Thread by @thesheetztweetz

Former NASA Administrator @JimBridenstine is giving a welcome address for day two of #SATShow:

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine, who's on the boards of Viasat and Aerospace Corp as well as an advisor to Voyager Space, says "the thing I hear in every board meeting I'm in ... is the issue of space debris."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: "I want to be clear: I am not talking about any particular company. I'm talking about all of us. Because [space debris] affects everyone in this room."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: "If you're going to launch 10,000 satellites, with each one having a 1-in-10,000 chance of collision, or a 1-in-10,000 chance of failure, then you're guaranteeing failures, you're guaranteeing collisions."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: "I hear some people say: 'Well, we need to have these distributed low Earth orbit architectures for resilience.' And that's true, we absolutely do."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: "The more and more low Earth orbit gets cluttered, then a single collision can set up a chain reaction."

"We're adding fuel that when a collision happens, that idea of resilience goes away."

"To be clear, we're not there now."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: "We hear a lot about ESG ... I think it's important for every company in this room, when you think about ESG, space preservation needs to be part of your ESG program - period."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: The federal government needs "an agency whose role is to make sure that space is safe for the rest of us. It needs to be funded ... Congress needs to step up to the plate."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: The United States has made "huge investments into the International Space Station."

"We are getting returns on investment for the space station right now that are amazing and important for our country."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: "It is important for us as a nation, in my opinion, to make sure that the International Space Station continues through 2030."

"We all understand the challenge right now" that threatens the partnership with Russia, but "we have to preserve this as an institution."

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine gives two calls to action for the space industry:

1 - Companies' ESG programs must have space preservation as a key part
2 - Think about how to engage with Congress to preserve low Earth orbit

@JimBridenstine Bridenstine: The world has "established a dependency on space that most Americans don't even think about," from banking to the power grid to weather prediction and more.

"We are dependent on space in ways that most people don't consider on a day-to-day basis."