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I’m trying to think of a more asinine and performative reason than revoking a job offer because the youthful recipient flung a few profanities around in celebra

I’m trying to think of a more asinine and performative reason than revoking a job offer because the youthful recipient flung a few profanities around in celebration of the moment. This is how you preserve a monoculture, folks. In followup, the advisory board member in question, evidently not such a stick-up-the-ass authoritarian as NASA’s decision makers, was dismayed by the revocation not the exuberance.

AussieWog93 5y ago
>In followup, the advisory board member in question, evidently not such a stick-up-the-ass authoritarian as NASA’s decision makers, was dismayed by the revocation not the exuberance. Yep, I did a quick Google too. Full quote: "I learned she had lost her offer for an internship with NASA. This I had nothing to do with nor could I since I do not hire and fire at the agency or have any say on employment whatsoever. As it turned out, it was due to the NASA hashtag her friends used that called the agency's attention to it long after my comments were gone," Hickam wrote in a blog post Tuesday. Hickam also shared that he is "certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry and I'm doing all I can to secure her one that will be better than she lost," and has "talked to the folks that had to do with her internship and made absolutely certain that there will be no black mark on her record."
- WalterBright 5y ago
  I sent HH an email out of the blue a few years ago with my thoughts on why the space shuttle was not a good design, and he was kind enough to write a nice reply. So I've always thought well of him.
  - effingwewt 5y ago
    Things like him replying are what fosters future scientists/thinkers IMO. Passion should be nurtured. Would it be ok to ask you your thoughts about the space shuttle? Is that weird? I really apologize if so.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      I told him that obviously the critical expense of getting to orbit was weight. (Of course, I didn't actually tell him anything he didn't know.) Wings, rudder and landing gear are heavy and expensive and are only useful for the last few seconds of flight. All that dead weight did was subtract from what the machine could do in orbit. I said the only thing one really needed to bring back was the crew, and an Apollo capsule would do just fine for that. He agreed, and said he'd argued similarly. Musk had an even better idea. Bring the ordinary booster rocket back without wings, rudder, or landing gear by using a bit of extra fuel at the last moment to kiss the landing pad rather than smash it. That empty tin balloon of a booster isn't going to fall that fast or need that much fuel to do it.
      - effingwewt 5y ago
        Right on, I appreciate it. I can't believe even HH was arguing for this stuff and NASA was just like 'eh'. I don't like Elon, his methods, or his companies, but I am grateful for the progress his engineers have wrought! Also have you seen the launches in person? Here we have some that look like glowing floating balls of plasma. When SpaceX was first doing tests everyone was outside thinking it was aliens or a bomb, it was that far outside anything people had ever seen before.
        WalterBright 5y ago
        I like Elon, his methods, and his companies. He's a grown up Tom Swift. If he was a science fiction character, I'd dismiss him as unbelievable. I hope he gets to Mars before I run out of time.
        effingwewt 5y ago
        I can definitely appreciate that. Maybe I should restrict my feelings to the man himself and not his job and his companies.
  - awofford 5y ago
    I met him while I was in high school and spent an hour or so talking to him with a few other students. Great guy!
kbenson 5y ago
One the one hand it's sad, on the other hand I understand why they did it. Astronauts are, for better or worse, the public face and PR of NASA, which is a an agency subject to social and political winds of the times, but has for the most part placed itself apolitically and kept astronauts as heroes that both sides can agree on (as long as we can forget a short period where adult diapers where in the public consciousness). The thing that makes it such and achievement (that it's a select group of exceptional people) is also the thing that puts extra expectations on how you can act or what you can be involved in. It might be better if it were not that way, but the reality is that astronauts are not chosen based on skill and capability alone.
- inopinatus 5y ago
  Perhaps they're chosen for their ability to cuss like a sailor in the cockpit? (John Young and Gene Cernan both served in the navy) https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-day1-pt2-earthorbit-rev1.html https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-day1-pt2-earthorbit... Thomas Stafford drops plenty of F-bombs in the Apollo–Soyuz mission transcripts too, which are faithfully recorded in the NASA archives for posterity.
  - bumby 5y ago
    I like these stories, but I think this is more a hallmark of a bygone era. If I remember correctly, the average age of NASA during Apollo was mid-twenties. Now (at least in certain orgs within the agency) it’s nearly double that
    - lupire 5y ago
      During Apollo, twenty somethings used far less crude language in public than peoplw due now.
  - kbenson 5y ago
    Not a lot you can do once they're already in space, yeah? I bet you there was some PR person at NASA cussing them out when they heard/saw those too. As for being faithfully archived, well we already have enough moon landing conspiracists without giving them more "evidence" of stuff being hidden during space missions.

