This hour on Focus, we'll listen back to a conversation with Homer Hickam, former NASA engineer and acclaimed author of Rocket Boys: A Memoir.

Guest: Louis Friedman, Ph.D.

He earned his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT. He worked for NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He co-founded the Planetary Society with Carl Sagan and Bruce Murray. Today, he joins Focus 580 to discuss the future of the American space program.

Guest: Stephen J. Pyne, Ph.D.

Within the next few years, we may see one of the Voyager spacecraft become the first man-made object to exit our solar system. It's the pinnacle of how far the human drive to explore can take us. Today on Focus, we're joined by Stephen Pyne, author of Voyager: Seeking Newer Worlds in the Third Age of Discovery. He'll talk about the great explorers, their motives, and their rewards, from the Renaissance to the modern age.

Guest: Paul Dickson.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched what would be the first man-made object to enter space. Today on Focus, we'll explore the dramatic history of Sputnik's launch, the instantaneous impact it made on the next decade to come, and the developments that brought America into the space race. Our guest will be writer Paul Dickson, author of Sputnik: The Shock of the Century.