Beyond Gravity

Batting the Breeze

What does an astronaut fear most? Believe it or not, it’s not dying. What tricks do you play on yourself to get to sleep the night before lift-off? What do you feel when you are standing in front of 180 feet of rocket which is about to propel you into space? Why would you eat at least one meal on the ceiling of the space shuttle each mission?
Jim Wetherbee is one of NASA’s most distinguished servants. During his 20-year career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jim successfully completed six space shuttle missions. He is the only astronaut to have commanded five missions and to have piloted five space shuttle landings.
Today marks the 35th anniversary of Jim's first trip into space, 9th January 1990. I was keen to talk about that first flight into space on the orbiter Columbia. I wanted to hear about the marvel of being launched into the ether with 7 million pounds of thrust under your seat, of seeing space, of experiencing weightlessness and all those other firsts that came with the trip.
It's a poignant detail that the first space shuttle disaster in 1986, Challenger, occurred just after Jim had joined NASA, and that his sixth and last space shuttle flight was the one that preceded the second and final space shuttle disaster, Columbia, in 2003. Jim talks candidly about his role in the aftermath of Columbia.
Show Notes: https://www.battingthebreeze.com/jim-wetherbee-beyond-gravity

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