Hey everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's history. I've got one of the great space communicators

on the podcast. A Professor Kevin Fong, he's an award-winning author, broadcaster. He worked

for the UK government during COVID. He's worked at NASA. This guy has got a CV like nothing

I have ever seen in my little old life. He was also the host of the Smashit podcast,

13 minutes to the moon. He's got degrees in astrophysics, aerospace engineering. And

he now wants to turn his big brain and his talent for communication to the shuttle program.

Having done the Apollo missions in his 13 minutes to the moon podcast, he's now keen

to do the shuttle, which he assures me is even more interesting and important than Apollo.

What was the point of shuttle? How did it fit into the history of space exploration? And

why did it get retired? These are questions that we talk about in this podcast. If you like

what you hear, you can go to Kevin's Kickstarter. He's funding this next one himself because

he wants to go deep. He wants to make a lot of content and he doesn't think a broadcaster

is going to have the stomach for it. So go to Kickstarter and either type in Kevin Fong

or 16 Sunsets and you can unleash that team on this. They've got the NASA Asteroids

standing by. They've got scientists, the engineers, the family standing by. They're going

to make the most amazing podcast here. So please go and support them. And the meantime,

here is one of the most talented folks you'll hear on this podcast. Kevin Fong, enjoy.

Kevin Fong, great to have you back on the pod buddy. Great to be here. Last time you

were talking about the Apollo mission, which is a gigantic rocket. Looks like you got

down rocket. It goes straight up in the air and it goes to the moon. That space travel

I get in my head round. What is with the shuttle and the kind of odd passenger aircraft vibe?

It's just such a crazy idea. And the more you look at it, the more you can't quite believe

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