewart: twitter.com/ablspacesystems)Short & Sweet— NASA scales back ISS scientist program (spacenews.com)— JUICE is ready for Jupiter (spacenews.com)— Lucy’s Loose Limb (spacenews.com) (HT Brown Pau: blogs.nasa.gov)— ClearSpace raises funds for its first mission (spacenews)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Vulcan delivered to the Cape (twitter.com/SpaceFlorida)This Week in Spaceflight History— Jan 24, 1985: Launch of STS-51-C (en.wikipedia.org) (satelliteobservation.net)— Next week (1/31 - 2/6) in 1971: I re-read the specs, let’s give it another shot.

Spaceflight News— Soyuz MS-22 rescue (spacenews.com) (russianspaceweb.com)— Virgin Orbit failure (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (virginorbit.com) — Virgin Galactic recently restructured their leadership (spacenews.com) — Virgin Orbit is suffering financial woes (arstechnica.com)— ABL RS1 failure (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT Sam: twitter.com/ablspacesystems) (HT Sam: twitter.com/shaggrugg) (twitter.com/Harry__Stranger)Short & Sweet— Soyuz-OneWeb hostage negotiations underway (russianspaceweb.com)— JWST Killing It (spacenews.com) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/jeff_foust)— Starship approaches a launch date? (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— January 22, 1968: Launch of Apollo 5 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (PDF HT Mike Stewart: ibiblio.org) — Destin of Smarter Every Day interviewed a U.S. Space and Rocket Center Docent and Apollo engineer (youtube.com) (youtube.com) — LEM study guides are a great resource for finding answers to systems questions. (ibiblio.org) (ibiblio.org)— Next week (1/24 - 1/30) in 1985. From Lunar Orion to Listening Orion.

Spaceflight News— LunaH-Map struggles to enter lunar orbit (spacewatch.global) (PDF: static1.squarespace.com VIA busek.com) (PDF: digitalcommons.usu.edu)— Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) enters lunar orbit (space.com)— Hakuto-R M1 successfully completes second maneuver (spaceref.com) (ispace-inc.com VIA hobbyspace.com)— Chandrayaan-3 fully integrated (indiatoday.in) (indiatimes.com)Short & Sweet— China to expand Wenchang spaceport (spacenews.com)— Impulse Space has a mission (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Dennis is reading Dragonfly by Bryan Burrough (bryanburrough.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 14 Jan, 2009: Russian thruster firing shakes the ISS (spacenews.com) (space.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (nbcnews.com) (youtube.com)— Next week (1/17 - 1/23) in 1968: Fire in the hole

Spaceflight News— MS-22 coolant leak (arstechnica.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet— Lockheed Martin performs habitat burst test (cnet.com) (lockheedmartin.com) (youtube.com)— Zhuque-2 fails to reach orbit (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Chris Hofmann: Honeybee purchase (discord.com)— Unc’ Willy and Csaba: Pyrophoric vs. hypergolic (discord.com) (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Dec 24, 1968. The Earthrise photograph was taken by Apollo 8 (en.wikipedia.org) (​​smithsonianmag.com) (nasa.gov) (thespaceaboveus.com) — LM4 has an excellent archive of the radio recordings, with visuals! (youtube.com)— A few weeks from now (1/10 - 1/16) in 2009: Tacoma Narrows at Mach 25

Spaceflight News— The finalists return - HLS2 (spacepolicyonline.com) (space.com) (spacepolicyonline.com)Short & Sweet— New Chinese rocket debuts with a sea launch (nasaspaceflight.com)— dearMoon crew revealed (americaspace.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— December 15, 1970: Landing of Venera 7, first spacecraft to return data from another planet (en.wikipedia.org) (spaceflightinsider.com) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (vpk.name) — V7 was built on a 3MV bus (mentallandscape.com)— Next week (12/20 - 12/26) in 1968: Just calm down.

Spaceflight News— Artemis I Update — RS-25 analysis (nasaspaceflight.com) (PDF: nasa.gov VIA twitter.com/sciencepolicia) — Reached DRO halfway point on Nov 28 (spacenews.com) — Departed DRO on Dec 2 (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Phantom Space Corp wins NASA launch task order (nasa.gov)— Bluewalker-3 reaches full brightness on orbit (payloadspace.com) (iau.org)— iROSA installation + power issue (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: ABL released a scrub summary (HT Sam: twitter.com/ablspacesystems)This Week in Spaceflight History— Dec 7, 2010. AKATSUKI fails to enter Venusian orbit (PDF: arxiv.org) (PDF: lpi.usra.edu) (planetary.org) (jaxa.jp)— Next week (12/13 - 12/19) in 1970: That’s a long way to go to hard boil an egg

Spaceflight News— Artemis I progress (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov)— NASA history report on Administrator James Webb released (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— China to test space-based solar power (spacenews.com)— Canada to develop lunar rover for power generation (spacenews.com)— ISRO tests Gaganyaan parachute system (isro.gov.in)This Week in Spaceflight History— Dec 5, 2014: The launch of EFT-1 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) (collectspace.com) — The clue was taken from an interview with Sesame Street’s Elmo (youtube.com) — Orion suffered more MMOD damage than models had predicted, resulting in changes to the vehicle for Artemis I (nasaspaceflight.com) (americaspace.com)— Next week (12/6 - 12/12) in 2010. Feeling salty.

Spaceflight News— Artemis I Launch (nasaspaceflight.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (planetary.org) (HT MCC: twitter.com/derekdotspace) — SLS suffered slight hurricane damage prior to launch (spacenews.com) — SLS still had LH2 leaks (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT deltaV: twitter.com/ZachSellinger) — A bad ethernet switch took down range assets (HT deltaV: twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) — Post-launch photo opportunities were limited (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (twitter.com/wapodavenport)— Artemis I Ride-alongs and little ‘uns (twitter.com/jeff_foust) (parabolicarc.com)— CAPSTONE arrives at the Moon (spacenews.com)— Orion completes TLI (spacenews.com) (youtu.be)Short & Sweet— Hermeus completes key test towards hypersonic aircraft (HT Czarified, Csaba: defenseone.com) (HT Czarified: youtube.com)— Busy week of spacewalkin’ (space.com) (space.com) (space.com) (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Japan formalizes its commitment (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Cygnus array jam photo (twitter.com/Space_Pete)— Csaba: Real-time Artemis I tracker (nasa.gov) (eyes.nasa.gov)— DeltaV: Rocket 4 Payload User’s guide (twitter.com/Astra)Interview -- Margaret Weitekamp, Curator and Chair of the Space History department at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum— airandspace.si.edu — twitter.com/mgtwspace— facebook.com/margaret.weitekamp.12— Buy the book: (amazon.com) (barnesandnoble.com) (smithsonianbooks.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 27 Nov, 2012. The end of Falcon 9 Air’s development (flightglobal.com VIA 12ft.io) (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) — Orbital designed Pegasus II “Thunderbolt” as a replacement (space.com)— Next week (11/29 - 12/5) in 2014: [Audio clue]

Spaceflight News— Cygnus Winged (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com)  (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— X-37B returns to Earth after record-breaking 900+ days in orbit (spaceforce.mil)— China changes plans for Long March 9 (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com)— Artemis I gettin’ stormy (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: LOFTID was successful (nasa.gov)This Week in Spaceflight History— Nov 17, 1967. Surveyor 6 does a brief flight from the lunar surface (nasa.gov) (PDF: sci-hub.se) (drewexmachina.com)— Next week (11/22 - 11/29) in 2012: Jumping off a not-yet-dead Roc

Spaceflight News— Rocket Lab’s Catch Me If You Can Wasn’t (parabolicarc.com) (businesswire.com) (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— Chinese Spaceplane Releases Object On-orbit (spacenews.com)— Spaceplane Aurora Tested at Peenemünde (spacewatch.global)— Fire Alarm Scrubs NG-18 Launch (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Practical Engineering’s look at Endeavor’s trip through LA (youtube.com)— Vertical payload integration (youtube.com)— Reflective Layer (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— November 11, 2013: Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer’s reentry (en.wikipedia.org) (articles.adsabs.harvard.edu) (spaceflight101.com) — GOCE had sophisticated accelerometers (HT Colin: link.springer.com)— Next week (11/15-11/21) in 1967: Actually, I thought it’d be right about this high at MECO.

Spaceflight News— VirtualAGC posts their final moonshot LM software package (github.com/virtualagc) (ibiblio.org) (github.com/thewonderidiot) (youtube.com) — Play with a virtual rope module (apolloguidance.computer) — If you own a rope module, or know someone who does, please get in touch! The vAGC group is happy to keep donors anonymous. Contact Ron Burkey: info@sandroid.org— Project Kuiper looking for a ride (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— NASA launch slips (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Polaris Dawn slips again (spacenews.com)— Centaur causes a slip (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— LeonRunningMan (discord.com) — Victus Nox contract was awarded two days before the launch.  — More info on eSR19 (defenseindustrydaily.com)— Andrew Z via email: EMU 2.0, or an EVA pod?This Week in Spaceflight History— 2 Nov, 2000. Docking of Expedition 1, beginning our continuous human presence in space. (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) (Space.com VIA web.archive.org)— Next week (11/8 - 11/14) in 2013: Like Icarus, but in reverse

Spaceflight News— ISS EVAs resumed (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov) — Back in March, Matthias Maurer had a leak in his suit (spacenews.com) (phys.org) (blogs.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Geotail in Jeopardy (space.com)— ESA turns to SpaceX (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com)— Tiangong nears completion (spacenews.com)— Polaris Dawn mission scheduled for March 2023 (space.com)— NASA orders three more Orion spacecraft (lockheedmartin.com)Interview – Joel C. Sercel PhD, CEO of TransAstra— TransAstra recently formed a partnership with Celestron (spacenews.com)— transastra.com— linkedin.com/in/joelsercel/— twitter.com/JoelSercel This Week in Spaceflight History— Oct 28, 2014: the failure of Cygnus Orb-3 (en.wikipedia.org) (everydayastronaut.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) (youtube.com) — Kunetsov saved 80 NK-33s (HT Csaba: youtu.be)— Next week (11/1 - 11/7) in 2000: Making a new home, then pulling Dennis away from it.

Spaceflight News— Epsilon failure (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (youtu.be) (PDF: jaxa.jp)— Skyrora failure (skyrora.com) (youtube.com)— The Firefly Paradox (spacenews.com) (firefly.com) (twitter.com/seradata)— Rockets showing up at places (bbc.com) (techcrunch.com)Short & Sweet— Lucy flyby (NSF via web.archive.org) (lucy.swri.edu) (twitter.com/LucyMission)— TESS mission goes into safe mode (cnet.com)— China launched ASO-S solar observatory (nasaspaceflight.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 2008, Launch of Chandrayaan-1 (en.wikipedia.org) (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) (eoportal.org) (pds.nasa.gov) — NASA contributed the Miniature Synthetic Aperture Radar experiment (nasa.gov)— Next week (10/25 - 10/31) in 2014: Swan song.

Spaceflight News— Test Fest III — Ariane 6 test fires upper stage engines (esa.int) — Aerojet-Rocketdyne tests new solid motor (rocket.com) (PAYWALL: aviationweek.com) — BE-4 full-duration firing (Video: twitter.com/torybruno) — Stoke Space ring firing (ifiberone.com) (twitter.com/stoke_space) (MP4: uploads-ssl.webflow.com VIA stokespace.com/vision) (twitter.com/jenakuns) (arstechnica.com)Short & Sweet— Ireland’s first satellite readies for launch (bbc.com) (eirsat1.ie)— Crew-5 launches to Station (americaspace.com)— Engineers regain control of CAPSTONE (spacenews.com)Interview – UVic ORCASat team: Alex Doknjas, Project Manager and Biarki Weeks, Undergrad Technical Lead— The team published a wonderful assembly timelapse (youtube.com)— Orcasat.ca— uvsd.ca— youtube.com— twitter.com/AlexDoknjas— linkedin.com/in/alexander-doknjas-5b30b310b— twitter.com/biarkiweeks— linkedin.com/in/biarki-weeks-463a9579This Week in Spaceflight History— 11 October 1968: The launch of Apollo 7 (en.wikipedia.org) (collectspace.com)— Next week (10/18 - 10/24) in 2008: Let’s start with a weather satellite

Spaceflight News— DART (spacenews.com) (planetary.org) (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/nasa) (twitter.com/LICIACube) (twitter.com/SenBillNelson) (researchgate.net) — Transformational Solar Array experiment (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Testing begins for first ViaSat-3 (spacenews.com)— Hubble may get a roboost (spacenews.com)— Firefly reaches orbit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Oct 6, 1990. Launch of Ulysses spacecraft (esa.int) (PDF: adsabs.harvard.edu) (en.wikipedia.org) — The Nutation Damper System was well described in a paper (nasa.gov)— Next week (10/11 - 10/17) in 1968: Phoenix Rising

Spaceflight News— Rocket Lab updates (satellitetoday.com) — There was a presentation for investors September 21 (youtube.com) (PDF: rocketlabusa.com) — The Archimedes Test Complex will be built at Stennis (businesswire.com)— JWST instrument suffers anomaly (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— USSF to leave GEO (aviationweek.com) (spacenews.com)— Superheavy fires seven engines (cnet.com)— Spinlaunch raises $71M (spacenews.com)— ESA seeks money to stay in space race (thespacereview.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Descent module from Soyuz T-10a reused in T-15 (youtube.com VIA twitter.com/gopalsapparapu) — See also Ep 300: DOWNLINK--Nikolas Trawny, Ph.D. (theorbitalmechanics.com)— How did N2 get into the turbopump?This Week in Spaceflight History— September 29, 2011: Launch of Tiangong-1 (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: english.cssar.cas.cn) (spaceflightnow.com) (spaceflight101.com) — X37-B was possibly tasked to observe the station on orbit (bbc.com) — Docking hardware was purchased from Russia (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week (10/4 - 10/10) in 1990. It’s already a long enough trip without adding four years.

Spaceflight News— CAPSTONE safe mode update (advancedspace.com) (advancedspace.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet— SLD lander RFP (spacenews.com)— NASA requests private missions (spacenews.com)— ArianeGroup reveals reusable crewed vehicle for Ariane 6 (twitter.com/EuropeSpace360) (HT ArcadeEngineer: twitter.com/Melissandre_L)— Morpheus Space raises funds (spacenews.com)Interview – Araz Feyzi, Kayhan Space Co-Founder and CTO— twitter.com/kayhanspaceThis Week in Spaceflight History— Sept 26, 1983: Pad Abort of Soyuz T-10A (en.wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com) (americaspace.com) (PDF: starsem.com)— Next week (9/27 - 10/3) in 2011: Wait two months for a robot, seven months for a human

Spaceflight News— Artemis I update (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Axiom selected for Artemis 3 space suits (space.com) (spacenews.com)— Astrobotic wins bid for Masten assets (HT deltaV: clickorlando.com) (HT deltaV: parabolicarc.com)— CAPSTONE enters safe mode (HT deltaV: twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections Burns— From the intro: Curiosity Curiosities — Curiosity picks up rock in wheel (mars.nasa.gov VIA twitter.com/kevinmgill VIA cnet.com)  — Flower shaped rock (mars.nasa.gov)— Geoff via email: Is JWST able to see the DART impact on September 26?This Week in Spaceflight History— 13 September 2007: Announcement of the Google Lunar X Prize (en.wikipedia.org) (smithsonianmag.com) (xprize.org) (ispace-inc.com) (astrobotic.com)— Next week (9/20 - 9/26) in 1983: Second birthday

Spaceflight News— Artemis I — First attempt (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) — Second attempt (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) — Future attempts (blogs.nasa.gov) (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) — Just for fun: AR Orion model (americaspace.com)Short & Sweet— ThrustMe and Astra make propulsion sales (spacenews.com) (smallsatnews.com) (spacenews.com)— China proposes orbital nuclear reactor (space.com) (spacenews.com)— South Korea seeks funding for ambitious lunar project (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Correction Burns— Project TOMTOM: The Orbital Mechanics Think Of Missions — Check Discord#snoopy to join in on the fun! (discord.com)Interview -- Jason Armstrong, Director of Launch and Integration Services for TriSept; Chris Craddock, RocketStar CEO; Addie Dove, UCF Physics Professor and Walkabout the Galaxy co-host — Trisept.com— twitter.com/rocketstarspace— facebook.com/RocketStarSpace/— instagram.com/RocketStarSpace/— linkedin.com/company/rocketstar-llc— RocketStar’s Youtube channel (youtube.com)— Walkabout the Galaxy (sciences.ucf.edu)— The Stephen W. Hawking Center for Microgravity Research and Education (ucf.edu)This Week in Spaceflight History— 9 Sept, 1982. First and only successful launch of Conestoga (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (youtube.com)— Next week (9/13 - 9/19) in 2007: Sponsored in part by ad revenue.

Spaceflight News— Starship prep, Falcon repairs (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spaceexplored.com)Short & Sweet— Intelsat loses control of satellite (satellitetoday.com)— Starship HLS demo will keep it simple (spacenews.com)— Starliner CFT delay (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Sept 3, 2002: Discovery of Earth-orbiting asteroid J002E3 (en.wikipedia.org) (adsabs.harvard.edu) (spaceref.com)  (PDF: ibiblio.org)— Next week (9/6 - 9/12) in 1982: Second of three outcomes: shot before leaving Independence, successfully forded the river, died of dysentery.

Spaceflight News— Artemis III landing site candidates released (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) — Artemis I rolled out August 16 (nasaspaceflight.com)— Russian spacewalk cut short (nasaspaceflight.com) (cnet.com)Short & Sweet— Northrop Grumman to start astronaut training program (northropgrumman.com)— Starship gets commercial satellite customer (spacenews.com)— Spaceplane buddies (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Correction Burns— Masten bankruptcy bids… whole or piecemeal? (spacenews.com)— Espen Urkedal via email: SLS FTS batteries?Interview - Chris Carella, Benchmark Space Systems and Mahadevan Krishnan, AASC— benchmarkspacesystems.com— aasc.spaceThis Week in Spaceflight History— 29th August 2001, Maiden launch of H-IIA (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: mhi.com)  — Two payloads were onboard: VEP-2 and LRE (space.skyrocket.de) (astronautix.com)— Next week (8/30 - 9/5) in 2002. That’s no moon. That’s some of Huntington Beach’s finest work.

Spaceflight News— Artemis I lookahead (planetary.org) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Starlink hits bad weather (spacenews.com)— Antares gets a domestic upgrade (spacenews.com) (space.com)— SSLV falls short (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: a bid for Masten Space’s assets (parabolicarc.com)This Week in Spaceflight History—  21 Aug, 1993. Communication with Mars Observer lost (en.wikipedia.org) (web.archive.org) (msss.com) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (PDF: spacese.spacegrant.org)— Next week (8/23 - 8/29) in 2001: When east meets west, it’s a good thing.

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 Mike Stewart: ia800308.us.archive.org VIA archive.org) — Ep 220 featured the LEM contract (thanks The Greek!) (theorbitalmechanics.com)— Next week (8/2 - 8/8) in 1993: Space is dangerous, and another word for space is gap.

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 unusual HEO orbit used is viewable on SatelliteXplorer (HT SciKyle: geoxc-apps.bd.esri.com)— Next week (7/26 - 8/1) in 1961: Twelve Prime

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: Making it harder for ourselves.

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) (spaceflightnow.com) — Engine contracts announced in 1996 (ARCHIVE: ilslaunch.com) — A list of Atlas family specs (braeunig.us) — A lovely history of Atlas by Scott Manley (youtube.com)— Next week (5/31 - 6/6) in 1996: Domestically repurposed

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 a Molniya 8K78 (astronautix.com) — Next week (5/24 - 5/30) in 2000: Freshly imported

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 by the STS-49 crew (nasa.gov) (youtube.com) — The plan for capture and kickstage attachment (orbiter-forum.net) (capcomspace.net)— Next week (5/17 - 5/23) in 1961: If a spacecraft falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it…

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 a dream, to be chased by others.

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 grabbing LEASAT-3 (same video, different timecode) (youtu.be) — Spinning LEASAT-3 before departure (same video) (youtu.be)— Next week (4/19 - 4/25) in 2013: it’s not just a steak sauce.

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.

Spaceflight News— Artemis I Rollout (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX sets two new records (spacenews.com)— First all-cosmonaut Soyuz docks with station (spaceflight.com)— China satellite launch includes demonstration third-stage (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: JWST progress (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 25 Mar, 1961: Launch of Korabl-Sputnik 5 (en.wikipedia.org) (theatlantic.com) (nasa.gov) (airandspace.si.edu)— Next week (3/29 - 4/4) in 1968: Less than perfect, but successful, but a failure.

Spaceflight News— Astra LV0008/ELaNA 41 failure analysis (spacenews.com) (astra.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— OSAM-1 completes critical design review (nasa.gov)— China to commercialize Tiangong spacenews.com— Soyuz embargo leaves many satellites grounded (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Gravitational submarines — Matthew Bell (iopscience.iop.org) — Andrew not-Z via email suggests Re-entry Vehicle Dynamics (google.com) — Aaron Sawdey (twitter.com/sawdey) (en.wikipedia.org)Interview – Zachary Tong, creator of Breaking Taps on Youtube— youtube.com/c/BreakingTaps— twitter.com/BreakingTapsThis Week in Spaceflight History— 18 Mar, 2003. The authorization of Project Prometheus (everyspec.com, alt: web.archive.org)— Next week (3/22 - 3/28) in 1961: Ghost beetroot calls home.

Spaceflight news— More Russian fallout — Russia threatens OneWeb launch (spaceflightnow.com) — OneWeb looking to non-Russian rockets (spacenews.com) — eROSITA turned off on Russian Spektr-RG (space.com) — ExoMars likely to be delayed (spacenews.com) — South Korea worried about Russian launches (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Anahuac pleads guilty to selling tainted rocket fuel (justice.gov)— Iranian launch failure (apnews.com) — Post-recording, Iran successfully launched their second orbital payload. (reuters.com)— SpaceX awarded 3 more commercial crew missions (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z via email: More sanctions considerations— MMC in the chat: loss of ISS would free up money for the Moon.This Week in Spaceflight History— 13 March, 1985, Launch of Geosat (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: jhuapl.edu) (earth.esa.in)— Next week (3/15 - 3/21) in 2003. Bringing fire to icy worlds.

