I recently switched companies and positions. I harbor no animosity for my former company. I did not leave because I was offered more money (it is the same almost to the dollar), for a cooler title, out of anger at someone or something, or because I felt overwhelmed or stagnate. No, I left so that I can be part of a new team that has a goal of flying humans safely into space. In that transition, I left a publicly owned aerospace part manufacturer and all of the complexities that come with answering to metrics and investors for a position at a privately funded space exploration, design and manufacturing company. A company that is not currently motivated by profit, but purely by research, design, and exploration.
To tell the truth it is a little scary: I went from a company where I know everyone from the newest technician to the CEO by first name and they both knew me and what my I brought to the table. I have moved into a world that I only know a fraction of the people and tech, where I am the new guy, untested, untried, but I think that it will be worth any initial stumbles as it has been a decades long and multi-generational want.
My father was an aircraft nut! He was a mechanic in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and eventually worked on the SR-79 Blackbird project when it was still classified. We went to airshows and aircraft exhibits galore. He knew some guys that flew with and maintained classic War Birds for the Confederate Air Force and we would spend Saturdays helping out here and there. Including a very memorable time where as a very skinny kid, I was tasked/voluntold to pull a bundle of wire in the confined space below the cockpit of what I believe was a Mitchell bomber. His love of flying things did not stop at the bounds of our atmosphere – living in Houston, I got dragged to the Johnson Space Center a couple times a year. He would spend hours there just looking and smiling. I didn’t get it then, but I sure do now! If my dad only knew…
I.AM.Stoked!!
I believe that the first decades of the 21st century will be seen in a few hundred years as the dawn of the privatization of space. The precursor to mankind’s exploration of space beyond a single lifetime. I get to be, in some small way, a part of that history. I feel like the kid who inked the presses for Johannes Guttenberg as he was printing that first book on set type. I feel that at the pivotal moments of exploration in human history, the little people behind some of our greatest explorers (Magellan, Ericson, Hillary & Norgay, Lewis & Clark, Cook, Armstrong, et al…), went to their rest knowing that they helped achieve something greater than themselves.
Dean Kamen (the inventor of the Segway and holder of 1,000+ patents) once said that it was his belief that ‘…When we start to look at scientists and mathematicians the same way we look at actors and musicians, we will start to come together as a society and do great things…’ The private exploration of space is one of these great things. I am proud to be one of those little people and I am excited for the days ahead.