and materials all of these programs are available to watch online. >> we're pleased to be joined by one of 362 americans who is actually been in space and that is astronaut leyland melvin and mr. melvin you write that your, your book is called chases space and you write it had all begun with a dropped past. >> exactly. a drop past so i was a wide receiver this in a running team, and that means that i block a lot versus catching passes. we were at a home coming game and i was running down the sideline ball perfectly thrown in my hand and i drop the downtown pass in my hands. and the thing is -- a scout was from university of richmond looking to play baseball for the team and he walked out of the stadium, my coach jimmy greene said run the same play this time i caught the ball and one catch resultedded in 180,000 dollar scoip to university of rimp monday because the coach said he didn't give up but he kept going. that was the grit and perseverance, and the second chance -- how did you get from playing for the university it have richmond spiders to space shuttle missions? >> i think the -- turning season from 0-10 turned 3-8, in playoffs block proscout down and a all of that hard work and dedication and discipline i went to work for mast is a, a friend of mine gave me an application so said he would be a great astronaut i'm like yeah right but i didn't till the application out someone else did and he got in. i said to myself if they think i can get in, i can get in. so that competition believing i can and i applied and i got into the astronaut course. before we go any further we want to tell our viewers this is a call lee plan has been in space twice worked for nasa or for 20 some year your chance to talk to an astronaut -- 748 in east and central time zone 748-8201 for hose of you in mountain and pacific time zone what are you doing -- that you were able to apply to mast is a because a lot of people i'm sure qowld like to apply to nasa. >> well after, after leaving the dallas cowboys with the pulled hamstring back to graduate school full-time and i got my master's degree and science engineering, and then this woman said hey, you should come work for nasa i'm like i'm going to work for dupont they make more money there but she was tenacious she said we need more like you at nasa i apply and getting the job to work at mast is a as a research engineer. >> in what field? >> so i was a material science engineer. but we were working in an area called nondestructive evaluation sciences and building systems from measuring damage and the space shuttle tiles or air space vehicles usings different types of sensors fibers web lasers and thermal systems for measuring damage. >> now you threw something in there about the dallas cowboys. >> advance i pull a hamstring started grass school and went to train with the dallas cowboys. so by day i'm catching footballs for america's team and night i'm watching material science engineering vhs videotapes. and when danny white and i went out one day i ended up blowing my hamstring again that was end of my football career but right become to uva to get my master's degree. >> from the day you apply to nasa to day you took off in atlantis how many years was that? >> i applied in 1997, got into the core in 1998, ten years later, it took me to fly in space. >> is that typical? >> it's not typical most people fly within maybe three, two to three years for the shuttle mission. maybe three to four years of a long duration space station mission, but i had a little problem. >> what was it? >> i lost all of my hearing in a training accident i went completely deaf. b and i still have hear hadding impairment in my left ear but they forgot to put this little pad in my helmet that allows ewe to clear your ears and so -- they said i would never fly in space. >> it was a diving accident, correct? >> it was training in the white eva suits to there's a six million gallon full laboratory, and we're in our space walking siewtle but in the suits there's an actualed pad you use to freshen those through your are ears and mine wasn't in there so it is 20 feet i told the test director to turn volume up they took me out and realized blood was coming out of my ears, and -- >> and they said -- emergency surgery they operate ed and millionly disqualify me to fly in space, but that's when my hearing came back three weeks later and i ended up going to work in d.c. and educator program to be strawngts. astronauts and when i was in that program, we lost space shuttle columbia. and i was there for the families and we were flying around the country going to the different memorial services to get family through this and they were taking flights as we took off it to land it and he watched me clear my ear so he believed in me that i could actually fly in space. if not get back in the pool not fly on the jets. not to get back in those pressure systems but i can fly in space and do a job in space is to public advance our civilization. the photo on cover of your book chases space this is an official massive photo the best astronaut photo ever. >> well when you sneak your dog through nasa into the stairs and front seat of the lab with a picture with him and if you look on the front all of our hand are connected two paws and hand are combined together in solidarity as a family coming up to space is. [laughter] leyland melvin is is is our guest and flown twice atlantis -- in 2008, and second time was with atlantis as well. wine, and to the international space station how long were you there? >> on first mission 12 and last four days. >> if we were still flying the shuttle u qow go? >> i would go again. should shuttle missions have ended? >> it was a work force to get heavy had lift pieces up to build the space station and deploy satellites there are other ways 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 o'rind vehicle to go past orbit the past that and you know maybe assist lunar space station and help us get to mars one day. so it was a right thing had to do. let's hear from our callers jane and she's in cresten iowa on with astronaut leyland melvin. >> hey, leyland i was just going to ask about -- girl from iowa that astronaut that's been up there for 665 days what do you think about that? >> so peggy who was this iowa i she was my commander in 2008 on the space station. she applied 13 