JANNAF Member Jeff Thornburg, founder of the engineering technology development company, Interstellar, LLC, spoke about ways in which government and industry can work together to fast track innovation in space exploration at the Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering on Sept. 21.
Thornburg spent much of his time discussing his experience working at SpaceX and seeing how quickly progress and development moved during his time serving as Vice President of Propulsion Engineering there.
“Don’t believe anything anybody tells you about schedules and budgets. It’s really about progress and development,” Thornburg said. “You have to push the paradigms. In development you have to push as far as you can get away with and it should be ok to do that.”
Showing videos of several successful launches at SpaceX, Thornburg talked about how hard all the employees worked to make the launches a success. “Every launch is a single emotional event. It’s like birthing a baby every launch, every single time,” he stated of the enthusiasm seen by the staff at SpaceX in the videos.
He shared an anecdote about his first phone call with SpaceX founder Elon Musk who was interested in working with him in 2011. Not knowing who Elon Musk was at the time, Thornburg told Musk’s assistant that he would have to call him back after he gave his daughter a bath and put her to bed. Thornburg ended up taking the job at SpaceX and staying for five years before leaving to start his own company, Interstellar, LLC. Prior to SpaceX, Thornburg worked in both government and industry, giving him insight into how the two realms interact with each other in space exploration.
Thornburg stated that he would like to see more collaboration between government and industry and the need for fast tracking innovation.
“The sky is the limit,” he said. “I want to see us move faster because I want to see the cool stuff happen before I’m 80.”
Thornburg’s speech was the first in a planned series of speeches by members of the community focusing on space research. The speaker series is sponsored by the Commercial and Government Program Office at Johns Hopkins University. All are welcome to attend.