Now here's a highlight from Costa Coast AM on iHeart Radio.

While you just heard from Michael Warner and now his colleague joins us, Peter Eisenahard.

He's a senior research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

He received NASA's exceptional scientific achievement medal for his work on the Spitzer Space Telescope as well.

Peter, it's an honor to have you on the program.

Thank you, George. I'm glad to be here.

And you too, I started off, I bet, as a kid, loving space, didn't you?

I did, I actually was born a couple of weeks before the Sputnik launch in 1957.

So, you know, it was sort of programmed to be interested in space, I guess, from childhood.

I just always knew I wanted to explore the universe and just seem like, you know, what else is there to do?

I was a little kid during Sputnik and I remember though, everybody panicking.

My parents panicking, everybody panicking.

This thing was only the size of a basketball, wasn't it?

Yeah, I think it's a lot heavier than a basketball and a little bit bigger.

But yeah, it's not that big and I guess there was a lot of fear about what else would the Russians be able to do us?

And of course this led to the rapid growth of NASA and the space program.

And I was caught up in that as I think most people in the country were.

And in the end, it turned into an exciting time for the whole world when Neil Armstrong finally touched down.

Just 50 years ago.

Absolutely.

How did you make your way to JPL?

I came to JPL from Ames Research Center in the Bay area.

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