Preaching Professionalism

摘要

As a top NASA mission manager, Jim Van Laak wrestled often with risk. Sometimes the challenges were technical, like how to prepare for the sheer number of spacewalks needed to construct the international space station. During the predecessor shuttle-Mir program, Van Laak occasionally found dangers masked behind politics. Now with the nonprofit National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) research center, Van Laak is working to share his insights and lessons learned with the fledgling commercial human spaceflight industry. He recently spoke to SpaceNews correspondent Irene Klotz.