Man,gled, that every everywoman he meant everyone that regardless of their station in life, regardless of whether or not you agree with him, is entitled to be treated with dignity and respect. That the used to say greatest sin of all was the whether power, economic, political, psychological, or physical. I wrote theason why violence against women legislation. He abhorred the notion of the abuse of power. Totally consistent with what his holiness talks about now in our Roman Catholic faith has taught us for over 2000 years. As taught by my family and my faith, that a good life, at its core, this is why i truly like john, is about the personable. It is all getting down to being personable. Being engaged. I was taught by my family and my faith to look beyond the caricature of a person, resist the temptation, when you disagree, to ascribe a negative motive. Because when you do that, number one, you do not truly know what that persons motive is. And number two, and makes it virtually impossible to reach common ground. I was taught by my family and my academicer to confuse credentials and sophistication with gravitas and judgment. To have a heart to try to distinguish between what is meaningful and what is ephemeral. And the head to know the difference between knowledge and judgment. Importantly, my family and our faith warned me against the temptation of rationalizing in the pursuit of ambition. I know it is her birthday, but she will not mind, this is an important business trip. I know it is his last game, but i have to take the redeye back to see it. He will understand. I know we have been planning this family vacation, for a long, long time, but i have such an opportunity, if i leave. Wrong, but if you engage in this rationalization, which everyone does, never underestimate the ability of the human mind to rationalize. You will become very difficult to weather the storm in reality, in truth. And it will. Reality will, in truth. In 1972, i was elected the secondyoungest man in the history of the United States, i was 29 years old, not old enough to be sworn in. I had to wait. 13 days to be eligible. Later, reality intruded. I was in washington, hiring my staff, and i got a phone call. A tractortrailer broadsided my wife and three children, killed my wife, and killed my daughter. Boys, it was uncertain. Later, fully recovered. Elected at 29 to the senate is pretty heady stuff. It is the stuff of which ambition can get out of hand. Intruded. Y happenedlater, it again. Many of your parents and people in the audience have gone through worse than i have. Myy know, many of you know, beau, theon, miny attorney general of the state of delaware, the most respected in the state, volunteering to go to kosovo to set up a criminal Justice System during the war. And john, i just learned the president of kosovo is naming something after miny son, the major joseph r. Biden boulevard. Volunteer as attorney general, but you do not get an exception because you become federal property when you become a national guard. You go to iraq. A year later, he came home and decorated soldier. The delaware Conspicuous Service cross, in the best physical shape of his life. Miles, he had10 to lay down. Stage fourith lastoma in the brain. Him,ears later, it took after a heroic struggle. And john talked about, my father talked about, you just have to get up. s last words to me i am not afraid. Promise me, you will be all right. My dad had an expression. He would say never complain, never explain. Did. Ver, ever and i think back on it. Iat would happen if john and only followed our ambition . Missed a, i never birthday or an important thing. Thank god, i never missed his game for unimportant political event. Said it best, i say to you, when he was attorney commencementg a speech at syracuse in 2011, he said you will find peace when there are certain rules that are not malleable. Your conscience, your conscience should not be malleable. Your values for another, these are the means, along with learning the learning you now possess they are the things that will guide you . They will also be the things to save you. Father, i have read some i are oldhow john and school. We used to treat each other with respect, hang out with each other. I are not oldschool. We are the american school. You have to restore. When progress only comes you deal with your opponent with respect, listening as well as talking. Class of 2016, this is not hyperbole. You are the best educated, most tolerant generation in the history of the United States of america. Engage in the tireless pursuit of finding common ground. Because not only will you be happier, you will be incredibly more successful. That is where you will find your reward. And it will make us all better for it. It is an honor to be here with john, a great honor to receive this medal. May god bless you all. And may god protect our troops. [applause] thank you. Leave, because there is only one thing more important. Remember, i said do not prioritize. My granddaughter is graduating from the university of pennsylvania. So, so long. [applause] announcer commencement coverage includes the university of notre dame. And we are joined by the president , reverend john jenkins, who has been head of University Since 2005. You included two notable catholic, the Vice President and john boehner, presented with medals. What is the meaning of the medal . The medal was founded at notre dame in 1883 to honor a catholic, to recognize a catholic in america who had made a contribution, in some way, to broader american society. We have awarded musicians, poets, political leaders, business leaders, religious leaders with this metal. Dal. Whoreally, these two men, have given such distinguished leadership, two different parties, it was very important so it looked like we were not favoring one over the other, who have been distinguished political leaders in our country, we felt they were very deserving of this country. Has been presented to john f. Kennedy, former speaker tip oneill, last year it was aaron neville. What did you hear in their message that struck a similar