Spaceflight news

— Rocket 3.3 follow-up (spacenews.com) (astra.com)

Short & Sweet

— Brazil Space Agency successfully tests new rocket motor (avibras.com.br)

— Virgin Galactic gets postponed (spacenews.com)

— China launches nation’s first solar observatory (spacenews.com)

Questions, comments, corrections

— Roton Revision

— Andy Z via email: Check out the WWI Le Rhone engine (youtu.be)

— Ben Hallert via Twitter: Autorotation is complicated and interesting enough to be more specific about. (twitter.com/chairboy) (twitter.com/chairboy) (youtube.com)

— From the intro: ISS takes another tumble (HT Andy Z: twitter.com/liamkennedy)

This week in SF history

— 19 Oct, 2014. Comet Siding Spring has closest approach to Mars (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (nasa.gov) (arxiv.org) (skyandtelescope.org)

— Next week (10/26 - 11/1) in 1961: Cluster thruster

Episode 330: We Got Some Lucy Splainin' To Do

The Orbital Mechanics Podcast