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The Best of Year Three

Season 1Episode 152Jul 10, 2020

The entire Houston We Have a Podcast team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (virtually) gets together for their third anniversary to reflect on another year, highlighting their favorite episodes and moments working together on the podcast. HWHAP Episode 152.

The Best of Year Three

The Best of Year Three

If you’re fascinated by the idea of humans traveling through space and curious about how that all works, you’ve come to the right place.

“Houston We Have a Podcast” is the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center from Houston, Texas, home for NASA’s astronauts and Mission Control Center. Listen to the brightest minds of America’s space agency – astronauts, engineers, scientists and program leaders – discuss exciting topics in engineering, science and technology, sharing their personal stories and expertise on every aspect of human spaceflight. Learn more about how the work being done will help send humans forward to the Moon and on to Mars in the Artemis program.

For Episode 152, Gary Jordan, host of Houston We Have a Podcast, (virtually) gathers the growing podcast team – Alex Perryman, Pat Ryan, Norah Moran, Belinda Pulido, Jennifer Hernandez, and Dan Huot – for their third anniversary to reflect on another year, highlighting their favorite episodes and moments working together on the podcast. This episode was recorded on June 10, 2020.

Houston, we have a podcast

Transcript

Gary Jordan (Host): Houston, we have a Birthday! Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center, Episode 152, “The Best of Year Three.” I’m Gary Jordan and I’ll be kicking off this discussion today. Three years ago, this week, we launched the first episode of Houston We Have a Podcast. We’ve brought in so many scientists, engineers, astronauts, to talk about a huge variety of topics, and share some incredible stories. We’re celebrating another great year of Houston We Have a Podcast. This time we’re bringing in the entire podcast team and putting them in front of the mics to talk about some of our favorite moments from the past year of episodes. Today, I’m sitting down with producer and audio wizard, Alex Perryman, as well as producer and host, Pat Ryan. We’re also bringing in Norah Moran, who prepares each episode for the web and shares them with the world. We’re also bringing in Belinda Pulido who prepares the transcript for each episode and does a more than fantastic job of making the episode understandable by all. We have Jennifer Hernandez, a fellow public affairs officer, who also helps in producing and promoting. She was even a co-host on one of our most recent episodes. And of course, Dan Huot, who helped kick the whole thing off. Now, I wanted to bring in the whole podcast team, but we’re all recording from home, so you’re going to hear it on Microsoft Teams. It’s going to sound a little bit different from how we usually do it, but I hope you’ll stay tuned. If you’re new to the show, this will give you a nice snapshot of some of the conversations we’ve had so far. Happy Birthday to us. Let’s jump right ahead to reminiscing with the podcast team. Enjoy.

[ Music]

[ Applause]

Host: We did it guys. Another year down. I cannot believe we have been doing this for three years. It has been such an honor to be working with every, single one of you. I’m glad you can all be here. This is the first time we have the entire podcast team. I wanted to bring you guys on to celebrate and to also just introduce you, because a lot of you, yes have been on some of the previous anniversary episodes, but this is a lot of the times for some of our listeners, that you’ll — actually, it’ll be the first time that a lot of them get to actually hear your voices. So, I’m glad to be doing this. But first, we’ve got to kick it off to the audio wizard herself, Alex Perryman. How are you? How has this past year been?

[Applause]

Alex Perryman: This past year — thank you for that lone applause. This past year has been very interesting for the wizard, but it’s been a lot of fun. Just the new episodes that we got to do, the new editing techniques that I was doing, just all of that, it’s been great this year.

Host: So, Alex talk a little about —

Dan Huot: Don’t forget her newfound TikTok stardom.

Host: Yes, that’s right. Alex, tell us a little bit about yourself and your newfound fame.

Alex Perryman: About me. So, I’ve been working at NASA for almost four years now as an audio engineer. Do everything from live TV to this podcast here when it comes to audio. And during the, what we call the “Quarantine Fame,” I became pretty popular on TikTok. So, it’s about 11K strong right now.

Host: Congratulations. That’s awesome. And you are the audio wizard. You’ve been with us since the very beginning. We’ve been doing this for three years, seen a lot of stuff, and you’re the audio wizard for those who have not heard the story, because of your insane audio abilities and your ability to resurrect audio files from the quote unquote, “dead.” So, happy to have you as part of the team, Alex.

Alex Perryman: So happy to be here.

Host: Alright, next is Pat Ryan. Podcast producer extraordinaire, and the velvety baritone voice. Pat, how are you?

Pat Ryan: I’m good. I’m good. But you know, working for Alex Perryman, there’s no way it can be bad.

Host: Tell us a little bit about what you do for the podcast and for NASA.

Pat Ryan: I am a producer and writer in — for the Public Affairs Office, and working on a variety of things, including producing the podcast and serving as the backup interviewer on occasion. That’s the short answer.

Host: Well, it is — it’s been wonderful to have you, Pat. I don’t think I could do this without you, because it’s just this podcast has grown, and we have so many different topics. We are at, what is this? This is 152.

Pat Ryan: Yes.

Host: A hundred and fifty-two episodes. I just — you know, I couldn’t do it without you. So, I’m glad to have you as part of the team.

Pat Ryan: Well, that’s nice of you to say, although I know you have done it without me, so that’s a good thing, though. And it’s good to point out that this podcast — with the exception of the time that the federal government was shut down, this podcast has posted every, single week. Never missed a week.

Host: Very proud of that and all thanks for your help. Thank you very much. Alright, here’s a voice that you’ve maybe heard I think once on the podcast, last year for the anniversary. She was the one taking photos of our anniversary episode. We got her to say, “Hey.” But, here’s Norah Moran. You’ve heard her voice at the end of most of the episodes for the past, at least, year and a half. Norah, welcome.

Norah Moran: Hi. So, yes, I’ve been working on the podcast now for I think a year and a half. And I wear a few different hats here at NASA. I’m a photographer, so I work with the NASA photo team that did a podcast here. Those guys are my coworkers, but I also work over here with all of you guys doing social media stuff. I do all the ISS social media postings and for the podcast particularly, I put together all of the NASA.gov webpage posts. And all the subsequent posting, and I make all of the thumbnails, and sort of put it all altogether. I used to do all of the transcripts as well, but then Belinda came along to help me out, which has been awesome. Made my job a lot easier.

Host: Norah, you do a lot for the podcast, and I was really nervous that after your year with us that you were going to move on to different things, and you did such a good job, I’m glad you were able to stick with us and continue to post. You’ve been doing really good. All the thumbnails, all the unique links. There’s been a lot of instances, even this past year, where we’ve just had very unique episodes. I think one of my favorites in particular was, “The View from Above.” That was one that Pat hosted, but it was an integrated, audio podcast, but if you go to the webpage, you can actually follow along through the imagery journey that our guest, Will Stefanov, was taking us through, and follow along. And that was all thanks to you putting that together. So, Norah, you’ve been doing great. It’s been an honor to have you.

