An Industrial Engineering graduate, Mr Homer was recruited by US military and later by NASA. He was involved in many significant Space Shuttle and SpaceLab missions which included Hubble Space telescope and International Space Station. A writer extraordinaire, his childhood memoir “Rocket Boys” was a literary blockbuster. The famous movie “October Sky” (1999 ; the word is an anagram of “Rocket Boys”) is based on his life and his trial and error adventure with rockets.

We at The Scholars’ Avenue owe Mr Homer Hickam a million thanks for interacting with us over e-mail despite his busy writing schedule. We present to you the  Interview here.

TSA: What exactly made you choose space research as a career? Was it just the launch of SPUTNIK, as shown in the movie? Or was there some other motivation too?

HH : First, the movie isn’t very accurate although it tells a good story.  The truth is in my memoir titled Rocket Boys.  I encourage you to read it.  I think you will find the true story is even more inspirational than the movie.  However, the movie was correct in that the first motivation I had to work in the space business was the launch of Sputnik.  The world’s first earth satellite, being Russian, struck the United States like a big hammer, scaring most of the people and the government.  All of a sudden, going into space became a great idea and the USA wanted to be first.  I read a lot of science fiction in the 1950’s and had already thought about space a lot although I never imagined I would work with rockets.  When Sputnik was launched and I saw it fly over my home town of Coalwood, I thought to myself I wanted to be part of the movement into space.  The only way I could figure out how to do that was learn how to build a rocket.   The first one blew up but my mother encouraged me to build another.  I gathered the other boys and that began a three-year adventure that resulted in rockets that flew miles into the sky.  Then I went to Virginia Tech and received my engineering degree.  Afterwards, I entered the United States Army, served in the infantry in Vietnam, then worked for the Army Missile Command for years.  I started working for NASA when I was 38 years old.  I had a wonderful 18 year career with NASA before I started my present career as a writer.

TSA: Space research was very closely related to the Cold War during your time. What were your views about something so important for the whole human race being a part of a war between two countries?

HH: As a young man, I thought it very important the United States stay technologically ahead of the Russians, mainly because I believed that was the best way to avoid a war.  It was the belief of most Americans that if the Russians got ahead of us, they would start a war probably by invading Europe.  So there was a great deal of fear and determination on our part to always be number one.  The race into space became part of that determination .  For me, the Cold War translated into about six years of military service including a year in Vietnam.  Within a few months of my return from overseas, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and NASA started laying off many engineers because the space race was essentially over.  That meant I couldn’t get a job with NASA and ended up working for the U. S. Army as a civilian engineer until finally, With the Shuttle era beginning, I was hired by NASA to work in spacecraft design and later astronaut training.  When the Soviet Union collapsed, I visited Russia to work on the International Space Station program and met many of the engineers and scientists who worked on Sputnik.  We got along great!  That’s what generally happens when governments get out of the way and people get to meet other people.

TSA: Where do you think the current trends will take space research in the future?

HH: It is necessary to separate robotic and human spaceflight in order to talk about trends.  With robotic spacecraft, the future is assured. Communications, GPS, and observation satellites will always be needed and launching them using chemical rockets has proved to be expensive but economically viable.  There is already a huge commercial infrastructure for robotic spacecraft launchers in the USA and the rest of the world, including India .  The USA has several companies that launch satellites without any government funding at all and make money doing it.  Deep space scientific satellites also are vigorously supported by the international science and educational community and will probably always have government funding across the world.  So the future for robotic spacecraft is very, very good and chemically propelled launchers should serve quite well for decades.

Human spaceflight is another story.  There is presently no economic or commercial imperative to fly humans into space.  True, there has been some work on adventure travel with the Ansari X-Prize and Burt Rutan’s SpaceShip One.  Also the Russian Soyuz program has carried some very rich people into space for about 25 million dollars a flight but Soyuz is also heavily subsidized by the Russian government.

So, right now, the movement into space requires governments to build the machines and come up with the reasons to go.  Ultimately, that comes down to national prestige and science.  Since governments rise and fall, and people don’t much like to spend tax money on things they don’t understand like pure science, human spaceflight is a weak program across the world.  I believe to make it strong, there has to be an economic reason for humans to go into space.  Otherwise, the USA may do things like recreate the Apollo program to go back to the moon (which I support), but it will always be under attack by politicians who don’t want to spend the money.  Also, the international Space Station program will limp along, and the Chinese may fly some of their people into space, but I fear there will not be any huge, expensive human spaceflight programs like flights to Mars.  It is my belief private industry will ultimately make or break human spaceflight.  The key to everything is finding an economic incentive to go.  I believe that incentive will be energy resources such as Helium 3 on the moon.  I wrote about that in my novel Back to the Moon which you should also read.

