The View From Here
Let's Recommit to Space For the Economy's Sake
This month’s The View From Here is a viewpoint from a different place: it’s a reprint of an editorial penned by Col. Brewster Shaw, USAF (retired), that appeared May 19 in the Houston Chronicle. The dramatic images of a space shuttle launch lighting up the Florida sky, or of a spacewalking astronaut hundreds of miles…
THE VIEW FROM HERE
“Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” – William Shakespeare What has happened to our nation’s aspirations for greatness? Since the Apollo moon landings of 1969-1972, our appetite for greatness has undeniably waned. For more than two decades the NASA budget has been…
The View from Here:
With apologies to our readers, Space Watch is late to the launch pad this month, owing to the timing of the 25th National Space Symposium and the demands that mission success and customer support make upon our Space Foundation team. I want to thank all our customers, from all over the world, who came together…
The View From Here
If you haven’t read Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson’s newest book, “The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet,” you owe yourself the treat. Not only is it vintage Tyson at his entertaining best, but “Pluto Files” also sheds light on the ever-changing level of knowledge that we have about our place in…
The View from Here
Unless something dramatic happens between composing this missive and publishing it, the newly hopeful United States, under the leadership of the “Yes, We Can!” Obama administration, will commence February 2009 without a NASA administrator, and with no apparent overarching strategy for integrating NASA in a deeply impactful way into the much ballyhooed economic stimulus plan.…
THE VIEW FROM HERE
Hauoli makahiki hou! That’s Hawaiian for Happy New Year, and is as good a place as any to start The View from Here as we look out across the political and economic nebula of 2009. Like a nebula, we know that 2009 will be giving birth to new things where the space community is concerned…
The View From Here:
Like most Americans may be, I’m only too happy to see 2008 come to an end. Wrung out by a long presidential campaign and a global economic melt-down, 2008 is a year that I’ll remember as a long season of unwelcomed news – punctuated by a historic moment of hope as Americans elected Senator Barack…
The View From Here
At sea near the Hawaiian Islands and tending the aft sails of the historic Polynesian voyaging canoe Hokule’a, I cannot help but be struck with a deep sense of how long people have looked up at the stars, charted their course by them, and set sail on voyages of exploration. By the time this edition…
The View from Here
Participants at our recently completed Strategic Space and Defense 2008 conference couldn’t help but notice the strong representation of our international partners. Coalition war fighting partners, NATO allies, joint operators, friends new and old were well represented in Omaha, with nearly 30 senior military officers representing half a dozen partner nations. And well they should…
The View from Here
When the leaders of U.S. Strategic Command, our allies, and the space and defense industrial base gather in Omaha next month for the Strategic Space and Defense conference, Space Situational Awareness (SSA) will loom large on the agenda. However, some recent events convince me that our SSA is worse than we think and the implications…