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. Guest exactly. A dropped pass. So i was a wide receiver on a running team, and that means that i block a lot versus catching passes. We were at a homecoming game, i was running down the sideline, the ball was perfectly thrown io my hand, and i drop a touchdown pass in my hands. And the thing is, a scout wasro 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, jimmy green, believed in me. Get back out there, run the same play. That one catch resulted in a 180,000 scholarship to the university of richmond becauseep the coach said he didnt give up, he kept going. So that was the grit and the perseverance and the second chance. Host how did you get from playing for the university of retch monday spiders to richmond spiders to two Space Shuttle missions . Guest i think turning a season from 010 around to 38 to 85 in playoffs brought thele College Scouts and pro scouts down, and then all of that hardt work and dedication and t discipline, i went to work for nasa. Ine a friend of mine gave me an application and said youd be a great astronaut. Na im just like, yeah, right. But that same year can i dide fill the application out, someone else did, and he got in. And i said to myself, well, if that guy got in, i can do that. So that competition and believing i could do the same thing, and i applied and got into the astronaut corps. Host this is a callin segment. Leland melvin has been in space twice, worked for nasa for 20some years. Your chance to talk to an astronaut. 202 is the area code, 7488200 in the east and central time zones, 74882013 for those of you 8201 for those 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 hike to apply would like to a apply to nasa. Guest right. After leaving the Dallas Cowboys with a pulled hamstring, i got my masters degree in science engineering, and this woman said, hey, you should come work for nasa. Im like, im going to work for dupont or dow, they make more money there. But she was tenacious. S. She said we need people like you at nasa. And i applied and ended up getting the job to work at nasa langley as a Research Assistant as a research engineer. Host in what field . Guest so i was a material science engineer, but we were working in an area called nondestructive evaluation sciences. So we were Building Systems for measuring damage in the Space Shuttle tiles or Aerospace Vehicles using different types of sensors, optical fibers, lasers and thermal systems for measuring damage. Host now, you threw something in there about the Dallas Cowboys. What was that . [laughter] guest well, i got drafted by the lions, pulled my hamstring, started grad school, then wenta to train with the dallasas cowboys. So by day im catching footballs for americas team, at night im watching material science engineering vhs videotapes. And when danny white and i went out one day, i ended up pulling my hamstring again, that was the end of my football career, but i just went back to uva and got my masters in material science. T host is from the day you applied to nasa to the day you took off in atlantis, how many years was that . Guest i applied in 1997, got into the corps in 1998, ten years later it took me to fly in space. Host is that ten call . Guest its not typical. Most people fly within maybe two to three years, with the Shuttle Mission maybe three to four years if its a long durationn space station mission, but i had a little problem. Host what was it . Guest i lost all my hearing in a training accident. I went completely deaf. I still have hearing impairmentm in my left ear, but they forgot to put this little pad in my helmet that allows you to clear your ears. Ad so they said i would never fly in space. Host it was a diving accident, correct . Guest it was training in the white eva suits. So theres a six million gallon pool laboratory, and were in our spacewalking suit, but in the suit there is an actual pad that you use to press your nose against to clear your ears, and mine wasnt in there. So at 20 feet i told the test director to turn the volume up. They took me out, they realized blood was coming out of my ears. Host and . Guest and they said emergency surgery, theyey operated, they looked around, couldnt find anything. They medically disqualified me to fly in space, but and thats when and my hearing came back about three weeks later, and i ended up going to work in d. C. In this Educator Astronaut Program to bring teachers in to be astronauts. And when i was in that program,n we lost Space Shuttle columbia. D and i was there for the families. And we were flying around the country going to the different Memorial Services to help get the families through this. And the chief flight surgeon, rich williams, was on each one of those flights taking notes as we took off and landed, and he watched me clear my ears. So he believed me that i could actually fly in space, not get back in the pool, not fly in the jets, not to get back in those pressure situations, but i could fly in space and do a job in space to help advance our civilization. Host the photo on the cover of your book, chasing space, this is an official nasa photo guest it is official. Host thats got to be theon best astronaut photo ever. Guest well, when you sneak your dogs into nasa and get the picture with them if you look on the picture on the front, all of our hands are connected. Two paws and a hand are combined together in solidarity as a family trying to get to space. [laughter] host Leland Melvin is ourel guest. E hes flown twice. Wi atlantis in 2008, and the second time was atlantis as well . Guest 2009, uhhuh. Host to the International Space station. How long