Alan Poindexter, the commander of Discovery's most recent flight, has left the astronaut corps, NASA announced today. A 49-year-old U.S. Navy captain known as "Dex," Poindexter is returning to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., where he earned an astronautical engineering degree in 1995 and will serve as dean of students and executive director of programs.
"Dex was a well-respected leader within our office," Peggy Whitson, chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a statement. "We will miss him being part of our team and wish him the best in his new role as he continues his service to the Navy and the country."
Selected as an astronaut in 1998, Poindexter began serving in the Astronaut Office Shuttle Operations Branch as the lead support astronaut at Kennedy Space Center. During visits to KSC in recent years he was known to pursue his passion of photography, including shooting pictures of shuttles being processed for flight.
Poindexter flew on two shuttle missions that aided construction and outfitting of the International Space Station. He led Discovery's STS-131 mission in April and piloted Atlantis' STS-122 mission in February 2008, spending more than 669 hours in space.
He is the fifth astronaut to depart NASA in 2010, leaving NASA with 68 active astronauts. Leaving before Poindexter this year were Dom Gorie, Danny Olivas, Linda Godwin and Scott Altman.
IMAGE: NASA astronaut Alan Poindexter, STS-131 commander, posed for a photo in the Cupola of the International Space Station while space shuttle Discovery remains docked with the station on April 17, 2010.
12 comments:
What's the point of being an astronaut these days, unless you want to hitch a ride on a foreigh space craft? You're going to see a lot of astronauts leave NASA soon. What's the point?
There is no point to being an astronaut these days. Sadly, it looks like the US 'space gap' will exceed the 6-year period from 1975 to 1981, since the US manned program is in total disarray.
Wonder what the astronauts that do not leave the program will do all day at "the office"? If they're going to train for a flight on a Russian rocket, won't they be doing that in Russia?
For some reason, the idea of private/commercial astronauts seems cooler anyway.
I really don't think NASA is going to be responsible in any way for Americans going into space soon. It's inevitable these private ventures are going to work, and Americans will go up that way. Then what happens with the whole Expedition sequence. Will that only count when people go up in a Soyuz, or will commerically-launched astronauts also be part of the Expedition cycle.
I don't think people realize how messed up and changed things are going to be once the shuttle is terminated and we have no manned space program. Ironic that the American manned space program will die just a few months after the 50th anniversary of Alan Shepard's flight.
Yet when Florida Today announced in 2004 that Bush had terminates the Shuttle program, no one complained. Until now, when Haridopolos, who apparently doesn't read the papers, blames it on Nelson. Where did he get that idea? Wait a minute- he's planning to run against Nelson for Senate. It would be inconvenient for Haridopolos to remind the voters that Bush is responsible for eliminating their jobs. So blaming his future opponent, a claim he pulls out of the air. Like forgetting his $50K income. Or getting paid by UF for doing nothing.
For the record, Nelson was the only member of the Senate to specifically question Augustine on whether the Shuttle could continue to fly. Augustine actually agreed and said it could, but the proposal was scuttled by the Constellation bureaucracy. I saw the hearings myself. But don't expect facts to bother Haridopolos.
Those 68 active astronauts will probably be leaving soon too unless they want to stand in long unemployment lines. Better to leave now for greener pastures, than wait until they get told to leave.
Leaving for a REAL Job is always better than sitting idle in a dead end job to nowhere. Wishing him success in his new job. Way to go NASA for falling into the political red tape giving the dreams of space exploration to other countries.
Just wanted to wish Dex good luck! Great guy to work with. We will all miss you! Best of luck!
It's not like any astronaut will have a hard time finding a new, much higher paying, job.
NASA's administrators wasted precious time to save the space program. Private/commercial companies didn't hesitate to move forward and see a vision for advancing space flight. Too bad NASA- you had your chance & plenty of funding and blew it big time. Hope the last shuttles don't end with long delays as we're seeing milking every dime with your sloppy work.
Good luck Alan Poindexter on your new job. NASA doesn't doesn't deserve good guys like you. Guessing the other remaining astronauts will have a brighter future than the laid off shuttle workers who can't seem to get the shuttle up without all the delays. They can sit in the long unemployment lines whining about their old NASA careers. Uhhh, heard some the other day. Ha, ha, its high time shuttle crews came back to Earth after all the years getting paid to sit around & looking down on the rest of society.
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