Right? I don’t know if they really realize on a day-to-day basis, as Ellen pointed out, how much it touches them, but the interest is out there and it’s still out there. So, you know, it’s been a long effort.I think all of these companies that are working on human space flight—you know, you hear some of the other folks talk about the challenges of putting together a human space flight vehicle, and it’s heard, but I think we’re nearly there, and that’s an exciting point for us.Davenport: So, you think actual commercial operations out of spaceport America sometime next year, perhaps?Whitesides: Yeah, we’re getting real close to that. They’ve announced that they’re building a suborbital vehicle. The earth will keep doing its thing, going around the planet every year, but we’re going to be the ones that are going to be burped out. And that is outside the classroom, and I love when I see students that have teachers that are engaging them outside of the classroom with what they’re learning in the classroom. And so we’re doing that with spacecraft. But then, the amazing science that spun off of that has led to the internet and mobile phones and global positioning and all of these other things. We don’t actually spend that money in space. I think about the partnership that we have in place, that’s so wonderful. And here’s the key to the whole thing: we want to prove everything is possible at the Moon where it’s a three-day journey home. Right? “How can NASA reach its goals when the destination; the Moon, Mars, et cetera, changes with every administration?” Bridenstine: That’s a critically important question. We spend it here in the United States in good jobs in technology and science. Bill Nye Space Exploration. We really do believe that it’s absolutely essential that we meet that moment with American strength, that we meet that moment with American leadership. Bridenstine: To that point, we also know because of work that NASA has done. What are the emotions going through your head? And now we’ll move on. I actually think there’s broad bipartisan support for Space Force. And I’ll work some of them into the discussion as we go. We have, for the last 20 years, been circling this planet 16 times a day on the International Space Station, peacefully, quietly, successfully, doing one of, if not the, most complex things we’ve ever done. But this is the problem to be figured out. Bill Nye, CEO of The Planetary Society, and our Board of Directors present five recommendations to the Trump administration as it contemplates the future of the U.S. space program. It’s not going to be just the U.S. the way it was with Apollo. We’re going to do everything in our power to prevent this caravan from coming north and violating our border. They want to know why, why are we doing this, what are we going to learn, what’s over that next hill, and I think there you engage the public. And what I found to be the key in my own personal readiness, but I think for my family, as a whole, was really encouraging them to be part of my crew, to meet the people I was training with, to be at those events, to really and truly feel like they were part of my crew, so they understood what was going on before I went, before I got home, knew what was going to be happening when I got home, and they were just an integral part of what I was experiencing every day, while I was there. Bridenstine: I’ll tell you, I was saddened by the grief he took. Touted for relieving everything from skin problems and stomach distress to lack of focus and social anxiety—and, of course, "the blues"—tranquilizers were the first psychiatric pills to widely infiltrate a country that, for the first time in its history, had expendable income and leisure time.
By 1971, 15 percent of Americans had taken a minor tranquilizer. And when you saw things like Scott Kelly’s year in space, when the public really got, “Wow, we’re actually practicing to get ready to go to Mars.” You saw a lot of public engagement and excitement. We’re going to get there soon. So we need to have our own launch capability.
Right? According to Bill Nye, if you stop exploring, you’re not going to move forward as a species.
And it’s not that the earth is fragile; we’re the fragile ones. Bridenstine: Had I been the administrator, you would have been selected. This is not a recreation of the Apollo era that we all think so fondly of. And I can assure you that our determination is to see American’s back on the Moon in the very near future, but shortly thereafter, on our way to Mars. It’s progress.
And it was getting old; it was working well beyond its design lifetime. Rothschild: Really? Let’s stand up a space development agency so we can establish the authorities necessary, the chain of command, promote the technologies.I mean, we roughly have about 60,000 people in all the different branches of the service and our intelligence community who work in and around space security today. Ferguson: And what I tell everybody is, have an interest. And if we consider ourselves in that way—Stott: When we look at that—we’re earthlings, yeah—it’s like—it changes everything you think about. How does it change what you think about the major issues here?
So there are many people that are troubled by this uncertainty, by this inability to know, and they want to have all the answers and have it all settled. Your country’s economy will also fall behind. It’s from Mia who lives in San Francisco. But more than that, space brings out the best in us. I am delighted to welcome this accomplished group of astronauts. Because space exploration has become routine or in some aspects. But we’re taking steps even before that.