TRAVERSE CITY -- After witnessing history Thursday morning, 7&4 News got the opportunity to catch up with hometown, retired astronaut Jerry Linenger from Leelanau County.
Just like many of us, Linenger watched the end of an era as Space Shuttle Atlantis made its final landing at Kennedy Space Center.
7&4's Kate Fox sat down with him to talk about his time in space and the future of the program.
Retired Astronaut Jerry Linenger says, "I had some fantastic times in space, I landed on Atlantis after 5 months on a Russian Space Station so it's kind of a bittersweet moment."
Linenger says it’s bittersweet but also upsetting. He says it’s a shame to see the state of the art shuttle go to a museum and such a solid space program practically disappear.
He explains, "We have no capability to get an American into space. And when you look at the boldness of John Kennedy -- saying we’re going to the moon -- and then we completed that mission... now we've lost that boldness and leadership. The country is not giving NASA direction to go where they want to go."
Linenger says up until this morning, the United States was the greatest space fairing nation on earth but now we'll be forced to lean on other countries.
He says, "We’re going to go to the Russians and get on our knees essentially and ask will you please get us to the international space station? The other country that has capabilities of getting a person to space is China -- and India is hot on their heels. So were here just wallowing without direction from leadership from this country to say yea build that next generation space vehicle."
Linenger says right now there are 5 commercial companies that are going to try to build a space craft to get the international space station. But he says they're projecting about 5 years before it becomes a man space craft and that it will also resemble a 1960's craft -- that has no capability beyond barley getting into earth's orbit.
