Breakfast with a former NASA Administrator!

On the 14th of April I had the incredible opportunity of meeting former NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin, courtesy of Jess Wade who received an email about this opportunity. I just couldn't say no!

Who is Dan Goldin?

Dan Goldin served as the 9th and longest-tenured Administrator of NASA. He wanted to transform America's aeronautics and space programme, despite lower budgets. Goldin established a series of robotic missions to Mars which were designed to determine whether there is life on Mars. He believes that human missions to Mars will occur early next century.

That morning I made my way to the US Ambassador's house, Winfield House, in Regent's Park. It was so beautiful and luckily it was a lovely sunny day too. Here are some pictures of the beautiful things I saw on my journey to Winfield House:

Regent's Park

I finally arrived at the Ambassador's House and once I had my ID checked I was allowed in. I was so excited and it was so picturesque!

I entered on the left through the gates where I got ID'd - there were guards with guns outside his house!

He has a whole road to his house!

US Ambassador's front door

Outside his front door

He had a skating ramp outside his front door! :O 

And then it was time to enter his house - ahhhh! Was so excited! IT WAS STUNNING! Honestly, I had my jaw dropped the whole time I was there. I began to think about how I even got this chance to be at the US Ambassador's House and meet a former NASA Ambassador! Thank you Jess for inviting me, I cannot thank you enough. :)

As soon as we walked in this was the first room we saw - how beautiful?! That chandelier though! WOW!

We were offered a drink and some treats - looks delicious!

Even the tissues were posh!

He's got such lovely chandeliers :)

Such a pretty room #PicturePerfect

This room was my favourite and everything looked so immaculate! Everything placed in the perfect position - it looked like a showroom!

LEGO White House and Big Ben!!

I love the gold details

His music collection

His back garden!

Even more of his HUGE back garden

Apparently the 'EXPLOSIVE' signs are just to scare people away.

And then we were guided into a room where a monitor and whiteboard was set up. It was so posh and beautiful that I was just in awe.

Walking into the room where Dan Goldin would be speaking

And then Dan Goldin stood up and began his speech. He started talking about where he grew up and how he suffered from a detached retina and so couldn't play sports with the other kids when he was younger. He felt left out and so instead, he began reading science and maths books to fill in his free time. The other kids laughed at him but his father taught him to not worry about what others thought of him. He loved the Rose planetarium in the New York Natural History Museum which 'nourished his brain'. When he was 7 years old he saw a meteorite at the Museum and it was from this moment on where he wanted to lead a mission to Mars.

Dan Goldin, speaking at the US Ambassador's House about his past and future plans.

He worked really hard and graduated with a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from the City College of New York where he then worked for NASA! During his administration at NASA, Goldin supervised projects like the Mars Pathfinder, Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions and the International Space Station! How cool is that?!

Felt so lucky and privileged to be here - I was so grateful for the opportunity

He spoke about the day that President Bush wanted to see him and ask him to become the next NASA Administrator. He walks into the White House, Dan says, and he begins to think of his childhood and how the other kids in his class would laugh at him #LookAtMeNow He thought about his father and how he wanted to make him proud. He had to pinch himself just to believe that this was actually happening!

Dan was interviewed by the Vice President at the time and after that he accepted the job! (Meaning his 10 billion dollar business in wireless communications had to be put on hold). He created an environment for his NASA minions to be creative and as a result he launched more people into space than anyone else in the world!!

In order to work for Dan you had to go through 12 hours of interviews, deep tests, you had to have a bold vision and self confidence. He said that his employees had to be willing to fail in order to learn and then succeed. 

Dan answering our questions

After he had spoken, the floor was open for us to ask him some questions! So exciting! Here are some of the questions that were asked:

1. Are you still passionate about sending humans to Mars?

Dan says, of course! He believes that there will be a manned mission to Mars in the next 6 years! He says we need to go to Mars to understand the biology and learnt the evolution of bacteria so that we can learn more about the existence of life. 

2. How do you feel the public can be inspired/engaged in space exploration?

He says get the young ones to read - 'see the colours, visualise the passion' and understand human nature. If we don't understand human nature than how can we learn and move forward. He says they need to see and feel the science for themselves by going out to places like the Science Museum.

He also believes that once you have established a career in science talk about it. Share your story to others so that you can inspire them to follow in your footsteps.   

Jess asking Dan a question about getting more people interested in space exploration #InspiringOthers

I'll end this blog post with a few quotes from Dan, he says: 

'unless you have a vision you can't do anything'

'NASA is the most beautiful organisation in the world'

'learn for the sake of learning'

'work with passion'

'if you don't read history you can't understand human nature'

'reading is the single most important thing'

'the Web is generating productivity and opportunity to the world'

'our brains are perfect examples of how making mistakes helps with learning - unlike with computers it crashes when they make a mistake - our brains are so much better'

'be a role model first then preach about it'

The Imperial crew with Dan Goldin
Image courtesy of Jess Wade.

A huge thank you goes to Jess Wade for giving me this invaluable opportunity, had so much fun and it was definitely an experience I will never forget! Thank you! :)