Flight Deck Podcast

Conspiracy theories are unavoidable when your Museum deals with topics in science, but this week’s guest, Tony Gondola, outreach coordinator for the New Mexico Museum of Space History, has some good advice on how to debunk these unsound ideas. Gondola also explains how the people who formulate conspiracies profit from those who fall for them. In dealing with Moon landing science, Gondola also has experience with other theories. “Right now, flat Earth stuff is everywhere,” he says. “All claims of hoaxsters are easy to debunk because they usually don’t go too deep into the science.” Conspiracy theories have become increasingly popular these past few years because common objections to the Moon landing stem from a distrust of authority, the government, and science. Gondola describes why it’s so important to counter these ideas. “We can’t deny this great historical event,” he says. What the astronauts did on the Moon does, in fact, include some science, although science was not the primary objective. The Apollo 11 astronauts left behind experiments like a laser reflector that still functions to this day. Gondola gets questions every day that are not necessarily accusatory but definitely uninformed, and he suggests that the best way to counter conspiracy theories not by flat out telling someone they’re wrong, but instead gently leading them to think about the science. And by all means, do not refer people to YouTube! “YouTube is a big part of the problem,” Gondola says. Content creators promoting conspiracy theories stand to gain from book deals, video views, and subscribers. Ultimately, Gondola argues, conspiracy theories happen when people believe what they experience from limited human perception and gain validation from outside sources; but, by using science as a way to move beyond limited perceptions, people can conduct simple experiments and research that reveal scientific truths. Follow in the footsteps of the Apollo 11 astronauts when our APOLLO exhibit re-opens in November! Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

After the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon, they embarked on an equally fascinating journey: a global goodwill press tour in Air Force One. Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony explains the importance of the tour and how the astronauts’ lives changed post-Moon landing. Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony, author of Apollo to the Moon, an examination of 50 fascinating artifacts from the Apollo 11 mission, discusses how the global good will tour that the astronauts took aboard VC 137 B (otherwise known as Boeing 707 Air Force One) played a significant role in the United States’ foreign relations strategies at the time. After meeting the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the USS Hornet, President Nixon delivered a speech in Guam that outlined what came to be known as the Nixon Doctrine: an approach to foreign policy that highlighted his hopes and expectations for the conflict in Vietnam. Harmony notes that “Nixon used the lunar landing as a lesson for the higher ideals of peace and brotherhood.” The Apollo 11 astronauts traveled in Air Force One to cities in South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa chosen for geopolitical reasons. The tour was taxing and impacted the astronauts’ person lives in major ways. Michael Collins felt inspired to take on a role in the State Department, while Buzz Aldrin’s relationship with his wife became strained. You can learn more about the lesser known stories behind the Apollo 11 mission by checking out Harmony’s book! Want to learn more about the Apollo 11 mission? Check out our Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission exhibit, presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, celebrates that historic flight. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

