NASA

“The reason we were invited to become astronauts and to fly on the space shuttle is because We had designed the robotic arm that is on the space shuttle, and, in fact, part of it was designed here in Montreal, and, ah, the, ah, United States, NASA wanted to tha…”

“NASA also has a protected space where if you submit a report on an error or on a, what they call a near miss, it didn't crash the plane, but it could have, you get a jet, get out of jail free card. So by reporting on it, you are not subject to investigation.”

“SpaceX, I believe, was conceived as the Green Mars Oasis Project, where the idea was it's a very Los Angeles idea we're gonna go buy a bunch of rockets from the Russians, and we're gonna try to launch a bunch of stuff onto Mars, and we're gonna take a photo of…”

“We do leave the launch pad, even though we know it's dangerous. You know, with 1.5 to three percent likelihood, it will not make it out of the Earth's gravity, statistically speaking.”

“I do that often in reviews. I push against one person and see whether the other one comes to rescue them. I want to know, like, do they let them sink? I mean, frankly, I put more edge against one person. Sometimes I apologize at the end. Sometimes it's exactly…”

“Of all agencies in the United States, NASA is perhaps the one that's the least partisan. So, so basically, it's kind of interesting that if you look, I came in under the Obama administration, I worked in the Trump administration, and kind of, if you really loo…”

“So I will make the decision that it's one, it's not a vote. It's one decision by one signature. The only signature that matters there for most of these missions is mine, right? Because I take the accountability, right?”

“I think we will go to Mars with humans in my lifetime, for sure.”

“For me, that almost made a mistake mechanism is so important for big projects. Talk about the almost mistakes, because they surely will be mistakes if you don't fix them. What can we learn from almost mistakes? Also, talk about the mistakes”

“During that time, as well as the year before, this team was so, had such challenges that it was making mistakes that cost the taxpayer of the United States, eight hundred million dollars. The mistakes themselves cost six hundred million dollars because of lack…”

“You know, the NASA brand remains one of the top brands in the world, and frankly, SpaceX added to that. They didn't subtract to it, and so for me, it has increased it”

“So on an average month, we have One, sometimes multiple almost hits. So sometimes we have to fly a spacecraft away. You know, I have tens of spacecraft that are there operating. We have to move it away to make sure the debris can pass.”

“I frankly, I, we had a team, I basically replaced in my reporting structure, everybody. And the simple reason for that is I wanted to basically create a before and after. I wanted to make sure that the after is one that we are together and we are one, we are l…”

“So what I did is I talked to every stakeholder, Including those on the hill and say, look, the likelihood of that is not a hundred percent. You should think of it as a 50, 50 shot on goal. So we need to, you know, like hockey, we need to take shots on goal to …”

“What I really hate, if you really want to tick me off, come show up and tell me everything is low risk. That makes me believe you haven't understood your job, right?”

“So in that room, there were very few people who wanted to fire the engine. But I took the decision to fire the engine, and then we prepared for it. And as we prepared for it, all of a sudden we realized that the engine had a problem. It had a leak. It was some…”

“I think the hardest part of research is always to find that edge, right? So kind of, you know, kind of, if you really look at the best research, you know, I think of it like I'm a mountain guy. I think of it as like walking in the mountains on that ridge on th…”

“And so basically that, that we're going to collect those samples in 26 or 27 our next two spacecraft will take off. One in 26, one in 27, we think, today.”

“Our goal is not that in 50 years the government does the same stuff that we did 50 years ago. That's crazy, especially when it's a research entity like NASA. We want to kind of attack the next frontier. We want to go beyond what's possible today, kind of Incre…”

“You know, with 1.5 to three percent likelihood, it will not make it out of the Earth's gravity, statistically speaking.”

“Some leaders don't sleep well if they have problems. You know, so they have pain aversion. It's a big leadership weakness, like, you know, to not be able to carry worries with them, you know, and those worries pulling them down so, you know, that the whole org…”

“What I really hate, if you really want to tick me off, come show up and tell me everything is low risk. That makes me believe you haven't understood your job, right? Don't make me laugh. Don't make me feel good. Make me feel scared and then make me feel comfor…”