On today's episode, look to the stars with interviews and stories about space. Included in this episode:

Interview with Dr. Jerry Linenger

Retired astronaut Jerry Linenger, M.D., M.S.S.M., M.P.H., Ph.D., is a retired Captain in the United States Navy Medical Corps, who is most famous for his time aboard the Space Station Mir. Dr. Linenger would spend a total of 132 days, 4 hours, and 1 minute in space-- the longest duration flight of an American male at that time. During his stay aboard, he and his Russian crewmembers faced numerous difficulties including the most severe fire ever aboard an orbiting spacecraft. While in space, Dr. Linenger wrote a series of letters to his son covering topics from the earth to the stars. Learn more about Dr. Linenger by visiting. You can read the letters to his son at this link:

Excerpt from Jay O' Callahan's "Forged in the Stars"

In 2008, NASA commissioned storyteller Jay O’Callahan to write a story to celebrate the national space agency’s 50th anniversary. It was a particularly fitting modality, as NASA scientists use storytelling to share the results of their research and projects with their colleagues. O’Callahan’s resulting work, entitled Forged in the Stars, features the stories of three prominent NASA personalities: J.C. High Eagle, a NASA engineer of Cherokee Indian heritage whose childhood dream was to help men land on the moon; astronaut Neil Armstrong in the 1969 Apollo moon landing; and the poignant story of New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe, who died in the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Further, the story explores the wondrous journey of the twin Voyager spacecraft, launched in 1977 with the goal of exploring Jupiter and Saturn, and continuing on to this day to places no other spacecraft has ever explored. Learn more by visiting www.ocallahan.com/forged-in-the-stars

Interview Excerpt with Todd Barber

Todd Barber is a propulsion engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who has worked on projects such as the Cassini mission to Saturn in 1997, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, and the Galileo project which reached Jupiter's orbit in 1995. Todd received NASA's Exceptional Achievement Award in 1996 fo his work on Galileo. Mr. Barber is a native of Wichita, Kansas and holds degrees in aerospace engineering, with a humanities concentration in music. His hobbies include basketball, singing, playing the piano, and of course, astronomy. Learn more about Jet Propulsion Laboratory by visiting www.jpl.nasa.gov

Spaceman (song)

Inspired by Dr. Linenger's experiences in space, and his letters to his family, Sam Payne wrote this song recorded in 2002.