I sat in the upcoming Soyuz launch Flight Readiness Review this week, an experience for me. The Russian Soyuz will take cargo and crew to the International Space Station. The review covered a variety of topics detailing the associated operational and mission planning. As inspiring as the thought of six humans orbiting the earth for months is, insight into what they do, and how, is even more so.

As most engineers, I love to count. "The Count," from "Sesame Street," would have been my favorite character, if of that generation. So an agenda parsed into five and 10-minute segments was amusing, but it was also only the beginning! Food, water, oxygen and all other supplies for the period were detailed. Plus crew equipment. Plus parts. Plus experiments. Plus spacesuit gloves...plus more than one can imagine.

It's obvious the crew has to take everything needed with them. It wasn't as obvious to me that it had to be stored, more counting, in two-cubic-foot increments. How much can be stored in the limited space, and where, and how to get to the part that's needed at the very back of the closet...or the attic?

Another intuition skip in my memory was that all debris and waste, including human, is stored until it can be shipped back. How is that prioritized and planned?! All of this, just to live there.

Then research, the real mission of the Space Station, from October to March, was discussed. The experiments in material and life science, as well as physiological and medical studies associated with long-duration space habitation, were listed. The extent and complexity of the work are incredible. The level of detail required to schedule and accomplish is daunting...and ongoing. It's occurring daily in an environment where each change in an operation is evaluated for damaging sharp edges, where debris avoidance maneuvers are required, where anticipation of surprises during unusual events is mission and life critical. It's also where the go/no-go poll included Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States for this truly ISS mission.

This is the work needed for us to take the next further steps off our home planet. This is the primer for "the hard things" yet to be accomplished, and it's being written as it's read. Funds spent on this mission flow into our earth-bound economy, as do the benefits of what is discovered and developed. The question of where we explore in space is valid; the question of whether we explore shouldn't be. This is our future, and mundane it isn't. An ordinary day in space exploration is really extraordinary.

Gene Goldman, Center Director, NASA Stennis Space Center

I watched the space station, the International Space Station, fly over last Friday night. It was visible for five minutes, passing almost directly overhead. The shuttle was still docked, and it was brilliant against the dark sky. The first satellite I ever tried to see was Echo, in the very early sixties, a mere speck in the sky as I held my dad's hand. Nearly 50 years later, at this instant, six humans are orbiting every 90 minutes or so, conducting research. Their mere presence in that environment is an inspiring study.

A recent documentary described the ongoing startup of the "super conducting super collider" in France. It's a project about 30 miles in circumference and 30 years in development. It has had cost growth, construction and technical problems. It's also unique, and on the verge of revolutionary research in sub-atomic particle physics. No one could truly postulate a benefit-cost ratio on the project at inception; it probably can't accurately be done now. The United States cancelled its plan for a larger, more capable collider in the mid 1980's, before even clearing the construction site. The payback couldn't be determined. We still won't know what we don't know.

Thirty years ago, in my card-punching Fortran class, it was believed that mid-sized engineering firms could one day afford room-sized computing systems. This blog is being thumbed on a "BlackBerry." In 1900, who envisioned an electronic chip-dependent world in a century, molecular biology, nano-technology, or footprints on the moon?

We are approaching an interesting hurdle in "the race for discovery." The Space Shuttle Program and ISS assembly are nearing completion. The station is fully tended, able to be devoted to science for its remaining life. How long, and how valuable will that life be? What's the next human step off the planet? What technology is required to get us there, and how will it enrich life here? Trite, but true, these are extremely tough choices among many national issues.

Microgravity science continues daily as the station passes over a research facility in France and a now-forgotten site in Texas. It is about discovery. Let's not just watch.

August is a tough month in the South. The heat and humidity are oppressive. As if that weren’t bad enough, the fiscal year finish line is in sight, with its own energy-sapping obligations. Then there's the Atlantic basin.

The year was 1969. Woodstock, the lunar landing, the Jets, the "Amazin' Mets"...and Camille. It ravaged the Mississippi Gulf Coast with 200-plus mph winds and a 28-foot storm surge. It left shattered lives and a 24-mile, beachfront stretch of destruction reaching miles inland. On the Gulf Coast, it is the storm with which all other hurricanes are compared. Or was, anyway.

August 29 was the fourth anniversary of Katrina's passage. Though its winds were significantly less, its destruction enveloped and dwarfed that of Camille. The extent of the hag’s surge, flooding and wind is unprecedented. The struggle with the aftermath in fiscal, physical and emotional terms continues each day, and will for years to come.

The debris is mostly gone, but the scars are still raw from the toe of Louisiana to Mobile Bay. Rita, that same year, then Gustav and Ike last year, also took their toll along the Gulf Coast. Yet, the beat goes on.

