♫ Spacevidcast Theme Music ♫

Welcome to Spacevidcast. For July 3rd, 2009. Happy Independence

Day for all of you in America. This is Spacevidcast. We are the

Spacevidcasters. My name is Benjamin Higginbotham. This is

the beautiful, lovely, wonderful and talented Cariann Higginbotham.

Cariann: And Happy Canada Day to our Canadian friends, that happened

earlier this week. Ben: Happy Canadia Day. Ben: Is there like a Mexico

Day or anything else. Cariann: Well, yeah. Happy whatever you're

in day to wherever you are to, you know, whatever. [Laughter.]

Ben: We're changing a few things around and we're doing that

because we got a lot of comments on the Spacevidcast web site.

And you guys gave us a lot of feedback. I would call it constructive

criticism, but most of the people who gave feedback were not

constructive. We actually reply to constructive criticism and then

they never reply back. But, we do appreciate your constructive criticism

on Spacevidcast.com and a couple of people said that we need to

do more news items, shorter things, and we were having this great

Twitterfest, so certainly, if you don't like an aspect of the show or you do

like an aspect of the show and want to get your voice heard, we

absolutely listen to you. Cariann: We listen. We listen to all of them.

I may cry in a corner after your e-mails, but we do read all that and try

to respond as responsibly as possible. Ben: Always trying to make

the show better, so we're going to try some new things tonight and

make it happen. And on that news, let's go ahead and get started with

some (announcer baritone voice) Space News.

♫ Space News ♫

This first item is awesome. This is why I wanted to start the show

with this. Cariann: Yes. Ben: And that is that Guinness, as in the

beer company, wants you to go to space. Cariann: Well, they want

"A" person to go to space, ... Ben: Well. Cariann: which is kinda funny

'cause they were like "We've got this really great thing, blub, blub, blub."

One of you [indicating viewers] can go to space and you can't bring

friends. [Ben laughing.] But one of you can win going like underwater

and you can bring friends. And another one of you gets like a concert

or something. And you can bring friends. Yeah, and going into space

not so much. Ben: Guinness has reserved a seat avoard--aboard

Virgin Galactic, so you will be able to win a ticket by buying--how does

this work--you have to actually register on line, I believe it is,...

Cariann: Yes. Ben: You have to be 21 years of age Cariann: No, no, no.

You have to be legal drinking age... Ben: Legal drinking age

Cariann: from whatever country you're in. Ben: There you go.

Cariann: Or from. So. Ben: 21ish here in the United States.

Cariann: Exactly. Ben: And on that note, since Crow River Coffee

Company happens to serve Guinness, we have got Caffeinated,

who is going to serve us some Guinness, live on the show. So for the

first show Cariann: This is hysterical. Ben: Lean in, lean in, a little

bit more. Cariann: He's like way over here. [Adam appears.] There you go.

[Both laugh.] I love it. Both: We've got Guinness. Two bottles of

Guiness that we're going to open up in an attempt to win, I don't know

if a purchase is necessary. Oh, we get to that later. But there's a

story behind the shots. We'll get to that later. I don't know that you have to buy ... Do you have

to buy a bottle of Guinness? Cariann: No, actually you don't have to

purchase. You DO have to be of legal drinking age. And then you have

to submit your name on line. I believe you only have to do it once.

Go to Guinness.com for that, of course, and they have a huge flash

site, so just be patient with them. But it's right there on the front

page. Ben: Let's make these things go. [Laugher.] We're supposed to be

shorter and more succinct and ... Cariann: We are. Ben: I think we're

making things looonger with this particular... Both: Yeah, there you go.

Ben: I love the arms that are just appearing out of the--this is very not

CNN. Cariann: Oh God, I was like waiting for that to go over.

Ben: I love Guinness actually. There's something just beautiful about

Guinness. Cariann: Ooooooh. You know- Ben: It's kind of appropriate

Cariann: Thank you Roswell Witness, absolutely. Adam: I was more worried

about your laptop. [Laughter.] Napkins at the ready. Yeeeaaa. Ben: Here's

your Guinness. Here's my Guinness. And we are here toasting, not yet

not yet. We'll do that in the second part, after the thing. Cariann: The

thing with the stuff and the other stuff. Ben: Here's toasting Virgin Galactic

and Guinness for giving you-someone-hopefully a SpaceVidCaster, a free

seat into space. [Click of glasses.] Aaah. A little heady still. [Drinking.]

