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Since the beginning of the space program, we\u2019ve always expected astronauts to be fully abled athletic overachievers who are one-part science-geek, two-parts triathlete \u2013 a mix the writer Tom Wolfe famously called \u201cthe right stuff.\u201d\nBut what if, this whole time, we\u2019ve had it all wrong?\nIn this episode, reporter Andrew Leland joins a blind linguistics professor named Sheri Wells-Jensen and a crew of eleven other disabled people on a mission to prove that disabled people have what it takes to go to space. And not only that, but that they may have an edge over non-disabled people. We follow the Mission AstroAccess crew members to Long Beach, California, where they hop on an airplane to take an electrifying flight that simulates zero-gravity \u2013 a method used by NASA to train astronauts \u2013 and afterwards learn that the biggest challenges to a future where space is accessible to all people may not be where they expected to find them. And our reporter Andrew, who is legally blind himself, confronts some unexpected conclusions of his own.This episode was reported by Andrew Leland and produced by Maria Paz Gutierrez, Matt Kielty and Pat Walters. Jeremy Bloom contributed music and sound design. Production sound recording by Dan McCoy.Special thanks to William Pomerantz, Sheyna Gifford, Jim Vanderploeg, Tim Bailey, and\xa0Bill Barry\nSupport Radiolab by becoming a member of\xa0The Lab\xa0today.\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\nRadiolab is on YouTube!\xa0Catch up with new episodes and hear classics from our archive. Plus, find other cool things we did in the past \u2014 like miniseries, music videos, short films and animations, behind-the-scenes features, Radiolab live shows, and more. Take a look, explore and subscribe!\nDOWNLOAD BRAILLE READY FILE HERE\xa0(https://zpr.io/vWtJYGLn6UXm)\n \xa0\nCitations in this episode\nMultimedia:Sheri Wells-Jensen\u2019s\xa0SETI Institute presentationLearn more about Mission AstroAccessOther work by Andrew Leland\nArticles:Sheri Wells-Jensen\u2019s, \u201cThe Case for Disabled Astronauts,\u201d\xa0Scientific American