Major General Charles Bolden Jr. spoke about his experience as an astronaut during the Tate Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 4, in McFarlin Auditorium.
General Bolden served 34 years with the United States Marine Corps, 14 of which were at NASA’s astronaut office. Bolden has orbited the earth four times, including his mission that deployed the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2009, he became the 12th administrator of NASA under the Obama administration.
Bolden told audience members about what it’s like to be an astronaut at NASA, his four trips to space, his involvement with the Hubble Space Telescope and where NASA is heading next: Mars.
The astronaut spoke about how going to space truly changes a person’s perspective about the planet. To emphasize his point, Bolden showed a picture of the Middle East taken from a spaceship he was on.
“I just fell in love with this,” Bolden said. “This is the most violent part of the world in which we live. Yet when you look at it from the vantage point of space, it is incredibly beautiful.”
Bolden also spoke about the Hubble Space Telescope and how it revolutionized the understanding of the universe.
“I was privileged to fly as the pilot,” Bolden said of the telescope.
It took Bolden and his crew almost three years to get to the point where the mission simulators were showing success for the Hubble Telescope. A few software issues had to be fixed before the telescope could be taken into space.
NASA used the Hubble Telescope to look at an area of the universe that was thought to be black to try and identify any visible stars or planets in that area. Upon looking at the image the Hubble Telescope produced, NASA discovered not a few hundred, but a few billion stars, planets, and galaxies.
The James Webb Space Telescope followed the Hubble Telescope, giving a clearer image of the billions of stars, planets, and galaxies in the universe. Bolden showed audience members pictures taken by both telescopes to show a side-by-side comparison.
Those stars and planets wouldn’t have been discovered without General Bolden and his team installing the telescopes in their spaceship.
As Bolden wrapped up his speech, he ended on a positive note, expressing his confidence in NASA that they will continue to revolutionize space. He also said he is not done with space just yet.
“I’m still waiting on my chance to go back,” Bolden said.
