Transitions (Part II), Grand Central, and the Kennedy Space Center VAB

If you have been to Grand Central Station in New York City through the mid to late 1970s and as recently as last week, discovering you are in a transport hub where a welcome wander comes easily, the sense is about contrast. The hub peaked in the late 1940s, beginning a decline soon after. The explanations for the downward spiral touch on the rise of the automobile, air travel replacing long-distance rail, and the start of New York’s financial strains. Growing up in New York in the 70s, our passage through Grand Central came with a reminder to keep walking, look ahead, and catch our connection. We did not frequent the station.

Today, there is a vibrant terminal, as much a destination to enjoy as an operational transportation center.

Only because of the contrast that comes with time travel, a location in seeming irreversible decline, then flash forward, exact location, reborn,  positively brimming with energy, is there a second sense. Possibility. No rush now. No need to keep walking. Pause. Take it in. Anything is possible.

In 1998, the Vision Spaceport partnership was one of the first “commercial” partnerships at NASA Kennedy Space Center. As part of this project, which looked at Kennedy’s future, we enlisted space artist Pat Rawlings to envision possibilities. One of his artworks was scurried away at the time, getting one too many odd initial reactions. Instead, we adorned our presentations with hypersonic vehicles on runways.

We should have used the curious reactions to remind our audiences about possibilities. The clutching of pearls should have told us, “Mission accomplished.” Keep this picture front and center.

As another NASA leadership transition comes around, Grand Central then and now is a reminder. We are capable of decline, rebirth – anything.