Cariann: Oh, I can chew it. Anyhow- Ben: It's dinner. And your beer.

Cariann: It is. They're doing it-some people are saying "Why are they

doing this?" It's the 250th year that Guiness has been in production.

Ben: WOW! Cariann: 250. Ben: That's a lot longer than we've actually

been in space. Cariann: It's a lot longer than a lot of things. Quite

frankly. So, then, that's what's going on with that. That's why they're doing

it and I'm glad that they've hooked up with Virgin Galactic. I think that'll

be very very cool. And should it happen to be that any one of our

Spacevidcasters goes into space, you need to bring a camera or

something. We've got to get in on that. Ben: So how can I register?

Do I just go to Guinness.com? Cariann: Yep. Guinness.com. Like I

said, it's a huge flash site, but it should be right there on the beginning

after you put in your date and time and Social Security number and

personal phone number and dog's name-I'm not really sure, but

all of that other information so that they can make sure you are who you

are. Ben: JAXA/Ames to go to space based solar power. First, the

Japanese start talking about getting away from monetary systems

and now they're talking about beaming power from space. Yes, JAXA.

The Japanese aero--that thing right there. Basically it's solar power.

Cariann: The hope is to commercialize orbital solar power by 2030. Two-zero-three-zero. Ben: That's not too bad, it only 20

years away. Cariann: Right. I thought it was 2015 and thought "They're crazy over there. This is not going

to happen." (laughing) Ben thought the graphic was still up. Ben: I'm not drinking during the show.

Cariann: Yes. So Japan for those of you confused about the JAXA thing. In Tokyo, Japan.

That's what they're looking for. They're looking toward space based solar power by 2030

My understanding is they want to get ALL of Japan running off of space based solar power, which is

really, really cool. And just an aside. I heard recently that Japan also wanted to do away with money.

Ben: And so we were joking and said that they wanted to become Star Fleet, essentially..

Very, very green. Very, just, opened-ended and get rid of money as well. Cariann: I was going to make

a really bad joke. But I'm not going to.

As an aside though, I don't think space based solar power-I don't think

their technology is ready. That's my understanding. So whether they

want to do it now or maybe that's why it's 2030, but whether they want

to do it now or not. Cariann: The government is going to be launching small

satellites around 2015 conducting experiments to see how it goes.

Ben: Ulysses is dead. Cariann: Alright. So I got yelled at about this.

Ulysses isn't dead, alright. Ben: It's dead-ish.

Cariann: It's dead-ish. Exactly. She was running out of power,

running out of juice. it was going to happen eventually, etc.

So they said "Alright honey. You do what you do best." And they

sent her off into space. Ben: Ulysses has been running for what?

18 years? And has been circling the moon-geez the moon? (laughter)

The OTHER large body- the SUN- it has been circling the sun

and it's the first vehicle to get shots of the poles of our sun and

it's been studying our sun for the last 18 years looking at solar

flares-solar PANELS, solar flares. Actual solar flares, NOT the

solar flares on the ISS. Cariann: (amused) I hate you ~all~. Anyhow

So they've sent her out into space. I think that's really cool.

Hopefully, i guess it's hopefully, she'll hit, I forget what it is...

the Jovian moon, and she'll get off onto a different course into deep

space. And maybe we'll get a ping one day. Ben: PINGGG! (laughter)

Cariann: Yay Sputnik! Ben: They [chat room] want me to drink more.

Cariann: (giggling) Of COURSE they do.

Ben: They most powerful band in the world-are they really the most

powerful band in the world?

Cariann: Okay. You guys know the band U2-which correlates with

Guiness as far as I'm concerned. The band U2. Ben: How do they correlate

with Guiness? Cariann: Irish, Irish. Ben: Ooh ooh, Full circle!

