Bonus — NASA astronaut lands in Gainesville
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Thursday, July 16, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Seth Johnson. Welcome back to the StreetSmart Gainesville podcast. We've got a special bonus episode for you talking about the past, present, and future of space travel and America's space program with NASA astronaut Winston Scott.
Seth:Winston went to space twice in the late nineteen nineties. You'll hear about what that was like and how he got there, as well as his work at the Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Complex The center just launched new educational exhibits and is rated Florida's number one TripAdvisor destination Winston, thanks for joining us
Winston:It's my pleasure, thank you for having me
Seth:And typically, we talk about all things Gainesville and Alachua County, but your work is very relevant here as well. It seems like every corner of Florida has been touched by space and the industry supporting it.
Winston:Absolutely. And not only every corner of Florida, but all over the nation and indeed the whole world. I don't think people realize out there how much space has influenced their lives. I like to tell my audience that every day of their lives, they use something that they got from the space program. So no matter where you are, I'll go Mongolia, you're touched by the space program.
Seth:Right. Duct tape, I think is the classic one I learned in school, but obviously it's things that are a little more sophisticated, like GPS.
Winston:How about that? Yeah. In fact, we navigated our way here using our our cell phones, and people take it for granted, but the cell phones use GPS, Global Positioning System, which is a constellation of satellites satellites in orbit. Who put those satellites up there but America's space program? So, absolutely.
Seth:Hopefully, it was a little easier using the GPS to get over here from the Space Coast than it was putting them up there and going up on your missions.
Winston:A lot easier. Absolutely.
Seth:And we've got to talk about how you earned that title of astronaut, but you grew up in Florida from Miami and during the classic space race that everyone, you know, talks about and remembers with the moon landing and the Apollo missions. How did you view those events at the time?
Winston:Yeah. At the time, I was a youngster, in early elementary school when the Project Mercury program started the put the original American astronauts in space. And then grew up, of course, all through the Apollo program during my college days. And, after graduating from the university, entered Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School in Pensacola. I became a naval aviator, spent twenty seven years on active duty in the Navy.
Winston:The last seven were with NASA as an astronaut. So I started out as an operational pilot, like as a combat pilot, then got off in the research development testing evaluation side of flying. And that led me to the astronaut program. And during my astronaut days, I had the privilege of flying two space shuttle missions. So nine days in orbit aboard the shuttle Endeavor, then sixteen days in orbit aboard the shuttle Columbia.
Winston:And those days were preparing to build the International Space Station. So my job on the shuttle as an astronaut and a space walker, I put the suit on and worked outside. I was testing tools and equipment techniques and things that astronauts would later use to assemble the International Space Station. And I'm sure the audience all realized that the space station is up there now, being up for over twenty five years, in fact, nearing the end of its lifespan, and we're looking at a replacement for the space station.
Seth:And when you went into aviation, did you always have space in the future in mind, or did you happen into that?
Winston:No, I think it was kind of in the back of my mind when I went into space. I grew up at a time when space didn't appear to be a reality to me. It was something I watched on TV and read about in magazines, but I never thought I would do it. And then again, after college, naval aviation. And I think that was maybe a subconscious goal in the back of my mind.
Winston:And one thing led to another. My career was going so well that fortunately I was selected for the space program. And I tell you, it is a life changing event.
Seth:And when we think about space and those hard sciences, it's a lot of math, but you also got a Bachelor of Arts for music, right? Tell
Winston:us about Yes. Well, again, I went to school at a time when space didn't appear to be a reality of something I could go into. I was a very good musician, was accepted into a university on a music scholarship, and the university, as universities are supposed to, broaden my horizons. And I began to study engineering and mathematics and science and so on as an overload. So I finished my music degree, went to the Navy.
Winston:The Navy sent me back to school for an engineering degree and then into the space program. That's kind of it in a nutshell.
Seth:Quite a divergent, you know, going in for music, ending up in space, but pretty incredible story.
