“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
Hi, I’m David.
This is where I share my thoughts and stories about space (past, present, and future).
Hi, I’m David.
This is where I share my thoughts and stories about space (past, present, and future).
The idea for NASAology.com started as a set of stories I published on LinkedIn about my thirty-year career as an engineer at NASA.
My time at NASA was filled with highs and lows. Seeing the Shuttle up close was a high. Working for a space agency that canceled the Shuttle without a replacement was a low.
The next decade has the potential to be an amazing time for space travel—but only if we stop doing the things that aren’t working and start doing more of the things that are.
Before We Get Started
I should probably warn you that today’s NASA isn’t the same NASA that put men on the moon in less than a decade during the Apollo Program (in the 60s) and carried men and women into space during the Shuttle Program (from 1981 to 2011).
But I think most people know that already. After all, today’s NASA just went nearly a decade without launching humans into space—and SpaceX did that.
It’s time for meaningful conversations about a topic that’s been glossed over for way too long—and that begins today.
I’ll do this by explaining the benefits (and limitations) of New Space, doing a deep dive into the quest for excellence, pointing out the dysfunction of NASA’s safety culture, highlighting the importance of selecting the right performance metrics, and describing how NASA does contracts. I’ll also share some stories from my early days at NASA and a handful of open letters.
Not Sure Where to Begin?
Reading the Featured Articles below is a great starting point for readers wanting to get the big picture of what I write about. These are also some of the articles I get the most feedback about.
Featured Articles
