Casual Space

In 1984, Jim Wetherbee was selected to join  NASA  in its tenth group of astronauts. Over a  twenty-year career , he  flew six times  on the Space Shuttle. The five-time commander flew two missions to the Russian Space Station, Mir, and two missions to the International Space Station. In 1998, he was  appointed  as the  Director, Flight Crew Operations , specifically selected to improve the flight...

What a fun conversation! Beth and Alan combine all of the space topics you love in one incredibly entertaining episode, including:  Astrochicks, George Lucas, hyphenated astronauts and tickets to the moon offered from former airlines company PanAm.   See You in Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight is the book Alan presents that will guide you on a historical, personal, irreverent, and often-humorous to...

The overview effect  is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing  the  Earth from outer space (Wikipedia reference) The term and concept were coined in 1987 by  Frank White , who explored the theme in his book  The Overview Effect — Space Exploration and Human Evolution .  Since 1987, there's been a recently series of interviews done at the...

On this inspirational episode, Beth talks with former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver about the Brooke Owens Fellowship.  Created to honor the legacy of a beloved space industry pioneer and accomplished pilot, Dawn Brooke Owens (1980 – 2016), the Brooke Owens Fellowship is designed to serve both as an inspiration and as a career boost to capable young women and other gender minorities who, l...

Rachel Lyons is a key advocate in the advancement of space technology and exploration. Rachel is the former Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of Students for the Exploration and Development of Space – USA, a non-profit that empowers young people to make an impact in space exploration. She is a former public radio host. She holds a BSc. in Aerospace Engineering and Economics from the University...

Joe Cassady is Executive Director of Space Programs in the Washington DC Operations for Aerojet Rocketdyne.  Joe and the AR team help to plan human missions to the Moon and Mars, helping to develop the strategy and architectures for future space and launch systems. Joe and Beth met at the NASA Stennis Space Center and the NASA Michoud Assembly Center in New Orleans for the NASA Artemis Day celebra...

Loretta  Hidalgo  Whitesides  is a public speaker, co-creator of Yuri's Night, and an author on space exploration. Whitesides  received a bachelor's degree in  biology  from Stanford and a master's from Caltech, with a particular interest in astrobiology. She accumulated over five hours of weightless time as a Flight Director for Zero-G Corporation, and plans to travel to space as a "Founder Astro...

Dr. Andrew Aldrin is Director of the Aldrin Space Institute at Florida Institute of Technology. ASI is a multidisciplinary institute created to advance commercial space development.  On the podcast, Andy tells Beth and the Casual Space listeners about the Graduate Certificate in Commercial Space Studies . It's a partnership between the International Space University and Florida Tech . Beth and And...

Elizabeth Howell is a space writer, science consultant and writing teacher based in Ottawa, Canada. She writes about space, science and astronauts, and has even BEEN an astronaut in a simulation on Mars!** Elizabeth writes hundreds a stories a year on the space business, from conferences, from live events and from my own home. You can see her work daily in places like Space.com, Forbes and SpaceQ....

Adam is an evangelist of science. From everything sci-fi to just thinking, looking and observing the world, science has always provided a sense of oneness with the universe for Adam. Adam is a theoretical/computational astrophysicist and he heads a research group that is developing new tools for simulating the cosmos. SO many great things discussed on this episode!  *Beth asks Adam: Which is harde...

Gary Gattis spent his entire career making video games, AI/Space was a late life industry transition. Why? When Gary decided it was time to move into the next adventure in his professional career, he asked everyone (yes, everyone) two important questions that led him to Hypergiant, where Gary and the team believes that AI is essential to secure our place in the universe via space exploration. "We...

Brian is the CEO of Solstar Space Company where they are working to create a 'Space Wide Web' to connect everything in space, to everyone on Earth. Solstar's mission is to build and create the tools necessary to enable 24/7 secure, economical, convenient, two-way, internet-based communications with every "thing" in space, to be the ISP of choice in Earth Orbit and beyond. "We are able to provide a...

Chris Carberry is the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, Inc. a nonprofit space advocacy organization that was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars within the next two decades. And, Chris is the author of Alcohol in Space , a perfect look at the past, present and future of alcohol in the story of human exploration.  Chris and Beth enjoy raising a glass and celebrating this rich h...

