John Glenn to NASA: Keep shuttles flying
Former U.S. Senator and astronaut John Glenn tells Morning Joe why he wants the United States to keep flying its fleet, instead of paying Russia to take Americans into space.
>>> just about 51 past the hour. welcome back to " morning joe ." today former senator and nasa hero john glenn is taking a stand on obama's space program . he wants the u.s. to keep flying its fleet of space shuttles instead of paying russia to take americans to the international space station . senator, thank you very much for being on the show this morning.
>> thank you. glad to be with us. thank you.
>> explain more specifically, if you can, why you would be against this plan.
>> well, you know, to take our astronauts and shut down the shuttles here means the only access to pay is $55.8 million by current negotiating contract for each astronaut that goes up on the russian soyuz they have to train in kazakhstan and be launched from there and come back to there. we have no backup if something happened to one of the russian spacecraft and grounded them we would probably have to abandon the space station . i don't think that's the way to go. we have a hundred billion dollars invested in the building of our space station now making it the finest laboratory that has ever been put together. the greatest potential, i think, and a great value to our economy and to the people right here on earth. and to spend the $1.5 billion that would be necessary to go to provide the shuttle per year, two shuttle launches per year, i think, that's a tiny amount to pay to keep our own people here, our own launch crews involved and own control center personnel and much better way to go than trying to go over there and go up with the russians.
>> maybe that's a lot of money in these times. we are facing a recession. the gulf oil disaster. i could see how people would think this isn't something that should be a priority.
>> i can see -- no, i understand the the other expenditures. nasa's total budget is under a half a percent of our $2 trillion national budget , however. the value of the things that come out of this are a value to our economy. you know, this country got to be what it is by education and research . and this is the finest kind of research . we have built this station at a hundred billion dollar cost the last 20, 25 years or so. and now to not be able to use it the way we wanted to to maximize research off of it to me isn't right. this $1.5 billion two flights per year i think is a tiny expenditure what the potential may be what we may get out of it.
>> mike barnicle ?
>> senator, you mentioned the elements of research is so valuable to us.
>> yes.
>> potentially, who would this research do us for for our lives the next couple of years?
>> the potential is a lot of things. you can't see what research is going to turn. the reason you do it is basic research . the things -- we had 83 different research projects on the flight i was on at the end of '98 on the shuttle and the "columbia" had 90 research research projects on. rice scientists are interested in whether this will change the production of rice or not. we experimented with different insulation material that we're trying to stabilize. be far better than any insulation we have here now. studies on the human body itself and on medicines. protein crystal growth here on earth has some flaws in it. in space, you can make those same crystals that are useful for medical research and new medicines and they come out with greater size and purity than anything we can do here on earth in a gravity environment so there are practical things like that. what i was involved with on that flight in '98 was the research on the own human body on how the body's immune system works. it becomes less resist nt resistant to disease on space and on earth. that and protein replacement and the muscle changes, things basic like that. if we can learn more from those, it not only lets people stay in space longer, on longer missions, mars someday, i hope, but also may cut out some of the frailties of old aech here on earth. there are practical benefits from this thing, too.
>> senator glynn, thank you for being on the show this morning. best of luck to you in your efforts.
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