This season premiere kicks off with a look at the past,

starting with the NASA tragedies that still loom large today, particularly with

the 30th anniversary of STS-51L last week. Moving a bit closer to

the present, we go over some of the most notable stories of 2015 and discuss

what they might mean for the future, from the dazzling images of Pluto from New

Horizons to the (sometimes literal) highs and lows of commercial spaceflight. Over

our hiatus, SpaceX in particular had some major accomplishments as well as

another attempt to land on their ocean barge, Of Course I Still Love You

(OCISLY), to learn from, and we speculate on what this could mean for their

future. Meanwhile, the omnibus spending bill for 2016 passed and was signed

into law, and for once there was a lot of good news for NASA. We delve into

some of the details, how this happened, and what this means for NASA missions and

the American space industry moving forward. This brought us into this year and

the extraordinary efforts by the team building and testing the James Webb Space

Telescope a couple of weeks ago.

Also in January, our own Kassy Tamanini and her

partner and special guest John Wood were among the first to participate in a

Meteorite Hunting Boot Camp, led by good friend of the show and past guest

Geoff Notkin. Love meteorites and always wanted to know the nitty gritty

details of the experience? These neophytes share what they learned, how it

felt, and what it’s like to visit your first strewn field. If this convinces

you to try it yourself, you can sign up for the next Boot Camp, coming up this May (spaces are running out quickly,

though, so get on it or sign up for Aerolite emails to learn about future

events, and don’t forget to tell them we sent you).

 

Show recorded 2-1-2016

Host this week: Sawyer Rosenstein,

Panel Members: Kassy Tamanini, Kat Robison, and special guest

John Wood