9 Quotes by Les Johnson

I am confident that we can get the materials, but packaging and deployment will be the biggest nut to crack.

We've been fairly conservative when it comes to height. I don't see that being something that's going to change anytime soon.

With aerocapture, it's done all at once, ... You have a heat shield...you do the maneuver, and in 30 minutes you're in a circular orbit.

This will be humankind's first planned venture outside the solar system.

Now if you launch with conventional propulsion, most of the scientists would be retired or dead

It looks like it has the right thermal properties, so it can go near the sun and not overheat.

It's a matter of putting it all together and it all looks pretty doable. There is a benefit to human exploration for aerocapture, from an incremental technology point of view.

I guess the argument could be made that it's a discretionary decision made by five elected officials.

All of the thrusting is in the inner solar system, then it coasts.