We're going FULL circle here! Cariann: ~HELLO?~ Ben: Wow

Cariann: Anyhow, U2. Yes U2. We all know that U2 is huge. And as far

as I'm concerned they ARE the most powerful band in the world BE-CAUSE

they called the International Space Station in the middle of one of

their tour dates. They just started a new world tour and they were in, I think it

was Berlin. But I could be wrong. Ben: Wouldn't it be awesome if ISS was

on SKYPE? I know there's no actual bandwidth and they have to upload

and stuff but wouldn't that be cool?

Cariann: Bono. That's exactly what I'm saying you guys. They were

playing some songs. And they say "Hey. 40 years ago man stepped

on the moon. And right now, we're going to call the ISS." And I nearly

peed my pants, I was like, "what do you mean

you're just going to call the ISS?" And U2 was like (bee booping phone noises)

And they CALLED the ISS. And the ISS ANSWERED.

That was the best part. Ben: Check it out, here's some footage.

[from video] Bono: Commander, this is Bono from U2. [crowd applause continuously throughout]

Link for this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3x9X2H2ZSU

Or you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrtFW0XXeAQ

Ben: Isn't that awesome. Cariann: That big huge white square that

you really couldn't see, that was the International Space Station

so obviously we didn't get a chance to really see what they were seeing

Ben: It was just a white blob in our video. Cariann: As you all know if you've

ever seen any footage from the guys floating around the ISS, their hair

is all over the place. And that's what Bono was referring to.

Hysterical as far as I was concerned. I just...that just amazes me.

The only people I've ever seen call the ISS are NASA hookups or something

like Colbert. Ben: Or the media. Cariann: Right. Only a media thing.

So for U2 to just be like "I'm gunna call the ISS now." is like, WHAT!?!

Ben: Well I think that one of the reasons that I found it interesting is that

they're in front of a g-i-normous audience. People who are probably not

normally all "SPACE!". Because a lot of people have lost that.

Cariann: You know what. We should have U2 on Spacevidcast.

Ben: We should. I don't think they would answer our call though. (laughter)

I think they would say, "Who?" But think of how many people maybe

thought, "Actually. That's kind of cool." Cariann: Well, yeah.

Ben: Just a little bit--started to rekindle that fire in them, just a little bit.

Just a little bit. Cariann: Hopefully. And I don't know if they're going

to continue to call the ISS when they make a new stop, 'cause like I said

it's a world tour. Ben: That would be cool. Cariann: I know, 'cause it would

be like we're in Berlin. Can you see us now? Everybody waves, you

know, something like that. Ben: Where were they? Cariann: Something

with a B. I keep saying Berlin, it probably wasn't Berlin, at all.

Ben: Boston? Cariann: No, it wasn't Boston. Both: Carbon, it IS on

YouTube. We'll post that in the show notes if I remember and then

I will promptly forget. And then someone will watch this on demand

and be like "That's not in the show notes." It's going to be great.

You know, I've always hated Cariann: Barcelona. Thank you, Barcelona.

Ben: I always hate it when people in podcasts and vidcasts are

like "We'll put that in the show notes." Well, why don't you just tell us

up front?" I have no idea what the YouTube URL is, but search for

U2 ISS and I think you'll find it on YouTube. Cariann: Yeah, pretty

much. I searched for U2 calls the ISS and it pretty much came right up.

So, I really wouldn't worry too much about it. And all the YouTube URLs

are like K ! R Q 9 @ you know. I mean, they're all crap anyway. So,

we'll get to that later. Ben: How do you really feel? Cariann: Sorry.

Ben: LRO which lunacont [laugher] Cariann: We should be drinking more.

The lunar reconnaissance orbiter...LRO Ben: Feels like space, tastes

like space too. Cariann: Is it as dark as space? Anyhow, LRO has

recently sent back (to Ben, but we're not on right now-what, are you

drunk?) Ben: No, I'm trying to show you the color. Cariann: Yeah, I've got

it. Okay. Anyhow, [laughing] LRO has recently sent back some pictures

of the moon and they're incredible. And if you go to Badastronomer's

website you can zoom in and zoom in and zoom in and you feel like

you're right there. It's really really amazing. The pictures are like this

big, but you can keep zooming in on them. Ben: Out in space, no one

can hear you slur. Cariann: Thank God for that! Ben: Thanks, Blair.

