The View From Here
Government Must Understand the Travel Effect
The U.S. Travel Association last week released its report on the unintended consequences of the U.S. government’s off-target, ham-fisted crackdown on government employee travel – revealing that our political leaders have placed in jeopardy some 340,000 American jobs and $24.4 billion in economic activity, without actually saving any taxpayer dollars. In fact, the current anti-travel…
Doing the Hard Things
The following “View from Here” article originally appeared in Space Watch in June 2011. On May 18, (2011) I had the privilege of testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation as a third-party, unbiased expert on the Contributions of Space to National Imperatives. I was joined by Frank Slazer, vice…
Never Lose Infinite Hope
It’s a well known-mantra of strategic planners, “hope is not a strategy.” I think anyone responsible for making a payroll, keeping the factory doors open, or accountable for achieving a mission, knows this. No matter what your hopes are, it is your intentions, plans and actions that determine the outcomes. That having been said, I…
New Times, New Opportunities
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ― Winston Churchill Even though I’m generally known to be a pretty optimistic guy, I don’t mind telling you that my nerves were a bit frayed as the countdown clocked neared T-minus-zero for the 29th National Space Symposium. As you’ll…
Following in Mark Twain’s Footsteps
There are many variations on the famous Mark Twain “report of my death” quote, so let me set the record straight. Twain penned the original note in May 1897 and it reads thusly: “James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago, in London, but is well now. “The…
Not Necessarily Smarter Than the Dinosaurs
Of the many extraordinary things that could be said about last month’s meteor strike near Chelyabinsk, Russia, perhaps the most remarkable was the fact that so many people needed to have someone explain to them just what a meteor is. I know that in many parts of the world, scientific literacy is appallingly low. As…
A Sea Monster in Colorado Springs?
QUESTION: What weighs 21,000 pounds, lives at the bottom of the sea and is on its way to a new life in Colorado Springs? ANSWER: NASA’s Scott Carpenter Station underwater habitat. The Scott Carpenter Station is an underwater habitat system that was used to demonstrate and teach about life support concepts for space missions, including…
The View From Here: Realigning the Stars
Happy New Year — unless you observe the Chinese or Gregorian calendars — and welcome to 2013, a year in which we can expect to see a continued realigning of the stars where space programs, policies and organizations are concerned. While 2012 was a year of mixed results in our industry, it certainly ended with…
The View From Here: The Final Frontier- Pioneers Wanted!
“Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise – its continuing mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” – Gene Roddenberry Drawing comparisons between fictional space programs, like that of Gene Roddenberry’s visionary Star Fleet, and…
The View From Here: Passion Wears a Pocket Protector
If there’s one thing that makes the space industry profoundly different from most other industries you can think of, it is the passion that each and every one of us brings to our job, day in and day out. Participating in a Space Foundation-Toffler Associates dinner in New York City’s financial district last week, I…