Tag Archives: NASA

Rice University and NASA Honor the 60th Anniversary of the Moment We Chose to Go to the Moon and Do the Other Things

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On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy delivered his Address at Rice University on the Nation’s Space Effort to land an American on the moon by the end of the decade. In the years that followed, Kennedy’s address became known as the “We choose to go to the Moon” speech.

Sadly, President Kennedy did not live to see Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin take humankind’s first steps on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969, roughly five months before the end of the decade laid out in JFK’s speech.

While JFK’s life was taken a little over a year after his address, his words have lived on as an example of what people are capable of when they seek to answer a call to overcome what many see as impossible odds.

Rice University, in collaboration with NASA, celebrated the 60th Anniversary of JFK’s “We choose to go to the Moon” speech at Rice Stadium on September 12, 2022.
Photo R. Anderson

Earlier this week I had the honor of attending a celebration of the 60th Anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon speech” at Rice University.

I was not alive when JFK made his speech. However, as a third-generation aerospace worker, his words, and the actions they triggered in the decades that followed, have been a part of my life in one way or another for as long as I can remember. As such, I consider myself fortunate to have been a small part of the celebration of such a historical moment.

Growing up in Florida, I never imagined I would have reason to step foot on the Rice University campus. However, once I moved to Texas shortly after graduating college, I had the opportunity to cover a high school football playoff game at Rice Stadium while working as a sports editor for a Houston area newspaper. I was even offered a job to work at Rice at one point, but chose to go in a different direction.

While the field turf has changed since the days when a Super Bowl was played, and a “moonshot” speech were given, each time I set foot inside the stadium I still felt the magnitude of being somewhere that had experienced its share of historical moments.

While the field turf has changed since the days when a Super Bowl was played, and a “moonshot” speech were given inside the stadium, each time I set foot inside the stadium I still felt the magnitude of being somewhere that had experienced its share of historical moments. Photo R. Anderson

Despite those previous trips inside Rice Stadium, nothing really prepared me for the realization that I would be inside the stadium listening to a recording of JFK’s we choose to go to the moon speech exactly 60 years after it was given.

Walking up to the stadium I was greeted by a larger than life mural of JFK on the stadium’s upper deck. Seeing the mural, the magnitude of the event started to sink in.

Once inside the stadium, I had the opportunity to chat with former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine. Serving as NASA Administrator during the presidency of Donald Trump, Bridenstine played a large role in spearheading the current effort to return to the moon known as the Artemis Program.

It was a bit surreal to be talking about the future moon efforts with a former NASA Administrator while at an event celebrating the kickoff of lunar ambitions from 60 years earlier.

As an aside, my conversation with Administrator Bridenstine was a much less awkward experience than the time a former Space Shuttle Program Manager started chatting with me while we were both standing at adjoining urinals for a Space Shuttle anniversary event.

Just like when the speech was first delivered, it was hot inside Rice Stadium as former astronaut, turned senator, turned current NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson pointed out in his remarks. Although the triple digit on field feels like temperature definitely dampened some armpits, it could not dampen  the magnitude of the event.

Along with various elected officials and VIPs, thousands of middle and high school students were on hand for the festivities in a measured attempt to inspire the next generation of students to take giant leaps for human kind.
Photo R. Anderson

Along with various elected officials and VIPs, thousands of middle and high school students were on hand for the festivities in a measured attempt to inspire the next generation of students to take giant leaps for human kind.

In a symbolic passing of the torch, the current students were joined by many Rice Alumni who were in the stadium 60-years earlier for the original speech.

As was the case in JFK’s time, America is once again looking towards a return to the moon. If all goes well, the next human steps on the moon will be made by the end of the current decade.

In support of the current return to the moon effort, as I write this, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, complete with an Orion capsule, is currently sitting on a launchpad at the space center that bears President Kennedy’s name. The SLS is awaiting a go for launch once issues with leaking hydrogen valves are safely resolved.

In support of the current return to the moon effort, as I write this, the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, complete with an Orion capsule, is currently sitting on a launchpad at the space center that bears President Kennedy’s name.
Photo R. Anderson

Once SLS and the Artemis Program launch their uncrewed test mission, they will go to the moon and back to test various systems on the vehicle. About a year after Artemis 1, a second mission conveniently called Artemis 2 will take humans around the moon.

