NASA space program history book – “Come Fly With Us” (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) – Mel Croft and John Youskauskas interview
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Mel Croft and John Youskauskas are both space program enthusiasts who have previously written a book on the NASA space program. They recetly wrote another book on space shuttle payload specialists and we discussed this new book.
0:49 – They talk about how they got into writing on this subject.
2:02 – They talk about how they organized the book.
2:52 – They explain what the pauload specialist program is.
6:26 – They discuss some of the interesting aspects of the program.
9:33 – They talk about writing on STS-51L.
12:01 – They talk about the reactions people had to being chose as payload specialists.
29:22 – They talk about what they might do with all the information they obtained that didn’t end up in the book.
35:19 – They talk about what the specialists thought when they saw they Earth from orbit.
45:03 – They talk about how the DoD affected the shuttle design and missions.
48:13 -They talk about how payload specialists handle being called astronauts.
53:41 – They talk about the X-37B.
57:08 – They’re both on collectspace.com. They’re also on cmflywithusbook.com.
Links of interest
https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9780803278929/
For more of “Science Fiction and the Fantastic Inside Out” please follow me on Facebook at crisalvarezwlc, on youtube at Cris Alvarez and on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi
Guests: Mel Croft and John Youskauskas
Host: Cris Alvarez
Tags: NASA, space program, shuttle, STS, challenger, accident, payload specialist, hunstville, space center, astronaut, X-37B
Dr. Jeffrey Sconce specializes in radio, tv, and film studies and is an assistant professor in communications studies. He’s written many books on the subject and we discussed his latest book on electricity, paranoia and conspiracy theories.