Administrator Bridenstine Discusses First 60 Years of NASA and Future Goals
Okay and as I said we are celebrating. NASA's. 60th. Anniversary, as well, as starting, the run-up to the 50th. Anniversary of the moon landing, and we are. Remarkably. Fortunate to have. Six. Former. NASA administrators. And they will be introduced, more. In just a minute but let me just quickly run down through that the. 8th NASA, Administrator. Richard. Truly, number. 9 Dan, Goldin, who also holds the record of being the longest-serving. NASA, Administrator. Number. 10 Sean, O'Keefe. Number. 11, Mike Griffin. Number. 12, Charlie. Bolden, who. Is the second longest-serving. Administrator. And in, number 13, James. Frederick bridenstine, and. Jim. Is going to make the the, opening keynote address. And I'd like him to come up here Jim is an Eagle Scout he. Has. He's. From Rice University where. He triple, major, earned. His MBA from Cornell. He's a naval, aviator, retired. With the rank of Lieutenant Commander he. Was elected to the house in, 2012. The. Oklahoma first I think that's a great that's a that's a great tail number right there okay one is, if, it's got to be a great a great tail number he represented, Tulsa and on April 23rd. 2018. He. Was sworn in as the. 13th. Administrator, of the National Aeronautics, and Space Administration it's. A huge honor to have you with us and welcome. Thank. You John for that nice introduction, and it, is a. Real, honor to be here with such an esteemed group of. Former. NASA administrators. I'll, share, a quick story and I know Charlie, and I have talked about this before in public. But. The first time I had the opportunity as, the nominee, to sit down with at the time the, the. Immediate, past NASA. Administrator, Charlie Bolden I. Got, I got to sit down at a table with him the first thing he says to me is look here's how it works. Everything. That happens, on your watch that, somebody before you. Put. Into place you, take credit for it and. I'll. Never forget that and certainly, that's, been the, history, and the legacy of this agency and of course I. Will be really clear, any. Success, that I have as the NASA Administrator is. Due to a whole lot of very hard work that came long before my time and I, stand on the shoulders of giants and today we're gonna see that on this panel so it's a it's, a real honor to be here today. October. Fifth. 1957. You. Know we think about this as the 60th, anniversary that. We're celebrating, of NASA so let's go back. 61. Years. Two. Weeks, from. Friday. 61. Years ago was. The launch of Sputnik and. For. A little while Americans, looked at it and said wow that's really cool here we have a, nation. On earth. That, just launched, an artificial. Moon you. Know it's only the size of maybe a little bit bigger than a basketball that weighs 180, pounds it. Sends out blips, in the, electromagnetic, spectrum anybody, with a shortwave radio can. Listen to, Sputnik, as it flies overhead and and certainly. If you have good eyesight you can look up at the night sky at, certain times and actually, see it with your own eyes. It. Was launched on a Saturday, and.
The. Following Tuesday. The. Soviets, detonated the. Largest. Bomb in human. History at that point and all of a sudden the United States of America, and our. Leadership got very nervous and they said if, they can launch a satellite into orbit, they. Can hit any point, on the planet with. A nuclear weapon. Less. Than a month later. The. Soviets, launched, lekha. Lekha. Was the Soviet, space dog. Lekha. Means in Russian it means Barker. Or. At least that's what Wikipedia. Told me. And. I, guarantee you lekha, barked, a lot with, a very thick Russian, accent, because. Laço was not intended, to ever come home lekha, was an experiment, this. Little dog that was, taken. From the streets of Moscow as an experiment, to see if is, it even possible for, a living. Being. To survive in a, zero-gravity environment at the time nobody nobody. Even knew that let alone how long could, like a live well lekha lived for about four hours had, the opportunity, to orbit the earth a number of times, and. Of course struck. Fear again. Into. The hearts of Americans. Then. In December, of, 1957. Just. A couple of months later, a, couple. Of months after Sputnik a month after lekha the. United states of america launched, its own rocket. Called. Vanguard, and the intent was to really. Respond, to what we just saw the Soviet, Union do and in that launched. The. Rocket cleared, the launch pad and then it fell back to earth with a massive explosion. The. Media as it does. Decided. To call the launch, not. Sputnik. But kaputnik. Or. Stay. Put NIC or flop. NIC on. January. 14, 1958. Hugh Dryden who. Is at the time that in charge of the NACA, the, National. Advisory. Committee, on Aeronautics, he, put together a, report for, the Eisenhower. Administration and. In this report he says this. It. Is of great urgency and, importance, to our country, both from the consideration of, our, prestige, as a nation, as well, as military, necessity, that, this challenge, when he says this challenge, he's talking about Sputnik, be. Met by an energetic. Program, of research and development for, the conquest, of space. It. Is accordingly, proposed, that. The scientific, research be, the responsibility. Of a national, civil. Agency. NACA. Is capable, by rapid, extension, and expansion of, its effort of providing. Leadership in, space, technology, that, was huge ridin at. The time he was the head of the NACA. And. He eventually became, the first deputy administrator of. NASA he. Was making a recommendation to, the Eisenhower administration. Then. On January, 31st. 1958. Another. Month passes, the United States of America has a successful, launch of Explorer one and. All of a sudden people start believing that the United States can compete, in space. With. The Soviet Union. President. Eisenhower used that opportunity, to do a joint session of Congress this is an important point a, joint. Session of Congress. Asking. That. We start a civilian, agency responsible. For Aeronautics, and Space Research. 1958. During the course that year Congress passes the president, signs in October, 1st. 1958. NASA. Is established. And so a few short weeks from now we will celebrate 60. Years of, NASA. Two. And a half years after NASA is created, the. Soviets, launched Yuri Gagarin. And. They just didn't launch him into space, they. Launched him into orbit. Once. Again the United States of America realizes, that we're behind. Days. After, Yuri Gagarin's launched. The United States. Has. A group of Cuban. Exiles trained. By the CIA, invade. Cuba, in a, terrible, disaster called, the Bay of Pigs which. Is an embarrassment, for. Our new, president at, the time John. F Kennedy, so. Here you have a President of the United States John, F Kennedy who, ran for president saying, that, private President, Eisenhower was not tough enough on the Soviets that, he was falling behind that we needed to move faster, we needed to do more he. Becomes president the. Russians. Launched Yuri Gagarin into, orbit, we. Still haven't launched. A man into space let, alone into orbit then, the Bay of Pigs failure, occurs and, John. F Kennedy is, looking. For. A response. John. F Kennedy turns. To his vice group to his Vice President, Lyndon Johnson and he says we have to do something big and, we, have to have something sufficiently visionary, that. Ultimately. When. This event occurs the entire world will look at the United States and know that we're ahead but it has to be sufficiently. Distant, into the future that. Nobody, can say we're behind right now today and. Lyndon. Johnson went to work to find out what, that might be. It. Wasn't too much longer after. Yuri. Gagarin launched. Three. Weeks later Alan Shepard was. The first American, into space to. Be clear he did not orbit he went straight up and he went straight down, but. John F Kennedy decided. To use that as an opportunity remember. Alan. Shepard passed. The Karman line he went into space did. Not orbit the earth John. F Kennedy goes, to Congress and he, gives a speech and again, a joint session of Congress this is important, we, saw this with with Eisenhower in 1958, now we're seeing of John F Kennedy in, 1961.
