If you ask children what they want to be when they grow up, chances are good that among the answers, you’ll hear “astronaut.” But becoming an astronaut can be more difficult than becoming a veterinarian, firefighter, marine biologist, or some of the other common childhood job aspirations. The odds aren’t good: In 2021, NASA selected 10 astronaut candidates from a pool of over 12,000 applicants. And last year, over 22,000 applications to the European Space Agency resulted in 17 job offers.
Dr. Mike Massimino’s application to become a NASA astronaut was rejected several times. However, he persisted in his efforts, and eventually flew twice on the space shuttle, logging over 570 hours in space and over 30 hours spacewalking. On his second trip to orbit, on Atlantis mission STS-125, he participated in the last servicing mission for the Hubble Space Telescope.
Massimino joins Ira and guest host Flora Lichtman to talk about his time at NASA. They also discuss lessons he learned at the space agency that he believes can help others achieve their goals, which he has collected in his new book, Moonshot: A Nasa Astronaut’s Guide To Achieving The Impossible.
To stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday’s newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
To stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.
670: Top Science News Stories of 2023 | Solar Panels In Historic Cape Cod
669: Pennsylvania Drug Laws May Limit Syringe Services | These Romance Novels Represent Black Women In Science
668: Flame Retardant From Cocoa Pod Husks | The Oozy Physics Of Oobleck
667: The Military’s Carbon Footprint Is A Hidden Cost Of Defense
666: High Energy Cosmic Ray Detected | These Penguins Are The Masters Of Microsleeping
665: COP28 Climate Conference Ends | Why Are Some People Affected By Seasonal Affective Disorder?
664: A Celebration Of The 2023 Christmas Bird Count
663: Surfing Particles Can Supercharge Northern Lights
663: The Women Astronomers Who Captured the Stars
662: Quercetin May Cause Red Wine Headaches | Worsening Wildfires Are Undoing Air Quality Progress
661: Speaking Multiple Languages Changes The Way You Think
660: Social Connections Keep Us Physically and Mentally Healthy As We Age
661: Women Were Also Skilled Hunters In Ancient Times
658: An AI Leader’s Human-Centered Approach To Artificial Intelligence
659: COP28 Host Had Plans to Promote Oil and Gas | Researchers Detected Cicada Emergence With Fiber-Optics
656: Ralph Nader Reflects On His Auto Safety Campaign, 55 Years Later
654: What’s That Smell? An AI Nose Knows
655: Jane Goodall On Life Among Chimpanzees
654: The ‘Wet-Dog Shake’ And Other Physics Mysteries
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West
Just Dumb Enough Podcast
Voices of Misery Podcast
House of Whimsical Terror
Stuff You Should Know
Timcast IRL