No one under the age of 25 has ever known a time when there haven’t been humans in space — although to be fair, not many humans. To mark the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station’s inhabitation, and other space news, we chat once more with Dr Alice Gorman aka Dr Space Junk and astrophysicist Rami Mandow.
In this episode we talk about the ISS and other space stations, including China’s Tiangong station. But we also discuss whether we should colonise space, poetry, cutbacks at NASA, and two recent examples of objects arriving from space. Allegedly.
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Alice Gorman (born 1964) FSA is an Australian archaeologist, heritage consultant, and lecturer, who is best known for pioneering work in the field of space archaeology and her Space Age Archaeology blog.
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Astronomer, driving The Dish📡 to study pulsars in my PhD. Also, founded SpaceAustralia.com. Also, love a bit of astrophotography. Also, do everything with my little mate, Max. Also, Ultra-Gay. He/Him.
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[3 November 2025] "What Comes Next" showcases Axiom Space's "vision to transcend Earth" by building space infrastructure that "drives exploration and fuels a vibrant space economy for the benefit of every human everywhere. Learn more about how we are building what comes next for low-Earth orbit." Axiom Space is building the world’s first commercial space station—Axiom Station:
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The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), JAXA (Japan), and CSA (Canada). The ISS is the largest space station ever built.
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Axiom Space, Inc., also known as Axiom Space, is an American privately funded space infrastructure developer headquartered in Houston, Texas.
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[27 November 2024] In this episode we talk about the research Dr Alice Gorman and her colleagues have been doing with the International Space Station
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[31 October 2025] We recognized that there had been hardly any research on the social and cultural aspects of life in space. We wanted to show space agencies that were already planning three-year missions to Mars what they were overlooking.
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Philippe Starck (French pronunciation: [filip staʁk]; born 18 January 1949) is a French industrial architect and designer known for his wide range of designs, including interior design, architecture, household objects, furniture, boats and other vehicles.
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Tiangong (Chinese: 天宫; pinyin: Tiāngōng; lit. 'Heavenly Palace'), officially the Tiangong space station (Chinese: 天宫空间站; pinyin: Tiāngōng kōngjiānzhàn), is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency.
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The overview effect is a cognitive shift reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. Researchers have characterized the effect as "a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus". The most prominent common aspects of personally experiencing the Earth from space are appreciation and perception of beauty, unexpected and even overwhelming emotion, and an increased sense of connection to other people and the Earth as a whole.
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[28 October 2025] Whyalla vet Andrew Melville-Smith was travelling along the Augusta Highway, 40 kilometres past Port Germein, when he heard an "extremely violent" bang.
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[26 October 2025] On the night of 19 October 2025, a Tesla Model Y made history on a remote South Australian highway, surviving a billion-to-one meteorite strike that melted its windscreen and thanks to its cutting-edge Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology the occupants survived.
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[28 October 2025] Scientists are investigating whether an object that smashed and partially melted a man's car windscreen was a meteorite, in what could potentially be a world-first case of a collision with a moving vehicle.
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[20 October 2025] Western Australian police are rushing to determine the origins of what’s believed to be a piece of ‘space junk’ that crashed near a remote mine site in the state. Officers are now working with engineers from the Australian Space Agency to identify where the debris is from. One space archaeologist from Flinders University is theorising the object is linked to a Chinese rocket which launched in September.
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[20 October 2025] The burning object was found on Saturday afternoon by workers at a Pilbara mine site, about 30 kilometres east of Newman.
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The junk from the Chinese launch vehicle landed somewhere along here, within a few kilometres I guess.
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Skylab was the United States' first space station, launched by NASA,[3] occupied for about 24 weeks between May 1973 and February 1974. It was operated by three trios of astronaut crews: Skylab 2, Skylab 3, and Skylab 4.
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The Jindalee Operational Radar Network (JORN) is an over-the-horizon radar (OHR) network that can monitor air and sea movements across 37,000 square kilometres (14,000 sq mi). It has a normal operating range of 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) to 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). It is used in the defence of Australia, and can also monitor maritime operations, wave heights and wind directions.
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[6 October 2025] The millisecond pulsar PSR J1713 + 0747 is a high-priority target for pulsar timing array experiments due to its long-term timing stability, and bright, narrow pulse profile. In April 2021, PSR J1713 + 0747 underwent a significant profile change event, observed by several telescopes worldwide. Using the broad bandwidth and polarimetric fidelity of the Ultra-Wideband Low-frequency receiver on Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, we investigated the long-term spectro-polarimetric behaviour of this profile change in detail.
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Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell DBE FRS FRSE FRAS FInstP (/bɜːrˈnɛl/; born 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The discovery eventually earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974; however, she was not one of the prize's recipients.
