By Debbie Black
Published: Thursday, May 17, 2012, 6:28 p.m.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Several months into his role as the president and CEO of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, Lance Bush is continuing his lifelong interest in space science while sharing that passion with a younger generation.
"I feel that I have lived a charmed life," said the Graceton native and 1981 Homer-Center alumnus. "I've been able to make the world a better place in small ways through my educational outreach efforts and through space exploration, and had a good time doing it."
Using space exploration as a theme and simulations as a vehicle, the organization based in Alexandria, Va., and its network of 48 learning centers around the country and in Canada and the United Kingdom strive to foster a long-term interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and to inspire students to pursue studies and careers in those areas, Bush said.
The center reaches more than 400,000 students each year through simulated space missions and educational programs and engages over 40,000 educators through missions, teacher workshops and other offerings.
"Walking through these magical gates of the learning centers is transformative," said Bush. "You find yourself in Mission Control and the space vehicle, and you are one of the critical team members to make your mission a success.
"I am always in awe of how the children come out of the experience — energized, gaining a sense of accomplishment, seeing math and science as alive. If you've seen the movie 'Apollo 13,' it is much like that experience. The students are just settling into their roles when we introduce some incident, like 'oxygen levels dropping,' which sends them into an adrenaline-throttled race to save their colleagues. When the mission is over, they jump up, run to each other, high-five and in excited tones share their personal experiences. This inspiration carries through when they return to the classroom, because they now can see the context of math and science."
The Challenger Center was founded in April 1986 as a way here on earth to carry on the mission of the seven crew members who perished earlier that year in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle --?including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space. The first learning center opened in Houston in 1988.
Now, 26 years later, Bush is in charge of boosting the nonprofit organization's educational mission into its next stage. Since starting his position as CEO, Bush said his group at the Challenger Center has set a course for increasing the program's reach to millions of children and is exploring creative ways of getting there.
"This organization pioneered innovative science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and now that we have established such a successful model, we are building on that in the next phase of our life," he said. "My team is currently evaluating digital media methods for a broader reach, looking at running simulations on iPads and digital tablets, and we are in the process of establishing a national learning center in Washington, D.C., to be a model for science and engineering education, teacher training and a successful example of how government, corporations and the nonprofit world can partner together to help society."
Bush credited fellow space enthusiasts and educators at the Challenger Center's network of sites with "always tweaking missions to include specific lessons or fun new twists." Working with the organization's core staff, he said, "These people are the ones who envision new simulations and implement them."
Bush said he is sometimes asked what his organization will do now that the space shuttles are retired and if it will change its mission simulations.
"For many years now, we have been flying (simulated) missions to the moon, Mars, a comet and one that features an Earth-centric mission," he noted.
"So, while our space community -- including political leaders, NASA, the space companies and all the other associated organizations -- is developing infrastructure for us going to these places and formulating a policy on where we will go, the Challenger Center is training the children, providing the inspiration that is necessary to drive exploration."
Bush pursued his own education in space science, earning a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Penn State University, a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Old Dominion University and a doctorate in philosophy, technology policy and management from Penn State.
"I was very fortunate coming out of college to join the legendary group at NASA's Langley Research Center that was responsible for the design of the Mercury, Gemini and the beginnings of the Apollo space vehicles," he said. "When I joined this group, we were charged with designing the replacement vehicles for the space shuttle and other human-tended spacecraft."
Bush explained that each of the group's 15 members focused on one of the key design aspects of space vehicles but simultaneously had to be "an expert on the overall system design since we all had to work together to realize a design. The more senior people in that group were my mentors and earliest career role models."
Bush meanwhile became lifelong friends with younger colleagues who joined the Langley group around the same time he did. "We have all become very successful in our careers and now find ourselves collaborating again on national-level issues from our own individual positions," he noted.
Bush was an engineer on the HL-20 craft, known as a space taxi. It remains a viable design, though further development has switched from NASA to the private sector.
Bush said the HL-20 is recognized as the most mature spacecraft design with more engineering hours and expertise devoted to it than any other concept.
"The HL-20 design was adopted by Sierra Nevada, a private company that has given it their own name of 'Dreamchaser.' It is gratifying to see this design being produced. I have joked with friends that perhaps someday my children will be flying it - a sweet thought," said Bush of his twin seven-year old sons, Devon and Sebastian.
