Actually been in space and that is astronaut Leland Melvin and, mr. Melvin, you write that your book is called chasing space and you write that it had all begun with a dropped pass. Yeah, exactly. A dropped path, i pass. I block a lot and we were at a homecoming game. The ball was perfectly thrown in the game and i dropped a touchdown pass in my hands and the thing is a scout was there from the university of richmond looking to see if i could play football for the team. He walked out of the stadium, my coach green believed in me, this time i caught the ball, that one catch resulted in 180,000dollar scholarship to the university of richmond because the coach said he didnt give up, he kept going. That was the grits and the first and the second chance. How did you get from playing from the university of richmond spiders to Space Shuttle missions . I think the turning of season from 010 around to 38 in playoffs brought the College Scout and then all of the hard work and dedication and discipline, i went to work for nasa, a friend of mine gave me an application and said you would be a great astronaut and i was like, yeah right, the same year i didnt fill out the application, someone else did and he got in and i said to myself, well, if that guy could get in, i could get in. The competition, then believing that i could do that same thing and i applied and i got in to the astronaut course. Well, before we go any further, you want to tell our viewers this is a call, Leland Melvin has been to space twice, worked for nasa for 20some years, your chance to talk to astronaut, 7488201 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones, what were you doing that you were able to apply to nasa because a lot of people im sure would like to apply to nasa. Right, well, after leaving the Dallas Cowboys from the pulled hamstring, i went to graduate school fulltime and i got my masters engineer in material science engineering, this woman said you should come work for nasa. Im going to work for dupont, they make more money there. She was tenacious and she said we need more people like you at nasa. I got the job to work at the research engineer. In what field . I was a material science engineer but we were working in an area called nondestructive Evaluation Sciences where we are Building Systems for measuring damage, Aerospace Vehicles using different types of sensors, fibers, lasers and thermal systems for measuring damage. Now you threw something about the Dallas Cowboys. [laughter] well, i got drafted and pulled a hamstring, went to train with the Dallas Cowboys, by day im catching football for Americas Team and at night im watching material science engineering vhs video tapes and when danny white went out one day, i ended up pulling my hamstring and that was the end of my football career but i went back to uva and got my masters. From the day you applied to nasa from the day you took off in atlanta u how many years was that . I applied in 1995, got in the core in 1998, ten years, it took me to fly in space. Its not typical is that typical . Its not typical. But i had a little problem. What was it . I lost all of my hearing in training accident. I went completely death. I still have hearing impairment in left ear but hay forgot to put padding and they said i will never fly in space. A diving accident, correct . It was training in the white uva suits, 600gallon pool and spacewalking suits but in the suit there is an actual pad that you use to press your nose to clear your ears. I told the test director to turn the volume up, it took me out and they realized blood was coming out of my ears. And . And they said, emergency surgery, they operated and looked around and couldnt find anything, they medically disqualified me to fly in space but thats when and my hearing came back about three weeks later and i ended up going to work in dc in this Educator Astronaut Program to train to be astronauts and when i was in that program we lost Space Shuttle colombia and i was there for the families and we were flying around the country going to different Memorial Services to help get the families through this and the chief surgeon, in each one of those flights taking notes as i took off and landed and he watched me clear my ears. He believed in me that i could actually fly to space, not get back in the pool, not fly jets or get back in pressure situations but i can fly in space and do a job in space to try to advance our civilization. The photo on the cover of your book, chasing space, this is an initial nasa photo. It is official. That has to be the best astronaut photo ever. Well, when you sneak the dog to nasa and photo lab and get the picture with them, if you look on the picture, the front, all of our hands are connected, two paws and the hands are combined together in solidarity as the people trying to get to space. [laughter] Leland Melvin is our guest, he has flown twice atlantis in 2008 and the second time was atlantis as well . How long were you there . The First Mission 12 days and the second 14 days or vice versa day. If you were flying, would you go . I would go. Should have missions ended . Heavy lift to deploy satellites. We completed the space station buildout, we have spacex and other people delivering cargo with the cost of the Space Shuttle program, we would not be able to build a new rocket system and the vehicle to go pass lower orbit. So we want to go past that and, you know, maybe assist lunar space station will help us to get to mars one day. It was the right thing to do. Lets hear from our callers, jane, first, youre with author and astronaut Leland Melvin. Hi, leland, i was going to ask about the astronaut thats been there for 65 days, what do you think about that . Peggy witson, she was my commander in 2008 on the space station. She applied 13 times to become an astronaut, rejected 12 times. She is one of my heros, shes a maker woman and she is one of these people that i hold up like Katherine Johnson as a hero. Its amazing person and i love her to death. Peggy whats featured in chasing space, who was or is Katherine Johnson . Katherine johnson is the 99yearold mathematician that calculated the trajectories to get john glenn orbiting the planet and she was a figure and talked about her writing the book and actually margo is the daughter of bob lee who was an engineer who worked at nasa with me. Its like a family affair. S mission in space . Training to be a kind of engineer starts at an early age. I started building things in middle school and the main thing about the training is to get kids looking at the night sky seeing the space station going overhead, building and creating something was the second question . How much emphasis could be put on stem . Guest emphasis should be put on steam, Science Technology arts and mathematics. Ali activity associated with the arts is part of stem education. Having kids creating, music lessons, all the Different Things prepared me to get to space