On this episode of REACH, Brian and Meredith learn what it takes to be an astronaut from a very special guest, we hear some space related jokes from the REACH Learning Community, and we have a visit from TWO planets in our segment "Did You Know...?"

Hosts: Brian Holden and Meredith Stepien 

Written by: Sandy Marshall with Nate DuFort, Meredith Stepien and Brian Holden. 

Co-Created, Produced by: Nate DuFort and Sandy Marshall 

Edited by: Nate DuFort

Music composed by: Jesse Case

Logo by: Steven Lyons

Special thanks to NASA Astronaut and U.S. Navy Commander Matthew Dominick. On behalf of everyone at REACH, thanks again to Matthew for joining us on the show. 

We’d also like to offer a thanks to Jennifer Hernandez and everyone at NASA’s Public Affairs Office, and to Kay Ferrari at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Learn more about Matthew Dominick at :

https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/matthew-dominick

And more about all NASA Astronauts at:  https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

For space-inspired, at-home creative activities: NASA’s Space Place is launching an art challenge! Each month, Space Place readers will get a new drawing prompt, from which Space Place will feature select drawings on their website.

For more info, visit

 https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/art-challenge

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Venus was voiced by our very own Starkid, the incomparable Darren Criss, who you know as Blaine Anderson on the hit television show Glee and on the Quibi series Royalties. You can find Darren online at @darrencriss.

Jupiter was voiced by the legendary Sean Astin who you know from unforgettable movies like The Goonies, Rudy, and of course The Lord of the Rings trilogy and television series such as No Good Nick and Stranger Things. Find Sean online at @seanastin. 

And as always, a big hooray to our REACH learning community for the really fun space jokes! Thanks to James and Blythe and Bella who you can regularly hear on the Soundsington Media podcast Unspookable. giving their takes on the origins of urban legends and scary stories.

Do you have a space related question that we didn’t get to? Well, you can submit that question for our bi-weekly “Reaching Out” episodes. Just get your parents permission and give us a call at 312-248-3402 (or an email at [email protected]) and leave us a message with your first name, where you're from and your question for a chance to be featured in an upcoming episode.

You can find REACH on Twitter and Instagram or at http://www.ReachThePodcast.com

REACH: A Space Podcast for Kids is a production of Soundsington Media committed to making quality programing for young audiences and the young at heart. To find out more go to http://www.soundsingtonmedia.com