If all goes to plan on the first two missions, by 2025 Americans may once again put boots on the ground of the lunar surface during the Artemis 3 mission.

As someone who worked on the Orion Program during its early days, and has longed hoped to be alive when humans were on the moon, I am certainly rooting for Artemis to succeed in returning humans to the moon.

Of course, as the pesky and recurrent hydrogen leaks have shown, so much has to go right for a successful mission to the moon to occur. As John F. Kennedy so eloquently stated 60 years ago, “we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

In addition to being at the 60th Anniversary event at Rice this week, in 2019 I was fortunate to be at the Kennedy Space Center to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the famous first steps on the moon by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11.

As someone fascinated by aerospace history, I have always been amazed by the small steps and giant leaps of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle Programs. I am equally enthralled by the current efforts of companies like SpaceX to build and operate commercial vehicles.

Unfortunately, as an agency reliant of yearly funding and congressional whims, the best laid plans of NASA men and women can often fall victim to budget cuts and shifting presidential priorities.

There is not a single group that is at fault for the fact that December 19, 2022 will mark the 50th anniversary of the last human steps on the moon. It can be said that SLS is a victim of a funding model that has not really changed much in over 60 years.

President Richard Nixon cancelled the Apollo Program to make way for the Space Shuttle Program.

Following the loss of Space Shuttle Columbia, President George W. Bush announced the end of Space Shuttle Program, and the rising of the Constellation Program.

President Barack Obama ended Constellation, but saved Orion, while looking towards commercial companies to handle low earth orbit missions.

One can argue the politics and the excuses for why it has been over 50 years since humans last left footprints in the dusty lunar soil until the cow jumps over the moon.

The reasons don’t matter. What does matter is doing everything possible to ensure that it is not another 50 years before humans return to the moon.

Many people reading this may not be alive when the 100th anniversary of JFK’s speech at Rice rolls around. For that matter, depending on how people address sea level rise between now and then, Rice University itself may be under water.

Many people reading this may not be alive when the 100th anniversary of JFK’s speech at Rice rolls around.

For that matter, depending on how people address rising sea levels between now and then, Rice University itself may be under water along with Kennedy Space Center.

While I enjoy celebrating anniversaries of past human spaceflight accomplishments, it is time for some new milestones to be created that can be celebrated in another 50 to 60 years.

Humans must continue to build on the vision first outlined by a young idealistic president on a sweltering hot summer day 60-years ago inside a football stadium in Houston, TX.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am off to answer the age-old question of why did Rice play Texas?

Copyright 2022 R. Anderson

SpaceX Makes History as the United States Enters a New Era in Human Spaceflight

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Today, the Space Exploration Technologies Company, or SpaceX as it is more commonly known, made history by becoming the first private company to launch humans from American soil when a Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon capsule attached to the pointy end on top launched NASA astronauts, Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley, from historic Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Earlier today historic Launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center was the site of America’s first flight of humans since July 8, 2011 when Space Shuttle Atlantis launched for the final time. Photo R. Anderson

Aside from being a giant leap for a private company, the launch marks the first time that any humans have launched from American soil since Space Shuttle Atlantis, which was piloted by Hurley, launched from Pad 39A for STS-135 on July 8, 2011, and landed on July 21, 2011.

In the nearly a decade since “wheels stop” on Atlantis was called out in the predawn hours, the only way to get humans to and from the International Space Station has been in a Soyuz capsule launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

It is sobering to think that the country that put the first humans on the lunar surface went almost 10 years without a means to launch people into space from Kennedy Space Center.

For the first time in nearly a decade Americans launched from Pad 39A which has hosted among other flights, the first trip to the moon as well as the final flight of the Space Shuttle Program.
Photo R. Anderson

The reasoning behind why the leader in space exploration lost its way and floundered, are best served in another column on another day. Today is a day to celebrate an achievement by SpaceX, and all of the dedicated people of the Commercial Crew Office at NASA. It is not a day to look back at a decade of starts, stops, and what ifs.

By all accounts, SpaceX was not supposed to be the company that returned humans into space from KSC, but they reached the finish line first by asking “why can’t we do it this way instead?,” versus sticking to what had always been done.

