Latest / Made of Stars / Jared Isaacman Is Trump's Pick to Lead NASA

Transcript

Jared Isaacman Is Trump's Pick to Lead NASA · Made of Stars

0:00
Speaker 1: Warning.
0:00
Speaker 2: The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
0:04
Speaker 2: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
0:07
Speaker 2: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon, the scientific method, and
0:10
Speaker 2: expanded vocabulary to include terms like quasar, asterism and uranus. Listen,
0:15
Speaker 2: that's your own risk.
0:16
Speaker 3: Go ahead.
0:22
Speaker 4: We're made of stars. Made them stars, madies. When made
0:30
Speaker 4: of stars, you could be from high they would New
0:36
Speaker 4: Mexicomas where all stars.
0:43
Speaker 1: When we are made of stars.
0:56
Speaker 5: I'm West Carol, joined by my good friend doctor Sean
0:58
Speaker 5: Cruising from Columbus State Universities Coca Cola Space Science Center.
1:03
Speaker 3: Hey Sean, Hey Wes, good morning. Could be good to
1:05
Speaker 3: be here today.
1:06
Speaker 5: We have a pretty darn cool I think it's cool.
1:10
Speaker 5: I think you're probably going to think it's cool. But
1:12
Speaker 5: we have a cool story today to start to show with.
1:16
Speaker 5: As we discuss every time there's a change in administration
1:22
Speaker 5: in the country, when we have a new president that
1:24
Speaker 5: comes in, we've talked about there's certain things that sort
1:28
Speaker 5: of happen. NASA is one of those organizations that it is.
1:33
Speaker 5: It's going to continue on. They're going to do their business,
1:38
Speaker 5: but they are changes that take place. Everybody's kind of
1:41
Speaker 5: hoping that the changes that take place don't affect maybe
1:44
Speaker 5: whatever projects they're working on or all of that and
1:50
Speaker 5: whatever the long term goals are, because obviously, when you
1:53
Speaker 5: set along and often we talk about, people say, well,
1:58
Speaker 5: why does it take so long to do whatever it is,
2:02
Speaker 5: and it's there's a long list of things that have
2:06
Speaker 5: to happen before a launch happens. There's a long list
2:08
Speaker 5: of things that have to happen as far as safety,
2:11
Speaker 5: as far as the technical side, the engineering side, the building,
2:15
Speaker 5: all of that, and it has to happen repeatedly so
2:18
Speaker 5: that some of the long term missions happen. You and
2:21
Speaker 5: I were standing we were at Kennedy standing on one
2:25
Speaker 5: of the launch or right by one of the launch
2:27
Speaker 5: pads while it was under construction, and you know, we
2:30
Speaker 5: were talking with the project manager for that launch pad
2:33
Speaker 5: and she was talking about, Yeah, we've got guys that
2:36
Speaker 5: are working on this, and we're gonna have a guy
2:37
Speaker 5: that's coming in six months and they're gonna work on that.
2:40
Speaker 5: And that explains, like there's so many things that take place.
2:43
Speaker 5: So when it's an organization like that and then there's
2:45
Speaker 5: a new administration, there's new leadership that comes in, you
2:48
Speaker 5: start looking at all those things, What are the long
2:50
Speaker 5: term plans, what are the things that are going to happen.
2:52
Speaker 5: Now we also have this new thing, this Doge Department
2:56
Speaker 5: that's being run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami, and
3:01
Speaker 5: they're cutting out things.
3:02
Speaker 1: I suspect.
3:05
Speaker 5: Elon is not going to be heavy on cutting things
3:07
Speaker 5: with NASA. That's just a hunch that I have, and
3:11
Speaker 5: I especially think that that will also be the case.
3:16
Speaker 5: Now that President elect Trump has named his pick who
3:21
Speaker 5: will be leading NASA moving forward.
3:25
Speaker 3: Well, gosh, where to start. That was a great intro,
3:29
Speaker 3: by the way, thank you. That really kind of set
3:31
Speaker 3: the stage. And I think this is this is where
3:34
Speaker 3: we're at, and this is maybe the difference, which is
3:40
Speaker 3: we've never had, to my knowledge, we've never had such
3:46
Speaker 3: an outsider come in and run NASA before. And yes,
3:52
Speaker 3: most of the NASA administrators in the past have been
3:57
Speaker 3: people who had some sort of experience in the private sector, right,
4:02
Speaker 3: but this person has never been in a government agency.
4:09
Speaker 3: They've never been a senator, they've never been an elected official.
