Episodi

  • The thruster command that found the tank empty and cost them the window

    The thruster command that found the tank empty and cost them the window
    Oct 14 2026
    A volunteer sent a thruster command to a decades-old spacecraft and heard only the silence of an empty tank - did they lose their final window?

    The thruster command that found the tank empty and cost them the window

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of decisions, maneuvers, and improvisations that kept an aging spacecraft alive and aiming for a comet decades after its launch. What happened when a crowdfunded effort met an empty propellant tank, and could the team still make the window?

    Person: Robert Farquhar
    Date: July 8, 2014
    Location: L1 halo orbit / lunar flybys
    Event: Retasking ISEE-3 / ICE for comet science
    Topic: thruster command, empty nitrogen tank

    - Engineers and volunteers sent a thruster command into deep space on July 8, 2014 and received a response from the spacecraft.
    - The spacecraft was spinning at 19.76 rotations per minute while its instruments still broadcast data despite a battery failure decades earlier.
    - ISEE-3 launched August 12, 1978, settled into a halo orbit at L1 on November 20, 1978, and survived a 1981 battery failure that limited it to sunlight operations.
    - Robert Farquhar and others planned a sequence of burns and five lunar gravity assists between June 10, 1982 and December 22, 1983 to redirect the probe toward the Moon and beyond.
    - On September 11, 1985, redesignated ICE, the spacecraft crossed a comet’s plasma tail 7,800 km from the nucleus, returning the first in-situ measurements of a cometary plasma environment.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • A paint flake fooled the star sensor - could Mariner 4 make Mars on time?

    A paint flake fooled the star sensor - could Mariner 4 make Mars on time?
    Oct 13 2026
    A paint flake fooled Mariner 4's star sensor into locking the wrong star - can the spacecraft still point its camera at Mars?

    A paint flake fooled the star sensor - could Mariner 4 make Mars on time?

    In this episode, we follow the final weeks of the Mariner 4 mission as engineers race against a closing launch window and a ticking clock. The crew at JPL confronts hardware compromises, failed tests, and a navigation system being tricked by debris - but will the spacecraft arrive with its cameras correctly pointed?

    Mission: Mariner 4
    Date: November-December 1964
    Location: Jet Propulsion Laboratory / en route to Mars
    Event: Star sensor failures and navigation challenges
    Status: Eight-month voyage in progress

    - Engineers hand-colored the first low-resolution image of Mars by filling numbered squares while the computer finished processing.
    - Mariner 3 failed on launch when its payload shroud failed to jettison, prompting a three-week crash redesign of the shroud material and tests.
    - Mariner 4 launched Nov 28, 1964 with a spare tape recorder pressed into service because of time constraints.
    - The navigation system used Canopus as a single-star reference and began repeatedly acquiring and losing other bright stars during flight.
    - Paint flakes and dust near the star sensor created false bright points that intermittently fooled the lock algorithm, affecting camera orientation.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The frozen hydrazine line stalled the thrusters and doomed the burn

    The frozen hydrazine line stalled the thrusters and doomed the burn
    Oct 12 2026
    A frozen hydrazine line on a Fregat upper stage stopped the thrusters-did the Galileo satellite make the second burn on time?

    The frozen hydrazine line stalled the thrusters and doomed the burn

    In this episode, we follow the sequence of events on 22 August 2014 when a Soyuz launch left two Galileo satellites in the wrong orbit. The episode covers the Fregat MT’s design, the multi-burn profile, and the unnoticed thermal bridge that chilled hydrazine lines-what decisions and design assumptions led to that coast-phase failure?

