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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