Today (Jan. 27, 2017) marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo One fire. Three astronauts died when a flash fire occurred during a launchpad test of the command module, which would’ve been used in the first manned mission of the Apollo program. The accident took the lives of Command Pilot Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Senior Pilot Edward H. White II, and Pilot Roger B. Chaffee.

On this edition of Houston Matters, Rex Walheim, an astronaut and assistant director of flight operations at Johnson Space Center, tells Maggie Martin about his career with the space agency and how the Apollo One tragedy changed NASA.

Also this hour…

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of Houston News

A lot can happen in a week. Some of it good. Some of it bad. Some of it downright ugly. When faced with intriguing developments in the week’s news, we turn to our rotating panel of “non-experts” to parse The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of it all. This week, our panel weighs in on the US Supreme Court rejecting an appeal from the State of Texas seeking to restore its strict voter ID law, a push by Sen. John Cornyn to make NASA set hard goals for future spaceflight — specifically to Mars, and more airlines introducing “basic economy” fares. Our panel of non-experts this week includes:

Tamara Tabo, who writes about the law and politics at AboveTheLaw.com;

Charles Kuffner, who writes the political blog Off the Kuff.

Mary Flood, a blogger and legal consultant with Androvett Legal Media & Marketing

A Prairie Home Companion Host Chris Thile

Some Houstonians likely first encountered musician Chris Thile at area clubs like McGonigel’s Mucky Duck, where Thile and his Nickel Creek and Punch Brothers bandmates performed amid nationwide tours. These days, though, more Houstonians likely know Thile as the new host of A Prairie Home Companion, heard weekends here on News 88.7. Thile, a regular guest on the show, took over for longtime host Garrison Keillor, who retired last year. Thile was in Houston on Sunday (Jan. 22, 2017) to talk with Houston Matters host Craig Cohen in front of an audience of donors in the Houston Public Media TV studio. We hear some highlights.

Traffic and the Super Bowl

With just a little over a week to go before Super Bowl 51, we check in with Gail DeLaughter, News 88.7’s transportation reporter, to talk about how to get around town with all the festivities underway — and areas to avoid.

Houston Matters offers a free daily, downloadable podcast here, on iTunes, Stitcher and various other podcasting apps.