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Hey, history lovers.

I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

The U.S. space program certainly has its fair share of America's heroes.

Their names are legendary.

Armstrong is on the moon, Neil Armstrong.

John Glenn is inside the spacecraft.

The countdown at this moment is T-minus 85 minutes.

But as the challenger climbed today, it carried an American woman astronaut, Sally Ride, into space and into history.

And on the big screen, we've no doubt seen the handiwork at mission control and the genius

engineers who keep our brave astronauts out of harm's way. It certainly takes a village on

Earth to support the men and women beyond the clouds. But there's one group you haven't heard

of that was vital to NASA's mission early on.

Deaf students from Gallaudet University.

Without them, we might never have been able to send humans safely into space.

In the early days of the space program, more than a half century ago, NASA needed to

understand what would happen to humans when they went into space. One particular concern

was motion sickness. Astronauts in space would be subjected to incredible conditions, weightlessness,

constant rotation, G-forces.

Scientists needed to understand how humans would react and how to make it easier for them.

It turns out there's a group of people perfect for that kind of research.

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