Norah Moran: Thank you. It’s been really fun to be on this team.

Host: Please don’t go away. And next is Belinda. Norah, you mentioned Belinda. Belinda, you have been an incredible asset to this team. I think the transcripts have significantly improved since I remember I was doing them, in the very beginning. But you take a lot of time and your very detail oriented, and it’s been great. So, Belinda, tell us a little bit about your contribution to the podcast, and a little of what you do.

Belinda Pulido: Yes. Hi, I’m Belinda. And I have been part of the team since September of last year. So, a little less than a year. It’s been a great experience overall. I’ve gained so much science, NASA knowledge working on the transcripts weekly. My job is to go over the transcripts, as I mentioned. And all I do is like basically do fact-checking, acronym research among other items throughout the week. And I have helped also in guest coordination, which has been amazing. And I’ve also been part of other projects across NASA. I started as an intern, and was lucky enough to still, you know, to stay and work around the multimedia spectrum. And I’ve been here for two years now. Time flies. And this team is like a family to me. We all get along really well, and we work really well as a team. Yes, so I definitely look forward to each week, for working on the show and just working with this amazing team. It’s been a great almost one year with you guys.

Host: Belinda, that means so much. It’s been an honor to have you, really. You do an excellent job and I also look forward to this meeting. I try to make it fun, and we always come up with unique ideas. And to Pat’s point, we haven’t really missed a week. So, and that’s all thanks to you guys contributing and putting forth so much effort to actually make it possible. So, Belinda, thank you for being a part of this team.

Belinda Pulido: Thank you. I’m happy to be here.

Host: Alright, now I’ll introduce our newest member, but I feel like Jennifer, you’ve been a part of the team for a while, and you’ve contributed already so much, even co-hosting, and a number of other things. Jennifer Hernandez, welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jennifer Hernandez: Well, hey Gary. Thank you so much. I think — well, first of all, I’m a freshly minted Public Affairs Officer here at NASA Johnson Space Center. So, I’m nearing about eight months, and I specifically work with our, you know, Flight Operations Directorate, which includes our astronauts, and work with our social media manager for a lot of the social media efforts. But for the podcast specifically, I think the best way to describe my role on the podcast starts with me just inserting myself, and just showing up to the meetings. And so, I can’t thank you all enough for accepting me and allowing me to help with contributions like guest coordination and social media efforts with Norah. And it’s been a lot of fun because I’m also learning along the way and getting to know a lot of different people across the agency, with all the different people that we get to talk to, and a lot of the behind the scenes that we have the opportunity to be a part of. So, it’s been a load of fun. So, thank you very much for allowing me to join you all.

Host: Jennifer, it’s been fantastic to have you as well. I think, you know, you talk about you’re freshly minted and being able to see, you know, all the different parts of the agency, but I think — what I really value about your contribution, is your fresh perspective. And I just said, we’ve been doing this for three years, and maybe that doesn’t sound like a lot, but I feel like you know, you can somehow get trapped in like a routine of doing things a certain way. So, keeping us fresh and making sure we’re constantly thinking about new ideas on how to approach things, has been really refreshing. So, Jennifer it’s been fantastic to have you.

Jennifer Hernandez: Thanks, Gary.

Host: Dan Huot, another OG, kicking us off with Episode 1. Glad you can actually join us. We’ve been missing you for this past year. Haven’t heard your voice hosting in quite a while, but I’m glad that you can join us and take part in celebrating this — another year of, Houston We Have a Podcast. Dan Huot.

Dan Huot: Thanks, Gary. And always fun to be here. I miss filling in every once in a while, but Gary and Pat have it so well covered, I’ve been off doing other things. So, kind of an interloper this year, but always happy to jump on and be your guys’ cheerleader. And I’m wondering what flavor cake everybody made for themselves at 10 a.m.

Host: I’ll be honest—[Laughter]

Pat Ryan: You don’t want to know.

Host: Yes. Well Dan, it’s — thanks for helping to kick us off. I know — I do mean it when I say that you know, I think we all miss having you host, and we’ll have to look forward to having you on a little bit more. But I know, you know, besides you being part of the podcast, you did have a lot to do with the Demo-2 mission. Just an incredible amount of work and it definitely paid off. So, I’m glad to even have you be a small part of this team. And I know you work a lot with commercial crew and anything human spaceflight, you know, the International Space Station and so forth. And that’s really, you know, I consider you the team leader. You are the team leader, and that’s my job here. I’m Gary Jordan, and I’m a Public Affairs Officer as well, under Dan’s team, focusing mostly on Commercial Crew these days, but also the podcast host and really helping to kick this thing off and continue it going. And I absolutely love, love doing it every single week. And so, I will continue — I will continue to talk to great people for my own selfish reasons. I love sitting down and trapping people for an hour, just to pelt them with questions, because I’m super interested in all of this. So, it’s been a pleasure to be doing this. I want to kick off this year of reminiscing. You know, we’re in July 2020 by the time this thing actually comes out. And we have had a lot of content, but actually if you take it back a whole year, the first episode that we did after our last anniversary, was Episode 100. That’s crazy to think about that we skipped — started off the year with 100 — the 100 Episode celebration. I got to sit down with the administrator who has said very nice things about the podcast, and it was a pleasure to have him on again actually. We did have him on beforehand, but it was really — it was really fun having him on to kick us off.

Jim Bridenstine: And this was a contest of political ideologies. It was a contest of economic ideologies. It was a contest of technological prowess, and in this great contest of great powers, the United States of America was determined to win. And the objective was to get to the Moon. Interestingly, we were able to achieve that victory, July 20th, 1969 with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and of course 400,000 people that were working on the program at the time. And when we achieved it, we moved into a new era where we in fact now partner with Russia.

Host: Now, of course Dan, I know Episode 1 always seems to be at the top of the list for the number of downloads. I think it was last year, we actually said that Stan Love’s episode, “Mars is Hard” had more downloads than Episode 1, overtaking it for Year two. I’m proud to say Year three, we do have a new top episode, and that is Episode 101 with our podcast guest extraordinaire, Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, who has been on a few times. [Applause] Yes, well-deserved round of applause. She contributed so much to the podcast. But Jennifer came on for this episode to talk about the lesser known stories of Apollo 11. And it was a unique episode because she did a lot of the work and research herself. She was the historian bringing on some of these great stories.

Jennifer Ross-Nazzal: You know, a lot of people you probably hear a lot of conspiracy stories about how — of course, we didn’t really go to the Moon. A lot of people say, “Well, one reason is because if you look at that flag that’s on the Moon, it looks like it’s fluttering in the wind.” Well, Jack Kinzler had come up with this idea because of course, they wanted you to be able to see the flag. So, they actually stitched a hem on this flag, and they had an aluminum rod that would go through. You were actually supposed to completely stretch it out so it’d be completely straight for the photos, but the crew noticed that it would — it was kind of fluttering. You know, the way it might flutter here on Earth? And so, they didn’t extend that aluminum rod that whole way. They decided to leave it where it looked like it was fluttering.

