Fort Bend Star looking ahead after 40 years of service

I remember turning 40. It seems like yesterday, but it was actually 13 years ago.

This year the Fort Bend Star turned 40. If the newspaper were human, it would be having a midlife crisis and wanting to go out and buy a red convertible sports car or perhaps a fishing boat. It might even be eying that cute little fashion magazine a couple spots down the news rack.

As newspapers go, the Star is actually pretty young. Most of the newspapers I’ve worked for prior to the Star are in their 100s. Some of the oldest ones in this country have crossed the bicentennial mark. The oldest papers in the world started publishing in the late 1600s.

Yet at 40 years, the Star is the oldest weekly newspaper in Fort Bend County. I might be a little biased, but I think it’s the best.

When I think back to 1978 when Bev Carter started the Star, I was 13 years old, living in Colorado, active in Boy Scouts, obsessed with this new movie called “Star Wars,” and living on a hobby farm with a couple cows, some sheep, pigs, ducks, chickens, two beehives, and a couple hundred rabbits. I could find Texas on a map, but I couldn’t locate a single city from memory. In fact, I was pushing 40 before I had ever heard of a place called Sugar Land. (Hey, don’t judge me, I bet you can’t find Niwot on a map without using Google!)

So, what else what going on the year the Star was born? Let’s take a look:

· Space Invaders started the computer video game craze;

· The first test tube baby was born;

· Cult leader Jim Jones convinced 900 of his followers to commit suicide;

· The Susan B. Anthony dollar was minted;

· Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz was sentenced to life in prison; and

· Swedish scientists discovered the affect aerosol sprays were having on the ozone layer.

· Top movies included “Grease,” “Saturday Night Fever,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Superman,” and “Halloween.”

·  Top songs included “Shadow Dancing,” “Night Fever,” “Stayin’ Alive,” “Kiss You All Over,” “Y.M.C.A.,” and half the songs from the “Grease” soundtrack.

While 40 may be young for a newspaper, it really isn’t for a mom-and-pop business, which this is. Most family businesses run their course after 40 or so years. Once the founders move into retirement mode, the business is either passed to the next generation, sold, or simply closed.

Although Carter passed away in 2013, the Star has remained a family-owned paper with partners Jonathan McElvy and Frank Vasquez taking over management in 2014 and then buying it outright last year. They took ownership with the intent to see the Star shine for another 40 years and beyond. Despite the hard times that the newspaper industry has fallen on, the future looks bright for community papers. In a world discombobulated in a digital blitz of real and fake news, readers can continue to count on the Star and other community newspapers to be reliable sources of local news and information that impact their lives.

At this juncture of my career and the Star’s growth, I find it refreshing to be in such a wonderful place. I’ve spent many years working for daily newspapers and just getting burned out on the daily grind. Here I get to take the time to really dig into a good story and to meet some really fascinating people. Fort Bend County, and Sugar Land in particular, is one of the nation’s fastest growing and most diverse communities.

This area is rich in history and has a thriving economy, which continues to drive the community forward. Sitting on the edge of Houston affords many great opportunities and the advantages afforded by a metropolitan area, but also the slower, city and country lifestyle that many of us enjoy. Our schools, despite their problems, are still among the best in the state and some of the finest I’ve been associated with. In the short time I’ve been here, Houston Community College, the University of Houston, Texas State Technical College, and Wharton County Junior College have all expanded their facilities and services in Fort Bend County.

These are all signs of a robust economy and a great future for newspapers and most any other industry here. I’d say the Fort Bend Star doesn’t have to worry about a mid-life crisis. I’d dare say in terms of longevity, it’s just reaching puberty.

Thank you to all the Star’s readers and advertisers for 40 great years. We are certainly looking forward to the next 40 with great optimism.

Rock(et) stars shine on NASA’s stage again

I lost count how many times the word “American” was uttered during the press conference, but if the word were rocket fuel NASA would be going back to the moon and beyond much sooner than expected.