Spaceflight news— Sanctions on Russia — Roscosmos pulled out of French Guiana (twitter.com/planet4589) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/nextspaceflight) — NASA no longer involved in Venera-D? (spacenews.com) — ISS is unlikely to be used as a pawn (reuters.com) (spacenews.com) — ULA has enough RD-180s (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/torybruno) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/planet4589) (twitter.com/torybruno) (spacenews.com) — Starliner uses Russian power converters (HT Ben Hallert: spacedaily.com) — Post-Crimea sanctions were likely more impactful on the space industry (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Relativity qualifies rocket with structural test (satnews.com)— Dream Chaser looking at landing in Japan (spacenews.com)— China says moon impactor not Chang’e-5 (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 2 Mar, 2004. Launch of Rosetta (books.google.com) (sci-hub.se) (harvard.edu) (esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (3/8 - 3/14) in 2013: Watery potato

Spaceflight News— JWST Alignment (PDF: spacefoundation.org) (HT deathkin: jwst-docs.stsci.edu) — Follow JWST’s alignment progress on Where Is Webb? (jwst.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Chandra X-ray Observatory suspends operations (space.com)— China reveals human spaceflight plans and communication with U.S. govt (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 22 Feb, 1996. The launch of Columbia, STS-75 (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (space.skyrocket.de) (youtu.be) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov)— Next week (3/1 - 3/7) in 2004: 5-7 = 46+21

Spaceflight news— Astra failure (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Mysterious Moon Masher (twitter.com/sciguyspace) (projectpluto.com) (projectpluto.com)— James Webb is making adjustments (spacenews.com)— Starship testing may move to Florida (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com)— BreakingTaps made an excellent video and 3D model of JWST’s hexapod actuator! (youtube.com)This Week in Spaceflight History—  17 Feb, 2007. Launch of THEMIS (en.wikipedia.org) (ucla.edu) — Constraints on the moon-bound trajectory were many (PDF: igpp.ucla.edu)— Next week (2/22-2/28) in 1996: This is why we keep the mezuzah rolled up

Spaceflight News— JWST cryocooler — Alternative tube configurations include U-bend and coaxial (PDF p7: trc.nist.gov) — Testing shows the cryocooler is TWICE as efficient as required! (nasa.gov) — JWST’s radiators are coated with BIRB (PDF: indico.cern.ch)Short & Sweet— Curiosity’s wheels take a lickin’ but keep on tickin’ (cnet.com)— InSight weathers a dust storm (spacenews.com) (reddit.com/r/InSightLander)— Astra receives first Part 450 (twitter.com/Astra) (spacepolicyonline.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Uncle_Willy via Discord: four reasons why running Oxy-rich is bad— BreakingTaps on YT made a JWST Hexapod Actuator model!!! More on this next week. (youtube.com)Interview – Tupper Hyde, Chief Engineer at NASA's Goddard Center— twitter.com/TupperHyde— linkedin.com/in/tupperhyde— nasa.gov/goddard— etd.gsfc.nasa.gov— Also discussed: the next generation of space telescopes is LUVOIR (en.wikipedia.org)This week in Spaceflight history—  February 10th 2009, The collision of Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (PDF: castor2.ca) (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikibooks.org)— Next week (2/15-2/21) in 2007: BC? More like BSee-you later!

Spaceflight news— Shijian-21 does some space tuggin’ (spacenews.com) — Last November, a new object, 2021-094C, appeared near SJ-21 (spacenews.com) — USA 271 “buzzed” SJ-20 in August 2020 (breakingdefense.com) — SJ-21 might be trying net or debris lasing tech (PDF: airuniversity.af.edu — 1972 Incidents at Sea Agreement (US + USSR) (state.gov)Short & Sweet— NASA identifies cause of stuck solar panel on Lucy (spacenews.com)— JMS is officially shut down (spacenews.com)— Anomaly pauses Astroscale’s demo mission (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 7 Feb, 2008. Launch of STS-122 with Columbus module (en.wikipedia.org) — ECO sensor system factsheet (PDF: nasa.gov) — Launch damage included a lost LOMS stinger tile (PDF p18: nasa.gov, VIA spaceref.com) — STS-93 is a good example of when the ECO fuel sensors might be a critical safety measure (TWSF: theorbitalmechanics.com)— Next week (2/8 - 2/14) in 2009: 102.2 degrees and 77 protons.

Spaceflight News— Artemis rescheduling (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Gamma ray observatory suffers anomaly in LEO (space.com)— SpaceX wins a new contract (spacenews.com)— Exomars to launch this year (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: ABL second stage anomaly (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)— From Upcoming Spaceflight Events: JWST Virtual Town Hall (stsci.edu)Interview: Alex Lao, Kepler Communications— linkedin.com— Kepler.space— twitter.com/KeplerComms— CEO Mina Mitry wrote an article about the role of cubesats in space-based communication (spectrum.ieee.org)This Week in Spaceflight History— 25 Jan, 1995. Launch of the SCIFER Sounding Rocket Experiment (PDF: sci-hub.se) (PDF: nasa.gov) (eucom.mil VIA web.archive.org)— Next week (2/1 - 2/7) in 2008: Failing Wet

Spaceflight news— JWST deployment — A detailed timeline is available from Jonathan McDowell (planet4589.org) — Hexapod actuators (PDF: esmats.eu) — A photo of an early actuator development unit (PDF, p2: sci-hubtw.hkvisa.net)Short & Sweet— Chang’e 5 identifies water on the moon (space.com) (science.org)— Perseverance rover prepares to clear blocked sampling tube (nasa.gov)— SLS hoping for March launch (spacenews.com)— Orbit Fab signs deal to provide on-orbit fueling for Astroscale (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Follow up on that moon rock (twitter.com/AJ_FI)This week in Spaceflight history— January 20 1978, Maiden flight of the Progress spacecraft (wiki.org) (russianspaceweb.com) (spaceref.com)— Next week (1/25 - 1/31) in 1995. Get me my briefcase.

Spaceflight news— JWST finishes deployment steps! — Primary and Secondary mirror deployment (esmats.eu) — Aft Deployed Instrument Radiator (PDF HT MMC: ttu-ir.tdl.org) — Cross stitch (reddit.com/r/CrossStitch) — Current estimate is 20 years worth of propellant (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/cbs_spacenews)Short & Sweet— Paragon acquires spacesuit manufacturer (spaceref.com)— KSLV-2 failure is determined (spacenews.com)— China’s robotic arm performs test on orbit (space.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: an expensive model (shop.blueorigin.com)— Aaron Sawdey: Thermal power vs nuclear power (twitter.com/sawdey)— Bill Boabab via email: JWST Aft Momentum Flap — See also: no deployment cameras (nasa.gov) — The observation strategy actually limits saturation by making observations in opposite attitudes (jwst-docs.stsci.edu) — A not-incredibly related but often-cited paper is available (web.archive.org) — A JWST science advisor gave an if-I-remember-correctly on this very question (HT deltaV: twitter.com/markmccaughrean)This week in Spaceflight history— 16 Jan, 1965: Gemini Simulated Off-The-Pad Ejection test 12 failure (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (astronautix.com)— Next week (1/18 - 1/24) in 1978: Remove the seats, life support systems, heat shield, parachute, but let’s keep the crew rating.

Spaceflight news— JWST launched (blogs.nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) — Realtra’s VIKI cameras looked fantastic! (realtra.space) (theorbitalmechanics.com) — Deployment explorer (webb.nasa.gov) — Port mid-boom deployment was delayed due to cover switches (twitter.com/NASAWebb) — Non-explosive pins were discussed in the pre-launch coverage (youtube.com)  — Sunshade tensioning will be discussed in ep 341, as it was successfully completed the day this episode was published (twitter.com/NASAWebb)Short & Sweet- Tianhe avoids a pair of Starlinks spacenews.com)— Sherpa goes green (spacenews.com)— SLS is delayed by a computer problem (spacenews.com)This week in Spaceflight History— 5 Jan, 1973: Cancellation of the NERVA program (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)— Next week (1/11 - 1/17) in 1965: No towah, moah problems

Spaceflight news— Superheavy (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Raptor 2 will produce 230+ tons of thrust (twitter.com/elonmusk) — McGregor will only perform Raptor 2 testing (twitter.com/elonmusk) — B4/SN20 will be used for the orbital flight test (twitter.com/elonmusk) — A guess about Starship stretching (reddit.com/r/spacex) — Possible tank volumes (HT Birkeland: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— JWST delayed (blogs.nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)— Stoke Space receives funding (spacenews.com) (sbir.nasa.gov)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: PSP’s inside the Sun video (planetary.org) (youtube.com) (nasa.gov)— Jon P via email: Apollo CM was a sphere section, not biconic. (en.wikipedia.org)This week in SF history— 24 Dec, 1979. First launch of Ariane 1, first of the Ariane family. (sci-hub.se) (sci-hub.se) (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (1/4 - 1/10) in 1973: Smash the scram button

Short & Sweet— Astra to launch next from Cape Canaveral (spacenews.com)— SpaceX gets FCC approval for Starship launch, starts construction on launchpad (dailymail.co.uk) (spaceflightnow.com)— NASA investigates Ingenuity helicopter’s transmission problem (cnet.com)— SpaceX Crew-5 to fly with cosmonaut (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Rogozin)This week in SF history— 15 Dec, 1976. Launch of Kosmos 881 and Kosmos 882 (en.wikipedia.org) (1lib.us) (google.com/books)— Next week (12/21 - 12/27) in 1979. Some vikings and their kitty cat.

Spaceflight news— Raptor issues (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (spaceexplored.com)— Neutron, a 2050 rocket (youtube.com) (spacenews.com) — Electron thermal protection system is aerogel/graphite composite! (HT Andrew Z: twitter.com/Peter_J_Beck)Short & Sweet— ESA tests tanks for its reusable launch vehicle (esa.int)— Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin select future astronauts (spacenews.com)— Northrop Grumman wins SLS booster contract (spacenews.com)— Fatigue, debris, and rumors of debris (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Pangea tests an aerospike! (HT Andrew Z: youtube.com)This week in SF history— 10 Dec, 1974. Launch of Helios A, a West German/NASA collaboration (en.wikipedia.org) (bernd-leitenberger.de)— Next week (12/14-12/20) in 1976: Two tickets, I mean, just one ticket to space, please!

Spaceflight news— JWST bonk (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov) (esa.int) (youtube.com) — The clamp came off “in a way that it was not designed to come off” (HT deltaV+Deathkin: twitter.com/wapodavenport)Short & Sweet— Japan to recruit astronauts for first time in 13 years (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)— Hubble makes a partial recovery (space.com)— Rocket Lab to manufacture more spacecraft components (smallsatnews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Reusable satellites (smallsatnews.com)This week in SF history— 2 Dec, 1990. Launch of Soyuz TM-11 (sen.com) (spacefacts.de) (nytimes.com) (weathernews.jp)— Next week (12/7-12/13) in 1974: Hitze und Geschwindigkeit.

Spaceflight news— Astraaaaaa! (space.com) (spacenews.com) (en.wikipedia.org) — Astra issued an update after we recorded this episode (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)Short & Sweet— Tyvak wins contract for very low-earth orbit mission (spacenews.com)— European startup tests aerospike engine (spacenews.com)— Satellite maneuvers to avoid near collision around Moon (cnet.com)Questions, comments, corrections— ThrustMe paper (nature.com)— From the intro: ASAT test (spaceflightnow.com) (youtube.com) (HT Andrew Z: airforcemag.com)Interview -- Matthew Kuhns, Head of R&D at Masten Space Systems— Masten in-Flight Alumina Spray Technique (masten.aero)— This study was a 2020 NIAC Phase I selection (nasa.gov) (researchgate.net)— Tests were run on a modified car lift (youtube.com)— The FAST concept is similar to the High Velocity Oxygen Fuel spray coating technique (sciencedirect.com)— Find more about Matthew and Masten: — linkedin.com — matthewkuhns.com — masten.aeroThis week in SF history— 26 Nov, 1965. Launch of Astérix, the first French satellite (pt deux?!) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (11/30 - 12/6) in 1990. The antihero.

Spaceflight news— SpinLaunch spins (spinlaunch.com) (cnbc.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com) (spacenews.com) — Nike Sprint is one of several other “instastart” vehicles (HT Andy Z: youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit to launch from Japan (spaceref.com)— Amazon to launch first Kuiper satellites on ABL rocket (spacenews.com)— South Korea to develop reusable launch vehicle (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert via twitter: 53 not 60 Starlinks (twitter.com/chairboy)— ISS tour (HT Andrew Z: youtube.com)This week in SF history— November 16, 1973. The launch of Skylab 4 (bbc.com) (wiki.org) (youtube.com) (spacefacts.de) (nasa.gov) — Episodes 59 and 60 of The Space Above Us focused on SL-4 (thespaceabove.us) (youtube.com) (youtube.com)— Next week (11/23 - 11/29) in 1965: Unmitigated gall in the face of invading Romans

Spaceflight news— Blue lawsuit (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Dragons Passing in the Night (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)— Shijian-21 has a companion (spacenews.com)— A Chinese Mars Sample Return Mission (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: Speaking of expandable space stations... (twitter.com/chairboy)This week in SF history— 9 Nov, 1970: Launch of the Orbiting Frog Otolith (wiki) (skyrocket.de) (scribd.com)— Next week (11/16 - 11/22) in 1973: I refuse to work under these conditions, at least my stomach does.

Spaceflight news— Orbital Reef announced (blueorigin.com) (orbitalreef.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com) — Other Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) proposals so far: — Axiom Station (axiomspace.com) — Nanoracks/Lockheed/Voyager’s Starlab (cnet.com) — Sierra Space Station (sierraspace.com)Short & Sweet— James Webb Space Telescope prepares for launch (spacenews.com) (planetary.org) (spacenews.com)— Russia gives Crew Dragon the green light (spacenews.com)— Hubble Space Telescope returns to safe mode (cnet.com)This week in SF history— 8 November, 2011: Failed launch of Fobos-Grunt/Yinghuo-1 (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (11/9 - 11-15) in 1970: Parietal eye in the sky

Spaceflight news— Starliner investigation continuation continues (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com)Short & Sweet— Lucy solar array issue (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov) (space.com)— Space Adventures ends plans for Crew Dragon tourist flight (spacenews.com)— Nanoracks announces plans for commercial space station (cnet.com) (nanoracks.com)— Rocket Lab prepares for first recovery involving a helicopter (businesswire.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Lucy launch vehicle changes (twitter.com/sawdey)Interview --  Will Henry (Writer/Producer) and Dylan Taylor (Executive Producer) of The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill— Space Studies Institute (ssi.org)— highfrontiermerch.com— thehighfrontiermovie.com— willhenryfilm.com— dylantaylor.orgThis week in SF history— First launch of the Saturn 1 (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (astronautix.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com)— Next week (11/2-11/8) in 2011: Tune into the show for an audio clue

Spaceflight news— Rocket 3.3 follow-up (spacenews.com) (astra.com)— Lucy’s in the sky (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (planetary.org) (americaspace.com) (planetary.org) (blog.ulalaunch.com)Short & Sweet— Brazil Space Agency successfully tests new rocket motor (avibras.com.br)— Virgin Galactic gets postponed (spacenews.com)— China launches nation’s first solar observatory (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Roton Revision — Andy Z via email: Check out the WWI Le Rhone engine (youtu.be) — Ben Hallert via Twitter: Autorotation is complicated and interesting enough to be more specific about. (twitter.com/chairboy) (twitter.com/chairboy) (youtube.com)— From the intro: ISS takes another tumble (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/liamkennedy)This week in SF history— 19 Oct, 2014. Comet Siding Spring has closest approach to Mars (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (arxiv.org) (skyandtelescope.org)— Next week (10/26 - 11/1) in 1961: Cluster thruster

Spaceflight news— Artemis funding (spacenews.com)— Starliner stuff — Valves (spacenews.com) — Reassigned crew (spacenews.com) (spacepolicyonline.com)Short & Sweet— Taiwan launch company to attempt orbital launch again (spacenews.com)— Planetary Protection might be revised (spacenews.com)— UAE announces plans for next interplanetary mission (cnet.com)Interview -- Kevin Rice, Director of Project Business Management JPL ret., Lockheed Martin ret.— Kevin can be found on LinkedIn (linkedin.com)— thebusiness.space— thebusiness.space/consultingThis week in SF history— 12 Oct, 1999: Final flight of Rotary Rocket’ Roton ATV (en.wikipedia.org) (web.archive.org) (youtube.com) (HT Mike Stewart: web.archive.org) (hobbyspace.com) (sfgate.com)— Next week (10/19 - 10/25) in 2014: Duck and cover.

Spaceflight news— Blue Origin’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week — Blue experienced morale issues related to remote work (cnbc.com) — An essay was published with sexism and safety allegations (lioness.co) (cnbc.com) — Eric Berger reports his sources say allegations of sexism go too far (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (wsj.com) — FAA say they take the Lioness essay seriously (spacenews.com) — Legal documents regarding Blue’s HLS bid were FOIA’d (theverge.com)Brief & Bitter— Shiyan 10 test satellite fails after launch (spaceflightnow.com)— SLS likely to slip to 2022 (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Kevin L via email: NASATV’s empty schedule is probably due to the potential government shutdown.— Ben Hallert via twitter: Blue engines are built in Kent Washington, and a factory is being staffed in Huntsville.This week in SF history— 10 Oct, 1967: Outer Space Treaty is put into force (en.wikipedia.org) (unoosa.org) (wiki.org)— Next week (10/12 - 10/18) in 1999: Strange shares half this with Down. All three accurately describe this event.

Short & Sweet— Space Operations Mission Directorate and Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate split (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com)— Starliner likely to slip to 2020 (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: New Glenn hardware! (HT Andy Z: floridatoday.com)Interview -- Othniel C. Mbamalu, Founder and CEO of Advanced Rockets Corporation— Airbreathing.space— twitter.com/RocketsAdvanced— othnielcreator.com— twitter.com/othnielcreatorThis week in SF history— 30 Sept, 2001. First orbital launch from Pacific Spaceport Complex - Alaska (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (astronautix.com) — DeltaV: recommendation for VASTS, particularly Langley Experience (vsgc.odu.edu) — Launched on an Athena I rocket (wikipedia.org) — Starshine 3 was a hobby radio repeater/disco ball (en.wikipedia.org) — DoD Space Test Program sats included PICOSat and Sapphire (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) — PCSAT was an APRS repeater operated by midshipmen (aprs.fi)— Next week (10/5 - 10/11) in 1967: This event in spaceflight history requires a total of 88 articles if you want the whole story.

Spaceflight news— First Perseverance sample collection (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) — “Where Is The Rover” map, featuring Ingenuity (mars.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Shenzhou 12 crew returns to Earth (spaceflightnow.com)— Vande Hei to remain on ISS (spacenews.com)— NASA awards five companies for Lunar Lander studies (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Inspiration4 (spacenews.com)— Are you free Sep 21-23? Sit in on a NIAC session! (nasa.gov)This week in SF history— 24 Sept, 2011: UARS burns up on re-entry (en.wikipedia.org) (directory.eoportal.org)— Next week (9/28 - 10/4) in 2001: A first from the last frontier.

Spaceflight news— NASA and the Giant Budget Reconciliation (spacenews.com)— Starlink antennas again (spacenews.com) — Thanks to Ben Hallert for the TCM! (twitter.com/chairboy)— Chang’e 5 returned to the Moon (spacenews.com) — Trajectory animation (twitter.com/coastal8049) — Possible TCM Sunday 9/12, or maybe not (https://twitter.com/coastal8049)Short & Sweet— DOD wants to go nuclear (spacenews.com) (diu.mil)— James Webb Space Telescope launch pushed to December (space.com) (planetary.org) (spacenews.com)— Smoke detected in Zvezda module (reuters.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Anonymous source: Different ranges have different fts requirements. Federal ranges have fts handled by the space wing. Commercial range - kodiak - uses white sands missile range on contract as flight safety— Asif Sadiqi’s book “Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration 1958-2016” is free for download! (twitter.com/historyasif)This week in SF history— 18 Sept, 2013. Cygnus Demo mission launches (nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org) — Orbital Sciences (now NG) won their CRS contract in 2008. (spaceflight101.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)— Next week (9/21 - 9/27) in 2011: You ares on fire!

Spaceflight news— Firefly Alpha launch failure (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (firefly.com) — Scott Manley’s first takes included some “old fashioned pixel counting” (twitter.com/DJSnM) (twitter.com/DJSnM) — Third-party photo coverage was fantastic (twitter.com/lavie154) (twitter.com/thejackbeyer) (twitter.com/nextspaceflight) (HT Sam: twitter.com/StarshipFairing) — Keavon posted 4k video, but the tracking is rough (youtube.com) — OptoData has fantastic tracking and exposure (youtube.com) — NSF had great tracking and color saturation, from a different angle (youtube.com) — Firefly’s deleted first cut montage (youtube.com) — Firefly’s later “final cut” montage (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— New cracks discovered in ISS (space.com)— Rocket Lab increases satellite component production (spacenews.com)— Perseverance sample collection update (mars.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (twitter.com/NASAPersevere)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Virgin Galactic grounded (twitter.com/nickschmidle) (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 8 Sept, 2004. Sample return and crash of the Genesis capsule (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (PDF: nasa.gov) (esa.int) (springer.com)— Next week (9/14 - 9/20) in 2013: Virginia is for lovers of space

Spaceflight news— Rocket3.3 Exits Stage Right (astra.com) (space.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com) — Follows an abort on Friday called by the guidance system near T-0 (space.com) — Jonathan McDowell guessed a “fatal problem” in the air (twitter.com/planet4589)Short & Sweet— 7GB of paperwork for HLS (twitter.com/joroulette) (spacenews.com) (businessinsider.com) (spacenews.com)— Starlinks get lasers (spacenews.com)— First test of Astroscale satellite capture technology (​​spacenews.com) (astroscale.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: A Shortfall of Gravitas struts its stuff (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)This week in SF history— 4 Sep 1968: Von Braun tests a suit in the NBS (facebook.com/SpaceWalkOfFame) (twitter.com/nasahistory) (books.google.com) — Further reading: a collection of Von Braun’s daily notes (collectspace.com)— Next week (9/7 - 9/13) in 2004: The end of the beginning and the beginning of the salvaging.

