Guest: Jerry L. Ross. Topics: "Spacewalker: My Journey In Space And Faith as NASA's Record-Setting Frequent Flyer," HSF safety, NASA & space policy. 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. We welcomed retired astronaut Jerry L. Ross to our program to discuss his new book, "Spacewalker: My Journey In Space And Faith as NASA's Record-Setting Frequent Flyer," space policy and leadership, HSF safety, and much more. If you buy his book which I recommend, use this Amazon link as Amazon will make a donation to The Space Show/One Giant Leap Foundation: www.amazon.com/Spacewalker-Journey-Space-Record-Setting-Frequent/dp/155…. Please visit Jerry's website for more information, www.jerrylross.com. During the first segment of our 90 minute program, Mr. Ross spoke about the Space Shuttle & retirement, Constellation, returning to the Moon, going BLEO, the ISS, and his test flights on the B1 bomber. This led us to talking about the safety test program used by NASA, the B1, and the private spaceships. I asked if NASA was overkill in this area and if the privates would be able to engage in comprehensive flight safety testing with programs radically different from those NASA has used. You do not want to miss this discussion, especially when I asked about the complexities of the B1 as compared to a spaceship. We talked about SLS, Orion, & Inspiration Mars which Jerry supports. In response to an email from Becky, we talked about the NASA astronauts, the fact that there are more astronauts than flight opportunities, and the current situation for NASA astronauts. Our guest mentioned two year training missions and when I inquired about that time period, we learned that it included learning Russian, training with ESA, Japanese, Canadian, and Russian hardware and more. Jerry was asked if he rode on a Soyuz. He said no but was in a Soyuz and talked about his going on board MIR. In our second segment, we started out asking him about faith which is part of the subtitle of his book. Here again our guest had much to say so listen carefully to this discussion. As Jerry was part of the team that recovered debris from the Columbia accident, I asked him about it. He told us about his experience in learning about the disaster, crew families and more. This is a first hand accounting of getting the news and working with the families and the people involved in finding the debris. Another topic discussed was on orbit construction, mainly with the private companies. Jerry talked about this at length given his work in establishing how to do it for the ISS and actually doing multiple missions making and assembling parts in space. We also talked about gender differences in these space walks. Toward the end of our discussion, space leadership came up as did missions and goals. The shuttle thermal tiles were discussed and he referenced tile damage on his Atlantis flight which was the third flight after Challenger. This was an amazing story and luck was really shining on the Atlantis crew. If you have comments/questions, please post them on The Space Show blog.
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