times to become an astronaut rejected 12 times. so she's one of my heros she's a maker woman and she is -- she's one of the people that i -- that i hold up my katherine johnson as a hero amazing person. and i love her to death. peggy featured who is or o was katherine johnson. >> katherine johnson is 99-year-old mathematician calculated the trajectory to get john glenn orbiting the planet. and she was a hid opinion figure margo who is here -- talked about her writing the bock and actually margo is the daughter of bob lee who was the engineer who worked at nasa with me so like a family affair, and katherine like i said celebrating her birthday in population 800 but it tells you that no matter what zip code you're from no matter what you do with grit perseverance you can do whatever you put your mind to. >> bronx new york. good afternoon. >> my question -- [inaudible conversations] any black president -- [inaudible conversations] i apologize we're going to have to hang up there. i don't think either of us could understand but i apologize aubrey for that let's hear from kevin in princeton, new jersey. kevin we're listening with leyland melvin. >> thank you for taking my call mr. melvin question how soon might his own person begin training academically for -- a mission in space, and exactly or not exactly but relatively speaking how much mathematics does that program entail? >> so training to become an astronaut starts is i think -- i think training to be a scientist and engineer starts at a very early age i was building things with my hands when i was in middle school and i think that main thing about the training is to get people as you get kids looking up for the night sky seeing this space station going overhead to have them building and creating and knowing they can be anything, and what was your second question? >> stem -- it how much emphasis should be put on stem in school. >> i think it should be put on steam and science engineering, arts and creativity associated with arts is part of stem education, ands so having kids building, creating, music lessons all of these different things what i had prepared me for me getting space and working with other people and language is part of the a and working with our russian colleagues learning russian, and doing other things all part of that training get me ready for a space flight. darnell and bismarck, north dakota you're on with leyland melvin. >> my god it is so great to see you leyland i was looking through the channels and i saw this guy, i said, oh, boy what is this guy about, it's a fantastic story. and my question is where have you been and why haven't we heard this story before? thank you. dare el in i think about katherine johnson a mathematician helped john glenn get around the planet so we've been hidden figures for quite a while and i got this book out there to get more kids especially from different zip codes, and 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 if you believe in yourself and you work with hard. >> i want to show a photo from the book to our viewers what is this a photo of? >> that is a photo of dr. bobby thatcher a ph.d. in chemical engineer as well as a medical doctor and first time that two african-american men went space at the same time tom called us -- but is it that one picture and that that u interview will listen to by a million people and kids come up to me and tell me they heard that interview and they want to be astronauts they wanted to be ball players and a nothing wrong with being a ball player i was a ball player but key is that you can do so much more than this one thing. this photo where were you? >> undocked from international space station in 2009, and we were floating in the mid-deck of the -- of the space shuttle atlantis on sps129. tyler many georgia, good afternoon please go ahead. >> good afternoon, mast is a do they discuss why there's so many conspiracy theories moon landing an my second question is do you think we really landed on the moon? >> well do you think we landed on the moon? >> no i do hot. >> why? >> if you go on youtube you can see school videos where it looks like there's strings in the background up to astronauts, there are also another thing i heard when which is really good is aren't there different radiation belt and how were astronauts able to pass through those radiation belts when they're headed towards the moon? >> thank you, sir. tyler my friends have given their lives for exploration. apollo one we lost people in a fire. john young who is not a liar but a friend of mine ho interviewed me to become an astronaut walked to the moon. i believe in this man, he's an honorable person. i believe in the space program, and i know that we have backed on the moon because of the efforts to help advance our civilization then listen to these conspiracy theorists and some who don't believe that the earth is round. i've seen the earth from space, the earth is round. so -- you can't buy into some of this stuff that you see on youtube. anymore scientists and people what have analytical minds that can discern these different things and can understand that these things are real. >> leyland melvin you talk about twang what is that? >> the twang sitting in the shuttle and three main engines come on and they're off from the rocket boosters in the shuttle and they right, and entire shuttle rotates forward and then we come back , peter the main engine light, there are eight balls that have explosive charmings in them that are ignited and they blow away and we're off and it's amazing when you come back right off the twang on screen door an you open and that's how we come back but take off right after that. incredible. a lot of people have ridsen roll orer coasters felt pressure on their chest there's a like that. >> you're feeling threes your weight on your chest, though, we pull about three g's as we're going up so you start to label and breathe a little bit. it feels heavy. you know, to take really deep breath the. but after solid rocket boosters it moves out and doing this for a while and a much smoother flight, and six and a half minutes later you're in space. >> and when you are in space is it just -- very smooth? >> main engine cutoff you see things that start floating around the and things you drop and dust part l kl and you push off with your become and floating off to