NASA’s Makenzie Lystrup Sworn In On Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’

When Dr. Makenzie Lystrup was sworn in as the brand new director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center final week, she didn’t take her oath of workplace on the Bible or the U.S. Structure, however reasonably on a tome revered by house fanatics in every single place: Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot.

The guide, revealed in 1994, is known as after an iconic image of Earth, snapped by the Voyager I probe, that depicts the planet as a small speck smothered by the vacancy of house. That photograph impressed astronomer Carl Sagan to jot down: “Look once more at that dot. That’s right here. That’s residence. That’s us.” For a lot of, the guide serves as a reminder of humanity’s place within the universe and the necessity to protect our residence planet, which makes it just like holy scripture for a newly appointed NASA director.

On Thursday, when Lystrup selected to put her left hand on a replica of Sagan’s guide whereas being sworn in by NASA Administrator Invoice Nelson, a photographer captured the second, and NASA Goddard’s social media shared the picture.

The structure doesn’t require that authorities officers be sworn in utilizing a specific textual content, simply that they “shall be certain by Oath or Affirmation, to help this Structure.” Most U.S. politicians and officers find yourself utilizing the Bible.

However through the years, many officeholders have improvised whereas taking their oath. In 2018, Mariah Parker was sworn in as a member of the Athens-Clarke County commissioners together with her hand positioned on a replica of “The Autobiography of Malcom X.” When former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland Suzi LeVine took her oath in 2014, she put a hand on her Kindle. Keith Ellison, the primary Muslim to be elected to Congress, took his oath in 2007 utilizing the Quran.

Lystrup, who’s a planetary scientist like Sagan, hasn’t publicly defined her selection of Pale Blue Dot, however Sagan is a revered determine within the house sciences group for his pioneering contributions to house exploration.

Lystrup would be the first female center director of the Goddard House Flight Heart, which features a main campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, in addition to Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, the Katherine Johnson Impartial Verification & Validation Facility in West Virginia, the Goddard Institute for House Research in New York, the White Sands Advanced in New Mexico, and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Texas.

Goddard is residence to the nation’s largest focus of scientists, engineers and technologists devoted to Earth and house science, in line with NASA.

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