Showing posts with label international space station. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international space station. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Is Gates eyeing a possible spaceflight?
"American billionaire and Microsoft mogul Bill Gates is eyeing the possibility of his own orbital spaceflight, according to the next commander of the international space station and Russian news reports.
Russia’s Interfax News Agency reported Wednesday that expedition commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, a Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut, and U.S space tourist Charles Simonyi discussed Gates’ interest in orbital spaceflight from their perch aboard the space station.
“Charles Simonyi told us that Bill Gates plans to conquer space,” Interfax quoted Yurchikhin as saying during a Russian news conference Wednesday. “Perhaps some of us will find himself in a company with the Microsoft head in orbit some day.”
Russia’s Interfax News Agency reported Wednesday that expedition commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, a Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut, and U.S space tourist Charles Simonyi discussed Gates’ interest in orbital spaceflight from their perch aboard the space station.
“Charles Simonyi told us that Bill Gates plans to conquer space,” Interfax quoted Yurchikhin as saying during a Russian news conference Wednesday. “Perhaps some of us will find himself in a company with the Microsoft head in orbit some day.”
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Glenn says Space Station needs help
"The country is not getting its money's worth out of the international space station, John Glenn said Tuesday, the 45th anniversary of the day he became the first American to orbit the Earth.
Diverting money from the orbiting research outpost to President Bush's goal of sending astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars is preventing some scientific experiments on the space station, Glenn told an audience of about 300 high school students and space enthusiasts at the COSI Columbus science center.
"To not utilize that station the way I think it ought to be utilized is just wrong," said Glenn, 85, also a former U.S. senator.
Glenn made three trips around the planet inside his Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962, making him a national hero and proving that the nascent NASA space program was competitive with the Soviet Union, which had accomplished a manned orbital flight a year earlier.
In 1998, Glenn, then 77, flew on the shuttle Discovery and became the oldest person ever in space.
He said he supports the president's moon and Mars goals but not at the expense of the space station, which is only two-thirds complete.
NASA and its international partners, including Canada, Japan and Russia, hope to finish the space station in 2010, but no decision has been made to extend its operation past 2016.
Glenn, a Democrat who represented Ohio from 1975 to 1999, said the station shouldn't be abandoned, especially after costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
"We will not even begin to realize its potential," he said.
A White House spokesman said Tuesday night that officials were not prepared to comment. Messages were left after business hours at NASA headquarters."
Diverting money from the orbiting research outpost to President Bush's goal of sending astronauts back to the moon and eventually on to Mars is preventing some scientific experiments on the space station, Glenn told an audience of about 300 high school students and space enthusiasts at the COSI Columbus science center.
"To not utilize that station the way I think it ought to be utilized is just wrong," said Glenn, 85, also a former U.S. senator.
Glenn made three trips around the planet inside his Friendship 7 capsule on Feb. 20, 1962, making him a national hero and proving that the nascent NASA space program was competitive with the Soviet Union, which had accomplished a manned orbital flight a year earlier.
In 1998, Glenn, then 77, flew on the shuttle Discovery and became the oldest person ever in space.
He said he supports the president's moon and Mars goals but not at the expense of the space station, which is only two-thirds complete.
NASA and its international partners, including Canada, Japan and Russia, hope to finish the space station in 2010, but no decision has been made to extend its operation past 2016.
Glenn, a Democrat who represented Ohio from 1975 to 1999, said the station shouldn't be abandoned, especially after costing taxpayers billions of dollars.
"We will not even begin to realize its potential," he said.
A White House spokesman said Tuesday night that officials were not prepared to comment. Messages were left after business hours at NASA headquarters."
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