were you there . Guest the First Mission was 12 days and the second 14 or vice versa, i think. Host if we were still flying the shuttle, would you go . Guest i would go. I would go again. Host should the Shuttle Missions ended, have ended . Guest the shuttle was the workhorse to get the heavy lift pieces up to build the space station and deploy satellites. We have other ways 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 orion vehicle. The shuttle was regulated to lowearth orr obit. So we want to go past that and maybe assist lunar space station that will help us get to mars, so it was the right thing to do. Host lets hear from our callers. This is jane first, and janes in creston, iowa. Youre on with author and astronaut leland mel vin. Caller hey, leland, i was just going to ask about the girl from iowa, the astronaut thats been up there for 665 days. What do you think about that . Guest so Peggy Whitson, who was this iowan, she was my commander in 2008 on the space station. She applied 13 times to become an astronaut, was rejected 12 times. So she is one of my heroes. She is one of these people that i hold up like Katherine Johnson as a hero. Shes an amazing person, and i love her to death. Host and Peggy Whitson is featured in chasing space. Who was or is Katherine Johnson . Guest Katherine Johnson is the 99yearold mathematician that calculated the trajectories to get John Glenn Orr obitting the orbiting the planet. And she was a hidden figure. Margo shetterly, whos here, 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, and so its like a family affair. Katherine, like i said, celebrated her 99th birthday in white sulfur springs, virginia, population 800. No matter what you do, with grit, determination and perseverance, you can do anything you put your mind to. Host aubrey, bronx, new york. Good afternoon. Caller yes. I know [inaudible] host i apologize, were going to have to hang up. I dont think either of us could understand, and i apologize, aubrey, for that. But lets hear from kevin in princeton, new jersey. Kevin, we are listening. Youre on with astronaut and author Leland Melvin. Caller thank you for taking my call, mr. Melvin. Question how soon might a young person begin training academically for a mission in space . And exactly or not exactly, but relatively speaking how much mathematics does that program entail . Guest so training to become an astronaut starts, i think i mean, i think training to be a scientist or an engineer starts at a very early age. I mean, i started building things with my hands when i was in middle school. And i think the main thing about the training is to get people, to get kids looking up in the night sky and seeing the space station going overhead, to have them building and creating and knowing that they can do or be anything. And what was your second question . Host s. T. E. M. Guest s. T. E. M. Host how much emphasis should be put on s. T. E. M. In schools. Guest i think emphasis should be put on s. T. E. A. M. , science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics, because all of the creativity is part of s. T. E. M. Education. And so having people building, creating, music lessons, all these Different Things are what i had and prepare me for me getting to pace and working with other people. To spate. E and languages to space. Languages is part of the a, working with our russian colleagues were all part of that training to get me ready for a space flight. Host darnell in business mark, north dakota, youre on with Leland Melvin. Caller its so great to seeg you, leland, i was just flipping through the channels, its a fantastic story. My question is where have you been and why havent we heard this story before . Thank you. Guest well, darnell, i thine about Katherine Johnson who is a 99yearold mathematician that helped john glenn get around the planet, so a lot of us have been Hidden Figures for quite a while. I got this book out there so that we can get more kids, especially from different zip codes and kids that look like me to know that you can play in the nfl, you can be an astronaut, and you can be an educator. You can do anything if you have people that have your back and that you believe in yourself and you work hard. Host want to show a photo from the book to our viewers. What is this a photo of . Guest dr. Bobby thatcher who was a ph. D. In Chemical Engineering from mit as well as a medical doctor. And its the first time that two africanamerican men were in space at the same time. Thom joyner interview ised us in space interviewed us in space. That one picture and that interview were listened to by a million people, and now kids come up to me and tell me they heard that interview, and they want to be astronauts. They just wanted to be ball players, and theres nothing wrong with being a ball player. I was a ball player. But the key is you can do so much more than just one thing. Host this photo, where were you when this was taken . Guest this was we had undocked from the International Space station in 2009, and we were floating in the mid deck of the Space Shuttle atlantis on sps129. Host tyler, marietta, georgia. Good afternoon, please go ahead. Caller good afternoon. At nasa do they discuss why theres so many conspiracy theories about the moon landing . And my second question is do you think we really landed on thee moon . Host tyler, do you think we landed on the moon . Guest no, i do not. Host why . Caller if you go on youtube, you can see so many videos where it kind of looks like theres strings in the Background Holding up the t astronauts. Also another thing i heard which is really good too is arent there different radiation