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I'm Thankful

by Steve Bartlett

It's November, the time when we Americans take a weekend to pause and recognize those things for which we're thankful. So in that spirit, let us identify some of those things that brought cheer to those of us in the space community:

I'm thankful to those on the Mars Exploration Rover team who successfully guided two spacecraft to Mars and executed perfect landings. To follow that up, they drove across the surface of the Red Planet and discovered definite proof that water ran there at some time in the past.
I'm thankful to the Cassini mission team for giving us spectacular views of the ringed planet and its family of moons and the promise of many more to come.
I'm thankful to Burt Rutan for envisioning the SpaceShip One craft; to Paul Allen for financing it; to Mike Melville and Brian Binnie for piloting it into space; to the Scaled Composites crew for building it; and to the X-Prize foundation for inspiring them to fly the first commercial spaceship.
I'm thankful that the Administration has put forth a plan to return mankind to the Moon and then onto Mars. (I'll be REALLY thankful in 2005 if they make sure that there are enough funds in the budget to get things moving.)
I'm thankful to be living in Southern California, where we're just a short drive from
- Two space launch sites (Vandenberg and, now, Mojave),
- The pre-eminent center for robotic exploration of the solar system (the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory),
- Dozens of large and small space companies,
- Three world famous observatories (i.e., Mt. Palomar, Mt. Wilson, and Griffith Park)
I'm thankful that the National Space Society Board has found an active, enthusiastic, and thus far fairly effective Executive Director in George Whitesides
I'm thankful that we still have an operating space station in orbit and a series of crews willing to work in tough conditions while we all wait for the Shuttle to return to service. I'm particularly thankful to our Russian partners for continuing to provide Soyuz capsules to carry those crews to and from that station.
I'm thankful to the people at XCOR, Spacex, and JPL for allowing our members a tour of their facilities
I'm thankful to all of our speakers in the OASIS Lecture Series over the past year
And, finally, I'm thankful to the OASIS membership for letting me serve as their President for the past three years.