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[21 October 2025] It’s been more than fifty years since the discovery of pulsars by Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, who continues to remain as one of astronomy’s most inspiring figures. In this interview with SpaceAustralia.com, she reflects on her remarkable journey - from spotting “a bit of scruff” in 1967 to championing diversity and equity across the global scientific community.
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For Dark Matter, the third in the Gulbenkian Foundation’s trilogy of poetry and science anthologies, leading poets were commissioned to create new work inspired by their discussions with eminent space scientists... The commissioned works are complemented by the editors’ selection of well-known and lesser-known poems from across the ages.
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Edited with Introduction and Notes by Midge Goldberg, Cambridge University Press, 2022.
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[6 November 2025] Astronauts aboard China’s Tiangong space station have successfully grilled chicken wings and steaks in a microgravity environment for the first time. The space barbecue was made possible by a new type of oven that allows smokeless and residue-free cooking in orbit.
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Three astronauts remain stuck on China's Tiangong space station after errant debris struck their return capsule last week. But their return vessel has already arrived, meaning a flight home will come sooner rather than later.
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Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges (also known as Mrs. Hodges, Mrs. Hewlett Hodges, and Mrs. Huelitt Hodges; February 2, 1920 – September 10, 1972) was an American woman known for being the first documented individual to be struck by a meteorite and survive.
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[26 July 2023] Every day hundreds of meteors, commonly known as shooting stars, can be seen flying across the night sky. Upon entering Earth's atmosphere, friction heats up cosmic debris, causing streaks of light that are visible to the human eye. Most burn up before they ever reach the ground. But if one actually survives the long fall and strikes Earth, it is called a meteorite. Here are some of the more memorable meteor crashes in history.
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[1 October 2025] The grinding halt forces NASA and other agencies to scale back nearly all of their day-to-day operations after lawmakers in Washington D.C. failed to pass a government funding bill by the deadline. Only a fraction of NASA's workforce remains on duty, assigned to missions that cannot be paused without risking astronaut safety, critical hardware, or the Trump administration’s highest priorities.
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[3 November 2025] The workforce at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, say this has put groundbreaking missions at risk, and is degrading roadblocks designed to safeguard human lives. Now, under the cloak of a closed U.S. government, nearly half the GSFC campus — the hub of NASA science — is marked for abandonment.
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The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately 6.5 miles (10.5 km) northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC employs about 10,000 civil servants and contractors.
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[5 November 2025] President withdrew Jared Isaacman’s nomination in May but says on Truth Social he is ‘ideally suited’ for top role.
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From the movie "Blade Runner", "A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, aA chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure!"
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Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
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[20 October 2025] We asked five experts – four of whom said no. It’s not just a question of whether humans try to live in space, but also about how we do it. Here are their detailed answers.
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Val Plumwood (11 August 1939 – 29 February 2008) was an Australian philosopher and ecofeminist known for her work on anthropocentrism. From the 1970s she played a central role in the development of radical ecosophy.
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As a social anthropologist by training, and a fiction-writer and essayist with an ethnographer’s eye, I [Ceridwen Dovey] am writing about environmental ethics in outer space for the kinds of people who love the exquisite, galvanizing essays and books that have emerged from within the modern nature-writing tradition, and especially for those who have adored works by Nan Shepherd, Rachel Carson, Annie Dillard, and Robert Macfarlane.
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[20 October 2025] As Tonga prepares for general elections in November, whale and ocean advocates have been working on a national bill called “Te Mana o te Tohorā,” or “Authority of the Whale”: legal personhood framework to present to the new government. This draft legislation, set to be introduced to Parliament, seeks to grant whales fundamental and legal human rights to exist, thrive, and be healthy.
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Dr Danièle Hromek is a Saltwater woman of Budawang/Dhurga/Yuin and Burrier/Dharawal ancestry, with French and Czech heritage. Danièle is a spatial designer and Country-Centred designer. Danièle is the first Indigenous person in Australia to achieve a PhD in built environment and spatial disciplines.
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CONVERSATION TOPICS: Two people who wish to remain anonymous.
THREE TRIGGER WORDS: Bernard Walsh, Esther Anatolitis, Garth Kidd, Joanna Forbes, Peter Viertel, Peter Wickins, and two people who choose to remain anonymous.
WE WILL, WE WILL JUDGE YOU, part of Another Untitled Music Podcast: Paul Williams, William Anthony.
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PERSONALISED VIDEO MESSAGE: One person who chooses to remain anonymous.
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PERSONALISED AUDIO MESSAGE: One person who chooses to remain anonymous.
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Series Credits
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- Elephant Stamp theme by Joshua Mehlman.