~NASA Shuttle Commander Eileen Collins Available for Insights~
After NASA introduced the world to the most powerful rocket ever flown to orbit last year, Elon Musk’s SpaceX is prepared to set off its creation ’Starship’, which could pack nearly twice the power of anything flown before. The skyscraping rocket and spacecraft was scheduled to launch on its first mission on Monday but had to be rescheduled at the last minute due to a frozen valve issue.
This mission is immensely consequential as NASA hopes Starship can be used to land astronauts on the moon for the first time in over 50 years. It has already awarded SpaceX contracts and options worth several billions of dollars to use Starship to ferry astronauts to the surface of the moon under the space agency’s Artemis program.
Retired NASA astronaut and the agency’s first female shuttle commander, Col. Eileen Collins is available to weigh in on the success or failure of Starship as it underpins the United States government’s ambitions for human exploration. This will be a crucial demonstration of hardware that NASA is depending on to get humans back on the moon in the next few years. A moon mission, however, involves more powerful and complex hardware.
If successful, it’ll mean Musk is one small step closer to realizing his dream of building a city on Mars. Musk hopes Starship will provide a critical step to becoming multi-planetary, by allowing large payloads to be carried into orbit for cheap. His goal is for Starship to someday transport the first people to Mars.
Get Eileen’s thoughts on the various aspects of safety, the durability of hardware, and the efficiency that play a crucial role in space travel. She is available on Wednesday (April 19th), Thursday (April 20th), and Friday morning (April 21st) to discuss NASA’s expectations from Starship and the risks involved that could make or break this mission.
For media requests, please contact Allen Media Strategies, Shaili Priya by emailing at shaili@allenmediastrategies.com or calling 703-589-8960