Stewarding the Outward Odyssey

Things I signed in a 24-hour period this week:

• Dozens of books for teachers

• A moon rocket.

On Wednesday, I got to sign my name on the SLS Orion Stage Adapter for Artemis II, scheduled to launch next year.

On Thursday, I gave my weekly summer Skylab talk to teachers at Space Camp, and signed copies of Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story for all the teachers.

Both were an incredible privilege, and together a good reminder of a point I make to the teachers each week – all of these things are part of an ongoing adventure.

Skylab was 50 years ago this year. It’s history – history we can learn from, history that can inspire.

Artemis II is scheduled to launch next year. It will see astronauts fly around the Moon for the first time in over half a century. It’s a step toward the next footprints on the lunar surface.

But even those next footprints are just another step – Mars and other worlds await. And carrying that torch forward will be a new generation of scientists and engineers and astronauts and more. My charge to the Space Camp teachers – go home and educate and inspire that future workforce that will accomplish things the Skylab generation and the Artemis generation never dreamed. Do good work.

I’m honored to have chronicled past chapters of our outward odyssey. I’m honored to be involved in the current chapter. But I’m most honored to be a steward of the adventure for those who keep it going.

Standing Between Giants

Fifty years ago today, my Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story co-author Joe Kerwin and his crewmates departed Earth for Skylab on a Saturn IB rocket launching from Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Complex 39B.

This anniversary is a special one because it’s a big round number, of course, but it’s also special to me because since the 49th, I’ve seen “my own” rocket launch from that very same launch pad. I’m jealous that Joe got to ride his rocket, but it’s surreal to me that I got to be any sort of part of a launch from the same pad.

I have the privilege of talking to Space Camp teachers every summer, and I think that I stress to them is that Skylab and Apollo and Shuttle and Artemis aren’t stand-alone discrete stories; that they are all part of an ongoing journey, and that they will go back to their classrooms and shape the astronauts, scientists, engineers and others who will author the next chapters of that story.

We stand today on the shoulders of giants who got us to where we are, we now are at the dawn of a new golden age of exploration, but that next generation will get to see and do things we have not yet even dreamed.

Artemis II: We Are Going

NASA today announced the Artemis II that soon will become the first human beings to fly around the Moon since 1972 – Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen.

When I was awarded NASA’s Silver Snoopy several years ago, Glover was the astronaut that presented it to me. More recently, I had the opportunity to emcee Koch’s induction into the Space Camp Hall of Fame. (I didn’t get see her in person that night, she was in space at the time.)

I say that as a reminder of this – this is real. This is happening. These are real people, about to do something incredible, for all of humankind. Even if you’ve never met any of these four astronauts, if you’re reading this, you’re just two degrees of separation from real people who are about to carry our species once more into deep space. How crazy is that?

This is the Golden Age of space. 

We. Are. Going.

Celebrating 40 Years of Space Camp

What a thrill to be there last night for the celebration of Space Camp’s 40th anniversary! At an 80s-themed dinner event, eight new members were inducted into the Space Camp Hall of Fame, including the crew of last year’s historic Inspiration4 space mission.

I broke out the Walkman and rocked a mustache for an amazing night. Rebecca and I got to hang out with mustache icon astronaut Hoot Gibson, and get my Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University magnet signed by two fellow Eagles – Inspiration4’s Jared Isaacman and Chris Sembrowski.

Wearing my SpaceCamp: The Movie t-shirt, I got my picture made with one of the stars of that film, Jinx the robot.

It was wonderful seeing so many friends, including U.S. Space & Rocket Center CEO Dr Kimberly Robinson – the announcement this week of a new building funded by a gift by Isaacman is just the latest growth to the Center since she began her tenure last year.

Over 1 million people have attended Space Camp in its four decade history, and it has inspired so many people and changed so many lives – many of whom are now inspiring others and changing lives themselves. It will be exciting to see what the future holds!