4:15
Speaker 3: President Trump has nominated Jared Isacman to be his next
4:20
Speaker 3: pick for NASA administrator Jared Isagman maybe famous for a
4:27
Speaker 3: lot of reasons if you define famous narrowly, right, like
4:32
Speaker 3: in certain industries. Certainly he was well known, ye for
4:37
Speaker 3: a variety of things, because he became a billionaire with
4:41
Speaker 3: some commercial entities. So certainly you can't say he wasn't
4:47
Speaker 3: famous already in some sense. But I think he became
4:51
Speaker 3: more mainstream famous when he decided to take a lot
4:57
Speaker 3: of the money that he had made in the private
4:59
Speaker 3: sector and buy his way to space. Now, when I
5:04
Speaker 3: say by his way to space, this is not bribing
5:06
Speaker 3: his way to space. This is not anything nefarious. This
5:11
Speaker 3: is simply, Hey, I'm a billionaire, I'm a pilot, I'm
5:17
Speaker 3: an aviator, I'm a philanthropist, and what I want to
5:23
Speaker 3: do with a chunk of my money is jump into
5:27
Speaker 3: this new commercial venture that was really kind of launched
5:34
Speaker 3: during the Obama administration when the program called the Commercial
5:40
Speaker 3: Crew Program was first initiated. This was an incentive to
5:43
Speaker 3: have private companies instead of NASA building and designing the
5:48
Speaker 3: vehicles and systems that would take astronauts to low Earth orbit.
5:53
Speaker 3: As we all know, one of those companies was SpaceX.
5:56
Speaker 3: During that period of time, SpaceX developed their Falcon nine rocket,
6:02
Speaker 3: their crew Dragon spacecraft. They proved it at a level
6:07
Speaker 3: that was sufficient to be able to be certified to
6:10
Speaker 3: take NASA astronauts back and forth to Low Earth orbit.
6:16
Speaker 3: But there was there's never any kind of promise or
6:19
Speaker 3: business arrangement with NASA that SpaceX couldn't use their own
6:23
Speaker 3: vehicles and their own rockets to do commercial ventures. And
6:29
Speaker 3: so a number of companies have contracted with SpaceX to
6:34
Speaker 3: launch their vehicles into space with Falcon nine, but Jared
6:39
Speaker 3: Isaacman and others have actually contracted SpaceX to take themselves
6:45
Speaker 3: to space. And jareded Isaacman became the commander of the
6:51
Speaker 3: first ever non governmental astronaut group to go to space.
6:58
Speaker 3: And that's a weird way to say it, but it
7:01
Speaker 3: also can be said is the first ever all commercial
7:03
Speaker 3: crew to fly to space. Nobody on there is a
7:09
Speaker 3: astronaut or cosmonaut or tayk knot sponsored by a government, right,
7:14
Speaker 3: They were all private individuals and they paid a commercial
7:19
Speaker 3: company to run a whole entire space mission. And that
7:26
Speaker 3: was the inspiration for mission that occurred in February of
7:29
Speaker 3: twenty twenty one.
7:32
Speaker 5: So you have just taking a couple of steps back
7:35
Speaker 5: to sort of tee it up. You have the Richard
7:39
Speaker 5: Branson's who obviously was the guy who sort of said, hey,
7:42
Speaker 5: we're going to do this as a private company, and
7:45
Speaker 5: then you have Elon Musk, and then you have Jeff Bezos,
7:49
Speaker 5: and there's others also, but those are sort of the
7:51
Speaker 5: three that kind of got the most attention and people
7:56
Speaker 5: that are saying, I have the money, I want to
7:58
Speaker 5: do this. I want to make rockets, I want to
8:01
Speaker 5: do it. Then you have someone like Isaacman who says
8:04
Speaker 5: you already have the rocket, I have the money.
8:06
Speaker 3: I want to go.
8:07
Speaker 5: I want to get up there, and I want to
8:09
Speaker 5: use my aviator experience and you know that's what I
8:14
Speaker 5: want to use my money for. First of all, you
8:15
Speaker 5: have the people who say they're critical of this, and
8:17
Speaker 5: they say they could be cure and cancer or.
8:20
Speaker 3: Whatever with it.
8:21
Speaker 5: He's also contributed to some of those things Isaacman has,
8:25
Speaker 5: by the way, as a side note, and we've talked
8:26
Speaker 5: about that on past shows, but we're also talking about
8:31
Speaker 5: one of those aspects of this that doesn't get enough
8:34
Speaker 5: attention when people are critical of it. So we've talked
8:37
Speaker 5: about these missions where they're talking about we'll cut down
8:41
Speaker 5: on the flight time from like New York City to Sydney, Australia. Initially,
8:47
Speaker 5: when people were making flights in the US from one
8:50
Speaker 5: coast to the next, it was just a rich man's game,
8:52
Speaker 5: that's all.
8:53
Speaker 3: It was.
8:53
Speaker 5: People who could afford it could do it. Eventually it
8:57
Speaker 5: becomes mainstream enough that anyone can do. It's sort of
9:00
Speaker 5: an aspect of this also. Now how soon it will
9:03
Speaker 5: be before Wes Carol and a Shawn Crusin can afford
9:07
Speaker 5: to go to space and you know, just hang out
9:09
Speaker 5: on the International Space Station. Probably not happening anytime soon.
9:13
Speaker 5: But this guy is part of that. Isisigman is part
9:16
Speaker 5: of that part of it where he's able to help
9:18
Speaker 5: fund this. And then also, by the way, there's jobs involved,
9:23
Speaker 5: there's also industry involved. There's money that so his money
9:28
Speaker 5: that people criticize rich people for just sitting on, he's
9:32
Speaker 5: spending it and it's going back into the economy in
9:36
Speaker 5: this specific economy, but still it's contributing to what's eventually
9:40
Speaker 5: the future for the space program. So that sort of
9:44
Speaker 5: is his thing as on his resume as far as
9:49
Speaker 5: being someone who could be leading NASA soon.
9:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a couple of points about that. So I
9:55
Speaker 3: like the fact that you mentioned the curing cancer thing, because,
10:00
Speaker 3: as people who really dive into this know, the Inspiration
10:03
Speaker 3: four flight had a crew member on board by the
10:06
Speaker 3: name of Haley Arseno. Hailey Arsena is a childhood cancer survivor,
10:12
Speaker 3: and the reason that she was selected to go on
10:14
Speaker 3: the flight is because it was a fundraising opportunity for
10:18
Speaker 3: Saint Jude's Children's Hospital to help cure cancer. So there
10:22
Speaker 3: was a vast amount of money which was raised through
10:25
Speaker 3: the efforts of the Inspiration for Flight that went to
10:28
Speaker 3: help support Saint Jude and the excellent work they do there.
10:31
Speaker 3: So so that that Inspiration four flight included Jared Isiacman,
10:36
Speaker 3: included Cyan Proctor, a geology professor who became the first
10:40
Speaker 3: commercial African American female to go to space, and then
10:44
Speaker 3: it also included Christopher Sambrowski, who basically won his trip
10:49
Speaker 3: during the Super Bowl right there was a contest and
10:52
Speaker 3: you could sign up anyway. So these were some These
10:55
Speaker 3: were just some everyday folks. I mean, maybe not exactlyactly,
11:00
Speaker 3: but far closer to everybody folks than governmental astronauts. Part
11:05
Speaker 3: of the NASA Astronaut program, and they all got to
11:08
Speaker 3: go to space because of the money that Jared Isaacman spent, which,
11:12
Speaker 3: as you said, partly went to help with solutions for cancer. Now,
11:16
Speaker 3: another thing that you mentioned, which I think is a
11:18
Speaker 3: really important point, so I'm gonna circle back that to
11:20
Speaker 3: that too. All of the money that Jared Isaacman spent
11:24
Speaker 3: with SpaceX is helping SpaceX to improve their rockets, their capsules,
11:30
Speaker 3: which are hauling NASA astronauts to space. So you see
11:36
Speaker 3: SpaceX making money is actually helping the NASA astronaut program
11:41
Speaker 3: as well. In addition, I don't know if those dollars
11:45
Speaker 3: didn't in part flow to the development of Starship from SpaceX,
11:50
Speaker 3: which Starship is a vehicle that NASA has contracted to
11:54
Speaker 3: help land astronauts on the surface of the Moon. So
11:57
Speaker 3: there again on NASA direct NASA benefit there. And let's
12:01
Speaker 3: not forget that SpaceX has now been contracted to build
12:05
Speaker 3: the vehicles that will deorbit the International Space Station. So
12:10
Speaker 3: my point is that when these commercial ventures are supporting SpaceX,
12:16
Speaker 3: that in turn returns investment into the company that's helping
12:21
Speaker 3: NASA do a variety of things that they need to do.
12:24
Speaker 3: So in some kind of maybe you know three bank
12:27
Speaker 3: pool shot sort of way, Jared Isiacman is helping NASA
12:31
Speaker 3: deorbit space station and land people on the Moon, right.
12:34
Speaker 5: And also providing internet to people in Ukraine, and helping
12:39
Speaker 5: provide internet to people that had, you know, in the Carolinas,
12:42
Speaker 5: in North Georgia and Tennessee that didn't have any means
12:45
Speaker 5: of communication through starlink. So all of that is part
12:49
Speaker 5: of what he was funding.
12:51
Speaker 3: A very fair point. So so this is why some
12:56
Speaker 3: smart people, you know, a decade and a half or
12:59
Speaker 3: two decades ago, said, you know, instead of instead of
13:03
Speaker 3: us trying to build all this infrastructure from the inside
13:06
Speaker 3: of a government agency, what if we just allowed commercial
13:10
Speaker 3: industry to jump in and build these vehicles, rockets, infrastructure.
13:17
Speaker 3: Wouldn't it be a better use of money. Well, now,
13:20
Speaker 3: looking back, I'm afraid I was a tad myopic, you know,
13:23
Speaker 3: two decades ago, I was not a fan of this idea.
13:26
Speaker 3: Looking back now, it is hard to argue. But when
13:30
Speaker 3: you see two Falcon boosters landing side by side after
13:34
Speaker 3: the Falcon Heavy lunch, when you see the Mechazilla grab
13:39
Speaker 3: a Starship main Booster the super Heavy Booster out of
13:43
Speaker 3: mid air with its quote unquote chopsticks so that it
13:47
Speaker 3: can be refueled quickly and turned around rapidly. That's the
13:50
Speaker 3: that's the point of that whole procedure. When you see
13:52
Speaker 3: these almost science fiction like events take place in fifteen years,
13:59
Speaker 3: it's okay, you have to give credit where credits due,
14:03
Speaker 3: and yeah, that's something special. So that probably would not
14:07
Speaker 3: have happened without a dynamic shift toward commercial space, all right.