Cariann: Use your birds-words.So, that really cool. And some of the

most high quality pictures that we've gotten, especially from U.S.

satellites. You know, a lot of times... Ben: 'Cause JAXA up there near

the high def like earth-rise movies which are stunningly beautiful and

you can get on Blu-ray, by the way. Search, I think, Amazon. Oh no

you can't find it on Amazon. Search past shows (2.17), we've got the link for it there.

Don't search for our show because we know that's not going to happen.

Cariann: Yeah. Apparently. Goodness gracious. As far as I know David

they not shown any Apollo stuff yet. But I believe that is sort of like on

their check list of things to do before they impact. Ben: Impact! BAM!

Actually we've got a while. We've got a long while before impact. We've

got several months. Cariann: Yeah. Ben: Yeah. Like... Cariann: So, they

have-they can go around and around and around.. Ben: Got a long time.

You know, this is abreviated in the show notes as NKOTB.

Cariann: Yeah. Which is funny for those you who, you know, follow pop

culture in any way, shape or form or grew up in the 80's like I did.

NKOTB means something very specific to you. Ben, however [whoo]

no clue. I'm like-new kid on the block-he's like Ben: Thanks UBS.

Cariann: And, I'm like NASA just selected new astronauts for future

space exploration and they're the new kids on the block. Ben: These

are the astronauts that are selected for-my understanding is these are the

people selected for walking on the moon-type, Constellation-type

program. Cariann: That was my understanding. And I'm sure Blair is

probably... Ben: Actually, if NASA could or NASA Edge could clarify

that a little bit 'cause here's where I'm confused and here's where I'm

not totally understanding the story. And you would think that I

would figure this out before we go on air. But, you know, hey, that's

what we do. There's like 50% of the astronaut corps hasn't even been

into space yet, is my understanding. So why are we bringing on 9 new

astronauts? When you've got just a ton more sitting

Cariann: Well, 'cause they're dying off in packs? I don't know. Ben: Well

I feel like we've got just a ton of people already. Why do we need

9 more? Cariann: However, don't you think that we should be continuing

to say "Hey, we have new astronauts. Hey, we have new astronauts.

Hey, we have new astronauts." Ben: I think of all the things NASA

should be saying "Hey, we have new astronauts" is the last of them.

I think they should be working more toward "Hey, here's how you can get

to space." Cariann: Yeah, but NASA's not going to do that.

Ben: No, they're not going to do that I know, but you know, but that's

just my thought process. Cariann: But there were 3,500 people who

applied for this and they selected 9. So, hey, Go them, right?

I'm pretty impressed with that. So, that's very cool. What else?

Ben: Wait--hang on. TheCoHost, can you clarify--are these 9 specific

for Constellation and are they going to be the first people to step foot on

the moon again? Are they going to be the first ones back or is this

just the astronaut corp needed 9 new people and they're bringing in 9

new people? And the existing astronatus will be the first ones to go back

to the moon and on to Mars. I was reading up on this and I didn't

understand that part of it. It wasn't made clear to me. Cariann: I don't

know. Beats me. Ben: Blair, you have to have all of our answers. You

work for NASA, which means--oh see, he doesn't think they're designated

for Constellation. Which means, they may not be the first ones back to

the moon. It's just adding 9 more to the astronaut corp, of which 50% still

haven't flown. So, good job, NASA. Alright. Cariann: Moving right along.

Ben: (singsong voice) Okay to go. Okay to go. Cariann: For those of you

who've seen Contact, that's what Ben is currently talking about. Ben: Okay

to go. They've cleared STS-127 for launch. Cariann: Thank God!!

Ben: And that will be July 11th--no earlier than July 11th at 6 something

It's in the Calendar of Events that will be coming up shortly. Six something

at night Eastern time. Cariann: No, Seven something at night.

