Share Your Passion

Share Your Passion (con.)

He went to West Point because the Air Force Academy didn't exist yet. Then after West Point, and the Korean War, one of his best friends, Ed White, was chosen to be an astronaut. He believed...he knew, that if Ed could be chosen for the program, so could he. He only needed to prepare himself. He decided that it was important to go to MIT and get his doctorate.

He chose as his thesis an area that he knew would be of interest to people in the space program, "Guidance for Manned Orbital Rendezvous." He dealt with the math and technology needed to assure the successful rendezvous of two spacecraft in orbit. That original work was the basis for the development of our current method of rendezvousing in space. His thesis was dedicated to the original astronauts, and to the hope that he would one day be an astronaut too.

The first time he applied for astronaut training he was turned down. At that time they were focusing on test pilots as astronauts and while he was a pilot, he wasn't a test pilot. But luck was with him, and the next time he applied the rules had changed and he was chosen...he had believed and in that believing he had done what he needed to do...and his dream became reality.

Today I will share with you my passion. I will tell you stories and, hopefully, you will learn how best to share yours, how best to enlist others in your cause, how best to do great things and change the world.

The passion of going to the moon was shared by millions, and experienced first hand by the thousands of people who directly supported the mission. However, in the end one man made all the difference...and this shows that you can never know who will be there when the going gets tough...during their lunar approach warning lights began to flash, the computer was overloaded. Neil and Buzz got a little uptight and Houston went ape. It looked like they were going to have to abort, that all of their efforts would be for naught....

Then an engineer in Houston, Steve Bales, hollered loud enough for them to hear, "I understand, Tell them it's okay; they're go for landing!" He'd figured out the problem in seconds, and gave them the confidence to go on. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his quick thinking and his dedication.

This is the kind of person you attract when you share your passion. There were thousands more involved with the same dedication, the same commitment. This is just one of the stories, just one example of the blessings that you gain when you share your passion and others behold your vision and develop a passion all their own.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to see the Earth rise over the horizon of the Moon...the astronauts have tried to describe it...it's got to be harder than trying to describe the Grand Canyon.

And then, there's the disk of the Earth...only a few have ever seen that. In the space shuttle you see the curve of the Earth but you never see it's disk...it must be an awesome sight...one that only 27 men have seen, the Apollo astronauts lucky enough to travel to the Moon. Since that time nobody has been beyond Earth orbit.

This will change, you will live to see others go beyond Earth orbit, even to Mars and beyond. People are going back one of these days, and I hope...believe...that some of us will be able to have the Apollo Astronaut experience, the experience of seeing the Earth as a disk...the chance to look back at the Earth from beyond the Moon and see the Earthrise, a sight that is truly indescribable.

Some have told me that the cost would be prohibitive. That it costs from $100,000 to $200,000 to put just one person into orbit; that we will never be able to afford the reality of commercial space travel. While I understand the reasons for this view, we also know that technology costs fall rapidly as the technology is commercialized.