by: Aaron Fiskind
That was the advice from Stanley Fishkind, a former administrator and engineer at the NASA space agency, given to members of TABC's Astronomy Club this past Monday evening.
Mr. Fishkind, grandfather of Aaron Fishkind, TABC '16, was the guest speaker at the inaugural meeting of the club, advised by physics and chemistry teacher Dr. Berman. At the forum, Mr. Fishkind urged students to explore their interests without fear of failure. He also discussed the centrality of astronomy to Jewish ritual, and recounted his journey from engineering student, to launch author, to NASA executive.
As a young man in 1960 not much older than those assembled, he and neighborhood friends friends constructed a massive radio telescope in a Baltimore meadow that tracked meteor showers. He and his high school friends were offered jobs on the spot by computer companies who were impressed by their initiative.
An interest in astronomy led to a career in aeronautics. Living in Israel during the Yom Kippur War, Mr. Fishkind analyzed spent Russian-built anti-aircraft missiles, and enabled Israel and the US to design more evasive warplanes, saving many lives.
While in Israel, he co-authored a groundbreaking luach of solar-determined z'manim that govern the timing of Jewish rituals such as tefillah and Shabbat observance. The sefer earned praise from a wide spectrum of the rabbinate for its unusual precision, and for presenting for the first time and in one place the opinions of all streams of Orthodoxy.
Discussing his career at NASA -- where he played a leading role in developing and deploying the Hubble space telescope, International Space Station, space shuttles, and unmanned exploratory probes -- Mr. Fishkind recalled the challenge of keeping kosher in Russia during meetings at the Kremlin with his Russian space agency counterparts. He also made the observation that astronauts invariably returned to earth with a newfound or reinforced belief in G-d.
Mr. Fishkind described the inherent fragility of the space shuttles, built with more than two-million parts. Each component was 99% reliable, but the sheer number of parts increased the risk of catastrophic failure to 13%. One of the program's flights did end in disaster, claiming the life of Israeli astronaut Elan Ramon, who had taken Judaica into space and for whom Mr. Fishkind had arranged kosher food during his flight.
Quoting the eulogy for Ramon delivered by a Lubavitch rabbi from the region of Florida where NASA launches its rockets, Mr. Fishkind concluded that Ilan Ramon "taught us a powerful message. No matter how fast we are going, no matter how important our work, we need to pause, and to think about why we are here on Earth.”
Authentic mission patches taken into outer space, and worn by astronauts and support staff, were distributed to audience members.