A Couple of Julys and a Space Race

Ever have that experience when you have dinner with two inspirational women one July and then two Julys later they’re racing each other into space?

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You may have seen the news about the billionaire space race, with Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson each planning to fly on their companies’ respective suborbital spaceships within the next three weeks.

Honestly, while I’m hugely in favor of increased access to space, I’m utterly uncaptivated by the billionaire bragging rights part of the story.

But Thursday, it became a bit more interesting –

Bezos will be flying with aeronautics pioneer Wally Funk, famed as one of the “Mercury 13” women who passed medical tests like those taken by the Mercury 7 astronauts 60ish years ago.

Branson will be flying with Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic’s chief astronaut trainer and the first woman to earn commercial astronaut wings.

One thing Wally Funk and Beth Moses have in common is that I got to MC their inductions into the Space Camp Hall of Fame two years ago this month.

I’ve long hoped that Wally Funk would get to go into space, and it’s sort of surreal to me that two years to the month after I was having dinner with them, they’re making spaceflight history (again).

From Mercury 13 to Virgin Galactic in One Night

Last night I had the honor of being the emcee for the 2019 Space Camp Hall of Fame induction ceremony. For the record, it was more than a little surreal sharing the stage with Homer Hickam and NASA

Marshall Space Flight Center Director Jody Singer and Dr. Deborah Barnhart and X Ambassadors keyboardist Casey Harris (and standing, as Jody pointed out, in the spot where Vice President Pence announced the goal of going to the moon in five years back in March).

But possibly the most incredible part was the history captured between two of the inductees in particular.

I was awed just to be in the same room as Wally Funk, one of the “Mercury 13” women who aced the tests given to the Mercury 7 astronauts and helped paved the way for female astronauts in the United States, despite never getting to go into space herself (yet). Getting a giant bear hug from Wally Funk as she takes the stage – yeah, that memory will stay with me.

It was also rather incredible to be sitting at a table having supper with Beth Moses, who made news (and history) just a few months ago as the first passenger of a commercial spaceflight.

As I was watching the presentations, though, I was struck with the realization that in a lifetime, we’ve gone from Wally Funk not getting the opportunity to fly because she was female to Beth Moses being the first human being, period, to open a new era of spaceflight. And if we can go from Wally Funk to Beth Moses in a lifetime, the future is exciting indeed.

Space Camp, I Demand A Recount!

Another fun find from my recent cleaning:

 

So I never went to Space Camp.

 

I never went to Space Camp, but not for lack of trying to get a scholarship. Every year I could, I wrote an essay for the competition to try to win a free stay at Space Camp, and every year … well, I didn’t.

 

Nowadays, it rather amuses me — I couldn’t write about space well enough to impress Space Camp, but I write about space well enough that NASA pays me to do so, which shows you who has the higher standards.

 

So it was neat to find in my cleaning a copy of my submission from 7th grade. Here’s what 11-year-old David had to say about the future of space.

 

I shared it with Rebecca, who has actually reviewed scholarship applications for Space Camp as part of her job, and she said it was fine, but not exceptional. (She did give me bonus points for my teacher recommendation, which was very kind.)

 

Which, to be sure, is one theory.

 

But in looking at it, I think the *real* issue is obvious. This was written 30 years ago, while the fleet was still grounded after Challenger. It talks about space telescopes, three years before the launch of Hubble. It talks about tourism on the space station, 23 years before any astronauts were on ISS. It talks about asteroid resource prospecting, which is still on the to-do list. Clearly, I was just too forward thinking. It’s taken 30 years for space to catch up with my essay.

 

I demand a recount, and am happy to clear my schedule for my visit to Space Camp.

“NASA Doesn’t Hire Bored Astronauts”

At the Orbital ATK test facility, the booster for NASA’s Space Launch System rocket was fired for a two minute test on March 11. The test is one of two that will qualify the booster for flight before SLS begins carrying NASA’s Orion spacecraft and other potential payloads to deep space destinations. Image Credit: NASA

If today’s QM-1 test of the Space Launch System’s solid rocket booster had been delayed a little less, or a little more, I very likely would have been at Promontory, Utah, today.