Winston:Yeah, it's not as unusual as you might think. I mean, it's not unusual that people who do mathematical things are quite often musicians. The public may not realize that. Now, they may not have a degree in music, but a lot of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and so on are musicians. Albert Einstein played violin.
Winston:John Glenn played trumpet against high school band. So, it's just not all that unusual. I happen to earn a degree in both, which makes it a little bit unusual.
Seth:Then, you briefly mentioned your time and space in those missions. Can you talk about some of the hands on? What were your duties up there?
Winston:Yes. One of the things that I performed that was most important was test on the actual space suit itself. The suit that we wear on a spacewalk when you go outside is called the EMU, the Extra Vehicular Mobility Unit. And NASA made some modifications to that suit to handle the extreme cold temperatures that were going to be encountered at the location of the space station. They modified the suit to handle those. And I tested those modifications to be sure the suit will keep astronauts warm.
Winston:And it did work fine. And the suit that they're using on the space station right now is the same suit that I tested when I was an active astronaut. So that was which is one of the things that I did into this.
Seth:Wow. Has that suit gone through modification sensors? It very, very brief? It's
Winston:99% the same suit as I wore years ago.
Seth:I guess you tested it pretty well.
Winston:Well, the designers did a good job in building it and the modifications all worked real well and so on.
Seth:And you talked about doing those spacewalks outside, you know, kind of tethered, I imagine, to the vehicle, right?
Winston:When you're outside the space shuttle, yeah, you want to be tethered. You have a safety tether, and you always try to be tethered. The issue is that you're always making and breaking tethers. You may take one tether off your suit, put a different tether on as you move about. So you want to be careful not to miss a tether loop.
Winston:You don't want to inadvertently get loose in space. So part of your training is tether protocol, absolutely. Now, when I was on the shuttle, of course, if you accidentally floated away, they could reach out and get you maybe with a robot arm or even fly the shuttle up to get you. Space station, they don't have that luxury, so they wear a fancy Buck Rogers style jetpack that has just enough emergency fuel to allow an astronaut to fly themselves back to the space station if
Seth:they happen to float away. Reminds me of rock climbing here on Earth, you know, always putting on your tether is probably the closest we can get, right?
Winston:Exactly, exactly. And you don't want to miss a tether loop if you're rock climbing. You're 200 feet, 2,000 feet in the air or whatever. You don't want to miss a tether loop if you can help it.
Seth:And how many astronauts get to do those space walks?
Winston:Not very many. I was introduced, at an event a few years ago, and, the host had done his homework. And I did not know this statistic, but he said that there are 8,000,000,000 people on the Earth. 8,000,000,000 with a B. Only about 200 have walked in space.
Winston:I feel very humbled and very privileged to have to be one of those 200.
Seth:And then back down on Earth, you did a lot more with space. You were also vice president for Florida State University, executive director of the Florida Space Authority, along with other advisory roles, kind of always pushing forward on space. It got got you hooked, it sounds like.
Winston:That's right. Yeah. And one of the most important jobs was directing the Florida Space Authority. The audience may recognize it nowadays. It's called Space Florida.
Winston:And it's the state space agency. And its job is to, of course, build the economics of space in the state of Florida. So a lot of the private commercial work that we see going on in Florida now, the SpaceX, Blue Origin, and those companies, they're there as a result of the work that was done by my colleagues at the Florida Space Authority back in the day. And of course, the private commercial companies are really what's sustaining us in space. They're just doing a great job.
Winston:But yeah, that's one of the jobs that I held twenty years ago, and I see the fruits of that labor going forward right now.
Seth:And I want to touch on some of that privatization of space and what that work looks like. But let's touch on your role now at the Visitors Complex, Kennedy Space Center. How long have you been in that role and what's that look like?
Winston:Yes, my role, my official title is Director of Operational Excellence at Kennedy Space Center Visiga Complex. That's kind of a nice sounding title. But what I am really is kind of the resident astronaut, the coordinator of all astronaut activities at the Visiga Complex. So we have the Kennedy Space Center, then the Kennedy Space Center Visiga Complex is that part that's open to the public. It's open three sixty three days a year.