First Korean astronaut SoYeon Yi shares her memories of going to space and the harrowing return to Earth after 11 days in the International Space Station. Before listening to part 4 of Soyeon Yi’s story, be sure to listen to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 ! After years of studying and training, SoYeon Yi finally traveled to space for the very first time on April 8, 2008 along with astronauts Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko, both of whom had already completed space missions. A trip to space has a way of bonding people, and SoYeon Yi says that she remains good friends with Whitson and Malenchenko to this day and keeps in touch with them. SoYeon Yi’s excitement about being in space continued even after the 2-day journey on the Soyuz to the International Space Station. She wasn’t, however, too keen about all the cameras and media buzz when the Soyuz finally docked with the ISS: “We were all so tired. My hair was crazy messy. I was throwing up every ten minutes and all the vomit bags were in my side pocket.” Despite the fatigue, SoYeon Yi smiled and waved to the cameras, and continued to do so for the next 11 days they spent on the ISS, where she completed 18 experiments and was featured in TV and radio interviews. “Time flies so fast,” SoYeon says. “11 days is not that long.” Although she loved being in space, SoYeon did miss gravity and life on Earth. The trio’s return to Earth was marred by an mechanical error upon re-entry: a part of the habitation module was still connected to the descent module, causing a loss of balance. The capsule fell to Earth upside down, with the heat shield in a rotated position. This caused heat to build up: “If we had been in the capsule for a few more seconds, it would have burned up.” They ended up landing in a rural area of Kazakhstan, but search and rescue were nowhere to be found. Soyeon Yi and Malenchenko released themselves from the capsule, but Whitson was precariously hanging upside inside and they had no way of cutting her down. A nomadic shepherd witnessed the capsule crash land and ran over to check out the scene—he was the one who helped cut Whitson down. Search and rescue eventually reached the scene about 40 minutes later. Want to learn more about what it’s like to travel in space? Check out the exhibits in our Charles Simonyi Space Gallery! Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Buzz Aldrin, the second human to set foot on the Moon, recalls the Apollo 11 mission and how one felt tip pen helped the astronauts successfully return to Earth. Today we honor the 50th anniversary of the first human footsteps on the Moon! This day is especially significant because the Smithsonian Institute has chosen The Museum of Flight as the venue for hosting the command module Columbia, the spacecraft that Apollo 11 astronauts took to the Moon and back, and it’s the only piece of the spaceship that made it back to Earth. When Buzz Aldrin visited the Museum for our annual gala, he was interviewed by Neil Armstrong’s sons—Rick and Mark—and refers to Armstrong as “your dad” throughout the interview. Aldrin gives some insights about the famous image of him exiting the LEM to begin extravehicular activity on the lunar surface. “I didn’t see him [Neil] having much trouble moving around,” Aldrin’s says, recalling seeing Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon before him. Seeing Neil moving easily across the Moon’s surface gave Buzz a false sense of confidence. “I thought 1/6 of gravity, that’s nothing!” But Buzz slipped coming down the ladder, just moments after that famous photo was taken. Buzz also discusses fears that scientists had about contingency lunar samples bursting into flames upon being introduced to the oxygen pressurized cabin—a fear that turned out to be unfounded. But Buzz’s favorite moment of the Moon mission was when his very own felt tip pen helped repair a broken circuit for the engine arm: a device necessary for the astronauts to depart the Moon’s surface. Buzz knew that a spokesperson wanted to push news of the Fisher ballpoint pen’s role during the mission because it was an officially approved NASA pen; but, Buzz told him: “Just don’t go spreading the message that your pen saved Apollo 11!” Want to see Buzz Aldrin’s pen and the broken circuit for yourself? Check out our exhibition Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission to see rare artifacts from the Apollo 11 mission! Don’t miss the other stops on our Destination Moon podcrawl: GeekWire podcast The Truth from Radiotopia KNKX Sound Effect Stuff You Missed in History Class Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla Thank you to Alaska Airlines for sponsoring this episode of the Flight Deck Podcast.

Jerrie Cobb and the women behind the Women in Space program unsuccessfully lobbied Congress in 1962 to include women in astronaut training, but they still led the way for women’s inclusion in the aerospace industry. With the Women in Space Program being cancelled, the major players behind it—Jerrie Cobb, Jackie Cochran, and Janie Hart (the wife of a Michigan Senator)—met with Congress subcommittees in 1962 to get the program up and running. NASA astronauts also participated in these subcommittee hearings and John Glenn is quoted as saying that women participating in astronaut training would “ruin the social order.” Jackie Cochran wasn’t a huge help either during these hearings. She said that including women in astronaut training would slow down the program because women trainees would drop out due to marriage and family responsibilities. Janie Hart’s friend, Liz Carpenter—executive secretary to Vice President Johnson—managed to get a memo on the VP’s desk urging him to consider women for the space program. Johnson quickly shut down further discussions about the topic and filed the memo. In 1963 the Soviet Union sent cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova into space, so the United States was already behind. Despite not being able to open up the space program to women, their meetings with Congress weren’t a failure. They succeeded in pushing a national conversation about women in aerospace, and the women involved went on to make history. The shy, quiet Jerrie Cobb went on to fly humanitarian missions in South America, delivering food and supplies to impoverished communities along the Amazon Basin, and she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1981 for her efforts. Want to learn more about the history of spaceflight? Check out our exhibition Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission to see how NASA landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla Thank you to Alaska Airlines for sponsoring this episode of the Flight Deck Podcast.