These Are gentlemen, that are presidents, of the United States going to Congress in a joint session advocating. For something significant, in space and what, John F Kennedy says, in. Order. To get all the members of Congress to show up he says I'm going to give a speech on urgent. National needs. That's what John F Kennedy says. May. 25th. 1961. John F Kennedy gives, a speech and in it he says I believe, that this nation should commit itself to achieving the, goal, before. This decade is out of landing a, man on the moon and returning him safely to earth no. Single space project in this period will be more impressive to, mankind or, more important. For the long-range exploration, of, space and none will. Be so difficult or expensive, to, accomplish. Imagine. A president United, States going before a joint session of Congress, saying. That we need to send a man to the moon and return him safely to the earth and and. Bragging, in that joint session of Congress bragging. That no. Mission, we could undertake will. Be so difficult or, so, expensive. We're. Going to do this because it's the most difficult thing we can do and it's the most expensive, thing we can do and because, of that we're, doing it not. Them that. Was john f kennedy's message. To a joint session of congress and so, began. Not. Just NASA, but. Our journey, to the moon. Obviously. We're familiar with Mercury. Gemini and. Then Apollo a few. Minutes ago John, Langford. Was talking, about you. Know if we were to compare it to today with em1. And em2 and, how are we gonna get to the moon if we were if we were to go back and look at it let's. Start with the Apollo program Apollo, one, we. All know the the. Result of Apollo 1 a. Disaster. A failure three, brave, American, astronauts, died during. A test and, of. Course Congress was thrown into disarray and said maybe we shouldn't be doing this we're going too fast why, are we doing this what is the end result. Lyndon. Johnson of course had. A charge to keep we. Had to get a man to the moon by the end of the decade and he intended to keep it so. With with not only him but also, a NASA Administrator at the time James Webb they. Used every tool in their tool belt to make sure Congress, stayed fourth kept. Going forward to, getting a person to the moon and in. Fact after Apollo 1 they decided to skip Apollo - and Apollo 3 and they went straight to Apollo for. Apollo. 4 was the first time that. We tested the, Saturn rocket, the. Largest rocket ever, to launch in human hair. So. We tested the Saturn 5 rocket on, Apollo 4 and, it was a success. It. Was uncrewed. Then. On Apollo 5 it was a an Earth, orbit, test of a, lunar. Lander and. It. Was successful. But it was not on a Saturn rocket that, was Apollo 5 and, Apollo. 6 they tested the Saturn rocket again. This. Time, again. It was uncrewed, it. Was perfectly safe but. It was a failure. The. Apollo 6, on. Launch, the, first stage started to Pogo massive. Vibrations, parts, of the rocket were falling, off.
Stage. Two of the saturn v two of the five engines, didn't even light and. Of. Course the upper stage. Put. Forth enough energy to get it into orbit but. Not enough energy to test in it and of course the the command, module came back and when it reinterred it was, all good the problem was it wasn't going anywhere near fast enough to test the heat shield that it was designed to test to, re-enter the atmosphere. And. Even. Worse. That. Engine that's supposed to fire, up for a translunar. Injection to. Get us to the moon that, particular engine, didn't. Even light. That. Was Apollo 6. Total. Failure. Apollo. 4 was a success. Apollo. 5 really, didn't test the Saturn at all Apollo, 6 was. A failure, by. Every stretch of the imagination of. Course, it was safe so. You got to give him you. Know credit for that. And. In. That environment in August 1968. NASA. Made a decision. Apollo. 6 was a failure we. Have not launched Apollo 7 yet but. Apollo 8. In, December. Is going. To the moon that was, not on the agenda but. Something significant, happened after the failure of Apollo 6 the. Russians announced, that they were gonna and they had already been, launching. Things around the moon at first it was an uncrewed spacecraft, then it was a spacecraft. That was occupied by turtles. And fruit flies. And. So the United States of America said we got to do something big and we've got to do it fast the, lunar lander was having problems, it wasn't being developed, fast enough how are we going to get to the moon before the end of the decade and they, said well we're gonna take Apollo 8 we're gonna put humans, on board. Frank. Borman, Jim Lovell. Bill, Anders, we're. Gonna put them on board and. Having. Had only one successful, test of Saturn, and one, failed test, of Saturn we're, gonna make a plan to send them to the moon knowing. Full well that. The. Rocket necessary, for the translunar, injection in, its last test failed, and guess. What if it fails on, the, way to the moon and, on, the way home a couple. Of things can happen those. Astronauts, can be sent. Off into a trajectory that puts them in orbit around the Sun for however, long the that they can stay alive in that capsule they could actually be. Sent right into the moon or they could end up if, they go into that low lunar orbit they could end up in that low lunar orbit for the rest of their lives which in this case would have been about four days. NASA. Made that very. Difficult decision, based on the circumstances, on the ground. Friends. That mission, was. Done as, a. Response, to world events and, it. Was the most dangerous mission. Probably. That NASA ever undertook, Apollo 8 to orbit the moon and it wasn't just it, wasn't just a free, return trajectory no. Kidding they, you. Know retro boosted in order to get into a low lunar orbit and then they orbited the earth or, orbited, the moon took, a lot of images, did. A lot of, science. Ultimately. They they powered themselves out of lunar. Orbit and. What's, amazing is all of this was done. When. We think about the time, when they were orbiting the moon it. Was done on Christmas, Eve. So. Not only was the risk. That. You know people. Would never think of the moon again the same way if. This ended, up not working. Which. Is absolutely true but. It's also true that. If. It didn't work it would wreck Christmas, not. Just for all of America but for all of the world and on. Christmas Eve, when. This crew of three brave astronauts, started, communicating. About. What they saw at, the moon. One. Out, of every four people on earth. Listened. To that broadcast. One. Out of every four people on, earth listened. To that broadcast. And. A lot of people maybe some people in this room remember they were they were on, that Christmas Eve. From. There we went not, just Apollo 8 Apollo. 9 Apollo 10 Apollo 11 we landed, on the surface of the Moon and as. The NASA Administrator I, walk around NASA I talked to people about why they work at NASA. Anybody. Who was around, at, that time is very clear they remember exactly where they were during.