14:12
Speaker 3: So if we put that pin in the map to say, well,
14:15
Speaker 3: that's what happened, then now you have a commercial space
14:19
Speaker 3: pioneer coming from that outside world stepping in to put
14:26
Speaker 3: fresh eyes on NASA itself from a commercial space perspective,
14:33
Speaker 3: not from a brought up in the government system perspective.
14:37
Speaker 3: And again, NASA's accomplished amazing thing. So I'm not going
14:39
Speaker 3: to sit here and just beat it up because it's
14:40
Speaker 3: a government agency. They are still very worthy of their
14:45
Speaker 3: national sort of street credit of being one of the
14:48
Speaker 3: most advanced organizations on planet Earth. But yet it can't
14:53
Speaker 3: hurt to occasionally get a set of fresh eyes on
14:57
Speaker 3: a situation, on a circumstance to ask someone come in
15:00
Speaker 3: from the outside, someone who has had accomplishments Jared Isacmans
15:04
Speaker 3: has flown to space twice. Now he has done the
15:06
Speaker 3: first ever commercial space walk EVA, So there's all kinds
15:10
Speaker 3: of accomplishments that he has. Having him come from the
15:14
Speaker 3: outside and give a fresh perspective to NASA is probably
15:18
Speaker 3: in some sense exciting. Now, if I'm a long term
15:22
Speaker 3: NASA employee on the government payroll, yeah, I might be
15:27
Speaker 3: a bit concerned. There's a fair amount of uncertainty. Who
15:31
Speaker 3: knows where we're going here, But Wes, neither you or
15:34
Speaker 3: I are those people. We are outsiders, just kind of
15:37
Speaker 3: watching the space industry and the exploration of space while
15:41
Speaker 3: we eat popcorn and talk about it on this podcast.
15:44
Speaker 3: And so for the same time, if you see me,
15:50
Speaker 3: if you hear me mumble sometimes, folks, I might have
15:52
Speaker 3: a kernel, you know, cotton in a bad area. But anyway,
15:55
Speaker 3: so for us, it's exciting, right because this this is like, wow, well,
16:01
Speaker 3: what kind of things will will happen now that this person,
16:05
Speaker 3: by the way, who still has to be confirmed by
16:07
Speaker 3: the Senate, so it's not a done deal, right, But
16:10
Speaker 3: assuming that he's confirmed by the Senate, and there's a
16:12
Speaker 3: lot of bipartisan support out there already, I saw Lori Garver,
16:16
Speaker 3: who was the assistant director for NASA under the Obama administration,
16:20
Speaker 3: come out and say just absolutely glowing things about having
16:24
Speaker 3: Jared Isaacman come and be the next NASA administrator. So
16:28
Speaker 3: there's clearly some bipartisan support. So what's going to happen.
16:32
Speaker 3: It's going to be an exciting time.
16:35
Speaker 5: So at the beginning of the show, I was talking
16:39
Speaker 5: about the slow pace of NASA doing things. Isaacman has
16:47
Speaker 5: worked a lot with SpaceX, who has a very different approach,
16:52
Speaker 5: quite the opposite. They're able to launch things very quickly.
16:56
Speaker 5: They're able to get things done. They'll have something, a
16:59
Speaker 5: test rocket will explode, and then three days later they're like, no, no, no,
17:02
Speaker 5: we're ready to go again.
17:03
Speaker 3: We figured it.
17:04
Speaker 5: Out, and that's sort of their method of doing things.
17:08
Speaker 5: We've done many shows where we've talked about that. So
17:12
Speaker 5: I'm assuming that if he is confirmed and he does
17:16
Speaker 5: get this role, he's in for a very sudden slamming
17:22
Speaker 5: of the brakes on the speed of things. However, maybe
17:27
Speaker 5: it's possible to find some kind of middle ground there.
17:30
Speaker 5: I don't know, And maybe that's also part of the
17:32
Speaker 5: perspective that he might be able to bring with this, well, okay, so,
17:38
Speaker 5: but bureaucracy is going to be there. I mean, I
17:40
Speaker 5: hope he's prepared himself for the red tape. I'm assuming
17:45
Speaker 5: there'll be lots more of that than he has seen
17:48
Speaker 5: with SpaceX and working the.
17:51
Speaker 3: Very mention of the name Elon Musk raises such a
17:54
Speaker 3: specter in twenty twenty four, particularly, as you say, with
17:59
Speaker 3: the new Department of Government Efficiency the doze Elon Musk
18:08
Speaker 3: being a part of that. So setting all that aside
18:12
Speaker 3: for a moment, that controversial side, let's just look at
18:16
Speaker 3: Elon Musk, and maybe not Elon Musk. Let's look at
18:18
Speaker 3: SpaceX as a pioneering space company. Let's remember its chief
18:24
Speaker 3: operation officer is Gwyn Shotwell, by the way, whose name
18:27
Speaker 3: rarely gets spoken. I'm sure she's very happy about that.
18:30
Speaker 3: Let's just remember that that company has elevated the space
18:36
Speaker 3: endeavor to a level unimaginable. And again, I know, I
18:42
Speaker 3: know you Elon haters that I sound like an Elon fanboy.
