The Rocket Ranch welcomes Dana Hutcherson, deputy manager for the Commercial Crew program. She'll talk about the mission ahead, reflect on the program's 10-year anniversary and share her personal journey with NASA.

Episode 30: Commercial Crew Reaches Milestone

The spotlights came on in the predawn hours of April 12th 1981, illuminating a spacecraft like no other, the space shuttle. Just before liftoff, Columbia's crew climbed inside for the very first test flight into space.

Episode 29: First Space Shuttle Flight: Astronaut Bob Crippen on the Legacy of STS-1 & Columbia

When instrumentation controller JoAnn Morgan was in Firing Room number One for the historic moonshot in 1969, she was the only woman. NASA has come a long way since. Today, the very same firing room is led by a woman, and 30% of the engineers supporting NASA's Artemis Moon program are women, too.

Episode 28: Women in STEM - Stories of Challenge and Success

The Rocket Ranch welcomes Sheldon Lauderdale, Program Analyst for NASA's Commercial Crew Program, to share where he draws inspiration and talk about his role supporting NASA’s efforts to expand diversity and inclusion to empower the next generation of explorers.

Episode 27: Being Black in the NASA Family, Finding Inspiration, and Becoming More Inclusive

After a 300 million mile journey through space, the Mars Perseverance Rover is ready to begin the most challenging part of the trip, landing on the red planet. If successful, it will embark on the most advanced mission ever sent here, to discover if life ever existed on Mars.

Episode 26: Perseverance Rover: Rapid Disassembly, Martian Mission, and Beyond

On this episode of the Rocket Ranch Podcast, we remember Challenger, her crew and their survivors, and how we carry forward the lessons NASA learned with the director of the Apollo Challenger Columbia Lessons Learned Program.

Episode 25: Lessons of Loss

Astronaut Chris Hadfield flew to space three times, and was the first Canadian to walk in space. His cover of David Bowie's Space Oddity that he recorded on the International Space Station has over 47 million views, and as you're about to hear, he's given a lot of thought to the future of space exploration, and what it can mean for all of us.

Episode 24: Space Lullaby

The NASA Kennedy Launch team has persevered through a global pandemic to get a Mars Rover named Perseverance to the launch pad on time. The cloud of doubt the virus cast over the Mars mission and how NASA overcame it, next on the Rocket Ranch.

Episode 23: Mars 2020: In the Midst of a Pandemic

SpaceX

Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley will make history when they break the bond from Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that's never been flown by humans before. But find out how the strong bond of friendship they share gives them the edge in space.

Episode 22: NASA Astronauts' Friendship Key to History Making SpaceX Flight

And with the number one overall pick in the Kennedy Space Center NFL Draft, NASA selects Jacksonville, Jaguar quarterback and aerospace engineer Josh Dobbs. Next on the Rocket Ranch.

Episode 21: NFL Quarterback: Rocket Arm AND Mind

Welcome to the Rocket Ranch, the official podcast of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Take a listen for a behind-the-scenes sneak peek into the inner workings of the world’s premiere spaceport.

Pluto is not a planet...or is it? Next on the "Rocket Ranch.”

Episode 20: Space Explorer

Sometimes history inspires us. Sometimes we find ourselves in the middle of history being made. Now we are in the middle of the most aggressive push for the Moon since we landed there the first time 50 years ago.

Episode 19: Launching Artemis

Commercial and government partnerships and contracts might not sound that fascinating, but when we're talking about certifying Boeing Starliner to carry humans to space, the challenges and complexities become a whole lot more interesting.

Episode 18: To Launch a Starliner

Rockets are dangerous. And before we strap our star sailors in, we need to know there is a proven escape plan.

Episode 17: Abort!

The air-launched Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL is the vehicle selected to launch NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, or ICON.

Episode 16: An ICONic Launch

For over 20 years, NASA's Launch Services Program (LSP) has been the workhorse of uncrewed spaceflight, enabling exploration of Pluto, the Sun, the Earth and other worlds. In this episode, we hear from Amanda Mitskevich and Chuck Dovale - two leaders within LSP.

Episode 15: Jedi Masters of Launchery

Every member of the NASA team is critical to our success, even if they're still finishing school. In this episode, we hear from two of our summer interns, Amber George and Peter Henson, during their first week here and their first impressions.

Episode 14: The Kids of Summer

In this episode,we unpack the need and value of test flights with Jon Cowart, as well as dig into the recent, successful, second test of Orion’s Launch Abort System with Carlos Garcia.

Episode 13: When Rockets Need Rescue

NASA looks back at the Apollo era and ahead at the Artemis missions to come.

Episode 12: From Apollo to Artemis

We're looking back at the Space Station Processing Facility, or SSPF, as it turns 25 years old.

Episode 11: The Place that Sends Stuff to Space

Everything is great but sometimes the audio is not good. Especially when they play recording the balance and volume should be corrected. Same for some of the guests who are not really radio speech experienced. When listening in the car there needs to be constant volume manipulation to hear everything.

Great information needs production tweaks for audio volume

I grew up in Florida during the Shuttle Program and I’m not the only one to wonder what’s left now at Kennedy Space Center. Turns out, A LOT! Great to hear about all the cool stuff NASA is working on in the Sunshine State on the Space Coast. Keep em coming!

Fired up by Rocket Ranch

The Rocket Ranch

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