A live podcast and a birthday cake

On Oct. 1, NASA turned 60, and employees at NASA's Johnson Space Center gathered around the Teague Auditorium to celebrate the future of human spaceflight and share memories from programs past, like Apollo and Space Shuttle, and current-day programs.

Dining on birthday cake and watching the first live recording of Houston, We Have a Podcast, attendees kicked off the center’s year-long celebration of this momentous anniversary.

For the interactive podcast, host and podcast creator Gary Jordan took to the Teague stage with award winning science-fiction authors Mary Robinette Kowal and Dan Wells, as well as Schlock Mercenary cartoonist Howard Tayler. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren and DongWon Song, agent at the Morhaim Literary Agency, also joined the panel.

The episode discussed NASA’s relevance for creative storytellers across the arts and science-fiction’s unique ability to promote and inspire interest in STEM.

Stay tuned for the upcoming release of the episode, and be sure to keep an eye on Roundup Reads for upcoming NASA 60th events like Johnson’s Open House on Oct. 27.