Every week we cover the latest spaceflight news, discuss past, current and future exploration efforts, and take a look at upcoming events. Tune in to hear about how humans get to space, how they stay in space and how unmanned craft reach farther and farther into the universe around us.
https://theorbitalmechanics.com/show-notes/
Episode 304: WRT Raining, Pouring
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.