Spaceflight news— Blue Origin lawsuit, and exodus — Lawsuit filed against NASA on Aug 19 (theverge.com) (spacenews.com) — > 11 key employees left Blue (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) — Lauren Lyons went to Firefly (https://spacenews.com) — 10k bonus handed out at end of July (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)Short & Sweet— Japan tests new engine type (futurism.com) (PDF: nagoya-u.ac.jp)— JAXA announces Phobos sample-return mission (apnews.com)— Starlink satellites responsible for most close encounters in LEO (space.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Watch party! The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill. Friday Aug 27 3pm PT / 6pm ET (thehighfrontiermovie.com) (calendar.google.com)— VAXHeadroom via Discord: Cygnus spacecraft is a Northrop Grumman vehicle.Interview -- John E Ward, Senior Systems Engineer, Réaltra Space Systems Engineering— VIKI (Independent VIdeo KIt) datasheet (PDF: realtra.space) — twitter.com/astro_ward— twitter.com/RealtraSpace— realtra.space— linkedin.com/in/johnenniswardThis week in SF history— August 27, 1962: Launch of Mariner 2 to Venus (en.wikipedia.org) (space.com) (space.skyrocket.de)— Next week (8/31 - 9/6) in 1968: It’s like being in space, but wetter und mit Braunschweiger

Spaceflight news— 2018 Soyuz leak turns into a whodunnit (arstechnica.com) (HT DeltaV: arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/KathyLueders)— Starliner Destacked (twitter.com/BoeingSpace) (twitter.com/EmreKelly) (twitter.com/BoeingSpace) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Shuttle payload readied for restoration (space.com)— xEVA falls behind schedule (spacenews.com)— GSLV fails to reach orbit (https://spacenews.com/indian-gslv-launch-fails/)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z. via email: Super Heavy landing nubs.— Ireland’s Place in Space (podcasts.apple.com)— From the intro: Tethers Unlimited (spacenews.com)— Watch party! The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill. Friday Aug 27 3pm PT / 6pm ET (calendar.google.com)This week in SF history— 18 Aug, 1993: first flight of the DC-X delta clipper (nasa.gov) (youtube.com)— Next week (8/24 - 8/30) in 1962: Hello, I live next door. Sorry I didn’t come and say hello sooner.

Spaceflight news— Astra readies for next orbital launch (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Astra) (spacenews.com)— Super Heavy Starship stacked! (twitter.com/StarshipGazer) (twitter.com/ErcXspace) (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/RGVaerialphotos) (youtube.com)— Perseverance’s first sampling attempt (spacenews.com) (​​nasa.gov) (twitter.com/PaulHammond51)Short & Sweet— China hops (spacenews.com)— OFT-2 slipping from August? (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (HT DeltaV: twitter.com/SciGuySpace) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Blue Origin developing reusable second stage (arstechnica.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Another Eric Berger interview on MECO (HT AZ: podcastaddict.com)Dragonfly interview (HT AZ: forbes.com)— Watch party! The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill. Friday Aug 27 6pm ET (calendar.google.com)Interview -- Danny Gleeson, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Réaltra Space Systems Engineering— realtra.space— twitter.com/realtraspace— linkedin.com/in/dannyjgleesonThis week in SF history— 10 Aug, 1966. Launch of Lunar Orbiter 1, first U.S. spacecraft to orbit the Moon (en.wikipedia.org) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (history.nasa.gov)— Next week (8/17 - 8/23) in 1993. Move that parking cone over there.

Spaceflight news— Nauka Arrives (spaceflightnow.com) (space.com) — Investigation of the issue (twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb) — Amazing footage of the issue (youtube.com) (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/liamkennedy) (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/fs_jeronimo)Short & Sweet— Rocket Lab successfully launches U.S. military payload (spaceflightnow.com)— Inmarsat announces plans to add multi-orbit satellite constellation (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— August 9 1976: The Launch of Luna 24 (lroc.sese.asu.edu) (theverge.com) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week (8/10 - 8/16) in 1966: When I get hot, I get dizzy and lose my bearings.

Spaceflight news— Nauka Launched (spacenews.com) (forum.nasaspaceflight.com) — Three sets of engines on Nauka (twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb) — Initial reports of issues (forum.nasaspaceflight.com) — A summary was written on Wikipedia quite early (en.wikipedia.org) — “Nothing irreparable” (twitter.com/katlinegrey) — An initial RCS burn was made to get to a safe orbit (twitter.com/katlinegrey) — First DKS firing reported by Anatoly Zak on July 23 (twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb) — Kurs was declared operational on the 25th (twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb) (twitter.com/katlinegrey) — We found this amateur imagery of the module delightful (twitter.com/ralfvandebergh)— Next Generation Arecibo Telescope (space.com) (arxiv.org)Short & Sweet— Falcon Heavy gets a new customer (spacenews.com)— China tests fairing recovery (nasaspaceflight.com)— Rocket Lab concluded its launch failure investigation (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 29 July, 1985. Launch and abort of STS 51-F (wiki) (PDF: jsc.nasa.gov) (americaspace.com)— Next week (7/2 - 8/2) in 1975: Luckily, crisis was not avoided

Spaceflight news— Hubble back online (PDF: asd.gsfc.nasa.gov) (PDF: ses.gsfc.nasa.gov) (youtube.com) (nasa.gov) (sciencemag.org)Short & Sweet— Astranis produces new batch of very small GEO satellites (spacenews.com)— Funding secured for Beresheet 2 mission (ap.org)— Raptor engine development ramping up (spaceflightinsider.com)— ESA announces new kick stage for Ariane 6 rocket (esa.int)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z via email: China commercial space infographic (twitter.com/rhZhao)This week in SF history— 22 Jul, 1962. Failed launch of Mariner 1 due to software typo (wiki) (vice.com)— Next week (7/27 - 8/2) in 1985. Spain’s beautiful this time of year, but we ain’t going there today.

Spaceflight news— Northrop Grumman signs HALO contract (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov) — A docking adapter is planned for HLS (PDF: nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— SKA endangered by megaconstellations (spacenews.com)— Chinese Spacewalk (spacenews.com)— JWST One Step Closer (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Blue not-so-subtly sub-tweets VG (twitter.com/blueorigin)Interview -- Bill Britton, Director of the California Cybersecurity Institute at Cal Poly, SLO— cci.calpoly.edu— linkedin.com/in/wbrittonThis week in SF history— 15 Jul, 2009: The launch of Kibo (希望) exposed facility on STS-127 (space.skyrocket.de) (en.wikipedia.org) (Archive of kibo.jaxa.jp: web.archive.org) — Kibo used to feature the Inter-orbit Communication System (directory.eoportal.org) (iss.jaxa.jp)— Next week (7/20 - 7/26) in 1962: Where do pirates go to drink? An arr-bar.

Spaceflight news— Transporter-2 payloads (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (geekwire.com) (PDF: fcc.report)Short & Sweet— IROSAs installed (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Starship Booster prototype nears completion (teslarati.com)— ULA has an engine nozzle issue (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 3 July, 1998. Launch of the Nozomi mission. (springeropen.com) (nasa.gov) (PDF: sci-hub.se) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next time (7/13 - 7/19) in 2009: Hope floats

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab wins Mars mission (space.com) (hou.usra.edu) — Characteristic energy, declination, right ascension of the departure asymptote vector (C3/DLA/RLA) were discussed in our interview with Mark Wallace. (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— Chinese crew reaches Tianhe space station module (spacenews.com)— Faulty memory system halts Hubble operations (spacenews.com)— NEO Surveyor moves forward (spacenews.com)— Launcher announces development of orbital transfer vehicle (spacenews.com/)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Bill Nelson agrees a second HLS contractor would be nice. (spacenews.com)— An interstellar… big thing… is headed towards the solar system. (twitter.com/Astro_Wright) (twitter.com/TM_Eubanks)— ROSA deployment videos were published this week. (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) (twitter.com/BoeingSpace)This week in SF history— 25 Jun, 1992: Launch of STS-50, the first Extended Duration Orbiter (en.wikipedia.org) (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: sci-hub.do)— Next week (6/29 - 7/5) in 1998: Not all hope is lost, it’ll return twice.

Spaceflight news— ESA spacecraft to join Venusian fleet (space.com) (esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org) (arxiv.org) — Jean-Luc Margot et al recently made rough measurements of Venus’ moment of inertia (youtube.com) (arxiv.org) — Planetary Society did a writeup on DAVINCI+ and VERITAS (planetary.org)Short & Sweet— First commercial deep-space antenna begins official operations in UK (twitter.com/esaoperations)— Relativity goes reusable (spacenews.com)— Two HLS contracts are one step closer (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— Launch of Endeavor, STS-57 on June 21 1993 (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) (directory.eoportal.org) — FARE (Fluid Acquisition and Resupply Experiment) looked like a sci-fi special effect (youtu.be)— Next week (7/22 - 7/28) in 1992: It’s good to be home. Glad I packed an extra lunch!

Spaceflight news— Discovery 15 and 16 selected - we’re heading for Venus! (space.com) (spacenews.com)— NASA Presidential Budget Request (planetary.org)— House bill wants to designate space as critical infrastructure (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— South Korean rocket prepares for October test (theregister.com)— Axiom, SpaceX reach agreement to send three more private crews to ISS (cnet.com) (spacenews.com)— JWST launch update (spacenews.com)Interview -- Dr. Alessandro Patruno, Quaternion Books— Support this work by buying a copy of The Human Computer: Katherine Johnson’s Story (kickstarter.com)— More info about the book is on the publisher’s website (quaternionbooks.com)— facebook.com/quaternionbooks— twitter.com/QuaternionbooksThis week in SF history— 10 June, 1969. Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program cancelled (PDF: nro.gov) (PDF: nro.gov) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (6/15 - 6/21) in 1993: It was the longest day. Ten minutes later, it was the shortest.Thanks to Colin-in-the-chat for naming this week’s episode!

Spaceflight news— Megaconstellations in the news — Viasat asking for halt to building out Starlink (spacenews.com) — Chinese Guowang constellation (spacenews.com) — SATCON2 is coming up on July 12-16 (aas.org)— New Frontiers 5 will be delayed (spacenews.com) (wiki)Short & Sweet— Mars helicopter lands safely despite computer glitch (space.com)— Multiple new Lunar Rovers planned for coming years (space.com) (techcrunch.com) (spacenews.com)— Tianzhou-2 docks with Chinese space station (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Etienne via email: book recommendation on corrosion (thriftbooks.com)— Kickstarter for a book on Katherine Johnson (kickstarter.com)— From the intro: — ISS debris strike (cnet.com) — On-orbit conjunction live data stream (astriacss.tacc.utexas.edu)This week in SF history— 4 Jun, 2012. NASA announces NRO’s donation of two Hubble-class space telescopes to the agency (wiki) (spaceflightnow.com) (PDF: science.nasa.gov) — WFIRST DRM1 and 2 (PDF: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov) (roman.gsfc.nasa.gov) — WFIRST-AFTA (PDF: roman.gsfc.nasa.gov) (PDF: iopscience.iop.org) — SALSO produced multiple proposals for the second satellite via an RFI (exoplanets.nasa.gov) (thespacereview.com)— Next week (6/8 - 6-14) in 1969. Shut it down. (But keep some of the camera parts.)

Spaceflight news— Zhurong rover dismounts from lander (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Rocket Lab failure analysis (spacenews.com) (rocketlabusa.com)— Crew-3 Finalized (americaspace.com)— SpaceShipTwo returns to the skies! (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Not catching is different than not recovering! (twitter.com/chairboy)— From the intro: Blue Ghost to fly on Falcon 9 (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 30 May, 1975: Founding of ESA (PDF: esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (6/1 - 6/7) in 2012: Binoculars to ploughshares

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab Recovery (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (rocketlabusa.com) — Scott Manley demonstrated the TVC angle on 2nd stage ignition (twitter.com/DJSnM)— SpaceX files for Starship orbital launch radio license (spacenews.com) — SPX may have competition for HLS (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— China successfully lands rover on Mars (spacenews.com)— Ariane 5 fairing issue may delay JWST(spacenews.com)— Russia announces two actors, Japanese billionaire, to fly to space station (reuters.com) (spaceflightnow.com)This week in SF history— 19 May, 1996 - Launch of STS-77 (nasa.gov) (doi.org) (HT Colin: youtube.com) (HT Colin: eoportal.org) — The Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) had residual air that caused premature inflation (space.stackexchange.com)— Next week (5/25 - 5/31) in 1975: Last week we deflated something, this week we inflated something, next week let’s unite something.

Spaceflight news— Awards, awards, awards — Eta Space - In-orbit cryogenic refueling (spaceref.com) — JPL - Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (cnet.com) (jpl.nasa.gov) — Loft Orbital - Edge computing on spacecraft (spacenews.com) — Northrop - Navigation payloads on Blackjack sats (spacenews.com) — Raytheon - Update NASA’s EO IT system (govconwire.com) (earthdata.nasa.gov) — Hughes and OneWeb - LEO-based Arctic internet (spacenews.com) — Isar Aerospace - Won ESA’s Boost! Award (spacenews.com)— SN15 lands successfully (spacenews.com) (teslarati.com) (youtu.be) (nasaspaceflight.com) — There were some unknown vehicle updates (twitter.com/elonmusk) — It was a safe landing, but the crush core in the legs did activate. (twitter.com/starshipgazer) — SN15 MAY get reflown! (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Starliner nears its second test flight (spacenews.com)— European Space Agency to launch orbital debris-tracking telescope (space.com)— Firefly has a successful funding round (spacenews.com)— Geyer steps down as Johnson Director (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Colin in the chat: Ingenuity audio (mars.nasa.gov)This week in SF history— 11 May, 1963. Collapse of Atlas Agena D due to a depressurized tank while still on the launchpad (thespacereview.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (HT Colin: youtube.com) (youtube.com)— Next week (5/18 - 5/24) in 1996: This week we deflated something. Next week, let’s inflate something instead.

Spaceflight news— Long March 5B set for uncontrolled re-entry (spacenews.com) — The module raised and is maintaining orbit (HT Colin: heavens-above.com) — The booster is slowly deorbiting (HT Mike: heavens-above.com) — Amateur video shows the booster in a 2.4 hz tumble (twitter.com/dfuji1)— BIG Ingenuity Update! — Flight 3 was a success (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) — Flight 4 was a delayed success (space.com) (spacenews.com) — Ingenuity’s mission was extended (twitter.com/jeff_foust) (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit to launch out of Brazil (smallsatnews.com)— Blue Origin and Dynetics protest HLS award (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Nelson confirmed as NASA Administrator (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: ACES details (twitter.com/chairboy) — ACES had on-orbit refueling (arstechnica.com) — Centaur V has a hydrolox RCS… Peroxide was a typo! (twitter.com/torybruno)This week in SF history— 5 May, 1999: The failed second flight of Delta III (spacelaunchreport.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (astronautix.com) — Investigation concluded the combustion chamber was breached (spaceflightnow.com) (PDF HT Mike: orbireport.com)— Next week (5/11 - 5/17)  in 1963: *balloon squeak*

Spaceflight news— Renewable Space Updates (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— ACES scrapped, but lives on in Centaur V (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/torybruno) — Centaur III features the optional Aft Bulkhead Carrier (PDF: ulalaunch.com)Short & Sweet— MOXIE operates for the first time on Mars (space.com)— Ingenuity flight 2 (mars.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (HT Colin in the chat: youtube.com)— OneWeb and Starlink cross paths (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 1 May, 1999. Failure of the ABRIXAS X-ray telescope (adsabs.harvard.edu) (nature.com) (skyrocket.de) (sci-hub.se)— Next week (5/4 - 5/10) in 1999: In hindsight it didn’t seem like it would work.

Spaceflight news— HLS downselection - Starship chosen (PDF: nasa.gov) (twitter.com/jeff_foust) — HLS Base Period Source Selection occurred last year. (PDF: beta.sam.gov) — Berger/Davenport were assumed to be wrong by some. (twitter.com/lavie154) — NASA internally apologized for the leak. (twitter.com/joroulette) — The US Senate wasn’t happy this selection occurred before a new Administrator could be confirmed. (twitter.com/wapodavenport) — Dynetics was planning on using on-orbit propellant transfer, not just bolting on tanks. (HT Ben Hallert: spacenews.com) (HT Ben Hallert: spectrum.ieee.org) — Subsequent acquisitions are expected, so don’t count anyone out just yet. (spacepolicyonline.com)Short & Sweet— Pam Melroy nominated as Deputy Administrator (twitter.com/Astro_Pam) (nasa.gov)— NASA’s InSight to hibernate for the winter (thehill.com)— New Shepard flies again (nasaspaceflight.com)This week in SF history— 4 Apr, 1997. STS-83 had to be aborted on-orbit due to a fuel cell anomaly (science.ksc.nasa.gov) (astronautix.com) — Droplet Combustion Experiment (DCE) managed to return data before the abort. (princeton.edu) — STS-83 was reflown as STS-94, the next available consecutive number on July 1st 1997 (en.wikipedia.org) — After some digging, Mike Stewart suggests the fuel cell problem was never identified (HT Mike: scribd.com) (HT Mike: cbsnews.com)— Next week (4/27 - 5/3)  in 1999. If a spacecraft takes data but can’t transmit it back to Earth, does it make a science?

Spaceflight news— ISS’s crew of ten (spacepolicyonline.com) (spacenews.com)— Rocket Lab to test booster recovery from space this May (rocketlabusa.com)— Two new Chinese spaceports planned (spacenews.com)— End-to-end testing of Lunar Gateway SEP system completed (americaspace.com)Short & Sweet— Space startup Phase Four wins government contract (spacenews.com)— Biden administration asks for 6.3% increase to NASA’s budget (spacepolicyonline.com)— JWST packs its sunshield in preparation for October launch (satnews.com)— Ingenuity Flight 1 delayed (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert via Discord: Spacelab isn’t Skylab.— From the intro: no more fairing catching (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut) (spacexfleet.com)This week in SF history— April 15, 2005: DART Collides with MUBLCOM (nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org) — DART stands for Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology — MUBLCOM stands for Multiple Paths, Beyond-Line-of-Sight Communications— Next week (4/20 - 4/26) in 1997: Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Spaceflight news— Failed data bus on Crew Dragon (HT Kevin Smith: blogs.nasa.gov)— SN11 landing failure (space.com) (twitter.com/Bojay_stellar) (twitter.com/TrevorMahlmann)Short & Sweet— Rocket Lab preparing for Moon Mission (twitter.com/RocketLab) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Everyday people in space (spaceflightnow.com)— NASA buys lunar gravity from Blue Origin (nasa.gov)— HLS award should be here soon (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: ingenuity deployed (space.com)Last week in SF history— 4 Apr, 1983: The launch of TDRS-A aboard STS-6 (space.nss.org) (spacefacts.de) (nasaspaceflight.com) (nasa.gov) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) — Footage of TDRS-E’s deployment in 1991 was shot with much better cameras (youtu.be)— Next week (4/13 - 4/19) in 2005: Bullseye?

Spaceflight news— Bill Nelson to be nominated as next NASA head (spacenews.com) (whitehouse.gov)— Debris mayhem — Space Force would hire deorbiting satellites (spacenews.com) — Astroscale’s demo will launch on the GK Launch Services rideshare Soyuz (spacenews.com) — NOAA-17 broke up (spacenews.com) (HT Mike Stewart: archive.org) Short & Sweet— Chang’e 5 orbiter begins extended mission (spacenews.com)— JWST on target for launch in October (spacenews.com) (theatlantic.com)— Super Heavy is being stacked (teslarati.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Capella releases dish deployment video (cnbc.com) (directory.eoportal.org)Questions, comments, corrections— Emory S. via Discord: on-orbit servicing thoughtsThis week in SF history— 24 Mar, 2006. HiRISE takes its first images of Mars (space.com) (newscientist.com) (mars.nasa.gov)— Next week (3/30 - 4/5) in 1983. A little deeper pool.

Spaceflight news— Ukrainian startup looks at in-orbit servicing (spacenews.com) (kursorbital.com)— Northrup’s MEV-2 prepares for docking attempt with geostationary satellite (spacenews.com)— Market analysis for on-orbit service demand by Northern Sky Research (nsr.com) — CONFERS is working on docking standards (satelliteconfers.org)Short & Sweet— HST back online after software glitch (spacenews.com)— Second hot fire of SLS core scheduled for Thursday (americaspace.com) (spaceflightnow.com)— China successfully launches Long March 7A (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 21 Mar, 2007: Second launch of Falcon 1 (wikipedia.org) (space.com) (amazon.com) — The second stage engine bell scraped the interstage during separation (youtube.com)— Next week (3/23 - 3/29) in 2006: First sweep of a dusty surface

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab reveals Neutron, goes public (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (rocketlabusa.com)Short & Sweet— Starship burned down, fell over, and only then sank into the swamp (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)— SpaceX wins a contract (spacenews.com)— Price changes announced for ISS and lunar mission (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Perseverance update (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ryan via email: Cut cables on Perseverance— Ben Hallert: inclinometer vs gyro (twitter.com/chairboy)— From the intro: Smarter Every Day looks at Mighty Eagle (youtube.com)Interview: Nikolas Trawny, Ph.D., JPL GNC section— ADAPT flight test (jpl.nasa.gov) (arc.aiaa.org) (nasa.gov) — Mars 2020 LVS and TRN (science.nasa.gov)— Dr. Trawny’s LinkedIn (linkedin.com)This week in SF history— 15 March, 1986: Soyuz T-15 docks with Mir, ahead of the first (and only) station-to-station equipment transfer. (spacefacts.de) (spacefacts.de) — Soyuz-T still had an Igla approach system, not Kurs (svengrahn.pp.se)— Next week (3/16 - 3/22) in 2007, This list goes up to eleven, or at least it should.

Spaceflight news— Perseverance update! — Parachute message (twitter.com) — MATLAB solution (HT trbinsc in the chat: cdn.discordapp.com) — Make your own custom message! (sjwarner.github.io) — Perseverance photos and video (planetary.org) (spacenews.com) (mars.nasa.gov) (youtube.com) — Opportunity visited its heat shield’s crash site (HT Mike Stewart spaceref.com)— Dynetics completes preliminary design review for HLS lander (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)— NASA’s human spaceflight program and safety (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/wapodavenport) — We talked to Emory Stagmer about Starliner’s issues in episode 241 (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— Culprit identified for failed Falcon 9 booster landing (spacenews.com) — Post-recording followup: sounds like this may have been an issue isolated to retrofire! (HT Mike Stewart: spacenews.com)— Blockchain transaction tested on orbit (parabolicarc.com)— Relativity is going reusable (cnbc.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Hartvik Line via email: Inspiration has 6-DOF sensing— twitter.com/chairboy: The largest spacecraft ever (wikipedia.org)This week in SF history— 5 Mar, 1999. Launch of WIRE space telescope (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (spiedigitallibrary.org) — Making the most of a bad situation (ucolick.org) (PDF: llis.nasa.gov)— Next week (3/9 - 3/15) in 1986. The first stop on our roadtrip.