Ben: I'm sorry, you're right. Seven something at night Eastern time.

6:39 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Cariann: We've been drinking. Can't

blame us. Ben: And I'm in the Central Time Zone, which is why I did the

that little shpiel thing. Obviously, Spacevidcas is gonna have high

definition coverage of STS-127 and it's mission back to the International

Space Station, finishing up the KIBO module, isn't it? And that's gonna be

awesome. I believe we are, and I could be mistaken, but I believe

we are the only on-line website (as opposed to off-line website) that has

high definition coverage in real time. Faster than even NASA. It's pretty

cool. You get the chat room. I would say launch events are just a ton o' fun.

Bagged up. If you can't be there in person, obviously be there in person

first, always be there in person first. But if you can't be there in person

being in the Spacevidcast chat room, watching it on your high definition

television is as good as you're going to get. You know, if you can't do that

certainly get HDNet, CNN, Fox, all of them. I don't know which of them

will be covering it, but many of them usually cover it. Definitely watch it

live. There's something about watching the space shuttle launch live

that is just amazing and awesome. Cariann: Too much fun. Ben: It's fun

to watch. Cariann: I believe, Ron pointed out, it's the sort of porch to

the ISS is what they're bringing up. It's the external Ben: It really

is because part of it is not pressurized. So it's like, sorry, I got a little excited there.

Cariann: Apparently. Ben: Whoh! THERE IT IS!

Cariann: Got it. Alright. Ben: So this is the third time, for those of you

who joined us before, even if it scrubs and even if they don't launch, it's

just awesome to be in the chat room and experience the whole thing.

Cariann: It is--it's tons of fun. Especially with us. Ben: We've got to get a

shirt that says "Tons of Fun." Cariann: I'm just not even going there.

I'm just not gonna Ben: One thing Cariann: Go ahead. Ben: I was going

to move on. Cariann: Go ahead. Ben: One thing that's not in our news

story here is the Atlantis situation. Orbital Vehicle 104. And Atlantis,

for those you who don't know, Atlantis had a $5, what was it? It was a

knob Cariann: A knob to a lamp. Ben: a knob to a lamp that was stuck

in between the windshield and the dashboard, by the odometer [laughter]

Cariann: Go on. Ben: Uh, oh. It was stuck on the shutter, shutter?

[laughing] Cariann: Oh man! Ben: I think we should cut to break.

Cariann: Apparently. Ben: It was stuck. It was pushing into the

windscreen and that's very very very bad. And, in space, it gets up to

14.1, 14.2 Carbon, help me out. 14 point something PSI. And as

such, with the heat and the cooling and the heat and the cooling, the

whole thing can expand and contract. It is designed to do that.

Cariann: Right. Ben: When it expanded, this knob got stuck in there and

then it contracted and started just ripping into the windscreen. You

don't want that. Why are you laughing? Cariann: I'm so sorry. Go on.

Ben: No. What's so funny? Cariann: Drink more. And then it's just bad.

So, sorry. Ben: I'm just sorry. Cariann: They tried out a lot of things and

this is the point-this is the point- this is the part that I think is really

funny. They're like (lowering voice) "Well, what we did was we tried to

expand it again and we tried to shrink this and we put dry ice on there

and I'm thinking they packed the whole front thing with dry ice, and

you see this little, teeny tiny little hand, 'cause you know the orbitor's

gigantic, with these little teeny tiny tweezers and [squeeky voice] this

teeny tiny little piece of dry ice, barely touching the knob and I'm like

what good is that going to do? I mean honestly! And it pretty much

got down to the point where they did brute force. They finally got the

okay to just try to shove it frigging out of there and they got it.

