By Anne Ready
LOS ANGELES – “Dinosaurs are extinct today because they lacked opposable thumbs and the brainpower to build a space program,” quipped Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and author of The Sky is Not the Limit.
Addressing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his crew, Dr. Tyson tweeted: “Good luck to @elonmusk and the @SpacexXcrew. “Though it’s rocket science, rocket launches can still use a little bit of luck.” And weather.
The most important NASA mission in decades lifted off on a Saturday in 2020 on a billionaire’s private rocket. It marked the start of an era of human spaceflight that extends beyond national space agencies. NASA is the consultant and customer for this maiden voyage to take two astronauts to the International Space Station. But SpaceX could also start selling flights into orbit to other people, companies and even other nations. Promising new possibilities of tourism, manufacturing and research while circling Earth.
“On more than one occasion,” the Atlantic Monthly reported, “NASA people said, “‘This is crazy. This is insane.'” Elon Musk’s move-fast-and-break-things mantra was diametrically opposed to NASA’s slow-and-steady ethos.
“Failure is an option here,” Mr Musk offers. “If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”
This approach to rocket science “is a grand experiment,” the Atlantic continued. “But it is also the future of spaceflight. Where commercial companies do the work of flying people beyond Earth’s atmosphere.” According to The New York Times, “NASA decided to turn to two private companies: SpaceX and Boeing. In essence, to produce the rental-car equivalent of spacecraft. NASA will then buy tickets aboard its capsules for the rides to space. At a little more than $50 million a ride, it’s much cheaper than Russia has charged for flights to the station.”
READY FOR MEDIA
Decades ago, when NASA had to defend a faltering space program, JPL called on Los Angeles-based media trainers, READY FOR MEDIA to help in crafting messages and coaching their spokesperson to bridge to better news in positive soundbites.
On NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology website, products are highlighted that wouldn’t exist without the space program. Apple‘s iPhone 12, Nike Air Trainers, Black & Decker dust busters, Diatec ear thermometers, jaws of life, wireless headsets, memory foam, and more functionally-dynamic artificial limbs.
Another space pioneer, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic teamed up with Under Armour, an American company that manufactures footwear, sports, and casual apparel to develop a line of space gear. “Created specifically for private astronauts.”
Multi-planetary humans
“Everyone at SpaceX will tell you they are working to make humans multi-planetary,” said former SpaceX Director of Space Operations Garrett Reisman, an ex-astronaut now at the University of Southern California, also a favorite READY FOR MEDIA client.
The Associated Press reports, “But it all comes back to Mr. Musk’s dream. Former NASA chief O’Keefe said “Mr. Musk has his eccentricities, huge doses of self-confidence and persistence, and that last part is key. You have the capacity to get through a setback and look toward … where you’re trying to go.”
For Mr. Musk, it’s Mars. “If the future does not include being out there among the stars and being a multi-planet species, I find that incredibly depressing,” he concluded.