Spaceflight news— Perseverance has landed! (arstechnica.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (uahirise.org) — HiRISE managed to snap a photo of Perseverance under its parachute (uahirise.org) (HT Mike Stewart: twitter.com/HiRISE) — Interview with Ingenuity’s Operations Lead (HT Colin-in-the-chat: spectrum.ieee.org) — Ingenuity runs open source control software called f’ (github.com/nasa)Short & Sweet— China prepares to launch first segment of space station (spacenews.com)— SpaceX demonstrates more data collection leads to more system knowledge (youtube.com)— Test flight of Starliner slips to April (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 1 March 2002: Launch of the world’s largest civilian earth observation satellite (earth.esa.int) (en.wikipedia.org) — Succeeded European Remote Sensing Satellites (en.wikipedia.org) (esa.int) — Eventually replaced by Sentinel (wikipedia.org)— Next week (3/2 - 3/8) in 1999: Once you pop, the fun don’t start.

Spaceflight news— Mars Hope and Tianwen-1 arrive — Great video from Tianwen-1 as it passes its first periareion (twitter.com/AJ_FI) — Tianwen-1 will lower to a reconnaissance/landing orbit, then two different science orbits. (twitter.com/PRCMarsRover) — Mars Hope sent back a fantastic image (bbc.com)Mars fleet arriving soon — Perseverance (americaspace.com) (everydayastronaut.com) — Ingenuity (jpl.nasa.gov) (jpl.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov) — We previously talked to Ella Atkins about autonomous robotics (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— DARPA looks into off-earth manufacturing (rocketrundown.com)— Turkey aims for 2023 lunar landing (reuters.com)— The Vulcan pathfinder arrives (spaceflightinsider.com)— Doors open at Blue Origin’s New Glenn factory (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/WordsmithFL)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z and Espen via email: SN9 violation — Andy pointed out debris separation (6:20 and 6:23: youtube.com) — Espen pointed us at some illuminating tweets (HT Espen: twitter.com/wapodavenport)This week in SF history— 22 Feb, 1990. Launch of Ariane 4 V-36/407 (thespacereview.com) (capcomespace.net) — Next week (2/23 - 3/1) in 2002: European cars may be small…

Spaceflight news— Starship SN9 update (spacenews.com) — Lots of leftover LOX visible on IR footage (youtube.com) — SN8’s FAA violation (spacenews.com)— Firefly wins CLPS contract (spacenews.com) (nasa.gov) — They will be flying the Blue Ghost lander and a number of science payloads (firefly.com) — Regolith Adherence Characterization (RAC) (Image at parabolicarc.com) — Lunar Magnetotelluric Sounder (LMS) (hou.usra.edu) — Lunar Instrumentation for Subsurface Thermal Exploration with Rapidity (LISTER) (today.ttu.edu) — Lunar PlanetVac (LPV) (parabolicarc.com) — Blue Ghost Payload User’s Guide (firefly.com) — Space Utility Vehicle will be the service module/kick stage to get BG to the moon (firefly.com)Short & Sweet— Dragon breaks a record (americaspace.com)— Nanoracks’ Bishop airlock powers on (houstonchronicle.com)— OSIRIS-REx to return home (americaspace.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Koenigsmann retiring (HT Colin: cnbc.com)— Game night! — Come play Sea of Thieves with Dennis and Ben — Friday 4pm Eastern 1:00p Pacific — Meet on Discord (twitter.com/orbitalpodcast)This week in SF history— 10 Feb, 2001. Ammonia leak during STS-98 spacewalk (nasa.gov) (esa.int) (spacefacts.de) (science.ksc.nasa.gov) — The Early External Active Thermal Control was still being used during this mission (sae.org)— Next week (2/16 - 2/22) in 1990. Potato in the tailpipe

Spaceflight news— Starship, Elon, and the FAA   — SN8 violated launch license (theverge.com) — SN9 had to contend with the outcome (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Problems revealed for SXM-7 satellite in orbit. (spacenews.com)— Two more Dragon astronaut crews announced. (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com)— Second Green Run Static Fire (spacenews.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Hofmann (via DM), Ben Hallert (twitter.com/chairboy): SLS Core Stage tanking limits (twitter.com/NASA_SLS) (blogs.nasa.gov) — The nine-tank mistake might be traced back to a press call (clickorlando.com)This week in SF history— Soyuz 24 mission to Salyut 5 (wikipedia.org) (astronotix.com) (spacefacts.de) (nytimes.com)— Next week (2/9 - 2/15) in 2001: Do you smell that? No?

Spaceflight news— SLS Green Test hotfire followup (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX buys offshore oil platforms to convert to spaceports. (chron.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— ThrustMe performs on orbit. (spacenews.com)— Starliner up and running? (spacenews.com) (HT Andrew Z: spaceflightnow.com)Interview--Dr. Panagiotis Tsiotras, IEEE Fellow and Professor and David and Andrew Lewis Chair, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.— Chapter 8.2 of Ulrich Walter’s Astronautics is a good resource for learning about Lambert Transfers (books.google.com)— Dr. Tsiotras wrote a paper called Optimal Two-Impulse Rendezvous Using Multiple-Revolution Lambert Solutions (PDF: researchgate.net)This week in SF history— 1 Feb, 1990: The first test of the Soviet SPK/21KS maneuvering unit (americaspace.com) (astronautix.com) (astronautix.com) (spacefacts.de) (books.google.com) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week (2/2 - 2/8) in 1977: A farewell salute

Spaceflight news— ISS to get more solar panels! (space.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (nasa.gov) — 2017 Roll-Out Solar Array (ROSA) demo (americaspace.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (jettison GIF) — Cassidy and Behnken removed H-fixtures from the base of two port-side arrays Last July (youtu.be)Short & Sweet— InSight’s mole is finally retired. (spacenews.com) (airspacemag.com)— SLS test fire shuts down early. (americaspace.com) (twitter.com/waynehale) (blogs.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov)— China proposes Jupiter mission that may include Callisto landing. (planetary.org)This week in SF history— 20 Jan, 1967. S-IVB-503 explodes at Douglas due to incorrect weld fill material. (astronautix.com) (uah.contentdm.oclc.org)— Next week (1/26 - 2/1) in 1990: Like a маятник.

Spaceflight news— NASA selects four small-scale missions to further develop (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) — Pioneers program (science.nasa.gov) — Aspera (news.arizona.edu) — Pandora (twitter.com/elsisrad) — StarBurst (twitter.com/Dr_ThomasZ) — PUEO - Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PDF: arxiv.org)Short & Sweet— Dynetics submits details for its HLS bid. (executivebiz.com)— NASA extends Juno and InSight (nasa.gov)— DARPA satellites damaged (HT Mike Stewart: spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 17th January, 1997: Loss of GPS-IIR-1 on Delta II (en.wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (youtube.com) — Richard Gariott’s interview on Off-Nom (HT Ben Hallert: youtube.com)— Next week (1/19 through 1/25) in 1967: simulated launch, not-so-simulated conflagration

Spaceflight news— Landing Super Heavy (twitter.com/elonmusk) (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge) — Scott Manley covered this technique (youtube.com) — Possible claw-on-cables steadying mechanism (youtube.com)— Small SN9 update (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Long March 8 successfully debuts (spaceflightnow.com)— Protection of lunar heritage sites signed into law. (spacepolicyonline.com)This week in SF history— 7 Jan, 1985: launch of Sakigake (isas.jaxa.jp) (solarsystem.nasa.gov)— Next week (1/12 through 1/18) in 1997, Rip, or R.I.P.

Spaceflight news— Astra makes it to space! (twitter.com/lorengrush) (spacenews.com) (space.com) — Orbital parameters (HT Mike Stewart twitter.com/planet4589)— Chang’e-5 sample recovery (spacenews.com) — Now headed to L1 (with DSCOVR) (HT Sam in the chat: twitter.com/AJ_FI)Short & Sweet— Project Kuiper reaches a milestone (parabolicarc.com)— CSA is sending two astronauts to the Moon (asc-csa.gc.ca) (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Call for help reconstructing Apollo 10 software (github.com/virtualagc) — Quick software setup guide and code structure/syntax overview (youtube.com)This week in SF history— 25 Dec, 2003. Beagle 2 lands on Mars (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org) (PDF: sci.esa.int)— Next week (1/5 - 1/11)  in 1985: Headed for a first close to home.

Spaceflight news— SN8 high-altitude flight (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (youtube.com) — SNM analysis/discussion (youtube.com) — Accomplished all four main goals (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Reduced goal altitude due to high atmosphere winds (HT Mike Stewart: nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Artemis astronauts announced! (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— Two smallsats selected for 2025 NASA mission. (americaspace.com)— Space RIDER’s construction contracts awarded. (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 21 Dec, 2004. Maiden flight of Delta IV Heavy (spacedaily.com) (spaceref.com) (PDF: ulalaunch.com) (space.com) — Launch footage (youtube.com)— Next week (12/22 - 12/28) in 2003: 11 years and 5 kilometers.

Spaceflight news— Chang’e-5 lunar sampling (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (theverge.com) (spaceflight101.com) — Sample transfer happened shortly after docking (HT Sam in the chat: youtube.com) (twitter.com/050644zf)— Hayabusa2 sample returns (spacenews.com) (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp) (twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa) — Extended mission (smh.com.au) (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp) Short & Sweet— A new plane-launched rocket appears. (spacenews.com) (youtu.be) (thedrive.com) (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)— ESA signs the world’s first contract for space debris removal. (spacenews.com)— First real-time link between high- and low-Earth orbits. (smallsatnews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Espen via email: Speculation on Electron interstage TPSThis week in SF history— 9 Dec, 1978. Pioneer Venus Multiprobe enters atmosphere. (adsabs.harvard.edu) (adsabs.harvard.edu) (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (hughesscgheritage.com)— Next week (12/15 through 12/21) in 2004, I get gas when you push me too hard.

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab recovery (twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF) — A list of direct quotes from the press conference (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut)Short & Sweet— Phobos rover begins landing tests. (space.com)— The first H3 launches face delays. (spacenews.com)— Starship prepares to hop (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Carbice and Relativity raise millions in investment. (spacenews.com) (news.satnews.com) (theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/baratunde-cola) (theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/jordan-noone)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: SN8 burst disc (twitter.com/chairboy)This week in SF history— 2 Dec, 1988. Launch of STS-27, the mission we almost lost Atlantis (youtube.com) (en.wikipedia.org) (spacefacts.de) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (PDF: spaceflight.nasa.gov) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov)— Next week (12/8-12/14) in 1978 - zero seconds, zero seconds, two seconds, 4,057 seconds, and N/A.

Spaceflight news— SN8 follow-up (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/elonmusk) (youtube.com) — Martyte is a ceramic-filled epoxy, used to coat the flame trench (ntrs.nasa.gov)— Vega launch failure linked to human error (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Russian spacewalk completed to prepare for science module. (space.com)— Loverro exit illuminated (washingtonpost.com)— Skyrora test fires third-stage engine (satnews.com)— Rocket Lab successfully recovers booster. (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andy Z.: Moose, F9 delay for recovery zone weather by NASA or DOD, and Crew Dragon capacity (astronautix.com)— Ben Hallert: VIF at Vandenberg? (twitter.com/chairboy) (spacenews.com)— Don’t forget! 2800-2900 UTC, Dec 5, is the Hayabusa2 capsule reentry (smh.com.au) (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp) This week in SF history— 26 Nov, 1965. Launch of Astérix, the first French satellite (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week (12/1 through 12/7) in 1988: A quarter degree to spill the tea

Spaceflight news— Starship SN8 fires a second (and third) time. (space.com) (youtube.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Crew-1 certified (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) (two parter: americaspace.com / americaspace.com)Short & Sweet— Upgraded version of Sherpa tug to fly in mid-2021. (spacenews.com) (satnews.com)— Bridenstein expected to turn down a continued position. (spacenews.com) (aviationweek.com)— Mars Sample Return may be delayed. (spacenews.com)— First Falcon Heavy Extended Fairing sold. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: Gnome Chompski is 15 cm, not 15 mm (twitter.com/chairboy)— From the intro: Congress does not authorize SOFIA sunset (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 21 November 2000: Launch of EO-1, Earth Observing 1 (phys.org) (en.wikipedia.org) (earthobservatory.nasa.gov) (space.skyrocket.de)— Lots of thanks to Emory Stagmer for presenting this week’s topic! (twitter.com/vaxheadroom)— Next week (11/24 - 11/30) in 1965: Medaille de Bronze

Spaceflight news— Rocket lab aims to recover booster (spacenews.com) (aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org) (rocketlabusa.com)Short & Sweet— Spacebit doesn’t hate wheels, but does love sharing data. (spacenews.com)— Galactic Energy reaches orbit. (spacenews.com)— Virgin Galactic enters final testing phase before operations. (spacenews.com)— The Curse of Scrubtober Ends. (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)Interview--Mark Lester, President & CEO, Alaska Aerospace Corporation— akaerospace.com— witter.com/alaskaaerospace— linkedin.com/in/mark-d-lesterThis week in SF history— 11 Nov, 1982. STS-5, the first operational Shuttle mission, and the first to deploy satellites. (newspapers.com) (wikipedia.org) (PDF: spacepresskit.files.wordpress.com)— Next week in 2000: Hyper carbon-carbon plasma

Spaceflight news— Direct lunar water observation (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (nature.com)— OSIRIS-REx stores sample (spacenews.com) (asteroidmission.org) (asteroidmission.org)Short & Sweet— Launchspace to install debris collection payload on ISS. (spacenews.com)— Ariane 6 needs additional funding. (spacenews.com)— Falcon 9 launch abort conclusion. (spacenews.com) (cbsnews.com)— NASA faces tough choice due to SLS’s slow progress. (space.com)This week in SF history— 9 Nov, 1967. Launch of Apollo 4 (wikipedia.org) (drewexmachina.com) (space.skyrocket.de) — Ejectable film canisters were fairly complex machines (nasa.gov) — Apollo 8 press kit (PDF: nasa.gov) — Apollo 4 press kit (cdm16608.contentdm.oclc.org)— Next week (11/10 - 11/17) in 1982. It was a lovely trip, but we were stuck indoors the whole time.

Spaceflight news— OSIRIS-REx completes TAG (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (asteroidmission.org) — Descent video and description by Dante Lauretta (asteroidmission.org) (twitter.com/NASA) — TAGSAM details (link.springer.com) (youtu.be) — We spoke with Richard Witherspoon, mission operations systems engineer at Lockheed Martin in Ep 186 (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— Falcon 9 core sets record with Starlink launch. (americaspace.com)— China reveals plans for a number of space projects. (spacenews.com)— GHGSat detects smallest methane emission ever from orbit. (smallsatnews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Hofmann via DM and Ben Hallert (twitter.com/chairboy): Firefly launches out of Vandenberg, not WallopsThis week in SF history— 30 Oct, 1985. Launch of the eight-person shuttle crew, STS 61-A. Largest crew to date (en.wikipedia.org) (spacefacts.de) — Interview with Ernst Messerschmid, Payload Specialist (esa.int)— Next week (11/3-11/9) in 1967: Fiber optics trained on the ringed planet

Spaceflight news— NASA and ESA Lunar Gateway contracts awarded (space.com) (spacenews.com) — Airbus and Thales Alenia were also contracted to develop a lunar lander (spacewatch.global) (esa.int)Short & Sweet— Prototype rover tested in Mojave desert. (cnet.com)— Fire at Firefly’s Wallops Launch Complex. (twitter.com/Firefly_Space) (twitter.com/DavidNagySFgang)— Zvezda atmosphere success… and failure. (sciencealert.com) (tass.com)Questions, comments, corrections— OSIRIS-Rex Touch-and-Go maneuver (americaspace.com) (nasa.gov)This week in SF history— 26 Oct, 2006. Launch of the STEREO mission (stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov) — SECCHI - Sun-Earth Connections Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (secchi.lmsal.com) — IMPACT - In situ Measurements of Particles And CME Transients (sprg.ssl.berkeley.edu) — PLASTIC - Plasma and Suprathermal Ion Composition (link.springer.com)— Next week (10/27 - 11/2) in 1985: Room for one more?

Spaceflight news— SpaceX Crew-1 mission delayed (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) — Tom Mueller explained the gas generator cycle, and the Merlin engine in particular (youtube.com) — GPS III SV04 launch scrubbed earlier this month due to “unexpected pressure rise in the turbomachinery gas generator” (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Chinese taikonauts selected for country’s space station (spacenews.com)— The Autophage engine receives funding (space.com) (patents.google.com)— SpaceX is deorbiting its original Starlink satellites (spacenews.com) (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Emory Stagmer: The LCROSS Flight Director's Blog (nasa.gov)Interview -- Ella Atkins, Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, and IEEE Senior Member.— We previously spoke with Ella on Episode 223 (theorbitalmechanics.com)— Autonomous done with a nailgun (youtube.com)— Ella’s professional profile and CV (aero.engin.umich.edu)— U of M’s robotics department (robotics.umich.edu)— Thanks to IEEE for putting us in touch with Ella! (IEEE.org)This week in SF history— 16 Oct, 1976: Soyuz 23 becomes the first unintentional splash-down (en.wikipedia.org) (americaspace.com) (youtube.com) (books.google.com)— Next week in 2006: a fresh pair of eyes

Spaceflight news— Tianwen-1 selfie (twitter.com/AJ_FI) — No country’s first Mars mission has ever been an orbiter/lander pair before (eoportal.org) — Orbiter instrumentation (nssc.cas.cn) — Lander/rover instrumentation (spacerobotics.eu)Short & Sweet— U.S. to monitor spacecraft around cis-lunar space (breakingdefense.com)— ThrustMe secures ESA funding (satellite-evolution.com)— Starlink could serve as a GPS alternative (technologyreview.com)— China announces work on lunar-capable crewed launch vehicle (space.com)— SpaceX continues Boca Chica takeover (vice.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: NRHO, but not Gateway, are required for Artemis 3 landing (twitter.com/chairboy)— From the intro: Dragon DEMO-2 named Resilience (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— October 9, 2009. LCROSS impact of the lunar south pole (wikipedia.org) — The in flight anomaly (spaceflightnow.com) — Crater investigation (arxiv.org) — Estimating the circumference of an ellipse (youtube.com)— Next week in 1976: joining the polar bear club

Spaceflight news— NASA science mission delays (spacenews.com) — JWST deployment tests are done! (nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Blue Origin pursues space station development. (spacenews.com)— Price tag for on-orbit publicity photos. (spacenews.com)— ISS leak narrowed down to two modules. (businessinsider.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z: Bishop grapple fixture placement (youtube.com) (PDF: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)— Andrew Z: HLS size comparison (twitter.com/brickmack)Interview -- Dr. Panagiotis Tsiotras, IEEE Fellow and Professor and David and Andrew Lewis Chair, Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology— Dr. Tsiotras helped design the ASTROS (Autonomous Spacecraft Testing of Robotic Operations in Space) lab at Georgia Tech (dcsl.gatech.edu)— Dr. Tsiotras is the director of the Dynamics and Control Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech’s School of Aerospace Engineering (dcsl.gatech.edu)— (LinkedIn)— IEEE Transmitter is a multimedia platform (transmitter.ieee.org)This week in SF history— 1 Oct, 2003. The formation of JAXA — Hideo Itokawa, “Dr. Rocket” was instrumental in Japan’s early rocketry research (researchgate.net) (global.jaxa.jp) — National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) (jaxa.jp)— Next week in 2009: I would walk 1,496,225 kilometers/ and I would walk 1,496,225 more/ and I would walk 1496225 more/ just to be the satellite that walked 4,488,675 kilometers/ to fall down at your door.

Spaceflight news— Nanoracks ISS airlock is nearly complete (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)— Dynetics HLS mockup arrives at JSC (twitter.com/Dynetics) (techcrunch.com) — On-orbit refueling is required to get Dynetics HLS to the moon (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Russia announces solo mission to Venus (dailymail.co.uk) (nplus1.ru) (twitter.com/katlinegrey)— China preps for Chang’e 5 launch (spacenews.com)— Artemis III’s landing site (spacepolicyonline.com) (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: FH has launched three times, not two (twitter.com/chairboy)— Ben Hallert: Any Vulcan can have up to 6 SRMs, it’s Centaur that gets heavy (twitter.com/chairboy)— Andrew Z: Interesting Boeing read (aviationweek.com)This week in SF history— 23 Sept, 1999. Mars Climate Orbiter failure (wikipedia.org) (spectrum.ieee.org) (PDF: sunnyday.mit.edu)— Next week in 2003: a bureaucratic Voltron

Spaceflight news— Cause of ULA’s recent hot-fire abort has been identified. (americaspace.com) (twitter.com/torybruno) — A “routine, ongoing trade study” has resulted in the possibility of a three-core Vulcan Super Heavy (twitter.com/torybruno)— Astra’s Rocket 3.1 flight terminated during its first stage. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Astra)Short & Sweet— Juno eyes extended mission goals. (spacenews.com)— Boeing to be investigated by independent ethics probe. (foxbusiness.com)— NASA offers to buy commercially-obtained lunar samples. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/mastenspace)— China’s mystery spacecraft returns to Earth. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/Marco_Langbroek)— Northrop Grumman cancels OmegA. (spacenews.com)Interview--Baratunde Cola, Founder and CEO of Carbice Corporation— A SBIR award was instrumental to getting the company up on their feet. (sbir.gov)— Thermal camera footage of Carbice Carbon (youtube.com)— Promo video (youtube.com)— Carbice.comSocials — linkedin.com — instagram.com/carbicemagic — twitter.com/baratundecola — twitter.com/carbiceThis week in SF history— 15 Sept, 1908. Birth of Abe Silverstein (en.wikipedia.org) — Improved Wright R-3350 engine cooling by inserting baffles (PDF: apps.dtic.mil)— Next week in 1999: What’s that in Pirate-Ninjas?

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab secretly launches Photon spacecraft (techcrunch.com) (spacenews.com) (space.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX sets a new record. (americaspace.com)— China launches a reusable spacecraft. (spacenews.com)— We have a Starship hop! (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)This week in SF history— 7 Sept, 1995. Launch of STS-69 (wikipedia.org) (sciencedirect.com) — Also had an alternate patch: Dog Crew II (spacepatches.nl) — Mach waves were visible during launch (youtube.com)

Spaceflight news— Funding secured for NanoFEEP manufacturer Morpheus Space (spacenews.com) (HT Andrew Zdanowicz: defenseone.com) — Liquid eyeliner demonstrates an effect similar to the Taylor Cones utilized in electrospray engines (HT Colin: hackaday.com)Short & Sweet— SLS takes a brief break. (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)— Starliner's schedule falls further behind Crew Dragon’s. (investors.com) (spacenews.com)— Russian space station module arrives at Baikonur. (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: InSight drills below the surface (twitter.com/NASAInSight)Interview--Peter Beck, Founder and CEO of Rocket Lab— twitter.com/rocketlab— twitter.com/peter_j_beck— rocketlabusa.comThis week in SF history— 5 Sept, 1977. Launch of Voyager 1, and the final Titan IIIE launch (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov) (en.wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1995: Centenarian

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.

