Episode 322: DOWNLINK--John E Ward

Spaceflight news— Blue Origin lawsuit, and exodus — Lawsuit filed against NASA on Aug 19 (theverge.com) (spacenews.com) — > 11 key employees left Blue (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz) — Lauren Lyons went to Firefly (https://spacenews.com) — 10k bonus handed out at end of July (twitter.com/thesheetztweetz)Short & Sweet— Japan tests new engine type (futurism.com) (PDF: nagoya-u.ac.jp)— JAXA announces Phobos sample-return mission (apnews.com)— Starlink satellites responsible for most close encounters in LEO (space.com)Questions, comments, corrections— Watch party! The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill. Friday Aug 27 3pm PT / 6pm ET (thehighfrontiermovie.com) (calendar.google.com)— VAXHeadroom via Discord: Cygnus spacecraft is a Northrop Grumman vehicle.Interview -- John E Ward, Senior Systems Engineer, Réaltra Space Systems Engineering— VIKI (Independent VIdeo KIt) datasheet (PDF: realtra.space) — twitter.com/astro_ward— twitter.com/RealtraSpace— realtra.space— linkedin.com/in/johnenniswardThis week in SF history— August 27, 1962: Launch of Mariner 2 to Venus (en.wikipedia.org) (space.com) (space.skyrocket.de)— Next week (8/31 - 9/6) in 1968: It’s like being in space, but wetter und mit Braunschweiger