Leveraging its position as one of the largest aviation universities in the world, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University takes leadership in aviation safety seriously. Under the guidance of Robert Sumwalt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board and now executive director for Embry-Riddle’s Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety, the university has launched the Safer Skies podcast, aimed at examining the innovations and steps forward in aviation safety. Sumwalt recently received the National Aeronautics Association’s 2026 Wright Brothers Award in light of his lifelong service to the NTSB and the aviation industry.
In the first episode, Sumwalt sits down with Dr. Janet Kavandi, NASA space shuttle astronaut and member of ERAU’s board of trustees. Kavandi was selected for an astronaut class in December 1995, and in the spring of 1995 entered the 18-month training program. Kavandi had previously soloed in a Cessna, then went straight into T-38s during the flight portion of the program. “Everyone was there to help each other,” rather than being a competition, she recalls in the podcast.
Kavandi spent a total of 33 days in space. As part of the shuttle flying, she spent time on International Space Station (with a linear architecture, where “down is always down”) and worked on the Russian Mir station (built as a hub and spoke, with a different sense of zero gravity). She notes one of her favorite moments: 45 minutes of darkness comprised “night,” and on one orbit, the ISS tracked over London, Paris, Rome, the dark Mediterranean Sea, then the Nile peninsula, and plunged into the darkness again over Africa.
Her career took her into roles as Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office, then Director of Flight Crew Ops at Johnson Space Center, and then on to lead at NASA Glenn Research Center. She retired from NASA in 2019 to head up Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Sierra Space division for five years.
“Is the reward worth the risk?” In Kavandi’s estimation, that’s “yes”: What we have achieved going into space was worth the risk in the science that was brought back. One arena is in cancer research, taking advantage of the fact that cancer cells grow similarly in space as they do in the human body, giving the ability to test multiple drug protocols at one time.
It was also worth it to keep dreaming of space even when it didn’t look achievable. When Kavandi was in high school the first women were undergoing the selection process for the first female astronaut class, before which she didn’t feel she could articulate her dreams of becoming an astronaut.
In the podcast, Kavandi also reviews the hard lessons learned in the Columbia accident. “My friends who were on that flight knew the risks and were willing to take them,” said Kavandi. “My daughter was 8 years old … her babysitter, my friend, was on the mission.” Therefore, Kavandi made the decision not to fly again, because it was too much to ask of her family. “I’d already had three [missions]; they all went really well.” From the accidents, NASA learned things like, you can’t expect foam not to put a hole in the wing—it doesn’t have that much mass, but there’s a lot of acceleration. “We learned about restraints for astronauts, and the helmets, and we made changes based on that. We learned our bones decalcified faster than expected.”
Opportunities to become a career astronaut continue, both by applying to NASA or pursuing a slot with a commercial space operation. “Never Give Up” were the words above her desk in her dorm room. They remain a great motto to follow.
Future guests on the Safer Skies podcast will include: Major General Jeannie Leavitt, U.S. Air Force (USAF) veteran; Captain Tammie Jo Shults, former U.S. Navy aviator and airline pilot; Dr. John K. Lauber, retired senior vice president of Product Safety and chief product safety officer for Airbus and former NTSB board member; and Patty Wagstaff, U.S. national aerobatic champion.
