Space To Village: Eclipse Edition

I’m finishing this week’s Space to Village newsletter and excitedly anticipating Monday’s solar eclipse. I’m most looking forward to seeing so many people from various parts of my community able to be part of this incredible moment in time.?

Astrophysicist and eclipse chaser Ryan Milligan describes what it’s like to experience an eclipse in 纽约时报 .?

Last week, the team at Inter Astra Institute shared their new podcast, “Your Business: In Space.” I was excited to sit down with Toby Goodman and share a few stories from my time as Press Secretary and Senior Advisor at NASA.

“Space exploration is not just for those with rockets; it’s for poets, teachers, artists, and dreamers. It’s for every one of us, shaping our world and the way we see our place in the universe.”

Since leaving NASA in 2016, I have employed a lesson I learned there every day. The biggest takeaway I have is this: space is for everyone. It belongs to everyone.?

Click here to listen to my conversation with Inter Astra.

One might say that the urgency of staying alive in space “eclipses” the more terrestrial arguments and battles.?

One of the things I didn’t think much about before joining NASA in 2011 was international diplomacy in space. This, in particular, comes into sharp relief when we think of the frosty relationship the U.S. government has with the Russian government on Earth, but on the International Space Station, it is absolute coexistence. One might say that the urgency of staying alive in space “eclipses” the more terrestrial arguments and battles.?

NPR 's Scott Detrow led a fascinating interview with Michelle L.D. Hanlon is the Executive Director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

In other news, I now want to be a space lawyer when I grow up.?

I said before that not a day goes by that I don't employ some lesson I learned at NASA. For the most part, the lessons I learned were about transparency, resourcefulness, creativity, and generosity.

Every scientist, researcher, astronaut, or other leader I met at NASA was incredibly generous when sharing their knowledge about any topic. I remember James Green , former "Director of the Solar System," jumping out of the elevator to finish explaining an answer to a question I asked that couldn't be answered in a six-floor elevator ride. Each person seemed acutely aware that the only way we learn more about our universe, and importantly, the only way we survive, is to share what we know with one another.

And that's the crux of this week's newsletter: In Earth-bound enterprises, information sharing isn't always valued; we all know stories about coworkers who kept key knowledge to themselves. We advance when we share ideas, passions, information, and knowledge.

What's one way you can break down an information silo at work this week? I started delivering a biweekly communications report to my teammates last month. It's one page of topline information that can easily be scanned in 30 seconds. And it's meant to keep those who don't do communications for a living up-to-speed on our current and future projects.

Thanks for subscribing to #SpaceToVillage newsletter. Have ideas you want to share? Leave us a comment. And we always appreciate you resharing this newsletter with your network - thank you!