Episodes

Tuesday May 03, 2011
Episode 317: The STS-134 Scrubcast
Tuesday May 03, 2011
Tuesday May 03, 2011
On this episode of Talking Space, we devote the entire show to the days leading up to the scrub of the launch of the shuttle Endeavour on Friday, April 29, 2011. Mark and Gene participated in press events at the Kennedy Space Center, and we discuss tours of launch pads, astronaut interviews, and more! Listen in for some spectacular stories you can ONLY hear here! Also, stay tuned for a STS-134 clip show. To view the pictures mentioned in the show, click on the Photo Album link on our website, http://talkingspaceonline.com. Below are some teaser images. (Two images were inserted here. To view them, please visit http://talkingspaceonline.com Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - 5/1/2011

Tuesday Apr 19, 2011
Episode 314: The Shuttle's Final Frontier...A Museum
Tuesday Apr 19, 2011
Tuesday Apr 19, 2011
On this episode, we invite back Elizabeth Howell as we talk about last week's decision to place shuttles in Cape Canaveral, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Chantilly, Virginia/Washington DC; and New York City, New York. We talk about a press conference with Assistant Administrator of the Office of Strategic Infrastructure, Houston being upset about not getting a shuttle, and out opinion on their locations. Thank you as well to James Cook, Scott Orshan, and @Aries419 for sending us your input. We then discuss the allocation of Endeavour's Canadarm to a lucky Canadian institution and predict where it might go. Lastly, we talk about a story which fooled Mark a few weeks ago, but makes for some entertainment this episode. Be sure to check out Elizabeth Howell at the Ottawa Business Journal by visiting http://obj.ca and at her own site, Pars3c, at http://pars3c.com Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and special guest Elizabeth Howell Show Recorded - 4/17/2011

Tuesday Apr 12, 2011
Episode 313: 30 Years of STS-1 Beautiful Vehicle
Tuesday Apr 12, 2011
Tuesday Apr 12, 2011
On this episode, we discuss the postponement of the STS-134 launch which we briefly mentioned last week. We also talk about some debris which avoided the ISS, sending its crew to safety onboard their Soyuz. We continue with our correct speculations last week about the SpaceX announcement of the Falcon Heavy. Following that, we move onto some big anniversaries, including the 30th anniversary of STS-1 and the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's 1st flight aboard Vostok-1. We speculate where the shuttles will go once they retire, and then reveal the announcement of where they'll go. Be sure to listen to find out their final resting places. We end with our reflections of 50 years in space and what Gagarin's flight meant to us. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - 4/10/2011

Thursday Mar 31, 2011
Episode 311 - The State of Affairs
Thursday Mar 31, 2011
Thursday Mar 31, 2011
This week we share the microphone with Frank Morring Jr., Senior Editor at AVIATION WEEK, and a journalist for 35 years, specializing in aerospace for the over 20 years. Frank joined AVIATION WEEK in 1989 as a defense/space reporter and senior space technology editor. In 2007 he was named deputy managing editor/space, responsible for coordinating space coverage across all bureaus and publications. Frank began his career working for his hometown daily in Huntsville, Alabama, and moved to Washington in 1979 as correspondent for the Birmingham Post-Herald. He later covered the Cold War Pentagon for Scripps-Howard News Service. Frank received a degree in comparative literature from Dartmouth College. Read Frank's articles at http://www.aviationweek.com/ Host This week: Gina Herlihy, Panelists: Mark Ratterman & Gene Mikulka

Tuesday Feb 01, 2011
Episode 305: A New Look on
Tuesday Feb 01, 2011
Tuesday Feb 01, 2011
On this episode, we bring on special guest Amy Teitel. Amy is an aspiring author and the creator of her blog, Vintage Space, where she discusses her views as well as little known facts about some of the classic as well as current space missions. We ask her about some of those opinions as well as bringing up shuttle, landing systems, and even the infamous one-way trip to mars. To visit Amy's blog, please check out: http://vintagespace.wordpress.com and follow her on Twitter as @astVintageSpace Host this week: Mark Ratterman. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Mark Ratterman, and special guest Elizabeth Howell Show Recorded - 1/30/2011