18:47
Speaker 3: I get it. You don't like that. I'm sorry, keep listening,
18:51
Speaker 3: because let me just say, I'm not necessarily an Elon fanboy,
18:55
Speaker 3: but you simply have to look and say this commercial
18:59
Speaker 3: Space Company is now launching their rockets to space from
19:05
Speaker 3: three different locations at a launch cadence of something less
19:10
Speaker 3: than every three days, something on the order of every
19:15
Speaker 3: two point seven days. Their SpaceX mission is going up
19:22
Speaker 3: from somewhere, and they are delivering important payloads astronauts, defense satellites,
19:28
Speaker 3: all manner, including their own communication system. By the way,
19:32
Speaker 3: startling all manner of payloads to space in a largely
19:37
Speaker 3: successful way. And it almost seems to draw a yawn
19:41
Speaker 3: when their space vehicles come back down and land vertically
19:45
Speaker 3: on a launch pad, which means you wipe them off
19:48
Speaker 3: with a towel, you gas them back up, and they're
19:50
Speaker 3: ready to go. I know it's not quite that simple,
19:52
Speaker 3: but compared to throwing rockets into the Atlantic Ocean and
19:56
Speaker 3: having to build a new one every time you launch it,
19:59
Speaker 3: it is a brand new set of efficiencies. All of
20:03
Speaker 3: that has happened fundamentally in the last decade and a half,
20:08
Speaker 3: and so we've taken NASA from what it was in
20:12
Speaker 3: twenty eleven when we were shutting down the Space Shuttle program,
20:17
Speaker 3: which the Space Shuttle seemed pretty cool at the time,
20:21
Speaker 3: is just not even comparable to what's happening right now,
20:24
Speaker 3: just from one company, SpaceX. So we've gone from twenty
20:30
Speaker 3: eleven space shuttles to twenty twenty four. All of the
20:34
Speaker 3: things I just said, the Falcon Nines, the Falcon Heavies,
20:37
Speaker 3: the Falcon Super Heavy, the Starship, the star Links, the
20:41
Speaker 3: delivering of commercial crews to orbit, the Polaris Dawn mission,
20:46
Speaker 3: which took Jared Isaacman and three other commercial astronauts further
20:50
Speaker 3: than human beings had been from the planet since the
20:53
Speaker 3: Apollo era. All of these things have been done. You
20:56
Speaker 3: can't help but just at least note that these things
21:00
Speaker 3: have taken place. So now when Jared Isisigman, who is
21:03
Speaker 3: a collaborator and partner of Elon Musk in the SpaceX endeavor,
21:09
Speaker 3: is now named the next director of the National Aeronautics
21:12
Speaker 3: and Space Administration, there is going to be disruption. There
21:18
Speaker 3: is going to be a punctuation in the way that
21:24
Speaker 3: NASA is doing business. There is going to be change.
21:29
Speaker 3: What that change is, whether it is good or bad,
21:33
Speaker 3: whether it merits higher achievement, more astronauts in space, or
21:37
Speaker 3: leads to disaster. Quite frankly, as a possibility, we don't know,
21:42
Speaker 3: but certainly we know that that SpaceX, company that likes
21:45
Speaker 3: to move fast and launch rockets every less than three days,
21:51
Speaker 3: is going to be involved somehow. There is going to
21:54
Speaker 3: be some power behind the throne coming up.
21:57
Speaker 5: After speaking of that power coming up after a quick brain,
22:01
Speaker 5: one of the things that probably will see some change
22:04
Speaker 5: is the Hubble Space Telescope. We'll talk about that next.
22:24
Speaker 1: So we've heard the story before.
22:25
Speaker 5: A few people have this story where they kind of
22:28
Speaker 5: get told like, hey, I worked at a company and
22:30
Speaker 5: then I wanted to do this, and then they said no, no, no, no,
22:33
Speaker 5: we can't do that.
22:33
Speaker 1: So I bought the company and we did it.
22:35
Speaker 5: Anyway, It's not exactly that story, but it's kind of
22:40
Speaker 5: similar in that Jared Isaacman had this idea for the
22:45
Speaker 5: Hubble Space telescope and that wasn't necessarily a green light
22:52
Speaker 5: project for NASA. I suspect now if he is confirmed,
22:59
Speaker 5: he now would know that guy who could greenlight the
23:01
Speaker 5: project if he wants to move forward with it.
23:05
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, he might be very familiar with that email address.
23:09
Speaker 1: So the man in the mirror.
23:11
Speaker 3: If you will, Polaris Down was the mission that happened
23:16
Speaker 3: back in September of this year where Jared Isaacman commanded
23:21
Speaker 3: an all commercial crew that performed the first ever commercial spacewalks,
23:26
Speaker 3: first ever EVAs from an all commercial crew, and there
23:31
Speaker 3: was a kid Putit or Scott Petit, Sarah Gillis, and
23:36
Speaker 3: Anna Menon who were all part of that mission to
23:40
Speaker 3: go to space. They all had to wear pressurized suits
23:42
Speaker 3: the entire time because the way dragons configure, they don't
23:45
Speaker 3: have an air lock, so they had to depressurize the
23:47
Speaker 3: entire interior cabin. It's probably not the most comfortable ride,
23:49
Speaker 3: but they did it. Friends, And so that EVA happened
23:52
Speaker 3: on September twelfth, and both Isaacman and Sarah Gillis did
23:57
Speaker 3: went outside the spacecraft, being the first to ever complete
24:00
Speaker 3: a commercial EVA. Well, all right, so if you've done that,
24:03
Speaker 3: and by the way, that was the mission that went
24:06
Speaker 3: further from Earth than any mission had since the Apollo program.