Host: Oh.

Jennifer Ross-Nazzal: And so, to this day, a lot of people say, “Well, of course it’s on a sound stage somewhere in Burbank,” or what have you. And but, he had designed it that way.

Host: Yes, so that was the number one listened to episode of the past year. Still is, I believe. So, I guess we’ll have to come up with an even cooler idea for Year four here, guys. So, get those wheels turning. So, this one didn’t exactly make it as the top contender, but I will say this one had the most social media engagement on the episode that I’ve in a long time, Episode 104, with Jason Hutt. This was an episode where Jason Hutt, he’s — I applaud this guy’s brain because he thinks of every emergency scenario that could happen on a deep space mission, and he’s thinking about how to mitigate some of those risks with backup computers, with fire suppression, with all of these different techniques. So, he’s the one that’s thinking of all these different ways to save the crew, save the mission, through all of these different emergency scenarios, going deep down the rabbit hole, and it was just fascinating to be talking to him.

Host: It has to get through these several layers of defense first.

Jason Hutt: Right.

Host: It’s got to be you know, the design of the equipment itself, the nitrogen flowing over it.

Jason Hutt: Right.

Host: It’s — there’s a lower probability of catching fire in the first place, but what if it does? That’s where you’re at right now.

Jason Hutt: And we’ve tested those computers to show — and shown that if a fire does start in that computer, it usually burns itself out. So again, it would have to be — something else would have to catch on fire with it, in order for that fire to propagate and get worse in the cabin.

Host: A low probability of something —

Jason Hutt: Right.

Host: — getting to that point, which is why your — that’s your risk.

Jason Hutt: Right, as opposed to a fire in the open cabin —

Host: Right.

Jason Hutt: — where you have clothes for the crew members, maybe you have a paper from something that they’re working on. There’s more fuel that could be consumed in a fire in the open cabin than there is behind some of these base.

Host: OK. And obviously, you know a lot of teams working on this, assessing this, and figuring out that, “Yes, there is a risk of that, but it’s so low that we can feel comfortable designing it in this fashion.”

Jason Hutt: Right.

Host: OK.

Jason Hutt: But we still have the capability to respond in some form or fashion.

Host: Yes.

Jason Hutt: We can’t have the hubris of saying, “This will never happen.”

Host: Never happen, right.

Jason Hutt: Right.

Host: Of course, Year three had a lot of returns of guests to the podcast. We already mentioned Jennifer Ross-Nazzal, but we also had the return of Nujoud Merancy who some may recognize as one of our earlier podcast guests. She talked about Orion, the very base episode of Orion. The episode title was just Orion. But she’s since moved on to bigger and better things, working with Mission Planning, and was actually able to draw really good comparisons of the Artemis Mission architecture, and the Apollo Mission architecture. It was absolutely fascinating because I think a lot of people have this confusion of, “What is Artemis doing, versus what Apollo is doing?” You know, and there was — she really broke it down in a super-understandable way.

Host: So, this mission profile, the mission profile of Apollo, what was good about it, to meet the needs of the time?

Nujoud Merancy: What was good about it, is by putting it all on one launch, while you limited where you could go on the surface of the Moon, it was one launch. So, that way, you had the least amount of resources assigned to it, the least amount of risk, even though there’s a lot of risk still, you only had one launch to get it up there. But as a result, you were very limited on how long you could stay, and how much you could take, which was only three people for a limited stay of a couple days.

Host: So, why won’t this mission profile work for what we want to do with Artemis?

Nujoud Merancy: So, one of the big differences between Apollo, which was get to the Moon, as fast as you can, as quick as you can, it is — for Artemis, we want to be sustainable, which means we want to be able to explore for longer durations. Potentially, you could build bases. But also, you want to demonstrate things you need to go Mars. And all of the things you need to go to Mars involve much longer durations. Surface stays on Mars are basically 30 days to 6 months. So, you need to be able to do long duration stays, and have long-term build-up of stuff, because you need a lot more stuff, the longer you’re going to stay. So, it’s a very different goal between Apollo and Artemis.

Host: And complicated. Now, when you stay longer and you need more stuff, that’s all more complicated stuff.

Host: Now, of course, Pat, I skipped a few steps here. I want to circle back to you because I was just going through some of my favorite episodes, but I did want to take it back to Episode 102. This was one of my favorite episodes, for sure, because usually you know, we only take a few guests and we have them for an hour, but this was a montage of some of the most important people, the biggest leaders here at NASA, to talk about how Apollo 11 influenced them and a little bit about how they view human spaceflight. It was a really good episode, Pat.

Pat Ryan: Well, thanks. At the time, last July when we were all focused on the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, I thought that it might be — looking for a little different angle that we talked to the leaders of NASA’s current human spaceflight programs, and the offices here at the Johnson Space Center, the Home of Human Spaceflight in America, to get their ideas on what we called, “the next first steps.” The programs that NASA is working on now, that are aimed at putting Americans back on the Moon, so that we can learn how to put some other astronauts on Mars someday. We talked to leaders from Headquarters and from JSC center leadership, program leadership, to hear their personal memories of Apollo 11. Now, most of them did have one, and they had some unusual stories. But also, how they were influenced, directly or indirectly in their future careers. That was Episode 102. Take a listen. For all of that, I particularly — particularly I think for their thoughts on the value of putting the human in human spaceflight, and why it matters that we put people on top of rockets, so that we can explore off the planet. I put together a short clip here. First featuring Johnson Space Center Director, Mark Geyer, and then Steve Koerner, the Chief of the Flight Operations Directorate here at JSC. They’re talking about the unlikely intersection of practicality and destiny.

Mark Geyer: The human mind is an incredible machine, and we — the mind is capable of learning and adapting, so much more than any computer that we may ever develop. And we saw in Apollo that when we sent those scientists to the surface, their ability to learn and adapt and enhance what we were trying to do, it just multiplied our capability, so much more. You know, the rovers one Mars are incredible machines, but even then, they’re limited. So, that’s number one. Number two, I think it is, you know, I believe that the — that our destiny as a species is not limited to Earth. That we will go out into the solar system and so to me, this is the beginning of that destiny.

Steve Koerner: Asking the first folks that sailed the seas, “Why’s it important?” Or asking the first folks that flew, “Why is it important?” You look back and now it seems common-place that of course it was important, but I don’t know that they started off with all those answers, but that inquisitive human nature of, “This is something that ought to be pursued.” So, that’s kind of one, almost general level. I’m not sure what the right word there is, but for me, more personally, it’s the opportunity to influence in a way that’s significant. Human spaceflight. I mean, I can’t think of a better time to spend — a better way to spend my time for myself personally, challenging me, but also contributing to my kids, my family. Human spaceflight is an impressive, grand, bold effort that to me is absolutely worth it from, again, a personal perspective. In anything I do, I look for three things. I want to have fun. I want to provide value. And I want to learn something. And I challenge somebody to point out something other than human spaceflight that could more maximize those three things.

