M. G. Lord was the guest for this special Space Show program. M. G. began the interview jumping right in with the "colorful" history of one of the JPL founders, Frank Malina, explaining both his rocket brilliance and his flirtation with communism and more. Growing up as a young girl in the 50's with a Dad who was a JPL engineer and a mom terminally ill, gave M. G. perspectives and issues to address which she does very well in her book, "Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science." We also discussed other aspects of the early days of JPL through its evolution into the modern JPL. We talked about the absence of women in the early days to their acceptance and prevalence in JPL programs and management today. For example, M. G. discusses Donna Shirley, Manager of the Mars Exploration Program, in some detail in relationship to how JPL have evolved over time. We also talked about the NASA and JPL reactions to her work, her experiencing viewing launches and sharing some of the experiences with her Dad. You will find her documentation of the role playing of girls and boys to be quite fascinating in the early JPL years, especially when M. G. describes the films that were shown to the school kids. Ms. Lord talked about the current VSE and what it means to go back to the Moon, space policy in general and its importance for us and much more. I guarantee you will enjoy and learn from this interview. If you have follow up comments or questions for M. G. Lord, you can reach her at gaspra@msn.com or through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com. Her book is available at book stores everyone including the online stores and I strongly recommend it.
Guest
The Space Show
