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NASA Astronaut Winston Scott Talks About The Future of Space · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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  Five minutes after the hour. It's the second hour of the morning show with
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  Freslan Skock In morning. That's Grant. I am Preston, and it's a
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  delight to be with you this morning, whether you are listening on terrestrial radio
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  or iHeartRadio anywhere around the country, horror for that matter, around the world.
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  Last time I said that we had listeners right in from Taiwan. It's
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  just crazy. We got pictures from a high rise at Taiwan. Anyway,
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  Thanks so much for joining us on the radio program, and I am thrilled.
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  You cannot keep an astronaut down. That's all I'm saying. You cannot
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  keep an astronaut down. And joining us is Captain Winston Scott, US Navy,
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  retired NASA astronaut mission specialist and more importantly, back with the Kennedy Space
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  Center. Captain Scott, welcome back. How are you, sir? I'm
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  doing just fine. How are you this morning? I am terrific good.
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  We just got started yesterday. I'm so excited me. I have Liken Kennedy
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  Space Center for people that live in Florida to kind of like the Statue of
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  Liberty in New York. A lot of Floridians kind of forget that the Kennedy
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  Space Centers there. I think it's a diamond. I love visiting there.
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  Tell us your new role with the Kennedy Space Center. Well, I'm so
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  excited about my new role the Kennedy Space In the official title is Director of
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  Operational Excellence, But to be more specific, I'm the person that helps plan
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  the daily activities for the visiting public, specifically the actual real life flown astronauts
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  that appear at the Kennedy spacing of vising A Complex to meet and greet the
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  public every single day that the visi A Complex is. So when folks come
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  in, then no matter when they come, where they come from, they
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  have an opportunity to meet and spend time with an astronaut. And I'm the
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  person that co ordinates all those visits and presentations. It's a really exciting opportunity
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  for me. WHOA, So now I didn't know about this. So a
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  visitor can can kind of take part in a special aspect of visiting Kennedy and
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  have some Q and a time with an astronaut. Absolutely, there's several programs
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  that go on during the daytime when the public inn beeing an astronaut. We
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  have a program called Astronaut Encounter. Well, the astronaut will give a presentation,
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  talk about his or her flights in the space, and then Q and
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  A and then we have the more intimates that can call a chat with an
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  astronaut. Chat with the astronaut is as I just said, more intimate is
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  limited to about thirty people, and they get a chance to where they eat
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  and drink while they're talking with the astronaut. But it is an intimate chat
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  with an astronaut that has flowing in space. Then they'll ordered round sessions,
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  they're photo sessions, shake hands and meet and greet and so yeah, absolutely
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  they get a chance to meet. I gad, I'd like to said real
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  and yes, I'm alive, real live. How many how many of the
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  men and women that are your colleagues in the space program do you stay in
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  touch with routinely? Well, you you kind to stand in touch with everybody
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  off and on, you know, even even people who are generations ahead of
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  me are generating the younger ones who are generations behind me, you kind of
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  talk to them off and on. Two or three who live locally, I
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  talked with them all the time and then some who are international. It's only
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  on occasion, so you know, we all kind of know each other.
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  For example, I know Vic the Glover, you know, who just got
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  named to the Artemus missions, so the first you'll be the first African American
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  going around the Moons. I know Vicky's uh my son's age, but I
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  know him will Wellny. I also know buzz Aldron, you know, who's
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  a couple of generations older than he said. We all know each other.
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  We we keep in touch and see each other periodically. What are your thoughts
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  on where the space program is right now with this kind of developing public private
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  partnership. I absolutely love it. In fact, what the private commercial companies
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  are doing is exactly what has been needed, and that is to make space
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  like more efficient and more cost effective. You know the government is very very
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  good about doing esoteric things, things that haven't been done before. You develop
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  new equipment, go to new places, but to make it cost effective,
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  we need business people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and also those companies are
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  doing exactly what many of us hope they would do. They're making access to
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  space more afformiable infor more people can go it's great the Morning Show with Preston
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  Scott as one News Radio one hundred point seven WUFLA. You never know who's
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  listening to the program. And so when I said something yesterday about having Captain
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  Scott on the show, I was told to ask you, sir, about
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  your skills with the trumpet. Like we're listening, this is you playing the
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  trumpet at the Space Coach Jazz Society back a few years ago. Okay,
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  so you can play the trumpet. Two yes. As a better of fact,
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  I attended Florida State University as a music student. I actually into the
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  College of Music as a music student, and then later off got off into
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  the engineer an finished my music degree, my engineering degree and song So yes,
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  and you know what pressing It is not unusual that people who do engineering,
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  mathematical and scientific things are also musicians. You know, Albert Einstein played
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  violin. You know John Glenn played trumpet, and the list goes on.