Winston:And we want the public to be aware of it and come out and participate in some of the incredible activities that we have going on at that Visiga Complex. What I do, again, is work with the astronauts who come in retired astronauts like me who come in from all 50 states and other countries. And there's an astronaut on-site every day of the year that the Space Center Visitor Complex is open. The public will get to meet that person, take pictures, sign autographs, and so on, as well as experience the other activities. So I coordinate the activities of all the astronauts that come in.
Seth:So no matter when someone goes, they will be able to meet an astronaut
Winston:in the Absolutely. Absolutely. Any day of the year, and again, it's open three sixty three days a year, there's an astronaut on-site that the public will be able to meet. There's several programs that go on during each day. We have what we call a dine with an astronaut, I'm sorry, chat with an astronaut.
Winston:Chat with an astronaut is an exclusive, informal, small venue where you sit down with that astronaut and have two way conversation with a small group of people. Then we have a program called Astronaut Encounter, which is a little bit larger in the large auditorium. The astronaut give a presentation and then meet the public afterwards. We have autograph signing sessions, photograph signing sessions with the astronaut. A wonderful opportunity, and we find that the public really enjoys it.
Winston:And we
Seth:were talking before recording about some new experiences that are available there at the center. Yes. One of
Winston:the newest experiences is the opening of the gantry at Launch Complex 39. What people don't realize is is we call them launch pads. It's really a launch complex. It's more of a pad. This one has been converted to a destination for the tourists.
Winston:It's a real launch pad that's gonna be converted. And, the one thing it does is provides a panoramic, a three sixty degree panoramic view of the entire space station. They can see launch pads, rockets on the pads, the roadways, the railways, and so on. But there's also an exhibit deck called the Earth Information Center. And it includes a computer support, a hyperactive wall with which the public can interact and see the evolution of the earth, its environment, and how it's evolved and how it's evolving in the future.
Winston:There's also an interactive rocket build activity at that facility where a person can virtually build their own rocket, select the engines, select the payload, and so on, and then launch it and see whether or not it reaches orbit. If it comes back and crash, then you go back into the drawing board. So there's so many fun things, interactive fun, but educational activities that go on at Launch the Complex 3A.
Seth:Now, I'd like to know the pass rate on how many of those launches end up in space versus end up back on Earth.
Winston:I have to wonder about that. I suspect a lot of them end up back on Earth, just like the real space program. And real space program, as you know, sometimes things go wrong and we have to kind of start all over again and rebuild and retest before we actually fly. That's realistic. We exceeded 100 launches last year and we're on track to exceed 100 launches again this year.
Winston:So on any given day, it's quite probable the visitors will get to see a real rocket launch.
Seth:And with the semi quintessential America's Two Hundred And Fiftieth, the center has been offering some special discounts and you can get $17.76 off through the end of August if you're going to go for one day passes. So a great time to go and see something so integral to America's history.
Winston:Absolutely. There's so many special things going on out there. Like just said, special admissions packages available. And the public can go online and check that out and select the one that they want.
Winston:The Visitor Complex is really accessible. It's a little over two hour drive from this spot. And, it can be easily done in a day trip, although I will caution the audience, you can't see everything in one day. There's just so much to do. And I'll emphasize the doing. Motto is discover something real.
Winston:So when you visit the Visitor Complex, you don't just see things. You touch, you feel, you ride, you shake, you rattle, you roll. It's, the best way that a person can experience space without actually leaving the surface of the earth. So we want to invite everybody in noise to really come over and visit with us. And we're also commemorating the anniversary of the, Apollo 11, the first moon landing.
Winston:And we're also celebrating the success of Artemis two and welcoming the new Artemis program is going on. And for people in the audience who don't know, Artemis is our return to the moon. I think they witnessed Artemis two a couple of months ago where the astronauts flew around the moon. Next year, Argamous three, they'll go into lower Earth orbit and practice rendezvous and docking with the human lander part that would take people to the surface of the moon. Then in 2028, we'll put people on the moon, put boots on the moon again.