Apollo 11, when Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin who's here today landed. On the surface of the Moon they know exactly where they were and it inspired them to change the, course of their lives and enter the. Field of space. And. That's. Very common around NASA. 1972. The. Last Apollo mission leaves, the moon. Gene. Cernan was. That last, person. That, had his foot on the moon and then, three years later. This. Is the most important thing you're gonna hear today three. Years later. Your. Current NASA Administrator. Was born. I'm. Glad you were listening. Think. About that I. Wasn't. Alive and. Friends. There were people 10 years older than me, that. Either weren't born yet or were too young to remember that particular event. It's. Time we go back to the moon friends and I. Want to be clear we've had great visions, in the past yes. We. Have had great visions in the past, the. Space exploration. Initiative, George. Herbert Walker Bush the, vision for Space Exploration. George, W Bush we've. Had amazing visions, in the past the. Challenge, has always been we either get distracted, budgets. Don't materialize world. Events happen and we end up missing, the mark and, it would be clear no, fault of any of the amazing people that came before me at all in fact they did their utmost and, their absolute best but. The, president, recently signed space, policy directive, 1 and. In that space policy directive, he says we're going to the moon you. Know I say we're going back to the moon I don't like using the word that we're going back to the moon we're not we're, going forward, to the moon we're doing it in a way that's never been done before and space, policy, directive, one is absolutely. Clear on that a number. Of things are different today than it was in the 1980s, or the 1990s. When these great visions were. Had. The. Biggest change, is that now we have a very robust, commercial, space enterprise, that can help us get there we. Also have more international. Partners than, at any point in the, history of space, exploration and, there. Are more countries, every day getting space agencies, that we can tap into so. We're going to return to the moon the, key word being. Sustainably. People. Say well this country is going to the moon and that country is going to the moon and they're going to beat us here's. The thing there's, only one country on the planet that is going to build an architecture for sustainability. So we can get back and forth to the moon over and over and over again and the way we can do that is simple. We've. Seen what happens with reusable rockets, the cost goes down access. Goes up and by the way those reusable rockets provided, by a lot of our commercial providers. Are. Not, just an existence, by. Accident, they're in existence because of the people who came before me that work so hard on commercial. Resupply and, Commercial Crew, but. Now we know what happens with reusability, cost, goes down access, goes up we. Need every part of the architecture, between Earth and the to be reusable. We need the launchers, to be reusable we need the tugs that go from Earth orbit to lunar orbit to be reusable, we, need the, Gateway. That. Ultimately, is a reusable, command, module that will be in orbit around the moon for 15 years and. We. Need landers that, can work. With the gateway that can go back and forth to the surface of the Moon over and over again. Reusability. Is ultimately, what will enable us to have, a sustainable architecture. And. I've heard people say well you. Know that doesn't include SLS. And Orion no it does. Eeehm. For, the. Plan is Oh Ryan, to start having reusable, components, by the way even on em1 we're. Reusing the avionics on, Orion, and when it comes to SLS, the. The throw weight and the fairing size enables. Us to get more capacity. To the moon than, ever before in human history. So. This enables us to build, the architecture that. Allows reusability. It is all a critical. Part of the, architecture, to, get us permanence. At, and, around the moon, now. We're we're, not planning to have a permanent, presence of humans on the moon although. I'm not opposed to it if we can make that happen I'm all for it but. Robots. Landers, Rovers, and humans. When. Necessary and appropriate, will. All have access to the surface of the Moon over. And over again the idea being behind this architecture. That, we're going to retire, risk. Take. All of the technology, all of the human physiology. We. Now know what happened know we know what happens when humans are in orbit for six months even up to a year the.
Deconditioning. Of the. Cardiovascular. System the the challenge, with the challenges, with the neuro vestibular, system the the bone loss, the. The. Immune system that degrading. All of these things happen in a microgravity environment. The. Question is can you do that for six months to. Nine months, and then. End up on the surface of another world and be perfect, because, you're gonna have to be perfect. Why. Am I saying this the. Moon. Friends is a proving, ground for. All of the capabilities, and technologies. That we want to be able to replicate perfectly. At Mars not won't be perfect, there's. Differences between the moon and the Mars and Mars and we all recognize that, but. The idea behind the moon is that we have a perfect opportunity. To retire risk prove. The technology prove. The physiology and, then, ultimately accelerate. Our path to. Mars. So. We're going to have reusability, we're, gonna take advantage of commercial, partners we're, gonna take advantage of international. Partners we're, gonna retire risk and then, we're gonna take that entire architecture. To. Mars let me tell you some other reasons why we need to go to the moon. 1969. Neil Armstrong, and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. From. 1969. Up until 2008. 39. Years we. Believed that the moon was bone-dry. How. Did we miss the fact that there's hundreds of billions of tons of water ice on the surface of the Moon well. We missed it because we went to that equatorial, region we went six times and each time it was in that same general equatorial. Region of the moon we, need to get more access to more parts of the moon than ever before with this reusable architecture. That's, why the Gateway is important, it's not only a reusable command, module but it's going to have solar electric, propulsion that, not only keeps it in that near, rectilinear, halo, orbit but it can go to the l1, point and it can go to the l2 point and it can give us more access, to more parts of the moon than ever before and because it's, in that near rectilinear, halo, orbit. It. Doesn't have to deal with the harsh. Thermal. Effects of orbiting. The moon in low-earth orbit, that gives us sustainability, for. The long term but, the idea is this we need more access to more parts of the moon than ever before so we don't miss for the next 39 years what may be on the moon that, we didn't know of before and of course in this, room everybody knows what that water ice represents. It. Represents life, support. Water. To drink air to breathe, but. It also represents. Rocket, fuel hydrogen, and oxygen, and. Of. Course the idea if we could ultimately. Put that into cryogenic form, and put it into orbit around the moon gives us access to more parts of, the. Solar system than potentially ever before. And. That's not necessarily true we need other technologies. Nuclear-electric. For, example. And. Nuclear. Thermal. These. Are all technologies, that we need to develop if we're going to go further in the solar system than we've ever gone with humans and we intend to and we're working on it every day at.