Pat Ryan: So, I had a lot of fun, talking to all these people who are running today’s human spaceflight programs, and seeing them on a personal level, but learning things I didn’t know about their backgrounds, and why they do what they do here.

Host: That was a really good episode, and you know, all of the things you just said, why they do what they do, but also you know, this was a really important year for this anniversary, especially the Apollo 11 anniversary, but we really investigated a lot of Moon episodes. Pat, I know you spearheaded a few of them with author Andy Chaikin, and we got — I guess a resident Moon expert, Sam Lawrence in here. All these great episodes, really diving deep into the Moon.

Pat Ryan: It was an unplanned conjunction, really. But we aired back to back weeks in October of Episodes 113 and 114. It was first, our friend Gordon Andrews called up and said, “Hey, do you want to interview Andrew Chaikin?” We said, “Yes, where? When?” He’s a long-time space journalist and big NASA cheerleader. And this came just after the Apollo 11 and in public affairs, of course we were talking a lot about the Artemis program, and about the new effort to return astronauts to the Moon. Chaikin is so conversant in Apollo history, and he can make the historical connection from what happened then, to what we’re doing now. He also told a story about the value and the importance of having human beings involved in space exploration. He talked about this lesson he learned after his mother suggested to him, that he write about the people who were involved in Apollo. And that led him to interviewing, all but one of the Apollo astronauts.

Andrew Chaikin: What I brought to bear on Man on the Moon was a sensitivity to the human experience, and a sense of how to put myself in their place from what they were telling me in these interviews. That I could then be a storyteller, and make that experience come alive on the page.

Pat Ryan: You undoubtedly, you would agree that the reason people get more excited about lunar exploration with astronauts, as opposed to unmanned–

Andrew Chaikin: Sure.

Pat Ryan: — probes, is the manned part. It —

Andrew Chaikin: Exactly.

Pat Ryan: — puts everybody else in that spot.

Andrew Chaikin: You know what the perfect example of that is? You know, Apollo 8 was the first human beings, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, they were the first human beings to leave the Earth and visit another world. They didn’t land, of course. They circled the Moon, but they were the first to experience the site of the lunar far side with human eyes. They were the first to see the Earth from lunar distance. The famous Earth-rise picture that Bill Anders took, became a touchstone for the latter half of the 20th Century. But three years before, two years before that, lunar orbiter, one of the lunar orbiter probes, had circled the Moon and taken an Earth-rise picture, and at the time, it was a big deal. It was a headline, but nothing compares to the sound of a human voice coming to us from a place where no one has ever been. And nothing compares to having those people come back and tell us, in their own words, what that was like.

Pat Ryan: What it was like.

Andrew Chaikin: Yes. You can’t do that with a robot. Neil Armstrong once said, “A robot — a human can be amused and amazed, and a robot can do neither.” So, you know, there — we have this innate desire in us. We all start out as explorers, right? When we’re learning to crawl, and we crawl from one room into another, that’s our moonwalk.

Pat Ryan: But we’re exploring our environment.

Andrew Chaikin: We’re exploring. We are driven to do that. It’s in our DNA. And so, we want to go. We want to be — we want to have the experience of seeing what no one’s ever seen, of knowing what no one’s ever known. And I personally have been driven by that feeling since I was five years old and I still have that inside me, that I want to go into space, and then come back and tell about it. I don’t know if I’ll ever get that chance, but that is what has driven me my whole life.

Pat Ryan: And Chaikin also talked a lot about the scientific importance of research on the Moon, but we got a lot more of that from the guest the following week. Sam Lawrence is his name. He’s a planetary scientist, in the Astro Materials Research and Exploration Science Division at JSC. What that means is, he’s the lead lunar exploration scientist, very involved in actually developing the scientific objectives of the Artemis project. Lawrence actually calls himself, “The Cheerleader in Chief for the Moon.” Among the cool things I learned about the Moon that day, things which frankly I don’t remember having learned when I was a student for many reasons, but it was Lawrence’s explanation of how the Moon is responsible for us knowing how old all the planets are. He gives the credit for that to the human beings who went to the Moon with picks and shovels.

Samuel Lawrence: The biggest reason why I say that the Moon is the Rosetta Stone of the solar system is we landed, with astronauts, who did field work in key locations on the lunar surface. From that field work, they picked up samples, they did geology in the field, they selected, carefully selected samples, more carefully in some cases than others, but they selected samples that were tied back to specific locations on the lunar surface. And from that, we brought it back here to Houston, and then distributed those samples all over the world, and did radiometric age dating, and figured out how old those samples were. And very similarly to, you know, when you cut down a tree, you count the number of rings?

Pat Ryan: Right.

Samuel Lawrence: And that tells you how old the tree is. Well, on another planet, especially ones that don’t have atmospheres, it is the number of craters that tells you — that can be used to infer how old the surface is. The more craters there are, the older the surface is.

Pat Ryan: The longer it’s been there exposed to passing asteroids.

Samuel Lawrence: That’s right. That’s right. And so, it’s you know, there are always exceptions to every rule, and that’s sort of a gross oversimplification of it, but in general, that rule holds. The older the surface, the more craters there are. So, what you could do is, you could count the areas near the Apollo landing site, see how many craters are on those areas, and then figure out, because we have samples, the radiometric age dates, you know, see how old they were. And then that timescale has actually been extended to every, single one of the inner terrestrial planets. Mercury, Mars, Vesta, and it really is this gift that has kept on giving. You know, you can make a pretty good case, in a sense, it is actually what happened, that most of the discoveries we’ve made in planetary science over the past five decades, are directly or indirectly related to the discoveries made by the Apollo astronauts on the surface of the Moon.

Pat Ryan: And of course, that includes the next to last man on the Moon, Astronaut Jack Schmitt who, Gary, you talked to for Episode 121 that we posted last December. Sam Lawrence has a really easy to understand explanation for why sending astronauts back to the Moon is a good idea, and about how things we believe are there, can help us succeed in our goal of creating that sustainable presence on the Moon, that we need in order to help us get to Mars.

Host: And this was such an important year for just thinking about the Moon and looking forward to Mars. It was a year of anniversaries, too. Not just the one, but we all — you know, like you said Pat, I did get to talk with Jack Schmitt. This was, actually for a lot of the Apollo 11 stuff, but I really got to ask him a lot of questions about Apollo 17, which is years down the road, but you know, I wanted to make sure that people got to hear his voice, especially now. Thinking about Artemis, where we are with some of the current programs and milestones, even 47 years instead of 50, after his mission. But I think, you know, along the lines of anniversaries, I loved Apollo 13. I’m so happy that we actually got to have them here in the studio, 50 years later to remember such a milestone mission. Of course, Lovell was on the phone, but Fred Haise we got to have in the studio. He came very early. Belinda, I remember you were there, and we got to — we got to sit down with Fred Haise and just have some back and forth chit-chat, just about — for about an hour, just about different things about life, and it was really great to have him. Belinda, I don’t know if you — I know that was kind of cool to have him there.

