16 Sunsets
16 Sunsets

16 Sunsets

Antica & Telltale Studios

Overview
Episodes

Details

"16 Sunsets" is a captivating 10-part podcast series that explores the dramatic history of NASA's Space Shuttle program, crafted by the award-winning team behind "13 Minutes to the Moon." Hosted by renowned space storyteller Kevin Fong and featuring music by Christian Lundberg from Hans Zimmer's Bleeding Fingers Composers' Collective, the series recounts the birth of the Shuttle era through the eyes of those who built and flew it. From the Shuttle's audacious first flight in 1981 with Commander John Young and rookie Bob Crippen to the intricate technical challenges it faced, the podcast delves into the political, engineering, and cultural forces that shaped its inception. With over 40 interviews from NASA veterans and personal insights from Fong—who witnessed the Shuttle era firsthand—"16 Sunsets" captures the spirit of innovation and the human stories behind the missions, revealing the profound impact of the Space Shuttle on our understanding of human spaceflight.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent Episodes

Abort, Abort, Abort!
FEB 13, 2025
Abort, Abort, Abort!

The command ‘Abort RTLS’ was the last thing that astronauts on board the space shuttle wanted to hear from mission control.   It meant that one or two of the shuttle’s main engines had failed in the first couple of minutes after lift-off and that the crew’s only hope of a safe landing was a blood-curdling manoeuvre at super-sonic speeds.   The Return to Launch Site abort mode was an astronautic U-turn, aimed at getting the hobbled spacecraft back to the launch site at Kennedy Space Center.   RTLS was one of several abort scenarios for which shuttle crews had to train, and it was not even the scariest.


Ever wondered how the Space Shuttle came to be? Welcome to a new podcast series, 16 Sunsets. In this episode, Host Dr Kevin Fong delves into the range of options which shuttle crews had if they were forced to abort a mission during their ascent to space.  He talks to former NASA staff and astronauts about the gruelling training and simulation exercises for flying aborts and dealing with malfunctions, and he explores why shuttle needed such exotic and hair-raising abort modes.


Featuring: Gordon Fullerton, Stokes MacMillan, Tim Terry, Robert Crippen, Robert Kelso, John Young, Jeffrey Hoffman, Craig Sumner, Gerry Griffin, Roy Bridges, Gene Kranz, Mike Coats, Don Pettit, Barney Roberts, Robert Stewart, Christopher Kraft and Howard Hu.


Credits:

Written and presented by Dr Kevin Fong

Producers: Andrew Luck-Baker, Rami Tzabar and Dave Giles.

Assistant Producer: Kate Arkless Gray

Sound Design and Mixing: Richard Courtice

Music: Christian Lundberg, part of Hans Zimmer’s Bleeding Fingers Composer Collective

With special thanks to Sandra Johnson at Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre Oral History Project, to Stephen Slater for additional archive material, and to William Reeves and Herb Baker. 

Executive Producers: Stuart Coxe, Kevin Fong, Jago Lee and Rami Tzabar

16 Sunsets is an Antica and TellTale Production 2024

Check out our website at https://sixteensunsets.com 

Instagram: @sixteen_sunsets

Bluesky: @16sunsets.bsky.social

X: @16sunsets


Want more 16 Sunsets? Become a premium member of our community and unlock exclusive content, including early and ad-free episodes, by subscribing to 16 Sunsets on Supercast. Learn more at https://16sunsets.supercast.com


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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62 MIN
Anatomy of a Firecracker
JAN 30, 2025
Anatomy of a Firecracker

Getting the 100 tonne space shuttle orbiter from the pad to orbit demanded a launch system like no other before it.  A huge external fuel tank containing hundreds of tonnes of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fed the orbiter’s three powerful main engines.  But that wasn’t enough to lift the fully fuelled shuttle off the launch pad.  Two towering booster rockets, bolted to the fuel tank, were needed for most of the necessary thrust.  Compared to the Apollo Saturn vehicles, this was a novel and complex configuration of rocketry.  Designing and building the shuttle launch system required multiple engineering frontiers to be advanced, and some challenging and controversial decisions to be made.  