Space Shuttle Atlantis is now on display at the KSC Visitor’s Complex after being the last of the orbiters to see space. Doug Hurley was the pilot of that mission and commanded the Demo 2 mission which saw a return to human spaceflight launched from American soil.
Photo R. Anderson

In 2002, I had an opportunity to hear SpaceX founder Elon Musk speak about his vision for changing the way spaceflight was conducted shortly after he founded SpaceX.

Many of the people in the audience thought it was crazy to think that a company could start from scratch and succeed in the aerospace business. Musk proved that one could in fact succeed as a new kid on the block.

Following SpaceX, several other commercial space firms, like Blue Origin, founded by Jeff Bezos, and Virgin Galactic, founded by Sir Richard Branson, were formed.

The new frontier of space exploration led by companies like SpaceX, and Blue Origin, is likely to lead to even more innovations as private companies look at the most cost-effective way to safely fly.

While the basics of flight dynamics remain a constant, there is always wiggle room in the margins. For decades, the first stage of rockets were left to rust away in a watery grave in the Atlantic Ocean. However, the science fiction foretold process of landing rockets upright became reality when SpaceX showed that they could land their Falcon 9 first stages upright on land, and on a barge at sea, in order to reuse them as a cost savings measure. SpaceX also looked into ways to catch fairings with a ship equipped with a large net like a ballplayer chasing down a baseball in the outfield.

A Falcon 9 first stage makes its way to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2016. The ability to land the boosters and refurbish them near the launch site has led to a decrease in the number of cross country trips for the boosters as well as cost savings.
Photo R. Anderson

SpaceX has had many innovations, however, that is not to say that the road was not bumpy. There were several high-profile failures leading up to this launch, including the loss of the vehicle that had previously flown to the ISS as part of the Demo 1 mission.

In fact, Musk has embraced the failures as learning opportunities by often saying, “There’s a silly notion that failure’s not an option at NASA. Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough.”

Congratulations to all of the people who worked so hard to make the Demo 2 launch a success.
Photo R. Anderson

Failures and losses of launch vehicles also occurred during the early development stages of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs. Additionally, the Apollo Program lost three astronauts during a tragic fire on the pad during a test run for the Apollo I mission.

The Space Shuttle Program saw the loss of 14 astronauts with the Challenger and Columbia incidents. Each of these cases show that no matter the decade, space travel remains difficult and filled with inherent risk.

These tragedies also underline the importance of learning lessons from each failure and taking steps to ensure that the same failures do not occur again.

Growing up in the shadow of the Kennedy Space Center, I saw the dangers of space travel firsthand when I witnessed the Space Shuttle Challenger explode from my vantage point on the elementary school recess field. The teachers quickly ushered us back inside when they realized that something had gone wrong, but years later, I can still close my eyes and picture what the sky looked like on that cold January morning.

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program includes partnerships with Boeing and SpaceX to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS. SpaceX became the first private company to launch people from American soil earlier today.
Photo R. Anderson

With the launch of Demo 2, a new era of government and private commercial partnership took one small step together. The Commercial Crew Program going to ISS is just the start of an ambitious interplanetary goal of returning to the moon, and eventually putting the first boot prints on the surface of Mars.

There are many challenges to go in order to reach those goals, and sadly history tells us that there may be tragedy as we stretch towards the unexplored horizons.

In a 1962 speech at Rice University, President John F. Kennedy, challenged America to go to the moon, “not because it was easy, but because it was hard.” Sadly, JFK was not alive to see his challenge fulfilled on July 20, 1969. However, over 50 years later, the center that bears his name is still pushing the envelope and reaching for the stars.

President John F. Kennedy inspired a generation to go to the moon nearly 60 years ago. NASA and their commercial partners have once again set their sights on the moon as well as Mars.
Photo R. Anderson

For five years, I have waited for the launch of this mission dubbed Demo 2. At times, I wondered whether this day would ever arrive after launch slip after launch slip was announced.

I had planned to be there for the launch in person cheering it on. The COVID-19 virus changed that plan, and I was forced to watch from home. Of course, that just meant that I had to cheer even louder, even though I have heard that in space no one can hear you scream.

Congratulations to all of the hardworking men and women who made the Demo 2 launch a success. I have seen firsthand the work in the trenches that went into getting to this point, so I know that the victory lap is both long overdue, and well deserved. Of course, the victory lap will be short, as there are more flights to get ready for.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go talk to somebody about their plans to occupy mars.

Copyright 2020 R. Anderson