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PODCAST

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast

David Fourman, Ben Etherington, and Dennis Just

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.

science & medicine natural sciences

All Episodes

00:20:37

Episode 511: LOS

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/07/09

— We won’t be restocking T-shirts, but feel free to find a print company you like and use our logos to make your own! Please do not use our logos for any other purpose without permission. (drive.google.com)— Posters have been added to the store (theorbitalmechanics.com/store)— There’s still a great space community on our Discord (theorbitalmechanics.com/discord)

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Episode 510.2: Abort Abort Abort

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/06/30

Well, after last week's short episode, I suspect that a lot of you anticipated this short episode would be coming out.I'm going to use some language that David, Dennis, and I have agreed represents our intentions. Please don't, like, take this too far, but we have decided to sunset the main show.Here's what we're going to do. Next week, on Sunday, July 6th, we're going to get together and we're going to record an episode. We would like to invite anybody who's interested in listening into one of our

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Episode 510.1: Hold hold hold

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/06/10

Weird, short episode here, but it still feels weird to not start the show by saying “and I’m Ben.”So, we’ve had a personal emergency here on the crew. All three of us are fine, and we will let you know more about what’s happened, but for right now, this week’s episode is delayed. Hopefully it’ll be coming out later this week, but I don’t know. It may take a little while for things to get back to normal, but hopefully not too long. We just need a little bit of time to cope, and then we can figure out

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00:49:06

Episode 510: Leakspin

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/06/04

Spaceflight News— Starship Block 2: 0 for 3 (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)— Block 3 Update (nasaspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Xodiac flies final time (arstechnica.com)— China successfully tests vertical-takeoff vertical-landing rocket (cgtn.com)This Week in Spaceflight Historyii May 24, 1962: Fourth flight of Project Mercury (en.wikipedia.org) (nasa.gov)— Next week (6/10 - 6/16) in 1973: Dos equis

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00:58:43

Episode 509: Hungry Hopping Hippos

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/05/14

Spaceflight News— Neutron update (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— China announces mission to Venus (ieee.org)Tianhe to be expanded (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 14 May, 1973. Launch of Skylab (historicspacecraft.com) (PDF: nasa.gov)— Next week (5/20 - 5/26) in 1962: Kickin’ up fireflies.

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00:36:39

Episode 508: North of Antarctica

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/05/07

Spaceflight News— Firefly Nozzle Anomaly (spacenews.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Efforts continue to rescue Lunar Trailblazer (spacenews.com)— ISS avoids space debris (space.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Kosmos 482’s parachutes dangling out? (space.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— May 10, 1994: Last contact with the Clementine Spacecraft (en.wikipedia.org) (researchgate.net) (nap.nationalacademies.org) (klabs.org)— Next week (5/13 - 5/19) in 1973: It’s the final

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00:44:10

Episode 507: Prolate Marshmallow

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/04/30

Spaceflight News— Sierra Space impact test (asdnews.com)— Atmos reentry test of PHOENIX-1 (spacenews.com) (europeanspaceflight.com)Short & Sweet— Kosmos 482’s deorbit update (sattrackcam.blogspot.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Blue Origin tank failure? (HT ArcadeEngineer: fixupx.com/kerballistic07)This Week in Spaceflight History— 1 May, 1979: Enterprise rolled out to 39A (nasa.gov)— Next week (5/6 - 5/12) in 1994: Lost and gone forever, in orbit

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00:44:16

Episode 506: ISS at Risk

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/04/23

Spaceflight News— The Riskiest Period of ISS’ Existence (spacenews.com)— Enginefest — Latitude (europeanspaceflight.com) — Pangea Aerospace (europeanspaceflight.com) — Venus Aerospace (prnewswire.com)Short & Sweet— Building destroyed in explosion at Northrop Grumman test site (space.com)— Seat barter agreement extended through 2027 (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Unc’ Willy: “First flight” is a better term (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— April 24, 1970:

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00:48:33

Episode 505: Confirming Isaacman

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/04/16

Spaceflight News— Confirming Isaacman (spacenews.com) (law.cornell.edu) (aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org)— One of the Lunar Terrain Vehicles unveiled (lunaroutpost.com)Short & Sweet— New addition to DSN (space.com)— DOD hires Astroscale (satellitetoday.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Jonathan McDowell retiring (archive.ph)This Week in Spaceflight History— 18 Apr, 2001. Maiden flight of GSLV Mk. I (a.k.a GSLV-D1) (isro.gov.in) (astronautix.com) (PDF: sci-hub.se) (planet4589.org)—

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00:38:00

Episode 504: Mark Soyuzworth

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/04/09

Spaceflight News— Two more PAMs (spacenews.com) (sam.gov)Short & Sweet— Fram2 launches and lands (arstechnica.com) (space.com)— SpinLaunch turns to broadband (spacenews.com) Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Starliner shakeup (spaceflightnow.com)— From Espen Urkedal: FTS vs VTSThis Week in Spaceflight History— April 10, 1979: Launch (and early return) of Soyuz 33 (en.wikipedia.org) (blazingbulgaria.wordpress)— Next week (4/15 - 4/21) in 2001: Stumbling 58 minutes short of the

