The Backstory: The Secret NASA Test That Almost Ended the Space Race
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND
Elvis Duran Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In December of 1903, the Wright brothers made the first powered flight with a pilot in history. That’s only 122 years ago and yet here we are flying around the moon in Artemis 2. But the unknown dangers explorer types faced then... and still face... is mind blowing. In fact, manned space flight almost got stopped in its tracks by a secret government test. I’m Patty Steele. How much can the human body withstand as we attempt to explore the universe?
Feel free to DM me if you have a story you’d like me to cover... on Facebook it’s Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The trip around the moon by Artemis II this week has really inspired a whole new interest in the exploration of deep space. |
| 0:08.6 | What's out there beyond our atmosphere, beyond our moon, and even beyond our solar system? |
| 0:14.7 | It's as thrilling to consider as it must have been 500 or 1,000 years ago for explorers heading into the open sea, |
| 0:22.9 | not knowing where or how it ended. |
| 0:26.1 | I'm Patty Steele. |
| 0:27.3 | But here's the thing. |
| 0:28.7 | Heading into unknown territory can also be incredibly dangerous. |
| 0:33.2 | That's next on the backstory. |
| 0:36.7 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:39.9 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:42.2 | We're back with the backstory. |
| 0:44.6 | When the Wright brothers piloted the first successful powered flight of an airplane |
| 0:49.1 | a week before Christmas in 1903, they changed our world. |
| 0:53.4 | That first flight was only 10 feet off the ground, |
| 0:57.3 | going 6.8 miles per hour for just 120 feet. But they might as well have launched to the moon, |
| 1:04.7 | given what it meant to human transportation. But danger was and is a constant. The first person to die due to a powered airplane accident was actually just along for the ride. In September of 1908, Army aviation researcher Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge was riding along with Orville Wright as he flew his Wright Model A plane when it crashed due to a broken propeller. |
| 1:30.0 | While Orville suffered a broken leg and broken ribs, he did survive. |
| 1:34.8 | Unfortunately, Selfridge had a nasty and fatal head wound, and he died three hours later. |
| 1:41.3 | There were lots of air crashes that followed, but as flight in the 20th century |
| 1:46.1 | evolved, we moved beyond just flying around in Earth's atmosphere and started thinking seriously |
| 1:52.7 | about space. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, there was panic in the United |
| 2:00.0 | States about which nation was more advanced in the space |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Elvis Duran Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Elvis Duran Podcast Network and iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.