Cape County native, astronaut praises SpaceX, says moon unlikely by 2024

Jackson High School graduate and retired astronaut Linda Godwin says she believes the United States will return to the moon someday but not by President Donald Trump’s announced 2024 deadline.

“There’s too much to be done,” Godwin said, “and there isn’t enough time and probably not enough money right now, either.”

Godwin, 67, lives in Columbia, Missouri, these days and teaches one class each spring to undergraduates at University of Missouri-Columbia.

The 1970 Indians alumna was a crew member on four of NASA’s space shuttle missions from 1991 to 2001.

“I’m very glad that human beings are going into space from our continent again,” said Godwin, referring to the Saturday’s launch of the privately-financed SpaceX Dragon, a brainchild of billionaire Elon Musk, who hopes eventually to see the colonization of Mars.

Before last weekend, the United States had not launched any American into space from American soil since 2011, when the entire shuttle fleet was grounded.

“I don’t see a successful mission to Mars in my lifetime,” said Godwin, who joined NASA in 1980.

Godwin was in Jackson in March, just before the coronavirus pandemic, to give a talk to retired teachers.

She and her twin sister, Judy, who lives in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, still hold title to the family home located between Jackson and Oak Ridge.

Godwin was on the Indians yearbook staff and played the clarinet in the JHS marching band.

Astronauts Linda M. Godwin (red stripes) and Daniel M. Tani, both STS-108 mission specialists, are pictured Dec. 10, 2001, near the end of the Space Shuttle Endeavour's remote manipulator system (RMS) robotic arm during the 4-hour, 12-minute session of extravehicular activity (EVA).NASA

The former NASA mission specialist remembers some cold Friday JHS football games.

Halftime music was required regardless of the temperature.

“We (band members) wore white gloves to keep warm in those days and we cut holes in the tips so we could play,” she recalled.

Teachers loomed large in Godwin’s memories as she remembered the Jackson educators who fanned the flames of a budding career in outer space.

“Mr. Seabaugh taught science and Mrs. Thelma Lamont in math both imprinted their passion upon me,” Godwin said.

“The colors red and black, whenever I see them, always remind me of home and of Jackson,” she said.

Godwin, who went on to Southeast Missouri State University (1974) and later to Mizzou for advanced degrees, including a doctorate in physics, said she never thought about becoming an astronaut when she was young.

“I didn’t see a path to the program,” Godwin said, “because the astronaut corps of the ’60s and ’70s were test pilots and all men.”

The year Godwin obtained her PhD at Mizzou, 1980, NASA started accepting women as astronaut candidates.

She immediately applied.

On Godwin’s final two missions aboard the shuttle, in March 1996 and December 2001, she did spacewalks, what the space agency calls extra vehicular activity (EVA).

“We prepared for EVAs by training in a water tank,” Godwin recalled, “but it was so much easier to move in space.”

Astronaut Linda M. Godwin, STS-108 mission specialist, is photographed on the mid deck of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in December 2001 during the transfer of supplies and equipment between the shuttle and the International Space Station.NASA

Godwin is a fan of the original “Star Trek” television series.

“The show made you dream about what was possible,” she said, while also praising the film “Apollo 13,” released in 1995.

“NASA is no longer designing craft for low-earth orbit,” Godwin said, acknowledging the space agency is working on concepts for a lunar lander but is far from construction or testing.

Godwin said she sees advantages for a private company, such as SpaceX.

“The problem with government funding is that it is a year at a time, while a private concern can plan for more years out,” noting in the current health emergency, very little money from Washington is available for space.

“Politics is often the way things get done,” Godwin said, “and (2020) has been a tough year.”

Many of her Mizzou students are mechanical engineers, some with a desire to work in aerospace.

“I do think students forget that going to the stars is virtually unattainable,” Godwin opined, “because the distances are so vast.”

“I don’t mean to sound negative,” she said, “because I think the SpaceX is great and I’m glad to see its success.”

SpaceX Dragon docked with the international space station (ISS) on Sunday.

Godwin got to the station herself aboard STS-108 on shuttle Endeavor just before Christmas in 2001.

“I think (ISS) is the largest peacetime collaboration ever between nations,” she said.