Belinda Pulido: Yes. I had actually met him as an intern, but to meet him again at the podcast, that episode, Apollo 13, was amazing. He’s a great person as well. So, it was a great — it was definitely a highlight for me, for being part of the podcast.

Fred Haise: Well, I mean, we heard the bang and you know, it rang through this metallic structure. We’re in metal vehicles. And of course, the first thing is, “What was it? What was it?” And at the time, I got to the left of the lunar module where I was putting away equipment, we head out to do a show and tell TV show. I was still putting things away. By the time I drifted up to my position in the right couch which had a lot of the cryogenics and the fuel cells and all of that, I looked and saw one oxygen — two oxygen instruments on Tank 2 in the bottoms, both pressure and quantity. And I knew we had lost one oxygen tank almost for sure, because those two different kinds of sensors that would feed those dials. And so, I knew we had lost a tank, and I knew we had — that would constitute an abort. I was sick to my stomach with disappointment because I knew pretty quick, we had an aborted mission and we weren’t going to get to land on the Moon.

Host: And of course, I think another thing about this year is we really dove right into a lot of different series. I think there’s a few that definitely stick out as my favorite. Of course, the series on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. We did that because they were doing some really important work to basically restore the AMSs cooling components to its full capability to continue the experiment and have it keep collecting some amazing particles. But we had a series on the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, diving deep into the science and the spacewalks. And Pat, I know you got to talk with a lot of different tool developers on just the intricate details. We got real nerdy with this. Definitely one of my favorite episodes.

Pat Ryan: Yes, they — these are the people who are responsible for managing the team that actually had to develop some brand-new tools to do this work on the spacewalk. Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer was not designed to have this sort of surgery performed on it in space. So, they had to figure out how to do it without damaging the instrument. And they had to develop some absolutely completely brand-new tools. They even talked about one of them that was — that — help that they were getting from some college students. They ran a program. There’s a program that runs all the time to help the college students, engineering students, learn about things. And they had some help from college students on how to save that instrument.

Host: Now that was one of the many series we had. We had a few more. Of course, it was the return of HRP, for those long-time listeners. We did a series with them, I believe — we’ll call it Season 1, but it was our first year. We had the Five Hazards of Human Spaceflight. We had the return of some of those fantastic guests. I know Tom Williams is one that sticks out, just because I had a fascinating conversation with him about isolation back in the Five Hazards, but we got to have him again for another series, the Human Research Program. Jen Fogarty helped us to kick it off, and man, what a fascinating person Jen is, just — I didn’t really need to ask her a ton of questions because she just started going deep into how the human body works in space. And I honestly, I told her afterwards I said, “Jen, you’re one of those few people I think that I can have on the podcast for three hours, and it could be just a fascinating conversation.”

Jennifer Fogarty: So, when you are working full-time, eating and exercising take a backseat, just like in your everyday life. So, we started seeing people lose weight, and their body composition changed a little bit, even in a two-week period, and we could measure it. And that’s really when we started discovering things like the orthostatic intolerance, because we had a lot more people flying. We had men and women flying. And they were dedicated toward operations. And so, the human need kind of took a little bit of a backseat. So, that led to a lot of understanding about what we were capable of doing, depending on how you designed the operations of the mission. In 2000, when they launched Space Station, the idea was these people were going up, and going up for longer durations. At the time, it was probably more like four months, three, four months. Not quite the six months and more that we’re doing now. But that’s a marathon, compared to shuttle. And so, you really had to understand where were we going with expectations on the human, and were we providing what the human needed over time to still be healthy and functional, perform well, given that they had a mission to do?

Host: And the next one, I don’t think it really was meant to be a series, but it turned out to be. I got lucky enough to bring on Dr. Gary Kitmacher, onto the show. A person with a ton of history here at NASA, but just a history buff himself, he knows the space station, inside and out. And so, we took it all the way back, investigating the history of space stations. I think we actually meant for it to just be kind of a one-time thing. But by the time we were done with our hour, we hadn’t even gotten to the International Space Station. And so, I said, “Gary, if you’re willing to come back for another round of this, we can dive deep into the space station.” And he was more than happy to do so. We got two episodes out of it, and it was really, really fun.

Gary Kitmacher: Computers, when we started the design of computers for the space station in the 1980s, there was not such thing as a laptop computer. The first small Apples, Apple computers were coming out probably around ’87 or thereabouts. I remember when I went off to the source board because I was the scribe, I was the person writing a lot of these documents, they repackaged one of these Apple computers. It wasn’t by any means a portable. We called it a “luggable.” And but, we were looking at large, refrigerator-sized racks full of computer equipment in the 1980s. By the time of Mir, when our first astronaut went up to the Mir, he said he really could have used some kind of a computer system to read documents on, read training manuals, because otherwise, we had no way of sending up lots of different manuals. Even during his off hours, he said, “Boy, I could use something just to watch a movie on.” And so, I was given the job to develop the first portable computer, to be used as a training aid and also to be able to be used in off-duty hours. I remember we recorded onto small, 8-millimeter cassettes, the Apollo 13 movie, among others.

Host: Oh.

Gary Kitmacher: And sent those up in 1995.

Host: Now, Jennifer, a little bit later episode 136, this was — kind of came out of nowhere, but we — it was kind of tied to the astronaut application which opened up, I think it was only for a month. I think it was through the month of March. But we got to sit down with Anne Roemer and Kayla Barron and go in front of the cameras for a special video episode of the podcast, and that had to be one of my favorites, Jennifer, because we incorporated social media into it. And Kayla was telling some of the — some awesome stories that I’d never heard before from astronaut training. It was just a really good time.

Jennifer Hernandez: Gary, it certainly was, especially because being new to you know, the podcast team, and having that opportunity to really have this interactive conversation, you know, with these individuals, it was really neat to see how, you know, kind of our audience and our listeners, and maybe new listeners, you know, really engaged with us in order to have that real-time conversation, and answering those questions that they submitted on social media. And it was just really neat to have that banter, amongst these individuals, including yourself, and having that be a part of just the overall, you know, kind of lent itself to the treatment of the overall conversation. I thought it was so neat, and I was really happy to be a part of that. I think it definitely gave the conversation a different flavor.