As it is, I’m in town preparing for a wedding, which has a booster firing — even a firing of THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL BOOSTER — beat hands down, and so I watched the test from the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, where I got to talk to Space Camp kids trainees about the rocket that one of them may someday ride on their way to Mars. Which, really, is a pretty cool way to watch it.

So, yeah, I had to wipe my eyes after the test before talking to the kids again. This job is exciting on a daily basis, but then there are those days where something huge happens, and you just sort of look around and say, “hey, we’re DOING this!”

The Orion launch in December was one of those. How long has NASA been working on Orion, and then one day I’m in Florida, and Orion is IN SPACE. And it’s mind-boggling. QM-1 has been imminent since I started at NASA (see my earlier blog post about that) but today it ACTUALLY HAPPENED. One step closer to a real, finished rocket. One step closer to launch. One step closer to Mars. This is happening. We’re doing this. It’s amazing.

It’s an incredible thing to watch. I’m blessed to be a part of it.

And, yeah, to share it with Space Camp trainees and other museum visitors? Such a thrill. I love watching stuff like this with my coworkers because it’s amazing that I’m actually a small part of the team that’s making this happen, but it was a different, unique and special experience to watch this one with these kids. In a very real way, they’re the ones we’re doing this for. We’ll be flying it long before they get out of school, but the really fun stuff, the walking on Mars? They’re just about the right age to be ready when NASA is. We’re building the future, and the future is theirs.

Speaking to Space Camp trainees before the QM-1 test firing.

And such great questions from these kids. I was lucky to have SLS engineer (and former boosters engineer) Brent Gaddes with me to take the technical stuff they were throwing at us.  How can you apply ground test data to system decide to operate in low-pressure environments? (Good engineering and good modeling.) Why don’t you do subscale testing of something so big? (We do; the big stuff just makes for better television.) Why do you test so far in advance? (Because you don’t always know what’s going to come out of a test.)

My favorite: “What do I need to get a degree in to be as awesome as y’all?” Brent was able to give the right answer, talking about his engineering path to being a NASA engineer.

And here’s journalism-major David, pointing out that I’m the case study for the fact you don’t have to do it that way, but adding that, if this is what you want to do, you probably should. If your passions take you in a different direction, don’t automatically assume, like I did, that means there’s no place for you in NASA. But if you want to be a part of making something like QM-1 happen, figure out what part it would excite you to play in that, and pursue it with everything you’ve got.

Brent and I come from different backgrounds, but the thing we have in common is that we were both excited to get to come to work today. Astronauts will say that’s the best advice for joining their ranks — do something you love.

As I told the kids, “Follow your passion. NASA doesn’t need bored astronauts.”

#SCTweetUp Follow Up

OK, I’m very late with this, but now that I’m posting again, I wanted to go back and finish blogging about the Space Camp Tweet Up about a month ago.

To start with, here are my pictures from the second day. (The pictures from the first day are here.)

First, let me begin by saying that you should follow @SpaceCampUSA on Twitter.

Now, the story —

They say that it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.

And that, certainly, is the root of my Space Camp tweet-up story.

I can’t tell you how excited I was when I was selected for the first ever Space Camp tweet-up. Crazy excited, to resort to incredible understatement. I’d been wanting to go to Space Camp for 25 years. Back in middle school, I would enter the essay contest every year, hoping to win a scholarship, always to no avail. (Apparently my space writing wasn’t up to snuff. Oh, by the way, I have an appointment with them today to do some writing for them. Apparently the last quarter-century has been good for me in that area.)

But, Space Camp always remained just beyond my grasp.

So you can imagine it was a very very sad day when I had to turn down the chance to go to the tweetup. It was going to be the same day as the STS-134 space shuttle launch, and I owed it to some people to go to that instead.

To add insult to injury, the launch scrubbed. I had to watch it much later on television.