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01:21:46

Episode 503: DOWNLINK -- Joseph Marlin

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/04/02

Spaceflight News— Security Space (arstechnica.com) (spacenews.com)Interview -- Joseph Marlin, Deputy Chief Engineer, Blue Ghost Lunar Program— linkedin.com/in/josephmarlin— fireflyspace.comThis Week in Spaceflight History— Apr 4, 1983. Launch of STS-6 (americaspace.com)— Next week (4/8 - 4/14) in 1979: Stumbling a mile before the finish line

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00:48:11

Episode 502: Still Sticking

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/03/26

Spaceflight News— Still sticking with Starliner (spacenews.com) (aviationweek.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Starlab starts new phase (space.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— Blaise via email: SRTM gravity gradientsThis Week in Spaceflight History— March 31, 1972: Launch of Kosmos 482 (en.wikipedia.org) (spacereview.com) (leonarddavid.com)— Next week (4/1 - 4/7) in 1983: Orbital structural test article

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00:43:17

Episode 501: MSR China

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/03/19

Spaceflight News— China’s Mars Sample Return open to International Cooperation (cgtn.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Several Russian sats on the move (sattrackcam.blogspot.com) (defence-blog.com)— X-37B lands after record-breaking mission (arstechnica.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: leaked starship photos: (HT The Orbital Index: reddit.com) (HT The Orbital Index: reddit.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 18 Mar, 1980. Plesetsk launch pad disaster (plesetzk.ru)

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00:55:45

Episode 500: Quincentennial

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/03/12

Spaceflight News— IM-2 lunar landing (intuitivemachines.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (intuitivemachines.com) (youtube.com)Short & Sweet— Voyager turns off further instruments (space.com)— A Falcon 9 loses a leg (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: ISS too clean (newsbreak.com) (cell.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 15 Mar, 1976. Launch of Lincoln Experimental Satellite 8 and 9 (LES-8 and -9) (skyrocket.de) (wikipedia.org)

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00:40:30

Episode 499: Wicked Shimmy

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/03/05

Spaceflight News— Starship TF7 bounced to pieces (Paywall: aviationweek.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— Two payloads on IM-2 launch suffering problems on-orbit (spacenews.com)— Space capsule lands in Australia while first rocket readies to launch (spacenews.com) (abc.net.au)— Xona received contract to develop GPS alternative (insidegnss.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Blue Ghost lunar landing? (Spoiler: it did!) (space.com) (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight

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00:40:39

Episode 498: Decimation

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/02/19

Spaceflight News— Stoke Space reveals Andromeda 2 (stokespace.com)Short & Sweet— Long March 8A completes first flight (spacenews.com)— Germany provides funds for new launch facility (europeanspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: Blue Origin Layoffs (spacenews.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 24 Feb, 1996. Launch of POLAR satellite (PDF: ntrs.nasa.gov) (eyes.nasa.gov) (nasaspaceflight.com)— Next week (2/25 - 3/3) in 1960: The copper touch

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01:16:34

Episode 497: Frustrating Frustum

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/02/12

Spaceflight News— The most amazing little rocket that will have ever built (spacenews.com) (aas.org) (aas.org) (aas.org) (PDF: hou.usra.edu)Short & Sweet— Starbase Update (nasaspaceflight.com)— Thales Alenia to build an airlock (europeanspaceflight.com)Vast reschedules Haven-1 (spacenews.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: ThrustMe pushes into US market (spacenews.com) (thrustme.fr)— Unc’ Willy: Frustums, and NGLR (discord.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— 11 Feb, 2000:

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01:02:07

Episode 496: Next-Gen Corner Cube

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/02/05

Spaceflight News— Blue Ghost M1 (americaspace.com) (nasaspaceflight.com) (fireflyspace.com) (gsfc.nasa.gov) (baas.aas.org) (hou.usra.edu)Short & Sweet— Starliner investigation nears completion (spacenews.com)— AstroForge announces first target (space.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: IRNSS-1K launch failure (thehindu.com)This Week in Spaceflight History— Feb. 6, 1995: STS-63 approaches within 11 meters of Mir (en.wikipedia.org) (PDF: nasa.gov) (thespaceabove.us)— Next week

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01:00:49

Episode 495: NICER than orange slices

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/01/29

Spaceflight News— NICER repair on EVA 91 (nasaspaceflight.com) (svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (science.nasa.gov) (svs.gsfc.nasa.gov) (heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov)Short & Sweet— ESA to vote on future of Space Rider spacecraft (europeanspaceflight.com)— China hops higher, maybe (spacenews.com) (bilibili.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: New Shepard’s lunar gravity mission (spacenews.com)— Hydraq via email: CH4 hydrodynamics in StarshipThis Week in Spaceflight History— 3 Feb, 1994: The launch of

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Episode 494: Debris Cross-Range

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast ·

2025/01/22

Spaceflight News— Starship FT-7 (nasaspaceflight.com) (spacenews.com) (bsky.app/profile/derekdotspace.bsky.social) (space.com) (spacenews.com)Short & Sweet— ISRO successfully docks in space (spacenews.com)— RFA granted license for vertical launch from UK (europeanspaceflight.com)Questions, Comments, Corrections— From the intro: New Glenn First Flight (nasaspaceflight.com) (americaspace.com) (americaspace.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com) (spacenews.com)— DarthMooMoo: Varda launched on F9, not

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