The federal government is taking steps towards relinquishing control it has traditionally held over manned spaceflights, according to Paul Lockhart, a NASA astronaut who flew two missions to the International Space Station.
Lockhart, who spoke Jan. 27 at a Kennedy Political Union event, said he is expecting that President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 — released today — will contain funds for the development of commercial operations to carry astronauts into space.
| A conversation with Paul LockhartHOWIE PERLMAN / THE EAGLE |
Obama has proposed to funnel $6 billion towards private spaceflight development in the proposed budget, according to The New York Times.
The private sector has a long way to go before any company would be able to safely transport humans into space and back for the types of advanced missions NASA has conducted, according to Lockhart. No private sector entity has ever coordinated a mission on its own involving a craft traveling at the velocity necessary to either maintain orbit around Earth or escape that orbit, he said.
SpaceShipOne, the first and only commercially-owned manned spacecraft to have left Earth’s atmosphere (it returned safely) had a maximum velocity of around 2,500 miles per hour, according to aerospace-technology.com.
The velocity required to maintain an orbit around Earth and safely dock with the International Space Station is around 18,000 miles per hour, Lockhart said. The velocity needed to escape Earth’s gravitational field is around 25,000 miles per hour, according to a statement from NASA.
Jeff Leicy, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps, said he agrees with Lockhart that before NASA sends a mission to Mars or other parts of the solar system, it should send another mission to the Moon to hone the skills needed to send humans to other worlds. This is especially the case since the last lunar landing took place in 1972, almost 40 years ago.
“What the colonel said is absolutely true and necessary in my mind; you need to take the smaller steps first to be able to reach those eventual, long-term goals,” Leicy said. “There can’t be just a straight jump from Earth to Mars.”
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You can reach this staff writer at hperlman@theeagleonline.com.
