The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

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