YouSaid · the spoken record

Loren Grush

lines on the record: 77
first: 2023-09-12
most recent: 2023-09-12
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“They get inside and then the instructor is like, all right, so Judy, Anna, Sally, do y'all want to do some touch and goes where, you know, you take off and you land? And what he didn't know is they weren't technically pilots or they had not, if they had, you know, flown, they hadn't flown a plane of that size before. And so one of them pipes up and they're just like, yeah, I'll do it. And so they practiced, you know, they went back and forth doing touch and goes. And then at one point, you know, the instructor turned to Sally and he was like, so what other planes have you been checked out on? And she goes, oh none. And he just kind of went completely ghost white because he thought they were all pros. They were all flying like pros and, you know, just a testament to how well they were adapting to the training at the time.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, my favorite story. There's so many great stories The women proving themselves when you least expect it. There's a great moment where three of the women and three of their male colleagues fly up to Boeing. They went to go check out the 747 that was used to ferry this shuttle across the country whenever it needed to be moved. And so they were walking around with this Boeing instructor and he asked if they wanted to check out the plane. And they were thinking the simulator and they were like, no, let's go fly the plane, the actual 747.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so that was the point that was made in the article that I wrote just that we want to be smart about these things if and when something does go wrong so that we have the proper protocols in place and that we aren't hastily putting things into motion that are less safe.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think those words are definitely relevant and make a lot of sense. As for Oceangate, I did make kind of similar parallels in a story. The concern is for right now, there is a moratorium on regulating human spaceflight for safety. And that is ending soon. And so the FA is starting to think about what regulations might look like. But the concern is what happens if something bad happens? It's not even an if. A lot of people have kind of said a win situation. And that's going to have a lot of eyes on it. There's going to be a lot of opinions. And if when that happens, there's probably going to be a lot of calls for change. And when you are calling for change right after a tragedy, the decisions we make aren't necessarily the right ones if they're hasty, you know.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, first of all, I think I would be remiss if I didn't point out Breidenstein is now on VSAT's board. So I'm sure there's some conflict of interest there. But he's not wrong. I mean, and I just, we were just discussing this earlier, you know. SpaceX is our space program right now. I probably will get a lot of flack for saying that, but it is fundamentally tied with NASA. And if they were to suddenly disappear, we would lose a lot of access and a lot of things. And like I said, this industry takes a lot of time to develop. We can't just come up with new capabilities overnight. And so a lot of people make fun of, you know, Boeing's Starliner, which has been taking so long to get to the International Space Station. But ultimately, you know, it will be a good thing if and when it flies, because then we'll have that extra redundancy in case forbid.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was considered a success in doing it. And he's saying, Look, we're really dependent on this company. If they get something wrong, like public confidence in space is going to plummet. Does that pressure real or is this he's out? He doesn't have to, he doesn't need to drop anymore. He can just say whatever he wants to say, or is that actually percolating through the space community?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you and I are talking the day after a big Ronan Faro profile of Elon Musk and the New Yorker. There's a lot of discussion about SpaceX in there. And there's a quote from Jim Brydenstein. He's a former head of NASA. He was appointed by Trump. He's a conservative. And the quote is about SpaceX. And it just really struck me. He says there's only one thing worse than a government monopoly that's a private monopoly the government is dependent on. And then he compares SpaceX to the Ocean Gate situation. He says, we just saw the submersible going down to visit Zitanic explode. People won't be as confident in the capabilities the commercial companies have if something goes wrong. I think we have to think about the non-regulatory environment as sometimes hurting the industry more than the regulatory environment. This is not what you would expect to hear from a conservative Trump appointee who famously led an expansion of commercial space. And I think by all counts.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It always kind of gets on the chopping block when people say we're spending too much because it just doesn't feel like something that is super pressing to our needs.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think it's also very easy to cut those things when there are other pressing issues coming down the road. Like I said, I don't necessarily think these need to be either or NASA's famously 0.5% of the federal budget. So it does not take up a lot of resources.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When we do big bold things in space, they are applauded by the political leaders of the time, regardless of whether or not they started those initiatives.