the front seat and bounce back and forth you get out of your seat and you look out the window and you see the most incredible light show. colors of the caribbean a sunrise and sunset every 45 minutes. as you go around the minute as around planet every 90 minutes. and you doing this for people we used to fight against helping fight or civilization that's the american story. >> did you ever run into space junk or satellites did you see them or above them, below them? >> i didn't see any space junk. but lots of times when we come back home, with there are little pits in the window from small particles that actually hit the window. and my -- my second mission open up the door of the shuttle, and we saw this thing that looked organic and translucent starting to float out of the bay, and i grab the mike say houston we have a problem i didn't say that because neck would have been raised up but it was a piece of ice that broke opinion off from hoses part of the freon loop but looked kind of like a body floating out and like the aliens on movie contact when they're coming across are sand in the movie that's what it looked like to me and one in space right now -- he looked at me like it was a rookie he's like what had is that in you've been to space what is that? well here's hear from tama this in port orange, florida. >> hi there i'm calling because we're coming up on exciting milestone with commercial crew program. and i was woundering what your thoughts are on commercial crew and if you will involved in commercial crew program. thank you so much. >> tamara you seem to know what you're talking about what's your background? >> well i used to be a counts particular at space camp and i've been a space flight educator in challenge center and i've done research center in johnson space center, and now i'm a stay at home mom. >> thank you tamara thank you for your activity for the space crew and more opportunity to go to space and experience is overaffect to help us advance our civil disaichtion more but also help us come together this civilization and so whoever wants to go to space -- however we want to do it whether it's nasa elon musk, i embrace all of it because it can only help us advance as a civil station. >> what are you doing today? >> today i had a chance to talk to a lot of people at the national book festival here in d.c.. all inspiring people motivate aring people i got them a chance to sign. the young reader edition which has experiments in the back well steve he's in the back, and e call it steve, because it is paper clips, paper, scissor to build rockets you can do all of the exciting things and key is to help get our next generation of explorers excited and inspired to take my place to take our place, right? and to help share these messages of hope and inspiration, and future. >> are you still with nasa in any capacity? >> i'm retired from nasa but i still help out in certain aspects when there are launches and missions and things are still activity supporter of helping space program. >> how is your farm? >> i sold the farm but i'm looking to do other things involving kids and getting outdoors and believing in themselves. >> here's the cover the book it is called chasing space and astronaut story of grit, grace, and second chances, the author and our guest is leyland melvin. sunday night on afterwards radio host and contradict tore charles discussing his book how the right lost its mind. he's interviewed by tammy bruce, fox news contributor host of the tammy bruce show -- >> donald trump represented something is he certainly represented a, you know, what the big middle finger from voters to the establishment. but if you really, really wanted to deal with some of these issues you would have issue you being republican electorate could have been a ted cruz or in material of communes communication yes he's a master of twitter but he was crude, he was rude, he was a serial liar, he is thin skinned. he's erratic, he's a fraud. to have an opinion but relatively well known, and conservative. who, you know, not that long ago used to argue that character matters ha-ha president was a role model. somehow found a way to rationalize the behavior of somebody who insults women, mocks the disabled p.o.w.'s paid a multimillion fine for defrauding students who wanted to get an education. watch afterwards sunday night at 9 p.m. eastern. on c-span2's booktv -- one common investment fraud is the pyramid scheme which involves wild promises of profitability, and then initially delivering on those promises by taking the money that later investors put in and using that to pay off the dividends to early investors, of course, this can't last forever because eventually you run out of o people at the bottom of the pyramid. one of the so that the actual form of that is -- very king the but so is the mode of marketing and almost all of these types of schemes the approaches to look for some group of insiders and to have someone in that group almost all of the schemes are are perpetrated by individual who is can expect to have trust because they are sell ising this scheme to people like them who are distinct from -- the rest of society. so the -- most most famous example of this still off to dislagging it so the ponzi scheme that's why we call it charles had in in boston in 1920s you focus on the italian community which is what we came from but earliest example that i know of is -- by a woman actually sarah in 1870s in boston, and she focused on unmarried women. bond of trust i'm unmarried you're unmarried, and there are quakers who give me resources that enable me to -- make god on my promises of qield investment return and once that then starts going chief marketers of the scheme it is not advertise, it's word of mouth. an that is -- that is a pattern that has reare occurred right up to our time. >> you can watch this and other programs online,s at booktv.org. here's a look at some books being published this week. pulitzer prize winning biographer ron explores the life of president s. grant. in billionaire at the barricades barricades -- ...

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Georgia , Elon , Iowa , Florida , Boston , Massachusetts , Houston , Texas , Dallas , Russia , Russian , Americans , America , Bob Lee , Leyland Melvin , Tammy Bruce , Trayvon Martin , Jimmy Greene , Johnson Katherine ,