Planetary Radio Episodes

Since 2002, Planetary Radio has visited with a scientist, engineer, project manager, advocate, or writer who provides a unique perspective on the quest for knowledge about our Solar System and beyond. The full show archive is available for free.

Science from the Moon, and former NASA chief scientist Jim Green looks back

The former director of NASA’s Planetary Science division, Jim Green, retired as the agency’s chief scientist in January. This episode opens with a special announcement from host Mat Kaplan.

The JWST: An Awesome New Window on the Universe Opens Wide

NASA and its partners have revealed the first stunning images from the new space telescope. We’ll talk about them with Bill Nye and members of the JWST team.

A Hero of the New Space Age: Lori Garver and Escaping Gravity

Lori Garver went up against powerful forces inside and outside NASA to create the hugely successful commercial cargo and crew programs.

Asteroid Day! Earth Plays Defense

We Earthlings are making progress toward defending our planet from near-Earth objects, which is reason enough for the annual Asteroid Day celebration.

Sail on! Bill Nye and others celebrate LightSail 2’s three years in space

Celebrate the third anniversary of LightSail 2’s launch with Bill Nye and other leaders of The Planetary Society.

Portrait of a Scientist: A Conversation with Psyche mission leader Lindy Elkins-Tanton

Psyche asteroid mission principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton returns with her excellent new memoir, A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman.

Planetary Radio at the Humans to Mars Summit

Mat Kaplan helped host the Humans to Mars Summit in Washington D.C., where much of the community that is working to get us to Mars gathered.

Planetary Radio Live in London: The Moons Symphony

Join us for Planetary Radio Live at Imperial College London!

Cassini’s Dramatic End: A Planetary Radio Reprise

We were there when the Cassini spacecraft ended 13 years of exploration and revelation at Saturn.

Life, the Universe and Britney Schmidt

Britney Schmidt is preparing us for the day when a submarine will slip into the seas of an ocean world like Europa to search for life.

Perseverance Perseveres: A Mars rover update from Ken Farley

The Mars 2020 rover has rolled into an ancient river delta on the Red Planet. Will we find evidence of past life there?

Heavy Metal: An encounter with the Psyche spacecraft

Suit up for an up-close encounter with the Psyche spacecraft that will soon launch toward the asteroid belt.

The End of Astronauts?

Britain’s Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and science writer Don Goldsmith question the value of putting astronauts in harm’s way at great expense in their new book.

Yuri’s Night: Join the party!

Thousands celebrated the 61st anniversary of the first human voyage into space. We’ll take you to the Los Angeles party under the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise

Fred Haise takes us on board the mission that almost didn’t make it home from the Moon and shares many other stories.

Neptune Odyssey: why we need to visit an ice giant

Leaders of the Neptune Odyssey study for the next planetary science and astrobiology decadal survey share their team’s exciting approach for an ice giant-orbiting spacecraft.

X-raying the universe with Martin Weisskopf

X-ray astronomy is vital to solving some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. Martin Weisskopf’s brand new space telescope has joined the effort.

Legendary space physics pioneer Margaret Kivelson

A fascinating conversation with a space science and policy leader who is still hard at work in her 10th decade.

Meet the first STEP Grant awardees

The Planetary Society’s new Science and Technology Empowered by the Public (STEP) grant program will let citizens join the search for ET and enable astronomers to discover the nature of hundreds of near-Earth asteroids.

Water, water everywhere with Bethany Ehlmann

Water may have flowed on Mars for a billion more years than was previously thought, giving possible life an extra billion years to thrive.

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