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.
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Episode 124: Sat in a Cage
This week in SF history [doc link]1966 September 9: Gemini 11 delayed due to pinhole leak in 1st stage of Titan II rocket. (nytimes.com) (drewexmachina.com)Spaceflight newsIRNSS 1H Navigation Sat gets stuck in its fairing. (spaceflightnow.com)Intelsat-33e confirmed to lose about 3.5 years of life due to two separate propulsion issues. (spacenews.com) (https://www.spaceintelreport.com/intelsat-heres-status-33e-satellite/)Short & SweetSNC DreamChaser returns to captive carry testing...
Episode 123: Mmmm, CREAMy
This week in SF history1972 September 2: Launch of Triad/TIP 1 (PDF: stanford.edu)Spaceflight newsSpaceX Spacesuit reveal. (spaceflightinsider.com)Short & SweetThe ISS gets a new particle detector (spaceflight101.com)The Orion European Service Module begins hot-fire testing at White Sands. (nasaspaceflight.com)Orbital ATK launches from Cape Canaveral for the first time from LC-46 (nasaspaceflight.com)(youtube.com) ...
Episode 122: Low-Enriched Uranium
This week in SF history27 August 1957: Plumbbob Pascal-B (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight newsNASA looks into refining nuclear thermal propulsion. (spaceflightinsider.com)RORSAT used highly enriched uranium in its reactor (wikipedia.org)Short & SweetAnother edition of TOM Reads Elon Musk Tweets (twitter.com/elonmusk)TDRS is confirmed healthy! (spacenews.com)The Google Lunar X-Prize has yet again extended its deadline. (spacenews.com)Space Florida renovates SLC-46 for business....
Episode 121: It's not their fault!
This week in SF history19 August 1964. Launch of Syncom-3 (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight newsRocket Lab releases analysis of “It’s a Test” (rocketlabusa.com) (spaceflightnow.com)Mayak cubesat fails to deploy (spaceflight101.com)Sam Moore in the chat pointed out some other passive satellites (skyrocket.de) (wikipedia.org)Short & SweetThe Japanese H-2A set to launch on August 12th has been grounded. (spaceflightnow.com)The world’s first quantum communication between a satellite and ground s...
Episode 120: DOWNLINK--Jason Seagram
This week in SF historyAugust 12, 1977. First free flight of shuttle Enterprise (wikipedia.org) (nasaspaceflight.com)Spaceflight newsVector Space launches the Vector-R from Camden Space Port. (latimes.com) (youtube.com)Short & SweetNew Horizons team release more information on its Kuiper Belt Object target! (nasaspaceflight.com)Yet another delay for the James Webb Space Telescope. (spaceflightinsider.com)SpaceX begins dismantling Shuttle rotating support structure at 39-A...
Episode 119: Myopia Runs in the Family
This week in SF history3 August, 2004: Launch of MESSENGER on Delta II rocket. (wikipedia.org)Trajectory animation (youtube.com)Spaceflight newsLockheed Martin repurposing MPLM for cis-lunar habitat as part of NEXTSTEP-2 program. (spaceflightinsider.com)TESS will be out of focus (spacenews.com)Short & SweetAstrobotic selects ULA’s Atlas 5 as its launch vehicle, and will fly as a secondary payload. (spacenews.com)TDRS-M rescheduled (spacenews.com)SpaceX builds its last Dragon cargo v...
Episode 118: DOWNLINK--Louis Perna
This week in SF historyJuly 29 1971: Apollo 15 SIVB impacts moonS-IVB article (wikipedia.org)NASA's list of all Apollo objects that impacted the Moon (gsfc.nasa.gov)Spaceflight newsMusk ISS R&D conference presentation (youtube.com)Short & SweetSierra Nevada and ULA announce Atlas V will be carrying the first two Cargo Dreamchaser to the ISS. (spaceflightnow.com)DLR will fly two experiments later this year on New Shepard (spacenews.com)Interview: Louis Perna,...
Episode 117: Brought to You By Questions, Comments and Correction Burns
This week in SF history21 July 1965: Bell announces Lunar Flying Vehicle (astronautix.com) (wired.com) (Follow-on study: nasa.gov)Don’t forget LLRV! (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight news“Incident” during TDRS-M Spacecraft closeout (nasa.gov)Moon Express unveils lunar lander trio of missions (spaceflightinsider.com)Our recent Evadot appearance (evadot.com)Questions, comments, correctionsBen Hallert via emailAPAS != CBMBubbles can cause rapid ad-hoc self disassembly with fragmentation.Versvisa (f...
Episode 116: Overperformance and underperformance
This week in SF history17 July, 1975, UTC 16:19: End of the space race, AKA Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (wikipedia.org)APAS (wikipedia.org)Soyuz 7K-TM is weird and almost unique (wikipedia.org)Spaceflight newsXCOR closes (parabolicarc.com)SpaceX’s launch of Intelsat-35e achieved better performance than required (spaceflight101.com)Short & SweetChinasat 9A was able to raise itself to the proper orbit recovering from an anomaly during its june 19 launch. (xinhuanet.com)Pacific Spaceport C...
Episode 115: DOWNLINK--Kam Bahrami
This week in SF history11 July 1979: Skylab reentersPossible reboost of Skylab using TRS (wikipedia.org)Collection of NASA records on Skylab, which were particularly helpful for the discussion of end of mission. (history.nasa.gov)Reminder that Tiangong 1 is headed for a similar fate (HT Sam Moore: aerospace.org)Spaceflight newsAMC-9 is “falling apart” (arstechnica.com)Still in contact with the vehicle (HT Sam Moore: spaceintelreport.com)Short & SweetJAXA announces plans to put an ast...