Space exploration and development – more than numbers
The best answers led us to better questions. It is easy to embrace this notion as just part of the process, learning and all that, and all good. Admittedly, this sentiment may just be comforting fiction. I wasn’t lost. I was exploring. Why admit that we didn’t look far enough ahead and that what was … Continue reading Please phrase your answer in the form of a question
On my shelves sits a childhood book “Planets and Spaceflight,” published in 1957 by General Mills. The front cover is “Planets,” and the rear is “Spaceflight,” full of vivid descriptions and beautiful artwork of the many places to go and how we will get there. The publisher is best known for Cheerios, so I’m sure … Continue reading What’s old is new again – more on refueling in space
Range anxiety was invented by NASA. Well, perhaps not (or Velcro), but space exploration gives new meaning to an obsessive awareness of how much further you can go when there is no charger on every corner. Now imagine that feeling if you are in outer space or back on the ground watching your spacecraft, not … Continue reading The rise, fall and rise again of refueling – in space
Iconic orange Space Shuttle External Tanks and shiny SpaceX Starships are uncannily close in scale. I was fortunate to be on the team in the 1990s that checked out and prepared the External Tanks and then on the team that filled and launched them. I could not have guessed that 23 years into my career … Continue reading Of external tanks and Starships
Blue sky ahead. My job with NASA always meant looking ahead. Today I can’t help but look back. I am now retired, which I find an odd mix of calm, caffeinated, and a sense “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.” I arrived at Kennedy Space Center in 1988, a wonderful world of huge machines, … Continue reading Technology stagnation and NASA – problem and opportunity
Zapata Talks NASA 