Ben: Now, we were talking with some of the Spacevidcasters and

some of our behind the scenes contacts and where this got

interesting is because it's pushing up against the windscreen and

because Atlantis really wasn't supposed to be flying this long

there have been looow rumblings like offhanded comments not

anything necessarily very serious, if they're not able to fix the

windscreen or they're not confident in the windscreen, this is unverified

don't take this for anything--this is just me talking out the side of my

mouth, there have been rumblings of a possibility of retiring Atlantis

early. Cariann: Yes. Ben: That's a big deal. The reason it would be a

big deal is because if they retire Atlantis, the system was designed

no fewer than 3 orbiters. That's the rotation system that they have. If they

lose one of the orbiters, it's going to take months and months and

months to run between shuttle missions. Well, the shuttle program's

dying in 2010. That's its cutoff date. Just because you lose an orbiter

doesn't extend that cutoff date. Cariann: Right. Ben: So we could

have an incomplete International Space Station. Cariann: Yep.

Ben: Is that all you're going to add to that? Cariann: What else is

there to add to it? I don't want to. That's what's out there. I don't want

too much to make it sound like it's totally legit, like we know we've

got some kind of insider information because we don't. Ben: It's not.

And we don't. But just throwing that out there and if that actually does

come to pass, we're like [smugly] "You heard it here first. Breaking

news. It's a gas." But until then, I don't want people to think that

that's something I'm trying to set the expectation straight up front, but

you know, this is a serious, serious issue with the windscreen. They've

got a problem in pressurizing it on the ground. They can't bring it up

to full pressure here on the ground. They can't even get it close to what

they need to get it to. Cariann: Basically what's going on it that now

have to test it to make sure that everything is going to be cool and

what have you and there's no way to test it. Ben: Essentially.

Cariann: So, the only way to test it is to fly it up and you don't want

to fly it up if it ain't going to do okay. So, it's kind of a scary situation

all the way around and it's designed to have 3 orbiters because, God

forbid something should happen with the next launch, whatever the

next launch is and they have to use one more orbiter to be a LON

You know what I'm saying? You're pretty much down to 2 orbiters

at that point. It's just-it gets iffy and it gets creepy and crazy and crabby.

Ben: When we come back, we're going to be talking about NASA

employees sabotaging the shuttle. Now here's a quick hint--NO!

They don't sabotage the shuttle. We'll be right back.

Hello and welcome to the Crow River Coffee Company in Watertown, Minnesota.

Situated on the bank of the beautiful Crow River, we offer espresso drinks, delicious food,

live music, bulk beans, and artisan items.

You can see us at crowrivercoffee.com. Thanks!

♫ Space Shuttle Launch Music ♫

♫♫ Calendar of Events ♫♫

[No sound] NASA. Ben: Now I have audio? Adam: Now you have audio.

Ben: Well, I'm going to have to give you hell for that, aren't I?

Cariann: [Laughing] Yes. But go on. Ben: We do this show live every

week from the Crow River Coffee Company and Adam, the-what would

you be-the owner of Crow River Coffee, just muted my microphone.

Thanks for that. I can't decide if we can do a Coffee of the Month

now or not. Cariann: Oh, sad. Ben: So the Coffee of the Month is an

espresso blend and there's a very good reason for that. Because...

Cariann: We wanted to drink Guinness every single time we have

the show for this month. Ben: Adam found an interesting drink

combination which is, you take Guinness and you take a shot of the

espresso and, what? I just pour this whole shot in here? Is that what I do?

Cariann: Yeah. It's like a Guinness machiato. Ben: So I take this

Cariann: I wouldn't drop it, I would just pour it. Ben: So, I'm going to pour

that in like so and, apparently, that's still hot coffee. That's supposed

to be pretty good? It's delicious? Cariann: Go ahead. Ben: I've

never tried this before. Cariann: I didn't put it in mine just in case it

doesn't go. Yes. Ben: It's interesting. [Takes a drink.] Interesting.

It's actually kind of cool. I like that. So, anyhow, the espresso blend

you can get that, so get your Guinness, get a trip on Virgin Galactic,

get your expresso blend, your espresso coffee and then you can be like

drunk awake during launches. Awesome. CrowRiverCoffee.com espresso blend.

is the Coffee of the Month. And your contributions there help keep us

going. Cariann: Especially with the Blastoff Blend. Ben: See, look at

that. Nice graphic. Cariann: Yeah, it's awesome. Ben: That says Blastoff

Blend. No, it says Espresso. Sorry. I can only see the Blend.