tone . Well, that is interesting. Because at our time in this country, as we all know, such acrimony and divisiveness, and a lot of cynicism about government leaders, what i found so inspiring, the two men expressed great friendship and affection for one another. They disagree so deeply on so many issues. But i found that particularly inspiring. Each ofe ways in which them have been inspired, guided by their faith, not to take any particular position, but to serve. Vice President Biden spoke movingly about the tragedy in his life, losing a wife and a to cancer. Cent son and how faith helped him get through that. Both of them were inspiring and that way, more on the personal level and the sense of serving the common good of our country. The Commencement Speaker was the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. Martin dempsey, how was he selected and why . I have known them for a while. Someone who has served, given his whole life in service to our someone who is quite accomplished. It is not so much to be a compliment, but the real sense that iership of service find so inspiring and general dempsey. Someone who really is not about himself, but about giving his life to our country. He is also a superb speaker, and knows young people. And his commencement address began with a commencement karaoke. He is a very good singer. And he asked our young graduates to sing along with him on a few songs, that were popular when he graduated, decades ago. And now that they are graduating, it was quite entertaining. As we wrap up, parents and students who are considering where to go in 2016 and beyond that, what is the reason you would say they should attend notre dame . Well, perhaps it is embodied in these individuals. Asense of compliment, they were all very able and what they did. But central service, that they gave their lives to something bigger, a broader ideal of service. And i hope all the computer game have that aspiration to notre dame have that and will consider that. President of the university of notre dame, thanks for being with us. Appreciated. Congratulations to the class of 2016. Today is your day of celebration. You have earned it. The voices crying for peace and light, because your choices will make all the difference to you and to all of us. Do not be afraid to take on cases, or new jobs, or new issues that really stretches your boundaries. Abroad,ct your summer on real ships, rather than internships, and the specter of living in your parents basement is not likely to be your greatest concern. Announcer throughout this month, watch commencement speeches to the class of 2016 in their entirety. From colleges and universities across the country by business onders, politicians cspan. Science, business, and Technology Pioneers briefly discussed commercial space travel at the Washington Post transformer summit. Administrator Charles Bolden and other space leaders talk about what commercial space travel will look like. Later the ceos of twitch and discussed how communication will change online. One hour and 20 minutes. Before this decade is out, landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the air. 3, 2, 1. 4, all engines launched. We have liftoff. The space race inspired a generation of scientists and innovators. They have contributed immeasurable technological advancements, from satellites to water to aerospace to medical, once more inspiring wonder in a new generation. Launching careers. Is chris davenport. I am a reporter at the Washington Post. Our next panel is about space. Particularly, commercial space. It is a really interesting time, where i think many people who 2011he shuttle retire in that there is not much going on, but there is much going on at sector, commercial enough to fill a book for one of our talents. Let me introduce everyone. Charles bolden, nasa administrator. Julie, Vice President of advanced space and launch. Next her is andy weir. And george whiteside, the ceo of urgin virgin galactic. Somethingout to face extraordinary that will happen. And i want you to talk to us about that. We are going to have a launch, from a government site activity space and are Kennedy Space center at cape canaveral, launching at wer astronauts on a commercial vehicle. This is a very big deal. How does this come about . It is a huge deal. It actually started back in 2003, after we lost columbia. Thelong story short, recommendation was made to the president at the time to face out the Space Shuttle from number of reason. One, we wanted to explore. The shuttle was a low orbiting vehicle. We felt that, as we have worked with Industry Partners enough, and they were fully capable of providing transportation to cargo and crew, we struck out. We did not invest in commercial crew illicitly. Were kind of lukewarm. And president obama provided the impetus. He said we are going to do it. So we started in earnest, and now we are a year and a half away from launching american astronauts from u. S. Soil. That will be incredible. Can you take us back to the early point . To even have cargo, and to rely on the commercial sector in that way, that was a really bold and daring move. Do people tell you you were crazy . That is ok. I get told im crazy all the time. Andy might not know this. We talked about mars, and it was not very popular in 2009. Foras sort of verboten, reasons not be on my believe. But the president , he said this is what we are going to do. He did it and what i consider to be a major space policy address to the nation and the world in april of 2010. Nobody paid attention to it. But that is when he gave us two challenges. By humans on an asteroid 2025. That is still strong. And humans on mars in the 2030s. We are well awaited doing both of those things. I want to go to george at virgin galactic. Different from deep your commercial venture, Richard Branson part of this, where you os, whatn musk, jeff bez they want to do is create the worlds first commercial space line. I just like saying that. Talk to us. I mean, it is amazing. Talk to was a little bit about what the vision is, and what you are going to be doing. George