[ Music ]
In 2010, A photographer named Brandon from
New York City started an artistic and journalistic
experiment called Humans of New York .
Telling the unique story of his portrait subjects.
In 2015 we met Max, a 9 year old with a big
dream and loads of confidence.
Max is quoted in Humans of New York as saying:
“My dad goes all over the world and learns
about the news. One time he met a king. I
want to be a reporter too. If I was a reporter
right now, I’d probably write a story about
if NASA was going to launch a new rocket into
space. I’d start by going to the Director
of NASA. Then I’d ask him about his rockets.
And if any of them were going to space.”
On November 23rd Max’s dream of being a
reporter came true as he visited NASA Headquarters
in Washington, DC and interviewed Administrator
Bolden.
Good morning Mr. Bolden I’m thrilled to
be here.
Good morning. Please call me Charlie.
Let’s start with the question I asked on
the on the Humans of New York blog where are
you going to spend your next rocket?
Well we actually have a number of rockets
we’re going to fly the big destination for
us is Mars sending humans to Mars in the 2030s
and to do that we have a rocket that's called
the Space Launch System right now and haven’t
given it a name so maybe you can help us name
it. It will be the largest rocket we’ve
ever built and it’s going to carry on top
of the capsule that will have the crew and
the capsule is called the Orion.
Orion flew for the first time last year with
no people in it very successfully so we're
hoping to launch that sometime in the in the
2018 to 2020 time frame right now are big
next flight for humans because we flight right
now on a Russian spacecraft is to work with
two American companies SpaceX and Boeing on
two commercial crew vehicles to carry astronauts
in low earth orbit and Boeing call theirs
the CST 100 Starliner in Boeing and SpaceX
calls theirs the crew Dragon.
Put yourself in my shoes, I’m 10, What do
you hope that NASA will have accomplished
in my lifetime?
Oh, let me tell you what I have no idea what
we will have accomplished in your lifetime
but in the next twenty years of your lifetime,
by the time you’re thirty. And I picked
thirty because when I became an astronaut,
and I never dreamed of being an astronaut
by the way, we can talk about that also,
I applied for the astronaut program was selected
when I was thirty-four years old and that’s
pretty typical. So by the time you’re thirty
you’ll be able to apply for the astronaut
program by that time, my hope is we will have
migrated NASA astronauts out of low Earth
orbit, we’ll be operating routinely around
the moon again, we’ll be in what we call
our proving ground for going on to Mars and
we’ll be right on the verge of sending humans
to the Martian environment for the first time,
So there is a good chance that you as a ten
year old today will be on first crew that
takes the trip to Mars.
Thank you very much.
Max you were awesome. And next time you have
your own show on CNN or where ever you have
it, would you invite me to come back again?
Even if I’m a old guy?
Alright good luck to you too.
[Music]