Kayla Barron: Hopefully Johnny would think it’s OK for me to tell this story, but one of my favorite moments from that trip, we — so, there’s not much water in that part of Utah. A lot of times, your kind of scooping it out of these little potholes in the rock, just like an inch thick of water, trying to fill your, you know, various vessels for the day. So, it was kind of hard to get water sometimes. But one night, it started just this torrential downpour of rain. And it was cold, and we’re all huddled sort of under this overhang, trying to stay dry. And Johnny’s tromping around in the puddles. He’s wearing this big, camouflage poncho, and I just remember looking up at him and my headlamp was shining on him. It was dark. And he was using his poncho as a funnel to shoot rainwater into all the water bottles, and pots and pans. And he just looked up at me with this really excited look on this face and said, “Kayla, look at all this free water.” And it made me laugh so hard because it’s just like — it’s in those moments where people are cold and tired and, you know, maybe a little bit bummed out, and seeing one of your peers, your teammates, like literally the glass is half full for him. You know, he’s just like, “Look at all this free water.” And you’re like — you can think it’s cold, terrible rain, but for him, he was choosing to see it from a different perspective. And that’s the kind of teammate you really want in those hard moments, because all of a sudden everyone’s laughing, everyone’s morale is boosted, and that’s just Johnny being Johnny. You know, Johnny being himself and being willing to share himself with us really brought the team out of you know, a tough moment.

Host: I really hope we get to do that more, because I think that was — the intent was we were really hoping to kick off a series of video episodes, and maybe when we’re back from quarantine, that maybe we can start investigating some of those down the road and do a couple more video things. But I think that was one of the last episodes we recorded with — in studio, I guess, even though it was in front of the camera. There were — actually, I think the last interviews we did, and Alex, you’re going to be very proud of me for bringing this us, was the Soyuz landing episode. Man, I’ve been holding onto this one for a while. I know, you know, we meet weekly to talk about some of the episodes, and this one has been on the list, but it’s just — it took a lot of work to put together. So, some of those interviews that you heard for Soyuz landing, was happening in the days before we actually went to a work from home status for NASA. And man, I’m lucky we got to bring those in. Alex, I hope you’re proud of me for actually pulling through and getting that one out.

Alex Perryman: I definitely am. You know what? As long as a wait it was, it was definitely worth the wait. I think that episode was really, really awesome. And hearing the sounds and the way the flow of it, and that for me that was one of the — the first episode I had to edit straight from home. So, that was a big transition for me, and to start working from home on an episode as complicated as that one was definitely challenging. But I think the overall result came out really great.

[Background music]

Host: Our pilot brings us fairly close to the capsule. A short walk, but far enough away so as not to affect the operations going on. Turns out, we’re one of the first helos to get there. Some teams are preparing structures to retrieve the crew inside. It’s my job to report all of that. I call in to NASA TV, which has been broadcasting the crew’s departure and landing live, and report what I’m seeing.

[NASA TV Report]:Well Rob, it is a very brisk winter out here, there is a bit of overcast out here at the landing site, so we weren’t able to see the capsule come down, but here I am right in front of it, capsule erected perfectly —

[Background music]

Host: Sometimes, there is a Russian video crew out at the site, but they haven’t made it there yet. So, my reports of the capsule status, safe and upright, are the first to most. Eventually, a crowd surrounds the capsule. Logistics professionals, medical doctors, program leads, all eagerly awaiting to see the crew who have been living in space for six months.

Shannan Moynihan: And so, the search and rescue folks will go and they’re saving the capsule, making sure everything looks good. We’re there at that point in time, so we’re watching what is going on. I’ve been able to go over and kind of look through the window, get an eyeball on my crew, make sure that they look like they’re doing well, get the thumbs up.

Host: Yes, and that was — I really, really enjoyed doing that one. I’m glad we got it out. It was a different style. It was a narrative style. But I just — I like playing with different stuff. Jennifer, we did the

different. The Soyuz landing was a completely different narrative style. Just to try to explore different ways of doing things. Jennifer, actually thinking about just you know, some of our favorite episodes and doing things a little bit differently, not necessarily differently but actually one of my favorites was “The Untouched Apollo Samples.” This was kind of a timely episode because we got to bring Charis Krysher and Andrea Mosie, into the studio very shortly after they opened a sample that’s been preserved for 47 years since Apollo 17. And I loved their story of when they finally got to the moment of opening it.

Charis Krysher: So, we actually created and mixed together these different materials, different sand, different grain sizes, and extruded that to get a feel for what the actual extrusion would be like, and the dissection, so we could practice that. And then —

Andrea Mosie: We did that several times.

Charis Krysher: Yes, we did that several times.

Host: You’re basically becoming a process — like an expert.

Andrea Mosie: Yes.

Charis Krysher: Yes.

Host: Techniques down. You’re limiting what is unpredictable. You’re trying to think about what you know, this is exactly — to a certain extent, this is exactly what I’m going to expect whenever I actually open this thing.

Charis Krysher: Yes.

Andrea Mosie: Yes.

Host: And these are the techniques I’m going to use.

Charis Krysher: Yes.

Andrea Mosie: And try to anticipate what was done in the future, and what we needed to change for —

Charis Krysher: Yes.

Andrea Mosie: — the present, because a few things changed.

Charis Krysher: Yes.

Andrea Mosie: We did change some — made some modifications.

Charis Krysher: We did. We did. We decided to put everything together outside of the box that we could ahead of time, instead of trying to handle these tiny, little screws inside of a glove box, with your hands in the gloves.

Andrea Mosie: Really tedious.

Charis Krysher: Yes. So, but then, when we got to the moment, I mean that was, woo.

Andrea Mosie: Yes.

Charis Krysher: That was — yes. That was a — you know, got a little warm there. Got a little sweaty. Yes. That was incredible. And to, you know, I’ve got the core in front of me and the first thing that you have to do is you have to take off — it’s capped on both ends. So, you have to take off one end, and then you pivot the core tube around, and then you take off the other end.

Host: This is all in the glove box that you’re doing this?

Charis Krysher: In the glove box.

Andrea Mosie: Yes.

Host: And it’s your hands?

Charis Krysher: It’s my hands and it’s facing me, and nobody else can see what’s going on. And then to actually take off that cap.

Andrea Mosie: Yes.

Charis Krysher: That cap that the last person who handled it, was Gene Cernan —

Andrea Mosie: Yes.

Charis Krysher: — on the Moon, in 1972. Nobody else had touched it. That was my moment. That was — that was the moment I had to stop and do a little heavy — you know, deep breathing.

Andrea Mosie: I was documenting everything, and I would type, “Charis is having a moment.” [Laughter]

Charis Krysher: I think I stopped. I said, “Wait, I’m having a moment.” And that’s — she did. She wrote that down on our documentation —

Host: Wow.

Charis Krysher: “Charis is having a moment.”

