Last week at The Planetary Society's headquarters in Pasadena, Bill Nye listened intently as engineers recapped all the changes they've made to the organization's LightSail 2 spacecraft.

Nye has been busy lately. A new documentary film on his life, "Bill Nye: Science Guy," recently debuted at South by Southwest. His new Netflix show, "Bill Nye Saves the World," comes out next month. And he's also been reaching out to the Trump administration with ideas for America's space program.

Despite all this, Nye spent a day in a conference room for LightSail 2's pre-ship review, a common space mission milestone where engineers and program managers decide whether a spacecraft is ready to be handed off for final integration and launch.

These meetings sometimes wander deep into the technical weeds, but Nye, ever the bridge between engineering-speak and everyday language, occasionally stopped the conversation to ask for further clarification.

At one point, the discussion touched on stiffener brackets that were added to allow LightSail to fit more smoothly inside its P-POD, a spring-loaded enclosure used to push CubeSats into space.

"The brackets ensure there's no interaction between the solar panels and the side of the P-POD," a presenter said.

"By interaction, you mean scraping?" Nye said.

There was some nervous laughter. The reply was yes.

"Ah, a technical term," Nye said. "Like the way a car accident involves two fenders interacting."

Everyone laughed again, and the mood of the room grew more relaxed.

"Sorry, carry on," said Nye, smiling. "You're going after all these little things. It's really good."