    Date: August 22, 2014
    Event: Soyuz VS09 launch carrying two Galileo satellites
    Stage: Fregat MT upper stage (S5.92 engine)
    Propellant: Hydrazine (attitude thrusters) and hypergolic main propellants (UDMH and dinitrogen tetroxide)
    Target orbit: 17,500 kilometers circular

    - Liftoff occurred at 12:27:11 from Kourou, French Guiana on a Soyuz ST-B carrying Europe’s Galileo satellites
    - Fregat MT used a multi-burn profile: an initial burn, a ballistic coast, then a second engine ignition to insert satellites into their precise orbit
    - Hydrazine attitude-control lines ran alongside cold helium pressurant lines on a shared support bracket during the coast
    - Thermal conduction via the bracket allowed cold helium temperatures to freeze hydrazine in the lines, halting two thrusters mid-coast
    - With attitude control lost before the second burn, Fregat’s engine fired while pointed at the wrong piece of sky

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The spring-seat he built oscillated - would it stop their bone loss in time?

    The spring-seat he built oscillated - would it stop their bone loss in time?
    Oct 11 2026
    A fifty-four-year-old astronaut straps into a spring-seat he built to measure mass in microgravity - can his oscillating device stop bone loss?

    The spring-seat he built oscillated - would it stop their bone loss in time?

    In this episode, we follow William Edgar Thornton’s sixteen-year path from physicist and engineer to physician and astronaut as he designs and tests instruments to measure and counteract bone and muscle loss in space. We look at the devices he built, the ground tests he volunteered for, and the stakes of launching those tools aboard Challenger at night - but did they work when it mattered?

    Person: William Edgar Thornton
    Date: August 30, 1983
    Location: Kennedy Space Center / Challenger
    Event: Night launch carrying self-built medical instruments
    Test: SMEAT 56-day Skylab simulation

    - He combined degrees and careers in physics, electronics engineering, and medicine to tackle human physiology in space.
    - He solved the measurement problem by designing a spring-seat that determines mass from oscillation period rather than weight.
    - He volunteered as a subject in SMEAT, a 56-day sealed Skylab simulation, using the instruments he helped create.
    - He built exercise and countermeasure approaches alongside measurement tools to address rapid muscle and bone loss in microgravity.
    - He launched his instruments and himself into orbit aboard Challenger’s first night launch to test sixteen years of engineering in flight.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • The wreckage reassembly that bought time - and saved future crews

    The wreckage reassembly that bought time - and saved future crews
    Oct 10 2026
    A veteran astronaut reassembles Challenger wreckage in a Florida hangar - and future crews' safety hangs on what he finds. Did they make it in time?

    The wreckage reassembly that bought time - and saved future crews

    In this episode, we follow Bryan O'Connor’s shift from pilot to investigator as he leads the meticulous reassembly of Space Shuttle Challenger’s wreckage and steps into NASA’s safety apparatus. We trace how that work redirected his career and ask how translating debris into decisions might change the fate of future crews.

    Person: Bryan O'Connor
    Event: Space Shuttle Challenger disaster debris reassembly
    Date: January 28, 1986 (disaster); March 1986 (reassembly completed)
    Role: Assistant for Operations to the Space Shuttle Program Manager; Chairman of the Space Shuttle Safety Panel
    First flight: November 26, 1985 (STS-61-B, Atlantis)

    - He logged over 5,000 flight hours across more than 40 aircraft types before joining NASA in May 1980.
    - After serving in simulators, CAPCOM, and support roles, his first shuttle flight was as pilot on STS-61-B, which completed 108 orbits.
    - Following Challenger, NASA tasked him with recovering every piece of the orbiter, bringing wreckage to a hangar and placing parts where they had been before breakup.
    - The reassembly work took place on the hangar floor at Cape Canaveral, cataloguing wreckage into a ghost of the spacecraft by March 1986.
    - His debris work led to dual roles: Assistant for Operations to the Shuttle Program Manager and the first Chairman of the newly created Space Shuttle Safety Panel.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • The spacesuit radio kept broadcasting-did the batteries last?

    The spacesuit radio kept broadcasting-did the batteries last?
    Oct 9 2026
    A retired Orlan spacesuit is jettisoned into orbit - will its batteries keep transmitting long enough for listeners to track it?

