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