"I am happy to see so much effort and success in the spaceflight community right now," he added. "There has never been a time in our history when so many space vehicles were in design or existed including SpaceX's Dragon, Virgin Galactic's Spaceship series, Lockheed Martin's Orion, XCor's Lynx and so many others. There are brilliant folks involved in all aspects of these from the engineering and science to the business, and I have the fortune to know many of them and watch this up close."
Prior to his current job, Bush spent five years at Paragon, a company that designs various systems for space applications and that was included in the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing companies each year of his tenure.
"We got to work on some of the coolest projects, including the next generation of life support for space vehicles, spacesuits for NASA and specialized dive suits for the U.S. Navy, among many other projects," said Bush, who was the chief operating officer and then the chief strategic officer at Paragon.
"There is an incredible team of talented people at Paragon," he added. "I'm proud of the fact that we achieved our business goals, that the people there got to work on some of the most interesting projects in the world, and we all had fun doing it."
Bush participated in a celebration last summer recognizing all those at NASA who helped with the HL-20 design. "This event was meant to honor the team that designed the HL-20 and to provide a forum of exchange between Sierra Nevada, the company now building that design as the Dreamchaser, and the original designers," he said. "It was a great memory for me."
Bush said his upbringing taught him the value of community, hard work and strong ethics.
"I had great role models in my family," he said, including his maternal grandfather, Mike Rich. "He was an American success story, having emigrated here by himself and worked his way up and eventually building and operating his own grocery stores that were community-based. He provided food to many who could not afford it and housed those who were down on their luck, giving them meaningful work. He played a pivotal role in changing the welfare of the people of our community."
He said he also was inspired by the efforts of his parents, Richard and Helen Bush, to benefit their community. He noted his mother was a member of the school board and his father "served on community efforts to improve our drinking water."
Bush envisioned himself moving into space education and had earlier in his career taught young audiences about space science as he hosted a television show called "Spaced Out Physics."
"The moment I got my first job out of college, with NASA, I looked for ways to give back to others," he said. "I joined the Big Brothers program and at NASA I volunteered to mentor interns and speak at schools about the engineering and science work I did. There was rarely a moment in my career that I was not active in education."
Bush's volunteer work includes creating and supporting several national and international nonprofit organizations dedicated to youth and education.
That includes serving as a founder and board member of the Space Generation Advisory Council, which is a permanent observer member of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. He co-founded the Gabrielle Giffords Earth and Space Leadership Fund and founded the International Space University U.S. Foundation.
"I found myself loving these educational volunteer activities more than my day job, and my day jobs were really fun -- designing space vehicles, managing commercial development of the International Space Station, and managing and growing two companies to national prominence," he said. "So, when the Challenger Center folks called me and asked if I would consider taking over as CEO, there was no hesitation.
"Like them, I realized that my leadership skills from my space and corporate experiences teamed with my passion for education and making the world a better place made this a perfect fit for me at this point in my life. I also realized that it would demonstrate to my sons a dedication to helping others."
In addition to his interests in space, Bush said sea exploration is among his personal pursuits, as well as surfing.
"There is a natural cross-over appeal between space and ocean exploration," he pointed out. "These realms are both full of unknowns that tantalize us and call for us to explore. We, as humans, are incapable of sustaining life there without using advanced tools."
He noted that spacesuits and dive equipment both are designed to deal with pressure differentials, temperature and micro-gravity -- or, in the case of the oceans, buoyancy.
"There are even many companies, Paragon included, that perform work in both realms," he said. "Some of the greatest ocean explorers are avid space exploration fans. And, likewise, many of my space exploration colleagues are avid divers.
"I had the great honor to be invited to join a small, historic, private organization that brings together the world's top ocean and space explorers and executives. We meet twice a year to discuss and hear from other world experts on the top issues facing us in these realms."
Bush said scuba diving is an integral part of those meetings "to keep us in touch with the reality of what we are working on and to strengthen our personal bonds.
"Having a dive partner that your life depends on strengthens relationships, and stripping down to your bathing suit to dive among your business colleagues and sharing the wonders of the ocean brings you back to your basic human traits, building camaraderie. I personally am fascinated by the life in the oceans."
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