What do you make of your time at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate?
I would talk about it in two ways. The first one is the personal side, and the second is the community side. It turns out that the second one matters more, but I’m less clear about that because I think it tends to be that history proves what is the right answer. There are other opinions, so mine kind of matters less.
I’m in awe of having the front-window view of all of science. I get to see the first picture ever taken on a mission – in the hallway, somebody’s handing it to me. I’ve just been in awe of the amazing power of space and the amazing power of science to really inspire and to excite. That’s kind of my personal view.
I think on the community side, what we have experienced in the last six years is an enormous growth in many different dimensions. If you take any six-year period, you would be hard-pressed in the history of NASA seeing one that, as an aggregate, created more success. Of course, that’s not because of me, certainly, alone. It has to do with the support that we’ve gotten from Congress, from the various White Houses and also the execution by industry-government teams.
You were steering the ship when a lot of very high-profile missions were developed and launched. Do you have any favourites?
I want to mention Webb, because what we saw in the final years [of development] and the deployment, I have not found a single person that expected it to go as well as it did. I’ve not found anybody, and I interviewed everybody. I actually kind of tended to be a little bit more pessimistic than some of the people on the team, which was perfectly fine.
This story is from the Issue 141 edition of All About Space UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Issue 141 edition of All About Space UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
"We knew that this would be a historic comet"
Astronomer David Levy was immortalised for his co-discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 – its impact with Jupiter 29 years ago held the world in awe
CELESTRON STARSENSE EXPLORER DX 102AZ
Innovative technology provides the simplest and quickest solution yet to finding objects to observe, and this instrument will be very popular with beginners
MOON TOUR - COPERNICUS
Get up close to the ‘Monarch of the Moon’
A HUNGRY BLACK HOLE 'SWITCHES ON' AS ASTRONOMERS WATCH IN SURPRISE
J221951 is one of the most extreme examples yet
MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE - WHY DOES JUPITER CHANGE COLOUR?
For years, scientists have tried to work out why Jupiter’s bands frequently move and change colour. Now they believe they’ve found the answer
MARS HELICOPTER PHONES HOME AFTER A 63-DAY SILENCE
Rugged terrain had kept Ingenuity from communicating with its robotic partner, the Perseverance rover
SIX OF THE BEST SPACE PRANKS
It turns out that the sky isn’t the limit when it comes to a good old-fashioned practical joke
CLIMATES CHANGE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Alongside Earth, our planetary neighbourhood is changing. But not for the better…
TIME APPEARED TO MOVE FIVE TIMES SLOWER IN THE FIRST BILLION YEARS AFTER THE BIG BANG
Time dilation, brought about by the relativistic expansion of space, has resulted in the observed slowing of ‘clocks’ in the early universe
WHAT CAN WE DO WITH A CAPTURED ASTEROID?
Asteroids could provide us with rare resources