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is a great question. I think space is always a priority because we've always been the leaders in the space field. I mean, we will probably remain that way for some time. I do think that if China advances much more, there will be concern. You know, there will be like a level of outcry, whether or not that's warranted is up for debate. But I'm sure that will happen. It was a bit of a perfect storm when the space race happened, right? And I don't think those conditions will ever really happen again. So I don't know if we will be able to recreate that kind of very ravenous, you know, time for space that we did back then. I do think that everyone thinks that our space priorities are nice to have. And obviously.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What's interesting about this whole conversation is when it is a big national priority with swelling budgets, you can impose some pressure on a government agency to say, okay, you need to put more women and people of color into this program, right? Like this should look like the United States. When it's the government contracting a vendor like SpaceX, A, that pressure is hard, and then B, not for nothing the CEO of SpaceX owns a car company does a lot of business in China. And that seems like it's incredibly complicated for anyone to piece through so we just don't talk about it a lot, but we pretend it's a race. And I'm wondering, like, fundamentally, can the government get through that and create space as a national priority again? Or are we just sort of handed this off to Elon and SpaceX?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Problem that we do need to address, I don't think it needs to be an either or situation. NASA's role can certainly play a major part in the climate change initiative. But you're right. I don't think the China and US space race, first of all, there's a lot of debate of whether it is a race. Second of all, is it something that we necessarily need to be ringing our hands about?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The US has already quote unquote won. We've been to the moon. We have done all of these things. I definitely think people will be very upset if China sends somebody to the moon. But I just don't think it inspires that same level of urgency that the Soviet Union did at the time. And so you're right. It's not playing out in the same way, but I do think a lot of NASA leadership and political leadership are trying to make it into a similar situation because they want that similar sense of urgency and they want that funding because that was a big part of the space race. NASA's budget swelled quite a bit because it was such a national priority at the time. We are definitely nowhere near that level. There are other things, other pressing things at the moment, especially when it comes to climate change.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The China discussion is interesting to me because that is often invoked as kind of this analog for the space race. You know, it's no longer that we're in a race with the Soviets or Russia. We're in a race with China. It just doesn't have the same.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, I definitely think we've made it a lot easier. There are a lot of great initiatives that target women and people of color to help them get jobs into the space industry. Brooke Owens Fellowship is one that I really like a lot. But like I said, it's not as if we've solved all the issues, you know, just because we are finding more ways for people to get into space. You know, there's still quite a bit of sexual harassment HR is not paying attention, you know, things getting swept under the rug. And that's just, you know, it's important to me if I do hear about those things to try and highlight it as best I can. It's very difficult, but it will always remain important to me.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you think it's easier now? I mean, again, it's 40 years later. A lot of these problems, we still talk about them loudly in controversial ways, but it's an ever-present part of our conversation about work now. Do you think that's made it easier to enter science enter space?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. And it's the same for the six too. I mean, that's ultimately what I hope people take away. It's just these were women trying to do their jobs, but they just had a lot of people watching them do that job, you know. And that's just, it creates frustrations and interesting situations. But at the end of the day, they just want it to work.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and that's borne out in your stories now of Bloomberg. And then when I was working with you here at the Verge, a lot of the stories were like people at work are unhappy about work. And it was like the same story. It just happened to work on rockets. Yeah.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“In the tech industry, and it is still filled with problems in terms of like, as you mentioned, sexual harassment and diversity and inclusion that I think sometimes get swept under the rug because it's space and we see it as this hopeful endeavor. And while it is, it's still a business and people are at the heart of that business. And so there's still a long way to go. We might be getting better when it comes to the people we're sending into space, but the people who are sending them into space are also dealing with the same issues and structural problems that we've all been dealing with for decades now.