After the successful launch of the Artemis I test mission to the Moon, NASA is gearing up for Artemis II, the first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit since 1972 with launch scheduled for November 2024. In this episode Dave Schlom visits with managers from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to find out what goes into launching America’s Artemis missions to the Moon with the Orion spacecraft perched atop the Space Launch System (SLS). First Dave visits with Senior Project Manager Jose Morales who has been in charge of modifying the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to prepare for America’s newest Moon missions and Senior Vehicle Operations Manager Cliff Lanham who is in charge of the stacking and testing of the launch vehicle and Orion spacecraft inside the VAB. Then we find out about one of the world’s most amazing machines, the massive crawlers that transport the rocket from the VAB out to the pad with Operations Manager John Giles. And finally we get a look inside the process of actually launching an Artemis mision with Assistant Launch Director Jeremy Graeber and Senior Technical Integration Manager Anton Kiriwas who take us inside KSC’s historic Launch Control Center Firing Rooms.

Airs Saturday, July 15 at 9am.

To mark the passing of Daniel Ellsberg of the Pentagon Papers, the GroundTruth Project presents a special one hour program that traces the path of some 7000 documents from a safe in the Rand Corporation to the front page of the New York Times in June of 1971 and the fallout for Richard Nixon, whose obsession with Daniel Ellsberg would consume his presidency.

Airs Saturday, July 8 at 9am.

Host Dave Schlom concludes our two part look back at the first and only exclusively American space station, Skylab, which was crewed by three teams of astronauts in 1973. In this episode, we hear from David Hitt, author of the seminal book Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story which he co wrote with Skylab astronauts Owen Garriott and Joe Kerwin. Then we get to hear from the last man on Earth who lived and worked on the orbiting station for 84 days, astronaut Ed Gibson. An undertold and underappreciated part of space history, Skylab stands as one of the most important stepping stones in our quest to learn to live and explore beyond Earth.

Blue Dot airs on Saturday at 9AM.

Thanks to an initiative by Amazon, KSPB is now connected directly to the Alexa ecosystem rather than through an intermediary. Say, “Alexa, play KSPB” to listen. It’s available worldwide!

With the end of the academic year, student and faculty shows are on hiatus for the summer. We’ve filled in those slots with programs from the BBC World Service, PRX, and ContentDepot (the Public Radio Satellite System).

Blue Dot host Dave Schlom is joined by space journalist Emily Carney and Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart in part one of our look back at the only all American space station — Skylab. Launched in May 1973, the station was made from the third stage of the Saturn V moon rocket. Unfortunately, the station was damaged during launch leading to a dramatic repair mission — the first of its kind which paved the way for the International Space Station and the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope. Carney explains why Skylab was such an important and fascinating program that deserves to be remembered 50 years later. Apollo 9 astronaut and Skylab back up crew member Schweickart tells Dave of the many hours he spent in the underwater tank at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama perfecting the procedures that would be carried out by astronauts Pete Conrad and Joe Kerwin to repair the ailing space station. It has all the drama of Apollo 13 and it’s a story worth knowing!

Blue Dot airs Saturday at 9am

It’s Reunion Weekend on campus and some KSPB alumni are on hand to return to the airwaves for 30-minute shows between 12 noon and 4:30 pm on Saturday, June 10.

He’s back! (If only for one day.) Pre Malone will be live at 9am on Tuesday, April 11 with tunes and the latest from Germany. He’ll be joined by Big JR, co-host of Flippin’ Beats. Fantastish, ja?

Not a morning person? No problem, Fanta 4 will be live again from 3–4pm!

Airs Saturday, April 8 at 9am.

In this one hour special from PRX we explore the issue of ocean sustainability. We learn what squid tells us about the state of our oceans. The next time you order up some calamari, stop for a minute and think. Where does this actually come from? Join us as we plunge to the depths to discover the stories beyond anything you’ll ever read on a  menu. 

The Catch offers a behind the scenes look at the current state of global fishing all by tracking squid—from the waters off the coast of Peru, to the processing plants, all the way to the supermarkets and restaurants, and finally–your plate.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:

Host Ruxandra Guidi, along with her Lima-based reporting partner Simeon Tegel (@SimeonTegel), travel to Paita, Peru, to get a firsthand look at one of country’s top fisheries: squid.

• Reporter Dan Collyns joins the Peruvian Coast Guard as they patrol Peru’s waters and work to prevent illegal fishing.
• We hear from local fisherman what it’s like to be out at sea day-in and day-out.
• Edwin Houghton, the president of the Paita Fishing Boat Owners’ Association on why the Peruvian government should do more to help these fishermen.
• We take you inside two processing plans to learn how squid has changed the local and national economy
• Also featured: Peruvian Coast Guard Captain Jesus Menacho and Alfonso Miranda, President of CALAMASUR, a group of industry leaders in the squid fishery. We speak to Carlos Martín Salazar with the Instituto del Mar de Peru about ways to improve sustainability with data. And finally, we hear from Patricia Majluf, well-known conservationist and Senior scientist at Oceana, who dared to take on the fishing industry and rein in overfishing while in office.

Host Dave Schlom visits with an array of guests that are involved in major watershed restoration projects being conducted by the conservation organization, California Trout. We find out about the science behind restoration with Andrew Rypel, Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis then dive into the world’s largest restoration project, the dam removal on the Klamath River with UC Davis aquatic research ecologist Robert Lusardi. Brook Thompson, a Yurok and Karuk tribal member who is a graduate student at UC Santa Cruz weighs in on her homeland watershed and indigenous ecological principles that will be put into place during the Klamath restoration effort. Then we turn our attention to a stream that literally flows past the NSPR studios, Big Chico Creek, with Cal Trout’s Regional Director for Mt. Shasta and Klamath, Damon Goodman, and Holly Swan, the new Project Manager for the Mount Lassen office of California Trout in Chico. Finally, He Lo Ramirez, scientist, educator and Mechoopda tribal member tells us about how the tribe is helping to restore Big Chico Creek, waters that his people have lived by for millenia that were once filled with abundant salmon and steelhead.