Tuesday Aug 31, 2010
Episode 229: Tribbles...in...SpaceUp
Tuesday Aug 31, 2010
Tuesday Aug 31, 2010
On this humorous episode, the gang discusses the progress of STS-133, some maintenance on the crawler transporters, and the pending demolition of Launch Pad 39B, first used for the space shuttle on January 28, 1986. We then move on to discuss how NASA is helping out Chilean government in discussing the survival of the 40 trapped miners. We also discuss Kepler's findings of two exoplanets transiting one star. To wrap it up, Sawyer discusses his meeting with TJ Creamer at the Intrepid. As well, Gene recaps his time representing the Talking Space Podcast at SpaceUp DC held at George Washington University...oh yeah, and the tribble fights. Astronaut and friend of the show Tom Jones discussing NASA's role in the miners rescue on Fox News can be seen on their website To find out if an astronaut will be visiting a location near you, check out CollectSPACE's site For more information on Project Calliope, visit http://projectcalliope.com. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - 8/30/2010

Tuesday Jul 20, 2010
Episode 225: The Greatest Feat in Human History
Tuesday Jul 20, 2010
Tuesday Jul 20, 2010
On this episode, we discuss the 41st anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which occurred on the release date of this show, July 20th in the year of 1969. We focus on one question throughout the whole program. What impact did the Apollo program have on your life? Not only does our panel answer, but we have some special interviews with those that worked on the program: Joe Blondin who worked on the Saturn V guidance ring, and Sara Howard who worked on the Saturn V's S-IC stage. As well, we open up our twalk.in lines to some of our listeners who gave their imput. Thanks Russ Dale, Todd Cecilio, and Kathy O'Brien for participating! Also, thank you Aaron Cunningham for writing us the letter. What impact did the Apollo program have on your life? We want to hear! Send them to us at mailbag@talkingspaceonline.com or on Twitter or Facebook. A picture was placed here. To view it, please visit http://talkingspaceonline.com to view it. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka and Mark Ratterman as well as our participants from twalk.in and those who wrote letters and were interviewed. Show Recorded - 7/18/2010

Monday Jun 28, 2010
Episode 222: A Pain in the Asteroid
Monday Jun 28, 2010
Monday Jun 28, 2010
On this show, we discuss a policy to be released by President Obama about future space policies and international cooperation. At this time, the report is already released, but we discussed what we predicted, and listen up for a short episode to be released shortly discussing the outcome of it. We then continue to talk about Sen. John Glenn's letter regarding human spaceflight. To read Gene's blog post on it, visit our Team Blog page. We then also discuss a possible plan to land on an asteroid by 2025 and the delays of STS-133 and STS-134. Finally, we discuss Mark's time at the NASA Family Education Night as part of its Summer of Innovation program. Below are two images which were taken from the event at the Astronaut Hall of Fame as part of NASA's Summer of Innovation program: Two images were inserted here. To view them, please visit http://talkingspaceonline.com to view them. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - 6/27/2010

Wednesday Apr 21, 2010
Episode 214: Houston, We Have a Plan
Wednesday Apr 21, 2010
Wednesday Apr 21, 2010
On this episode, we discuss the major announcement made by President Barrack Obama, who on Thursday, April 15, 2010, announced his future plan for NASA, which included a budget increase, a new Heavy Lift Vehicle to be ready by 2015, and the goal to land on an asteroid and then get into orbit around Mars with humans by the 2030s. Quite an interesting conversation. Also thanks to Alex Shimp (@shimpster) for sending his email to us at mailbag@talkingspaceonline.com to aid in the discussion. Again, these are just our views. If you have a different view, we want to hear it. We then went on to discuss Gina's trip to Kennedy Space Center for the Apollo 13th Anniversary event.
For more information on Gina's organization mentioned in this show, visithttp://astronautscholarshipfoundation.org
Also a special thanks to @CraftLass for allowing us to use her song, Bake Sale for NASA, which along with her new album Above the Sky is available at http://craftlass.com
Show recorded - Sunday, 4/18/2010