Space and Things

This week we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Skylab 3 by talking to the only surviving member of that crew - Jack Lousma. Skylab 3 lifted off on July 28th 1973 and the mission lasted 59 days, 11 hours and 9 minutes which was an endurance record at the time. The commander was Alan Bean, science pilot was Owen Garriott and the pilot was Jack Lousma. Lousma was one of 19 astronauts selected in NASA...

This week we talk to Frank White, the space philosopher who first coined the term the ‘overview effect’ which describes the experience astronauts get when they see Earth from space. Frank is the author of a number of incredible books but his best known work is called “The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution” - the fourth edition was publishing in 2019 and features interviews wit...

It’s been over a year since we spoke to the people at ThinkOrbital so we wanted to have a catch up and find out what’s been going on. Of course, they’ve had a very busy year. This time we speak to CEO Sebastian Asprella and President Lee Rosen. Seven US Companies Collaborate with NASA to Advance Space Capabilities: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/seven-us-companies-collaborate-with-nasa-to-adva...

Snoopy has long been a mascot for NASA and we wanted to get to the bottom of it. Fortunately, the Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, California has just opened a new exhibit called Snoopy in Orbit and we talk to its curator Benjamin L. Clark to find out more. Benjamin L. Clark: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-l-clark-6b071020/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BLClark ‘Snoopy in Orbit’: https:...

This week to talk to Ed Rafacz, creator of the Spacecraft Guide. He’s trying to make sure that we can learn the function of any component of any spacecraft with just one click. A really fantastic thing which we hope you’ll take a look at. Ed Rafacz: The Spacecraft Guide: https://spacecraftguide.com/   Spacecraft Interactive Virtual Museum: https://www.patreon.com/SIVRMuseum   Twitter: ht...

The Gemini program was such a success that a number of alternative missions were proposed for the space craft. Today we’re guided through some of these by Michael Mackowski who is a bit of a Gemini expert having previously worked for the designer and builder of the Gemini spacecraft, McDonnell Douglas. We last spoke to Mike on episode 76 when we found out about his model spacecraft. Having created...

Episode 150! And to honour this milestone we’re interviewing Rick Armstrong, the eldest son of Neil Armstrong, to discuss his latest solo album Chromosphere which was released last month. Rick has been making a name for himself as a musician for a number of years but only started releasing his electronic music in 2020. Rick Armstrong: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RickArmstrongMusic Bandcamp:...

If you’re a space flight enthusiast then The Cosmosphere is one of the greatest places in the world to visit. We’ve mentioned it a few times on our podcast now, so we thought we’d dedicate a whole show to it and to do this we asked our friend John Mulnix to come and talk to us. John volunteers for the Cosmosphere and is one of the most delightful people you’ll ever meet. He also has a great podcas...

In this week’s episode we speak to JL Pickering and John Bisney about their latest book: “ Photographing America’s First Astronauts: Project Mercury Through the Lens of Bill Taub.” It features over 600 photos and is the most complete photographic account of Project Mercury ever published. What makes it different from other Mercury books is that these photos are from the collection of NASA’s first...

This week we have a good old catch up of what we’ve been doing for the last month. Plenty of space news to talk about as well as Dave’s trip to Kennedy Space Center. Full show notes: https://spaceandthingspodcast.com/podcast/rl9x7m2ah7t5c27t6hhkxqpobc4b6n Show notes include links to all articles mentioned and full details of our guests and links to what caught our eye this week. Image Credits:&nbs...

This week we’re joined by Francis French to talk about Sally Ride as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first American woman to go to space on the STS7 mission. Francis used to work with Sally at Sally Ride Science so as well as being an incredible historian, his first hand stories about Sally are incredible. Francis French: https://www.francisfrench.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/F_Frenc...

This week we cover a topic given to us by our Patreon subscriber Don Erwin:  Covering space in the present: the various ways space is covered today from space agencies' and private companies' messaging and media relations, to broadcasting networks, to independent folks (YouTubers), and podcasters. How well is each reaching various audiences? What will the landscape of space coverage look like...

One final dose of Skylab history for a month or two, today we talk about SMEAT: the Skylab Medical Experiment Altitude Test, which was a 56 day earth analog simulation of a Skylab mission which took place from 26th July to 19th September in 1972 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The crew was Bob Crippen, Karol Bobko and William Thornton To take a look at this we speak to John Uri, the manage...

