America once dreamed of walking on the moon. Now the goal by President Obama of seeing private space craft make low orbit flights may be the next frontier and NASA wants to be part of it.
It’s appointed Indian American astronaut Sunita Williams along with three other astronauts to the commercial space team, reports Market Business.
Williams along with Robert Behnken, Eric Boe and Douglas Hurley will be trained on commercial space flights and be part of efforts to test the idea.
“These distinguished, veteran astronauts are blazing a new trail — that will one day land them in the history books and Americans on the surface of Mars,” said NASA administrator Charles Bolden.
Contracts with Boeing and SpaceX require astronauts be on board at least one flight test.
Williams currently holds the record among women astronauts of most time logged walking in space, 50 hours and 40 minutes.
You can learn about the goals of commercial space flights in Market Business..