Ever wondered how the Space Shuttle came to be? Welcome to a new podcast series, 16 Sunsets. In this episode, Host Kevin Fong explores the awesome and explosive anatomy of the space shuttle launch system - and its vulnerabilities - with former NASA engineers who built its component parts.  The podcast takes you through the violent journey from final countdown to orbit in the company of shuttle engineers and some of the astronauts who rode on their handiwork.  


Featuring: Mark Mullane, Lowell Zoller, Craig Sumner, Mark Craig, Jeffrey Hoffman, Gerald Smith, Warren Wiley, Matthew Hersch, Jennifer Lavasseur, Robert Stewart, Robert Crippen, Ivy Hooks, Barney Roberts and David Mindell.


Credits:

Written and presented by Dr Kevin Fong

Producers: Andrew Luck-Baker and Rami Tzabar with additional production by Dave Giles.

Assistant Producer: Kate Arkless Gray

Sound Design and Mixing: Richard Courtice

Music: Christian Lundberg, part of Hans Zimmer’s Bleeding Fingers Composer Collective

With special thanks to Sandra Johnson and Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre Oral History Project 

Executive Producers: Stuart Coxe, Kevin Fong, Jago Lee and Rami Tzabar


16 Sunsets is an Antica and TellTale Production 2024.


Check out our website at https://sixteensunsets.com 

Instagram: @sixteen_sunsets

X: @16sunsets


Want more 16 Sunsets? Become a premium member of our community and unlock exclusive content, including early and ad-free episodes, by subscribing to 16 Sunsets on Supercast. Learn more at https://16sunsets.supercast.com


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.





Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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61 MIN
New Frontiers
DEC 19, 2024
New Frontiers

Now that the Space Shuttle Enterprise has successfully flown over the Mojave Desert, NASA needs to press ahead. Next stop is low Earth Orbit but first, this new star ship needs a crew. No longer the preserve of white male military pilots, the next generation of astronauts would need to have a variety of different skills and expertise. They would also need to better reflect the diversity of American society in the 1970s. So to help find these new recruits, NASA got help from an unexpected source - someone who had already crossed new frontiers on a fictional starship. 


Ever wondered how the Space Shuttle came to be? Welcome to a new podcast series, 16 Sunsets. In this episode, Host Kevin Fong explores the hiring of NASA's astronaut class from 1978, called the "Thirty Five New Guys." This group included the first six women astronauts, as well as the first African-American, Asian-American, and Jewish astronauts. The podcast reveals the challenges they faced as well as the hope and inspiration they brought to many people back on Earth.


Featuring: Alan Bean, Charles Bolden, Marianne Dyson, Jeff Hoffman, Rob Kelso, Cheryl McNair, Ron McNair, Bill Moon, Mike Mullane, Sally Ride, Rhea Seddon and Kathy Sullivan.


Credits:

Written and presented by Dr Kevin Fong

Producers: Dave Giles, Rami Tzabar and Andrew Luck-Baker.

Assistant Producer: Kate Arkless Gray

Sound Design and Mixing: Richard Courtice

Music: Christian Lundberg, part of Hans Zimmer’s Bleeding Fingers Composer Collective

With special thanks to Sandra Johnson and Nasa’s Johnson Space Centre Oral History Project 

Executive Producers: Stuart Coxe, Kevin Fong, Jago Lee and Rami Tzabar

16 Sunsets is an Antica and TellTale Production 2024


Check out our website at https://sixteensunsets.com 

Instagram: @sixteen_sunsets

X: @16sunsets


Want more 16 Sunsets? Become a premium member of our community and unlock exclusive content, including early and ad-free episodes, by subscribing to 16 Sunsets on Supercast. Learn more at https://16sunsets.supercast.com




Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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55 MIN