Maxwell School News

"It’s an important inflection point, if you will, of now seeing the opportunity for commercial transportation of humans into space," says University Professor Sean O’Keefe, former administrator of NASA. "This is much akin to the transition when the first civil aviation aircraft took off decades ago after many decades of it being exclusively a public endeavor."

"You can’t explain SpaceX without really understanding how NASA really kind of nurtured it in the early days," says Harry Lambright, professor of public administration and international affairs and political science. "In a way, SpaceX is kind of a child of NASA."

"This is a remarkable chapter in NASA’s history that has lived for 50 years to remind everybody at that remarkable storied agency what a tremendous accomplishment can be yielded even in moments in which it appears to be on the verge of failure," University Professor Sean O'Keefe says. "It reminds us of our humanity." 

"You can’t just turn the lights out and say, we’ll be back," says University Professor Sean O’Keefe. "[The space station] is an asset that needs constant operational attention."

"We're seeing some really, really inventive entrepreneurs with grand visions that are basically just getting started to move towards that same pattern that we saw for commercial aviation that made traveling around the globe a relatively easy proposition," says Sean O'Keefe, University Professor and former NASA administrator.

Former NASA Administrator and University Professor Sean O'Keefe spoke with several media outlets about the July 20, 1969, landing of Apollo 11 on the moon and the possibility of future space exploration. "It is a common aspirational goal as big as what we saw in the 1960s," O’Keefe told the Gazette. "Could we see convergence around a common goal that could benight this era? Absolutely." 

"It’s too early to tell what the implications may be," says Sean O'Keefe, University Professor, about the SpaceX crew capsule accident setback.

"With the technology we have today, returning to the moon is within reach in five years. As we keep rediscovering, exploration really is a journey. It only gets longer when we take a break," writes Sean O'Keefe, Howard G. and S. Louise Phanstiel Chair in Strategic Management and Leadership.