Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Wayne Hale announces NASA retirement



Wayne Hale
NASA Blogs

"All Good Things"

A personal note today. After long consideration I have filed my retirement papers and will be leaving NASA and the US Civil Service on July 31. Let me hasten to add that this is a personal decision based mainly on family considerations - which I needn’t enumerate here today.

Working at NASA has been a lifelong dream; I often tell people that I would have paid them to let me in the door rather than the other way around. It has been a privilege and an honor to work in this place and with these people. The achievements that we have made together will have lasting significance for all humankind. I want to especially thank my many wonderful co-workers who are so dedicated, innovative, and hard working. I wish them every success in the future with all my heart.

I have a few days left, I may even post another blog or two. But for today I leave you with a passage that summarizes feelings so similar to my own that it is uncanny. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) wrote a wonderful book about his favorite career as a steamboat pilot, “Life on the Mississippi.” It is enormously funny, but taking a reflective turn this serious passage summarizes – far better than I could – the feelings of any professional at the end of a long and wonderful career. So make the translation from rockets to steamboats and read all the way to the end.

Read the post, HERE.

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