NASA So. Know. This. You. Know we think back to the history of NASA and we. Think about its importance. In. All of our lives the history of our country, and a, lot of us were not even born when all of that took place and, the. Visions that have come since then have. Not always materialized. But because those visions, existed, we at this point in history have, more opportunity. To do more than ever before and, we're. Going to take advantage of that by going to the moon retiring. The risk and going, on to Mars so. I just want to say what an honor it is to be here I'm, looking forward to this amazing, panel of such, esteemed. People and and. Thank. You so much for having me god bless. All, right. Please. Welcome to the stage the panel and our moderator Roger Launius. Well. Good morning ladies and gentlemen, my name is Roger Launius I'm a historian. For. Part of that time I served as a NASA chief historian but I've also been to the National Air and Space Museum where, I was a curator and ultimately. Associate Director that had better be your favorite, Museum in the world. Be. That as it may I would like to welcome this panel to the stage. We. Have an August, group there is no question, about that this is the greatest collection of NASA leadership, in one location that has ever been assembled. It. Represents. The last 30, years of the space agency's leadership, and is, a remarkable. Achievement. In, so many ways. They've already been introduced, but let me point them out to you in case you don't know their faces on, the, far. Right. I'm. Sorry your left. Is. His. Vice admiral richard truly, serves as a nasa administrator in, the late 1980s. And early 1990s. Responsible. For a whole series of things including, piloting. Space shuttles at one point but also recovering, from the Challenger, accident and, bringing the agency, forward to, return to flight. Next. To him is Dan. Goldin, oh I'm, sorry yes Dan, Goldin who, served. As you've. Already heard the, longest term as a NASA Administrator, between 1992, and. The. Early 2000s, next to him Sean O'Keefe who came in thereafter and served in. The first part of the Bush administration, then. Mike Griffin, nasa. Administrator between. 2005. And 2009. Beyond. That of course Charlie, Bolden who, served just, recently, and then, was, succeeded, by Jim brightest Titan we've already heard from this, is an August group they have piloted, the agency, for, the last 30 years and we are at the point now where it's. Appropriate to reflect, on that, history of the agency heard, some of it already from Jim Bryden Stein's talk but. Beyond, that the, reflections, of each of these individuals, will help bring a personal. To what is taking place and what has taken place in the agency, I have. A series of questions that I'd like to. To. Begin with but there's also questions from the audience which I will get to shortly so.
Initially. I'd like to begin by just asking each of you and we can just go down the list. Of. People what, issue was the most pressing when you came to NASA and how did you deal with it can we start with dick truly. Wow. Well. First. Of all. Let. Me thank. A. Double-a. And massive, for. Inviting. This group. This, is an, important. Opportunity. To. Look. Back at a. History. Of a great, agency. As. Far as. I'm. Concerned. It's been a long time. But. I, remember. It well my, torrid. First. Of all I I, had flown. Enterprise. Columbia. And Challenger, and, then, left NASA and. My. Tour is administrator. Really. Was a blur, between. The. Time I came back, to, NASA after, the. Challenger. Accident. Everybody. Remembers. The. Challenger, accident but, what. People. Don't. Remember. So much, is, that in about, a, six. Month period of, time. The. Nation, lost the. Challenger. 234. DS an. Ad. 'less and a, delta and. We. Were in the middle of a cold, war and, our entire. Launch. Fleet, was, down. So. We. Finally. Recovered. The Challenger. And the other vehicles. But. The really. National. National. Challenge. Was. The. Fact that we, had DoD. Payloads, and. NASA, big. Payloads. Like. Magellan. And Galileo. And. Hubble. As far. As that I can, see, on, the, manifest, and. So. That was number one to. Build. The. Tracking. Data and relay, satellite. Constellation. And then. Deliver. Safely. And reliably. Those. Payloads. To. Orbit. Secondly. Space. Station, freedom. At the time had been, started. By, President, Reagan, and. It. Was, in. Trouble. Budget. Trouble. Schedule, trouble. Congressional. Political. And. Then. An. Opportunity. About. Two. Or three weeks. After. I. Became. Administrator. Was. The twentieth, anniversary, of. Apollo. 11, and. I'm sure, buzz. Remembers. This well. President. George. HW. Bush. On. The mall with, Apollo, 11. Crew, on. The, stage. Made. A speech. That. Said. That we, were going to fly. Space. Station. We. Were gonna return, to the moon this, time to stay, and then. To Mars. That. Was on top, of. The. Manifest. And, the station. Other. Than that there, were a, whole lot of problem. All. Right thank, you sir mr.. Goldman same question what were your key issues when you came in how'd, you deal with them there. Are a few but before I do that I, just like to talk about a little like background. Jim. Bridenstine, talked, about, when. He came into the world, yeah. I came in to NASA in, 1962. I, came. Into NASA in 1962. To work on nuclear propelled. Electric. Systems, that were going to take us to Mars and 79. I'm. Still waiting. I. Love. NASA I. Remember. Being in physics. 101, in. 1957. When. My physics, professor, Donald. Cotton wrote on the board Sputnik. Is watching, you. He. Found out about it not from CNN, but listening to the radio I eat while eating lunch. It. Changed, my life and, at, that point I knew I, was. Going to spend my life with NASA, and did so from. 1962. Until. November. Of. 2001. It. Was wonderful. The. Issue that I faced. Was. The things, that dick, talked about, but. There was another element the world was changing. And. NASA. Was formed, to show. The world our superiority, over, the east, over. Russia. Russia. Crashed, after, the Cold War and. President. Bush, 41. Had, the wisdom to. Understand. That, if we didn't, help Russia. They'd. Be selling, missiles, to Iran Iraq, and North Korea, we all know those. Three names and they're still very much in the news so. Instead, of living. In a bipolar, world. It was now a multipolar. World and. My. Job was. To bring in the. Russians, and Familia. Was hard because after I left NASA in 1967. I spent. 25, years of my life in, national, security, building. Systems, to help win the Cold War and within, two months at a time I was, at NASA I was sitting across the table in Blair House from. Boris Yeltsin. Wanting. To go into, the. Ss-18, factory. And, nipa Petroski, to.