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  You. Yes, I am a musician, and that's a part of who
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  I am. Somehow, a lot of things in my own life now just
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  make perfect sense. I can't play an instrument worth a lick, all right,
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  So take me through the arc of your life. How is it that
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  you end up in the Navy as an aviator and then in the space program.
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  Well. As a youngster growing up in Miami, I was always interesting
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  in technology. I was kind of the kid that played with batteries and motors
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  and engines, and I wondered how things worked. But in those days,
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  we did not have programs in my neighborhood to expose minority youth to engineering and
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  science, so I didn't get a proper exposure. That was a very very
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  good musician. I thought, when you went to college and you could just
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  study something at which you were already good. My band direct to call the
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  FSU College of Music. I was accepted, no audition or anything, and
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  into the school as a music major. Well college as it is supposed to
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  rounding me out, I was exposed to engine began taking music and engineering as
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  a dual major. Did not have time to sing. It's both degrees thing,
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  it's the music degree. Wondering how can I finished an engineering degree?
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  Thought about the military and gi service, and thought about, you know,
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  what would I do in the military. Pilot applied for to the exams,
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  was accepting in the Naval Aviation into Naval Aviation, flew for the Navy.
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  Navy sent me back to school for engineering, Stuggy flu for the Navy,
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  some more test pilot, and then off to the Space program. So that's
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  about eighteen and twenty years or so. All convinced about about the sixty seconds.
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  But that's kind of how it happened. When you talk about your flying
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  career, you flew helicopters as well as jet fighters. Correct, that's right.
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  The US Navy trains everybody in airplanes and then some of us get additional
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  helicopter train which I did, so I was qualified in both. Which would
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  you rather fly, helicopter or jet? And if a jet, which one?
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  Well, I tell you what, Helicopter flying is some of the most
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  fun and challenging flying you could ever do. I actually flew anti submarine warfare
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  helicopters off the back of destroyers, but I also flew fighters. If people
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  have ever seen any of the top gun movies, I did for real.
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  The guy in the movie is the actor. But I did real top gun
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  flying and flew the F fourteen Tom Kat also the F eighteen. Nowadays they
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  fly the new eighteens called the Super Hooling and a flew was called the Legacy
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  Hornage. So I flew over twenty five different airplanes and almost eight thousand thousand
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  flight time. Now, so if you were to have a choice right now
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  between flying let's say, the new F eighteen or even one of the new
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  Raptor planes or the new stealth fighter, or going back up into space,
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  which would you choose? Oh? Man, that's a hard choice. You
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  know what, if I could go and do something new and different, I
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  would go back to space. By new and different, I mean to the
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  Moon. I've done pretty much everything else you can do in space but walk
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  on the moon. And they weren't send me people to the moon in my
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  day. So I would love to be a part of an Artemus crew they
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  actually goes to set foot on the Moon. That would be fantastic. How
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  important is it that we go back there? It is incredibly important. We
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  need to go back to the moon, not only for technologies seeking understanding,
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  but the Moon is a stepping stone for going further out into space. And
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  if the human race is going to survive, we have to move out into
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  space because one of these days, and of course you and I will be
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  gone, but one of these days four point five billion years and we'll have
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  the subst to burn out. The Earth will be destroyed. So we're going
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  to survive as a species. We've got to move out in Going back to
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  the Moon is the first tiny step to moving out into space and to ensuring
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  our survival. Captain Scott, I thank you for your service to our country,
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  and it's great to hear you're going back with the Kennedy Space Center.
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  I look forward to visiting with you again. I hope we can have you
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  back on the show. Hey, I'd love to. I'd love you had
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  to come visit with us down here and love to be back on the show.
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  Just say the word and we'll make an appen. I'd love it.
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  Thank you very much, sir, Thank you, Captain Wiston Scott. And
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  yes, he can play the trumpet. You just you just hurt. I
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  mean F fourteens, f eighteens, the seven helicopters, attack helicopters. Oh,
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  by the way, the space Shuttle and plays the trumpet. Unbelievable.
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  I gotta I'm gonna take him up on that. I'm heading back to Kennedy
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  because I love that place. Seventeen passed the hour in the Morning Show