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/iuastroThis week in SF history— 11 August 1962: Launch of Vostok 3 (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week in 2003: A flame-retardant spacecraft.

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)

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Some black voices and hashtags to amplify and listen to— twitter.com/astrotoya— twitter.com/astronaia— twitter.com/astro_eustice— twitter.com/_xPrecious— twitter.com/itsafronomics— #BlackAndStem— #BlackBirdersWeekFind local black-owned businesses— officialblackwallstreet.com/directory Learn about the problem— mappingpoliceviolence.org

Spaceflight news— Demo-2 mission: Endeavor docks with ISS (spacenews)(twitter.com/lorengrush) — A bell in Unity is rung twice to announce the arrival and departure of vehicles (twitter.com/planet4589) — A fantastic CollectSpace thread with lots of suit zipper images (collectspace.com) — Note that the A7L Apollo suit had the pressure zipper on the outside. The inside zipper was just to close the garment — Crew Dragon/Falcon 9 believed to have lower risk factor than Shuttle (spacenews.com) — Mark 3 parachutes (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit’s first launch attempt fails. (spacenews.com)— Launch vehicle for China’s Mars mission arrives at space center. (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 8 June, 1966: Saturn 500F moved from the pad to the VAB as Hurricane Alma approached (drewexmachina.com) (wikipedia.org) — The famous tennis shoe test (youtube.com)— Next week in 1977: Bombs away!

Spaceflight news— Loverro quit! (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) (arstechnica.com) (washingtonpost.com)— Crew Dragon launch prep (HT Andrew Z: nasaspaceflight.com) (planetary.org) (americaspace.com) — Commercial crew is an amazing deal. (planetary.org) — NASA & SpaceX: Journey to the Future to air May 25 at 9 p.m. PT/ET on Science and at 10 p.m. PT/ET May 26 on Discovery (deadline.com)Short & Sweet— WFIRST renamed after pioneering astronomer, Nancy Grace Roman (spacenews.com)— Skyrora completes first full static firing in the UK in half a century (skyrora.com)— Northrop Grumman gets a Space Force contract (spacenews.com)— Relativity hires SpaceX executive to lead launch vehicle production (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert on Artemis orbit limitations (twitter.com/chairboy) — Also quoted in an article on the cult of Elon Musk (theatlantic.com)This week in SF history— 1971 May 30: launch of Mariner 9 (sci-hub.tw) (en.wikipedia.org) (space.skyrocket.de)— Next week in 1966: “Not just any port in a storm.”

Spaceflight news— Three-part NASA Lunar News — Plans for Gateway and Artemis undergo refinement (spacenews.com) — NASA advisory committee skeptical of 2024 landing goal (spacenews.com) — Artemis Accords (spacenews.com) (PDF: nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— 3D printing had a good week. (cnbc.com) (upi.com)— First real task for Space Force is… on the ground. (spacenews.com)— SkySat to hitch a ride with Starlink. (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— 19 May 2000: The launch of STS-101, the first Shuttle mission with a glass cockpit (wikipedia.org) (PDF: spaceflight.nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (nbcnews.com)— Next week in 1971: 9 ate 6 and 7

Spaceflight news— China’s big Long March 5B (Chang Zheng 5B) flight— — The flight (spaceflightnow.com)— — The capsule landing (spaceflightnow.com)— — Flexible Inflatable Cargo Re-entry Vehicle (spaceflightnow.com)— — The unguided first-stage reentry (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet— Next big step completed for Martian rover. (spaceflightnow.com)— SN4 takes a step towards flight (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/elonmusk)Questions, comments, corrections— Email conversations about Artemis HLS with Andrew and EspenInterview--Dan Hegel, Director of Advanced Development, Blue Canyon Technologies— List of BCT’s Small Business Innovation Research contracts (sbir.gov)— bluecanyontech.com— instagram.com/bluecanyontech— twitter.com/bluecanyontechThis week in SF history— 15 May 1987. The failed launch of Polyus-Skif. (airspacemag.com) (astronautix.com) (youtube.com)— Next week in 2000: No stones thrown

Spaceflight news— NASA selects companies to develop Human Landing System (HLS) for Artemis (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) — Source Selection Statement (PDF: beta.sam.gov) — Scott Manley’s summary (youtube.com) — Excellent scaled image of all HLS’s, and Apollo’s LEM (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge) — Superheavy update (twitter.com/Kristennetten)— Prepping for Crew Dragon (spacenews.com) — Flag to be captured: (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge)Short & Sweet— UAE Mars mission arrives at launch site (nasaspaceflight.com)— Starlink sun visor testing to begin. (spacenews.com)— OmegA is ready to go into production. (spacenews.com)— Rocket Lab tests at Wallops (spacenews.com)This week in SF history— May 8 1962: The First launch of Atlas-Centaur ends in an explosion (twitter.com/RocketRundown) (youtube.com) (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1987: Pew-pew boom

Spaceflight news— Firefly signs Launch Services Agreement with Spaceflight, Inc. (spacenews.com) (spaceflight.com) — Originally autogenously pressurized tanks (space.stackexchange.com) — Fire in Jan due to misconfigured software (youtube.com/watch) — Spaceflight Industries In process of being bought by Mitsui and Yamasa (techcrunch.com)Short & Sweet— Starliner requires more than a reflight to be fit for crew (HT Sam in the chat twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)— Dream Chaser gets its wings. (nasaspaceflight.com)— Design narrowed for future Mars Ascent Vehicle. (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Stygarfield via Discord: Possible Starlink configuration (reddit.com/r/Starlink)This week in SF history— 1954 April 29: Launch of Nike Nike Deacon (space.skyrocket.de) (astronautix.com) — More info on Deacon (astronautix.com)— Next week in 1962: Don’t take your jacket off too early!

Spaceflight news— Intuitive Machines selects lunar landing site (spacenews.com) — Nova-C’s publicity page (intuitivemachines.com) — Maps of Vallus Schröterie in Oceanus Procellarum (cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net)— SpaceX and Gateway Logistics Services (spacenews.com) (PDF: beta.sam.gov/) — Fan cross-section speculations (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— MEV-1 completes Intelsat-901 relocation. (spacenews.com)— SpaceX has a Demo-2 launch date. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)— LauncherOne captive carry. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Amy Parent: Rocket Lab will use a ballute (twitter.com/amyinorbit)This week in SF history— April 23, 1971, Soyuz-10 fails to dock with Salyut-1 (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1954: Puma Puma Priest

Spaceflight news— Rocket Lab completes successful demonstration of mid-air capture. (rocketlabusa.com) (youtube.com) (spacenews.com) — Tim Dodd published a great interview with Peter Beck (youtu.be)Short & Sweet— Mars helicopter has been attached to NASA rover. (nasa.gov)— Starliner gets a second flight test. (spacenews.com)— Long March Fails to loft Nusantara Dua (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com)— Masten Space Systems wins lunar lander award from NASA. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Hofmann: It’s not LOX vents that have flares, it’s Methane.— Ben Hallert and Chris Hofmann: Grasshopper didn’t explode, that was F9R dev (twitter.com/chairboy/)— Ben Hallert: “Starpopper” was the same thing as SN1. (twitter.com/chairboy)— Eric Blood via email: worm logo (PDF: nasa.gov)— Apollo 13: Home Safe viewing party — April 14, Tuesday at 7 p.m. Eastern — Join us on Discord and Watch2Gether! (discordapp.com) (watch2gether.com)This week in SF history— 16 April 1965: first five-engine test stand firing of S-IC at MSFC (nasa.gov) (heroicrelics.org) (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1971: Like Jar-Jar and an off-cast 620C

Spaceflight News— Starship SN3 Collapse (space.com) (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk) — RIP Starship Mk1 (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) — RIP Starship SN1 (twitter.com/WyattJGeorge/) — Starship SN2’s thrust puck (https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/41761/what-is-a-thrust-puck-on-starship)— Jamestown Base considered for real (spacenews.com) (PDF: nasa.gov) — Laura Forczyk poll: “What’s a reasonable new goal [for Artemis 3]?” (twitter.com/LauraForczyk)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit selects site in Japan for horizontal launches. (spacenews.com)— NASA selects SunRISE. (nasaspaceflight.com)Interview: Jordan Noone, Cofounder/CTO, Relativity Space— USC rocket propulsion lab (uscrpl.com)— twitter.com/theJordanNoone— twitter.com/Relativityspace— relativityspace.comThis week in SF history— March 7 1962: launch of OSO-1 (nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org) (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov)— Next week in 1965: Five alive

Spaceflight news— Gateway Logistics Services Program awarded to SpaceX (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) — Dragon XL (youtube.com) (twitter.com/Caspar_Stanley) — OIG is investigating NASA’s acquisition strategy (twitter.com/NASAOIG)— Crew Dragon Mk 3 Parachute Test (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— NASA files a request for new engines. (spacenews.com)— Astra suffers damage in pre-launch test. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Artemis-1 flight profile detailsThis week in SF history— April 3, 1926: The birth of Gus Grissom (en.wikipedia.org) — Tough and Competent speech (garrett.co.uk)— Next week in 1962: sail and wheel

Spaceflight news— Artemis-1 Orion tests complete (spacenews.com) (americaspace.com) — Ships to KSC March 23 (twitter.com/NASAKennedy) — Cubesat ridealongs (en.wikipedia.org)Short & Sweet— L3Harris wins NASA contract for LISA observatory. (nasa.gov) (Our interview on the LISA Pathfinder: theorbitalmechanics.com)— Long March 7A is unsuccessful. (spaceflightnow.com)— SpaceX launches Darksat, with lackluster results. (spacenews.com) (arxiv.org) (PDF: arxiv.org)Questions, comments, corrections— ICPS, not IUS (twitter.com/Jeff_Snively)— From the intro: OneWeb considers bankruptcy (bloomberg.com)This week in SF history— March 24, 2006: HiRISE takes first test images of Mars (mars.nasa.gov) (mars.nasa.gov) — Detector Chip Assemblies (DCAs) (PDF: asprs.org) — Uses push-broom method (hirise.seti.org)— Next week in 1926: Listen in for an audio clue

Spaceflight news— RS-25 Testing (nasaspaceflight.com)— Gateway officially non-critical for Artemis landing (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceLogistics teams with DARPA on satellite servicing vehicle. (c4isrnet.com)— ExoMars gets delayed. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Law Loving via email on Musk and Bezos— Thanks to Emory Stagmer for the outro music! (twitter.com/VAXHeadroom)This week in SF history— March 18, 1965: The launch of Voskhod-2 (wikipedia.org) (airspacemag.com)— Next week in 2008: McEwen’s baby

Spaceflight news— Starliner update (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Last minute scrub costs Astra the DARPA Challenge (spaceflightnow.com)— DSCOVR resumes operations. (spaceflightnow.com)— SLS scheduling update (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Winning entry for the Mars 2020 naming contest (mars.nasa.gov)— Destin’s ULA tour (youtube.com) (youtube.com)This week in SF history— 14 March, 1934. Birth of Eugene Cernan (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1965: No vacuum in a vacuum.

Spaceflight news— SpaceX plans a mobile service tower (twitter.com/Falcon9Block5) (space.com) — Starship SN-1 suffered pressure failure (twitter.com/JohnRand0061) (youtube.com)— Artemis changes? (arstechnica.com) — “This is not the plan.” says Bridenstine re Moon 2024 Mission Manifest (twitter.com/JimBridenstine)Short & Sweet— NASA's safety advisory panel finds Boeing didn't perform end-to-end software check prior to Starliner demo mission. (orlandosentinel.com) (twitter.com/ChabeliH) (twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)— OmegA’s second stage has been test fired. (spacenews.com)— MEV-1 performs first ever docking between commercial spacecraft. (c4isrnet.com) (twitter.com/northropgrumman)Questions, comments, corrections— Paul via email: Lousma pronounced like “lousy.”— Jason Friesen via email: Skylab rescue was a totally different mission from Skylab-4! (en.wikipedia.org)This week in SF history— March 10, 2006: MRO enters Mars orbit (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1934: Puppetteer

Spaceflight news— InSight’s HP3 to get a lil push (www.dlr.de) (twitter.com/NASAInSight) (mars.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— JAXA going forward with sample return mission to Phobos. (spaceflightnow.com)— SpaceX has a date for a polar launch from the Cape. (teslarati.com)— CSLI, selects the next round of 18 smallsats to fly on ELaNa missions (nasa.gov)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Z via email: Interesting read about Space Shuttle software development (aviationweek.com) (PDF: nasa.gov)Interview -- Laura Forczyk, space careers counselor and author— Read more about and purchase Rise of the Space Age Millennials — astralytical.com/rise-of-the-space-age-millennials — barnesandnoble.com — amazon.com — twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceMillennials— Find out more about Laura — astralytical.com — twitter.com/LauraForczyk — twitter.com/astralytical — linkedin.com/in/lauraforczykThis week in SF history— February 29, 1936, birth of Jack Lousma (wikipedia.org) — STS-3 landing (youtube.com)— Next week in 2006: Car crashes apply dV in 300-400 ms. What about five months?

Spaceflight news— Discovery Program selects four finalists (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— DAVINCI+ (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (wikipedia.org)— IVO (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (wikipedia.org)— Trident (PDF: hou.usra.edu) (wikipedia.org) (HT Sam in the chat: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)— VERITAS (PDF: dlr.de) (wikipedia.org)— Abstracts for the other proposals (HT sam in the chat: forum.nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— JAXA selects partner for country’s first debris removal project (spacenews.com)— Spaceway-1 has been safely decommissioned. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert on AS-103/Pegasus (twitter.com/chairboy) — Also, Iranian space suit (twitter.com/fab_hinz) (apnews.com)— Espen via email: Starship and Starliner presser — Interesting article we forgot to mention! (forrestheller.com) — Correct pressure numbers (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Lovarro quote (twitter.com/ChrisG_NSF)— Andrew via email: thoughts on StarlinerThis week in SF history— February 19, 1932: birth of Joe Kerwin (wikipedia.org) — A13 quotes mentioned (hq.nasa.gov)— Next week in 1936: white hot stick

Spaceflight news— ASAP report on CST-100 Starliner (arstechnica.com) (blogs.nasa.gov)— Astra Space emerges from stealth mode (spacenews.com) (arstechnica.com) (astra.com) (bloomberg.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX likely to spinoff Starlink business. (bloomberg.com).— Cape Canaveral is getting a name change. (spaceflightnow.com)Interview -- Jason Batt, Editorial and Creative Director, 100 Year Starship— 100yss.org— One Sky project (space.com) (nationalgeographic.com)— Onliest, J Daniel Batt (amazon.com)This week in SF history— 16 February 1965, launch of Pegasus 1 (wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com)— Next week in 1932: Dammit, Jim, I’m a doctor, not a…

Spaceflight news— Near-miss of IRAS and GGSE-4 (c4isrnet.com) (spacenews.com) (kiro7.com) (space.com) — Image of post-conjunction trails (twitter.com/juliancd38)— NASA selects first commercial-destination module for ISS (nasa.gov) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Voyager 2 malfunction (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov)— JWST’s launch date will likely slip again. (arstechnica.com)— CHEOPS takes big step towards coming online and taking data (sci.esa.int)Questions, comments, corrections— From the intro: Hi-Rise returns better imagery of the Schiaparelli crash (uahirise.org)— Nick via email: skydiving parachutes have risers for reefingThis week in SF history— February 5, 1947: the birth of Mary Cleave (wikipedia.org) (historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov)— Next week in 1965: Sitting behind a boilerplate.

Spaceflight news— Spaceway-1 batteries (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Firefly suffers an anomaly on the test stand. (spacenews.com) (space.com)— Solar Orbiter mission’s launch slips several days (spaceflightnow.com) (twitter.com/torybruno)— Tethers Unlimited’s Terminator Tape is showing promise. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew via email: Phantom Express (spacenews.com) — Scott Manley covered this as well, with more info on the AR-22, which is actually a refurbished/retooled SSME! (youtube.com)— Espen via email: second stage might have exploded above the water??? (youtube.com)This week in SF history— January 29, 2003: Launch of XSS-10 (space.skyrocket.de)— Next week in 1947: A woman’s place is preparing meals, cleaning windows and toilets…. on the Shuttle.

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_drawsThis week in SF history— January 25, 2004, landing of Opportunity (citeseerx.ist.psu.edu) (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 2003: taking a selfie

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

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

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

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)

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?

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 integrationShort & Sweet— Orion capsule ships to Ohio for testing— Australian company 3D prints large rocketQuestions, comments, corrections— Tempe meetup! — 5 pm Sunday, December 8th — tempe.laboccapizzeria.com — S. Mill Ave, Tempe, AZ 85281This week in SF history— December 4, 1945, Birth of Roberta BondarNext week in 1984: What’s the point of a weather balloon with a sample rate of 75 seconds?

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.comThis 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

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%

Spaceflight news— Starliner pad abort test complete (spacenews.com) (spaceflightnow.com) — Chute failure caused by misplaced pin (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX’s Mark 3 parachutes are almost ready to go! (spacenews.com)— China tests gridfins (spacenews.com)— The ISS may see reduced crew for 6 and a half months. (spacenews.com)Interview: Andrew Rader, author, Beyond the Known— andrew-rader.com— twitter.com/marsrader— (amazon.com)This week in SF history— 15 November 1974 Launch of AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (wikipedia.org) (hackaday.com) — List of all OSCAR satellites (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1965: How about some nice lemon, gin and bob cut?

This week in SF history— 29 October 1998: Launch of STS-95 (wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)— Next week in 1974: SolidaritySpaceflight news— Upgraded H3 rocket for lunar missions (spacenews.com) — H-IIA had a proposed asymmetric configuration as well as liquid boosters (HT Sam in the chat: b14643.de)Short & Sweet— Chang’e-5 to launch late next year (spacenews.com)— The X-37 sets another record. (spacenews.com)— NASA gives funding to look into extended mission to Pluto (americaspace.com)— Another plot twist for the mole on Mars. (spacenews.com)

Bit of a weird show this week! No news, tired hosts. We talk about our favorite things from this year’s International Astronautical Congress, and we promise more information later.This show is brought to you by just over one hundred supporters on Patreon (and direct monthly supporters using Bitcoin and Paypal!) We couldn’t have done this without you, and we are so thankful for your confidence in our ability to bring you educational and entertaining content.

This week in SF history— October 17, 1956: Birth of Mae Jemison (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Battery replacement EVAs (americaspace.com)— Commercial crew update (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com) — Eric Berger says "full panic has ensued" (twitter.com/SciGuySpace) — Dragon done in 10 weeks? (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Virgin Orbit announces potential Martian cubesat missions. (theverge.com)— Stratolaunch is now under new ownership. (spacenews.com)— The Jason-2 mission has ended, but its satellite will remain. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 2000 October 9: HETE-2, first orbital launch from Kwajalein (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1956: listen in for an audio clue.Spaceflight news— Plans in place to fix DSCOVR (spacenews.com) — We first reported on this on Ep 218 as a S&S (spacenews.com) — Faulty gyro? (twitter.com/simoncarn) — Triana engineers considered laser gyro failures (PDF: nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— NASA Mars 2020 tests descent stage separation (jpl.nasa.gov)— NASA issues request for information on xEMU. (nasaspaceflight.com)— New Shepard will likely not fly humans in 2019. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— #TOMIAC2019 — Sunday: Off Nominal meetups (events.offnominal.space) — Monday: museum day — Udvar-Hazy and downtown Air and Space Museum — Thursday: Dinner meetup — mcgintyspublichouse.com — 911 Ellsworth Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20910 — Friday: IAC no-ticket open day

This week in SF history— October 1, 1958: NASA begins operations (wikipedia.org) (archives.gov)— Next week in 2000: Sometimes a good explosion is exactly what you needSpaceflight news— InSight scientists presents three new discoveries (americaspace.com) (copernicus.org) — Images show scoop packing down regolith around mole? (twitter.com)— Starship update (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) (spaceflightnow.com) — Our interview with Tess Caswell on CDRA (theorbitalmechanics.com)Short & Sweet— NASA awards a long-term contract to Lockheed Martin. (spacenews.com)— Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter delayed to 2022 (spaceflightnow.com)— NEO mission confirmed (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— September 27 2003: last flight of Ariane 5 G, launching E-Bird — First A5 flight, 1996, failed spectacularly (youtu.be) (wikipedia.org) (hownot2code.com) — Next week in 1958: Twelve pagesSpaceflight news— NASA planning on placing a cubesat in a Lunar near-rectilinear halo orbit (spacenews.com) (youtube.com) — Meanwhile some Congressfolk are suggesting killing Lunar Gateway altogether (arstechnica.com)Short & Sweet— Updates on Rocket Lab and Blue Origin launch complexes (rocketlabusa.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— SpaceX is offering a buyout. (space.com)— Japan seeks to double its launch capacity. (rocketrundown.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Off-Nominal DC (aka “inside the beltway”) meetup (events.offnominal.space)

This week in SF history— 21 September 1968: Landing of zond 5 (wikipedia.org) (russianspaceweb.com)— Next week in 2003: generic no longerSpaceflight news— H-IIB launch pad fire (youtube.com) (spacenews.com) (HT Sam in the chat: twitter.com/mageshiman1025)— NASA conducts ground test of the B330. (space.com) — Tour of B330 (Mars Transporter Testing Unit) and Olympus B2100 (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Tianhe passes final review, though delays are still likely (spacenews.com)— NASA’s LRO to take images of the Vikram Lander (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— GOES-13 correction from Kevin Smith (skyriddles.wordpress.com) (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 12 September 1959: Launch of Luna 2 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Chandrayaan-2’s successful orbiter mission? (space.com) (reddit.com) — Doppler curves (twitter.com/cgbassa) — Lander crash site located (thehindu.com) (ndtv.com) — Aeolus dodges a Starlink. (space.com)Short & Sweet— Target marker operation and dress rehearsal postponed for Hayabusa2 (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp)— WFIRST passes PDR (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 7 September 1914: Birth of James Van Allen (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1962: cloud-based navigationSpaceflight news— Starhopper Completes Test Flight (spacenews.com) — Scott Manley’s excellent coverage (youtube.com) — More detailed photos (twitter.com/bocachicagal) — Updates from Elon Musk (twitter.com/elonmusk)— InSight mole update (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— The completed Rosalind Franklin rover displayed by Airbus engineers! (bbc.com)— Mars 2020 helicopter integrated into the rover (bbc.com)— JWST has now been physically assembled (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— August 30, 1931. Birth of Jack Swigert (wikipedia.org)— Next week in 1914: You know what might have killed Swigert….Spaceflight news— Uncrewed Soyuz aborts docking. (spacenews.com) — Second attempt delayed to free up a new docking port. (twitter.com/roscosmos)Short & Sweet— Astrobotic chooses ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket to deliver its lunar lander (astrobotic.com)— Sierra-Nevada selects ULA. (spacenews.com)— Europa Clipper passes Key Decision Point-C (arstechnica.com)Data Relay—Hot Structures— Thanks to Ben Crews for researching and presenting this topic! (linkedin.com)— X-15 Hardware Design Challenges (PDF: nasa.gov)— NASA solicitation for research on hot structures (sbir.gov)— Multifunctional Hot Structure (HOST) Heat Shield (techbriefs.com)— Heat Shield Concepts and Materials for Reentry Vehicles (includes some familiar lifting-body vehicle form proposals!) (PDF: dtic.mil)— Advances in Hot Structure Development (Brief with link to PDF: nasa.gov)— Thermal-Structural Optimization of Integrated Tanks for RLV (embedded PDF: aiaa.org)— Tim Dodd’s discussion on Starship transpiration cooling (youtube.com)/— u/spacerfirstclass speculates on Spaceship’s use of hot structures. (reddit.com/r/spacex)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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?

