On Monday, April 16th, NASA is scheduled to launch its newest exoplanet hunter: the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). In this episode of Gravity Assist, Jim Green talks with Martin Still, the TESS Program Scientist, about how TESS works and how it will help us discover new worlds.

Episode 39 features Rajib Dasgupta and Gerard Valle who talk about the commercial test module currently attached to the International Space Station called the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM). The respective former and current project managers for BEAM discuss the history and future of expandable spacecraft. This episode was recorded on February 8 and February 20, 2018

For Women's History Month we brought in 4 women in leadership at the Johnson Space Center to share their stories of persevering through challenges and rising through the ranks. We speak with leaders of the International Space Station Program, Flight Operations, Engineering, and Human Health and Performance. This episode was recorded throughout March 2018.

Episode 37 features Dr. Tina Holden, Human Factors Technical Fellow with Leidos, who talks about the challenges that astronauts may face when interacting with computers. Holden discusses some of the research that has been done on the space station to investigate these issues. This episode was recorded on February 27, 2018.

Jeff Fox, Chief Engineer of the Rapid Prototype Lab, talks about some of the testing and training for Orion. Fox brings the actual audio from inside the Orion capsule during its first flight so you, the listener, can experience what it would be like to ride inside the spacecraft. This episode was recorded on February 7, 2018.

NASA’s Jim Green and bestselling author Andy Weir explore the fascinating intersection of science and science fiction.

After making history by flying by Pluto in 2015, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is speeding toward a New Year’s Day 2019 flyby of a mysterious world in the outer realm of the solar system. In this episode of Gravity Assist, Jim Green talks with New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern about what we’ve learned about Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69 and the remarkable story of how -- against all odds -- the New Horizons team captured MU69’s fleeting shadow on Earth as the object passed in front of a distant star.

Pluto -- which is smaller than Earth’s Moon -- has a heart-shaped glacier that’s the size of Texas and Oklahoma. Fascinating Pluto also has blue skies, spinning moons, mountains as high as the Rockies, and it snows—but the snow is red! In this episode of Gravity Assist, Jim Green talks with New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute about what the July 2015 flyby of Pluto revealed about this mysterious and diverse world.

Beyond Saturn are two of the most misunderstood and bizarre planets in our solar system—the “ice giants” Uranus and Neptune. Did you know that Uranus has rings and appears to spin on its side? And that windy and intensely blue Neptune once had an Earth-sized Great Dark Spot? In this episode of Gravity Assist, NASA’s Jim Green and Amy Simon discuss Uranus, Neptune, and Neptune’s intriguing moon – Triton -- and what we still have to learn about these mysterious bodies.

With me today is Dr. Linda Spilker from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She's the project scientist for our Cassini Mission, which as everyone knows, had a recent spectacular finale at Saturn.