    The spacesuit radio kept broadcasting-did the batteries last?

    In this episode, we follow the flight of a decommissioned Orlan spacesuit given a second life as SuitSat-1 and released from the ISS. It traces the decisions, engineering and human story behind turning surplus hardware into a drifting transmitter - and asks what the ninety-minute broadcast meant to the man who let it go.

    Date: February 4, 2006
    Person: Valery Ivanovich Ivanovich
    Location: International Space Station, 140 miles above Earth
    Device: Orlan-M spacesuit number 117
    Project: SuitSat-1 collaboration between NASA, Russian Federal Space Agency and AMSAT

    - Engineers repackaged a retired Orlan suit with batteries and a radio transmitter instead of returning it to Earth.
    - The suit’s helmet contained a recording of greetings spoken in six languages intended for amateur radio listeners.
    - Amateur radio operators on the ground tracked and logged the suit’s transmissions across continents for roughly ninety minutes.
    - Ivanovich, a cosmonaut from Kapustin Yar who trained for the Buran program, physically released the suit from an airlock during Expedition Twelve.
    - The suit had been retired because its certification expired, leaving program planners to decide between costly return or creative disposal.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    20 min
  • A thumb steadied a porthole and bought them the last breaths

    A thumb steadied a porthole and bought them the last breaths
    Oct 8 2026
    An astronaut presses his thumb to a porthole to time the stars - can their makeshift celestial navigation stop the roll?

    A thumb steadied a porthole and bought them the last breaths

    In this episode, we follow the crew aboard Mir after a Progress resupply collision disables the station’s systems and sends it tumbling. The episode lays out how Michael Foale and his crewmates improvised to measure attitude and buy time, and asks whether their improvised method could save the station.

    Date: June 25, 1997
    Location: Mir space station
    Person: Michael Foale
    Event: Progress resupply collision with Spektr module
    Status: Guidance computers and many systems powered down

    - Spektr’s hull was breached during a manual docking test, forcing the crew to seal the module and cut its power lines.
    - With Spektr sealed, Mir lost over 40% of its power as its solar panels and arrays went offline.
    - Guidance computers shut down, leaving the station without instruments to measure or halt the roll.
    - Foale used a thumb pressed to a porthole and timed stars against his watch to compute rotation rate and direction.
    - The crew prioritized clearing cables, sealing hatches, and improvising measurements to give ground and onboard systems any chance to respond.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    22 min
  • The camera he was filming with ran out of film sixteen minutes before reentry

    The camera he was filming with ran out of film sixteen minutes before reentry
    Oct 7 2026
    A crew films a shuttle mission as David Brown's camera runs out 16 minutes before reentry-did they make it in time?

    The camera he was filming with ran out of film sixteen minutes before reentry

    In this episode, we follow astronaut David M. Brown from his Virginia childhood through a career spanning medicine, naval aviation, and NASA to his first spaceflight on STS-107. The episode covers the mission's nonstop science schedule, Brown’s private documentary footage, and the unnoticed foam strike after launch that would become central to the story-what happens next hangs on those final minutes.

    Person: David McDowell Brown
    Date: April 16, 1956 (birth); January 16, 2003 (launch)
    Mission: STS-107
    Role: Mission specialist; flight surgeon, naval aviator, test pilot
    Camera detail: Half-loaded with footage; ran out sixteen minutes before reentry

    - Grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and pursued biology, gymnastics, and medicine at William and Mary and Eastern Virginia Medical School
    - Entered naval service as a flight surgeon in 1984, later trained as a naval aviator and test pilot, accumulating over 2,700 flight hours
    - Selected by NASA in April 1996, reported to Johnson Space Center in August 1996, and worked on ISS payloads and landing recovery operations
    - STS-107 was a dedicated 16-day science flight with roughly 80 experiments and alternating 12-hour crew shifts
    - Eighty-one seconds after launch, insulating foam struck Columbia’s left wing, damaging thermal protection unseen from inside the cabin

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min