Hey, if you love the deep conversations about engineering, science, and space exploration, you get every week from Houston. We have a podcast. Well, there's another official NASA podcast you should check out, NASA's Curious Universe. Each episode of Curious Universe brings you stories only NASA can tell. Hear from scientists looking for signs of life beyond Earth.

Find out what it's like to fall into a black hole.

And tag along with NASA experts paving the way for astronauts to return to the moon

and eventually set foot on Mars.

Whether you're a total space nerd or a first-time space explorer,

there is a curious universe episode for you. Three, two, one. We have ignition and we have left off.

Check out NASA's Curious Universe wherever you're listening to this podcast or at nassah.gov slash curious universe

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

Episode 237, Private Astronauts. I'm Gary Jordan and I'll be your host today. On this podcast,

we bring in the experts, scientists, engineers, and astronauts

all to let you know what's going on in the world of human spaceflight. The first private

astronaut mission to the international space station is right around the corner. We're talking

about the first time that an entirely private crew is taking a trip to the space station

on a commercial spacecraft. And this mission, Axiom Mission 1 or AX1, is a big milestone in the new era of space exploration.

AX1 truly is a commercial mission with its own goals, objectives, and responsibilities with NASA as the enabler.

And NASA's goal is to see more of these kinds of flights

to build a robust commercial economy in low Earth orbit.

And NASA can be a customer of this commercial industry.

Ahead of the mission for the first time,

we're going to replay a previous episode,

Episode 212, Private Astronauts.

AX1 is a private astronaut mission.

...