On the first part of this episode of Talking Space, we conduct our first interview of 2012 with LCROSS's flight software lead, a software engineer for Northrop Grumman, musician, and public speaker Emory Stagmer. We discuss what his job entails as well as what he has done on past spacecrafts. We get into a unique story on how the LCROSS mission was almost lost. We also discuss the 50th anniversary of John Glenn's historic flight as the first American to orbit the earth. Lastly, we discuss a little bit about SpaceUp...but, there's more to the story.

The interview with Emory is being broken up into two parts. Part two will be released Wednesday, February 29th, 2012, with the continuation of SpaceUp and some more great stories including a tale of tribble tossing.

For more on Emory, follow him on Twitter as @VAXHeadroom and also be sure to check out his music website which includes some of his previous speaking engagements, UnTied Music.

To read the LCROSS Flight Director's blog, visit http://bit.ly/ADLcem

Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein. Panel Members: Gene Mikulka, Mark Ratterman, and special guest Emory Stagmer

Show Recorded - 2/20/2012