The space agency held a press conference Friday morning at Johnson Space Center where it introduced the first crews that will fly aboard commercial spacecraft to the International Space Station. As NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine introduced the seven men and two women who will crew the first flights of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, he made repeated references to American astronauts being launched from American soil aboard American-made spacecraft. The conference was held in an auditorium with a huge American flag as the backdrop with uplifting music pulsing in the background and hundreds of employees, dignitaries, politicians, schoolchildren, and members of the press waiving little American flags and cheering loudly with each introduction and every inspirational statement made.

It made me proud to be an American, and I think the song by Lee Greenwood was the only thing missing from the event.

It was evidentially clear that having to send American astronauts into space on Russian ships since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011 has rubbed NASA the wrong way. It didn’t fit into the NASA culture that was birthed in the Space Race of the 1950s and ’60s. Of course, the rock(et) star introductions and party atmosphere indicates the American space agency has had a big change in culture since the days when seven staid men in suits and ties were paraded before reporters and introduced as America’s first astronauts 59 years ago.

Although they’re far removed from the original Mercury 7, the nine astronauts introduced Friday include three rookies and another first in American spaceflight history. Former NASA astronaut Christopher Ferguson was introduced as a Boeing astronaut and was the only one of the nine to have the Boeing logo on his blue jumpsuit where the others had the NASA logo. All nine are military veterans with four from the Navy, three from the Air Force, and two Marines.

The astronauts have been assigned to four flights, one test flight for each vehicle and one mission to the ISS for each vehicle. Three astronauts will crew the Boeing Starliner test flight. They are:

Air Force Col. Eric Boe of Miami and Atlanta who piloted space shuttles Endeavour and Discovery.

Navy Capt. Chris Ferguson of Philadelphia, who piloted Atlantis and commanded Endeavour and Atlantis again on the final space shuttle mission.

Marine Lt. Col Nicole Aunapu Mann of California who is a test pilot and a rookie astronaut.

The Crew Dragon test flight crew includes:

Air Force Col. Robert Behnken of St. Ann, Mo., who flew twice on Endeavour and has performed six spacewalks.

Marine Col. Douglas Hurley of Apalachin, N.Y., who piloted Endeavour and also Atlantis on the final shuttle mission.

Astronauts assigned to the first Boeing Starliner mission include:

Navy Cmdr. Josh Cassada of White Bear Lake, Minn. He is a test pilot and a rookie astronaut.

Navy Capt. Sunita Williams of Euclid, Ohio, and Needham, Mass., who spent 322 days aboard the International Space Station for Expeditions 14/15 and Expeditions 32/33. She commanded the space station and performed seven spacewalks.

The astronauts on the first mission of the Crew Dragon to the ISS are:

Navy Cmdr. Victor Glover of Pomona, Calif., who is a test pilot and a rookie astronaut.

Air Force Col. Michael Hopkins of Missouri. He has spent 166 days on the International Space Station with Expeditions 37/38, and conducted two spacewalks.

The significance of the press conference was two-fold. First, as was so frequently mentioned, it marks the return of America to the human spaceflight business. Secondly, these crews will be the first in history to fly to space on commercial spacecraft. Only three governments – the United States, Russia, and China – have put humans into space. Boeing and SpaceX will be the first private companies to accomplish the task. The first flights should take space sometime next year.

NASA, meanwhile, is still without a spaceship of its own to fly humans beyond the atmosphere. It is designing the Orion capsule, which will take people to the moon and beyond, but it isn’t ready yet and the timeline for getting back to the moon is sometime in the mid-2020s.

Bridenstine noted that, “Only seven astronauts in history have been the first to fly on a brand new U.S. spacecraft.” He asked Mann and Hurley how they felt about it.

“It’s absolutely an opportunity of a lifetime,” Mann said. “It’s going to be a proud moment for America… As a test pilot it doesn’t get any better than this.”

“That first flight is something you dream about as a test pilot,” Hurley said. “You don’t think it’s ever going to happen to you but it looks like it might.”

Behnken noted that flying the Crew Dragon will be an upgrade from the shuttle.
“The way we described the space shuttle, there are about 3,000 switches inside and there was no situation the astronauts couldn’t make worse,” he said. “We’re grateful the next vehicle we’re going to fly on is going to be a little bit more automated, have quite a bit less switches… It’s like a glass cockpit; it’s like flying an iPhone, right. It is absolutely like flying an iPhone.”