NASA looks to the moon and planets

By Linda Godwin

I've always felt that I have been extremely fortunate to be able to experience being an astronaut -- both because it fulfilled my own dreams and also because it is a special privilege to be part of a program of which the American public can be very proud.

Our nation has long been a leader in space, and our accomplishments in low Earth orbit with the space shuttle and the international space station have led the way in new technologies and many areas of research. It is important to me, as I'm sure it is to the rest of America, that our country continues in this leadership role.

The privilege of being an astronaut also includes the responsibility to bring back to the public the story of being in space and what we do there and to communicate where NASA is headed. It is exciting to be able to report that NASA's new vision for space exploration is encompassing new frontiers, and we are developing plans for humans to follow the paths of our robotic explorers. This is how leadership continues.

Our new plans will call for both human pioneers and robot explorers to conduct a sustained and affordable program of exploration throughout the solar system. We know that this new program must be robust enough to advance our country's scientific, security and economic interests as well as fulfill dreams of exploration. These are our fundamental goals. In support of these goals, our entire team is working to:

Complete the construction of the international space station by 2010.

Return human explorers to the moon as soon as 2015 in preparation for the exploration of Mars and beyond.

Promote international and commercial cooperation.

Just like Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and our current shuttle and station programs, we expect that our new investments in space will produce advances and new technology in other areas. Our NASA spin-offs have included significant advances in weather forecasting, communications, computing, medicine, search-and-rescue technology, robotics and electronics.

There are other payoffs as well. I vividly remember watching the missions of our early space program, including the moment that Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon, with my family from our home outside of Jackson.

There is no doubt in my mind that these events helped to fuel my interests in science and math, which led to my career with NASA.

I am equally sure that these new explorations of our solar system will inspire our young people of today to study math and science and become part of our next generation of space explorers.

I've often been asked by young students, "Where have you been in space, and what planets have you seen?" I've had to tell them that we have not had any humans beyond low Earth orbit for more than 30 years.

Now I can say that we are going to the moon and the planets. And, better yet, these young students might be going too.

Neil Armstrong's quote on the moon was "The Eagle has landed." I'm proud to say that the Eagle is once again taking flight.

Astronaut Linda Godwin was born in Cape Girardeau but considers Jackson to be her hometown. Godwin received a bachelor of science degree in mathematics and physics from Southeast Missouri State University and a master of science degree and a doctorate in physics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. A veteran of four spaceflights in 1991, 1994, 1996 and 2001, Godwin has logged more than 38 days in space, including two spacewalks.