Understand, What was going. Hypothetically. Maybe I was targeting that place but who knows. But. The world changed and, we had to change with it and then the second, problem I faced I'm. Going for two not one fine, the technical. Revolution of. The. Internet and. Semiconductors. And the new generation. Of engineers, was sweeping, over and NASA, couldn't, uh couldn't ignore, it and the. Implication. Of the, internet, and the. Semiconductor, revolution. Said we. Now no longer had to build big things that would take decades and, cost billions but. We could dock in the skies, with. Small spacecraft it's, taken a while to get there but. As I read what's happening, in the commercial, industry. My. Heart feels, good, okay. Mr.. O'Keefe how about you. Well. As a child of the Apollo era I mean I was, not. Contributing. Yeah did you notice all this big. But. To, be sure my, memory. Of that period, as a as. A youngster that ultimately as a teenager, seeing that developed, the, excitement, of my generation, of course, was. A palpable, motivation. And. So. When the opportunity, presented itself in. The. First year of the Bush 43, administration. I was. In the capacity, as the deputy director at OMB I found. That the issue that, was most compelling. Wasn't. The motivation, of Apollo very it was how. To ever complete, the, International, Space Station, the. Challenges, were. Continuous. An awful, lot of work had been put into. The effort in the previous administration and develop, it move it through but, coordinating. As Dan, just said a an, effort of multi-nation. And, cooperation. Was. Something, that had never been. Tackled. To the size and scope, of what the international, space station had, required and awful. Lot of diligence awful lot of effort a decade. Of time, really. At that stage by the time. That it emerged, as an International, Space Station. Here that Dan. Talked about it, still nonetheless. Required. An awful, lot of collaboration. That was, but, a very delicate kind, of incentive bent on the relationships. That was. The pressing issue how. To complete this how. To continue, through a program, of that cooperation that, Dan described, that. Was so imperative, in the post Cold War era and, yet, it at the same time inclusive. Of so many other nation. States it became a platform, NASA. Did, for. The purpose of establishing. Those. International, relationships. Maintaining. The. Depth of the foreign policy of the time in order to keep the the. Strength of our own national, foreign policy, very much, a. Cooperative. And collaborative effort, as opposed to. Directive. In nature. And. That was in, that New World Order that he described, I think so aptly that was totally, undefined, and one that really required a lot, of effort well this. Was a large-scale, systems, integration. Challenge. Of trying to pull together something, that had never been accomplished, before and, was. Still not yet complete, was still in the phase of. Completion. Of that stage and collaboration. With the, Russians, the Canadians of Japanese, the. Europeans, in, order to assure that we, would have a sustained, capacity. Over. Period, of time, to. Maintain that collaborative, capability, to look, for the technology, and science breakthroughs, to achieve the kind of insight. That, Jim. Bridenstine, I think, spoke to so eloquently, of what. Are the motivations of what are the opportunities now, to build on. To. Maintain a capability, as a permanent, presence, in space. And. Starting. As a platform. On the moon and so forth that this, was a major, major endeavor, in order to do that and the objective, first and foremost, was to complete the task.
That. Was a difficult. Challenge by virtue of just the issues of not only the systems engineering, issues and, the, technology, development, questions as, well as the. Financial. Requirements. Of, collaboration. And cooperation among. All those different global partners, but. It was compounded. By the fact that the only means really, reliably. To, get there with the full component. Capability. Of, what, was aboard the International, Space Station, was on the space shuttle itself. Certainly. The resupply mission was through the Soyuz, program, that, the Russians had provided for crew exchange, as well as. Consumable. Resupply, largely, through. The progress, vehicles, was the only, other ancillary, means to accomplish that task. Within. One year after. Pursuing. This mission, to begin to really accelerate. The pace of completion. Of the international space, station to redesign and, ultimately. In, a full complement, in the manner in which it was intended throughout. The course of its development. We lost the facial Columbia, that. Tragedy. And the loss of the which, was, disconnected. Or related, to a mission to the station, nonetheless. Grounded. The capability. For the next two and a half years so the. Initial task that I was charging, with of complete, despair of them get it moving, and accomplished. The past that was set a decade, before to. The space station turned. In to redefine. The nature and, the focus, within one year afterwards, of, the very objectives, of what NASA was about, to. Bring, the space shuttle back to, the to the operational. Condition, that it was but. In a safer condition, and. In many ways a, very similar kind, of challenge that dick truly spoke of. Recovering. From, an. Accident, of that tragic. Proportion, that required. Re-examination. Were, about and. I like to think that at the conclusion of that and, the. President's articulation. Of the vision for Space Exploration and. Again Jim spoke to in. His comments, it, was a reinvigoration. Of why we do this it. Is for the objective, of really. Being on the Vanguard the leaders, in. The. Very. Objectives, of exploration. And understanding of, the scope and and. Requirements. Would have would take in order to, extend. That effort, beyond where we have been and. It's marked by as it has been throughout the entire in the sixty years of this agency's, experience, of, largely. Trying. To achieve things that no one else has. Done, or. Imagined. Could be accomplished, and then. Working, through the challenges to each of those in charge that. Has been a remarkable. Element, of of, the history of this great agency and, one that was very proud to be part of and played just that one. Role in the course of this chapter, of the, agency's, history to move the ball forward. Okay. Thank you, dr.. Griffin how about you what did you have to do. I'm. Sorry Roger what was the question. What, were the key issues that you had to address was as NASA Administrator, how did you go about accomplishing, them, well. When I came on board in, early. O-5 we had not yet returned, to flight. There. Were technical challenges, in the way and you. Know frankly there were cultural challenges. It. Was. During. The Columbia accident, investigation, it. Emerged that. Many. Of those who felt. That they. Had dissenting. Views were not able to express those and, so, it became a very difficult process to try, to steer, the agency, toward, agreeing, to fly the shuttle again. When. Anyone. With an opinion could. Say why we shouldn't. We. Were trying to fly the shuttle return. It to flight we, had a to flight return return, program. We. Had a space station that was one-third, complete. And. To, which the. Nation had. Committed. Its fortunes, and its. Honor. Along.
