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It’s tough to believe that a week and a half of the MBA program has already gone by. It feels like it just started, but it also feels like I’ve known my classmates for ages.

For people interested in applying to the Cambridge MBA, please understand that as a one-year MBA (versus a two-year MBA) the program is rigorous. We typically have one class in the morning from 9–12:30, and another class in the afternoon from 2pm-5:30pm. The lunch break is quickly filled up by group meetings of all sorts, and the evenings are filled with great speakers, events, or other group meetings. We get on average about one afternoon a week off, but again, that’s quickly filled with group meetings.

Right now I’m involved with Jesus College Boat Club, Cambridge University Eco Racing Team (aka Solar Car Team), Cambridge University Entrepreneurs, Cambridge University Technology and Entrepreneurship Club, and a handful of Special Interest Groups (SIG’s) at Judge Business School. Those meetings, combined with study groups for classwork are what fill up the days.

The speakers we’ve had so far have been incredible. I hope to post more details about their talks soon. They include:

David Hibbert — Founder and former CEO of Abaqus (engineering software company)
Walter Gubert — Vice-Chairman, JPMorganChase
Bob Diamond — CEO BarclaysCapital, President Barclays Bank
Florian von Donnersmarck — Film Director (“Lives of Others”), won Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Oh, and it was his major motion picture debut!

It’s incredibly busy, with our first exam on Monday (Business Statistics) and our term’s consulting project starting up, but I do hope to post more soon.

Their recent article on the US space program is oddly reminiscent of a couple of recent rants I’ve made on the same topic.

Hmmmm….

In my last post lamenting the state of government activity in the space program, I mentioned SpaceX. Little did I know that shortly after I wrote that post, SpaceX made the first successful launch into orbit by a privately-funded company. WOW!

This is a landmark achievement, and I look forward to seeing more successes from them as they rollout increasingly bigger launch vehicles. (aka, Big-F’in Rockets) If they meet expectations, they will dramatically decrease the cost of launching satellites into space, which is a very good thing. (Dramatically = ~10–25% of current costs!)

Watch history in the making below. (My favorite part is hearing the employees in the background go nuts.)

I personally don’t believe a recent news story has received nearly enough attention: on Saturday, 27 September 2008 a Chinese astronaut made a successful spacewalk from a Chinese craft.

HOLY ****!

Why do I say this?

In less than two years the Space Shuttles are scheduled to be retired, leaving the United States without the capability to get manned missions into orbit. Meanwhile, we’ll be paying the Russians to get to the International Space Station and the Chinese will be progressing toward their stated goal of putting a Chinese astronaut on the moon.

Here’s a quick reminder: the United States went from the first spacewalk to landing men on the moon in 4 years and 1 month. I don’t think there’s anything standing in China’s way from doing the exact same thing. (Though according to Wikipedia their plans aren’t nearly that ambitious time-wise.)

I bring this up because I’m quite concerned about the United States’ competitive capacity and ability to innovate on the governmental level. While smaller firms have seen good success (Scaled Composites with the X Prize/Virgin Galactic, SpaceX with modern launch vehicles) I feel we’re falling behind on major government-level initiatives. That it’s feasible in five years’ time that the United States has to pay Russia just to get into space while China is landing missions on the moon at will is unacceptable. It’s a competitiveness issue and a national security issue, and it needs to be better understood by Americans.