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's just the nature of space. And it's a very capital intensive business, and it takes a lot of time in order to become a mature business. And SpaceX obviously started many years ago. I mean, not too long ago, but longer than a lot of these startups. A lot of them are trying to play catch-up. And it's hard to compete with them because they have dominated the market for a while now. But it's still a very exciting time to be covering space because, you know, there are so many hopeful companies that are emerging and trying to compete with SpaceX. Now, one thing that is very important to me and relates back to the book is that we can say that we are being diverse and inclusive with these new efforts and we can send the right people into space and, you know, try to write those wrongs. But at the same time, the space industry is just an industry like any other.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes. Or just programs that were promised and then, you know, all of a sudden they disappear, you know, virgin orbit, you know, rest in peace. We wrote a lot about them when I was there and they filed for bankruptcy this year and are no more.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, yes, I did. And, you know, one of the things I always joke about is this my beat makes plenty of my stories obsolete, not even a year or two after I've written them. So I bet there's a bunch of things we've literally.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The whole point of commercialized space was that you would create a market, there'd be a lot of competitors that if SpaceX wasn't cheap enough, you could go to Lockheed Martin or whatever. That hasn't played out. Do you see any glimmers of that competition coming to this industry?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Worry about the things that he says. And ultimately, they kind of brush things off just because I think we're in this very precarious position where NASA is so reliant on SpaceX and they need the company in order to send astronauts to the space station to resupply the space station. They're now building the human lunar lander for the Artemis program. So it is very interesting place to be in. I've also heard some great point that, you know, what happens if SpaceX were to go bankrupt one day? You know, it's not even just what Elon is saying or even how their internal sexual harassment procedures are going, but what if they are no longer in existence? You know, there's a variety of reasons we should be concerned about how reliant we are on one space company.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So that is a question that we've been asking for some time, especially when Elon makes his statements that he does. I believe the answer is no. You know, NASA does not have control over. And that's kind of how these arrangements work. It's NASA is buying a service from the company just as you and I buy a service whenever we order something online. Obviously, it's a bit more complicated than that, and they have a bit closer of a relationship, but that is kind of what they're trying to achieve. And so ultimately, you know, I'm sure they can express their dismay whenever these things happen, but they don't have control over Elon. And so we have repeatedly asked during press conferences, you know, Elon did this recently or he said this recently. When is that going to be an issue? Like at what point do you...”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“After listening to this podcast. You've reported a lot on these companies. You reported a lot of them at the Verge. The commercialization of space in general, a huge monumental shift, I promised to you before you came on to talk about your book, about the first six women in space. We would not talk about Elon Musk too much. But if you talk about the president of space, that is part of the story, right? Is that a handful of big private companies who have effectively taken over space exploration in the United States? SpaceX is obviously one of them, the most important. Bloorge and the other, most famous. There's some others. The cultures of these companies, you have reported on them.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And there's still considered a pretty monumental achievement. So I'm sure we would have celebrated it at the time. But that's just true of any spaceflight, like orbit is infinitely. Cooler. Sorry to everyone, you know, but not everyone has the ability to go to orbit. Someone just canceled a million dollars.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's true. That's true. I definitely think it would have a very different kind of impact. You know, I think sending them to orbit by far was much more of a statement, you know, than I think that would have been made if they had just gone for a few minutes. It would have felt a bit like a consolation. But at the same time, you know, Alan Shepard was the first man, American man in space. His flight was suborbital as well.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, you're the one who was just writing a book about hypothetical. Maybe it's a little more challenging, but a little more direct. If the first six women in space had been on Blue Origin flights, would that have been a good thing?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you think there's the same amount of value that we get as a society or as a public or as a community from those more touristy flights versus, okay, we're building a generation of scientists that are organized around being astronauts?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Going to space for a few minutes, coming back down right after, and going to orbit. And definitely a very vast chasm in terms of how you train for both of those scenarios.