Dare to Explore

Dare to Explore features interviews with friends of the Rocket Center, Space Camp Alum, engineers, scientists, and explorers of all types.

About the show

Dare to Explore is a podcast from the Space Camp Explorers Club featuring interviews with friends of the Rocket Center, Space Camp Alumni, engineers, scientists, and explorers of all types.

Episodes

  • Episode 29: Ed Stewart

    February 29th, 2024  |  32 mins 4 secs

    Ed Stewart graduated from West Virginia Weslayan College with a bachelor of arts in theatrical direction and design. Ed served the US Space and Rocket Center as the Director of Exhibits and Curation for almost nine years before becoming the full time Curator in May of 2023.

  • Summer of Skylab: Ron Paulus

    December 6th, 2023  |  20 mins 30 secs
    engineering, flight, history, nasa, rockets, skylab, space

    May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features Ron Paulus, a retired NASA project engineer who worked on Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle missions.

  • Summer of Skylab: Lowell Zoller

    November 2nd, 2023  |  21 mins 18 secs
    astronomy, nasa, skylab, space

    May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired Marshall Space Flight Center Lowell Zoller. Zoller served as chief of the projects office in the materials laboratory at Marshall Space Flight Center during the creation of Skylab.

  • Episode 28: Beth Mund

    September 28th, 2023  |  56 mins 29 secs
    iss, nasa, science, space, stories

    Beth Mund was a NASA public affairs officer for the Johnson Space Center and a communication officer for the International Space Station. She is a passionate advocate for the people and their stories of science and space exploration, now sharing their stories on stage, in workshops, and on her podcast, "Casual Space." She serves on the Space Camp Alumni Board and as a Space Drinks board member, and is an Analog Astronaut.

  • Summer of Skylab: Jack Stokes

    September 6th, 2023  |  43 mins 4 secs
    nasa, skylab, space

    May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired NASA Human Factors Engineer Jack Stokes. Efficient, safe, and comfortable interactions between the machinery and the human astronauts on board SkyLab was made possible through the research and designs of the Human Factors Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center.

  • Summer of Skylab: Richard Hoover

    August 15th, 2023  |  34 mins 52 secs
    nasa, skylab, space

    May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is celebrating with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired NASA physicist Richard Hoover. Hoover worked on the ATM Experiment S-056 grazing incidence X-ray telescope that captured more than 25,000 solar Xray images from Skylab. Skylab.

  • Summer of Skylab: Kenny Mitchell

    July 5th, 2023  |  35 mins 40 secs
    engineering, nasa, rockets, skylab, space

    May of 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Skylab. The US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, celebrated with the Summer of Skylab – a series of presentations, educational panels, and celebrity events taking place through November. This special episode features retired NASA engineer Kenny Mitchell. Mitchell worked at the Marshall Space Flight Center on the development of the Saturn V rocket and developed Environmental Control and Life Support Systems for Skylab.

  • Episode 27: Josh Whitfield

    May 15th, 2023  |  35 mins 7 secs

    Josh Whitfield is a United States Army veteran awarded the purple heart for his service in Iraq. Today, he is a political consultant and works as the District Director to California State Assemblymember Heath Flora. Josh attended Aviation Challenge 13 times in his youth and is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

  • Episode 26: Kirby Runyon

    April 27th, 2023  |  35 mins 34 secs

    Dr. Kirby Runyon is a Space Camp alumni and planetary geologist at the Planetary Science Institute. He has flown 16 parabolic flights, accumulating more than an hour of time spent in weightlessness. He owns a technical and space tourism consulting company, guiding clients through parabolic flights and teaching future astronauts about the geology they will see from space.

  • Episode 25: Gretchen Green

    March 23rd, 2023  |  29 mins 38 secs
    space

    Dr. Gretchen Green is a Brown, Yale, and Harvard educated radiologist practicing in North Carolina. She attended Space Camp four times, and served as a crew trainer. Dr. Green served on the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation's Board of Directors as the alumni representative, and is currently the active chairman of the Space Camp Alumni Association Board. She now serves as the active secretary to the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Education Foundation's Board of Directors as well.

  • Episode 24: Danny Jaques

    March 15th, 2023  |  24 mins 44 secs

    Danny Jaques is a retired school teacher from Colorado. In his three decades of teaching, Danny helped with fundraising and chaperoned more than 500 students to Space Camp. He is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame, and owns Danny's Rocket Ranch, selling dehydrated space salsa and donating a portion of the profits to continue funding Space Camp Scholarships.

  • Episode 23: Director Harry Winer

    January 30th, 2023  |  34 mins 31 secs
    education, film, nasa, rocket, rockets, science, science-fiction, space, space camp, spacex, stem

    Harry Winer is a director, producer, and writer in the film and television industry. His television work includes Alias, Veronica Mars, Felicity, Hart to Hart, and many others. Harry is president of Smash Media and has written, directed, or produced over 25 films, including Space Camp in 1986. He is a professor at NYU and is a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

  • Episode 22: Lt. Col. Burke Hare

    November 22nd, 2022  |  41 mins 20 secs
    deep space nine, engineering, enterprise, for all mankind, graphic design, nasa, rockets, science, space, space force, spacex, star, star trek, stem, trekkie, voyager

    Lt. Col. Burke Hare was a U.S. Air Force space and missile operator whose career has included overseeing the maintenance and operations of ICBMs and improvements made to the GPS satellite system. He is a Space Camp Hall of Fame member and is currently Program Manager Space Operations with the Space Development Agency at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville Alabama.

  • Episode 21: Chris Vrenna

    October 28th, 2022  |  41 mins 5 secs
    deep space nine, engineering, enterprise, for all mankind, graphic design, nasa, rockets, science, space, space force, spacex, star, star trek, stem, trekkie, voyager

    Chris Vrenna is a musician, producer, engineer, programmer, and songwriter best known as the drummer for Nine Inch Nails. He’s played with Marilyn Manson, Guns and Roses, Smashing Pumpkins, and more, and he’s composed music for video games in the Quake, Doom, Sims, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Call of Duty game series. Today, he teaches music technology and is on the board of directors for the US Space and Rocket Center Foundation.

  • Episode 20: Penny Pettigrew

    September 26th, 2022  |  30 mins 32 secs
    deep space nine, engineering, enterprise, for all mankind, graphic design, nasa, rockets, science, space, space force, spacex, star, star trek, stem, trekkie, voyager

    Penny Pettigrew
    is a payload communications manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, communicating with astronauts conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station. She is a Space Camp alumni and a member of the Space Camp Hall of Fame.

  • Episode 19: Robert Pearlman

    September 9th, 2022  |  34 mins 27 secs
    deep space nine, engineering, enterprise, for all mankind, graphic design, nasa, rockets, science, space, space force, spacex, star, star trek, stem, trekkie, voyager

    Robert Pearlman is a space historian and the founder and editor of the website collectSPACE. He was the director of communications and the marketing director for Space Adventures, the first space tourism company to send private individuals to the ISS. Robert is a Space Camp Hall of Fame member and a contributing writer to Space.com.