Following each of the storms, help came from the NASA family and the nation. Employees picked up the pieces of their lives as they continued to meet the milestones of the Apollo and Shuttle program. In 2005 Stennis Space Center tested a Space Shuttle Main Engine six weeks after Katrina, while debris was still being piled.

Twenty-five percent of the workforce lost everything they had but their lives, and yet they assured there was no impact to the flight manifest. My Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne counterpart at the time, Dave Geiger, told me, "It's all we have to tie our lives to right now." There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of stories similar to that throughout the region. It demonstrates a dedication and tenacity to which we can all aspire.

As Jimmy Buffett sings, we are still "Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season." We still have a mission to safely fly out the Space Shuttle Program. The truly International Space Station, nearly complete and with a full crew, continues to orbit in a plane where 11 years ago, only space existed. We persist. The human race for discovery continues. Our exact tack is under evaluation, and we'll chart a course based on national goals.

A 2,000-year-old live oak stands in Biloxi, Mississippi, a quarter-mile inland, marked by Camille, Katrina and the countless storms of 20 centuries. I like our odds!

Gene Goldman, Center Director, NASA Stennis Space Center

Puzzles. I never liked them. Big ones took too much patience. Places to start and stop weren't defined. That's probably why I liked to color; staying within the lines was expected.

The status of human spaceflight is currently a jigsaw puzzle. We are still working within the parameters of the "Vision for Space Exploration" of the previous administration. Our work to complete assembly of the International Space Station and end shuttle flights is nearing an end. The President has commissioned the Augustine Panel to review all aspects of human spaceflight and offer within-budget options. How and how long should the station be operated? Is the Constellation architecture the right one? Should the shuttle be extended? What portions could commercial interests accomplish? What should be the role of government? These are all just pieces to be considered. These and many more only address how humans in space fit in the larger image.

We work in this segment. It is our universe, and we frequently believe its justification is unassailable. Is it? How does this handful of irregular shapes mesh within the infinitely complex vista? Where do we fit with an economic downturn, healthcare, national defense, climate change, pick an issue? What is our payback? When?

Questions regarding value of the space program were being written as ink dried on the original Space Act. They remain valid today. I believe the technological state of the world evolved from the Apollo program. I believe its true benefit is incalculable. Critics say "that's the point." My reading of history shows great civilizations collapse inwardly when they cease to explore; others say, "History is bunk." With limited resources to address unlimited needs, these debates will continue. We live in the world.....it is a puzzle.

We don't define the picture. Most of us don't participate in the debate. We do demonstrate our relevance by our performance; it is all we control. It is not trivial. We work in a complex environment where single mistakes can be catastrophic. It demands contingency planning, cooperation, flawless performance and due diligence for the taxpayers, our stakeholders. Where we fit in the national puzzle is decided by others as policy. Whether we are ready for placement is something we influence.

Puzzles.......arrghh!

Gene Goldman, Center Director, NASA Stennis Space Center

To probable amazement of the IT advantaged, I'm sloggin' in the blog. Dr. Von Braun never had to do this! He communicated effectively with ink-penned remarks on subordinates’ weekly notes, their status of individual areas of responsibility. His comments permeated his widely dispersed organization with remarkable clarity.

Of course, they were inventing as they went, far ahead of the bureaucratic "lions and tigers and bears, oh my!" History reveals they had the occasional "please just shoot me" meeting as well. Maybe we do have some things in common.

Actually, there are others. Belief in human space flight and rigorous testing are just two. Success depends on identifying failures through testing. Len Worlund, a former Space Shuttle Main Engine chief engineer and real rocket scientist, once told me, "We really only learn when we break things." That is why we test. Von Braun's German rocket team established that precept for us sixty years ago, during the mid morning of rocketry. It remains as true today. It's why Stennis Space Center exists. A third generation of large liquid rocket engines is about to further validate that philosophy.

We recently ran the last planned firing of a Space Shuttle Main Engine at Stennis, the end of a thirty-four year program. The Shuttle is an amazing machine, and its three liquid engines are incredible. They burn tons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen per second, with temperature extremes of several thousand degrees, literally at the edge of technology and material capability, forty years after conception.

Before them were Apollo's monstrous F-1 and revolutionary J-2, extraordinary achievements for any age. An evolution of J-2, the J-2X, will be the next engine tested at Stennis, joining the RS-68, currently used for the Delta IV expendable vehicle. Human rating these engines will require an extensive test program, similar to Apollo and Shuttle.

We have six shuttle flights remaining to safely complete construction of a human-tended celestial body, the International Space Station. Meanwhile, on Earth, we're about to test the Shuttle successor, Constellation, and that task is just as crucial. We aren't ending an era; we're turning the page to a new chapter. We aren't nearly done!

Gene Goldman, Center Director, NASA Stennis Space Center