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It really is I do think there is a lot of value in what Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic provide. You know, for instance Virgin Galactic just performed its first commercial space mission after nearly 20 years of being in existence. And that first flight was a research mission with the Italian Air Force. And so they packed the cabin full of payloads and experiments that the spaceflight participants, the researchers attended to while they were in space. And so that is often propped up as kind of this in-between platform between the vomit comet, that parabolic flight where you experience microgravity for 30 seconds at a time here on Earth, and also going to orbit, which takes a lot more time, a lot more energy, and a lot more money. So there is definitely that kind of scientific value there. But yes, there is quite a significant distinction between”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, no one's going to, well, some people will probably be outright about it. Obviously, there's a lot of discussion of whether or not we even should call people who fly on Blue Origin in Virgin Galactic astronauts. I obviously don't care that much, but to some it is very an important distinction. A lot of times people refer to them as spaceflight participants because they're not. Yeah, that is”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“More than a few seconds have a set of experiences and then bring that back down to earth and be ambassadors for everyone else. That's very different than just floating around. And I recognize the floating. It's very difficult to get to the point where you can float around. But there are very different things and we kind of munge them together into going to space. In the community, is there a sense that those are different that sending a diverse career of people up on a blue origin flight to float around and take pictures is meaningfully different than going to space to do science?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Can I see it kind of just a big thing question about that? I think about the Blue Origin flights of the Virgin Galactic Flights. And I laughed when he said suborbital because we've all watched the videos, right? They go up there, they float around for a few seconds, they come back down. And that, yep, they're going to space, but the value of that going to space and saying, okay, a diverse group of people has floated about for a few seconds versus what we think of when we think about NASA, right? A diverse group of people is going to do science in space. Or a diverse group of people is going to go up there for a”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And opportunities to send people to space ever than we have before. You know, we have SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic, albeit suborbital for the latter two. But it's still a way to send people to space. It is another opportunity for more people to get into space who might not have had that chance before. Unfortunately, you know, it's like a win-lose situation in my mind because you still have to have a pretty hefty wallet in order to afford those missions. But, you know, there have been generous benefactors who have brought people with them who would not have had that opportunity. There's also charities and raffle draws, you know, that have allowed people to go on those flights. So there is more availability to go to space than ever before. It's still not perfect and we still have a long way to go to reach true parity. But, you know, we have hope and we have more opportunities than we used to have.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We are working to get back to the moon through NASA's Artemis program, and that has a stated goal of sending the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the moon. I don't think that's ever been outwardly a goal of a NASA human spaceflight mission before. So that is a very big change. And also through that program, they have assigned the first crewed Artemis 2. And that includes Victor Glover and Christina Cook, and they'll be the first person of color and the first woman to fly to Deep Space. They won't be landing on the moon, but they will be flying around the moon. And so that will be another big milestone. But, you know, at the same time, there's still quite a long way to go. I point out that less than one sixth of the people who've been to space are women. And the statistics for women of color are abysmal. You know, it is an interesting time for space because we have way more companies.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's been 40 years. There has been this sort of big conversation about diversity in our workplaces, diversity in the sciences. In aerospace specifically, in NASA specifically, where do you think the biggest changes have been?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sure, but it was essentially just like a garment you would wear, you know, here on the ground. I've always known them to be flying with pressure suits, which are essentially special kind of spacesuit that I'll apply pressure in case they lose pressure in the cabin, which is what happened or which is what they think happened in the Challenger accident. They also provided more bailing out opportunities. The shuttle never really was that safe of a vehicle because there was no true abort system, but they at least tried to come up with other ways that they could bail out of the cabin if there was an issue. And then they also just completely redesigned the components.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the one positive thing is that ever since this class of astronauts came on board, you know, they've welcomed more and more diverse range of astronauts into the program. So that was definitely a positive. They also completely reevaluated their safety procedures in light of the Challenger accident. So many years ago, I was shocked to learn that people flew to space and just kind of, you know, onesie outfits. I mean, they were flight suits. They weren't onesies. I think they were top and bottom, but...”