When the United States was lagging behind the Soviet Union in the race to space, the Soviet space agency announced plans to send women into space, which spurred American astronaut trainers to consider what might happen if they did the same. In the late 1950s, Dr. Randy Lovelace and General Donald Flickinger of the Air Force heard about how the Soviet Union was planning to send women cosmonauts into space. Their reasons were practical rather than political: women tended to handle stress better, weigh less, consume less oxygen and use less energy than men, making them great test subjects for spaceflight. Lovelace and Flickinger wanted to implement a similar testing program in the U.S., but NASA was already committed to using male military test pilots for astronaut testing. Undeterred, Lovelace and Flickinger found an ally in Jerrie Cobb, an accomplished woman aviator who earned her commercial license when she was just 18. When Lovelace and Flickinger told her about the idea of including women in an astronaut testing program, Cobb couldn’t say yes fast enough! Lovelace and Flickinger broke off from NASA and formed the Women in Space Program (WISP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with the help of another historic woman aviator, Jackie Cochran, the co-founder of the WWII WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program. There, 13 out of 19 women candidates passed the same astronaut training requirements as the Mercury 7 astronauts, proving that women had the same physical, mental and psychological capabilities as men. Want to learn more about the history of spaceflight? Check out our exhibition Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission to see how NASA landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Our interview with NASA astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, part of our series titled Failure is Not an Option, asks crowd sourced questions to reveal what life is like in space and how Dottie, as a woman astronaut, continues to inspire young women to pursue careers in STEM. Show Notes: As the first installment of our “Failure Is Not An Option” summer series—an ode to people who have pushed the boundaries of space exploration, our interview with Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger includes questions that our listeners shared with us on social media and revealing answers from Dottie about astronaut bands, sweating in space, and how she deals with the pressure of being a role model to young girls who dream of a future in space. Dottie’s first memorable encounter with failure was being last to finish a 600-yard dash in middle school, an event that pushed her to become better at sports as she grew older. Dottie acknowledges that “failure is one of the best ways to learn in life,” and her failure at that race led her to becoming a great runner in high school and college—both of which were important to her success as an astronaut. When asked about how often astronauts argue about politics in space, Dottie is happy to share that on a space mission “there’s no room to have fights over things you have no control over.” Dottie continues to advocate for greater inclusion of women in STEM, and believes that seeing positive representations of women and people of color in space is key to helping people see themselves as astronauts, engineers, and the next space explorers. Thank you to Alaska Airlines for sponsoring this episode of the Flight Deck Podcast. Want to learn more about the history of space exploration? Check out our exhibition Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission to see how NASA landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Librarians for the King County Library System share their picks for the best aviation, space, and flight-related stories to read this summer. Check out their recommendations for your aerospace summer reading list! This week we sit down with Britta Barrett and Emily Caulkins from the King County Library System—which is the top library in the nation for circulating eBooks and downloads—to discuss their top picks for summer reading that include aviation and space-related themes. Britta and Emily also host their own podcast for the library titled Desk Set, which can be accessed on Spotify, Stitcher, and the KCLS website. Emily’s excitement for these recommendations stems from the notion that the early days of flight are a natural fit for great stories, “with its inherent risk, human ingenuity, and bravery.” Her first pick is West with the Night by Beryl Markham, a bush pilot from South Africa who was the first to fly east to west across the Atlantic in 1936. She crash-landed in New Foundland, but her flight still made history. The graphic novel Night Witches features detail, visceral illustrations that tell the story of Soviet women pilots during WWII who performed risky aerial maneuvers during combat missions against German troops. And the book Code Name Verity focuses on British women pilots during WWII who help the RAF, and its vivid prose captures “the exhilaration of the feeling of flying” as the characters fly in early model bi-planes. Britta who dreams of being the first librarian in space, recommends some space-themed titles, like Tilly Walden’s On a Sunbeam, which explores how two girls who meet in an outer-space boarding school cope with love and loss. The book Laika tells the story of the first dog to go to space and the nationalistic fervor that led to his significant role in the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States. Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti shows how what makes someone different, unique, or even an outcast can help them survive. You can read all of these this summer for King County Library System’s “A Universe of Reading” summer reading program! Check out King County Library system here and the Desk Set podcast to get excited for your summer of aerospace reading! Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Web Master: Laynebenofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

The Museum is hosting its own performance of the Moon Landing musical to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, and our very own Natalie Copeland explains why you need to see it. This summer we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 with a performance of Moon Landing, a musical written by Stephen Edwards. One of our very own Museum educators, Natalie Copeland, has taken on the task of cutting down the musical to fit a shorter timespan (75 minutes) so it can be seen by wider audiences at the Museum in July. Copeland discusses her own experiences blending art and science, starting with her experience as a Museum educator. As an educator, she enjoys putting on planetarium shows that take young kids on journeys throughout the solar system. Outside the Museum, Natalie writes and directs musicals that bring together art and science, like her 2018 Rovers musical, which tells the story of anthropomorphized rovers on Mars who host a camp that teaches future rovers how to navigate life on the Red Planet. Natalie’s passion for all things space and theater led her to cast her own version of the Moon Landing, which depicts the stories of the people involved in Apollo 11—the astronauts, the families of the astronauts, the people in mission control—and reveals how emotionally psychologically demanding the mission really was. “The music is haunting, and the score is gorgeous,” says Natalie, and she adds that the musical truly captures the spirit of the people involved in the Moon landing. Come see Moon Landing this July, and be sure to catch Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, an exhibition that features the spacecraft that took the first humans to the Moon’s surface. See how Natalie Copeland brings art and science together here, and listen to the Rovers soundtrack here. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Air traffic control has come a long way since the early days of aviation in the 1930s, and our very own Helen Parker Wall takes us back to the technologies that evolved to create the current state of safe flying. Air traffic controller Helen Parker Wall discusses the technologies and incidents that prompted change in navigation and communication between the ground and the pilot to keep the skies and the runways safe. Before WWII, pilots and air traffic controllers relied on the triangulation of radio transmissions to track flights, and in 1934 the Department of Commerce set up en route facilities, the first one being in Newark, New Jersey. This was all before the development of radar, so there was nothing for pilots or controllers to look at to track flights. Arrival times were determined the old-fashioned way: mental math that calculated a plane’s speed, distance, and altitude. It wasn’t until a 1931 crash that killed all its passengers, including famous Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne, that regulatory agencies like the FAA were established to ensure the safety of all air travelers, pilots, and air traffic controllers. When radars and advanced communications tools became popular after WWII, air traffic safety improved and air travel increased. Despite those early chaotic days of air traffic control, Wall says that she wouldn’t mind going back to the 1920s to be an air traffic controller: “I just love being around planes, no matter what decade they’re in or what technology is around.” Learn more about air traffic safety by checking out the Safety by Design exhibits in our Great Gallery and Aviation Pavillion! Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Web Master: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

First Korean astronaut SoYeon Yi tells that story of determination that took her from backup astronaut to primary, securing her place in aerospace history. SoYeon Yi spent a year in the Russian cosmonaut program, half of which was classroom-based and half of which was focused on work in the simulators. SoYeon recalls that the classroom portion focused on aircraft systems, safety, mechanics, and theory along with Russian language training. This classroom portion was followed by time in the simulator, when SoYeon really began to appreciate life as a backup astronaut. It meant that she could avoid the spotlight, unlike her male colleague and primary candidate, who was under constant media scrutiny. She also accepted her place within the context of Korean society: “I knew I would always be a backup. In male-dominated Korean culture, that would just be the reality.” Her self-awareness as a woman and minority—from her experiences as a working-class child navigating upper-class society, and as a woman in a mechanical engineering program—actually helped her advance to the primary position. SoYeon excelled in collaboration and listening, remained humble, and always learned from her mistakes. Over time, her Russian supervisors noticed these qualities, along with her work ethic (did we mention she was also writing and defending her PhD dissertation at the same time as her astronaut training?) and recommended to the Korean government that SoYeon take the primary position. After some discussions amongst the Russians and Koreans, it was decided the SoYeon replace her male colleague as the primary astronaut, and the rest was history. Want to learn more about how astronauts train and live in space? Check out our Space Gallery and visit our newest exhibition “Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission!” Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Web Master: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Airships are lighter than air craft whose history goes back to mid-nineteenth century France and comes to a screeching halt after World War Two. Learn more about what makes air ships such a unique part of aviation history in our latest Flight Deck Podcast episode! Joshua Carver, a student in our Museum Apprentice Program who’s about to begin his freshman year at Embry-Riddle University, created a fascinating presentation about airships as part of his apprenticeship at the Museum. During this time, he learned all about dirigibles, explosions, and how an aircraft carrier could fly back in 1931. Joshua traces airship history back to France in the mid-nineteenth century: “Balloons really were the posterchildren of France . . . they were the first country use balloons in combat.” Soon enough, balloons appeared on Civil War battlefields in the United States and were reborn in Germany as Zeppelins, created by none other than Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. By the time World War One erupted, the Germans developed their Zeppelins to bomb and surveil the UK. And while the Zeppelins weren’t the most accurate war machines, they did fulfill the goal of psychological warfare: the British never knew where the zeppelins would be or where the bombs would drop. But airships in the US never quite succeeded militarily, as seen in the example of the USS Akron and the USS Macon. Learn more about the Museum Apprentice Program to get involved in fun Museum projects! And don’t forget to explore more amazing World War One artifacts via our Digital Collections. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Keny Dutton Web Master: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Bessie Coleman is the world’s first black woman pilot, and her great-niece Gigi Coleman carries on the pilot’s legacy by performing her life story. Learn more about how Bessie Coleman’s bravery and persistence helped her make aviation history. -- Gigi Coleman, great-niece of the world’s first African American and Native American pilot Bessie Coleman, carries on her great-aunt’s legacy. Bessie was the tenth of thirteen children and the sister of Gigi’s grandmother. As Gigi was growing up, she didn’t fully grasp the historical importance of her great-aunt Bessie, but Gigi does recall local reporters interviewing her grandmother about Bessie. Despite a disappointing start to her aviation career, which included getting rejected from a number of aviation schools in the Chicago area, Bessie set off for France, where she hoped she would have better luck learning to fly. Bessie learned French and eventually earned a flight certification that’s recognized around the world. Gigi comments that Bessie’s achievement was remarkable at that time, “because at that time no one thought people of color had the intellect to operate an aircraft, let alone a woman of color!” Back in the states, Bessie applied her flight skills to barnstorming shows, which helped her earn money that would go towards establishing her own flight school. Today, Gigi’s own nonprofit inspires students of color to pursue aviation careers, a goal that Bessie surely would have supported. Learn more about Gigi’s amazing work and support her upcoming event in April! Check out our Calendar for info on Museum programs about the history of flight, and get a Membership so you can enjoy these events by visiting the Museum for free! Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Web Master: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

