Frank Morring, Jr., writing in the November 8-22 edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology (In Orbit: Spaceflight ‘Squabbling’), observes a certain disquiet in the space exploration community about the approach of yet another Washington administration. He quotes Wayne Hale, the space shuttle veteran who gave the Von Braun Lecture at the 2015 Von Braun Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, who declares that the recurring nightmare of policy reversals, missed target dates, program redirection, and public indifference, is not the fault of others. “It’s us.”
“There must be a revolution in the way we get things done,” Hale says, “But if we keep squabbling among ourselves so as to confuse the rest of the world about goals and objectives, then we will not get anywhere.” This is a correct assessment, and I give Morring credit for recognizing it and promoting it in the pages of Aviation Week. I will be looking forward to seeing this “revolution in the way we get things done.”
Four suggestions, and I wonder who here agrees:
(1) Find common ground in the human settlement of space.
(2) Focus on the aspiring immigrant to a new frontier.
(3) Enlist the aid of technogeeks willing to double as space impresarios.
(4) Seek a business model that pays for the above effort.
