write that it had all begun with a dropped pass. >> exactly. a dropped pass. i was a wide receiver on a rung team, and that mean i block a lot versus catching passes. we were at our homecoming game. i was run downing the sideline their ball was perfectly thrown any hand and i dropped the touchdown pass in my hands. and the thing is, a scout was there from the university of richmond looking to see if could i play football for the team. he walked out of stadium, my coach, jimmy green, believed in me, he said get back out there spring same play. this time i caught the ball. that one catch resulted in $180,000 scholarship to the university of richmond because the coach said he didn't give up. he consistent going. that was the grit the persevere and a second chan. >> host: high dud you get from playing for the university of richmond spiders to two space shuttle missions. >> guest: i think the turning a season from 0-10 around to 3-8, to 85 and playoffs, brought the college scout -- the pro scouts down, and then all of that hard, and dedication and discipline, i went to work for nasa, a friend of mine gave me an application said you would be a great astronaut. i'm like, yeah, right. i didn't fill the application out and someone else did and he got. my thought if that geek get in i can get in. so competition, that -- then believing i could do that same thing, and i applied and i got in to the astronaut corps. >> host: well, before we go any further, want to tell our viewer -- this is a call-in segment. leland melvin has been in space while, worked for nasa for 20 some years. your chance to talk to an astronaut. >> what were you doing that you were able to apply nasa. >> guest: after leaving the dallas cowboys with a pulled hamstring, we end back to graduate school full time and got my masters degree in materials signs engineering and a woman said you should come to work for mass simple said i'm going to work for dupont or dell. make more money that. she was tenacious. she said we need people like you at nasa and i applied and got the job to work at nasa langley as a research engineer. >> host: what field? >> guest: so i was a materials science engineer but we were working in an area call nondestructive evaluation sciences so we're building systems for measuring damage and space shuttle tiles or aerospace vehicles using systems like lasers and normal systems for measuring damage. >> you threw something in there about the dallas cowboys. >> guest: i got drafted into the licenses, pull a hamstring, stashed grad school, then win to train with the dallas cowboys. so my day i'm catching footballs for america's team, and at night i'm watching material science engineering vhs videotapes, and when danny white and i went out i pulled my hamstring again. that what's end of of my football career and went back to uv and got my masters degree in material science. >> host: from the day you applied in 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 to fly in space. >> host: is that typical. >> guest: not typical. most people fly within maybe three -- two to three years on a shuttle mission, maybe three or four years if it's a long duration space station mission but i had a problem. >> host: what? >> guest: i lost all minage a training accident if went completely deaf. and i still have hearing impairment in my left ear but they forgot to put a pad any helmet that allows you clear your ears and they said i would never fly in space. >> host: a diving accident, correct. >> guest: it was training in the white eva suits so this is a 6 million-gallon pool and we're in our space walking suits, but in the suit there is an actual pad that you use to press your nose against to clear your ears and mine wasn't in there, so at 28 feet, told the test director, to turn the volume up. day took me out and blood was come out of my ear. >> host: and. >> guest: they said, emergency surgery, couldn't find anything, they medically disqualified me to fly in space. but -- that's when my -- 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, we lost space shuttle columbia, and i was there for the families and we were flying around the country, going different memorial services to help get the families through this, and the chief flight surgeon, rich williams, who was on each flight take notes as i took off and explained he watched me clear my ears. so he believed in me that i could actually fly in space, not get back in the pool north fly in the jets oar pressure situations but could i 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, an official nasa photo. >> guest: it is official. >> host: the best astronaut photo ever. >> guest: well, when you sneak your dog into nasa a and get the tike were if him -- if you look on the picture in the front, all 0 our hand are corrected. two paws and a hand are combined together and n solidarity as a family trying to get to space. >> host: leland melvin is our guest, flown tying, atlantis in 2008, and at the second time was atlantis as well. >> guest: 2009. uh-huh. >> host: to see international space station. lounge were you there. >> guest: the first mission, 12 days, the second mission, 14 days or series versa. >> host: with we're still flying the shut