what we want to do is open space up to the rest of us. And i think that is an inspiring thing. Is, how manyhing people have ever been to space . Just guess . Andy about 600. George you cannot answer, andy. Nobody onstage can answer. The answer is about 550. I am sure you are about to say that. Which seems like a remarkably small number considering we have been going for 50 years. What we would like to do is provide the opportunity to travel to space, but also to give rise to this new category of satellites, because that is really an interesting area. We think that by opening up that experience to more people into more satellites, the benefits of space can accrue down to earth. That is what we are hoping to do. Andome from it as a leader, entrepreneurial space that we are saying, i wonder if we are going to look back at this time in 1020 years from now and say this is really an extraordinary time. When all of this spaceflight that nasa and the government have done leaped over into the private sector. You know, i think it is an extraordinary time. And i think a lot of the credit goes to administrator bolden and the president. But also the congress and others for taking smart moves to open up innovation in the american launch industry. And the reason why it is important is because we are Getting Started on a cycle of innovation that should feed on itself over time. Hopefully, we can get the price lower, safe access, which then leads to more activity, which then drives lower cost. And we can get on this wheel of innovation. And that is so exciting with the thingss, all of these will hopefully have a cycle to them that drive innovation, so that we actually end up in a place 10 times cheaper in the future than we are now. There is a side goal of the panel, to provide andy with material for his book. I did an analysis once. I presented it at a convention in the bay area. But basically i said, what is the commercial space industry had the same overhead as the modern commercial Airline Industry . The commercial space industry is in infancy. It is just Getting Started is an extremely expensive venture. It takes a lot of money. But i thought, what if it ended up like having the same efficiency as the modern commercial Airline Industry, which has had decades and decades of competition. And like refinement and stuff like that. I worked out that i needed numbers, so i said, let us say they have the same fuel overhead ratio. What percentage of all the money that a martial airline makes, how much of that do they spend on fuel . And Everything Else . And it works out to be pretty much across the board, every commercial airline spends between 70 of all the money they work out on fuel. Let us say that was the same for commercial space industry. The user to get down to the kilogram for low earth orbit. Which is unthinkable today. Tell everybody what it is today. Andy it is thousands of dollars per kilogram. 9, i thinke falcon it is less than 10,000 per kilogram. But if the falcon heavy is successful, that will be the most efficient, nonsubsidized at about 1600 per kilogram. Spacex, the big rock in their building, i heard you say you for writing the martian before the new Space Movement took off. If you want to write the book again, you might include some of this. Is that true . Andy definitely true. I am not 100 sure that, because when i wrote the martian, that is my guy. My job i wrote it was, was to entertain. Like, that is my only focus, my goal writing a book. It is not be 100 realistic. When i was writing the martian i shamelessly took advantage of the apollo era. And the program in the book is very similar in feel and style to the apollo era program. In real life, im sure our First Manned Mission to mars will be put into low earth orbit by commercial space industrys, government contract, i think will be a large multinational effort. It will not look anything like it looked in the movie. Making so many of the systems and components to go on these vehicles, you guys are really pushing the edge of the innovation and technology. Which is what today is all about. You know, things like solar electric propulsion. Another thing i like saying to give us a sense of what you guys are working on, that is really cool and how it works in two . Julie we support government and commercial. We do primarily propulsion, big inches, motors, those kinds of power. The things were working on today, we are doing ion propulsion, a form of electric propulsion. We talk about decreasing the cost. Everything we throw off the planet has to go on the rocket. The smaller you can make it, the cheaper it can get. So we have solar electric portion on these next missions, working on nasa contracts and orernal, and it will be 1 10 one half of the size. You see the blue glow from the old star trek, it will be just like that. So, we are printing rockets now. We are doing 3d printing of whole rockets. Another people are doing it does that mean i can legally download a rocket . [laughter] julie you know, Rocket Technology is still protected. But you get to that. You get a model and you can do that. But you can certainly do the smaller ones. We talk about the small size, we can actually print one in one pass. Those are things that bring down not just the cost of the product. They are more efficient. They bring down time. And all of this just continues to fuel the cycle. As george was saying, is really a transformative time. We are building up things we have put in place for the last few decades. But now we can actually take that next that. And he talked about what he thought the martian would be like with commercial space available. And he is definitely right. If you look at what nasa is doing today. A big part of my life is spent growing national partners, looking at nontraditional partners, countries that want to be a part of the Space Program but dont have the money or the technical knowledge. Working in partnership with commercial entities has been incredible. Nasa has never been taped build rocket. We have been building rockets since we were kids. But that is just the way it was done. The