Guest: Emily Carney; Topics: Emily's blog work with the NSS known as "This Space Available," her series on Space in the 70's, Apollo lunar topics, Skylab, the Space Shuttle and history, 70's planetary missions, Gerard O'Neill, space solar power and more.

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We welcomed Emily Carney back to the show to discuss her blog work, many of her articles and the fact that she now was a National Space Society blogger.  Emily told us how and why she started blogging for the NSS plus she mentioned her independent podcast series, "Space And Things with David Giles in the UK.  Check it out.

I asked Emily about her blog series which caught my attention, "Space in the 70's.  We discussed four of her articles in the series including "Envisioning the Space Shuttle, 1970-1980," "The Decade That Brought the Human element Back to Spaceflight," Skylab's Other Astronomy Experiments," and "Disco, Delays, And Disillusionment: Bruce McCandless II and Al Worden During the 1970s."  Time did not permit us to delve into each of these articles but we did hit highlights so listen to what our guest had to say about the topics and her assessments for each topic covered.  In addition, Emily spent time explaining why space history was so important, the earlier period regarding Apollo and lunar programs which started in the 1960s, then moving onward in the 1980s with the shuttle and more.  She thought the 70's had a gap so she wanted to fill it in.

We did talk quite a bit about the shuttle and Skylab plus there were listener emails and phone calls throughout our program with shuttle and Skylab commentary.  Early in the discussion, our San Diego listener Todd asked Emily if she had picked up on any commercial precursors to today's commercial market.  She said yes and then zeroed in on Gerrard O'Neill who she said was the father of space settlement.  She had much to say about his being a futurist in that he knew NASA would not be the one to develop space and settlements and that the private sector would evolve to lead the way.  This idea came up many times during our program.  Emily then applauded the Viking and Voyager missions.  Don't miss her comments.

Marshall called to talk about the mood of the people back then.  He said people were happy and inspired but it waned.  Emily had much to say with Marshall so do listen to his phone call discussion without guest.  I followed up and asked Emily what the astronomy was she was talking about regarding Skylab. I wanted her to discuss some of what caught her attention on our program.  In her response, she listed three areas of focus plus note what she said about LANDSAT, medical experiments and more.  Emily said Skylab data was still being used on the ISS today.  Speaking of Skylab, Jane from Seattle asked if Skylab could have been saved.  She said no but listen to her full response. This subject was a common one on early Space Show programs.  Listen to what she had to say about the impact of the sun at this time.

Emily was asked about her article focusing on Al Worden and Bruce McCandless II.  I asked her about "disco" being part of the title of the article.  Emily had interesting things to say about this period of the 70s.  Her article is dated Oct. 9, 2021 and worth the read.  Next, Fremont John called to talk about O'Neill structures and more, the contrast with the shuttle era and design compromises, space solar power, plus additional topics from this era.  The L5 organization merger with the National Space Society was discussed by both.  The last caller was Jean from Pasadena.  SSP and O'Neill stations were discussed among a few additional topics.

Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog for this show.  You can reach Emily through me, her NSS blog, or her podcast.