Jennifer Hernandez: It was also incredible for that episode, Gary, because not only was their dynamic really fun and how they, you know, conversed amongst each other and then with, you know, with you, but I think another thing was that they both had very, and I’ve learned this with a lot of our guests on the podcast is that their story about how they got to where they are, was — is incredible. And Andrea has been with, you know, with the agency for quite a while. So, to be able to add that history to it, and to be a part of you know, an opening, was just incredible. And as somebody who just you know, being from the other side there for a little bit, before I joined NASA, right, and then being at NASA and be like, “That’s awesome. You were the people that did that.” You know? Because — and it’s really neat and they’re just so passionate about what they do, and I love their non, you know, linear, you know, paths to where they are. And I think that was incredible that they shared that with us, in that episode as well.

Host: One of my absolute favorites, yes so, that was another one we got to record right before we all went from work from home. Alex, I know you mentioned it’s been difficult working from home with Coronavirus. You have to do things a little bit differently, you know? I guess you’re spoiled when it comes to some of the tech you have here at NASA.

Alex Perryman: Yes, just some of the tech that we have at NASA, it mainly was a mental thing. Just trying to — when I’m at work on-site, it’s easy for me to be able to sit down and work on a mix. When I’m at home, I don’t have a quiet, or my dog wants attention all the time. He’s barking while I’m trying to mix. I’m trying to make my setup as similar to NASA’s setup, without using the same technology. So, it was a little difficult at first, but I got it down now as well as I can to be able to push out episodes as quick as I was before. But it was definitely a bit of a challenge. Mainly of it was a mental thing. Having to figure out a quiet space. Trying to actually make myself focus working at home, was kind of challenging. And background noise. The lawn guy always coming by at 8 o’clock in the morning, right when I want to start working on a mix. He comes by and just starts standing in front of my window, blowing his leaf blower and just texting on his phone. So, getting through all of that and still kind of putting out episodes at the quality that we’re used to putting out, was definitely challenging.

Host: There’s been so many times we haven’t been able to get our favorite room, which is Studio A. We have to record there. I know we are recording from the booth for some of the remote episodes, even recording from home now for this episode. We’ve had a wild number of locations for recording this episode. I know one of my favorites, we had to record you know, in a different configuration with quarantine and with social distancing, was actually for Demo-2, we really needed to talk with the crew and we really wanted to put together something that kind of explained the mission forward to backwards, I was lucky enough to get, not only the crew for a certain segment in the beginning, but I got Zeb Scoville, the Flight Director here in Mission Control Houston, to come in and man, what a passionate and knowledgeable guy. I got to — he actually gave me a little bit more time than we originally had. We got an hour and a half with him, and I asked him every question I could about the mission, and he was just more than happy to share. But the passion he had was just unbelievable.

Zeb Scoville: You know, if we’ve done our job well, then what people will see is a mission that looks easy. And in many cases, you know, I’ve seen this throughout my career in spaceflight, nothing about it is easy. But if we do it right, it looks easy. And so that’s what I’m hoping people are able to see, but just know that there are people that have — that spend a lot of time and effort and it is their life’s honor to be able to do so, and to be able to inspire, you know, whether it’s you know the kids or the grandparents, on what we can do when we come together and put our differences aside, and whether you’re a new company or an old agency, or you know, you’re you know, fresh out of college, or someone who has decades of spaceflight experience with you, you know, everyone’s got something they can add. You know, you don’t have to be a mechanical engineer. You know, whether it’s you know, teachers or scientists.

Host: Now, I know we’re I guess close to 150 at this point. What was that? Demo-2 was Episode 145. This is Episode 152. I know one of the later ones, Norah, was the NASA Photographers episode, kind of explaining about, a little bit of what you do in your everyday life when you’re not helping us with the podcast.

Norah Moran: Yes, that was a fun podcast, I thought, because it was — the guys that I work with on a daily basis there that you interviewed. And if you listen to that podcast and you hear the clicks, that’s my camera. I was there taking pictures, which you know, is very on brand, I guess. And one thing I did want to say about that podcast is it was fun to listen to that about experiences. And one of the things that Josh talked about was his first time at the [Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory] NBL, which was also my first time at the NBL. That was when James and I — James brought Josh and I to the NBL. We were both new employees, and he was showing us around. And there was a shoot out there, and it’s funny because right now, I literally rushed home for this podcast, from a shoot at the NBL. So, it’s really funny to compare those experiences. You know, the first time you’re at the NBL is this really wild thing. It’s like you get to watch these astronauts get suited up and go into this pool with this full-scale ISS. And it’s just — the first time you’re there, it feels so surreal. And it, you know, you want to keep having — Josh talks about how you want to keep having that energy every time you go, even though you go a lot. It can start to feel mundane, but it’s still this really cool thing. And when you’re capturing images of it, you want to bring that energy of excitement to the shoot every time. And I just thought that was a really cool thing that Josh talked about in that podcast.

Josh Valcarcel: And I remember the first time I went to the NBL, James took me there. And it was an astronaut getting suited up and I remember just getting so excited. And I still get excited when I go over there. But I was just taking a ton of pictures, and you know, James, I can’t even imagine how many times you’ve shot this. But I’d come out of there. You know, we’d leave, we’d go back to the office, and I’m telling everybody, it’s like, “They’re making history over there.” You know, it was just like I was so jazzed by it. And it’s just really important to like not lose sight of that.

Host: I loved having those guys on, and honestly, that was one of my favorites to have. It was a little bit different because we don’t normally have three guests, but I know all those guys, you know? We work together all the time and I see them at shoots and mission control and various events that are happening. They’re just everywhere. I think NASA photographer is just one of the coolest job — pretty jealous of what you do, Norah.

Norah Moran: It’s definitely a cool job to have. I can’t argue with you there.

Host: What I love about doing this podcast is we can come up with unique things. You know, we can have an episode on NASA photographers, and dive into this thing that maybe isn’t talked about in normal content, you know? We’re always talking about, especially nowadays, we’re talking about the Moon and Mars. We’re talking a lot about mission control and Commercial Crew. These are just topics that are pretty normal but diving into stuff like that is always so fun. I think another popular episode we had was “Mission Patches” with Sean Collins, one of the great designers of some of those patches. And just one of those unique things that you know, you don’t really hear from these guys very often. And so, a lot of people wonder about, you know, “Where do these mission patches come from? Who’s the person designing them?” So, it’s really cool to have people like them on. And then of course, with being part of this team and coming up with some of those ideas, of unique topics, Belinda, I know you suggested “Space Hygiene.” And I just — I kick myself in the butt because I feel like, that was one we all should have come up with. One of the top questions that people ask is, you know, “How do you pee in space?” And I’ll tell you, those — that episode was one of my favorites to record because Elisca Hicks and Mike Berrill were so engaging, and so fun. We were laughing. We were — it was a very relatable kind of conversation. And it was your idea, Belinda. It was one of my favorite episodes, truly.

