The View From Here
With a Lot of Help from our Friends
The Space Foundation has an ambitious mission: to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity. We do that through a broad range of programs and services. None would be possible without the generous support we receive from our Corporate Partners, from our communities and from organizations and individuals who share our passion for…
The View From Here: Looking Up
Honomu, Hawai’i – The views of the night sky are spectacular from this sleepy little village at the foot of Mauna Kea. Armed with nothing more than the naked eye and my handy mobile Google Skies app, I can easily pick out the constellations Hercules, Lyra, Scorpio, Libra, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Gemini and Orion –…
The View From Here: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
On Nov. 10, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the co-chairmen of President Barack Obama’s deficit reduction commission, released a plan to cut $3.8 trillion from the budget by limiting spending and overhauling the tax code. On the face of it, one would think this a good idea. The last time the U.S. federal government balanced…
The View From Here: Innovating Our Preferred Future
Like the famous truism that characterizes pornography as something “you can’t define, but you’ll know it when you see it,” the word “innovation” is being volleyed about the space industry today as some kind of generic panacea for lean, difficult, underfunded times. Certainly there is an element of truth in the notion, especially if we…
The View from Here: Saluting an Enduring Space-Age Icon
After almost a year of debate and indecision, the House has passed the Senate’s NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which is expected to be signed by the president. While certainly not perfect, the legislation should help stabilize the space agency and industry for the near term. With all the hub-bub, we don’t want something truly…
The View from Here: Future is "Job 1"
Riddle me this: what has 18 legs and swarms across the U.S. changing lives, minds and learning habits for life each summer? Answer: the Space Foundation education team. Of the many things the Space Foundation does, none is more important than our work to transform the lives of teachers and students, and to reinvent education to…
Give Me Your ATM Card, Your GPS Device, and Your Comfy Mattress
Why spend money on space in a tough economy? We hear that question all the time. And, we understand that every spending decision, whether it be by a government, a corporation, or an individual, should be carefully considered regardless of the state of the economy. At the Space Foundation, we believe there are many, many…
New U.S. National Space Policy Provides Positive Framework
On June 28, the Space Foundation welcomed the release of the new U.S. National Space Policy as “an important milestone in furthering national and international discussions about the future direction of the United States in space.” “Although there are some inconsistencies and areas of concern, largely the new U.S. National Space Policy provides a positive…
Einstein's View of Insanity
The following is excerpted from David L. Taylor’s keynote remarks at the Washington Space Business Roundtable, May 11, 2010. Albert Einstein was many things – physicist, Nobel Prize winner, philosopher, humanist, pacifist. His career was notable by the constant quest for knowledge. His theory of insanity, as the act of doing ‘the same thing over and…
Surely, The Best of Times
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it…