"Commercial Crew" Gets Boost from Former Astronauts
Thirteen people who have flown in space argue in favor of commercial human spaceflight in this morning’s Wall Street Journal. The group includes 10 former NASA astronauts (Buzz Aldrin, Ken Bowersox, Robert Gibson, Hank Hartsfield, John Herrington, John “Mike” Lounge, Rick Searfoss, Norman Thagard, Kathryn Thornton, and Jim Voss), and three former payload specialists (Byron Lichtenberg, Charles Walker, and former U.S. Senator Jake Garn).
“While it’s completely appropriate for NASA to continue developing systems and the new technologies necessary to take crews farther out into our solar system, we believe that the commercial sector is fully capable of safely handling the critical task of low-Earth-orbit human transportation.”
“As astronauts, we know that safety is important. We are fully confident that the commercial spaceflight sector can provide a level of safety equal to that offered by the venerable Russian Soyuz system, which has flown safely for the last 38 years, and exceeding that of the Space Shuttle.”
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