With Fourteen, other nations, to to. Complete and. At the same time we were being asked, to design, a new transportation, system, that would be safer. Going to Earth orbit, it could once again return, us to the moon. So, that combination of, things was on the plate. During. My tenure. Our. Flight Readiness review, decisions. Were some of the most. Difficult. Decisions. Of which I've been apart. And. Then we, also had. Difficulty. That as a result, of the Columbia accident. Sean's. Former, agency, the OMB had, had managed, to get itself in charge of how, many flights nessa was allowed to do and. I. Remember. The first Monday, after I was confirmed, I had a meeting, with the OMB. Where. They. Wanted to let me know that. Despite. The, President. Bush's commitment. That. We would finish the station, and retire the shuttle in, 2010. That. I had been provided, only enough money for, 15 flights. And. That the retirement would actually be in 2008. When. I pointed, out that the president had had different. Ideas in mind. The. Budget, examiner, for NASA replied. By saying. And. I quote, that. Says maybe but I've only given you enough money for 15 flights and to retire by o8. It. Took me the rest of the year to get some give, on. On that, and, to. Get us enough. Flights to at least finish the space station, if not to complete the utilization program. And. To retire in 2010. So. If you're saying you know Roger what are some of the more memorable moments, what walking, into all of that was, something. That won't soon received. From my memory, thank. You. My. Mind's pretty easy because in, an organization, that's known for its technical prowess and everything, and. People. Thinking, that the administrator, is the. Greatest scientist greatest engineer, the greatest whatever else there is on the planet, my, biggest challenge was people and. Go. Back to Mike talking about cultural, things I, and. People not just in NASA but people, in the Congress, people in the in the, country and everywhere, we. Had a mandate, from, from. Former President Bush. And. From the nation and the Congress to, phase out the shuttle by, 2010. Complete. Construction of the International, Space Station. And get on with commercial, spaceflight and, some. Of you in the audience will remember I, didn't. Coined the phrase but, I might. My biggest partners became, the commercial, space ideologues, who, said. With. OMB. Get. This NASA stuff out of the way. Give. The money to commercial, space and let us go on to. Bigger. And better things in, commercial. Space will get us to the Moon and Mars and. Everything, else and so, I, worked, for a president who said we have commitments that we have to keep and. So, we are going to retire the shuttle. In. A hostile environment to, that particular, president he. Got credit for the decision, to retire the shuttle a, decision. That had been made some many. Years before that so it became, difficult to go back home to Houston because, I was the Gannett who was gonna retire. The Space Shuttle and, ruined. Human-space-flight, I, also. Had, to figure out a way to work, with, my. Fellow, members of the executive, branch and not decimate, the leadership, of the agency because. That was the second thing that that. They wanted to do was, get rid of everybody who was there because that. Was the old, space. And. If we were gonna do what what, we, wanted to do we needed to bring in all new people, one. Of the things about which I am the most proud was I don't remember changing, out anybody at. The top of leadership for quite some time and and. It was because I always felt they were among the smartest people in the room trying. To help a guy who would, always be the one to ask the dumb question, and I, really needed them in the nation needed them so and. Then finally finally. In terms of people. Convincing. Folk, that diversity was not a bad word. Because. I thought. About it somebody, mentioned, diversity, earlier diversity, has become a bad. Word some, organizations, give scholarships and, they brag about the fact that, we're. Just looking for the best people we're not thinking about diversity, or any of this other stuff because it'll take care of itself yes. It. Will not take care of itself and it does not take care of itself so people were I think that was my biggest challenge, from day one okay. Mr.. Bryton Stein this may be a little unfair since you're new to the agency but let me just ask you the, same question, what were some of the key issues as you came aboard and how are you seeking to address him my.
Biggest Challenge was confirmation. I. Take. It you noticed. It. Was a it. Was it was a challenge we're, living in a very kind of partisan, environment as, most people here are aware a. Good, friend of mine in the House of Representatives Brian, Bob and who. Is the chairman of the space Subcommittee on the science committee circulated. A letter advocating. For me to be the NASA Administrator and. What, was fascinating is a very complimentary. Letter and I did not write it he, told me he was doing it and I gave him the go-ahead but I did not see it until later, but. What was fascinating is, he he got 12, 12. Democrats to sign on to that letter but. As soon as, as. Soon as well, soon as I got nominated it became a kind of a partisan thing here's, the thing and I think this is important, NASA. Never has been and never should be partisan, and we've, got to be very careful that it's not and and since I've been the administrator, now for four months I have found great support, on both sides of the aisle for large. Visions, that ultimately. Are. Good for everybody, on all sides of the aisle in fact this is also fascinating I know, we're talking about challenges, I'll. Talk for a second about something that's good. You. Know after I got nominated but before I got confirmed, the president, put out his budget request and in that budget request, he, plussed up NASA by a billion, dollars, and. Even. Before you. Know I got to NASA this, was back in March of this year I, was still in the House of Representatives, we. Did a bipartisan, bill the Omnibus and, we plussed up NASA by one point seven billion dollars so. Here I am now the NASA Administrator. Advocating. For a one what I thought was going to be a 1 billion dollar plus up for 2019, and instead, it's a 7 million-dollar cut the, bottom line is this the, administration, and bipartisan. Support in the House of Representatives, and in the Senate has. Put us in a day where our budgets are coming back and that. Is an amazing thing because it's been a long time since we've been in that position I was, with the, the vice president the other day down at the Johnson Space Center and he gave a speech about. About. Space about the future of our space exploration. And, in that speech he said we're not just matching, we're. Not just it's not just rhetoric we're matching the rhetoric with our budgets and to, hear the vice president, say that on a stage in front of the TV cameras, that's. That's really good for the agency, we're very healthy and we're very bipartisan, and, and. And our budgets are gonna grow we've just got to make sure we continue to do the right things and it's, going to be good for for, the United States of America okay. Thank you I. Have. Several questions that have come in from the audience so let me take one that's gotten a lot of a, lot of people's, little. Sign saying they'd like to have it addressed. And. We've already had, a bit about this in. Terms of the political issues the, bureaucratic, issues the. In. Some cases partisan. Issues that, are associated with these projects, but, but the question reads how, do you make progress on, projects. That span multiple administration's. Especially. With all of these other issues that are a part of the agenda, of various, groups and and. How do you navigate that I'd, throw, that out to any of you gentlemen who, would like to take take, a whack at it. Mr.. Golden I think. That. If you take a look at the commercial, industry non-space. Things. Happen, in months and years.
There's. No reason, that NASA, can't, do things. Years, and. From. My position having. Been. Involved, in a program the, space station started, by President Reagan and. Still. Going on today I would. Say no. Program, should. Be more than one presidential, term and, absolutely. No more than two presidential, terms. Second. Piece how. Can young people learn. About revolution. When. They're in an evolutionary state. And. If. You're doing a PhD in. Physics. Or, biology, you. Want to be able to complete, that during. The time you're working on it and. It. Will change where, we're going if we decide, we're. Going to do this and, really. Take advantage of, academia, and the. High-tech industry. In, America. Is moving. At, the speed of light and. NASA. Better, get with the program, and otherwise. We'll never get, the brilliant young people, to, join the program that they're gonna be on 2030, you program, it's, got to die. Revolution. Is the word all. Right. Any. Other thoughts yes I'll add. A few thoughts here I really. Believe and I you, know Congress. Is rarely the solution, to anything, but. In this particular case the NASA transition, Authorization, Act which was passed by Congress with, bipartisan, support that. The President, signed into law enabled, the transition, from one administration the next administration with. With that kind of consistency. And constancy, of purpose that we so badly need going. From one administration to, the next so I think that's important, I also, think that when you look at the architectures, of the future. When. We bring in international. Partners and we bring in commercial, partners you know I've been told and, of course the folks on this stage know much better than me that, there was a day the International, Space Station was about, to be you know cancelled and it came down to the fact that members of Congress, were convinced, that we, ought to keep it for one reason because. International. Partners, started calling them and saying we absolutely have, to keep this going because of the research and the capabilities, that it's going to develop, for the future so international. Partners. Commercial. Partners I think are important, to create that sustainable. Architecture of, the future again. Anything we do, that. Is that that builds that sustainable, architecture enables. Constancy. Of purpose from one administration in the next so international partners, commercial partners the, NASA transition, Authorization, Act I think is a good, a good example I had, a bill in the house the. American space Renaissance, Act and in that bill I actually, put. Forth and this was long before I ever knew I was going to be, nominated. For the NASA Administrator but. In that bill I put, forth a plan that we would have a panel. Of people. Selected. In a bipartisan, way from members of the House members of Senate, again.
