We Are Proud Space Nerds

When I joined Honeywell’s Space Team, the first thing that struck me was the sheer vastness of what we do within this industry. Like Space itself, it feels limitless: from keeping astronaut’s alive and comfortable on an orbiting space station, to creating the hardware that enables satellite connectivity for you to make a cell phone call or get GPS directions to where you want to drive. We are helping to build the most powerful launch vehicle ever made and we also make small but mighty microelectronics. Our technology has supported humans on the moon and spacecraft investigating the far reaches of the solar system.

Given the breadth of components and systems that Honeywell makes to enable connectivity, security and exploration in Space and how many sites work to make this happen across the globe, I pondered what common denominator our Team really shares.

The answer eventually came to me: we are all Proud Space Nerds.

Sure, the word “Nerd” can sometimes be jarring in the wrong context but it’s gained stature as a badge of honor for a person who is both an expert and an enthusiast on a subject. One scientist summed up the difference between a nerd and a geek this way: “geeks are fans of their subjects and nerds are practitioners of them”.

I thought about the thousands of people who work for Honeywell Space across the globe: their shared drive to solve challenging issues, a thirst to deliver what others say can’t be done, and a desire to constantly expand the limits of Space technology. That is what unifies our Space Team. We are unapologetically nerdy about the thousands of amazing things we do, every day, to enable ground-breaking mission success.

Many of us became Space enthusiasts as kids. Who didn’t like to play astronaut, or get a thrill from watching the Millennium Falcon zoom past distant planets, or simply look up at a sparkling camp sky at night with breathless wonder?

Some of us never outgrew that wonder and found it so compelling that it became more than enthusiasm, it became our career – to be a part of this incredible world of Space technology and to be expert practitioners of it.

So yes, we are indeed a bunch of Proud Space Nerds at Honeywell! We harness our awesome nerdery to design and build products that are, quite literally, out of this world. Pocket protectors are optional!