Houston, we have a podcast. Welcome to the official podcast of the NASA Johnson Space Center.

This is episode 113, Lessons of Apollo. I'm Pat Ryan.

On this podcast we talk with scientists, engineers, astronauts, and other folks to get the story

about what's going on in America's Space Exploration Program, especially with the Artemis

program and our renewed effort to return American astronauts to the moon.

The Apollo program started in the 1960s with a very specific goal and a deadline, putting astronauts on the moon and returning

them to Earth before the end of that decade.

Well, likewise, NASA's Artemis program today is working to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, to explore with new

technologies and systems, and to collaborate with commercial and international partners to

establish a sustainable presence there that will prepare us to go on to Mars.

We're talking about Artemis a lot on the podcast,

including today's conversation with a man who knows a lot about the moon as a destination and about the history

of exploration efforts to get there, science journalist and Apollo historian Andrew Chakin. His 1994 book, A Man on the Moon, detailed all of the Apollo

missions and it was the basis for the 1998 Emmy winning HBO mini series from the Earth to the Moon.

Chaken started his career as an intern at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory

during the NASA Viking Program that sent two probes to Mars

and he's worked as a journalist in books, magazines,

and all manner of publications for some 40 years.

Shakin was here in Houston recently as a visiting instructor in the JSC Academy of Engineering.

He was here to give a presentation about using the lessons of Apollo to be successful in our

effort to return to the moon.

And I got a chance to go into that with him,

...