NASA on Wednesday named another veteran astronaut, Christopher Cassidy, to take over Behnken’s post.
NASA has selected four veteran astronauts to lead the way back into orbit from USA soil.
Until last month, Williams was the world record holder for the most time in space by a woman (she still retains that record for an American female). So my message to members of our incredible NASA Family, is that you must never lose sight of the fact that by your work every day, you inspire today’s students to become tomorrow’s leaders, scientists, engineers and astronauts.
“Congratulations to Bob, Doug, Eric and Suni on being the first group of astronauts selected for flight training as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program”, Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX, said in the release. Since September 2014, Hurley has been appointed the assistant director for the commercial crew program under the Flight Operations Directorate (FOD) at Johnson Space Center.
It is also part of a plan of sending astronauts to Mars by 2030.
The enthusiasm for NASA’s astronaut program reminds us that journeying to space continues to be the dream of Americans everywhere. SpaceX and Boeing are still developing the capsules, which will launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Hundreds of companies are working to make the commercial crew initiative succeed.
It costs $76 million per astronaut to fly on a Russian spacecraft, Bolden said.
The US has had to use Russian facilities and Soyuz craft to ferry crew to the global Space Station ever since the space shuttle fleet was retired in 2011. The first launch of a commercial vehicle is currently scheduled for 2017.
The announcement is a major development in NASA’s pivot toward reliance on the commercial space industry after the 2004 decision to retire its space shuttle. On an American-owned spacecraft, the average cost will be $58 million per astronaut. What’s more, each mission will carry four crewmembers instead of three, along with 100 kg of materials to support the important science and research we conduct on the ISS. The four are not being assigned to long-duration space station missions, NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters wrote in an email to Sen.