Jennifer Inman helps spacecraft enter the atmospheres of other worlds. She and the Scientifically Calibrated In-FLight Imagery (SCIFLI) team use a bunch of instruments on board a plane while it's flying, follow a space vehicle's reentry that's traveling thousands of miles an hour ( think Mach 25 ) from space back to Earth and find it through a field of view as small as a straw. Then, the SCIFLY te...

Rachel is from a newspaper family and started as a journalist, teacher, freelancer and exceptional writer. Then, Rachel joined Twitter, and started writing about NASA missions and soon became a storyteller and science ambassador for the International Space Station at NASA Johnson Space Center. Her official title is Communications Managing Editor for the International Space Station Program Science...

The Outer Space Treaty is vague. Rebekah believes there's a way to encourage the international community and develop education to balance opportunities for everyone to use and benefit from the resources space can provide.  We talk Space Force, NASA, private space companies, international and domestic treaties and everything in between. When it comes to space law and policy, sometimes the answers c...

Dr. Sarah Imam teaches advanced physiology and environmental physiology at the Citadel. She helps describe for us on the podcast what our human body has to endure in extreme environments, including microgravity environments like the astronauts work and live in.  Our future in space requires our full understanding of the space environment, and the effects it will have on us as humans. While Sarah's...

Seeing a launch from a young age inspired a clear goal for Debi Tomek: a calling to work at NASA and help enable a sustainable human presence in space beyond Earth. Working towards this goal is exactly what Debi Tomek is doing, serving as the Deputy Director of the Space Technology and Exploration Directorate where she leads the formulation of the National Initiative for On-orbit Servicing, Assemb...

Anima is the Orion Spacecraft Simulations Lab Manager & xEMU Spacesuit Engineer at the NASA Johnson Space Center.  Anima recently moved to Texas after 20 years in California to pursue her dream to become a NASA astronaut. Her journey has been a long one, but always determined, driven, sometimes sacrificing, and never wavering. Her steadfast and unyielding approach has finally come to fruition with...

A 6th grade science teacher, a field trip to the Cosmosphere, lots of hard work, several advanced degrees, and a NASA internship has all been a influential part of Dr. Sarah Wallace's journey.  Dr. Sarah Wallace has always been in love with space, and through her work at NASA, she's found her calling. As a microbiologist, Sarah serves as the principal investigator for the Biomolecule Sequencer, al...

Kelly Larson has climbed mountains. Literally and figuratively.   (Check out her TED talk  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49CaCeC4C_Y )!  As the CEO of Aquarian Space, there's always challenges to be overcome, just like the challenges we must overcome within our universe. Major space weather events. Solar flares, coronal mass ejections. Don't worry, Kelly's working on it.  Beth and Kelly share a...

PODCASTS!!!  Casual Space Podcast!   I love #61 with Bill Nye and #65 with Matthew Dominick Houston, We Have a Podcast – Mission Patches, Episode #130   Houston, We Have a Podcast – Art and Space with Astronaut Nicole Stott #129 Planetary Radio – The Return of Cosmos with Ann Duryan     NETFLIX and SHOWS Cosmos: Possible Worlds (On National Geographic) The EXPANSE  (On Syfy) Picard (Star Trek) Thi...

Irene Woerner is no stranger to start ups (she's built a few) and is a certified space expert; she was the principal investigator on research and ground software on the Pluto missions at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory AND, while at NASA, she led a team of researchers on advanced information systems. Currently, Irene is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of emTRUTH, because she believes i...

Beth sits down with NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick last week at NASA's Johnson Space Center to discuss his work as an Artemis Generation astronaut. At the time of his selection as an Astronaut Candidate in June 2017, Matt was at sea on the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) serving as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy, a Naval Aviator, and a department head for Strike Fighter Squadron 115. He has a...

Norah started photography in high school, from a camera her father gave her. By playing around with her camera and just shooting pictures, she fell in love with photography. Then she went to school to study imaging and photographic technology. After several NASA summer internships and lots of networking, Norah was brought on at NASA Johnson Space Center as a Science Photographer. You can see her t...