Guest: Jay Barbree. Topics: Neil Armstrong and Jay's new book, "Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight," plus SLS, Orion, NASA Budgets and more. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed back long time NBC space news reporter Jay Barbree to the show to discuss his new book, "Neil Armstrong: A Life of Flight. Our program made use of the 60 minute format and one segment. We welcomed Jay to the show but as you will hear, there was a technical glitch as we started so you will hear the program being restarted. No program time was lost. Jay started by sharing with us the timeline he worked on for this book which spanned several decades. He also set the stage by detailing his special relationship with Armstrong that made it possible for him to write this type of book. He started Chapter 1 with the story of Neil ejecting from his fighter jet during the Korean War. As you will hear, Neil was one of the early pilots ejecting from a jet fighter. He flew into an anti-aircraft wire stretched between two mountains and it removed part of his plane. He was unable to make it back to the Essex but he did manage to keep the plane in flight and when he ejected, he was over a Marine base. Jay talked extensively about Neil seeing himself as a research test pilot and he referenced the old NACA plus his efforts that eventually paid off to get a test pilot assignment at Edwards AFB to fly at Dryden which has since been renamed after Neil Armstrong. Jay talked about one X-15 flight where he overshot the landing. The flight being described, the Pasadena Over flight, demonstrated Neil's skills and expertise as a test pilot. Jay talked about how Neil always wanted to go to space, plus his teaching career later in life. A listener asked Jay about Neil and the Apollo 11 crew. Jay had much to say on this subject, & why the specific Apollo 11 crew members were selected by Neil and Deke Slayton. He also talked about the facts of Neil being the first to walk on the Moon, the conspiracy theory about their not being photos of Neil on the Moon because Buzz would not take any and much more. Another listener wanted to know why Neil became far more public after the Columbia accident. In his response to this question, Jay talked about Neil not liking the press and wanting to keep his privacy. In the book, Jay Barbree referred to Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin as the misfits. Don't miss this great discussion. Later, another listener wanted to know about Neil's objections to cancelling the Constellation Return to The Moon program. Jay went into some detail on this subject, including commenting on commercial space, SpaceX and more. One thing he pointed out as did Neil and other astronauts was that what SpaceX and the new commercial industry was accomplishing, as outstanding as it was, is, and will be, was already done back in the day with our early space program, especially with Apollo. As part of this discussion, Jay spoke about the SLS and NASA budgets, suggesting more money for NASA was not needed, but they needed to be more effective and efficient with how they spend their annual $18 billion plus. He talked about consolidation, wastes at the centers and he told the LBJ story about the president's insistence on locating Mission Control in Houston. As our discussion was drawing to a close, Jay talked about Neil's concept for incremental exploration which started out by going no further from Earth than three days with a 3 day return and no further out than a three second communication delay. Once we mastered that, we go to the next goal and this way we incrementally explore space as we develop the ability to do so. As the program ended and since Jay talked about getting old and his age throughout the show, I asked him if he planned to send his ashes to space upon his death. Don't miss his answer and our program's conclusion. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. You can contact Jay Barbree through me. Also, don't forget to use the Amazon portal for OGLF/TSS so that Amazon will contribute to The Space Show. Instructions are in all the archives including those on the blog, TSS website and the OGLF website.
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