Guest: Thalia "ad.astra" Kohls was our guest for this show to discuss alt.space and NewSpace from an outsider's perspective. Thalia shared with us her views and experiences in communicating with NewSpace participants on blogs and in other venues and you will hear why she is critical of this community. I too have shared many of her experiences and commented on them during the show. We also spoke about engineering, science, and inspiring space projects like humans to Mars. Thalia expressed the view that she was not very optimistic about seeing a return to the Moon in her lifetime.

Guest: Sharon Weinberger, author of "Imaginary Weapons," was our guest for the first hour followed by a half hour of Open Lines. Sharon provided us with the history of her research regarding her book and we began our discussion with nothing less than the hafnium 5 kiloton hand grenade. From this point, we discussed how such projects are funded, the dream of an isomer bomb, DOD and DARPA standards, and much more. At different points in the discussion, we extrapolated to NASA and space expenditures using Ares 1 and other space projects.

Guest: Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards was our guest for this Space Show program. We started our discussion with an update on the Optech meteorological lidar unit flown aboard the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander. As Bob reported to us, all worked to their complete satisfaction with the unit. We then discussed the Odyssey Moon Limited venture which was the first contestant in the Google Lunar X-Prize competition. To learn more, visit http://www.odysseymoon.com.

Guest: Jane Reifert, President of Incredible Adventures, was the guest for this Space Show program. Please visit the Incredible Adventures website at http://www.incredible-adventures.com for more information about the adventures discussed on the show, for custom adventures, or with your comments and questions. We talked with Jane about many of the travel adventures offered by her company, the medical requirements to participate, travel and other requirements, and more.

Guests: Jim Lewis, followed by Brian Mosdell, are the two guests for this recorded set of interviews made while at Cape Canaveral on Nov. 17 and Nov. 19, 2008. In the first segment, Jim Lewis of Communications Concepts talks about the special documentary now playing on the Documentary Channel, "One Giant Leap - 50 Years of the American Space Program." I have seen this documentary and its one of the best documentaries commemorating the 50th anniversary of America in space.

Guest: Jerry Carr was the guest for this Space Show program. The basis for our discussion was his biography published by Apogee, "Around The World in 84 Days: The Authorized Biography of Skylab Astronaut Jerry Carr." The author for this authorized biography was David Shayler. Naturally, much of our discussion focused on Skylab and his mission, Skylab 4. One of the early discussion topics was the Skylab 4 workload strike which has become notorious. Jerry explained it in detail and how it got blown out of proportion by a journalist. You will definitely want to hear this discussion.

Guest: Dr. Barrett Caldwell was the guest for this special Space Show program. We started our discussion by asking him about Space Grant Indiana and the national NASA space grant program, such as the projects and scholarships that Space Grant funds. This is a very informative discussion and it is applicable to Space Grant in other states as well though we did discuss specific Indiana programs. Clearly, there are advantages for students to associate with a Space Grant program, listen and you will understand why I say this.

Guest: Greg Zsidisin was the guest for this Space Show program. We began our discussion with Greg about the type of space policy to expect from the new Obama administration. We focused in on the space policy transition team as Greg was asked to give us insights into their thinking and space interests. He concluded that space policy would likely unfold more or less traditionally rather than anything out of the box.

Guests: Leonard David was the guest for three segments of our program, followed by Barbara David joining us for the last segment. We did much forward-looking during this show given the changes taking place in government, the economy, and the space community. We talked about the incoming administration and what it might mean for space, the Space Coast of Florida, and its commitment to human space flight, the economy, viewing the Space Shuttle, and much more. Leonard reported on the recent Lunar Lander Challenge and Armadillo Aerospace at the X-Prize in Las Cruces, NM.

Guest: Ross Tierney was the guest for this in-person taped interview conducted here in Cocoa Beach on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2008. This was a very hard-hitting interview with Ross about Direct 2, its technology, its likelihood of being adopted by NASA as an alternative to Ares 1, and more. I asked Ross why we should have confidence in Direct 2 when it was basically a PowerPoint presentation given that it has not yet undergone any metal bending, any development or testing. I asked why there would not be design problems with it as there are with Ares and the NASA selected hardware.