Guest: Loretta Hall. Topics: New Mexico's role and contribution to space travel. You are invited to comment, ask questions, and discuss the Space Show program/guest(s) on the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments, questions, and any discussion must be relevant and applicable to Space Show programming. Transcripts of Space Show programs are not permitted without prior written consent from The Space Show (even if for personal use) & are a violation of the Space Show copyright. We welcomed Loretta Hall, author of "Out of This World: New Mexico's Contributions to Space Travel" to the show. Learn more about the book and Ms. Hall at http://nmspacehistory.com. We started our discussion with Ms. Hall letting us know how and why she became interested in the topic. We then started off with the early space program history in New Mexico. Ms. Hall had much to say about Robert Goddard after his arrival in Roswell, then we moved to the early days of rocket and spaceflight testing at White Sands and Holloman AFB. We talked about John Paul Stapp, Eli Beeding and the various rocket sled programs, the animal testing programs and of course the Lovelace Clinic and Dr. Randy Lovelace with his astronaut screening profiles. Other famous people of the time included AF Captain Joe Kittinger and Dave Simon. In our next segment, we talked about the early days of animal testing for human spaceflight in New Mexico, including chimps and even Yogi Bear riding the rocket sled. More was said about Dr. Lovelace, his Albuquerque clinic, and the tests he developed to confirm the fitness of Mercury astronauts. Loretta also discussed the Mercury Manhigh Program and seven geographical locations in New Mexico used for astronaut training. We then moved forward to talk about Spaceport America near Las Cruces. This discussion opened the door for our guest to talk with us about today's space programs in New Mexico which are focused on commercial and space tourism development. In our third segment, Ms. Hall talked about the famous VLA near Socorro and told us about the improvements to the VLA and the contest going on to give the VLA a new name. You can find out more about this contest at http://www.nrao.edu/namethearray. The deadline is Dec. 1 if you are interested. As we neared the end of our program, Loretta was asked about the Spaceport America progress, road development, and different phases of its construction. I also asked her for highlight events spanning New Mexico's space history. Robert Goddard toped the list with the V2 testing at White Sands. Also, the X Prize Cup which was held in the area for several years. If you have comments or questions, please post them on the blog URL above. Loretta Hall can be contacted through her website.
Guest
The Space Show
