Episode · The Life Scientific
Ginger Kerrick on manning Nasa's Mission Control and getting to Mars
6 Oct 2026 · 28 min
Episode notes
What do you do when your childhood dream of becoming an astronaut is grounded at the final hurdle? If you’re physicist Ginger Kerrick, you go on to help run the missions instead. After failing the medical of her astronaut application process, Ginger went on to become Nasa’s first non-astronaut CAPCOM and its first Hispanic female Flight Director. Across a remarkable three-decade career, she helped train the International Space Station’s first long-term crew, logged thousands of hours in Mission Control, and shaped future missions to the moon and Mars. All with her trademark determination and…
Podcast
The Life Scientific
BBC Radio 4 · Tech & Science · English
Professor Jim Al-Khalili talks to leading scientists about their life and work, finding out what inspires and motivates them and asking what their discoveries might do for us in the future
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