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the book closes with the Challenger disaster in the aftermath of it. That has been well reported at this point, kind of well investigated and documented. From your perspective as you're writing the book and thinking about, okay, we're diversifying the space program. What were the effects post-Challenger of how NASA thought about recruiting new and different kinds of astronauts?”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And especially when they flew. I mean, even Judy, who was second in space, there's a funny story about a snafu she had with her hair on board. And she swore all of her crewmates to silence because she knew if that got out, the headlines would be, oh, long hair not suitable for space, you know, just something of like that. So it was definitely something they all had to be very cognizant of the entire time they were there. It did abate over time with each time one of them flew. But yeah, you know, it hung heavy on everything that they did.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's something that they were very cognizant of at the time. You can't complain and also you can't mess up. So one of the things that Sally talked about one of her fears before she flew was that she was going to somehow make a mistake. And I think that is a very poignant thing to say because there's a lot loaded in that phrase, right? She knew that if she messed up, and I think this is true for any, you know, underrepresented group that does something for the very first time, they are representing everyone. They're not just representing themselves. They're representing everyone. And so when the magnifying glass is upon them, they know that if they make a mistake or an error, it will be used to say, oh, it's not just Sally that can't hack space. It's that every woman cannot hack space. And so that was definitely something they were all very cognizant of during training.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's what struck me as I watched this Nichell Nichols video, which, by the way, is very entertaining, and I can see why it worked to recruit women and people of color to be astronauts, but the conceit of it is that space has been solved. That in this product of the space shuttle, we have solved space, and now we should give a bunch of people new kinds of jobs, and everyone is welcome to apply because space is a business now. It led directly to tragedy because the pressure on that to be true was so high, but underneath it is, okay, now there's a new cast of characters, in particular the six, being recruited to fly in the shuttle, who maybe can't complain as much as they should because they're already in the public eye and they already think it's dangerous. That interplay just seems like it was always kind of destined for tragedy.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“After the Challenger accident happened, and that was just inconceivable to fly a politician. And then they were also gearing up to fly the first journalist into space at the time before Challenger and then infamously on Challenger, you know, they flew the first teacher to go into space. And so it just kind of goes to show that they work trying to consider it as this thing that's, oh, it's safe. It's fine. Everything's all right. But then they learned the lesson in a very horrible way in 1986.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly. And it was going to be just as reliable as driving across the country going to space was just going to be as reliable as that. And yeah, obviously, you know, as time progressed, you know, NASA kind of played a little fast and loose with the safety on board the shuttle. You know, I think it was after four flights. They declared the shuttle operational, but most of the astronauts at the time never considered the space shuttle operational. They always regarded it as a, you know, a very complex machine that carried a lot of risk and that there was no room for complacency whenever they flew on it. But over time, they invited more and more non-astronauts to fly, so they had a lot of payload specialists that flew. They flew a number of politicians. And when I first learned that years ago, I was shocked, you know, because I did grow up with a space shuttle, but I grew up.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I believe I did use the term truck in the book, but I mean, they were definitely using some kind of car analogy, like a freighter or something like that.”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was just about to say there's plenty up for debate of whether or not those words actually came to fruition. And that's also a theme in the book as well as kind of NASA's conceit and whether or not the space shuttle really turned out to be this reliable routine truck that they were advertising. That was kind of”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That Nishell Nichols video is bananas. We'll link in the show notes. Everyone should go watch it is wild. The themes in that video are like laser the same themes of today. So at one point, she's like, we're in the business of space now with this space shuttle. It's going to fly like an airplane, regularly scheduled. You can get on it. Like we're not just exploring. We're doing business now. And that was that's where we are now, first of all. Like that's where we have arrived. But in that moment. That wasn't true. Right. But it seems like”
2023-09-12 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · More than Sally Ride: Loren Grush explains how NASA’s first women astronauts changed space · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT