Summary of Lori Garver's Escaping Gravity

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 I had a conversation with Barack Obama in 2008, when he was the Democratic presidential nominee, about NASA. I explained to him that the Shuttle was the most visible part of NASA, but its designated purpose had been to lower launch costs and make space travel routine. However, it had never come close to achieving this goal.
#2 I had been attracted to a career at NASA that involved space because I saw infinite potential in it. I was a child of the 1960s who loved a challenge, and space seemed like the most meaningful challenge ahead. I was determined to make a difference.
#3 The first disturbance in the force came when Senator Bill Nelson declined to schedule a meeting with us. The Florida Democrat's stated reasons were nebulous, and didn't involve me. I couldn't believe a single Democratic senator's personal views were enough to sideline the President's extremely well-qualified nominee.
#4 The Bush administration had budgeted money for the Space Station, which would have been used to cover the funding shortfall of Constellation. The next president would have been tasked with adding several billion dollars a year to keep money flowing to Shuttle, Constellation, and Space Station contractors.

Sujets

• Sciences appliquées
• Ingénierie
• Sciences appliquées
• Sciences appliquées
• Ingénierie
• Transport
• Civil
• Engineering
• Technology
• Sciences et techniques
• Transportation

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 23 juillet 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822547032
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Lori Garver's Escaping Gravity
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I had a conversation with Barack Obama in 2008, when he was the Democratic presidential nominee, about NASA. I explained to him that the Shuttle was the most visible part of NASA, but its designated purpose had been to lower launch costs and make space travel routine. However, it had never come close to achieving this goal.

#2

I had been attracted to a career at NASA that involved space because I saw infinite potential in it. I was a child of the 1960s who loved a challenge, and space seemed like the most meaningful challenge ahead. I was determined to make a difference.

#3

The first disturbance in the force came when Senator Bill Nelson declined to schedule a meeting with us. The Florida Democrat's stated reasons were nebulous, and didn't involve me. I couldn't believe a single Democratic senator's personal views were enough to sideline the President's extremely well-qualified nominee.

#4

The Bush administration had budgeted money for the Space Station, which would have been used to cover the funding shortfall of Constellation. The next president would have been tasked with adding several billion dollars a year to keep money flowing to Shuttle, Constellation, and Space Station contractors.

#5

The Obama administration’s first full budget publicly requested $19 billion for NASA to fly the Shuttle safely and extend the Space Station, increase funding for Earth sciences, advanced technology, rocket engine development, and infrastructure revitalization, and begin a partnership with US industry to transport astronauts to the Space Station.

#6

I was attacked by Democrats and Republicans in Congress, by the aerospace industry, and by hero astronauts for proposing an agenda that didn’t suit their parochial interests. The elation and promise of the administration’s potential to drive meaningful change was already being threatened by the trillion-dollar military-industrial complex.

#7

Senator Nelson asked repeatedly about the $6 billion intended to fund Commercial Crew taxis in the budget proposal, asking what would happen if Congress decided—since the Congress controls the purse strings—that we wanted to take the $6 billion projected by the President over the next five years and use that not for human certification of the commercial vehicles but instead to accelerate the heavy-lift vehicle for the Mars program.

#8

The battle between the old and new generation of astronauts was dramatic, and it even threatened human spaceflight. I became the target of the old generation, who accused me of threatening to destroy human spaceflight forever.

#9

NASA’s budget has always been more than half of its peak when it was part of the Cold War effort to beat the Soviets to the Moon, yet the space community blamed insufficient funding for its lack of progress.

#10

There are as many motivations to advance space development as there are people on the planet. Space should be utilized to benefit humanity and society. The direct global market from activities that operate in the area we call space beyond Earth’s atmosphere already returns nearly a half a trillion dollars in economic value.

#11

The space industry is finally on the cusp of achieving what aviation achieved in its first few decades. If we succeed, the most adventurous among us will one day join robotic explorers and expand humanity outward.

#12

I was a straight-A student in high school, and aptitude tests predicted engineering and science careers for me. There were six of us in my grade who had completed all the math available before our senior year of high school. When we returned from summer break, I discovered that the school administrators had registered the other five boys in a calculus class at the local university. I wasn’t contacted about taking the course with them.

#13

I worked on John Glenn’s presidential campaign in 1983. He was the first astronaut to leave NASA, and he avoided serving on space-related committees as a senator. He wanted to be known for more than his three-orbit, five-hour spaceflight. But when The Right Stuff was released in theaters during the campaign, he agreed to exploit his spaceflight as a differentiator.

#14

I was hired by the National Space Institute, a nonprofit membership organization, to be their entry-level employee. The organization was founded by Wernher von Braun, the father of the Moon program, in 1974. The L5 Society, on the other hand, was founded by followers of Gerard O’Neill, a physics professor at Princeton University who developed a concept of free-floating, self-sustaining space colonies.

#15

The Space pirates are a group of individuals who have spent decades working to create a spacefaring civilization. They have advanced important policies and legislation, and they have been largely ignored by the established space community.

#16

I was tour leader for the Columbia launch on January 12, 1986. The mission was delayed five times, and when it finally launched, it was clear that the program was not safe or routine. NASA began flying non-professional astronauts on the Shuttle in an attempt to show the public that the program was safe and routine.

#17

The Challenger accident was a determinative event for space development. It grounded scores of national security, civil, and commercial satellites. The accident led to a new policy that directed the Shuttle be used exclusively for missions that required the presence of astronauts.

#18

I was asked to serve as a public space analyst and spokesperson after the 1986 Shuttle accident. I enjoyed highlighting the many innovative industries and unique scientific information that had been gained from NASA’s space endeavors. But I began to realize that the primary rationale for funding human spaceflight was to expand humanity’s territory beyond Earth.

#19

I became a space advocate, and I developed a reputation as a thoughtful and clear communicator about the space program. I wanted to make sure that future space activities fulfilled their full potential to make a positive impact on society.

#20

I was the executive director of the National Space Society a year after the 1987 merger. I found that while we had two different root systems, they fed off the same springs: the early successes of NASA and the vision of science fiction.