Winston:So we're celebrating the Apollo program and then our return to the moon with the Argumus program. There are all kinds of drone shows. There are pyrotechnic shows. There are DJ shows. Many, many activities going on in celebration of the 200 birthday of our great nation.
Seth:Looking back at what we've done, but also looking forward at what's to come. And I know in a recent interview, you kind of talked about that, that we should be much further along as a space faring nation than we are in the artisan missions or a step in the right direction, you said. Can you talk about why we should pursue space and aim to be further along with pushing that?
Winston:Oh, yes, absolutely. We wanna push out into space for many, many different reasons. First of all, we are in a space race and he who controls space now kind of controls everything. We want to be sure we get to the moon, to the South Pole of the moon, and we want to get there first so that we are not fettered. If one of our adversaries reaches the moon first, they may erect barriers and try and keep us out.
Winston:So we wanna get there. And we need to get to the moon so that we can establish a permanent human presence, learn to live in space, learn how our solar system is evolving. Because if we understand that, we understand how the Earth is evolving, we can better take care of our Earth. But also, we want to use the moon as a stepping stone for going off to Mars and then off to other planets in the universe. Now, I'll simply say that one of the big reasons is that the survival of the human race depends on finding another planet to live on.
Winston:And some number of years from now, the Earth will be uninhabitable. Humans will cease to exist unless we find another home planet. We need to begin that search now, because likely planets are light years away, trillions of miles away. So, need to start that search right now.
Seth:So, the space race, it sounds like, never really ended or it's still ongoing then.
Winston:Well, it kind of ended or took a hiatus for a while, But space race right now is with China. China has vowed to put astronauts or their taikonauts, as they call them, on the moon by 2030. And unfortunately, China is not a friend in space or otherwise, so we want to get there first. And we plan to put our astronauts on the moon by 2028. If China gets to the moon first, they may lay claim to the moon and attempt to keep us out, so we want to get there first.
Winston:So yeah, we're in a space race, and that's the way it is.
Seth:It's a complex world and complex, topic with space too.
Winston:It is.
Seth:How have private companies like SpaceX kind of changed the sector since you were
Winston:on your spacewalks? Oh, SpaceX is doing a tremendous job for us. The companies like SpaceX. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and some of the others, they've done a tremendous job. The private commercial companies are great at, economizing space.
Winston:You know, NASA, the government is good at doing esoteric things, the cutting edge research and development. When it comes to making things efficient and cost effective, we need private commercial companies. And that's what they're doing with Space X and Blue Origin and so on. They have really cut the cost of access to space tremendously, and they continue to do that. They do things in a very, very efficient manner, cost effective manner.
Winston:And they don't have to start from ground zero. They take NASA technology, they tailor it to the needs, and they implement it in a cost effective manner. So yeah, they've done a really good job for us.
Seth:And looking forward, what's the future of involvement in space? What are kind of the next steps? I think you've hinted at them, but what's the timeline look like for that?
Winston:Well, again, the timeline, and it's a public private partnership with NASA and private companies, Again, astronauts boots on the moon in 2028, and then off to Mars. There's no specific timeline established yet for Mars, but Mars is probably at the closest twenty years away, maybe thirty at the outset. So back to the moon, then off to Mars, and then who knows after that. And this time, when we go to the moon, it's for permanent presence for scientific reasons. When we went to the moon in the '60s, it was geopolitical.
Winston:We were in a race, a Cold War with this then Soviet Union. So we went to the moon just to beat the Soviet Union. But now we're going to the moon because so that we can live and learn and progress. And then we'll go off to Mars to live and learn and progress. And then who knows where after Mars?
Seth:And who knows who will be doing that learning, progressing out there in space?
Winston:Well, I think we have some young people in the audience today who are at the age where they might be the first ones on Mars.
Seth:And we're gonna turn it over to local ska band Now Leaving Space to jettison out of this episode to allow space connections here on the StreetSmart podcast. Winston, thank you so
Winston:much for joining us. My pleasure. Thank you so much.