But …

So did the tweet-up. Remember that ill wind I mentioned? The tornados that blew through Huntsville two days before the scheduled launch caused the tweet-up to be delayed, and I was able to get back on the list. Which made me a very, very happy man.

I’ve had the opportunity to do some very cool space-related stuff, from watching launches with astronauts to going on a Zero-G flight to talking to the space station. But so many of the things I got to do at Space Camp had this great “I’m finally doing this!” quality to them that made the experience even more special.

One of the first things we did, for example, was ride the Multi-Axis Trainer, a chair  mounted in concentric loops that all spin in different directions at the same time. I can’t tell you how many times I’d seen the MAT, and been jealous of the fact that I’d never gotten to try it. And now, here I was, strapping in. Awesome. (For the record, I didn’t get at all nauseated, but that’s typical. It has something to do with how quickly the spinning changes direction.)

While we were there, we also got to use the One-Sixth-G Chair, which simulates what it’s like to walk on the moon, using an elaborate pulley system. There was a bit of irony there for me — I’ve experienced “actual” one-sixth G during my reduced gravity flight, so I was probably one of a few people to get to experience the real thing before simulating it at Space Camp. What I learned is that it really doesn’t matter whether it’s real or simulated — I stink at being in reduced gravity. If the real moonwalkers had been as awkward on the moon as I was in the chair, NASA would have covered up that we ever landed out of embarrassment.

Also that night, astronaut Hoot Gibson came and spoke to us about — well, anything he wanted to talk about. Hoot’s a great speaker, and his talk was informative — I learned a few new things — and greatly entertaining.

The next day started with a tour of Marshall Space Flight Center, which was somewhat bittersweet for me. It was a little odd being back just over a month after I left, and I have to admit that I missed it a bit. They do some incredible things there, and it was an honor to have been involved with that.

Our lunch speaker was Tim Pickens, of the Rocket City Space Pioneers team that is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize. He’s a brilliant man, and RCSP is an incredible team doing brilliant things. Hopefully you’ll be hearing more about that on here at some point.

And then, it was time for our mission. For me, the highlight of the entire event. Again, I’d been waiting a long time for this.

OK, to be perfectly honest, I was slightly disappointed. I wanted to be in the orbiter. Instead, I was in Mission Control. Watching Apollo 13 one time, I decided that it wouldn’t be that bad being in Mission Control at Space Camp if you could be Flight, and say really cool stuff like Gene Kranz. But I wasn’t even Flight.

I was a prop.

Well, technically, I was PROP, the propulsion officer. And I did get to say some cool stuff. Heck, just going through the Go/No Go polling was enough to send chills through you. “PROP is Go!” Even if I wasn’t in the shuttle, it was still amazing to finally get to do a Space Camp mission.

I’m not entirely sure the crew would have survived the mission in real life; my pet peeve, for example, was that they never activated their auxiliary power units like they were supposed to. I’m pretty sure that would be a bad day on a real mission, but I’m not sure if they technically needed them on our simulation, which was a once-around abort. Also, the spacewalkers were basically doing a separate sim at the same time as the inside-the-orbiter, so from Mission Control, they basically got left in orbit. Still, I admire their dedication to the mission and their country.

A few things remained after that. We toured Aviation Challenge, where I crashed many simulated airplanes. I got to ride their centrifuge, but it only went up to 3G. (What can I say, I’m a G-snob at this point. It would be great fun for most people.) We rode Space Shot. We got to see the new Sue The T-Rex traveling exhibit, which was pretty cool.

And then it was done.

It was an exciting, exhausting, exhilarating two days, that was a complete dream come true for me.

The only downside —

The only downside —

Was that finally getting to go to Space Camp in no way, shape or form diminished my decades-long desire to go to Space Camp.

And next time, I wanna fly the orbiter.

#SCTweetup Day 1 Photos

It’s late. I’m tired. I’ll write text some other time. But here are photos from the first day of the Space Camp Tweetup.