would you go. >> guest: i would go again. >> host: should the shuttle missions ended, have ended? >> guest: the shuttle wag a work horse to get the heavy lift piece thousands build the space station 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 bailed new rocket system -- build a new rocket and imthe orion vehicle to go past earth orbit. the shuttle was relegated to lower earth-0 bit so we want to go past that and maybe assist lunar space station will help us get to mar. it was the right thing to do. >> host: let's hear from callers. jane in crescent, iowa, you on with leland melvin. >> caller: hi, he lend. i wanted to ask about the girl from iowa, the astronaut that has been up there for 665 days, what do you think about that? >> guest: so, who -- peggy was my commander in 2008 on the space station. she applied 13 times to become an astronaut. reject 12 time. she is one of my "sheros" and i hold up as a hero. an amazing person and i love her to death. >> host: featured in chasing space, who was or is katherine johnson? >> guest: katherine johnson is the 99-year-old mat ma television that calculated the trajectories to get john glenn orbiting the planet, and she was a hidden figure. margo is he daughter of bob lee, an engineer who work at nasa with me. it's like a family affair, and katherine celebrated help 99th 99th birthday in west virginia, population 800, but it tells you that no matter what zip code your from, you can be or do anything you put your mind to. >> host: aubrey, broncs, new york good afternoon. >> yes. i know -- [inaudible] any -- [inaudible] iapologized, we're going to have to hang up there, i don't think either of us could understand and i apologize for that, aubrey, let's hear from kevin in princeton, new jersey. we're lacenning, you're on with astronaut and author he lend melvin. >> caller: thank you for taking my call, mr. melvin. a question. how soon might a young person begin training or academically for admission in space, and exactly -- not exactly -- but relatively speak, how much mathematics does that program entail? >> guest: well, the training to become an astronaut starts i think dish mean issue think training to be a scientist or engineer starts at a very early age. started billing 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. the building and create fog and knowing they can do anything, and -- what was the second question? >> host: stem. >> guest: stem. >> host: how much emphasis should be put on stem in schools sunny think emfa cyst should be put on steam. signs, technology, energy, argentinas, math mate ticks. ards are start of stem education and having kid building, creating music lessons, different things than what head prepared me for me getting -- and working with other people, languages, is part of the a and work with our russian colleagues and learning russian and doing these other things, all part of that training to get me ready for space flight. >> host: darnell in north dakota, you're on with leland melvin. >> caller: my god so great to see you. just flipping through the channels and i saw the guise. i said, oh, boy, what ising 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. >> guest: well, darnell, think about katherine johnson, 99-year-old mathematician that helped john glenn get around the planet. so, a lot of us have been hidden figures for quite a while, and i got this book out so we can get more kid, special him from different zip codes and kids that look like me to know you make in the nfl, be an astronaut and an educator. you can do anything if you have people that have your back and you believe in yourself and you work hard. >> host: i want to show a photo from the book. >> guest: a photo of dr. bobby matcher, phd in chemical engineering from commit a medical doctor and the first time the two african-american men were in space at the same time. tom joiner interviewed news space and called us the afro ah ts. that interview wasliened to bay million people and kids tell me they heard the interview want to be astronauts. they never's just wanted to be ball players and there's nothing wrong with being a ball player. but the keis is you can do so much more than 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 sts129. >> host: tyler, marietta, g, good afternoon. go ahead. >> caller: at nasa do the cause why there's so many conspiracy theories about the moon landing and my second question is do you think we reallyland on the moon? well. >> host: do you think weland on the moon. >> no, do not. >> host: why. >> caller: i you go on youtube you sock sew many videos writ looks like there's strings in the background, pulling up the astronauts, also another thing heard which is really good, too is aren't there different radiation belts and how were the astronauts able to pass through those radiation belts when they were headed towards the moon. >> host: thank you, sir. >> guest: tyler, my trained given their lives for exploration, apollo one, we lost people in a fire, john young, who is not lawyer, interviewed me become ton astronaut, walked on the moon. believe in this man. he's 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 that listen to been speier their rhode island. some won't do