TSA: How much importance did your teacher Miss Riley hold in terms of motivating you and shaping up your high school life? Was this sort of a bonding with a teacher a common thing in those days or was yours a one-off case. Do you think this relationship changed /degraded a lot today?

HH: Miss Riley was a wonderful and warm teacher but she was also tough.  She made her students be quiet and pay attention and had the full backing of the school principal and our parents.  Discipline was strict.  Learning was exalted.  When I told Miss Riley I was doing my best, her answer summed up her teaching philosophy: “Do better!”  All of our teachers were excellent and tough.  Tough teachers are the ones we remember the best because they really teach us .  Ultimately, teachers cannot do their best without the full backing of school administrations and parents.  I believe high schools in the USA don’t work very well because of unruly classes and the failure of parents and school administrators to support their teachers.  Happily, our grade and middle
schools still work very well as does the university and college level systems.  Otherwise, we would be in real trouble!

TSA: What role do you think the Indian Institutes of Technology play in space research? What role do you think they should play?

HH: In my novel Back to the Moon, I had the Indians launch a very important spacecraft for my hero in his bid to fly to the moon.  I did this because I was very much aware of the great rocket boosters developed in India.  There is no reason why India can’t have a leading role in spaceflight.  I hope you do what’s necessary to keep building your own capabilities.  The people of India are bright, energetic, and just now realizing their potential for world leadership.

TSA: Have you ever worked with a person from an IIT? Please elaborate.

HH: Not directly although there were many people from India I worked with during my NASA career.  Most of them worked for American contractors.

TSA: Have you ever been to India? If yes, how was the experience?

HH: I have not been to India although I would love to go some day.

TSA: As far as we know, NASA has a policy of not recruiting non-US citizens as employees or interns for administrative/defence reasons. For a fresh graduate from India, what would you suggest? Any sister concerns in the US which serve as pathways to such students?

HH : If NASA won’t hire you, a NASA contractor such as Boeing or Lockheed-Martin and many, many others will provided you have a background they’re looking for.  A great deal of the fun and important work in spaceflight is done by these contractors.  Another way of working in the United States on spaceflight is by gaining a position in a university that does NASA work.  Graduate students or PhD candidates in aerospace engineering and other space-related disciplines in the United States usually end up working on NASA programs, one way or the other.

TSA: Other than communication and meteorological advantages, is Space Research aimed at something more advantageous than an indispensable need to satiate human curiosity and intellect?

HH: It is my belief that when we humans stop wondering or caring about the rest of the solar system and the universe, we will start to die.  It is imperative that we keep moving outward, exploring and learning, or we will collapse into warfare and the destruction of humankind as we know it.

TSA: Ethically, how correct is it to pour millions of dollars worth resources to find ice on Mars when half of humanity dies thirsty in the underdeveloped countries of our planet?

HH: I don’t believe this is a true proposition because of the way governments spend their money.  By way of example, let’s say the United States decided to cancel NASA and not spend sixteen billion dollars annually on spaceflight.  Would that mean the sixteen billion dollars saved would be used wisely or for altruistic purposes?  I sincerely doubt it .  The same is true for governments around the world.  They spend their money on what they think is most important for their country.  Also, even if money is available, helping people is often difficult because the countries they live in are often resistant to change . In other words, the reason why most people suffer around the world is because they have despotic and corrupt governments that like things the way they are.  We know how to cleanse water and make it available. Technologically, this is very simple.  Yet, most people don’t have access to it.  This ultimately is a matter of politics.  In the meantime, other things must be done including the movement into space.

TSA: We never really notice the 99% who DON’T win competitions, their struggles are much longer. What do you suggest for such “Rocket Boys”, who have dreams but equally strong counter family pressure? In effect, what do you think would have been the course of your life if you had NOT won the State Championship which got all of you the scholarships?

HH: When you read my book Rocket Boys, you will understand that we did NOT win scholarships when we won a gold medal at the National Science Fair.  Although the movie said we did, we did not.  There were no scholarships available.  Yet, we all went to and graduated from college. How did we do it?  We all worked our way through .  I worked in the coal mine during the summers between school years and my parents also helped.  The other boys (there were actually six of us) either went into the military services to pay for their advanced education or worked at odd jobs.  We were determined to go to college as were many of our classmates.  Although we were all children of coal miners without much money, 80% of my class went to and graduated from college!  Almost all of us worked our way through one way or another because we understood the value of education.  As for counter family pressure, ultimately it’s your life.  While still honouring your parents, you have to live your life the way you think is best for you.  That’s your right as a human being.

TSA: Any messages for the Aerospace engineers at IIT? For the Mining engineers?

HH: Yes.  Congratulations on your career choice.  I think you will have a good, productive life as a result and what more can we hope for?  I eagerly look forward to reading about your future successes!

You can read more about Mr. Homer Hickam here.