Briton takes off for space station as Nasa faces funding crisis
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Briton takes off for space station as Nasa faces funding crisis
by science guardian  on February 06, 2010 | | Nicholas Patrick's mission to international space station comes as Barack Obama announces cuts to US space programmeAs a schoolboy in Yorkshire watching the first moon landings on television, Nicholas Patrick could only dream of following the pioneers of Apollo into space.Inspired by their achievements, he moved to America to achieve his childhood ambition of becoming an astronaut. On Sunday, when the shuttle Endeavour blasts off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, Patrick will embark on one of the greatest adventures ever undertaken by one of the handful of Britons to reach orbit in an American spacecraft.His five-million-mile journey to the international space station, where he will perform three ambitious and risky space walks, comes at a traumatic time for Nasa, following US president Barack Obama's decision this week to pull the plug on America's plans to return to the moon.But Patrick, one of only three British fliers in the US space agency, is not among those worrying about job security after the shuttle fleet retires this year, leaving Nasa with no definitive programme for manned spaceflight for the first time in its 50-year history."I know that when I've landed I'll have more time to reflect," said Patrick, who is set to lift off at 9.39am GMT with six crewmates. "But it is important that we move on to new and different challenges."Until his selection for this mission, Patrick, an engineering graduate of Cambridge University, was working to develop the flight deck for Orion, the next-generation spaceship that was to have replaced the ageing shuttle.But Obama's cancellation of the $81bn Constellation programme, of which Orion was part, leaves the US relying on Russian Soyuz rockets or planned commercial space "taxis" to ferry its astronauts to the space station. It also means Nasa's vision to put astronauts back on the moon by 2020, almost half a century after the final Apollo mission in 1972, has disappeared.Patrick, 45, said it was essential that Nasa had a future role that inspired children to pursue careers in science. "The space programme helps show kids that the purpose of all the science and technology is to achieve great and monumental things," he said.Endeavour will dock with the space station on Tuesday, day three of its 13-day mission to help complete construction of the orbiting laboratory. Patrick and fellow astronaut Bob Behnken will make the spacewalks to install the station's final living-working component, the 75 sq m Tranquility node, and a domed observation room called the Cupola that will give astronauts an unprecedented 360-degree view of the universe and serve as a control room for future flights.Patrick will be sending live updates from space on Twitter as @Astro_Nicholas.SpaceNasaSpace technologyUnited StatesRichard Luscombeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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