The North Star - Fall 2001

NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin Commencement Address

Augsburg College, Minneapolis, MN ~ May 20, 2001

President Fame, Members of the Board of Regents, Administration and Faculty, distinguished guests, friends and loving families, and most of all, the Augsburg College Class of 2001…

I am deeply honored by your invitation and the encouragement of Congressman Marty Sabo. It is a great privilege to be addressing you today. To the graduating seniors…let me start with two simple words: well done!

To be an Auggie means that you have wrestled…for national championships…and for that elusive parking space on campus.

To be an Auggie means that as first-year students you may have spent time in Urness Tower where you felt hot and cramped…And, like students at every other college in the world, you may have left your cafeteria feeling the same way.

To be an Auggie means that some of you, believe it or not, slept through an entire J-Terms…Thus making it easier to live with the Twin Cities' twin temperatures: cold and really cold.

Through it all you have been tested and you've triumphed. You have survived and succeeded. Be grateful…You are graduating. Well done.

Well done, but not mission accomplished.

Each and everyone of you is an explorer in the journey we call life…And yes, today's milestone is an important one. But commencement means a beginning, not an end. The bulk of this journey is still ahead of you. In fact, to use the NASA engineering terms I am most familiar with, I submit the following:

Graduation is a great accomplishment, but I look at it as just the end of the design and testing phase. It says we've completed all the system checks. Now, you are sitting proudly on the launch pad. And you--Augsburg Class of 2001--are ready for take-off.

It's going to be an exhilarating trip. But I'm not here to tell you what you are going to find. It's like one of NASA's missions. Everybody experiences something different. And to be honest, we don't know exactly what is out there. That's precisely why we go. Overcoming the unexpected and discovering the unknown is what ignites our spirit. It is what life is all about.

But if I can't tell you what's out there…hopefully, what I can do…is offer some advice to help you discover whatever it is you're looking for.

Simply put, my advice is this: always remember that life's lessons will not come from the guy delivering a speech in front of you…But they have been developed and nurtured by the people around you.

Your friends. Your professors. Your mentors. And, even though you may not realize to what extent now, life's lessons come mostly from what I like to call Mission Control--your family.

Especially your family. And never forget it.

Today I'd like to share one of the most important lessons I received from a very important part of Mission Control--my grandfather.

I figure I'm safe sharing a lesson that was grandpa's.

From what I hear, even those who favor Sergeant Preston's have learned a lesson or two at "Gramma's."

But before I do, let me say that I know exactly what some of you are thinking. Believe it or not -I'm still young enough to remember my commencement. An when I graduated I was thinking the same thing about my family:

"Free at last, free at last!"

Of course, there's some truth to that. After today, there will be certainly more expected of you…but you also have more tools and skills needed to meet those expectations.

You are leaving this wonderful place with more independence than you arrived with.

But there's an irony to that independence, especially the quality of that independence. It is the product of those you were once dependent on.

Until recently, at NASA, we accomplished our missions through brute force.

What I mean by that…is that for every mission…we would just pack everyone in the same room until we got the job done. That was it.

But now our missions are far too complex for brute force.

You see, at NASA, we've had many shuttle missions which have brought home many discoveries…

But now, we have a much more complex International Space Station and a permanent human presence in space.

We have satellites that give us fairly accurate forecasts two or three days out…

But now, we want and need more sophistication so we can forecast weather and climate months out. And then years out. And hopefully, decades out.

We've built some pretty amazing and intricate robots…

But now, we want to send them to every planet and we want to send probes to interstellar space.

We've built the most powerful telescopes known…And we have even had astronauts work on them while floating 270 miles above our planet.

But now, we are designing even more powerful telescopes--10X the power and 1/10th the weight--to see if there are earth-sized planets around other stars.

We've put men on the moon…And we've sent robots to the Red Planet.

But now…now is the time for what has been burned in the back of my mind since I was seven years old and my father first took me to the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.

Ever since my parents taught me that anything is possible if you work hard…If you never let anyone else shoot down your dreams and aspirations…If you are willing to take risks…And if you are never, ever deterred by failure, because without failure you cannot have true success…

My dream has been the same.

A spacecraft lands; a hatch opens; a ladder drops.

Then, with the world watching, an astronaut in a white suit with an American flag on the shoulder…steps down and crunches her boot on the dusty surface of Mars.

I know with certainty that we can do this. I know my dream will come true. But I also know that we can't do it like we used to. We simply cannot accomplish goals so difficult and reach destinations so far away with brute force.

The science is too important…The engineering is too intricate…The shear number of lines of code--is just too immense.

That's why we are developing computers that work more like the human brain and body. They will be self-sensing, self-repairing, and self-adaptive.

If something is not exactly right, a spacecraft on Mars will not need a signal from earth…which may or may not arrive in time.

The spacecraft itself will decide what's best and then take the necessary action.

It's bold, it's revolutionary. But what does it have to do with each of you?

Well obviously, I hope each of you support our mission to explore new frontiers and pioneer the future. More than that, I hope you want to be a part of that mission.

But the main reason I bring this up is that for the unknowing, the new era of computing means the end of Mission Control's usefulness.

The opposite couldn't be more true. The reason those systems will be able to do the things we can hardly even fathom today, is in large part because of the creativity and care…The labor and love…The heart and hard work of those back in Mission Control.

These systems started as just an idea--a glint in someone's eye. Before they could do anything on their own there was--for lack of a better term--"research and development." Someone gave these systems their direction.

The same is true for all of you.

And that brings me to my grandfather, Joseph.

He had a great sense about people. He was my grandfather on my mother's side, and he was a very devout Jew.

My parents, like a lot of kids, both then and now, rebelled against that. But I struggled with it.

My dad was very tough on me. I like to say he didn't teach values…He inflicted them. But my grandfather was a little different. He didn't put on the pressure…But he was a presence. And I wanted--as much as anything--to make him proud.

When I was about 19, I thought I figured out how to do just that.

I bought a pendant--a star of David--that I would wear all the time. No one could question my commitment to religion and I couldn't wait to show my grandfather.

To this day, I remember his reaction.

His eyes bulged and his nostrils flared. He said that symbols would not compensate as a sign of devotion if the commitment is not inside of you.

I was crushed. I felt as though he looked right through to my soul, and I wasn't sure if he saw anything.

Until I realized what was inside of me. What gave me direction and purpose were the values my family, friends and community had been teaching me all along.

Your diplomas are symbols, too.

They are not meaningless--far from it. You worked hard and earned them. And because you did, they will partially define you. And they--and they alone--may get your foot in the door for that important job interview.

But whether or not you land that job, whether or not you will accomplish your goals and realize your dreams…That will be determined by what is inside of you and nothing else.

I think I know what is inside of you.

Within each of you resides the imagination and individual genius. And within each of you are the values instilled and reinforced by the people sitting around you.

Putting those things together…And within each of you is the capacity to change the world…And maybe even discover new ones.

So go for it.

Never be deterred by the fear of failure. In life, having no failures is rarely a sign of perfection…but rather that your goals aren't bold enough.

Find something you love. Have a dream. Pursue it.

Believe in yourself.

Whether it is in Minneapolis or on Mars--make your mark.

And one more thing, and I don't say this just because I'm a parent, at least once in a while…check in with the old Mission Control.

There's so much to explore. Sharing what you discover with friends and loved ones only makes it more special, more complete, more lasting.

So to the Augsburg College Class of 2001…

Go for launch.

Lift-off on this wonderful journey we call life.

And Godspeed to all of you.

(*Mr. Goldin steps down from NASA 11/15/01.)