I'd love to go to space. I would love to peek out a giant window and look back at the blue marble. There's no question; I'd love to do that.

What would air travel look like if airplanes were thrown out after each flight? No one would be flying in airplanes.

I left Aerospace because I wanted to go build, and put spacecraft together.

You can't be on the cusp of innovation and at the forefront of technology if you're wearing blinders. If you don't have an exploration program where you're exploring your world here on Earth, underwater, and in space, then you're wearing blinders and handicapping yourself.

From my perspective, it's really risk management to ensure that humans have the ability to go somewhere else in case there were to be some huge disaster on Earth.

After I finished my master's degree, I moved to a company called Aerospace Corporation, a big think tank for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office.