Whoooo. Alright. Cariann: Yes? Sabotage, Ben: NASA. There is

talk and rumors... Cariann: I will say really quickly that I forever try to find

The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage." The one frame in their video where it

just says ♫Sabotage♫. And I couldn't. Ben: There have been MSNBC

stories and major news articles that have been talking about potential

sabotage by NASA employees. And this is kind of a bit of a stretch.

And the reason that this is a stretch is that it's just not going to happen.

First off, the employees are very dedicated. Cariann: You're talking, but be

specific. We're not just talking about regular, good ol' sabotage. We're

talking very specifically the GUCP connection on Endeavour for STS-127.

Ben: Well, that's one of the things. But they're also talking about they're

worried about future sabotage, as well. Cariann: Right. But this is where

it came up. This was the first time that they-where the rumblings came in.

If that makes any sense. Ben: Yup. And part of the reason that this is

just complete and total nonsense, it's almost like I would have to call it

bad journalism on the part of MSNBC and any of the other major

journalists that are airing these stories. It's scare tactics and it

doesn't make sense. And here's why it doesn't make sense. Not only

are the employees very dedicated to the job, they could still say someone

is going to-it just takes one, right? Cariann: Right. Ben: The problem is

everything's redundant. It's not NASA employees necessarily that

are doing all the launch mechanism stuff. Cariann: Right. Ben: It's not

United Launch Alliance. So that's actually the contractor that's probably

still going to be working on Constellation and other things, so

I'm not so sure that they're that worried that some of them may lose

their job, but even so, there's still other ULA members right there

and NASA employees and entire checklists. So it's checked by

multiple people from multiple companies--every single Item is checked

by multiple people along the way. Cariann: Yep. Ben: And, I don't want

to say there's no way, but-man! Cariann: Pretty much. And this is

where I think crazy media people-you know, I kind of have to think that

to a certain extent because, you know, there's no such thing as "bad

publicity." Is the idea. Ben: Right. Cariann: So as long as space is in

the minds of the people, that's a good thing. However, this kind of came

about because, like I said, of the GUCP connection, the fueling issue that

we had on STS was it 119? Ben: Uh-huh. Cariann: We had it on STS-119

we had it again and it was almost the exact same thing or it WAS the

exact same thing on STS-127. So, they're thinking "Well, that

means that somebody took the knife and shot it in the tire again.

And that's not--it just doesn't make sense. There's no reason for them

to do something like this. Even if somebody was doing that, like you

said, there's so much redundancy in it that it will still be cool, it's

gotta still be okay. What's going on with the GUCP issue is, this particular

fueling issue is, that the seal has to be perfect. Ben: Perfect. Not like-

but microscopically perfect. Cariann: Right. And it's not like they made

like 3,000 of these seals, like on a old jar of jam kind of thing, they didn't

make extras just to kind of have them and make sure that we've got

extras and hand them out to kids as souvenirs or anything like that.

They only made so many. We only have so many. And we're reusing

parts at this point. And so they're not going to be perfect. It's going to be

as perfect as we can get it but that's not good enough, if that makes

any sense. Ben: So that's that. We just wanted to touch on that as you

hear these stories, for all intents and purposes, just ignore them. I think

they're just journalists not doing their job in my humble opinion. It's

companies firing their space and science teams and not having any

idea what they're talking about at that point. And it's too bad that the likes

of Miles O'Brien didn't have the opportunity to stop them from airing such

stories. Actually, I think it's a little bit of a disgrace, but- Cariann: But,

for all we know, it's going to get lots of air time and everyone's going

to love it. They're totally going to grab onto it and then they're going to

complain that we're, because we're bombing the moon and we didn't

ask first. Ben: Or something like that. You know, before we go today,

a couple of additional changes. One of them is the Spacevidcast

community is getting quite large. Cariann: Yes. Ben: And, as such

whenever we have a launch event, we've got thousands and thousands

and thousands of people just in the chat room. Let alone watching the live

stream. And we need help. We're going to be holding elections for

Spacevidcast moderators. And the terms of these elections and how all

of this is going to work out will be posted on our website, probably in a

blog entry so you can kind of know what's going on. But we're going to

create a group of people who can get elected, become moderators

help us out in the Spacevidcast chat room. And you can serve your term

and then when that's done get a new group of people elected and help out.

It's going to be pretty cool. It's neat that this is necessary now. That we've

grown to the point where we have to hold elections for people to help us

moderate the chat room to make sure that appropriate things are going on.

And the other reason we want to do this is because up until now we really

haven't had a whole lot of moderators. We can't moderate when we're doing

live stuff and we want to make sure that the content in the chat room itself

is appropriate. And we want to-you know, we've got kids that watch this

show and sometimes this can get a little bit out of control, so we need

people to kind of reign it back in and we just want to make sure that chat

room and the show is always maintained at a good level.

Cariann: And one of the other things that we've been criticized about is

that we are not serious enough. We're not-you know, we don't go deep

enough into the stories and stuff like that. Ben: That's just it. We get

both criticisms. One of 'em was you go too deep and you spend too much

time on stuff and the other one is you don't go deep enough. And we're

like-within 24 hours of each other. Cariann: Right. But my point is that

we try to make the information available to anyone and everyone and that

includes kids. And so we don't want a lot of crap being put up on the screen

Of course, now I've said crap, but besides that... Ben: [Bleep sound.]

Cariann: Exactly. We don't need them reading all of that stuff. There's

really no need for that and it really doesn't matter. We just want to keep

it so it's available to anyone and everyone who wants to see if, so that we-

the last launch we had we had kindergartenders watching, we had

pre-schoolers watching. We had third graders watching and they can read.

I know they can read. And there's just no reason for it, there's no need for

it and we're all adults here for the most part and we should be treating

each other with respect. And that goes for the chat room. Ben: In

addition, we have got a member of the space community who is

essentially a lead in the space community-Revrev, who is in the chat room

right now which is lagged by apparently almost 3 minutes which is

impressive, so everything we say they are hearing 3 minutes later. Which

is why the chat room-we should almost-- Cariann: 'Cause we're on Mars.

Ben: It's like we're on Mars. This is what the Spacevidcast show is

going to be like when we're on the moon and on Mars. Cariann: Yes!

You guys just get used to this right here, right now. We wanted to wish

Revrev a fond farewell, as it were, from the space community-not that he

won't ever be back in the room. Cariann: Oh, he'll be back. (Emphatically)

HE'LL Be Back. Ben: When Spacevidcast was first starting out quite

a while ago, there were two people who really helped us get our start.

Mike's Twitter name? William. Sorry, William. What's William's

Twitter name? Cariann: @pomerantz. He's W. Pomerantz in the chat

room right now. Ben: Sorry. There are two people. You can tell I like 'em.

There were two people who really helped us get started-Pomerantz and

Revrev, both of whom are in the room right now. And Revrev has several

passions and one of them is music. And he's got a fantastic opportunity

and will be leaving the Google X Prize team and moving into a career in

music. I think it's music marketing, isn't it? Cariann: Yeah. And if

you hit Iamfaster.com, I believe it's dot com, that's his blog and he's got

this really great post and there's a cool picture of a spaceship rocket,

and then a guitar and it goes "rocket, rock it." And I thought that was

really cute. Ben: So we just wanted to wish Revrev all the best in the

future because without both Pomerantz and Revrev I'm not sure we'd

be where we're at today. And you guys are absolutely awesome.

And, Revrev... Cariann: Thank you for believing in us. Ben: Thank you and

we're going to miss you and it was awesome having you on the Google

X Prize team. [Weepy voice] And this is as teary as I'm going to get.

Now, as an aside, now that we've done the sappy part of that, there's a

second side of that. And that is, the space community is a good ol'

boys club. I'm not sure if you know this, but it really is a good ol' boys

club and while we try to fight that it's still there. Cariann: It is what it is.

Ben: Since Revrev is leaving the space community, we are required

to shun him. Cariann: Yep. Ben: So, we're gonna end this show with I'm

sorry Revrev, but you're hereby shunned.

♪ SpaceVidCast Theme ♪ and Credits.