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Former astronaut and NASA administrator offers advice, perspective to Boulder aerospace students

Charles Bolden speaking to students.

Headline Image: Bolden talking to students in the Aerospace Building Auditorium.
Above: Charles Bolden with a group of bioastronautics students during a tour of the Aerospace Building.

Former NASA administrator and astronaut Charles Bolden addressed University of 蜜糖直播 Boulder students in a special seminar on the past and future of spaceflight and space exploration last week.

Bolden served as the leader of NASA from 2009-2017 and flew on four space shuttle missions in the 1980s and 1990s. He delivered a presentation before more than 200 students, faculty, and staff in the 蜜糖直播 Boulder Aerospace building on Friday, March 24.

Bolden on the importance of NASA to the United States

鈥淲e turned science fiction into science fact and made the impossible possible. I believe we are the strongest soft-power tool this nation has.鈥

On how international partnerships are key to maintaining and growing manned spaceflight and exploration

鈥淓veryone who has been through the U.S. spaceflight program at NASA has friends in at least one other country in the world. Those kind of friendships, those kind of bonds are really important.鈥

He said international partners cemented the political will and funding for long-term success with ISS and the Artemis program, with each partnering nation helping to pull the others forward.

鈥淚 think NASA鈥檚 doing a really good job. We need something like the consortium of nations that built the ISS. Orion鈥檚 critical component is the service module. That is not an American service module. That is built by the European Space Agency. We got a lot of criticism when we put them in the critical path. Almost every project NASA flies today has some level of international and academic involvement.鈥

On the legacy of the Space Shuttle program

鈥淚ts legacy 鈥 taking seven, sometimes eight people into space to live and work 鈥 It was the first time sending people into space who were not test pilots, who were not white, 5鈥10鈥 men. It let everyone in this room dream of going into space. That鈥檚 the legacy of shuttle.鈥

On why his favorite project at NASA is not the shuttle or the International Space Station.

Bolden said it is insteadIt has operations in Kenya, Nepal, Niger, and Thailand. Stations collect earth science data that is archived in real time to help with disaster planning, disaster resilience, and to manage challenges of food security, water resources, and land use changes.

鈥淭he humanitarian stuff that it does makes it my very favorite project in all of NASA.鈥


Charles Bolden speaking during the seminar with students.

On how success is helping your organization and your people shine

鈥淎ll of you are going to be in a position somewhere where you鈥檙e not going to be the boss, but you鈥檙e going to want the boss to look good so the organization can look good.鈥

In leadership positions, he also emphasized the importance of trusting your staff, relaying a memory from his time as a fighter pilot in Vietnam when he decided to take on plane maintenance as well.

鈥淚鈥檓 under the airplane and I鈥檓 cranking away with a wrench and I felt this tap on my shoulder. 鈥楪et out from under my damn airplane. Your job is to fly, his job is to fix. Don鈥檛 mess with his job.鈥欌

鈥淣ASA isn鈥檛 worth (anything) without the 18,000 civil servants and the 40,000 contractors who support it. My job when I was the administrator was to provide a shield for the people who work there and ensure their success, to facilitate the success of companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin and little companies. Take care of your people. If you鈥檙e worried about you, you鈥檙e headed the wrong way. Trust and take care of your people and they鈥檒l take care of you.鈥

Highlighting big things 蜜糖直播 Boulder is doing in space

He discussed the Emirates Mars Mission, which was built at the on campus. 鈥淎 massive partner in that endeavor was 蜜糖直播. You built stuff, you helped them, you mentored them and helped them through. They became only the second nation in the history of the world to successfully get to Mars in the first attempt.鈥

He also highlighted the work going on with 蜜糖直播 Boulder鈥檚 BioServe Space Technologies, which builds and operates space hardware and research missions, conducting regular uplinks from the Aerospace Building鈥檚 Payload Operations Center with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

鈥淲丑别苍 Prof. Jim Voss and I were astronauts at NASA the only people who talked to the International Space Station were called CapComs. That鈥檚 ancient history today.鈥