Bipartisan. A panel of space, experts, from. Which the president, could so. The panel space experts would put forth options. For a NASA Administrator. And the president, could pick from those options, who he wanted for, his or her. Administrator. And, of course then the term for the NASA Administrator would, be a term of 10 years to, maintain that it wasn't partisan, it wasn't political and it would go from, one administration to, the next so I. Had, that in a bill called the American, space Renaissance, Act of, course there was tons of stuff in that bill many in the room are familiar with it but, at the end of the day there. Was actually talk about a bill, like that in the Science Committee separate, from the American space Renaissance, Act that, I was a co-sponsor of and it never, went anywhere so, I. Think, there are things we can do Congress, I think in this case has done some good things. Okay, thank you. Another. Question from the audience. Everybody. Has been working on this at some level, and. Going back to, Admiral. Truely's time with. The space, exploration initiative. How, might. Resources. Be. Developed. On the moon and maybe on Mars to do things and how did. You wrestle, with those issues and what sort of efforts, did you make to, try to further, the. Capabilities. To. To. Use in. Scituate. A scan anybody got to get to the surface to use and set you resources and, so the. Big thing is, is. Follow, through on the commitment, to to. Give you the capability to get to the lunar surface and, then to the surface of Mars you, know if I. But. I think we've always known that there, was water on the moon at. Least I thought I did and, we. Made the decision, that we just weren't weren't, going to go back for a while but we, now know about. Resources. On Mars. Moxie. Which is an experiment, that's going to fly, on. On, Mars, 2020, will. Be an, opportunity, for us to take, the first bite at the Institute. Resource. Issue. Where we try to. Grab. Co2. Out, of the Martian atmosphere and, dissociate, it and see if we can produce oxygen. The way that Jim was talking about doing on the surface of the Moon look you've got to get to the surface of the places that we want to go if, we want to prove, to people that Institute. Resource utilization really. Works so I. Think we should focus, a, little bit less on launch vehicles, and focus. A lot more on things, orbiting, the planet from, which we can. Spring. Forward, and then some funds on getting, from whatever. Orbit, you happen to be in whether it's lunar orbit or Martian a little bit and get to the surface we you know you spend a lot of money on launch vehicles. But. We've got to start spending money on on, orbiters, or, beginning platforms. And on Landers. To get down to the surface okay. Thank, you. This. Is a bit of an unfair question, coming. From the audience. In the way in which it's phrased, but. Absent. The political, situations. That. Existed. With each of your times. Of leadership. What. Fundamental, changes would you have made it NASA. Anybody. Want to tackle that. Okay. There. Are political leadership, there are political issues that everyone has to wrestle with as, a NASA Administrator, absent, those concerns. What, would you have done to, change the agency, to accomplish, the mission more effectively and you. For. Anybody who might want to take a stab. Yes. I think. First and foremost this, is the. Nature of the, political atmosphere, that. Every. Period. Of our history is engaged, in has. It's always, going to have an imprint, on every, agency, every function, everything. That is public policy and orientation, so the idea that you drive this out of it or should I think. Is a misnomer. Because. You then are notified, I think the opportunity. To, recognize the, scope of the. Public. Participation. In that activity that's what it is now. It manifests, itself in all manner that are really. Transactional. Of you know whose, district. Is it in and whatever else and that's basically, the nature of the job every one of us sitting here have. Had to wrestle with at one time or another. Sometimes. More often than you've won a number two is. To sort through those particular parochial. Issues and challenges in the politics, of it and so forth and that is the, primary job was, in that respect, to. Insulate, the agency. From the really extraordinary things, that it does. From, that kind of constant. You, know iteration, and. Action to, various issues but the same time translate, why, this matters, and. Why the public interest is served by. The nature, of that public policy debate, of what is a reasonable. Set of objectives, what's something let them view, is ambitious, opportunities. And. In the end it is about at this agency, at, NASA a.
Extraordinary. Manifestation. Of a really, unique place. In. Which we are just very much, at the beginning and. Phases. Of. Really. Indulging. Our. Understanding. As humans, that, we, really have a desire, to explore, to know better outside of the scope of what we know today. And. To really. Develop. Into, a wide range, of different capabilities. To. Understand, this universe we. Live in, and. In a final analysis, it is we are a very small part of a, very vast place of, which we've just begun. To. Understand, the brute of mentary fundamentals. Of how, what. Our role is what, our place is in that. Broader universe, expands, that's. Where, the politics, really comes into the equation to. Translate, this that this is the larger, objective, we're talking about not, the immediacy, of the parochial interest, involved and keep, everybody focused on that broader, goal, of. Human. Exploration, and, understanding where, why we how. We coexist, within, a universe that is just we're just beginning to dim understand. Okay. Thank you very. Wilson. So. We had this odd Gustav group of former. NASA administrators. And the current NASA Administrator, one of the questions is what advice would you former. Administrators. Give, to administrator, Bryden. As. We, move forward any thoughts on that. Very. Dangerous well, I. Would. First. Of all, we. Had very. Different experiences. But. We. All loved, NASA, and, loved the space program. But. You. Know at these times, I. Would. I, would. Invite. Every. Democrat. You know, to. Come to lunch that. Understand. Understand. The. Opportunity. That nASA has. Provides. And as always. Provided. In. In. In. The, final, analysis. NASA's. A. Very. Unusual. Agency. In that. America. Doesn't, have, to do this. And. And. Therefore. The. Public. Way. Beyond. The people in this. Have. To believe. In it and and. This. I. Served. For Reagan, and Bush and. And. Clinton. And Bush. On. Various. Boards. And stuff and. NASA. Is, not. Gonna succeed in, this environment, if. That, in, if. The, environment. Is, allowed. To. Derive. Really. Tough. Programs. This. Is not, an easy. Business. I'd. Like to add something, things as, most, of the discussion, we've had has, been about human spaceflight a. Universe. Is much bigger than Mars and. That. There's. A very, critical aspect, of. NASA. Leads. The world in, understanding. The laws of nature, to. Understand, the origin, evolution and, destiny. Of everything. And, sometimes. In the political battles. You. Get so focused I, had, that problem dickhead, that problem, we all had that problem we forget about NASA. Is more than human spaceflight. Yes. So. Another. Part of the issue that dick, brought up is. People. Have different, expectations for, NASA and, Jim. I think if. You work the other part, it's. Tempting, to get involved, in human spaceflight course, it. Inspirational. But, I would be sure that there's a balance, in the program, and, when. That right balance occurs, the other part that presents, opportunity. Is, through, the science, program, you bring in technology, that, could help all aspects. So I would really, try and look at that work. With it and I think you're gonna find more support in the Congress and. With the American people. When you do that, okay. Thank you. We. Only have a very few minutes left but let me ask. This. Next question, of each of you. Nasus. Had an illustrious 60. Years and. We. Can point to, numerous. Examples. Of, great successes, I would say the number one great accomplishment, in NASA history is. Obviously, the moon landings, but what's number 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, that gets much harder and, it's.
