By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-855094.mp3
Niskayuna, NY – US Astronaut Greg Chamitoff visited General Electric Headquarters in Niskayuna, New York to tour GE Labs and address employees about his experiences aboard the International Space Station. Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports.
Charmitoff boarded the space station on June 2nd 2008, spending 179 days there before returning to earth on November 30th - he dazzled his audience of GE employees and their children with a video and slideshow depicting his experiences in space and delighted the kids by taking their questions. Charmitoff went into great detail with every answer explaining the capabilities and life sustainablities of the space station. I asked him if he's confident in the future of the U.S. Space Program, given all of the earthbound problems mankind is facing, like the troubled economy. Charmitoff feels that eventually private enterprise will drive space exploration... The question of travel to Mars came up... something the astronaut wishes will happen within his career-span. He'll be flying one of the last shuttle missions.
GE has a heritage of technology development that contributed to NASA's successful landing on the moon, from GE Radio Command Guidance Equipment used on all of the Apollo missions to the Lexan plastic visors used in astronaut's helmets Lexan was developed at GE's Global Research Center in 1953.