Ever wondered how engineers save a spacecraft that's tumbling out of control — or what it feels like to watch your rocket disappear into the sky for the first time? Attitude Control tells the untold engineering stories behind humanity's greatest space missions. Hosted by Gaetano Livornese, a GNC engineer who's worked on both launch vehicles and orbital systems across Europe, each episode turns complex spacecraft technology into gripping, accessible storytelling. From dramatic mission rescues to the spinning devices that keep every satellite alive, this is space engineering like you've never
Attitude Control
Claim This Podcastby Gaetano Livornese
5 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview
Ever wondered how engineers save a spacecraft that's tumbling out of control — or what it feels like to watch your rocket disappear into the sky for the first time? Attitude Control tells the untold engineering stories behind humanity's greatest space missions. Hosted by Gaetano Livornese, a GNC engineer who's worked on both launch vehicles and orbital systems across Europe, each episode turns complex spacecraft technology into gripping, accessible storytelling. From dramatic mission rescues to the spinning devices that keep every satellite alive, this is space engineering like you've never
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
3/15/2026
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Recent Episodes
March 29, 2026
The 37-Second Failure | The Software That Flew on the Wrong Rocket
<p>On June 4th, 1996, the Ariane 5 launched for the first time. 37 seconds later, ten years of development, seven billion dollars, and four scientific satellites were gone. Every system on board performed exactly as designed. Every sensor read correctly. Every safety system fired on cue.</p><p>The cause wasn't a hardware failure or a programming mistake — it was a perfectly reasonable engineering decision, inherited from a rocket that had been flying flawlessly for a decade. This episode traces the cascade from one unquestioned assumption to total loss, and asks: when is "it worked before" not good enough?</p><p>Topics: software reuse, heritage code, inertial reference systems, integer overflow, redundancy design, the ESA inquiry board, systems engineering, launch vehicle safety.</p>
March 15, 2026
Flying Blind | How Apollo 13's Guidance System Brought Three Men Home
<p>Everyone knows the Apollo 13 story. The explosion. The duct tape. "Houston, we've had a problem." But almost nobody talks about the part that actually saved the crew: the guidance system.</p><p>This episode tells Apollo 13 from the GNC perspective — the instruments, the physics, and the people who navigated a crippled spacecraft home. From gimbal lock to the Earth's terminator, from a hand-calculated platform transfer to a 14-second burn where Jim Lovell steered by the shape of a crescent Earth while Jack Swigert timed with his wristwatch.</p><p>Topics: inertial measurement units, gimbal lock, sextants vs. optical telescopes, the PGNCS and AGS computers, Earth terminator navigation, manual attitude control, cold-restart of a dead IMU.</p>
March 15, 2026
The First 107 Seconds | What Happens When a Rocket Leaves the Ground
<p>When the VEGA rocket's P80 solid booster ignites, you can't throttle it, you can't shut it down, and you can't restart it. For 107 seconds, the only steering is a nozzle that tilts five degrees. That's the gravity turn — the most critical phase of any launch.</p><p>In this episode, Gaetano explains the physics of the gravity turn and shares his experience as GNC Flight Safety engineer at AVIO, where he ran thousands of Monte Carlo simulations of everything that could go wrong during a VEGA launch — and computed where the debris would fall if it did.</p><p>Topics: gravity turn, solid vs. liquid propulsion, thrust vector control, Monte Carlo simulations, flight safety, VEGA launcher, CNES range safety.</p>
5 total episodes available
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- What is Attitude Control?
- How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
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This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.
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