133: Wonders All Around with Bruce McCandless III
That famous photo- the one we\u2019re all familiar with- an astronaut in a bright white suit flying untethered \u2013 floating, really, above the Earth with the dark contrast of space in the background\u2026 that photo has an incredible backstory\u2026 and it\u2019s been captured perfectly in an awesome new book by author Bruce McCandless III.\xa0\xa0
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Astronaut Bruce McCandless III is perhaps best remembered as the subject of a famous NASA photograph (below right), flying alongside the space shuttle in the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) -- the first astronaut to fly untethered from his spacecraft\u2026
His time as an astronaut encompassed much more than that mission, including serving as the Mission Control communicator for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's moonwalk on the Apollo 11 mission. There\u2019s so much more to this iconic photo- and now we can enjoy the story behind the moment from Bruce\u2019s son, Bruce McCandless III in his new book, Wonders All Around.\xa0 On this episode, Bruce shares his perspective with Beth on what it was like growing up with an astronaut Dad and more right here on this week\u2019s Casual Space Podcast.\xa0 Both the book -and this conversation- is really good.\xa0\xa0
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About Bruce McCandless III\xa0
Bruce McCandless III grew up in the shadow of Houston\u2019s Johnson Space Center during the Apollo and Skylab eras, watching Batman and Buzz Aldrin with equal enthusiasm. He graduated from the Plan II Honors Program of the University of Texas and went on to earn an M.A. from the University of Reading in England and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law. After teaching at Saint David\u2019s School in New York City, he returned to Austin to practice law and retired in 2019 as general counsel of Superior HealthPlan, the Texas affiliate of Fortune 100 company Centene.\xa0
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In addition to Wonders All Around: The Incredible True Story of Astronaut Bruce McCandless II and The First Untethered Flight in Space, Bruce is also the author of the science fiction novel Sour Lake (2011), the modern fairy tale Beatrice and the Basilisk (2014), and, with his daughter Carson, a book of light verse for middle schoolers titled Carson Clare\u2019s Trail Guide to Avoiding Death (And Other Unpleasant Consequences) (2017). He has published poems, stories, and essays in a variety of journals, including the Texas Observer, The Seattle Review, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Pleiades, and Consequence, and his book of poems, All of This is Ours, will be published in the summer of 2021 by Kelsay Books. Bruce is an avid runner and mountain biker who spends most of his free time on Central Texas trails. He is also a board member of the Worthy Garden Club\u2014an Oregon-based environmental organization working to plant a million trees in the Pacific Northwest\u2014and the Austin Library Foundation. Bruce and his wife, Pati McCandless, live in Austin
To Learn More about Bruce and his work:\xa0
First, check out the famous photo here: Bruce McCandless III from the NASA website: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/astronaut-bruce-mccandless-on-first-ever-untethered-spacewalk
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Bruce III, the author, the attorney, the teacher and more: https://brucemccandless.com.\xa0
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ORDER YOUR COPY OF THIS GREAT BOOK Wonders All Around HERE: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1626348650/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
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