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

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

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)

This week in SF history— 16 June 1963. Launch of Vostok 6 with Valentina Tereshkova (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Planned retirement of Spitzer (spaceflightnow.com) — Final GO, launched in 2003 at ~1:30am (boeing.mediaroom.com) — Private Funding (spaceflightnow.com) — Iconic image of Andromeda Galaxy (spitzer.caltech.edu) — Another iconic image, the Helix Nebula (spitzer.caltech.edu)Short & Sweet— ISS wants to go commercial (spacenews.com)— NASA tries new strategy for stuck Martian instrument (mars.nasa.gov)— China carries out a successful sea launch. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— June 8, 1965: Launch of Luna 6 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Stratolaunch rumors (reuters.com)— OmegA failure (youtube.com) (space.com)Short & Sweet— All 60 Starlink satellites are doing well. (spacenews.com)— Hayabusa2 successfully deploys target marker after earlier aborted attempt (twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa)— An update on the Crew Dragon anomaly. (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Let us know what you’d like to see in our RSS feed.— Buy a paper Falcon Heavy! Use code ORBITAL for free shipping. (worldflightstore.com)Interview: Laura Forczyk— Astralytical.com— twitter.com/astralytical— twitter.com/lauraforczyk— linkedin.com/in/lauraforczyk

This week in SF history— 26 May 1951. Birth of Sally Ride — Rogers Commission (wikipedia.org) (PDF: spaceflight.nasa.gov) — Columbia Accident Investigation Board (wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— Starlink deployment begins (spacenews.com) (youtu.be/riBaVeDTEWI) — N2YO is a good satellite tracking resource (n2yo.com) — Visibility concerns (vimeo.com) (twitter.com/Alex_Parker/) (twitter.com/cgbassa) — Auto-avoidance (ieee.org)— Hayabusa2 aborts second marker deployment (planetary.org)Short & Sweet— Student-built Rocket Reaches Space (PDF: squarespace.com) (uscrpl.com)— OSIRIS-REx Citizen Science (asteroidmission.org) (bennu.cosmoquest.org)— Vulcan passes its critical design review. (spaceflightinsider.com)— Long March 4 suffers a failure. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— May 25, 2008: Phoenix lands on Mars (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— SpaceX engages in internal competition (arstechnica.com) (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Identifies Beresheet Lander’s Crash Site (www.planetary.org) (lroc.sese.asu.edu)— Landspace assembles a methalox engine. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Artur via email: I’m the son of one of those killed in the VLS disaster

This week in SF history— May 15, 1963, launch of MA-9 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Dragon had a parachute failure (spacenews.com)— Blue Moon (spacenews.com) — Earlier articles (washingtonpost.com) (aviationweek.com)Short & Sweet— Virgin Galactic is coming to Spaceport America. (spacenews.com)— Sixty Starlink satellites to launch on Wednesday. (twitter.com/elonmusk)

This week in SF history— May 10, 1967. Famous M2-F2 crash (wikipedia.org)(check-six.com)Spaceflight news— Dragon was destroyed prior to SuperDraco firing (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— CRS-17 makes it to Station after several setbacks. (spaceflightinsider.com)— Firefly successfully tests Alpha rocket's upper stage (arstechnica.com)Data Relay: Brazilian Space Program— Thanks to Anderson da Nova for researching and presenting this topic! — twitter.com/DaSupaNova — Unrelated, but fun resource discovered while researching (nakka-rocketry.net)— "Smith Plan" resulted in the construction of 2 institutions; the ITA and the IPD (periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br) (fab.mil.br)— Perspective paper (seer.cgee.org.br) — Brazil’s first launch complex was CLBI (Barreira do Inferno Launch Center) (clbi.cta.br) — Nike-Apache was the first rocket launched here (wikipedia.org)— Sonda rocket family (I II, III, IV) (wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com) — Sonda II was a new design (mtc-m12.sid.inpe.br) — IAE (Aeronautics and Space Institute) (iae.cta.br)— Alcantara Launch Center (CLA) (astronautix.com) (goo.gl/maps)— Satellite Launching Vehicle (VLS) (wikipedia.org)— Dove-OSCAR 17 (skyrocket.de)— Data Collecting Satellite (SCD-1 and 2) - (inpe.br)— SACI-2 spacecraft (skyrocket.de) (PDF: researchgate.net)— Operation São Luis - VLS-1 disaster (PDF: aereo.jor.br)— CBERS (wikipedia.org)— Crewed space program (tecnoblog.net) — Marcos Pontes was the first Brazilian in space! (twitter.com/astro_pontes) — Contributions to the ISS (gizmodo.uol.com.br)— Alcântara Cyclone Space (ACS) (parabolicarc.com) — Launched Cylone-4 (npointercos.jp)— Amazônia-1 (skyrocket.de)— Programa Cruzeiro do Sul (pt.wikipedia.org)— L75 Rocket Engine (researchgate.net)— Heroes of the Brazilian Space Program who died in Aug 22nd 2003 — Amintas Rocha Brito — Antonio Sergio Cezarini — Carlos Alberto Pedrini — Cesar Augusto Costalonga Varejão — Daniel Faria Gonçalves — Eliseu Reinaldo Moraes Vieira — Gil Cesar Baptista Marques — Gines Ananias Garcia — Jonas Barbosa Filho — José Aparecido Pinheiro — José Eduardo De Almeida — José Eduardo Pereira — José Pedro Claro Peres Da Silva — Luis Primon De Araujo — Mário César De Freitas Levy — Massanobu Shimabukuro — Mauricio Biella De Souza Valle — Roberto Tadashi Seguchi — Rodolfo Donizetti De Oliveira — Sidney Aparecido De Moraes — Walter Pereira JuniorQuestions, comments, corrections— Lee Stevens via email: Starlink orbit advantages

This week in SF history— May 5, 1961: Alan Shepard is first American launched into space on a suborbital flight (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Europa Clipper’s custom magnetometer is dead in the water (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) — ICEMAG details (PDF: lpi.usra.edu)(adsabs.harvard.edu) — Galileo also had a magnetometer (nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org)Short & Sweet— Mars InSight Detects First Marsquake (jpl.nasa.gov)— Yutu-2 enters its fourth lunar day. (planetary.org)— Curiosity memory issue is partially solved (planetary.org) (planetary.org)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert: Roll-away assembly building at Vandenberg was repurposed for Delta! (twitter.com/chairboy)

This week in SF history— 23 April 1957: Vandenberg established (wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com)Spaceflight news— Dragon 2 Capsule Explodes during testing (twitter.com/EmreKelly) (nasaspaceflight.com) — Scott Manley’s speculations (slightly outdated) (youtube.com) — A BFRC isn’t great. (theorbitalmechanics.com) — Seen on radar (twitter.com/GISRockstar) — Explosion video (twitter.com/Astronut099) — Unconfirmed reports indicated that the capsule was destroyed. (floridatoday.com/)Short & Sweet— SpaceX loses a booster to rough seas (spaceflightnow.com)— An update on Beresheet (spaceflightnow.com)— Intelsat-29e is declared a total loss (spacenews.com)Interview -- Keri Bean, Systems Engineer— twitter.com/planetarykeri— keribean.com

This week in SF history— 15/16 April 1960: Luna E-3 no1 and no2 failures (wikipedia.org)(wikipedia.org) (astronautix.com) — Similar to successful Luna 3 mission (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Beresheet crashes on the moon (planetary.org)(spacenews.com)(spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— DARPA contest seeks to improve rapid launch capabilities (darpa.mil)— A successful test flight for Stratolaunch. (spaceflightnow.com) (youtube.com)— Rocketlab unveils Photon smallsat bus (spacenews.com)— Software simulation begins for SLS. (nasaspaceflight.com)

This week in SF history— April 9, 1959, Mercury 7 announced (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Beresheet enters orbit (spacenews.com) — Landing details (technology.spaceil.com)Short & Sweet— Starliner gets delayed once again. (spaceflightnow.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Hayabusa2 impactor successfully strikes asteroid’s surface (sciencenews.org) (planetary.org)— Starhopper hops (spacenews.com)Interview -- SEDS UCF IREC— Thanks to Pedro for coordinating this interview!— Thanks also to the team members who took the time to talk to us: — Ben S. - Electronics lead — Alec - Propulsion lead — Ryan - Airframe Lead — Tyler - Project Manager— Fundraising (gofundme.com)— IREC 2019 promo (youtube.com)— twitter.com/irectempest— instagram.com/sedsucf— twitter.com/sedsucf

This week in SF history— 3 April 1973: launch of Salyut 2/Almaz 1 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Spacesuit issues interrupts first all-female EVA (spacenews.com) — EVA 52/53 briefing (youtube.com) — State-of-the-EMU audit (PDF: nasa.gov) — Laura Forczyk discussed how this issue is pervasive (twitter.com/LauraForczyk)Short & Sweet— First image of a piece of a Vulcan rocket revealed (arstechnica.com)— Mars Helicopter hovers (spaceflightinsider.com)— India performs an ASAT. (parabolicarc.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Space Skull fanart (lachrimaestro.tumblr.com)

This week in SF history— 28 March, 1986: ISEE-3/ICE Comet Halley Distant Flyby (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Crew Dragon is close, but not quite ready for human flight (and other SPX news) (spacenews.com) — Pre-launch presser (github.com) — Tested heat shield (engadget.com) — Hopper tests (spacenews.com) (nextbigfuture.com)Short & Sweet— Beresheet is on course for the moon (spacenews.com)— The ISS gets some fresh batteries (spaceflightnow.com)— NASA engineers still unclear on why InSight’s heat probe is stuck (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Birke via Discord: Molly Brown was the last gemini capsule that was named.Interview: Professor Erika Hamden— Applying to Small Explorer program (wikipedia.org)— TESS’s orbit is weird (spaceflight101.com)— UV standard stars paper (researchgate.net)— twitter.com/ErikaHamden— ehamden.org— instagram.com/erika.hamden

This week in SF history— 23 March, 1965: Launch of Gemini 3 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— SLS missions transferred to commercial launchers (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) — Cute graphic of Orion on various launchers (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge) — Infographic illustrating cargo capacity vs Orion mass (HT: DeltaVof4point3: reddit.com/r/spacex)Short & Sweet— SABRE rocket engine passes preliminary design review (esa.int)— Chang’e 4 mission enters its third lunar night (spacenews.com)— Raptor spotted in Boca Chica (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight)

This week in SF history— March 17, 1958 the US Naval Research Laboratory launched Vanguard 1 (wikipedia.org) — Thanks to another Ben for the assist (twitter.com/chairboy)Spaceflight news— Hayabusa2 touches down on Ryugu (planetary.org) (planetary.org)(hayabusa2.jaxa.jp) — Sampling Process (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp) (youtube.com) (PDF: hayabusa2.jaxa.jp) — Status blog (hayabusa2.jaxa.jp)Short & Sweet— Crew Dragon returns safely (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)— EELV comes to an end, but in name only. (spaceflightnow.com)— MAVEN begins aerobraking to a lower orbit (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— twitter.com/MarkChica: Minuteman III, actually does use hypergolic fuel, MMH and N2O4, not as it’s main fuel, but in its PSRE (Propulsion System Rocket Engine).Interview: Anthony Scodary— Gridspace.com— Scodary.com— twitter.com/gridspaceinc

This week in SF history— 5 March, 1931. Birth of Jerrie Cobb (wikipedia.org)— March, 1931. Ruth Rowland Nichols set the women's world altitude record. (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— DM-1! — Globe plushie (celestialbuddies.com) — Docking (arstechnica.com) (twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) (youtube.com) — David Saint-Jacques and Oleg Kononenko entering Crew Dragon capsule for 1st time (twitter.com/SpaceflightNow) — Were Super Dracos installed? (space.stackexchange.com)Short & Sweet— Spaceport America hopes to see crewed Virgin Galactic space flights (kob.com)— Mars lander InSight encounters trouble while preparing to dig (futurism.com)— Beresheet update (spacenews.com) (planetary.org)Questions, comments, corrections— Chairboy: Hypergolics correction (twitter.com/chairboy/)— RPG night (patreon.com)— Congrats to Roisin and Li! They won Falcon Heavy models (drive.google.com)

This week in SF history— 2004 February 26. First ISS EVA with no one inside (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Beresheet prepares to land on the Moon (planetary.org) — PS this booster will be the one used for the in-flight abort (americaspace.com)Short & Sweet— Despite issues, Soyuz successfully deploys EgyptSat-A (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/RussianSpaceWeb/)— Another successful test flight for Virgin Galactic. (spaceflightnow.com)— Hayabusa2’s first sampling! (engadget.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Fantastic Starman sweatshirt (etsy.com)— RPG night on the 8th! (patreon.com)Data Relay: Hypergols— Thanks to Arin Cross for researching and presenting this topic! (linkedin.com)— BFRCs - produced when launches with NTO go wrong (youtube.com)— Early hypergolic testing history: Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants, by John Drury Clark (google.com/books)— Video showing a drop of RFNA into a pool of MMH (purdue.edu)— See also — Investigation into the hypergolic ignition process initiated by low weber number collisions. (aiaa.org) — Advances in hypergolic propellants: ignition, hydrazine, and hydrogen peroxide research. (hindawi.com)— Flame structure, a la Arin Cross (proquest.com)— Space Shuttle OMS engines used hydrazine and NTO (books.google.com)— JWST has hypergolic and monopropellant thrusters (jwst-docs.stsci.edu) (PDF: nasa.gov)— More info on JWST momentum dumps (jwst-docs.stsci.edu)— Ariane 5 ECA purges with helium before and after burns (books.google.com) (esa.int)— GSLV and PSLV use Vikas engine (isro.gov.in) — High-thrust Vikas Engine (HTVE) is now used on GSLV Mk III (spacetechasia.com) — Named after Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai. Recommended reading: From Fishing Hamlet to Red Planet: India’s Space Journey (isro.gov.in) — ISRO sent a team of ~50 scientists to France in 1974 to participate in Viking/Ariane development. (indiatimes.com) — Side note: a rag left in a water coolant pipe during installation destroyed a Viking engine in flight (wikipedia.org) — Viking uses transpiration cooling (airandspace.si.edu)— Lots of work is happening in “green” hypergolics (harvard.edu) — A mixture of furfuryl alcohol, ethanolamine and copper (II) chloride (fuel) and 70% hydrogen peroxide was tested at one point (PDF: researchgate.net) — Gelled hypergolics are also an option (docs.lib.purdue.edu) — Hydrazine in a solid fuel for hybrid application (doi.org)— Further reading — Humble, Ronald. Space Propulsion Analysis and Design. United Kingdom: McGraw-Hill Companies,Incorporated, 1995.

This week in SF history— February 21, 1964: The birth of Scott Kelly (wikipedia.org)— February 21, 1964: The birth of Mark Kelly (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Saying Goodbye to Opportunity (americaspace.com)(spacenews.com)(youtube.com) — Close call in 2005 (newscientist.com) — Superlatives (wikipedia.org) — Possible Deep sleep issue (twitter.com/elakdawalla)Short & Sweet— Fourteen more days of night for Chang’e-4. (spacenews.com)— RS-25 testing resumes at NASA Stennis (nasaspaceflight.com)— NASA Officials downplay government shutdown’s effect on JWST’s launch (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— RPG night (patreon.com)— T-shirt giveaway (sfsf.shop/support-tom) — Congrats, Rich! (twitter.com/therealrichnez)

This week in SF history— February 14, 2000: NEAR-Shoemaker enters orbit of Eros (wikipedia.org) — Anomaly analysis (PDF near.jhuapl.edu)Spaceflight news— MarCO satellites are now silent (spacenews.com) (jpl.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— ISS suffers another leak, but this time of the messy, non-dangerous type (nasaspaceflight.com)— NASA seeks a human-rated lunar lander. (spaceflightinsider.com)— Updated Shape Model of 2014 MU69 surprises planetary scientists (arstechnica.com)Questions, comments, corrections— SFSF giveaway on Twitter this week! (sfsf.shop/support-tom)— Jim Wagner: China space pronunciation guide (realcoffeemaker.com)— TOM glassware (facebook.com) (twitter.com/NancyCareyPR)— TOM on the radio! (ideafablabs.com/maker-radio)Data Relay: Composite Materials— Thank you to Ben Crews for researching and presenting this topic.— Humans have been using composites for thousands of years! (mar-bal.com)— Proof that wood is a composite (youtube.com)— Spray-on insulation is a composite. (PDF: ulalaunch.com)— Markings on parts like “>PP-GF15<” indicate a “glass filler,” thus making them a composite. (PDF: bombardier.com)— Practical Engineering on Youtube is doing a great series on concrete. (youtube.com)— Study on hybrid composites (journals.sagepub.com)— Composites can form efficient monocoque structures. (wikipedia.org)— Real Engineering’s video on Carbon Fiber (youtube.com)— Space Ship 2 is entirely Carbon Fiber (cnn.com) (popsci.com)— The Space Shuttle Orbiter had some sandwich panels with aluminum honeycomb core and carbon-fiber facesheets. (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) — Composites reduced the thrust structure weight by 21% (PDF: (nasa.gov)— 787 Dreamliner used 50% (by weight) compsits. (boeing.com)— Orion CCM, Falcon 9 Payload fairing, Dragon heat shield are all composites (space.stackexchange.com)— Thin and thick laminates must be analyzed differently (wikipedia.org).— “Corrugated cardboard” composites (core.ac.uk)— Machining sandwich board cores can result in complex structures, proposed for use in atmospheric reentry (PDF: pdfs.semanticscholar.org)— Ceramic Matrix Composites were used in the Shuttle TPS (wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov)— Carbon/carbon can provide lighter and much stronger alternatives to smaller metallic machinings. (fibermaterialsinc.com)— CMCs are currently being researched to replace components in engine compartments and high-temp environments. (aerodefensetech.com)— Metallic Matrix Composites (MMC) (wikipedia.org)— This is so cool! You’re so cool! Where can I learn more? — Robert M. Jones (1999) Mechanics of Composites — Strong (2008) Fundamentals of Composites Manufacturing — Kollar, Springer (2009) Mechanics of Composite Structures — Stress analysis example (notebooks.azure.com) — Composites Wiki Page (wikipedia.org) — NASA 360 (youtube.com)

This week in SF history— 7 February 2001: The launch of Destiny on Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-95 — WORF patch is awesome (collectspace.com)Spaceflight news— NASA Making Renewed Efforts to Contact Mars Rover Opportunity (spacenews.com)Raptor update— Scott Manley points out Merlin has come a long way (youtube.com) (b14643.de) — Photos from Elon (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— Blue Origin gets another customer (spaceflightinsider.com)— ABL Space Systems gets more competitive (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Chairboy: Starship nosecone wasn’t mounted when it blew over (twitter.com/chairboy)— Buy a shirt, suppor the show! (sfsf.shop/support-tom)

This week in SF history— January 31, 1961: Mercury MR-2 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Starship Hopper's nose cone knocked over by heavy winds. (brownsvilleherald.com)Short & Sweet— Commercial crew swaps an astronaut. (spacenews.com)— Blue Origin is coming to Alabama. (spacenews.com)— Hubble’s primary camera is back online.(spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— By-line mixup, Chris Bush vs Ben McPheronData Relay: Spacecraft Navigation— Thanks to Ben McPheron for researching and presenting this topic — twitter.com/bdmcpheron — benjaminmcpheron.com — youtube.com/DMExplains— Three interrelated systems: Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) (wikipedia.org)— Onboard sensors — Even high quality sensors drift (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) (youtube.com) —Inertial sensors (IEEE) — Gyroscopes (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) — Hubble used gas bearings (spacetelescope.org) — Optical gyroscope (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) (wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) — First optical gyroscope in space was the Rossi X-Ray timing Explorer spacecraft, launched in 1995 (PDF: nasa.gov) — Sagnac Effect (youtube.com) — Inertial measurement Units (wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov) — Magnetometers measure the size and orientation of the magnetic field (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) — Eight different types in one particular source (engineersgarage.com) — Orbital models (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk)— Non inertial sensors for determining attitude — Sun sensors (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) (wikipedia.org) — Solar Panels (youtube.com) — Star Trackers/Star imagers (nasa.gov) (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) (science.gov) — Update rate on star trackers are generally 1-10 Hz, but can be up to 100 Hz at max (PDF: OSApublishing.org) — Hubble’s Fine Guidance System (HubbleSite.org) — Apollo ‘Person In Loop’ Star Tracking (NASA.gov) (Astronomy.com) (youtube.com) — Lovell had to work hard due to the field of debris around his vehicle (wikipedia.org) — Shuttle had one too, located forward and left of commander’s window (NASA.gov) — RADAR/LIDAR (NASA.gov) — Used in Apollo, specifically for lunar landing (NASA.gov)— Offboard sensors — RF beacons can be used as reference (PDF: orbit.dtu.dk) (wikipedia.org) — DSN Precise One Way Metric Tracking (PDF: jpl.nasa.gov) — Single-sample accuracy up to 0.05 mm/s and 3 m (scientificamerican.com) (PDF: researchgate.net) — NASA would like to update this to use laser communications (PDF: nasa.gov) — JPL leading development of a deep space atomic clock to further improve this system (jpl.nasa.gov)Future technologies — X-ray pulsar navigation — Developed at NASA Goddard (PDF: nasa.gov) — Closely analogous to GPS tracking (nasa.gov) — Make use of a large number of extremely stable millisecond pulsars (howstuffworks.com, nasa.gov) — SEXTANT experiment on ISS (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— 24 January, 1978. Kosmos 954 decayed over russia. (wikipedia.org) — This was a Upravlyaemy Sputnik Aktivnyy (Управляемый Спутник Активный) “Controlled Active Satellite” (wikipedia.org) — Wikipedia has a great list of nuclear reactors in space, including their fates (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Chang’e-4 enters Lunar night (spacenews.com) (cnn.com) — Scott Manley made a landing footage analysis video (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Relativity Space gets a launch pad. (spaceflightnow.com)— Stratolaunch scraps its launch vehicle program. (spacenews.com)— ISRO aims to test reusable rocket technology this summer. (indiatimes.com)Data Relay: Exotic Propulsion— Thanks to Ben McPheron for researching and presenting this topic. — twitter.com/bdmcpheron — benjaminmcpheron.com — youtube.com/DMExplains— Ion drives (wikipedia.org) — Electrostatic (theorbitalmechanics.com) — Electrothermal (PDF: nap.edu) — Electromagnetic (wikipedia.org)— Photonic sails — Proposed mission to use Sol as a gravitational lens (PDF via archive.org: spaceroutes.com) — Related: Magnetic sail (onlinelibrary.wiley.com) (PDF: usra.edu) — IKAROS (esa.int)— Nuclear thermal engines — Open Cycle (projectrho.com) — Pulsed NTR (aiaa.org)— Nuclear fusion (space.com) — PuFF (Pulsed Fission-Fusion) (nasa.gov)— Laser powered Ion Drive (nasa.gov)— Mach Effect drive (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— 19 Jan 2006: launch of New Horizons (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Further Hubble issues (universetoday.com) — Other instruments, including ACS are working fine (PDF: arizona.edu)Short & Sweet— Hayabusa2 releases date for first sample collection. (space.com)— Stratolaunch taxi test reaches 136 mph, almost takeoff speed. (geekwire.com)— SpaceX’s DM-1 mission delayed. (spacenews.com)— SpaceX to cut roughly 10 percent of its workforce. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Transcripts: get in touch if you’re interested in helping or have expertise to share.