believe that the earth is round. i i've seen the earth from space. the eight is round. so, you can't buy into something of this stuff you see on youtube. anymore scientists and people that have analytical minds that can discern different things and understand they're real. >> host: you talk about the twang. what is the twang? >> guest: the twang is when you're sitting in the shuttle and to the three main engines come on and the three main engines are off from the stack we call, the solid rocket boost and the shuttle and they light and the entire shutting rotates forward and then we come back, peter, the main engine's lights are -- eight bolts with explosive charges in them that are ignited and they blow away and we're off. and it's amazing. when you come back, the twang on a screen door that you open and the it twangs. that's how we come back up but we take off right after that. >> host: peep have raiden rollercoasters, felt the pressure on their chest, is it like that. >> guest: feeling three times your weight on the chest. we pull 3gs going up, and so you start to labor breathe a little bit. feels heavy. take really deep breaths, but after the solid rocket boosters are jettison, the ride smooths out and you're doing this for two and a half minutes and then gets much smoother, and then six and a half mints later glory space. >> host: when you are in space, is it just very smooth. >> main engine cutoff, you see things that start floating around you. things you dropped are now floating, dust particles and you have your seatbelt on, so you undo your seat belt, push if a were york back and you're floating towards the front seat and jo go back and forth like a ping-pong ball. you look out the window and see the most incredible light show. the color of the caribbean, a sunrise and a sunset every 40 minutes. going around the planet every 90 minutes and doing this and people used to fight against advancing the civilization. that's the american story. >> host: ever run into space junk or satellites? >> guest: i didn't see any space junk but lots of times we could come back home, there are little pits in the window from small party kells that have actually hit the window, and my second mission, we opened up the payload bay doors of the shut and we saw this thing that looked organic and translucent, starting to float out of the payload bay and i grabbed it and said, houston, we have a problem itch didn't say that because the hair on the and a quarters would have been read it up but it was a behles that ice that broke off from the hoses but looked like a body, floating out, and like the aliens on the movie "contact" come that's what looked like to me. one of my colleagues, randy in speaks right now, he looked at me like -- he was a rookie, what is that? you've been to space. >> host: well, let's hear from tamara in florida. >> caller: hi there. i'm calling because we're coming up on an exciting milestone with commercial crew program, and i was wondering what your thoughts are on commercial crew and if you would be involved in the commercial practice crew program. thank you. >> host: now, tam remarks you steam know what you're talking about. what's your background? >> caller: well, used to be a counselor at space exam and have been a space educator in challenger learning story good and research historian for johnson space center and now i'm a stay-at-home mom. >> guest: thank you for your advocacy for the space program. i'm all for commercial crew. the more people who have an opportunity to go to space and experience the orbital spiff will advance the civilization and help us come together as a civilization and so whoever wants to go to space, however you want to do it, whether it's nasa, elon musk, i embrace all of is because because iting only help is advance as a civilization. >> host: what are you doing today. >> guest: i talked to a lot people the national book festival near d.c. us a these wonderful authors, inspiring people, moat v-8 people. i had a chance to sign the book and also the young rather's edition which chas stem expert -- steam experiments in the back and i called it steam on the cheap. paper clippers, papers, scissor, you can build rockets, you do exciting things and the 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. >> host: are you still with nasa in any capacity? >> guest: i read tire from nasa but i still help out in certain aspects. when there are launches in missions and thing is still am an advocate and supporter of helping the sprays program. >> host: how is your send -- serenity farm. >> guest: i stoles the farm but still looking to do other things involving kids and getting outdoors and believing in themselves. >> host: here's the cover of the book, called "chasing space: apt astronaut's story of grit, grace and second chances i" the author and our guest is leland melvin. >> can you hear me? we yourself found out that michael is supposed to do a power point presentation so that's going to take us half an hour to find the power opinion presentation he forgot for bring. thank you for being here, the library of congress, and the chairman of the festival and we'll have a little chat re

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