Talking Space

Episode 223: A True, American Hero

On this episode released especially on the 4th of July in the United States, we honor an American hero: Apollo 7 astronaut Walter "Walt" Cunningham. We discuss with him the state of America's space program, as well as looking back in the past to help predict the future. We also discuss aviation, piloting, and the recently-released National Space Policy of the United States of America and his opinion on it. Walter Cunningham is also the author of The All-American Boys, available from Amazon by clicking here. You can also find out more about him at his website: http://waltercunningham.com. Host this week: Gina Herlihy. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and Sawyer Rosenstein Show Recorded - 6/30/2010

Episode 222A: Cosmopolicy

On this special episode, we all discuss a recent release by the United States Government entitled the National Space Policy of the United States of America. It discusses six key goals the government hopes to implement in terms of international cooperation in space as well as unmanned space exploration, manned space exploration, and military use of space. To view the full document, you may click here. The document is a PDF and needs Adobe Reader. If you do not have it, it is available for free at http://adobe.com We want to hear your comments. To send them to us, you can email us text or an .mp3 to mailbag@talkingspaceonline.com. You can send it to us at our Twitter account @talkingspace or our Facebook page at http://bit.ly/talkingspacefb. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - 6/28/2010

Episode 221: Space Your Face

On this episode, We discuss the return of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA)  Hayabusa probe after a 7 year voyage to obtain a piece of Asteroid Itokawa. We discuss the Mars 500 experiment and answer two questions from our mailbag, and a thanks to @QuantumG and @racshot653 for the questions. Keep them coming! After that we look at NASA's  Expedition 24 to the International Space Station,  and review an  interesting editorial from MSNBC's James Oberg on reliance on the Russian Soyuz vehicle. We comment on relatively breaking news of President Obama's plan to take $100 million out of NASA's budget to put toward job training for NASA contractors who will be losing their jobs as a result of the Project Constellation shutdown on the space coast and elsewhere.  We end with a discussion of a mystery on board Atlantis, NASA giving you a chance to send your face into space, and a brand new exhibit opened at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum honoring the crew of Apollo 1 called "27 Seconds". A special thank you to CraftLass for "pinch hitting" for Gina Herlihy as a guest panel member this week! Follow CraftLass on Twitter: @CraftLass. To see the video blog for day 1 for the Mars 500, you can check it out here on YouTube. You can also follow Diego Urbina on Twitter at @diegou. You can see that the Falcon 9 launched at T-0 here on YouTube, the roll of the vehicle at launch here on YouTube, and the UFO "sighting" in Australia here on YouTube. The op-ed article written by James Oberg can be read here on MSNBC To send your "Face in Space", you can visit http://faceinspace.nasa.gov/ As well, here is the surprise which was left by the STS-132 crew aboard locker A-16 on Atlantis: A picture was inserted here. To view the picture, please visit http://talkingspaceonline.com Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and special guest panelist CraftLass Show Recorded - 6/18/2010

Episode 220: The Eagle is Down and the Falcon is Up

Gina Herlihy returns this week, as we discuss the upcoming STS-133 mission schedule for September. We also congratulate the 2010 Astronaut Hall of Fame inductees as Gina gives an overview of the induction ceremony. We discuss the major event of the week; the successful launch of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.  The booster was  commercially launched with minimal support from NASA. A big thanks to listeners Alex Shimp (@shimpster), @sciencenate/@MrTubbs220 and @Kiki_Gaviln for their comments on SpaceX and Falcon 9 . Remember to send  your comments in to us! For more information, check out our Contact Us page. We also talk about the Boeing X-51 "Waverider" going hypersonic, the WISE demise, and SOFIA's first light. Lastly, Gene and Guest panelist  CraftLass discuss the New York City World Science Festival Tweetup. To watch the 2010 Astronaut Hall of Fame inducition ceremony, you can watch the full event on YouTube here: http://tinyurl.com/astrohalloffame. Also, for more information on the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, check out http://astronautscholarshipfoundation.org. For more information on SOFIA, visit http://www.sofia.usra.edu/ To help sign the petition to bring a space shuttle to NYC as mentioned in the show, visithttp://shuttle2nyc.com Closing music is "Above the Sky" by CraftLass, and can be downloaded from her websitehttp://craftlass.com or on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/above-the-sky/id366098402 Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and special guest panelist CraftLass Show Recorded - 6/7/2010