24:09
Speaker 3: If you've done those two things, it's not too much
24:12
Speaker 3: more of a trick to fly up to the orbit
24:15
Speaker 3: of Hubble Space Telescope, which actually is not as high
24:17
Speaker 3: as they went, and maybe dock your spacecraft to Hubble
24:22
Speaker 3: and do those EVAs again and actually fix the darn thing.
24:26
Speaker 3: So let's remember the state. The current state of the
24:29
Speaker 3: Hubble Space Telescope is it's lost some gyros. It can
24:34
Speaker 3: no longer function properly as it once did because it
24:38
Speaker 3: can't point with the same kind of accuracy that it
24:40
Speaker 3: once did. There are other pieces of equipment on Hubble
24:43
Speaker 3: that are aging, and the whole vehicle itself is slowly
24:49
Speaker 3: degrading in its orbit. So Jared called NASA and he said, Hey,
24:55
Speaker 3: these Polaris missions that I'm running with elon, you know,
24:58
Speaker 3: we could fly up there. We could dock with huh.
25:01
Speaker 3: It is a very expensive resource for scientific research. It's
25:06
Speaker 3: still one of the greatest scientific instruments ever created. We
25:09
Speaker 3: could fly up there with a dragon, dock onto it,
25:12
Speaker 3: give it an orbital boost to get it back up
25:15
Speaker 3: to where it needs to be. We could swap out
25:17
Speaker 3: those gyros, and we could update some of the electronics
25:20
Speaker 3: and you'd have an almost almost new Hubble Space telescope.
25:25
Speaker 3: How would you like us to do that? I'm simulating
25:29
Speaker 3: the silence that Jarrett heard from NASA. They said, well,
25:32
Speaker 3: let us think about it a little bit.
25:34
Speaker 5: I would have had the cricket sound effects ready if
25:36
Speaker 5: I know we were going to do that.
25:38
Speaker 3: So that's what he heard. He basically heard crickets for
25:39
Speaker 3: a while. Then NASA came back and said, yeah, we
25:43
Speaker 3: don't think we we don't think we want you messing
25:47
Speaker 3: around with our telescope. You know, if you got up
25:50
Speaker 3: there and hurt yourself or something. I mean, I don't know,
25:54
Speaker 3: I can't remember exactly what all of the points that
25:56
Speaker 3: NASA made were, but they just denied him the opportunity
26:00
Speaker 3: to do that. He's like, okay, fine, And now just
26:04
Speaker 3: a mere three months later, Jared Isaacman has been named
26:08
Speaker 3: the air apparent to be the NASA administrator. So guess
26:12
Speaker 3: who the chiefs the chief decision maker has suddenly become?
26:16
Speaker 3: He himself? Will he approve his own mission to go
26:21
Speaker 3: up and service the Hobblespace telescope or at least some
26:25
Speaker 3: other astronauts to go do that mission using dragon capsules?
26:29
Speaker 3: He probably can't go himself. He's now going to be
26:31
Speaker 3: the NASA director, right, can he?
26:33
Speaker 5: I mean it's not it's a good point, you know,
26:36
Speaker 5: I mean, he could go up if we had it.
26:38
Speaker 5: We haven't had a NASA administrator go up, have we?
26:42
Speaker 1: I mean, have we had no?
26:43
Speaker 5: You know, so.
26:45
Speaker 3: People who have been NASA administrators have been astronauts before,
26:49
Speaker 3: and so.
26:51
Speaker 5: Is he now so so, But but could he go
26:54
Speaker 5: up as actually as the NASA director, could he go
26:58
Speaker 5: up and sign some thing like he could go up
27:01
Speaker 5: and sign the paperwork for the Hubble mission while he's
27:03
Speaker 5: on the International Space Station.
27:05
Speaker 3: I mean, you can do that with one of those
27:08
Speaker 3: upside and also just send out a memo saying, Hey,
27:11
Speaker 3: I'm gonna send this guy, Jared Isaacman to space.
27:14
Speaker 5: I'm gonna bump him to the front of the line.
27:17
Speaker 3: Yeah, We're gonna send him on a Dragon, on a
27:19
Speaker 3: commercial Dragon mission to go fix the Ubble space telescope. Oh,
27:22
Speaker 3: by the way, that's me here, I go. I don't know.
27:25
Speaker 3: It's so so when we contemplate the kinds of things
27:28
Speaker 3: that can happen with Jared Isacman as a NASA director,
27:32
Speaker 3: these are all arrows in the quiver, shall we say?
27:36
Speaker 3: And what I like to do now, wes if you,
27:38
Speaker 3: if you just permit me a little bit, Jared Isiacman
27:41
Speaker 3: posted a really awesome quote to some social media platform
27:45
Speaker 3: called x. I don't know who owns that. I forget.
27:48
Speaker 5: I hear he knows that guy.
27:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they. I think they drink high balls together,
27:52
Speaker 3: eat cheeseburgers or something I don't know anyway. So on
27:56
Speaker 3: yesterday morning, as we're recording this show this is December
27:58
Speaker 3: the fourth and eleven thirty one, an ex post went
28:02
Speaker 3: out formally known as Prince I mean Twitter, I don't
28:06
Speaker 3: know something like that anyway, has said this. Here's a
28:08
Speaker 3: quote from Jared Isiagman on X. I am honored to
28:12
Speaker 3: receive President Trump's nomination to serve as the next administrator
28:16
Speaker 3: of NASA. Having been fortunate to see our amazing planet
28:19
Speaker 3: from space, I am passionate about America leading the most
28:22
Speaker 3: incredible adventure in human history. On my last mission to space,
28:27
Speaker 3: my crew and I traveled farther from Earth than anyone
28:30
Speaker 3: in over half a century. I can confidently say the
28:34
Speaker 3: second Space Age has only just begun. Space holds unparalleled
28:38
Speaker 3: potential for breakthroughs in manufacturing, biotechnology, mining, and perhaps even
28:44
Speaker 3: pathways to new sources of energy. There will inevitably be
28:50
Speaker 3: a thriving space economy, one that will create opportunities for
28:53
Speaker 3: countless people to live and work in space. At NASA,
28:57
Speaker 3: we will passionately pursue these possibilities and usher in an
29:01
Speaker 3: era where humanity becomes a true spacefaring nation civilization. I
29:07
Speaker 3: was born after the Moon landings. My children were born
29:10
Speaker 3: after the Space Shuttle launch. With the support the final
29:14
Speaker 3: Space Shuttle lunch. By the way, I want to make
29:15
Speaker 3: sure I get these quotes right. With the support of
29:18
Speaker 3: President Trump, I can promise you this, we will never
29:23
Speaker 3: again lose our ability to journey to the stars and
29:27
Speaker 3: never settle for second place. We will inspire children yours
29:32
Speaker 3: and mine to look up and dream of what is possible.
29:35
Speaker 3: Americans will walk on the Moon in Mars, and in
29:38
Speaker 3: doing so, we will make life better here on Earth.
29:41
Speaker 3: It is the honor of a lifetime to serve in
29:43
Speaker 3: this role and to work alongside NASA's extraordinary team to
29:47
Speaker 3: realize our shared dreams of exploration and discovery. Grateful to
29:52
Speaker 3: serve Jared unquote three point eight million views on X Friends.
29:59
Speaker 3: I wanted to read that statement because when have you
30:02
Speaker 3: heard someone speak like this? Since the Kennedy challenge to
30:07
Speaker 3: go back to the Moon, when have you heard someone
30:10
Speaker 3: talked this optimistically, not only about the future of our
30:15
Speaker 3: space program, but about the future of our country and
30:17
Speaker 3: our civilization. These people are the kinds of folks that
30:22
Speaker 3: we need to lead America forward in my humble opinion,
30:27
Speaker 3: and I say, go, Jared, go.
30:31
Speaker 5: It's one of those things where it's such a And
30:36
Speaker 5: again with Kennedy, obviously he was you know, he was
30:39
Speaker 5: the president. But with having someone speaking this way as
30:45
Speaker 5: the potential likely future leader at NASA does give that
30:52
Speaker 5: feeling of optimism, It gives that feeling of urgency, It
30:57
Speaker 5: gives that feeling of importance to all of the work
31:01
Speaker 5: that's done there. And then you tie in his connections
31:05
Speaker 5: obviously with SpaceX and his ability to understand and navigate
31:11
Speaker 5: through this world of commercial companies involved in space. It's
31:16
Speaker 5: just a fresh perspective. Again though, I just my curiosity
31:21
Speaker 5: comes back to what happens when the first bits of
31:25
Speaker 5: red taper encountered.
31:27
Speaker 1: That's the I don't I don't want to.
31:28
Speaker 5: I don't want to be the like the downer at
31:30
Speaker 5: the end of that very positive message that you just
31:33
Speaker 5: read that he posted. I just wonder, like, how complicated
31:37
Speaker 5: is it going to get for him once he steps
31:40
Speaker 5: into that world.
31:40
Speaker 3: And you make a great point.
31:42
Speaker 5: He does, you know, know Elon pretty well and what
31:45
Speaker 5: his role will be moving forward. Who doesn't have to
31:48
Speaker 5: get approved by the way for his new kind of
31:50
Speaker 5: made up department. So, uh, it'll it'll be interesting. I
31:55
Speaker 5: mean I feel good. I feel really good. And again,
31:58
Speaker 5: I don't want to be the downer. I don't want
31:59
Speaker 5: to do that. I just worry that somebody who's had
32:02
Speaker 5: the ability to go might be getting a lot more.
32:07
Speaker 5: We're kind of in a yield state right now. We're
32:09
Speaker 5: in a long, steady yield right now. So that's the
32:14
Speaker 5: only questions I got.
32:15
Speaker 3: Does he have the vic Ramaswami's number on speed dial?
32:21
Speaker 5: I mean, I suspect he'll know how to get in
32:24
Speaker 5: touch with anyone in that department as needed.
