Episode 13 -- Mark Craig

Mark Craig, director of the extraordinary documentary film The Last Man on the Moon, joins us for a great conversation about his career and the legendary Gene Cernan.

*This is our first truly international episode, as Mark joins us from his home in England!

*A British kid who loved James Bond films? Who would've ever guessed?

*He drew all the time as a child, and once he graduated from art college, he eventually specialized in motion graphics for BBC 4. That turned into directing small live-action pieces, and he was on his way.

*Born in 1959, he got caught up in the space program like so many other children of the time.

*One night, his father took him into the garden, pointed at the moon and told him that two men were walking on its surface. Little did Mark know that he would meet several moonwalkers, and get to know one particularly well.

*Mark discusses his interest in Formula 1 racing, and how documentaries on drivers Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill and Jim Clark helped pave the way for Last Man on the Moon with Mark Stewart Productions.

*Mark isn't quite up to speed on NASCAR ... yet.

*The first contact between Mark Craig and Mark Stewart was a literally a cold call, Craig contacting Stewart and introducing himself, basically looking for a job. What's the worst that Stewart could've said? No?

*Before Mark had finished Gene Cernan's book, he'd emailed the publisher to get in touch with the former astronaut in an attempt to get the ball rolling on a documentary. They met for the first time in London just a couple of months later, in the summer of 2007.

*It was that December, when Mark met some of Gene's friends and family in Washington DC, that he began to understand who the former astronaut was later in life.

*Gene's ex-wife Barbara, daughter Tracy and longtime friend Fred Baldwin add amazing life and perspective to the film, and that's just the way Mark wanted it.

*Suggestion Number One for working with Gene Cernan? Be on time!

*Mark had NEVER met a moonwalker as the elevator doors slid open at the appointed meeting time with Gene ... and there stood Gene AND Alan Bean!

*Gene Cernan and sound engineer Crispin Larratt, a match made in Heaven ... or not!

*The amount of time Mark spent with Gene ... and the memories Gene shared ... allowed the director to get to know his subject quite well, and better than many of his other projects.

*David Fairhead edits Last Man on the Moon before going on to direct Mission Control, and he and Mark experience some tough give-and-take moments in determining the film's final cut.

*Mark's toughest cut from the film ...

*Mark's reactions to the first public viewings of Last Man on the Moon were more of a professional sort, rather than emotional.

NOTE: Thanksgiving is next week in the United States, so there will be no new episode of Go, Flight: The Podcast, but we shall return the week after!

Episode 12 -- John Aaron

Legend is a word that gets tossed around pretty freely sometimes, but even that doesn't seem to do justice to this week's guest. John Aaron is widely considered to be one of mission control's most capable flight controllers ever, and for good reason. You probably know about SCE to Aux and the power-up procedures on Apollo 13, but there's so much more to this wonderful person. In this week's very special program, Patreon supporters took care of submitting each and every question for John!

SHOW NOTES:

*John Aaron ALWAYS felt the need to learn, even after he was a NASA veteran. Simulations, after all, kept him and many others humble. He considered it his job to come up with answers when trouble struck.

*The SCE to Aux story, in John's own words.

*It takes a question from fellow NASA legend Chris Kraft at John's retirement party for the momentous events of the Apollo 12 launch to really sink in.

*Do we go to the moon or Mars next?

*What would John consider to be his proudest moments at NASA? Here's a hint ... strangely enough, NONE of them involve being the star of Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo!

*How did John figure out what took priority when coming up with Apollo 13's power-up procedures?

*Jack Swigert gets it right, even in the worst of conditions.

*John Aaron's favorite job at NASA? EECOM. Any surprise there?

*If Apollo 9 had experienced an explosion on one of its oxygen tanks, would it have been in more trouble than Apollo 13 due to its sometimes spotty communications? Maybe ... maybe not.

*If Gerry Griffin was "this close" to calling an abort during the launch of Apollo 12, did such a thing ever enter into John's thinking? Noooooooooooooooooo.

*After Rick gets thrown under the bus by HIS fitness coach, John talks about some of the mentors he's had over the years at NASA.

*As hard as it is to believe, John was in awe of his surroundings when he first joined NASA and nearly left the agency. His parents ... and his wife ... convinced him to stay put. He credits them with changing the course of his life.

*John calls wife Cheryl his career and moral compass.

*John discusses teamwork and collaboration with his good friend Jim Kelly, and others within the control team.

*The pros and cons of pinto beans versus Boston baked beans, John Aaron and Arnie Aldrich style.

*Here's an idea. How about Patreon supporters start paying by the number of times I start a question or comment with the word "Now"? Trust me, for every one that makes it into the podcast, five get edited out. I'd be RICH!

*John Aaron goes through his problem-solving methodology in general, and has some comments on the first few moments of the Apollo 13 crisis in particular that you DO NOT want to miss.

*We said goodbye to Dick Gordon ...

*Be sure and stick around until the very end for a special treat.

Episode 11 -- Les Hanks

In this episode, host Rick Houston sits down for a chat with longtime friend Les Hanks, who served for many years as a quality control inspector, technician and industrial engineering and safety engineer on the Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. After an absence of a few years, Les is back at KSC and working on the Space Launch System program.

SHOW NOTES:

*Rick and Les first met when Rick accompanied Busch Series driver Ashton Lewis on a tour of the Orbiter Processing Facility. Ashton got to go in the Shuttle and visit the flight deck. Rick got to stick his head in the hatch and see the Waste Containment System ... the potty.

Ashton Lewis, about to head into the Space Shuttle. Photo by a very disappointed Rick Houston!

*After serving as an F-16 crew chief in the United States Air Force, Les planned to go to work for one of the major airlines. An on-the-spot offer to work on the Shuttle, however, changed the course of his career.

*Les describes the exquisite attention to detail Shuttle technicians gave to their work, and how it all paid off on launch day.

*Although he might have been assigned to a particular Orbiter Processing Facility, Les' work in all reality was spread across each facility and all of the vehicles in the Shuttle fleet.

*The astronauts who flew on board the machines Les and his co-workers labored on made it a point to thank the Shuttle workforce for their expertise. After all, it was their lives on the line if something went wrong.

*Les remembers where he was and what he was doing February 1, 2003 -- the day Columbia went down.

*After the tragedy, Les copes with the emotions of the accident and the uncertainties of the program itself while serving on the reconstruction team at the Cape.

*Forced into a decision to leave the Shuttle workforce by the looming end of the program, Les takes a job with Siemens Wind Power. He describes the melancholy feeling of leaving KSC for the last time, and stopping to take a picture of the Vehicle Assembly Building in his rear-view mirror.

*After working with aircraft in the Air Force and, of course, the Space Shuttle for so long, the new job turned out to be quite an adjustment for Les.

*Les' story does not end there, however. Earlier this year, he returned to work at Kennedy Space Center on the Space Launch System program and once again sees the VAB through the windshield of his car ... instead of the rear-view mirror.

*Les gives his take on the relationship between NASA and companies like Space X.

*The rebirth of the Space Coast ...