This week in SF history— 9 January 1990. Launch of STS-32 (wikipedia.org) — Syncom IV-F5/Leasat 5 used a “Frisbee” deployment (youtu.be) — LDEF, Long Duration Exposure Facility had a lot of experiments onboard (youtube.com)Spaceflight news— New Horizons rings in the new year! (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) — Preliminary science results (sci-news.com)— OSIRIS-REx rings in the new year! (nasa.gov) — M3A originally “bounced” the spacecraft orbital direction (PDF: nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Demo-1 is imminent. (spaceflightinsider.com)— Chang’e-4 landed successfully (spacenews.com)— An Orbcomm satellite breaks up. (satnews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Birke et all via slack: static friction doesn’t change with gravity— Marian via Discord: The people behind the dust experiments on the recent SpaceShipTwo launch have a podcast! walkaboutthegalaxy.comData Relay: Sea Dragon— Research report presented to NASA by Aerojet-General Corporation (PDF: neverworld.net)— Excellent recent animation of a launch (youtube.com)

This week in SF history— 2 January 2004: Stardust flies past Wild 2 (wikipedia.org) — Whipple shielding (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Chang’e 4 pre-landing summary (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX on schedule for its first commercial interplanetary launch. (teslarati.com)— India to launch its own astronauts. (indiatimes.com)— Crewed Orion spacecraft passes critical design review. (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Peter via email: cosmic background radiation is only in the microwave spectrum

This week in SF history— December 30, 1995, launch of Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— More Starship photos and tweets. (teslarati.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Technical presentation promised (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Comparison to publicity photos (nasaspaceflight.com) — New metallurgy (twitter.com/elonmusk) (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— SpaceX reveals first completed Crew Dragon spaceship. (teslarati.com)— New Shepard is scrubbed until early 2019. (spaceflightnow.com)— Dream Chaser passes Integrated Review 4 (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— /u/Bananas_on_Mars: Resin sample testing for cover-up glue! (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)— Show notes mailing list (eepurl.com)— Space is Cool As Fk (ltpbooks.com)

This week in SF history— December 20 1999, STS-103, Hubble Servicing Mission 3A (wikipedia.org)(nasa.gov) — Aft shroud latches damaged by high temperatures (spacetelescope.org)(nasa.gov) — Fine Guidance Sensor (FGS) (nasa.gov) — Solid State Recorder (PDF: nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— SpaceShipTwo (spacenews.com) (twitter.com) — Mark Stucky and C.J. Sturckow piloted the craft, and will get astronaut wings. (twitter.com/jackiewattles)— Soyuz hole investigated on spacewalk (space.com) (youtube.com) — Strela used to help climb down (wikipedia.org) — Kononenko performed similar spacewalk in 2008 (nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Chang’e-4 enters lunar orbit. (spacenews.com)— RS-25 stand test aborted (twitter.com)— OneWeb cuts its constellation by a third. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Andrew Levine via email: OSIRIS-REx “entering orbit” around Bennu

This week in SF history— December 12, 1965: Gemini 6A launch abort (wikipedia.org) — AST: Why did Gemini use ejection seats? (youtube.com)Spaceflight news— Fun CRS-16 landing (spacenews.com) — Video — Land tracking (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Onboard (twitter.com/elonmusk) — John Kraus took some great photos, particularly of recovery (johnkrausphotos.com) — Core B1050 might be reused for an internal SpaceX mission (witter.com/elonmusk) — B1050 r/SPX wiki tracking (reddit.com/r/spacex) — Scott Manley analysis (youtube.com)(youtube.com)— Starship/Super Heavy update — Heavy changes enroute — Demo Starship is being built now (twitter.com/elonmusk) — No update during Dear Moon announcement due to big changes (twitter.com/Erdayastronaut) — Unintuitive, metal design (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Images of demo Starship coming soon (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— OSIRIS-REx enters orbit around Bennu. (asteroidmission.org)— Chang’e 4 launches successfully. (spacenews.com)— Astra Space suffers a launch failure (spacenews.com)— Mars InSight is looking good so far. (parabolicarc.com)

This week in SF history— December 5, 2002, launch of TDRS-10 (wikipedia.org) — Built on the Boeing 601 chassis (wikipedia.org)Questions, comments, corrections— Richard Witherspoon via email: TAGSAM separation plane— Ben Hallert via email: Falcon Heavy and a handful of Falcon 9s have launched from 39A.— Meetup! (twitter.com/orbitalpodcast) — Wednesday the 5th, 6 pm at four peaks brewing company on 8th ave in Tempe.

This week in SF history— 1 December 2000: Launch of STS-97 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Virgin Orbit completes captive carry test flight (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Crew Dragon’s Test Flight Scheduled (spacenews.com)— China Prepares for Lunar Lander (spacenews.com)— A Glimpse Into SpaceX’ Spaceship Testing (spacenews.com)— NASA picks a landing site for Mars 2020 Rover. (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Maximum Aerodynamic Pressure released by Tim Dodd (youtube.com)Interview— Richard Witherspoon, mission operations systems engineer, Lockheed Martin— asteroidmission.org— twitter.com/OSIRISREx

This week in SF history— November 21 1960: Mercury MR-1’s very short flight (youtube.com) (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— SLS program may be voluntarily ended. (businessinsider.com) (nextbigfuture.com)— SpaceX will not be upgrading Falcon 9 second stage. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk)Short & Sweet— The FCC approves four large satellite constellations. (spacenews.com)— Russia is looking into reusable rockets too. (parabolicarc.com)— OSIRIS-REx unfurls its sampling arm for first time en route to Bennu (arstechnica.com)

This week in SF history— November 14, 1933. The birth of Fred Wallace Haise Jr. (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Lucy passes key decision point C (americaspace.com) — Project life cycle (PDF: nasa.gov)— SpaceX will fly mini BFR ship as second stage for F9. (spacenews.com) (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Scott Manley did a great overview/speculation video (youtube.com)Data Relay: NASA Mars InSight— Thank you to Richard Durden for presenting this topic. (twitter.com/rkdurden)— InSight press kit is very valuable (PDF: jpl.nasa.gov) — Launch Press Kit (PDF: jpl.nasa.gov)— Failure of a vacuum vessel on SEIS delayed Insight from the 2016 launch window to the 2018 launch window. (spaceflightnow.com) (space.com)— MarCo-A and -B are nicknamed “Wall-E” and “Eva” by JPL Engineers (space.com)— Has a parafin-actuated five finger grabber (space.com)— Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) (springer.com)

This week in SF history— November 5, 2013: Launch of Mangalyaan (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Dawn’s dead (spacenews.com) — We talked to mission manager Marc Rayman on episode 75 (theorbitalmechanics.com)— MS-10 was failure caused by a bent pin (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com) — Scott Manley has slow-mo analysis (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— OSIRIS-REx captures first view of Bennu. (astronomynow.com)— Starman is now beyond Mars. (space.com)

This week in SF history— October 24, 1957: Beginning of the Dyna-Soar program (wikipedia.org)(astronautix.com)Spaceflight news— Soyuz will resume crewed flight in December. (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet— Hubble up and running. (nasa.gov)(spacenews.com)— Landspace falls short of orbit. (spacenews.com)— Kepler is in safe mode (spacenews.com) — Post-recording note: Kepler has officially been retired. (twitter.com/NASAKepler)Questions, comments, corrections— Chris Hofmann via DM: Astra Rocket 1 *did* fly— Data Relay contributor applications closed for now.

This week in SF history— Oct. 26, 2004. Cassini’s first Titan flyby (nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— Soyuz update (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (HT: Sam Moore russianspaceweb.com)Short & Sweet— Hubble Space Telescope nears operational status (twitter.com/TodLauer)— Paul Allen passes away. (spacenews.com)— Rocket Lab has selected a U.S. launch site. (nasaspaceflight.com)— Astra Space Rocket 2 licensed for launch soon (PDF: faa.gov)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert, via email: Soyuz LES isn’t needed later in ascent because of the airspeed of the vehicle— Phoenix meetup Wednesday December 5th! — Four Peaks on 8th street in Tempe — Please RSVP if you’re interested in hanging out with us

This week in SF history-- October 18, 1963, first flight of a cat (gizmodo.com) (youtu.be)-- Véronique AG1 is a V-2 derivative with detachable fins (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- Soyuz MS-10 fails during second stage flight (nasaspaceflight.com)(youtube.com) -- Primary cause: Soyuz-FG first stage separation failure (JPG: wikipedia.org) (spaceflightinsider.com) -- “Lower part of first stage disintegrated” (http://tass.com/science/1025675) -- D booster at fault (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) -- This is the second ever successful in-flight abort with crew. The previous was also a Soyuz (wikipedia.org) -- ROSCOSMOS claims to have footage from a camera facing the boosters (twitter.com/NASASpaceflight) -- Impact on other rockets -- Arianespace considering impact on their Soyuz-STs (spacenews.com) -- Commercial crew can’t be safely pushed faster (spacenews.com)-- Hubble and Chandra are down! -- Hubble (twitter.com/BadAstronomer) (nasa.gov) -- Chandra (nasa.gov) (twitter.com/planet4589) (twitter.com/astrogrant)Questions, comments, corrections-- Arin Cross: Injector elements weren’t vibrating per se, it was the propellants inside-- DR call for contributors -- Email us at info@theorbitalmechanics.com and use the subject line “Data Relay Contributor”Data Relay: Saturn V umbilicals-- Thank you to Anderson da Nova for presenting this topic! (twitter.com/DaSupaNova)-- Umbilicals are connected to the Launch Umbilical Tower (LUT) (JPG: wikipedia.org)-- From bottom to top, the umbilicals are: -- Aft Umbilical Carrier #1 - various pneumatic couplings, 8 electrical connectors and a 6" LOX connector -- Aft Umbilical Carrier #2 - various pneumatic couplings, 8 electrical connectors and a 6" RP-1 connector -- Aft Umbilical Carrier #3 - various pneumatic couplings, two 4" air conditioning couplings -- S-IC Inter / "Aft" - LOX fill and drain, and GHe for POGO suppression -- S-IC Fwd - GN2 air conditioning -- S-II Aft - Human access -- S-II Inter - LH2, LOX, vent line, pneumatic/electrical, air conditioning, and instrument cooling -- S-II Fwd - GH2 vent, electrical/pneumatic interfaces -- S-IV B Aft - LH2, LOX, electrical/pneumatic, and air conditioning -- S-IV B Fwd - Split umbilical, serving S-IVB forward section (GH2, electrical and pneumatic) and IU section (air conditioning, GH2, electrical and pneumatic) -- Service Module - Air Conditioning, vent line, coolant, and electrical/pneumatic interfaces -- Command Module Access Arm - crew access -- Bonus: a 360 degree, 25 ton crane (reddit.com/r/space)-- Sliding Wire Escape System (youtube.com)-- See also: -- Apollo (SATURN V) launches in 60FPS HD w/ AUDIO (youtube.com) -- Umbilical Arms for the Saturn V Vehicle (ieee.org) -- Saturn V Flight Manual (PDF: nasa.gov) -- Apollo/Saturn Mobile Launcher (savethelut.org) -- Lots of diagrams in one place (apollosaturn.com) -- LUT Engineering Camera Footage -- Tail Service Mast (Umbilical Aft) (youtube.com) -- Tail Service Mast (second angle) (youtube.com) -- S-IC Aft (youtube.com) -- S-II Inter (youtube.com) -- S-II Inter (youtube.com) -- S-II Fwd (youtube.com) -- S-IVB Fwd (youtube.com) -- S.M. (youtube.com) -- S.M. and S-IVB Fwd (youtube.com) -- Arms retracted during liftoff (JPG: wikipedia.org) -- POGO oscillation (wikipedia.org) -- Technical information summary (Leads to PDF: nasa.gov) -- Saturn V Mechanical Ground Support Equipment (erau.edu) -- Saturn V Launch Vehicle GSE Fact Booklet (PDF viewer: scribd.com) -- Umbilical Systems: V-2 to Saturn V (PDF viewer: scribd.com) -- NASA report: Response to ground wind excitation (PDF: nasa.gov) -- Wind damper system (PDF: nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— October 12, 1977, ALT-15, first flight of Shuttle without tail cone (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approach_and_Landing_Tests)Spaceflight news— MASCOT successfully lands on Ryugu’s surface (http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2018/mascot-landing-on-ryugu-successful.html) — Wonderful images of — Its shadow (planetary.s3.amazonaws.com) — a 3-frame movie of its descent (planetary.org) — a nice image of both the rover/hopper and its shadow (planetary.s3.amazonaws.com) — a surface image showing it reflecting sunlight (planetary.s3.amazonaws.com) — Orbit and operations website (haya2now.jp)Short & Sweet — Changes are being planned for SLS’ upper stage (spacenews.com) — Commercial Crew test flights slip to next year (spaceflightnow.comQuestions, comments, corrections — /u/nerobro clarifies pressure-fed vs autogenously pressurized tanks (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)Data Relay: Combustion Instability — Thanks to Arin Cross for presenting this topic! (linkedin.com) — Historical Perspective of Combustion Instability in Motors: Case Studies* (PDF reader: docslide.net) — NASA Experience with Pogo in Human Spaceflight Vehicles (PDF: nasa.gov) — Apollo 13 had issues with Pogo (youtu.be) — Overview of Combustion Instabilities in Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines (PDF: core.ac.uk) — Comprehensive Review of Liquid-Propellant Combustion Instabilities in F-l Engines (PDF: gatech.edu) — How NASA brought the monstrous F-1 “moon rocket” engine back to life (arstechnica.com) — F-1 injector diagrams, and an example of different impinging injector setups (heroicrelics.org) — Combustion Instabilities in Solid Propellant Rocket Motors (PDF: dtic.mil) — Lessons Learned In Solid Rocket Combustion Instability (PDF: dtic.mil) — Newspace examples — SpaceShipOne “was a cranky, shuddering, shaking, vibrating motor” (dailymail.co.uk) — SpaceShipTwo possibly suffered combustion instabilities due to the selection of HTPB (telegraph.co.uk)(aviationweek.com) — Treatment of BE-4 suggests it’s had instability issues in the past (spaceflightnow.com) — Rocketlab may be concerned about fuel sloshing (cosmosmagazine.com) — Active damping systems may be viable in the future (PDF: princeton.edu)

This week in SF history— 7 September 1958 First flight of Black Knight (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Vector patents propylene engine (arstechnica.com) — Fuel stats (yarchive.net)Short & Sweet— ULA selects the BE-4 for Vulcan first stage (spaceflightinsider.com)— Stratolaunch releases some info about its new engine (spacenews.com)— SpaceX will send another company’s robots to the Moon in 2021 (futurism.com)Data Relay: Power Generation with Chris Bush— Solar Power — Cubesat panels can be found for ~$650 per W (cubesatshop.com) — GOES accounts for solar pressure/atmospheric drag (PDF, site down at time of publishing: gsfc.nasa.gov) — ISS array degrads ~0.5% a year in capacity (PDF: nasa.gov) — Solar arrays take radiation damage in multiple modes(spenvis.oma.be) — Solar Power for Outer Planets Study (PDF: lpi.usra.edu) — Paper on solar power for inner planets (nasa.gov) — MESSENGER added mirrors to it’s solar array (spacedaily.com)— Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTG) — They’re expensive (inldigitallibrary.inl.gov) — Oak Ridge National Laboratory produced Pu-238 in 2015 (ornl.gov)— Nuclear Fission — SAFE-400 (sci-hub.tw) — Kilopower (PDF: nasa.gov) (youtube.com) — Four part blog post on the history and future of kilopower (beyondnerva.wordpress.com)— Power for surface missions — Example 500 day mars mission (researchgate.net)— Books Referenced — Hyder, A. K. (2003). Spacecraft power technologies. London: Imperial College Press. — Patel, M. R. (2005). Spacecraft Power Systems. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

This week in SF history— 29 September 1945: Von Braun arrives in the US (apesinspace.co)(wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— MINERVA-2 touches down on Asteroid Ryugu (nasaspaceflight.com) (twitter.com/haya2e_jaxa) — Hayabusa cat tribute (youtube.com) — Approach GIF (twitter.com/tariqjmalik) — Diagram of interior rotating mass (spaceflight101.com)— TESS gets to work (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— SpaceX and Boeing say they both meet NASA crew safety requirements. (spacenews.com)— Crewed missions to Mars face significant radiation hazard (newatlas.com)— HTV launches with return capsule (spaceflightnow.com)— GEM 63 has its first test fire. (spaceflightinsider.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert via email — Older ICBMs weren’t hypergols — 9M rockets should be able to move by sea no problem— /u/Nerobro: COP, COL, COM (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)

This week in SF history— September 18–19, 1980, Damascus Missile Disaster (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— BFR announcement (youtube.com) — dearmoon.earthShort & Sweet— PD Aerospace announces a new spaceplane with “hybrid” engine. (japantimes.co.jp)— Orion parachute test is a success. (parabolicarc.com)— Delta II has launched for the last time. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 1962 September 11 - NASA Astronaut Training Group 2 “The New Nine” selected (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— SLS ML rolled out to the pad (nasaspaceflight.com)— Exos launch post analysis (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Shizuoka University and several partner universities to test “mini” space elevator prototype STARS-Me (japantimes.co.jp) (cnet.com) (wikipedia.org)— Kepler resumes science mission. (spacenews.com)— ISS leak was caused by a drill, not MMOD. (spaceflightinsider.com).Questions, comments, corrections— Eric Blood via email: More info on Opportunity’s situation — Mentioned Rover Low Gain Antenna, RLGA (PDF page 35/report page 19 jpl.nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— 2013 September 7: launch of LADEE (wikipedia.org)(nasa.gov) — Twilight rays (nasa.gov) — Science results (PDF: nasa.gov) — Impacted near the eastern rim of Sundman V crater (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— ISS leak (reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge)(space.com) (twitter.com/Space_Station) — We discussed slow leak issues with Tess Caswell (theorbitalmechanics.com) — Cody’s Lab explored whether it hurts to plug a hole with your finger (youtube.com) — Successfully repaired (blog.nasa.gov) (space.com) — Ultrasonic sensors were developed in 2004 for slow leaks like this. (newatlas.com)— Deadline for Oppy to wake up (space.com) (spacenews.com) — Mike Seibert: "It still seems like it's walking away early." (twitter.com/mikeseibert) — Scott Maxwell says current Tau cutoff was picked seemingly arbitrarily (twitter.com/marsroverdriver)Short & Sweet— India wants to launch astronauts by 2022. (space.com)— Launcherone undergoes flight tests (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— September 1, 1960. Project Apollo formed. (hq.nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— Starliner spotlight (nasaspaceflight.com) (youtube.com) — Soyuz 32 landed autonomously (HT Sam Moore: wikipedia.org)— Kepler mission nearing its end (spacenews.com) — Scott Manley describes the issues that took out gyros on multiple spacecraft (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Stratolaunch is expanding its range of launch vehicles. (spacenews.com)— Oppy should be waking up any day now. (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Smarter Every Day covers the Parker Solar Probe (HT /u/Nerobro: youtube.com)— MOMO-2 explosion in detail: (phys.org)

This week in SF history— August 25, 1949. XS-1 flight #124 (wikipedia.org) — Smithsonian exhibit page of the T-1 partial pressure suit (HT Csaba: airandspace.si.edu)Spaceflight news— Smithsonian renovation (politico.com)— More unusual Russian satellite activity (space.com)Short & Sweet— Crew access coming to Pad 39-A (spaceflightnow.com)— RS-25 test fire was cut short. (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Parker Solar Probe updates from /u/Nerobro (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)— Season 3 post on Patreon (patreon.com)

This week in SF history — 19 August 1960: Korabl-Sputnik 2 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Firefly is making real progress. (spacenews.com) (PDF: fireflyspace.com)— Ursa Major wants to be the first engine specialist (spacenews.com) — NSF discussion (nasaspaceflight.com)— Rocket Lab now scheduled for November launch. (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Self-regulation for smallsat security (spacenews.com)— Stellar Exploration is making thrusters for microsats. (spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 15 August 2007: Rick Mastracchio finds a hole in his glove (wikipedia.org) (nasaspaceflight.com) (universetoday.com)Spaceflight news— Dragon and Starliner updates — Flight test dates (americaspace.com) — Astronaut assignments (spacenews.com) (parabolicarc.com)Short & Sweet— Starliner needs a minor design change (spacenews.com)— SLS Core stage gets rid of its waxy build-up. (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Peter Zink via email: more info on solar physics and Parker Solar Probe (phys.org)