and work with other people, languages, working with russian colleagues and understanding these other things all part of that training for spaceflight. Host you are on with Leland Melvin. Reporter it is great to see you, just flipping through the channels. What is this guy about . A fantastic story. My question is where have you been and why havent we heard this story before . Guest Catherine Johnson with a 99yearold mathematician who helped john glenn get around the planet. A lot of us have been figures for quite a while and i got this book out there so we could get more kids from different zip codes to know that you can play in the nfl, you can be an astronaut, you can do anything if you have people that have your back and believe in your self and work hard. What is this a photo of . A phd in Chemical Engineering from mit as well as medical doctor. Firsttime two africanamerican men were in space at the team same time. That one picture in that interview listen to to buy 1 million people, could come up to me and tell me they heard the interview, they want to be astronauts, they want to be ballplayers, nothing wrong with being a ballplayer, i was a ballplayer but the key is you can do so much more. This photo. Host where were you when this was taken . Guest we had undocked with the International Space station in 2009 and we were floating in the mid deck, of Space Shuttle atlantis on 129. Please go ahead. At nasa do they discuss so many conspiracy theories about the moon landings, my second question is do you think we really landed on the moon . Host do you think we landed on the moon . Caller no i do not. Host why . Caller on youto be can see videos where there are strings in the background, and also another thing i heard is arent there different radiation, how the astronauts able to pass through radiation belts when they were headed towards the moon . Guest my friends have given their lives for exploration. Apollo when we lost people in a fire, john young who is not a liar is a friend of mine who interviewed me to become an astronaut, walked on the moon. I believe in this man, he is an honest honorable person. I believe in the Space Program and i know we have walked on the moon because of the efforts to help advance our civilizations and listen to these conspiracy theorists. Some who dont believe the earth is round. I have seen the earth from space, the earth is round. You cant buy into this stuff on you youto be. Any more scientists with analytical minds that can discern these Different Things and understand these things are real. Host you talk about the twang . Guest when you are sitting in the shuttle for three main engines come on and are off from the stack, the entire shuttle rotates forward and we come back, the main engines light, there are eight bolts with explosive charges that are ignited and they blow away and we are off and it is amazing because when you come back up, but weighing on a screen door you open, that is how we come back and take off right after that. Host a lot of people have written roller coasters and felt the pressure on their chests. Is it like that . Guest we pool 3gs as we are going up, you start to labor to breathe a little bit. It feels heavy, you take a deep breath but after the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned the ride smooth out, you are doing this for a while and you get to smoother flight and 61 2 minutes later you are in space. Host when you are in space is a very smooth . Guest main engine cut off you see things you dropped, dust particles, and you have your seatbelt on, you are under your seatbelt, and you are floating towards the front seat, you hit the front seat and bounce back with pingpong balls, going back and forth, get out of your seat and go out the window and you see the most incredible light show. Colors of the caribbean, sunrise and sunset every 45 minutes. As you go around the planet every 90 minutes and this is what people use to fight against helping advance our civilization. That is the american story. Host did you ever run into space junk or satellites . Guest i didnt see any space junk but a lot of times we come back home, there are pits in the window from small particles that hit the window and my second mission, you open up the payload bay doors in the shuttle and we saw this thing that looks organic and translucent, starting to float out of the payload bay. Houston, we have a problem i didnt say that, their next have been raised up but it was a piece of ice that had broken off from these hoses on part of the freon loops, kind of like a body floating out, like the aliens on the movie contact when the come across the end of the movie is what it looked like to me and one of my colleagues who is in space right now looked at me like, he was a rookie, what is that . You have been to space. What is that . Host lets hear from tamara in port orange, florida. Caller i am calling because we are coming up on an exciting milestone with commercial crew program. I was wondering what your thoughts are on commercial crew and if you will be involved in the commercial crew program. Host you seem to know what youre talking about, what is your background . Guest i used to be a counselor at space and have been a spaceflight educator in Challenger Learning Center and Research Historian for Johnson Space center and now i am a stayathome mom. Guest thank you for your advocacy, i am all for commercial crew, the more people have an opportunity to go to space and experience this overview affect will help us advance our civilization even more but also help us come together as a civilization. Whoever wants to go to space, whether it is nasa, elon musk, i embrace all of it because it can only help us advance is a civilization. Host what are you doing today . Guest i had a chance to talk to people at the National Book festival, all these wonderful lockers inspiring people, signing chasing space an astronauts story of grit, grace, and second chances, and the Young Readers addition which has stem experience or steam, i call it steam, paperclips, paper, scissors, you can build rockets, you can do these exciting things and the key is to get the next generation of explorers excited to take my place, take our place and help share these messages of hope and inspiration and future. Host are you still with nasa in any capacity . Guest i have retired from nasa but i still help out in certain aspects, lunches and missions and things, im an advocate and supporter of helping our Space Program. Of the 19 how is your 90 acre Serenity Farm . Guest Serenity Farm got sold, i sold the farm but im looking to do other things and getting outdoors, them believing in themselves. Host heres the cover of the book, chasing space an astronauts story of grit, grace, and second chances. The author and our guest is Leland Melvin. Booktvs live coverage of the 17th annual National Book festival now continues. We
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