I joined B612 five years ago because I wanted to be part of a global effort that was different, inspirational and pioneering. I wanted to be part of a movement that could literally change the world.

At that point in my life, I wasn’t an asteroid expert, and I wasn’t necessarily aware of the importance of advancing the technology needed to find and deflect asteroids, but I knew I was in for an interesting time when my friend and Apollo astronaut Rusty Schweickart introduced me to former NASA astronaut Ed Lu. Over lunch five years ago, Rusty said, “Ed is going to protect the Earth from asteroids and he needs your help building the business to do it.” That day, I was intrigued enough set up a meeting with Ed.

When I first met Ed over coffee, he told me the story about why he started B612.

While spending over 260 days in space over three flight missions, he was able to look at Earth from a totally different perspective. It occurred to him how powerful life on Earth is. He looked at the countless impact craters on the moon and said that if they choose to, humans can pull together to make immense change. And he was right about that. I was sold on the challenge and joined the B612 crew that day.

It pleases me greatly to see Ed recognized for his vision and experiences, alongside other pioneering astronauts and space travellers in a feature article just published by NatGeo, “They Saw Earth From Space. Here’s How It Changed Them.”

While I haven’t seen Earth from space, I have seen our global community of supporters come together and help drive progress on the asteroid issue.

Over the last five years at B612, first as Chief Operating Officer and now President, our work has grown and evolved. We have built alliances and partnered with groups in the field, we helped co-found a worldwide movement focused on increasing asteroid education, we are advancing technologies that show great promise in finding and tracking asteroids, and we are building the necessary cloud-based tools to analyze the asteroid data from telescopes around the world. And in the last year, we launched the Asteroid Institute which aims to be the international center of excellence for scientific collaboration on the discovery and deflection of asteroids as well as an incubator for new technologies.

All of this has been possible because of our committed group of supporters coming together to make a difference, just as Ed thought was possible when he co-founded B612.

I’m excited to see what’s in store over the next five years and how much we can accomplish together.

Danica Remy
President, B612