belts and how were the astronauts able to pass through those radiation belts when they were headed towards the moon . Tr host thank you, sir. Guest tyler, my friends have given their lives for exploration. Apollo 1, we lost people in a fire. John young, who is not a liar, hes a friend of mine who interviewed me to become an astronaut, walked on the moon. I believe in this man. Hes an honest, honorable person. I believe in the space program. And i know that we have walked on the moon because of the efforts to help advance our civilization than listen to these conspiracy theorists. Some who dont believe that the earth is round. Ive seen the earth from space. R the earth is round. So you cant buy into some of this stuff that you see how on youtube. We need more scientists and people that have analytical minds that can discern these Different Things and understand that these things are real. Host Leland Melvin, you tals about the twang. [laughter]e what is the twang . Guest the twang is when youre sitting in the shuttle, and the three main engines come on, and the three main engines are off from the stack, we call it, the solid rocket boosters in the shuttle. So they light, and the entire shuttle rotates forward. And then when we come back, peter, the main engines light, there are eight bolts that have explosive charges in them that are ignited, and they blow away, and were off. And its a amazing. Amazing. Like the twang on a screen door that you open and it twapgs . T thats how we come back up, butp we take off right after that. Host a lot of people have ridden roller coasters, feel the pressure on their chest. Is it like that . Guest youre feeling three times the weight on your chest. We pull about 3gs as were going up, so you start to labor to breathe a little bit, it feels heavy, you know, to take really deep breaths. E but after the solid rocket boosters are jettisoned, thea ride smooths out. Youre doing this for a little while, for about two and a half minutes, and then it gets a much smoother flight. Six and a half minutes later youre in space. Host and when you are in space, is it just very smooth . Guest main engine cutoff you see things start floating around you, things that you dropped are now floating or dust particles. And youre under your seat belt. You push off with your back, and now youre floating towards the front seat. You bounce back like a pingpong ball. , you get out of your seat and look out the window, and you see the most incredible light show. The colors of the caribbean, a sunrise and a sunset every 45 minutes as you go around the minute around the planet every 90 minutes. And youre doing this to help advance our civilization. Thats the american story. Host did you ever run intog space junk or satellites . Could you see them . Were you above them . Below them . Guest i didnt want see any space junk, but lots of times when we come back home there are pits in the window from small particles that have actually hit the window. And my Second Mission we opened up the payload bay doors of the shuttle, and we saw this thing that looked organic and translucent, it was starting to float out of the payload bay, and i grabbed and i was about to say, houston, we have a problem. I didnt say that because the hair on their necks would have raised up. But it was a piece of ice that had broken off from these hoses that are on part of the freonve loops, but it looked kind of like a body floating out. And like the aliens on the movie contact when theyre coming across the sand at the end of the movie, thats what it looked like to me. And one of my colleagues, randy, whos in space right now, he looked at me and he was a rookie, leland, what is that . Youve been to space, what is that . [laughter] host lets hear from tamara in port orange, florida. Hi, tamara. Caller hi there. Were coming up on an exciting milestone with the commercial crew program. And i was wondering what yourrc thoughts are on commercial crew and if you will be involved in the commercial crew program. Thank you so much. Host now, tamara, you seem to know what youre talking about. Whats your background . [laughter]vo caller well, i used to be a counselor at space camp, and ive been a space flight educator in challenger learning center, and i was a Research Historian for nasa at Johnson Space center. [laughter] and now im a stayathome mom. Guest tam rah, im all for commercial crew. I believe the more people that have an opportunity to go to space and experience the overview effect or this orbital perspective will help us advance our civilization even more, butt itll also help us come together as a civilization. And so whoever wants to go to space, however we want to do it whether its nasa, elon musk, virgin galactic, i embrace all of it because it can only help us advance as a civilization. Host what are you doing today . Guest today i had a chance to talk to a lot of people at the National Book festival near d. C. All these wonderful authors unspiring people, motivating people. Id had a chance to sign the book, and also the Young Readers edition which has s. T. E. M. Experiments in the back, or s. T. E. A. M. Experiments in the back. Paper clips, paper, scissors, you can build rockets, do all these exciting things, and theer key is to help get our nexthi generation of explorers inspired to take my place, take our place, right . And share these messages of hope and inspiration and future. Host are you still with nasa in any capacity . Guest i retired from nasa, but i still help out in certain aspects when there are launches and missions and things. I still am an advocate and supporter of helping our space program. Host hows your 90acre a <