AussieWog93 5y ago

>In followup, the advisory board member in question, evidently not such a stick-up-the-ass authoritarian as NASA’s decision makers, was dismayed by the revocation not the exuberance. Yep, I did a quick Google too. Full quote: "I learned she had lost her offer for an internship with NASA. This I had nothing to do with nor could I since I do not hire and fire at the agency or have any say on employment whatsoever. As it turned out, it was due to the NASA hashtag her friends used that called the agency's attention to it long after my comments were gone," Hickam wrote in a blog post Tuesday. Hickam also shared that he is "certain she deserves a position in the aerospace industry and I'm doing all I can to secure her one that will be better than she lost," and has "talked to the folks that had to do with her internship and made absolutely certain that there will be no black mark on her record."

WalterBright 5y ago
I sent HH an email out of the blue a few years ago with my thoughts on why the space shuttle was not a good design, and he was kind enough to write a nice reply. So I've always thought well of him.
- effingwewt 5y ago
  Things like him replying are what fosters future scientists/thinkers IMO. Passion should be nurtured. Would it be ok to ask you your thoughts about the space shuttle? Is that weird? I really apologize if so.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I told him that obviously the critical expense of getting to orbit was weight. (Of course, I didn't actually tell him anything he didn't know.) Wings, rudder and landing gear are heavy and expensive and are only useful for the last few seconds of flight. All that dead weight did was subtract from what the machine could do in orbit. I said the only thing one really needed to bring back was the crew, and an Apollo capsule would do just fine for that. He agreed, and said he'd argued similarly. Musk had an even better idea. Bring the ordinary booster rocket back without wings, rudder, or landing gear by using a bit of extra fuel at the last moment to kiss the landing pad rather than smash it. That empty tin balloon of a booster isn't going to fall that fast or need that much fuel to do it.
    - effingwewt 5y ago
      Right on, I appreciate it. I can't believe even HH was arguing for this stuff and NASA was just like 'eh'. I don't like Elon, his methods, or his companies, but I am grateful for the progress his engineers have wrought! Also have you seen the launches in person? Here we have some that look like glowing floating balls of plasma. When SpaceX was first doing tests everyone was outside thinking it was aliens or a bomb, it was that far outside anything people had ever seen before.
      - WalterBright 5y ago
        I like Elon, his methods, and his companies. He's a grown up Tom Swift. If he was a science fiction character, I'd dismiss him as unbelievable. I hope he gets to Mars before I run out of time.
        effingwewt 5y ago
        I can definitely appreciate that. Maybe I should restrict my feelings to the man himself and not his job and his companies.
- awofford 5y ago
  I met him while I was in high school and spent an hour or so talking to him with a few other students. Great guy!

kbenson 5y ago

One the one hand it's sad, on the other hand I understand why they did it. Astronauts are, for better or worse, the public face and PR of NASA, which is a an agency subject to social and political winds of the times, but has for the most part placed itself apolitically and kept astronauts as heroes that both sides can agree on (as long as we can forget a short period where adult diapers where in the public consciousness). The thing that makes it such and achievement (that it's a select group of exceptional people) is also the thing that puts extra expectations on how you can act or what you can be involved in. It might be better if it were not that way, but the reality is that astronauts are not chosen based on skill and capability alone.

inopinatus 5y ago
Perhaps they're chosen for their ability to cuss like a sailor in the cockpit? (John Young and Gene Cernan both served in the navy) https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-day1-pt2-earthorbit-rev1.html https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-day1-pt2-earthorbit... Thomas Stafford drops plenty of F-bombs in the Apollo–Soyuz mission transcripts too, which are faithfully recorded in the NASA archives for posterity.
- bumby 5y ago
  I like these stories, but I think this is more a hallmark of a bygone era. If I remember correctly, the average age of NASA during Apollo was mid-twenties. Now (at least in certain orgs within the agency) it’s nearly double that
  - lupire 5y ago
    During Apollo, twenty somethings used far less crude language in public than peoplw due now.
- kbenson 5y ago
  Not a lot you can do once they're already in space, yeah? I bet you there was some PR person at NASA cussing them out when they heard/saw those too. As for being faithfully archived, well we already have enough moon landing conspiracists without giving them more "evidence" of stuff being hidden during space missions.