Confidence in the face of failure

I never considered myself a space junkie, but I’ve always been awed by astronauts, who have the fortitude to venture beyond our planet. Personally, the thought of racing past the Kármán line—the point where one goes from Earth-bound to outer space—in a vessel small enough to ride piggy-back on a jetliner frightens and thrills me simultaneously. Now imagine doing it shortly after a vessel similar  to the one you’re commanding failed, exploded, and killed seven of your colleagues. Talk about guts.

I got a quick lesson in confidence a few weeks ago, while covering an event at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Thanks to Schneider Electric, I had a unique opportunity to meet Col. Eileen M. Collins, not only the first U.S. woman to command a space mission, but also the first astronaut to command a mission following the ill-fated, space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. The obvious intrigue of mine and everyone else present prompted us to ask the colonel just how hard it was to trust the space shuttle after that, and, of course, “Weren’t you scared?”

Her short answers were yes to trusting technology and no to fear because she and her crew were prepared for anything. To paraphrase, she said there was no group of people in the world better qualified to handle that mission because of their pre-flight training. If you want her detailed answers, I’ll refer you to her own words in her book, Through the Gglass ceiling to the Stars, which is also the basis of the soon-to-be-released documentary, Spacewoman.

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Collins, who addressed the gathering under the shadow of NASA’s impressive Skylab exhibit, pointed out that she and the crew saw just about every failure imaginable by running simulations in their training. There’s no substitute for knowing what makes your systems fail before you run it. Control engineers do this regularly, of course. Between digital twins and artificial intelligence models, they launch control systems well-aware of where the dangers lie. 

These days, cybersecurity issues, market forces and more threaten to disrupt smooth operations in plants. In space, there are plenty more unknowns that require quick actions. But, in either case, addressing possible failures in advance ensures calamity doesn't turn into catastrophe.