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