Belinda Pulido: Thank you. Yes, I enjoyed that episode as well. Yes, Elisca and Mike, which they talk about how astronauts maintain their hygiene in space, and one thing that really stood out for me during the conversation was that, how they recycle today’s coffee to the next day. And how they just laugh about it, but it’s, you know, it’s true. It’s what happens in space. And they also recycle urine and sweat. They also touched base on how they helped train the astronauts in how they use the bathroom in space as well. And it’s a bit crazy to think about it here from Earth, you know, in my opinion, but just learning about it is extremely exciting. And so, the whole conversation was just great. And I was so happy to have suggested the topic. And, yes. Definitely, a great, great podcast episode.

Elisca Hicks: What’s the saying? Today’s coffee is tomorrow’s coffee, or something like that.

Mike Berrill: Yes. Yesterday’s coffee is today’s coffee. [Laughter]

Host: Absolutely one of my favorites. Thank you for suggesting that. Dan, we haven’t heard from you in a while. I know you know, we absolutely missed having you on, but just taking a snapshot of everything we’ve talked about just now from Episode 100 all the way through just these past couple episodes that we’ve been doing, you know, just it’s — what are your thoughts? What are your — you know, do you want to come on for a couple more episodes? What are you thinking?

Dan Huot: Yes. I definitely miss jumping in and the thing you love to see is, when we started it out, it was, “OK, let’s pick something kind of big and broad.” And we just talked, “What is the International Space Station?” And to see the level of granularity and the level of specialization that we’re now really just diving into, is insane. And it’s really cool for us because part of our job is just know these things and this has honestly become one of those best tools, just to teach ourselves as we teach other people about all of the different systems, and all of the work that goes into just every day human spaceflight. And it’s been really exciting to watch it all unfold and to bring people along for the ride, while also getting to do some of the more fun stuff, like going back in the anniversaries and things like that, that we don’t always get to do. And this has been a really great platform for that.

Host: It really has. Alex, you’ve been with us since the beginning. What are your thoughts now? I mean, we’re three years. Are you ready for another one?

Alex Perryman: I’m definitely ready for another one. I felt like over three years our podcasts has really like, not just grown in audience, but just grown in the way we handle and discuss content. And I think that I’ve learned extremely a lot. When I first started at the podcast, I was still kind of new at NASA. So, I didn’t necessarily know a lot of the ins and outs of exactly what we do, and the different things that we’re working on, and meeting the new — the scientists and engineers. So, I’ve grown as a person, just listening to our podcast and being a part of it. So, I’m definitely excited to see what else we can come up with.

Host: Jennifer, as one of the newest members, thinking about the potential of what we could explore and what we could do, you know? Bringing your fresh ideas, is there a level of excitement there? Are you excited for the next year?

Jennifer Hernandez: Oh, absolutely. And I think you know, in a lot of ways, just getting started, I feel I think truly being with the podcast team, it’s been like three, four months. Maybe a little longer, you know, in December. But then, you know, we started working from home and so, kind of learning at that aspect. So, I think you know, seeing the team overall and how we’ve come together to still kind of — to continue the podcast, think out of the box, bring all these creative ideas, I mean what’s not to be excited about for the next year? Right? And I think we are prepping ourselves for you know, a very awesome year, just like the ones that you’ve experienced and the growth and all that. It’s going to be exciting. I’m pumped.

Host: I’m excited, too. I, you know, I love exploring, kind of like Dan said. Just the nitty gritty, those granular details, those stories that not a lot of people hear of. I just feel like there’s no way we’re going to be able to run out of content. I just feel like there’s so much to explore with human spaceflight, and even more. I know just after this I think we’re going to tackle some nonhuman spaceflight, which is tied to human spaceflight related topics. So, you know, we’ll just — we’ll do whatever. And I’m happy to keep doing it, because I do see a certain amount of value in these. I know just coming up, I want to do more video episodes for sure. We have the 20th Anniversary of Continuous Human Presence on the Space Station. So, we’ll continue to release episodes on that up until the 20th Anniversary in November of 2020. We have a collection of space station episodes, at our — I guess at our episode webpage. There’s a collection of space station episodes. And I guess to the listener, for those who have listened up to this point, thank you for listening to us and for subscribing and listening to our content. I hope you like it. Please leave a review, and any amount of stars, five through five, I believe is the range for our podcast. Leave some comments. Either — whether you like it or not, just — even to be critical. You know, we’re always looking for ways to improve and provide suggestions. So, absolutely something I think we should do. Thank you to the listener for everything that you’ve done. Oh, we’re on Teams now. And Jennifer, I see you are raising your hand. I’m going to toss it to you for a second.

Jennifer Hernandez: Right. You know, and on that note, I think you know, here we are like you know, kind of figuring out the stories, and you know, bringing that to light, but we would love our listeners to bring in suggestions, you know, using you know, hashtag #AskNASA, because there might be something we’re not thinking of, or a question that we haven’t answered yet, so far. And so, I think, you know, kind of on that note, Gary, it’s awesome to have that engagement from our listeners, because we want to hear what you all want to hear about, too.

Host: Absolutely. Definitely want to hear what you all want — I’m willing, you know, and we want to, and we have listened to your suggestions and made some improvements over time. So, definitely keep those coming. I want to end on this note. Having you guys all here, it’s been an absolute honor to be working with every single one of you. I — this is one of my favorite parts of the job is getting to do this, and I hope we will continue it. So, here’s to another year guys. I promise when we can be within six feet of each other, we’re going to have some cake. Alright, open mic clap everyone. Let’s go out on a bang.

[ Applause]

[ Music]

Host: Hey, thanks for sticking around. I know I had a great time talking with the podcast team today. I hope you enjoyed it as well. Reminiscing with some of our favorite moments and getting a snapshot of some of the clips of all the fantastic episodes that we got to record over the past year. We really had a good time, and I hope you continue to stick around. You can listen to any one of our episodes at NASA.gov/podcasts. Go there, you can find Houston We Have a Podcast. You can listen to any episode and really no particular order. We have a lot of them. So, make sure to check some of those out. We also have a few collections. If you go to NASA.gov/Johnson/HWHAP, that’s our homepage. We have some collections on the left there. You can check out some of our Apollo episodes, as well as the Space Station episodes we’re putting together for the 20th Anniversary of Continuous Human Presence. If you want to talk to us, we’re on the NASA Johnson Space Center pages, of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Just use the hashtag #AskNASA on your favorite platform to submit an idea for the show, and just make sure to mention it’s for us at Houston We Have a Podcast. This episode was recorded on June 10th, 2020, remotely from our homes. Thanks as always, to Alex Perryman, Pat Ryan, Norah Moran, Belinda Pulido, and Jennifer Hernandez, who are instrumental to make this happen every week. And of course, to Dan Huot who has been with us since the very beginning. Thanks to you for listening and helping with the success of the podcast, and really help to keep us going. Give us a rating and some feedback on whatever platform you’re listening to us on and tell us how we did. We’ll be back next week.