And, And mr. gold was absolutely correct it's not just human spaceflight there's a whole number of things we have visited every planet, in the solar system and in, some cases in sustained, ways. So, if, you're projecting, out into, the future what. Do you see is happening say, maybe. 60, years is too long but we've come, 60 years so let me suggest that's. The way to look forward in the next 60 years what you might, expect, NASA. To be able to accomplish. Let. Me start with Admiral, truly. You. Know Dan. Put. His finger, on an. Important. Issue. NASA is. Much. Bigger than, giving, spaceflight. But we, are humans. And we, love. To, explore. But. It's. Been. 60. Years of. Success. In. Planet. Or. Planetary. Exploration. Human exploration. And. Aeronautics. I. I. Think. That. It's. Impossible to. Imagine. 60. Years from now, how. These will, come together but. They I'm, convinced. They will. Okay. Thank You mr., golden any additional, thoughts yeah. I. Started. My career feeling. That. We would be a spacefaring nation. When I was a little man like this. I'd. Like to see, America. Lead the world. That. We become, a truly, spacefaring. Nation. We. Bring our astronauts, back not into the ocean. But. We have, an, infrastructure. That works and. My. Ultimate vision, is. We. Need to not just explore, the planets, in, our solar system. But. I said this years ago, with. The technology. I see, today. I'd. Like us to be able to image, and make spectrographic. Measurements. On. Planets. Not in our solar system cool. So we know we're not alone, okay. Very cool. The, answer to the fundamental, question are, we alone in the universe now that's a big tall, order, mr.. O'Keefe any thoughts yeah. Actually first and foremost, Nassif is a, a. Premier. Technology. Development, Agency that's, it's real, sweet spot that's. What it's able to do with. Remarkable. Speed and focus when, given, the opportunity to do so, it. Becomes. Challenged. When. We start, to act like. An operational. Entity instead. Our best achievements. Have. Always been demonstrated. Again much like I think Dan alluded to of. Developing, a technology then, making it as freely. Accessible as, we, have. To. Make it then a broader, enterprise. To, be exploited. To, accomplish, the. Exploration. Agenda, far. More being in human exploration there's just one dimension of it as my colleagues, who have. Mentioned, and that's. One aspect of it but it is the aspect, that we all relate, to as people most, so. In this next 60 years I think. It is going to be the quest that I think 10 just summarized, well that I can recall one space scientists. Always. Refer, to as one of the quintessential. Objectives. Of, why exploration. Is so important, and. What its focus is all about is. We refer to it as the. Commitment, and the. To scrape the last crumb, off the plate of human arrogance, of the. Belief that we're all there is in. This vast human this vast universe. Instead. There's so much more to explore so much more to understand. About. How we fit in that we are just now in the. Age of sail in this process, of, understanding. That exploration, objective. That's. Gonna be the next 60 years it will be accelerated because. Thank. Goodness Moore's law really is real it. Does accelerate. The, pace of how technology can be developed, applied, and. Employed. For. This larger, human desire. To understand. Okay. Thank you. Dr.. Griffin what do you think we'll see in the next 60 years I, don't. Know what we'll see I know what I hope to see I, I. Want, to see a. Return. Of the cultural, view that that key. Purpose, of NASA is to, make the United States preeminent. In space I, want. To see other people watching what we do on television, not us watching them. Very. Good thank. Boy I know this is a space conference, and everything else but I envisioned. And. I'm like Mike I can't tell you I don't have a clue what will happen but, what I hope will happen will, be that, the. Big a and NASA Aeronautics, continues. To make the strides that did. It you, know it has been making particularly. Over the last ten, years or so that. Within. The, very near future we'll, have low, boom supersonic, flight. That. We will revolutionize. The use of of. Autonomous, vehicles to, get from place to place that. We continue, to help shrink the planet so. That we're all able to to communicate, with people around the world much, quicker much more efficiently, and, then finally to make dr., griffin's job easier, stop. Screwing, around with NASA and its advanced, technology, development, like the work we did in hypersonics. And. We went away from for, almost a decade, believing. That NASA. Had no no, no role to play in that and I'm really happy to see that you, know what Mike is doing over there and in, that five-sided. Building he's, kind of shaking people up in the executive department, in, Congress, in everywhere because, we fell behind because.
People Forgot about what NASA's, Forte. Was in the big eight. It. Is absolutely. True that and, this goes for all of NASA's history, whatever. Country controls, the technology, controls, the balance of power on earth and. This goes all the way back to, post-world. War two Operation. Paperclip when the United States of America, into. East, Germany, with the intention, of gathering. Up the v2 rockets, and and even, some of the best German scientists. Including our own you, know Wernher, von Braun who. Ultimately helped, us get. To get to the moon so controlling. The balance of power on earth requires, the United States of America, to remain preeminent. Which. Is has, been you, know articulated. Here on this stage and. Certainly. I would I. Would. Argue that if you look forward 60 years the question is what are those next technologies, that are going to keep us at. The front of the balance of power and you think about things like quantum, communications. In quantum computing, the, hypersonics. Was mentioned, and and certainly, Mike. Griffin has a tremendous. Charge. There in his current role in the Pentagon and of. Course great great relationship, with, NASA because we have a lot of the facilities that do not. Just the wind tunnels but the arc jet and other facilities, that are necessary, for. Really. Amazing capabilities. That the DoD has, and. I look forward to all that DoD, money coming to help us refurbish, our NASA. So. Look, forward to that conversation Mike, we'll have that soon I'm sure. But. But but, NASA, is critically, important, for the balance of power on earth not because we are a defense agency, we're absolutely not we love quite. Frankly not being a defense agency, but we are. Also. We. Understand, that our obligation, is to continue, to, develop that that technology, that Sean O'Keefe was talking, about and. That's that's, a big charge that we have to keep so thank. You all, right. Gentlemen. I would like to thank each of you for being here today we. Have to leave it there I do want to pause for just a moment and. Thank. Both NASA and the. AI double-a, especially, Mike Green and Craig day who. Were so instrumental in putting together this panel. We, thank you all in the audience for being here, and let's, give another round of applause for everybody through that apart.
2018-09-25 09:24
