Assertion Supported
Zurbuchen: Avoidable James Webb Space Telescope mistakes cost taxpayers $800 million
“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…”
Opinion
Zurbuchen: Extraterrestrial life in the universe is very likely
“First of all, I, Believe it's very likely, right? I mean, as a scientist, the answer must be, I don't know.”
Prediction Open · timeframe Apr 2058
Dr. Z: Humans will travel to Mars within his lifetime
“I think we will go to Mars with humans in my lifetime, for sure.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Zurbuchen: Space and asteroid mining will happen within our lifetime
“No, I think this is our lifetime kind of issue, the mining calling.”
Insight
Thomas Zurbuchen: Claiming aerospace projects are low-risk exposes your incompetence
“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…”
Insight
Thomas Zurbuchen: Pain-averse leaders cause organizations to hide critical risks
“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…”
Opinion
Zurbuchen: Low Earth orbit is shifting toward becoming a domain of war
“If you ask me kind of my kind of in low earth orbit, what is my biggest worry right now? It is that, that we take the common good of space that we've You know, over decades we've used that way, you know, in a non-interference basis you know, with international…”
Insight
Zurbuchen: Commercial Spaceflight Is a Business Model Problem, Not Technology
“It's moving into the domain of entrepreneurship. So in other words, it's no longer a technology. The question is, does the business model close?”
Insight
Zurbuchen: The hardest part of research is balancing between irrelevant and impossible
“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…”
Insight
Zurbuchen: Claiming low risk in space missions signals a manager's incompetence
“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?”
Assertion Partly supported
Zurbuchen: 12 JWST Engines Were Damaged by Wrong Chemical Flush
“They, the engines that are there, 12 engines, were flushed out with the wrong chemical. Instead of actually checking, the person who flushes it out, they tried to clean it. That's exactly what they should do. They need to use the right chemical. Instead of che…”
Insight
Zurbuchen: Neglected Off-Critical-Path Items Cause Future Project Crises
“Everything off the critical path is what you're going to lose sleep over one year from now, if you're not watching it. And it's not that you divert attention from the critical path, but you also need to focus off the critical path and pattern match.”
Disclosure
Zurbuchen: Replaced entire James Webb project leadership to reset culture
“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…”
Insight
Zurbuchen: Pressure-testing individuals in reviews reveals team cohesion and mutual support
“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…”
Opinion
Dr. Zurbuchen: Space debris is a top-five challenge facing spaceflight
“So if I was organizing the kind of whole space flight according to its challenges, this would be a top five challenge that you're mentioning. It may be even a top two or three challenge.”
Assertion Supported
Zurbuchen: NASA repositions spacecraft monthly to dodge orbital debris
“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.”
Opinion
Dr. Zurbuchen: Low Earth orbit debris must be cleaned within 10 years
“So, so we have a problem as an international community that especially low earth orbit is clogged with debris. And it's really one of those things. I think in the next 10 years, we have to solve it. We have to, in fact, clean that garbage.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Zurbuchen: Viability of Consumer Spaceflight Will Be Decided Within a Decade
“I mean, I think we're at the verge of really opening space for commoners, right? Kind of for my family, your family, right? Kind of to do a trip to space and kind of utilize it both As a commercial entity by imaging the earth, for example, and selling those im…”
Insight
Zurbuchen: NASA must push frontiers and hand mature operations to commercial entities
“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…”
Assertion Supported
Zurbuchen: SpaceX actively darkens Starlink satellites to cooperate with astronomers
“SpaceX and the Starlink team have been nothing but collaborative. They went and faced the astrophysics community. They're actively Darkening their bodies, right? Kind of their spacecraft.”
Disclosure
Zurbuchen: NASA launch decisions require one accountable signature, not a vote
“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?”
Assertion Supported
Dr. Z: Juno Orbit Burn Was Canceled Due to Untested Engine Risk
“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…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Zurbuchen: NASA science priorities did not change between Obama and Trump
“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…”
Opinion
Zurbuchen: SpaceX enhanced NASA's brand rather than detracting from it
“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”
Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen