We’re thrilled to bring you our final episode with the legendary Chris Hadfield, and what a way to go out! We dive deep into the mind of someone who decided at age 10 to become an astronaut and actually pulled it off. Chris shares incredible stories that’ll blow your mind - like intercepting Soviet bombers on Christmas Eve during the Cold War, only to hear “Merry Christmas” crackle over the radio from the Russian pilots. We explore his fascinating philosophy on risk (spoiler: he’s not the adrena...
Jun 24, 2025•47 min
In this special bonus episode of 16 Sunsets, host Kevin Fong talks to composers Christian Lundberg and Russell Emmanuel, of Hans Zimmer's renowned Bleeding Fingers Composers Collective about the creation and evolution of the compelling suite of themes that underscore the 16 Sunsets series. They discuss how they approached the challenge of capturing the essence of the Space Shuttle program through music, and how they developed themes that evolved alongside the narrative. The composers also reveal...
Apr 24, 2025•58 min
In this bonus episode of 16Sunsets , we present the interview performed Kevin Fong and Andrew Luck-Baker with former NASA flight director Rob Kelso—a man whose career spans the whole of the Space Shuttle era and whose stories offer a rare glimpse behind the consoles of Mission Control. From the first flight of Columbia to the secret world of classified missions, from the Challenger tragedy to building bonds through storytelling and chili cook-offs, Kelso's journey captures not only the technical...
Apr 10, 2025•48 min
April 12th 1981. Bob Crippen and John Young are in orbit around the Earth. Travelling at 17,500 miles an hour, with the world turning majestically beneath them, they witness 16 sunrises and sixteen sunsets every 24 hours. They have survived the violence of launch but the mission has run into a potential life-threatening problem. Crippen has just beamed footage down to mission control of missing tiles on the Shuttle’s OMS pods. If tiles are missing there, what about the underside of the orbiter, ...
Mar 27, 2025•58 min•Season 1Ep. 8
April 12 1981. STS-1. Space Shuttle Columbia now stands proud on pad 39A at Cape Canaveral. After more than a decade of development, planning and assembly, NASA approaches its moment of truth. The most complex flying machine ever built, two and half million moving parts, hundreds of mission critical components with no back up, brought together in a two thousand tonne stack of propellant, boosters and rocket engines which - when lit - will unleash energy enough to carry its astronaut crew and the...
Mar 13, 2025•47 min•Season 1Ep. 7
As we get nearer to STS-1 and that first all-up test of Space Shuttle Columbia, we wanted to take a look at one of the technical challenges that caused that first launch to slip back from 1979 to 1981: the thermal protection system that kept the extreme temperatures of launch, life in orbit, and re-entry from damaging the spacecraft and putting the crew at risk. So today, we’re sharing an interview that Kevin Fong and Andrew Luck Baker did with a former Orbiter Mechanic at Kennedy Space Center, ...
Feb 27, 2025•40 min
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 ...
Feb 13, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 6
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 compl...
Jan 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Before we get back on the road to the historic launch of STS-1, we have another special episode to share with you. This time an interview recorded by Kevin Fong and Andrew Luck-Baker with former mission specialist astronaut Bonnie Dunbar while they were touring the U.S. gathering material for this podcast. She’s now a professor of aerospace engineering at Texas A and M university and they spoke to her there. Dunbar studied engineering at college and went on to work for Rockwell constructing the ...
Jan 16, 2025•39 min
For this holiday special episode, we’re bringing you something different - a conversation that captures a remarkable moment in space history, told by the incomparable Major General Charles F. Bolden Jr. Charlie, as he's known to his friends, carved a path from the Marine Corps to the stars, becoming not just a fighter pilot and astronaut, but one of the most influential figures in NASA's history. He commanded two Space Shuttle missions and later served as NASA Administrator under President Obama...
Jan 02, 2025•27 min
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 ...
Dec 19, 2024•56 min•Season 1Ep. 4
12 August 1977. In the air, high above the Mojave desert, Apollo 13’s Fred Haise is at the controls of the Space Shuttle prototype. Alongside him is Gordon Fullerton. Cruising at 27 thousand feet, the vehicle is bolted to the back of a Boeing 747. It is the mother of all piggy-back rides. But this 68-tonne spacecraft is about to get its wings, as the moment approaches for the first free flight of the USS Enterprise. Haise pushes the button to blow the bolts - for a moment the shuttle lifts free,...
Dec 05, 2024•58 min•Season 1Ep. 3
A space shuttle stands on the pad, seething in the darkness, ready to go. Its mission is high speed espionage. Launching into the night sky, it heads north toward the pole, lining up over the Soviet Union. This is no science mission, but part of a highly classified military plan, which sees the Shuttle become an instrument of the Cold War. That requirement shaped both the design of the shuttle and the future of NASA’s human space exploration programme for the next thirty years. So why did that s...
Nov 21, 2024•42 min•Season 1Ep. 2
It’s 1968 and humanity reaches the Moon, but back on Earth, NASA is fighting for its life. As Apollo 8 makes history, the space agency faces a crisis. With the Vietnam War raging, political assassinations and social unrest gripping America, public interest in space exploration is dwindling, even before Neil Armstrong takes that one giant leap for mankind. To survive, NASA gambles on a radical new program: the Space Shuttle - a reusable spacecraft promising a new era of spaceflight, but it comes ...
Nov 07, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Buckle up for 16 Sunsets! 🚀 Join host Dr. Kevin Fong and executive producer Rami Tzabar in this pre-launch episode as they share the story behind this new podcast exploring the origin and history of the Space Shuttle, culminating in the daring first mission of Columbia in April 1981. Discover how this ambitious project took flight, who's along for the ride, and why Kevin's passion for space led him to tell this incredible story. Plus, get a sneak peek with exclusive clips from upcoming episodes...
Oct 31, 2024•22 min
Get ready for "16 Sunsets," a thrilling 10-part podcast series that dives deep into the dramatic history of NASA's Space Shuttle program. Join award-winning storyteller Kevin Fong as he takes you on a journey from the audacious first flight of the Shuttle Columbia in 1981 to the incredible challenges faced by its engineers and astronauts. Featuring captivating music by Christian Lundberg from Hans Zimmer's Bleeding Fingers Composers' Collective, this series brings to life the inspiring tales of ...
Sep 30, 2024•31 sec
