STS-114 pilot Jim Kelly has stated he\u2019d be happy to give up a possible role as a commander on one of the remaining Shuttle missions, if it resulted in gaining a seat on a debut flight of the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle). <\/p>\n
Twice Kelly has launched on the Shuttle in the right-hand pilot seat \u2013 bringing him into line for the role as commander. However, the 41-year old is already starting to focus on next evolution of NASA\u2019s manned space flight program. \u2018I love the shuttle. It\u2019s a fantastic vehicle. I\u2019d love to be a commander. But on the other hand I\u2019d love to fly the new vehicle as well.\u2019 <\/font> <\/p>\n Kelly became a household name, along with the likes of his commander, Eileen Collins and spacewalk hero Steve Robinson, due to the huge media interest surrounding the launch of Discovery in July of last year. <\/font><\/p>\n The first Shuttle mission since the loss of Columbia drew half a million spectators to the surrounding area for a glimpse of the launch, along with well over 2,500 members of the TV and news media.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u2018We talked about it before the mission, there\u2019s so much media attention and all that,\u2019 he added, noting that his first realisation of the massive attention the mission had gained was from hearing of the public wish to see Discovery land safely. \u2018I don\u2019t think it really hit me that we were at the center of that much emotion until we got on the ground.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u2018You know how airports are, everybody\u2019s frustrated, they\u2019re waiting. It\u2019s like herding cattle,\u2019 he said. \u2018(My mother in law) said everything stopped and the whole airport was a hushed silence while everybody watched the TV as we were coming in to land. People were crying. <\/font><\/p>\n \u2018It really hit home that story about how much it meant to the country that we were able to go up and come back safely.\u2019<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n While Kelly holds aspirations of being one of the first to fly on the CEV, he hasn\u2019t given up on the idea of one final Shuttle mission. A successful STS-121, currently estimated to be launching in May, will go some way towards a return to regular missions for the STS program. A maximum of 19 flights remain on the Shuttle manifest.<\/font><\/p>\n \u2018If everything goes off without a hitch, and we start flying shuttles more regularly again, then I\u2019d say there\u2019s a relatively good chance I\u2019d fly the shuttle one more time before it\u2019s over (in 2010),\u2019 Kelly noted, adding it is, however, his dream to be involved with the early flights of the CEV, set to debut between 2012 and 2014.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m very excited about the crew exploration vehicle, the moon and going on to Mars.<\/font> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018That\u2019s what I grew up dreaming about, doing those things.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" STS-114 pilot Jim Kelly has stated he\u2019d be happy to give up a possible role as a commander on one of the remaining Shuttle missions, if it resulted in gaining a seat on a debut flight of the CEV (Crew Exploration Vehicle). Twice Kelly has launched on the Shuttle in the right-hand pilot seat \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42191"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2018I would take the flight on the new vehicle, and that\u2019s because it probably falls in line with being a test pilot,\u2019 Kelly said to his local paper, The Burlington Hawk Eye. <\/p>\n