Intrepid Museum’s Astro Live

Join us live on Facebook, YouTube, or X.

The Intrepid Museum will present a Virtual Astro Live program on December 15 at 3:00pm ET.

After the deaths of his friends and colleagues aboard Columbia, a disaster that could have been avoided, Astronaut Charles Camarda and his fellow crewmates worked diligently through their grief and many stress-filled days to return the United States to space on the next shuttle flight. This allowed NASA to once more take on the prideful mantle of success but only after paying a very steep price, a price that seems at times to have been already forgotten but may have to be paid again unless there are changes within both the organizational structure and culture of the agency.

Join us for a discussion with former NASA Astronaut Charles Camarda, author of the newly released book Mission Out of Control: An Astronaut’s Odyssey to Fix High-Risk Organizations and Prevent Tragedy, about his role in reimagining the safety culture at the administration post Columbia,and the valuable lessons he’s learned to pave the way for a safer future in space.

The event is hosted and co-produced by John “Das” Galloway, founder of the Kerbal Space Academy.

Participant:

Dr. Charles Camarda is an is a 46-year NASA veteran with over 22 years of experience as a research engineer, 18 years as a NASA Astronaut who flew on STS-114, the return-to-flight mission following the Columbia disaster, and 13 years as a Senior Executive holding positions within the Agency as Director of Engineering at NASA Johnson Spaceflight Center, Deputy for Advanced Projects in the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, and Senior Advisor for Innovation and Engineering Development at NASA’s Langley Research Center prior to his retirement in 2018. Post Columbia and prior to his launch on the next mission two and a half years later, Dr. Camarda was responsible for initiating and leading the teams that verified the technical cause of the accident and for developing the technology that he flew on his return-to-flight mission to repair his spaceship in the event of another debris strike.

He is currently an adjunct professor at several universities has developed an innovative conceptual engineering design pedagogy called ICED, which he has taught to NASA engineers and which forms the basis for his 501 (c)(3) educational nonprofit called the Epic Education Foundation, which he founded to democratize STEM/STEAM education for students of all ages around the world.

About the Book:

Astronaut Dr. Charles Camarda has uncovered a recurring cause of accidents that no one has articulated yet—loss of a research culture that places a premium on learning and the quest for knowledge and what that means. He shows how to develop high-performing teams and networks of such research teams to solve anomalies rapidly, which can help prevent catastrophes in complex high-risk/high-reliability organizations.

Available for purchase through Amazon.

Host:

John “Das” Galloway is a science outreach communicator who specializes in live, interactive video content. He is the creator of the Kerbal Space Academy, where he uses video games as a tool to start science and engineering conversations with viewers of all ages, and VECTORS Virtual Field Trips, which brings real-time interactive video to museums, events, and historical locations. “Das” also serves as a host and producer for NASASpaceflight.com.

Funded by: Astro Live is supported through a NASA Cooperative Agreement awarded to the New York Space Grant Consortium.

The program is also supported, in part, by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature