Introduction to Moonwalking

Welcome to Moonwalking. This will be a regular series of columns that will provide some of my thinking on issues of the day and reflect upon my long history in science, space, and technology policy. In addition, I have continued deep insight on current political affairs as an active participant and Moonwalking will discuss my thoughts on what the news often misses.

My background includes major congressional leadership roles. I was Chairman of the House Science Committee (currently called the Science, Space and Technology Committee), Vice Chairman of the Budget Committee, Chairman of the House Republican Leadership, Chief Deputy Republican Whip and Speaker Pro Tempore.

In the course of my twenty years of congressional service, I helped to define the future. The legislation I wrote and got passed into law set the foundation for commercial space. The agencies it created are now the underpinning for our commercial space industry. I saw the potential for hydrogen to be used as a widely available and totally clean energy source. My Hydrogen Futures Act led to the creation of a specific H2 program in the Department of Energy. I was a co-leader along with Al Gore in doing the first committee hearing on Capitol Hill regarding the potential of the internet. And, my political history includes being a key part of organizing and implementing, along with Newt Gingrich, the Republican Revolution of the 1990s. Former Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey wrote in his recent book, Leader, about the core group that made the Revolution happen and said that Bob Walker was “the best of us.”

Remember all the above happened three decades ago. Things like commercial space and hydrogen were dismissed in those days as irrelevant and even laughable. You had to confront established political and corporate interests to even talk about such things. Yet, as member of the minority party for all but two years of my congressional service, I was able to not only see the way forward but pave the way toward it.

After leaving Congress, I continued to focus on the future. My clients have included SpaceX in its earliest days, Sierra Nevada, Axiom, X-energy, and many others. I have served on several corporate and advisory boards including the Aerospace Corporation for almost twenty years. And I have continued my government service as Chairman of President Bush’s Commission on the Future of the Aerospace Industry. Later I was also chosen to serve on the President’s Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy and the President’s Commission on the United States Postal Service. At the Department of Energy, I became Chairman of the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technical Advisory Committee serving in both the Bush and Obama Administrations. Recently I was asked to make one of the keynote speeches when the Biden Administration kicked off its Hydrogen Shot program.

That is a long way of saying, and a little too braggadocio for my comfort, that you can have some confidence my opinions actually have substance behind them.

The Moonwalking title expresses my hope and my belief that humankind has exciting opportunities and challenges ahead. The explosion of new technologies and the real chance that the human species will become universal have never been so real. We can use the tools we have be given to improve the way we govern ourselves and extend the blessings of freedom to all people everywhere. We can stop environmental degradation without resorting to authoritarian regulation that wrecks economies and destroys paths to success. We can look forward to the future rather than fear it. That is what I intend to write about, and I will be delighted if you join me on the journey.