: Jerry Coy, who was featured in our episode about the 747, isn’t just an experienced commercial airline pilot—he’s also a military veteran, and his experiences during Vietnam warrant their very own episode. Coy tells us about the time his pilot duties took him outside his usual routine and placed him in charge of a complicated rescue mission. One night Coy gets a call from a staff sergeant to support an operation by the Green Berets. “I always carry a bag of hand grenades in my plane,” says Coy, and explains that the staff sergeant instructed him to fly over a particular location to break the Green Beret’s contact with the Northern Vietnamese Army. After he was almost shot down by an NVA mortar, Coy directed the Green Berets to head east as he continued throwing grenades from his cockpit. Eventually, the Green Berets reached a secure location where they met with the USAF Green Hornet helicopters that lifted them out of the conflict zone. The Green Berets were so grateful for Coy’s assistance, they nominated him for the Silver Star. Want to hear more great stories from pilots? Check out our Digital Archives Oral Histories, which are made possible through the generous support of Michael and Mary Kay Hallman. Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Web Master: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla

Today, Air Traffic Control towers loom over airports, bringing order and safety to a huge network of airplanes crossing the globe. But what was it like to fly in the earliest days of aviation, before radios or signal towers? Retired FAA Air Traffic Controller Helen Parke-Wall shares stories from the beginnings of ATC. If you’ve hiked the prairies of the Midwest or the backcountry of the Southwestern United States, you may have stumbled across a massive, concrete arrow embedded into the ground. No, this wasn’t a relic of some long-forgotten civilization. It was one of several early attempts to help pilots find their way through the perilous skies of early aviation history. Museum of Flight Docent and retired FAA Executive/Air Traffic Controller Helen Parke-Wall sat down with us to talk about the origins of the Federal Aviation Administration. See some of the early tools for aviation navigation and organization yourself in The Museum of Flight’s Red Barn and Great Gallery exhibits. Plan your visit at http://museumofflight.org/. Check out Airplane Geeks Podcast episode 539, featuring Museum of Flight Docent/Boeing 747 first flight test team member Thomas Gray and The Flight Deck host Sean Mobley here: http://www.airplanegeeks.com/2019/02/13/539-boeing-747-first-flight/. Thanks Airplane Geeks for the chance to chat! Host: Sean Mobley Producer: Sean Mobley Webmaster: Layne Benofsky Content Marketing Manager: Irene Jagla