This week in SF history— August 5, 1930: Birth of Neil Armstrong (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Starliner had a pad abort anomaly. (arstechnica.com)— Spaceship Two goes even higher. (spacenews.com)— Oppy Update (spaceflightinsider.com)Short & Sweet— Mars Express finds evidence for liquid water on Mars. (nasaspaceflight.com)— TESS is now operational. (spaceflightnow.com)

This week in SF history— 27 July 1972, birth of Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor (wikipedia.org) — “Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites at the International Space Station” (DOC: wired.com)Spaceflight news— Blue Origin does a high altitude escape. (spaceflightnow.com)— Cygnus reboosted the ISS (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Parker Solar Probe B is pushed back to August the 6th (spaceflightnow.com)— Scotland gets a launch site. (spaceflightnow.com)— Astra Space successfully conducts first launch! (twitter.com/kdmgabe)Questions, comments, corrections— Everyone, via everything: Ben said Curiosity, not Opportunity RE: Mars operational record

This week in SF history— July 20, 1976: Viking 1 landing (wikipedia.org) (mars.nasa.gov)Spaceflight news— Crew Dragon for test flight arrives at Cape. (spaceflightnow.com)— Landspace is building a methalox rocket for launch in 2020. (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— LC-17 has been demolished. (nasaspaceflight.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ron W via email: AR-22 engines are spaceflown! (HT Sam Moore: spacenews.com)

This week in SF history— 12 July 2000. Launch of Zvezda module (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— CHEOPS nears flight (nasaspaceflight.com) (space.com)— Phantom Express engine testing (spacenews.com) (HT Sam Moore: parabolicarc.com) (wikipedia.org)Short & Sweet— ISRO works steadily towards human missions (isro.gov.in) (HT Sam Moore: youtube.com)— SpaceX may attempt an RTLS at Vandenberg later this year. (spaceflightnow.com)— Our planetary protection methods may need an update (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Jason Friesen via email: Shuttle recovery followup — STS-3xx (wikipedia.org)

This week in SF history— 8 July, 2011. Last flight of Atlantis, STS-135 (wikipedia.org) — Two iPhones 4 on board (space.com)Spaceflight news— Captive carry test for LauncherOne (spacenews.com)— Momo-2 crashes (japantimes.co.jp) (PDF: istellartech.com) — Momo-1 also failed (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Rogozin says no more Protons. (spacenews.com)— Electron delay feels a bit familiar (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Leon R and James Maxy: RFNA is red fuming, not red foaming. (twitter.com/LeonRunningMan)(twitter.com/james_maxcy)— Jeff Snively: LOP-G isn’t scheduled for EM-2 (twitter.com/Jeff_Snively) — PPE on commercial launch? (nasa.gov) (wikipedia.org)

This week in SF history— June 29, 1961, Thor-Ablestar upper stage exploded, the first unintended space debris event in history (spacesafetymagazine.com) (books.google.com)Spaceflight news— NASA releases BAA for Gateway’s Power and Propulsion Element. (parabolicarc.com)Short & Sweet— The last Falcon 9 Block 4 prepares for flight (nasaspaceflight.com)— Business Time will have to wait (twitter.com/rocketlab)Upcoming spaceflight events— Jeff Hoffman’s talk — Event page (tudelft.nl) — Streaming page (collegerama.tudelft.nl)

This week in SF history— June 19 2002: Landing of STS-111 (wikipedia.org) (spaceflightnow.com)Spaceflight news— Opportunity vs Dust Storm, Round 2 (youtube.com) — Simulated view of taus 1-11, increasing by 2 (nasa.gov) — Mars Exploration Rovers Surface Fault Protection by Tracy Neilson (PDF: jpl.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— Peggy Whitson retires from NASA (spaceflightinsider.com)— Group restores early lunar orbiter photos (worldofindie.co.uk)

This week in SF history— 14 June 1991, landing of STS-40 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— NASA isn’t selling the ISS, people. (spacenews.com) — Original story that started this nonsense (washingtonpost.com) — Is this likely to happen? Not according to the senate. (spacenews.com)— SpaceX is planning a major expansion at KSC. (parabolicarc.com)Short & Sweet— Juno gets three more years. (spaceflightnow.com)— Orbital ATK has been purchased by Northrop Grumman (spaceflightnow.com) (ftc.gov)— Opportunity takes a science break due to dust storm (NASA.gov) (space.com) (twitter.com/mikeseibert)Questions, comments, corrections— Ben Hallert, via email: Virgin Galactic likely to head to space later on.— Bart Willems, via email: A few comments on the Lippisch Ente.

This week in SF history— June 11 1928: Flight of the first rocket-powered plane (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— VSS Unity flies again. (spaceflightnow.com) (youtube.com) — COG overlay. (twitter.com/jdeshetler)Short & Sweet— DARPA wants in on NewSpace (spacenews.com)— GOES-17 can’t keep its cool (americaspace.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Ignition! by John D Clark is now an audiobook! (amazon.com)Interview: Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering— We talked to Daan van Heteren, propulsion engineer— dare.tudelft.nl — twitter.com/DARE_TUDelft — linkedin.com — facebook.com

This Week in Spaceflight History— 4 June, 2010. First launch of Falcon 9 (youtu.be)(wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Ariane 6 update (satelliteobservation.net/)Short & Sweet— NASA wants to buy rides on commercial lunar landers by the end of the year (spacenews.com)— Bangabandhu-1 didn’t count for crew rating (spaceflightnow.com)Interview: Eric Blood— Eric’s profile (linkedin.com)— LDSD overview (youtube.com) — LDSD SFDT-1 debrief presentation (PDF: nasa.gov)— BLDT, a predecessor to LDSD (researchgate.net)— BLDT Test Report for Flight 4 (nasa.gov)— SIAD rocket sled testing: (youtube.com)— Parachute rocket sled testing (youtube.com)— Parachute deployment via trailing ballute (nasa.gov)— Summary of SFDT-1 Test: (nasa.gov)— LDSD Parachute System overview (nasa.gov)— Parachute performance during SFDT-1 (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— 1973 May 25. Launch of Skylab 2. (wikipedia.org) (spacefacts.de)Spaceflight news— SpaceX’s Load-and-Go may get the go-ahead (spacenews.com)— Contamination in SLS core stage engine tubing (spacenews.com)Interview -- Dr. Dmitry Savranski and the Modular Active Self-Assembling Space Telescope Swarms— Dr. Savranski’s laboratory home (sioslab.com)— The original article that prompted this interview (news.cornell.edu) — A similar article (nasa.gov)— JWST uses a similar mirror pointing mechanism (nasa.gov)

This week in SF history-- 1978, May 20. Launch of Pioneer 12 (wikipedia.org) -- 1P/Halley observations (HT Mike Carper: harvard.edu)Spaceflight news-- Bangabandhu presser (reddit.com/r/spacex)(transcript: gist.github.com)-- Community assessment (reddit.com/r/spacex)Short & Sweet-- Mars 2020 helicopter confirmed included (nasa.gov)-- ULA selects the RL-10 for Vulcan upper stage. (http://www.parabolicarc.com)-- -- Astra Space had a launch abort (twitter.com/kdmgabe)

This week in SF history— 14 May, 2010. Launch of Rassvet on STS-132. (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news— Elon posted a parafoil photo! (twitter.com/elonmusk)— Mars 2020 helicopter (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Firefly to take over SLC-2W in Vandenberg (spacenews.com)— SLS Mobile Launcher needs an upgrade. (parabolicarc.com)— JWST testing reveals a new issue. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— @27394days: Zodiacal light is ecliptic dust reflection!

This week in SF history— 3 May 1976: Birth of Alexander Gerst (wikipedia.org) — Bringing CIMON to ISS (airbus.com)Spaceflight news— Mars 2020 heat shield cracked (spacenews.com)— Resource Prospector mission canceled (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— TESS is on its way! (spaceflightnow.com)— GSAT 11 recalled for inspection (spaceflightnow.com)Questions, comments, corrections— /u/Fellknight and /u/CapMSFC: Details on frozen lunar orbits (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)— Eric Blood via email: LDSD did use a ballute! (trs.jpl.nasa.gov)

This week in SF history— 24 April 1972. Liftoff of Apollo 16 LM from the moon. (wikipedia.org) (youtube.com) (apolloproject.com)Spaceflight news— SpaceX wants to use a ballute to recover S2 (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Ballistic coefficient will be reduced by two orders of magnitude (twitter.com/elonmusk) — Might not be insane to land under helium?!? (reddit.com/r/spacex) — JPL studied ballutes for aerocapture (PDF: jpl.nasa.gov)— Orbital ATK announces OmegA, formerly Next Generation Launch System (spacenews.com) — Anthony Colangelo did some anaysis over on MECO (mainenginecutoff.com)Short & Sweet— Lockheed Martin wants to reduce Orion costs by 50 percent. (spacenews.com)— Not quite Business Time (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Tess Caswell via email: a paper on NTRS about trends in cabin air loss and how they are measured from nitrogen loss over time: (ntrs.nasa.gov)

This week in SF history-- 22 April 2010. USA-212/OTV-1, the first orbital launch of X-37 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- BFR updates    -- Tooling spotlight (teslarati.com) (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)    -- BFR: now a  little longer (twitter.com/elonmusk)-- ICPS back in business? (HT DeltaVof4point4: arstechnica.com)Short & Sweet-- CNBC reports the results of two different Zuma investigations (cnbc.com)-- OTV 5 has been found (spaceflight101.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- /u/CapMSFC: the two different fairing drogue/parafoil designs will be tested side-by-side!Interview -- Tess Caswell, Environmental and Thermal Operating Systems (ETHOS) flight controller-- CDRA design (PDF: nasa.gov)-- Water management (nmsu.edu)-- twitter.com/caswelltess-- finalfrontierscience.wordpress.com

This week in SF history-- 13 April 1990, relaunch of Palapa B2R. (HT /u/deltavof4point3: sattel.com)Spaceflight news-- SpaceX fairing recovery efforts    -- Parafoil manufacturer identified as MMIST (reddit.com/r/spacex)    -- FCC assessment (PDF: faa.gov)(reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge)    -- Iridium-5 fairing recovered intact, just maybe missed Mr. Steven? (twitter.com/elonmusk)-- VSS Unity flies (spaceflightnow.com)-- Interstellar Glory arrives on the scene (HT Sam Moore: weixin.qq.com)Short & Sweet-- Astra Space flight scrubbed (HT twitter.com/jeff_foust PDF: faa.gov)(HT twitter.com/kdmgabe paywall: kodiakdailymirror.com)-- RemoveDebris is now in orbit (space.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- /u/Nerobro: FCC/NOAA update

This week in SF history-- 3 April 1973: Launch of Salyut 2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_2)    -- Angara model with a TKS on top (JPG: b14643.de)    -- Excalibur Almaz wants (wanted?) to fly two more (HT Chris Radcliff: houstonpress.com)Spaceflight news-- Tiangong I deorbit update! (aerospace.org)    -- 49th largest spacecraft reentering uncontrolled (HT twitter.com/LauraForczyk: planet4589.org)-- NOAA called an early end to SpaceX launch coverage (twitter.com/SciGuySpace)-- Blue Origin switches upper stage of New Glenn. (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet-- James Webb Space Telescope now slated for May 2020 launch (nasa.gov)-- FCC approves Starlink (geekwire.com)

This week in SF history-- 1 April 1960. Launch of TIROS-1 (wikipedia.org)    -- Maybe three pairs of solid spin motors? (science.nasa.gov)Spaceflight news-- Dawn plans to spiral down to a very low orbit around Ceres (jpl.nasa.gov)-- Astra’s inaugural launch coming soon? (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet-- Bloostar gets 3D printed engine (zero2infinity.space) (youtube.com)-- Marshall Spaceflight Center is America’s lead propulsion center (parabolicarc.com)-- Humanity Star has deorbited (astronomy.com)

This week in SF history-- 25 March, 1928. Birth of Jim Lovell (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- News about the Soyuz smallsat partial failure last year (spacenews.com)    -- Roscosmos recently issued a document to Astro Digital, allowing them to successfully make an insurance claim (spacenews.com)-- NASA releases analysis of CRS-7 failure (spaceflightnow.com)Short & Sweet-- GRACE 1 re-enters after 16 years in orbit (spaceflight101.com)-- CST-100 gets its reentry thrusters (spaceflightinsider.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- Ben Hallert via email: Shuttle-Centaur never flew, and here’s why. (arstechnica.com)-- Splashdown bingo: Tiangong 1    -- theorbitalmechanics.com/splashdownMystery Guest #1-- We discussed an awesome event coming up in Chicago (eventbrite.com)-- We discussed a book (amazon.com)-- Guest’s website (SPOILERS)-- A related YT playlist that Ben thinks the listener will like (youtube.com)

This week in SF history-- 1966 March 16: Gemini 8 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- FH demo center booster footage (reddit.com/r/space)-- Hispasat booster “written off” (spaceflight101.com)Short & Sweet-- Stratolaunch may build its own shuttle. (parabolicarc.com)-- Stealthy Startup defies the FCC. (spectrum.ieee.org)Questions, comments, corrections-- Starliner/DEC/SEC    -- /u/Chairboy: Higher thrust = safer trajectory (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)    -- Aaron Sawdey via email: Reference from George Sowers (thespacereview.com)    -- /u/Sknowball DEC has flown before! (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)

This week in SF history-- March 9, 1955: original airing of Walt Disney’s Disneyland episode 20: Man in Space (youtu.be) (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- GAO releases report on JWST construction issues (arstechnica.com) (gao.gov)-- First Falcon 9 Block 5 on the test stand (nasaspaceflight.com)    -- Good summary of all the upgrades (reddit.com/r/spacex/)Short & Sweet-- Falcon Heavy scheduled for June launch. (spaceflightnow.com)-- Hayabusa2 sights Ryugu (parabolicarc.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- Ben Hallert via email: Deke Slayton flew a B-25 not a B-52

This week in SF history-- March 1, 1924. Birth of Deke Slayton (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- Juno: end or extend? (nasaspaceflight.com)-- SpaceX has more fairing issues. (spaceflightnow.com) (twitter.com/SpaceX)Short & Sweet-- Trace Gas Orbiter performs over 900 aerobrakes. (spaceflight101.com)-- Ariane 5 followup (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- Jason via email: STS-100 was the Canadarm2 installation, but STS-74 was Hadfield’s first Shuttle mission.Interview: Al Bowers, NASA Armstrong on the aero-gravity assist maneuver-- Slideshow presentation (PDF: nasa.gov)-- Heat capacity ratio is an important factor to the efficiency of this maneuver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_capacity_ratio)-- If an AGA vehicle uses nuclear power, its likely to cause concern, just like Cassini did. (engadget.com)-- A test mission would look a lot like HTV-2 (youtube.com)

This week in SF history-- 22 February 1978. First GPS satellite (wikipedia.org)    -- Precursors        -- Transit satellite system (wikipedia.org)        -- Land-based Omega (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- EVA-48 (spaceflightinsider.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet-- Stealth Space spotted (abc7news.com)-- New ASDS (twitter.com/elonmusk)-- Mr Steven has a net (twitter.com/nextspaceflight)-- SpaceX gets science mission certification (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- Ben Hallert via email: Voyager was at 6 billion km, not 60.-- /u/Ivebeenfurthereven: don’t forget titanium gridfins! (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)

Falcon Heavy woooooo! We spent most of the recording running around cheering, but eventually we settled down and also talked about a very fast Progress, a scuttled F9 booster and JWST's optics package.

This week in SF history-- 8 February, 2010. Launch of Tranquility, node 3 and cupola on STS-130 (wikipedia.org)    -- Reentry photo (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- Japan launches smallest orbital rocket ever. (spaceflightnow.com)    -- Discussion on smallest possible orbital launch vehicle (forum.nasaspaceflight.com)    -- Tricom-1 info page (skyrocket.de)Short & Sweet-- SES-16/GovSat-1 did a 3-engine landing all the way to the ocean. (twitter.com/elonmusk)-- One long spacewalk (spaceflightinsider.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- Ariane 5 revisit (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast) (spaceflight101.com) (lefigaro.fr)-- Thanks to Michael and Steven for David’s KSC access for FH!Interview Dr. Rob Hoyt, CEO Tethers Unlimited-- tethers.com-- facebook.com/TethersUnlimited

This week in SF history-- February 1, 1939: birth of Wally Funk (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news-- Rocket Lab snuck in a third stage! (rocketlabusa.com)---- Hid it in plain sight (reddit.com/r/RocketLab) (HT: Sam Moore b14643.de)----- Curie engine puts out 120N thrust (popularmechanics.com)---- Mike Brown doesn’t like it (HT Sam Moore: twitter.com/plutokiller)-- Ariane 5 flies off course (spaceflightnow.com) (arstechnica.com) (spaceflight101.com)Short & Sweet-- Google Lunar Xprize is over (lunar.xprize.org)-- Falcon Heavy has a launch date. (spacenews.com)-- IMAGE found! (skyriddles.wordpress.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- /u/nerobro: dropping 1st stage engines is a false economy (reddit.com/r/orbitalpodcast)

This week in SF history--January 29, 1964: the launch of Saturn I SA-5 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news--Rocket Lab achieves orbit. (spaceflightnow.com)----Doubts about the financial feasibility of small payload specialization (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet--Two US EVAs approach (nasa.gov)--RS-25 fires up for a test. (nasaspaceflight.com)--SpaceX insists to Congress that Falcon 9 performed correctly (spacenews.com)--Atlas V launch delayed by a day. (spaceflightnow.com)

This week in SF history-- January 20, 1986, the discovery of Uranian moons Cordelia and Ophelia (solarsystem.nasa.gov)Spaceflight news-- FH wet dress rehearsal (teslarati.com)-- Long March 3b booster lands in a town (space.com)Short & Sweet-- Blue Origin has a BE-4 update. (twitter.com/blueorigin)-- Commercial crew for SpaceX is not recommended just yet. (spacenews.com)-- Rocket Lab announces a new launch opportunity. (spacenews.com)Questions, comments, corrections-- RPG hangout January 31 at 5pm PT/8pm ET (patreon.com)

This week, we had to say goodbye to one of the most experienced astronauts. Godspeed, John!

Falcon Heavy shows continued signs of actually flying sooner than six months in the future, Angosat-1 had a hiccup and Blue Origin buys land.

Students for the Exploration and Development of Space has a chapter at University of Central Florida, and they've entered the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition. They had a successful failure last year, and now they're here to talk about their run up for next year.

3D printed rockets, cubesat toys and commercial lunar landings.

A Frigat-M went Full Kerbal, Elon Musk promises to go Full Kerbal in the future, Voyager is being clever with engine degradation and SLC-40 is good to go!

We found out more info about Dream Chaser's drop test, and we discuss a new space nuclear reactor

We now know what Zuma probably looks like, but who the heck is operating it? Also, some info on New Glenn and LauncherOne.

We blew up a Merlin and dropped a Dream Chaser.

Laura Forczyk studies the space industry professionally, and we get to talk to her about what services she provides as well as some of her predictions!

Will we see the race for space internet begin in the next few months?

Zach and Kelly Weinersmith just published a book called Soonish, a humorous-but-factual look at 10 upcoming technologies. Since a few are in space, we thought we'd talk to Zach about the book!

VRSS-2 was recently launched on a Long March. While it's a fairly conventional Earth observation satellite, we got ahold of its system designer to talk about what makes it different and what the challenges were in building it.

Dr. Bennett is the Spitzer Science Center Deputy Manager, and we got to talk to him about the space telescope's history and operations.

This week we mostly talk about Elon Musk's IAC presentation.

Tianzhou 1 is done, and so is Orbital ATK.

NASA outlines an exciting, laser-focused Mars sample return mission, and SpaceX released another photo of their flight suit.

We discuss the recent loss of IRNSS 1H, trapped in its fairing, and we learn about a newly discovered flaw in Intelsat-33e's stationkeeping thrusters. Also we get a little more clarification on the Dragonrider suit.

Let's go shopping for pressure suits. Also, ISS gets CREAMy, and Orion and Orbital ATK both get fire-y!

Nuclear propulsion, a promise of new space suits, TDRS-M is healthy, the X-Prize will never be won, and another launchpad at KSC.

We learn more about the Rocket Lab's first flight failure, a minimalistic cubsat failure , and an H-IIA that was grounded (due to a failure).

Jason Seagram works at CSA, and was a major part of the recent MBSU RnR.

There are two MPLMs in storage right now... and one of them might be headed to the moon! Also, another short-sighted US space telescope.

Accion Systems is an MIT spin-off that's developing a new type of electric propulsion, and a very promising one! Also, we heard a bit of Mars news from Elon Musk.

TDRS-M got a little banged up during encapsulation, and Moon Express shows off a mockup! Also, lots of questions, comments and correction burns; let's all get smarter!

XCOR is no mor, F9 overperformed, Chinasat made up for an underperformance.

Kam Bahrami sits at the ROBO desk at ISS MCC. We have a quick discussion with him about robotics on Station and the Roll-out Solar Array experiment in particular.

ESA gears up for Prometheus and SpaceX busies itself getting payloads into space.

Orion gets an abort motor test, ROSA gets a deployment test and Pirs stays put.

Sharad Bhaskaran is Astrobotic's Mission Director, which means he's going to be responsible for sending payloads to the surface of the Moon. Also: lots of SpaceX speculation and two fantastic correction burns, one from Ben Honey of Johnson Space Center!

An unexpected ISS departure, the Space Foursquare Ball is halfway to the finish line, Stratolaunch stretches its legs, and SpaceX has a ticket price in mind for Red Dragon.

Successful failures all around! BE-4 has an explosion, Rocketlab reaches space, Schiaparelli gets investigated and LRO gets tapped on the shoulder.

Since nothing much happened in the news this week, we decided to take a break and instead bring you an episode from a new podcast, hosted by Ben Etherington and Chris Radcliff. Find more episodes at Notion.farm.

Both NASA and Masten damaged some very expensive equipment this week.

Ben talks for too long about his trip to JPL. Vector flies a rocket, ARCA shows off a a crazy rocket, NASA wants cubesats with lasers IN SPACE, and X-37B ends its streak.

Scott Wray trains astronauts and flight controllers to perform and support EVAs. Yes, that's pretty much as cool as you can get. Also, JWST, a handful of short-and-sweet news items and a double handful of comments and corrections!

It's a short show this week. We talk about a Linux nerd in space, China's new cargo vehicle, and some tidbits from a listener going through our archives.