NASA astronaut sees great leap in space science in 10 years
23 Oct 2012 6:42 AM IST
A US astronaut departing this week for the International Space Station said on Monday that the bulk of the scientific benefits from the orbiting laboratory will be seen over the coming decade, amid questions on whether the estimated $100 billion spent in last 12 years is worth the effort.
‘The first 10 years were really intensive in the construction side of it, bringing all the pieces together and really getting the science enabled,’ said NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, who will blast off on a Soyuz craft from the Russian-leased Baikonur spacer center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday together with Russian colleagues Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin.
Portland, Indiana-born Ford said the station would now enter its ‘utilisation phase’.
‘We’re going to learn the bulk of everything we know about the science that we’re doing up there in the next decade,’ he said at a press conference on the eve of the launch. He spoke from behind a glass screen designed to ensure the astronauts do not contract illnesses before their mission.
Of the three men departing Tuesday, only Ford has spent any time in orbit. He spent two weeks in space as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery in 2009 on a mission to transport scientific equipment to the ISS.
The US space programme has been in a vulnerable position since the decommissioning of the US Shuttle fleet in 2011, which left Russia’s Soviet-designed Soyuz craft as the only means for international astronauts to reach the space station.
Earlier this month, California-based SpaceX successfully delivered a half-ton of supplies craft called Dragon to the ISS, the first official shipment under a USD 1.6 billion contract with NASA. The contract calls for 12 such shipments.
Ford said private companies like SpaceX and Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, whose Cygnus cargo vehicle is scheduled for its first trip to the ISS in December, would ensure the sustainability of the lab over the coming decade and enable new exploration.
‘These companies out there are themselves learning a lot about getting to and from low-earth orbit and picking up that task so that NASA can indeed begin to concentrate on things out of earth orbit and going out further into our solar system,’ Ford said.
His remarks echo a statement to Congress in September by William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.
‘The first 10 years were really intensive in the construction side of it, bringing all the pieces together and really getting the science enabled,’ said NASA astronaut Kevin Ford, who will blast off on a Soyuz craft from the Russian-leased Baikonur spacer center in Kazakhstan on Tuesday together with Russian colleagues Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin.
Portland, Indiana-born Ford said the station would now enter its ‘utilisation phase’.
‘We’re going to learn the bulk of everything we know about the science that we’re doing up there in the next decade,’ he said at a press conference on the eve of the launch. He spoke from behind a glass screen designed to ensure the astronauts do not contract illnesses before their mission.
Of the three men departing Tuesday, only Ford has spent any time in orbit. He spent two weeks in space as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery in 2009 on a mission to transport scientific equipment to the ISS.
The US space programme has been in a vulnerable position since the decommissioning of the US Shuttle fleet in 2011, which left Russia’s Soviet-designed Soyuz craft as the only means for international astronauts to reach the space station.
Earlier this month, California-based SpaceX successfully delivered a half-ton of supplies craft called Dragon to the ISS, the first official shipment under a USD 1.6 billion contract with NASA. The contract calls for 12 such shipments.
Ford said private companies like SpaceX and Virginia-based Orbital Sciences, whose Cygnus cargo vehicle is scheduled for its first trip to the ISS in December, would ensure the sustainability of the lab over the coming decade and enable new exploration.
‘These companies out there are themselves learning a lot about getting to and from low-earth orbit and picking up that task so that NASA can indeed begin to concentrate on things out of earth orbit and going out further into our solar system,’ Ford said.
His remarks echo a statement to Congress in September by William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations.
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