After the 10 day delay, the first crewed mission launched to visit and fix Skylab on 25th May 1973, so to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that launch we’re joined by David Hitt, the author of ‘Homesteading Space’ to find out more about the mission, the crew and the legacy of Skylab. David Hitt: http://davidhitt.net/about/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidhitt Instagram: https://www.instagram.co...

To continue our 50th anniversary of Skylab celebrations we’ve got something very special for you today. An interview with a man who was working the consoles in Mission Control in Houston during Skylab, Bill Moon.  You may recognise him from the wonderful movie: “Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo” - which you should watch if you haven’t already. Bill Moon: LinkedIn: https://www.link...

On May 14th 1973, Skylab was launched so we started our 50th anniversary celebrations of America’s first Space Station by talking to Dwight Steven-Boniecki, the director of the most amazing Skylab documentary: Searching for Skylab. Dwight Steven-Boniecki: Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-steven-boniecki-b8b63811a/   Searching For Skylab: https://searchingforskylab.com/ Trailer: ht...

Before we spend a few weeks looking at the past, we wanted to take another look at the future, so today we speak to Barry Matsumori, COO of Impulse Space who are teaming up with Relativity Space to attempt the first private landing on Mars in 2026. Barry Matsumori: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barry-matsumori-35676/   Twitter: https://twitter.com/AZBammer   Impulse Space: https:...

Following the launch of the SpaceX Starship prototype we wanted to talk about the bigger picture of the space industry. It just so happens that a brand new documentary is being made by filmmaker Torsten Hoffmann and the team behind the High Frontier documentary. Torsten very kindly gave us some of his time to talk to us about the documentary and his opinions on the industry. Torsten Hoffmann: Link...

This week we wanted to talk about what’s the United Kingdom and spaceflight, so we thought we’d talk to The Space Boffins, Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham to out more about what has happened, what is happening and what might happen. Sue Nelson: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sue-nelson-boffin-media-27969329/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScienceNelson Space Boffins Podcast: https://www.the...

This week sees the launch of ESA’s Jupiter Icey Moons Explorer (JUICE) from French Guiana. So we wanted to find out more about it so today we’re talking to Professor Michele Dougherty, the principle investigator for the magnetometer on board the spacecraft. Professor Michele Dougherty: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/m.dougherty JUICE: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Juice...

 This week we talk to Meredith Bagby, author of a brand new book about NASA’s first diverse Astronaut class: Group 8, which was announced 45 years ago this year. Meredith Bagby: Twitter: https://twitter.com/Merbagby LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-bagby-626758161/ Full show notes: https://spaceandthingspodcast.com/podcast/stp136-the-new-guys-the-astronauts-that-changed-the-face...

With this being our 135th podcast, we knew we had to have a space shuttle theme, and fortunately Dr. Kevin Fong and the team behind the "13 Minutes To The Moon" podcast have just launched a kickstarter to make a full length podcast devoted to the Space Shuttle, so today we speak to Dr. Kevin to find out all about it. Support the Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16-sunsets-podcast/...

This week we talk to Tom Cooke, who is the co-founder and CEO of Spacely, a digital marketplace connecting independent workers to the aerospace industry  Spacely: https://www.spacely.work/ Tom Cooke: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-cooke-spacelyceo/ Podcast That Tom Talked About:  https://www.shoshinworks.com/#/live/ecosystemicfuturespodcast   Full show notes: https://spac...

On March 17th 1958, Vanguard 1 launched into space becoming the 4th artificial satellite to reach orbit. It remains the oldest object still in orbit, so we’re using this 65th anniversary to do something celebrate an unsung hero. The designer of Vanguard 1 was Roger Easton who is also the man behind GPS which has absolutely changed life on earth. We interview Roger’s son Richard to find out more ab...

54 years ago this week, Apollo 9 was in orbit around the Earth testing out the Lunar Module on it’s maiden flight, and today we talk to the Lunar Module pilot Rusty Schweickart about that flight and so many other things. Rusty Schweickart: https://www.rustyschweickart.com/   Emily’s Articles: Space in the Seventies: Rusty Schweickart in the Seventies https://medium.com/the-making-of-an-ex-nuk...