Episode 219: Scott Had the Spirit to Accept Opportunity

On this episode, we are not only joined by guest panelist Tavi Greiner from Astronomy.FM, but we invite on special guest Scott Maxwell, one of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) "drivers". He discusses his experiences at the Jet Propulsions Laboratory and his work playing around with robots on another world. Frankenstein, anybody? For more info on Scott, check out his blog "Mars and Me" at http://marsandme.blogspot.com/ Learn more about the MERs at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov Be sure to also follow him on Twitter: @marsroverdriver Also, thanks to Tavi Greiner, who is part of Astronomy.FM, which broadcasts Talking Space every Tuesday night at 10pm EDT and is replayed every three hours. There's even an interactive chat. Check it out at http://astronomy.fm Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and special guest panelist Tavi Greiner. Special Guest: Mars Rover "Driver" Scott Maxwell. Show Recorded - Sunday 5/30/2010

Episode 218: Come Tweet Away

On this episode, we discuss a very busy week in space news. We talk about the Ariane 5 returning to flight, as well as Japan's (JAXA) H-II A launch of a probe to Venus. We then visit Opportunity setting a longevity record, SpaceX adding more delays, and honor PROP officer Lonnie Schmitt on his 100th shuttle mission behind the doors of mission control. For more info on Lonnie's accomplishment, check out the collectSPACE article by clicking here. We then discuss with Gene and Gina the STS-132 Launch Tweetup which they were selected to attend.  Credit for the audio of David Letterman is from CBS, and CBS maintains all rights to the clip. Below is a picture from the tweetup event. An image has been inserted here. To view the image, please visit http://talkingspaceonline.com. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - Sunday 5/23/2010

Episode 217: It's Raining 'Meteorite Men'

On this very special episode, we are joined by special guests Geoffrey Notkin and Steve Arnold of the Science Channel show, "Meteorite Men". We discuss their show, how they both got their start as meteorite hunters, some of their favorite moments from their television program, along with some science and some friendly poking fun.  Gina Herlihy's batteries needed recharging after the STS-132 Tweet-Up so , we asked  Rebecca Setzer (@beccasetz on Twitter) from the broadcast "Astronomy Out & About" heard weekly on Astronomy.FM to join our panel for this week. For more information on the Meteorite Men, please check out the following links: Meteorite Men Website: http://meteoritemen.com Meteorite Men on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/meteoritemen Meteorite Men on Twitter: @meteoritemen Steve Arnold's Company: http://stevearnoldmeteorites.com Geoff Notkin's Company: "Aerolite Meteorites": http://aerolite.org Science Channe's Official Meteorite Men Page:http://science.discovery.com/tv/meteorite-men/ An image has been inserted here. To view the image, please visit http://talkingspaceonline.com. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and special guest panelist Rebecca Setzer. Special Guests: Steve Arnold and Geoffrey Notkin of the Science Channel show Meteorite Men. Show Recorded - Sunday 5/16/2010

Episode 216: A Good Abort?

On this episode, we discuss the STS-132 mission set to launch on May 14th. As well, we get into the tweetup which is accompanying it, as our very own Gina Herlihy and Gene Mikulka will be there participating. Stay tuned as they will be giving updates on the field and we will post them. We then discuss the successful test of the Pad Abort system for Ares/Orion, and then finally remember the late Guenter Wendt, aka the "Pad Führer" who died Monday at age 85

For more information on Guenter Wendt, here is a link to collectSPACE rembering his life: http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-050310a.html

As well, here is the video that Mark mentioned. Original source was from here

Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman

Show Recorded - Monday 5/9/2010

Episode 215: Theory of the Evolution of Shuttles

On this episode, we discuss everything to do with the shuttle somehow. We start off with the recent STS-131 mission, along with the final three missions and the rotation of the final two flights and their order. We then go on to discuss the launch of the US government's own mini-shuttle, which was originally designed in cooperation with NASA and nothing to do with the military. We also discuss the 20th anniversary of the release of Hubble and its journey, as well as an SDO update. For information on SDO and to see First Light pictures, visit their website as mentioned in the show:http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/firstlight/ As a note: We have heard your comments regarding issues with our uneven volumes and sound problems. We have done our best to fix that for this episode. Please send us a comment in our Contact Us section letting us know if the sound quality has improved. Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gina Herlihy, Gene Mikulka, and Mark Ratterman Show Recorded - Monday 4/26/2010

Episode 214: Houston, We Have a Plan

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