“We’re NASA” — Legendary Pictures et al.
To The NASA Family: Selfish, shortsighted power brokers are toying with America’s technological leadership in a game of brinksmanship. People suffer as a result. It is people who enable science agencies and research organizations to discover and explore the unknown. From subatomic structure and the chemistry of life – to the structure of the universe and the tools to explore it – NASA is singular in its ability to explore existence at every known scale of time and cosmic organization. More below
Like all of you, I saw – and still see – NASA and the mission of its larger community – the exploration of space – as a calling. In my case the dream started 65 years ago. As the old saying goes, you can leave NASA but it never leaves you. And the younger you are when the space bug bites, the harder it is to shake.
Chaos is hours away. Government shutdowns, more layoffs, mission cancellations – there are plans for all of these various scenarios – things that you are purposefully being kept in the dark about. Whether more personnel and mission carnage will be implemented – or not – is now in the realm of Schrödinger’s cat. We’ll know when the box is opened – but not before it is opened.
I was interviewed today for a documentary. I was asked what I saw for NASA in the years ahead – would NASA even exist? I was rather blunt in my response: “I cannot foresee a future America without NASA”. Neither can you.
All I can offer in closing is to reference a scene from “Interstellar” (clip) – the one when Cooper sits in a room, confused about who he was talking to after a global near-collapse of civilization and an apparent abandonment of space exploration. Dr. Brand said, somewhat poignantly, “we’re NASA”. Then we saw the Saturn V in the silo etc. and a sudden hint of hope and a mission of impending exploration flooded forth.
Whatever happens to NASA – however wide and painful the NASA diaspora is – and how long it takes to recover and re-form – NASA will survive this tumult and continue to do what it has so capably done for nearly all of my life – and yours. We don’t need some political newbies to tell us that NASA is great. We already knew that.
Hang in there. Ad Astra y’all.
Keith