In the past, NASA has been a great source of inspiration, innovation and technological advancement.  Even today, NASA embodies those ideals.  Over the past few months there has been debate about the path that NASA will take.  The debate has been a source of great divide in the NASA community and has motivated many at NASA to hail the end of America’s leadership in space.  Recently, the Senate came up with a compromise between the Constellation Program and the Obama Plan which hopefully will end the debate and allow NASA to move forward.

The point of this blog isn’t to talk about the debate in Congress, the point is that regardless of the decisions that are made by the politicians of this country, we will not propel space exploration forward unless we believe that we will end up victorious.  Mohandas Gandhi once said that “a small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history”.  Well I am here to tell you that this paradigm can have both positive and negative impacts.   We are at a cross road in NASA’s history, and where NASA goes from here will not be decided by Congress, but by the dedicated men and women that work at NASA.  If we believe that the end of America’s leadership in space is over, then no amount of money will help us keep that leadership.

Leadership begins with oneself….

Responsibility begins here….

We can not always choose our environment, but we can always choose to do our best.  If NASA is to remain a leader in space and be a source of inspiration to the world, we must stop looking up for leadership and we must start leading up.  We ALL have the capacity to influence our environment for the better, and if we are to remain a leader in space we must take every opportunity to make things better.

That means, that we must end the CYA paradigm that plagues NASA, and replace it with paradigm of personal responsibility.

Imagine how great NASA would be if everyone at NASA took personal responsibility for the quality and safety of the work they did, instead of separate groups being tasked to police the work of others.

Imagine how great NASA would be if when a group’s utility was no longer needed, the leader’s first inclination was not to invent reasons to keep the group alive, but to help those in the group transition to other opportunities that would safely allow the group to be eliminated.

Imagine how great NASA would be if instead of trying to save a dime to do more mission, NASA invested in those who execute the mission so that they can handle more mission.

Imagine how great NASA would be if instead of us pointing the finger at others, we pointed the fingers at ourselves and took the time to see the good in others.

Do the negative things I implied above happen?  Yes.  Do I think they are bad?  No!  I think they are human.  Failure is not only an option, failure is imminent, because we are human.  The question is how do we succeed in an imperfect world where failure is a fact of life?  We do it by remembering that leadership begins with oneself, and that responsibility begins here.  We do it by accepting that NASA’s fate is in our hands, not in the hands of those above us or in the hands of those far away.

We can all help NASA be better, and each of us knows best how we can help.  I encourage everyone to search deep in oneself to find your personal way of helping NASA be better, and I have faith that we will all have the courage to do so when the opportunities present themselves.  The path forward will not be easy, but I have no doubt that we will not only remain leaders in space, we will inspire the world with as much vigor as days gone by.