Today's Farewell Town Hall At NASA
Charlie Bolden and Dava Newman react to Robert Lightfoot talking about showing some poor kid a #NASA Powerpoint presentation on an airplane pic.twitter.com/ZoKadIINZi
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) January 12, 2017
@NASAWatch Funny – I thought our first two years at NASA were our best years. Sorry Charlie didn't agree!
— Lori Garver (@Lori_Garver) January 17, 2017
Keith’s note: I managed to watch today’s NASA Town Hall broadcast (internally) on NASA TV today. Here are my @NASAWatch tweets – in sequence.
– NASA Landing Team has asked #NASA CFO David Radzanowski to stay on to “help get them over the hump” According to Charlie Bolden
-Bolden “Dava and I are going to leave Dave [Radzanowski] here to take care of Robert [Lightfoot]” #NASA
– NASA internal Town Hall: Lightfoot: “We need to show that we can transition our agency and not miss a beat”
– Bolden gave @DavaExplorer the #NASA Distinguished Service Medal today
– Town Hall: Bolden talking about @DavaExplorer coming to the A Suite said “we did OK before – but she brought some pizazz” 1/2
– But Bolden made no mention of @LoriGarver and how she kept him out of trouble for 6 years 2/2
– Town Hall: Bolden: “My first two years were horrible. I thought I just sucked as the #NASA Administrator”
– Town Hall: Bolden: “To put it bluntly I wasn’t comfortable.”
– Town Hall: Bolden: “I still come to work each day scared about what is going to happen that day”
– Town Hall: Bolden: “We brought Mike French and David Weaver over. Mike French encouraged me to do my job.”
– Town Hall: Bolden: “French – You’re the NASA Administrator & do not have to sit back & just say yes. You can tell ppl what you want to do”
– Bolden presented the #NASA Distinguished Service Medal to Mike French today
– When asked at Town Hall if the new Administration will continue with SLS and used it to send humans to Mars Bolden said “yes”.
– Bolden “When I came here in 2009 Constellation was a great idea – but it was an idea”
– Bolden “our entrepreneurial partners are really excited about what they are doing”
– Bolden “we have met those goals that we have established”
– Bolden tells NASA employees to “become thebest story teller that there is” in explaining to others what they do at #NASA
– Bolden: “if you take care of your people they will take care of you” #NASA
– Bolden: “Don’t forget about the other people who make it possible for you to do what you do.”
– Lightfoot noted that a kid sent him a Xmas card – sat next to him on a plane while Lightfoot showed him a #NASA powerpoint presentation
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I think talking to someone sitting next to you on an airplane is one of the most valuable types of outreach a scientist or NASA employee can do. If Lightfoot really made an impression to a kid sitting next to him, I think that’s great.
My only concern is that I may not have done so well in the past. I once talked to a kid sitting next to me, and he was very excited by everything about spacecraft and exploring the universe. Then he said he was not good at or interested in math. I really don’t know how to react. I didn’t want to discourage him, but I really believe working in the field requires having a good feel for numbers. I think I just gave a vague reply.
I’ve also had to field questions about space aliens and Area 51, and when I tell someone I work on NASA mission, some of people ask if, as a scientist, “do I believe in Jesus?” I think it is important to answer those questions without sounding arrogant, superior, or condescending and while also giving an honest answer. That isn’t easy.
Religion is perhaps one of the most interesting things that we puny humans spend our time worrying about. It’s a fascinating thing, and one I’ve been curious about as well; when I tell folks I’m not a believer, but wonder why they are, often the conversation takes an interesting turn. There’s often a certain earnestness worth exploring.
It depends on who you are talking to, but those can be interesting conversations. I generally agree about history and ethical/moral teachings (although I’m pessimistic enough to think “the meek should inherit the Earth” is more correct) and talk about whether or not the miracles really matters.
I tell then I know all about Area 51 but the aliens won’t let me talk about it.
You too?!? I thought I was the only one that did that! LOL
I can deny all knowledge of Area 51, but the Roswell incident is a bit of a problem. Since it was partially my father’s fault (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi… I feel like I have to explain that it was (1) really an Air Force balloon and (2) not actually a _weather_ balloon.
Other areas not necessarily requiring to be good with math would be human/machine interface aspects, public relations/conveying space hardware to the public.
Whenever a kid says to me he’s not good at math I challenge him/her (in a friendly way) with everyday math problems that they’ve never thought of as math problems to demonstrate that they probably are good at math but never realized it before. If I’ve got the time with them, I’ll bring up some math history (including examples of ‘cool math stuff’) to make it clear to them that the people who ‘invented’ the math first weren’t good at it either…until they kept at it and figured out what their problems of understanding it were…
As for religion vs science, all should read (if they haven’t yet) Stephen Jay Gould’s Rocks of Ages. Religion & science (and engineering for that matter), when both are done ‘right’ and with respect for each’s proper domain, have no actual incompatibility. Truth can’t contradict truth. I am perfectly comfortable discussing either & both with anyone who is interested ‘either direction’.
This thread is old but it’s been on my mind since Keith posted it. It’s the quotes taken from Twitter that’s been on my mind.
Why are they so troubling, I wonder? A few quotes might raise eyebrows, but taken together there’s a sort of underlying sense of– of “entitlement” is about the closest word I can think of, but that’s not quite accurate.
There’s a sort of meta conversation happening. And maybe I’m trying to hard to read between the lines– but when I do, it’s unsettling, exposing a frame of mind or frame of reference that isn’t easy to understand.
Bolden: “My first two years were horrible. I thought I just sucked as the #NASA Administrator”
“We brought Mike French and David Weaver over. Mike French encouraged me to do my job.”
“French: You’re the NASA Administrator & do
not have to sit back & just say yes. You can tell ppl what you want
to do”
Yeah I think we all saw this…Bolden not knowing how to run NASA, or take charge to make thought out choices, or even understand why we are where we are …It is a little sickening seeing someone who knows they are a yes-man, feels like it isn’t a good thing, and just keeps doing it. Good riddance.