I have now begun to settle into life in Houston Texas, having had a lovely two week break at home with my family over Christmas. Houston is a vast sprawl of a city with a relatively small downtown of skyscrapers clustered in the flat landscape like a collection of stalagmites. Everything here is big – wide freeways, huge cars and trucks and big portions of food – look out waistline!!

We (Joanne, David and myself) are living close to Rice University, the Museum District, and the vast Medical District, south of downtown Houston, which is a lovely area. We are working at Shaw Pipeline Services, part of the Oil and Gas multi-national company Shawcor. SPS is the pipeline inspection division of Shawcor, which has the market leading technology systems for inspecting the width and integrity of oil and gas pipeline weld joints. The technology is based primarily on x-ray radiography and ultrasonic sound waves, and so we have to quickly familiarise ourselves with sound wave diffraction in steel pipe and the variety of weld processes. In order to remain as leaders in their market and to begin to exploit new markets, it is important that SPS develops new technologies and products.  Joanne and I have been tasked with producing a “New Product Launch” Strategy and Process to implement across the company. With no formal strategy or process currently in place this will have a significant impact for SPS in the future.

Last Saturday the three of us had a superb trip to the NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston. The chance to see the original space capsules, extensive memorabilia, and even a full size Saturn V rocket as used in the Apollo Missions was incredible. We visited the Mission Control Room, which was “live” as NASA are currently controlling the International Space Station – sadly the astronauts had just gone to sleep, as they operate on GMT, but even the minimal activity was fascinating.

The two highlights of my visit to the Johnson Space Centre were:

1.       The footage of President John F Kennedy at Rice University in Houston in 1961 making a bold statement that the United States would put a “man on the moon” during that decade. We have talked a lot on this programme about an attitude of real intent, and this statement of vision by JFK certainly epitomised that intent, coupled with significant investment. The subsequent footage of Neil Armstrong in 1969 uttering the immortal phrase as he stepped out of the Apollo 11 capsule onto the surface of the moon to realise JFK’s vision is certainly inspiring.

2.       The incredible technological advancement at NASA, which was borne out of the desire to achieve JFK’s vision and to turn the tables on the Russian Cosmonaut programme, which had twice beaten the US to be the first to put a man in space, and then for an astronaut to orbit the earth. From the intense pressure of having to succeed in getting there first, NASA through its team of scientists, engineers and other experts developed incredible new products and technology through continuous experimentation, prototyping, testing and huge sacrifice. Looking at the intricate engineering of the vast Saturn V rocket engines developed to take the astronauts into space made us realise what can be achieved when the pressure is on.

Considering the difficult predicament facing the Scottish Economy at the moment, and the pressure on so many people, can there be real statements of intent coupled with investment to inspire and create new technological advancement in key targeted sectors, similar to those achieved by NASA with their Space programme? If so, perhaps Scotland, like Houston, can have lift-off.