Space Policy Edition: Why Apollo Happened (with Roger Launius)

Planetary Radio: Space Exploration, Astronomy and Science

The Planetary Society

Science, Technology

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 July 2019

⏱️ 105 minutes

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Summary

Half a century has passed since Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin imprinted humanity's first footsteps upon another world. Apollo 11 was the culmination of a decade's worth of fervent activity in which the United States marshaled resources and manpower at a pace not seen outside of warfare. Space historian Dr. Roger Launius joins the show to explain why Apollo happened the way it did, how a moonshot briefly became a solution to a national security problem, and why it is unlikely to happen again. Casey Dreier also provides a space policy update. More resources about this month’s topics are at http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/show/2019/space-policy-edition-39.htmlLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the July 2019 Space Policy Edition of Planetary Radio.
0:19.0	We are so glad to have you back for this monthly series and we also have back with us the chief
0:26.8	advocate for the Planetary Society Casey dryer welcome Casey.
0:30.3	Hey man I just saw you in person not all that long ago. It was kind of a family
0:35.8	reunion because so many of us gathered there on the space coast and wasn't that a
0:41.5	great event?
0:42.7	Yeah, we saw a light sail go off into space
0:45.3	on possibly the most dramatic way possible
0:48.8	on a Falcon Heavy at night.
0:51.0	And it was so late in the morning or early in the morning,
0:54.0	whatever you want to say it, that we caught...
0:56.0	How long was it?
0:57.0	Yeah, it was 2.30 in the morning, it felt, but it was so close to sunrise that
1:02.4	when the rocket got up to that upper atmosphere, it illuminated the morning sunlight
1:07.2	illuminated the upper atmospheric staging and plasma and plumes coming out of the rocket and created this spectacular planetary
1:14.0	nebula in addition to being a night launch. I've seen four launches, you know, more
1:19.6	than most but not as much as some and it was the best launch I've ever seen in my life that was a
1:24.2	spectacular launch. I am not surprised I have only seen two now that I've seen the
1:29.0	Falcon Heavy and I have to say no offense uh... ULA, but the Atlas 5 really just didn't really compare.
1:36.6	And that, of course, was the launch of Light Sale 1.
1:40.1	And now Light Sale 2 is up up there on orbit communicating with us.
1:45.0	Data is coming back as we speak.
	...

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