May 5th, 2023 |
By Courtney Stadd, VP of Ecosystem Engagement, Beyond Earth Institute
It was my great honor to participate in a recent video tribute for my former boss, NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEncvLMfjZM
Dan was awarded the Space Foundation’s top award, the James E Hill Lifetime Achievement Award, during the opening ceremonies of this year’s Space Symposium.
Far more important than my modest role were eloquent comments in the short video from former Vice Presidents Al Gore and Dan Quayle. Also, former President Bill Clinton contributed a separate personalized video tribute. In today’s polarized political climate, it speaks to Dan’s impact that the nation’s former top leaders, from separate Parties, came together to speak to Dan’s remarkable contributions to America’s national security and civil space programs.
In his acceptance remarks, Dan delivered a strong and passionate call for our space community to recognize that China and, yes, Russia, represent formidable competitors in space. For a brief overview of this competition, see Axios’ The Changing Landscape of Military Space Powers
In many ways, the challenge is arguably as great, if not greater, than the Soviet space threat to this country when Dan opted to go to NASA Lewis Research Center (now the NASA Glenn Research Center) in 1962 and work on advanced propulsion technology.
In his inimitable fashion, Dan metaphorically grabbed the audience by its collar and warned us that only one path will lead to ensuring America’s space leadership – taking on the really hard technical problems and challenges. In separate remarks to a different gathering at the Symposium, Dan noted that when he was invited to China, after he had left as NASA Administrator, he was profoundly impressed with the size of the audiences that turned out to hear his talks, as well as the overall enthusiasm for space among the general populace.
The same evening of Dan’s remarks, the Space Foundation treated attendees to a spectacular fireworks display. It was a remarkable display, but as I stood among the throng of revelers, wearing flashing party necklaces, and jockeying for a good view, I had a realization that our wonderful and brilliant space community needed to pay close attention to Dan’s urgent warning. And if they did, it would entail much sacrifice.
Yes, a family/work balance is critical. And, yes, I know that my clients and colleagues in the community-at-large tend to be inordinately hard workers. But I think Dan Goldin is telling us that, in the spirit of his generation and the challenges they took on, our community needs to dig even deeper, think less about quick valuations and exits and make the hard strategic investment of effort to take on the seemingly insuperable technical challenges (random examples: next gen space propulsion and power systems, harnessing AI and Quantum computing, advancing material science and cyber security technologies, machine-biological system interfaces, etc.) to ensure that America remains the leader among spacefaring nations.
While I am the first to cynically wonder if the aerospace industrial complex has a vested interest in stirring up a space race with China, the empirical data for why we should be concerned is there in plain sight. China’s President Xi and his lieutenants are pursuing an autocratic value system the direct opposite of ours, and they clearly are rapidly seeking to dominate the ultimate high ground – the space frontier. From their expanding crewed habitat in earth orbit to their robotic presence on the Moon and Mars, developing ever-powerful rockets, to their commitment to deploying crews to the lunar surface within the decade, China is pursuing multiple paths to securing near space dominance.
If we find opportunities for selected collaboration with China in space to ensure stability and peace, hallelujah. And surely every opportunity for cooperation with China must be pursued. But history is replete with examples of how negotiating from a position of strength, a necessary predicate, garners respect and fear so one’s adversary thinks many times over before us taking on. And, right now, viewed from Beijing’s vantage point, to borrow a phrase from The Game of Thrones, “Winter is coming.”
I can only hope our community is smart enough to know what is at stake and heed Dan Goldin’s stark warning. Perhaps now is the time to do less partying, put away the fireworks for a while, roll up the proverbial sleeves and get down to the tough business of ensuring our leadership in the high frontier.
Failure, indeed, is not an option.