32:27
Speaker 3: I mean he's probably got them on the text circle already, right,
32:30
Speaker 3: they probably have a group text going right now. Oh
32:33
Speaker 3: that would be a fun one to be in. Man,
32:35
Speaker 3: can you imagine the behind the scenes stuff in that
32:38
Speaker 3: text group anyway? So yeah, I mean, lover hate Trump,
32:44
Speaker 3: lover hate Elon Jared Isaacman is an outstanding pick for
32:50
Speaker 3: the director of NASA. Friends.
32:52
Speaker 5: This isn't one of those picks that people are going, hey,
32:55
Speaker 5: that one's really out there. This is one of the
32:56
Speaker 5: ones that, as you pointed out, a lot of bipartisan
32:59
Speaker 5: like yes, great call. So again, don't want to be
33:04
Speaker 5: a down or just want to look nothing at positivity
33:07
Speaker 5: and moving forward. You've got to get that confirmation taken
33:11
Speaker 5: care of. More made of stars right after this, all right,
33:35
Speaker 5: let's transition a little bit over to the Cocola Space
33:38
Speaker 5: Science Center. You guys have your holiday programming that you
33:42
Speaker 5: do this month, and then uh, you know, you'll transition
33:47
Speaker 5: back into the next phase of music under the dome
33:50
Speaker 5: into the new year. That one doesn't come around until March.
33:54
Speaker 5: But you do have your regular holiday programming that you
33:58
Speaker 5: guys do this time of year.
34:00
Speaker 3: Yep, we are adding a show to our show rotations
34:03
Speaker 3: in our Omosphere Theater. It's Mystery of the Christmas Star.
34:07
Speaker 3: It's a show we've run for a few years now,
34:09
Speaker 3: but we love the show because two things. Number One,
34:12
Speaker 3: it's just a fun holiday show. Number Two, if you're
34:16
Speaker 3: inclined to think in positive manners about the Christmas Star
34:20
Speaker 3: and the biblical story that led to us having the
34:24
Speaker 3: Christmas Holiday, it's a really great take on that particular story.
34:30
Speaker 3: Number Three, if you're not inclined to really enjoy that
34:33
Speaker 3: story or think that the Christmas Star was even a thing,
34:37
Speaker 3: this show does a very good job of talking about it.
34:39
Speaker 3: From a scientific perspective and also from a cultural perspective
34:44
Speaker 3: and historical perspective. So it's a great show on three fronts.
34:49
Speaker 3: And so I just encourage people to come in and
34:51
Speaker 3: see the show Mystery of the Christmas Star. There's all
34:55
Speaker 3: kinds of hard level science, but also a good hat
34:59
Speaker 3: tip to the holiday and the reason for the season,
35:02
Speaker 3: and so it's all fun. Come down and check it
35:04
Speaker 3: out in the Atmosphere Theater at the Coca Cola Space
35:07
Speaker 3: Science Center. And yes, we will be having some holiday hours.
35:10
Speaker 3: We're gonna be getting ready to close up a little
35:13
Speaker 3: early this year, So come down in the early part
35:15
Speaker 3: of December and see this show with your family. We'll
35:18
Speaker 3: be running on Saturdays. We'll be running at this Saturday
35:20
Speaker 3: coming up, Mystery of the Christmas Star. And then also,
35:24
Speaker 3: if you're looking for a unique gift for family members
35:27
Speaker 3: who might be here in the Columbus area, why don't
35:30
Speaker 3: you buy them some tickets to those music and of
35:32
Speaker 3: the Dome concerts that are going to be happening in
35:35
Speaker 3: the spring. This is one of the great cultural events
35:38
Speaker 3: in the uptown Columbus area, both a combination of art
35:43
Speaker 3: and science. We call that steam Friends. This is the
35:47
Speaker 3: arts that put the A in steam for stem science, technology, engineering,
35:51
Speaker 3: mathematics anyway, So this is a great show. The music
35:54
Speaker 3: is performed live by the faculty and students of the
35:57
Speaker 3: Schwob School of Music here at Columbus State Universe, but
36:00
Speaker 3: it's performed inside our otmosphere theater and different original artists
36:05
Speaker 3: are coming in and doing graphics that are choreographed to
36:08
Speaker 3: the music for the show. They are shown on the
36:11
Speaker 3: dome while the artists perform on the floor. It is
36:14
Speaker 3: a look up, look down, listen, all around kind of experience.
36:18
Speaker 3: Music under the Dog at our website from the Space
36:21
Speaker 3: Science Center and that is simply our initials CEC.
36:24
Speaker 5: Overhead Door Company Columbus all of your garage door, residential
36:29
Speaker 5: and commercial service. Thank you for listening. Need a new
36:32
Speaker 5: garage doors, you're just looking to upgrade or repair your
36:35
Speaker 5: current door. Overhead Door Company of Columbus has you covered.
36:39
Speaker 5: Plus they've got your emergency repairs or service covered as well.
36:44
Speaker 5: Seven oh six three five eight forty five hundred seven
36:47
Speaker 5: oh six three five eight forty five hundred O DC
36:50
Speaker 5: Columbus dot com