This week on Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companion, we welcome NASA legend Homer Hickam to the show. The inspiration for the movie October Sky talks about growing up in a West Virginia coal-mining town, his new book, Don’t Blow Yourself Up, and... teaching David Letterman how to SCUBA dive?  But first, we look in on an extreme exoplanet where iron rains down from the sky, we join NASA as they ready to deflect an asteroid for the first time, and we will join a Russian film crew which recently arrived at the ISS, preparing to shoot the first movie in space.  Listen to this interview with Homer Hickam here, or watch the video version of this episode at: https://youtu.be/Y1QzOHO-HyI--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-cosmic-companion/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/the-cosmic-companion/support Get full access to The Cosmic Companion at thecosmiccompanion.substack.com/subscribe