NASA Chief

NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine gave an interview to space.com after the cancelling of yesterday's intended mission. After worldwide attention and excitement for it, the flight was cancelled because there was too much electricity in the atmosphere. Everyone is disappointed.

But Bridenstine hits the right tone. He says it was a great day for NASA and a great day for SpaceX - and they made the right decision to delay. The parameters for go/no/go were set ahead of time and the two teams (SpaceX and NASA) worked impressively together.

As you know, this mission is historic because it's the first time in nine years that America is putting its own astronauts into space. But it's also the very first time that NASA is purchasing their ride from a private-sector U.S. company. Instead of building their own space vehicles, NASA is a customer (in this case) of SpaceX.

Chief Bridenstine is enthusiastic about private companies going into space for several reasons. One reason is that it may be possible to create eye retinas in the microgravity of space.

(cont'd tomorrow)