Space Policy Edition: Pathfinder and the Birth of the Discovery Program

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Technology, Science

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2022

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Space exploration historian Michael Neufeld traces the fascinating history of one of NASA’s most successful programs of planetary exploration.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Happy July, everyone, and welcome to the Space Policy Edition of Planetary Radio.
0:19.5	I'm at Kaplan, the weekly host of the show, joined as always by our Chief Advocate, the
0:24.7	Senior Space Policy Advisor for the Planetary Society, Casey Dreyer, Casey, welcome back.
0:30.6	Hey, Matt, I'm always happy to be here with you and all of you.
0:34.1	We have a wonderful conversation.
0:36.4	I loved hearing you talk with Bob Michael Mufeld, which is an interview that we just completed
0:42.6	before this conversation that you and I are having right now.
0:46.0	I strongly recommend people stay tuned because, boy, is it relevant to a lot of the stuff
0:52.6	that we talk about as we talk about planetary science missions today.
0:57.0	Michael Mufeld's great.
0:58.0	He's a space historian at the National Air and Space Museum.
1:01.7	He has done a lot of work on the history of the Discovery Program, which is NASA's
1:06.9	Low Cost Planetary Exploration Mission Program, missions like Insight, missions like Pathfinder,
1:13.9	which this month is the 25th anniversary of.
1:17.5	We look at how NASA made this long-term commitment to doing low-cost, frequent planetary
1:22.2	exploration, what it took to get there, and the outcome of that, and whether they've
1:25.6	been able to maintain that.
1:27.1	These are really the nuts and bolts of how space programs come to be.
1:32.4	Michael Mufeld's also the author of, I would say, the definitive biography of Werner von
1:38.0	Brown that I would really recommend anyone to read.
1:40.9	The longtime listeners will remember him as one of our first guests way back in what
1:45.1	was at 2016.
	...

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