Australian-born astronaut's ashes to be taken to space onboard a memorial flight in November
Nearly 50 years later on his mission into space was aborted — and a year later his death — Australian-born astronaut Phillip K Chapman is to finally fulfil his life'due south ambition.
Some of his ashes, sealed in a niggling capsule, will be taken on a memorial flight into orbit where they will briefly feel space'south weightlessness earlier returning safely to earth.
The flight is scheduled for November thirty this yr.
Mr Chapman volition and so be flown again on a permanent deep space mission.
His wife, Marie Tseng, says she is pleased he is finally getting to alive out his boyhood dream of getting off "this little stone" and exploring the vastness of space.
"He was an adventurer and was committed to supporting commercial infinite businesses and so the Celestis flights resonated well with his life goals and personality," Ms Tseng told AAP.
"The blithesome and exciting Celestis flights are wonderful means for u.s.a., the survivors, to commemorate Phil."
Built-in in Melbourne in 1935, Mr Chapman spoke of his intergalactic dreams from the age of 12 and dedicated his life to advancing space exploration and civilization.
He trained every bit a airplane pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force earlier joining the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions for a winter on the frozen continent to feel living in isolated and difficult terrain.
Eager to get to the United states, which had the only infinite program in the 1960s, he joined MIT'due south Experimental Astronomy Lab and in 1967 became NASA'southward outset foreign-born scientist-astronaut.
He was mission scientist for Apollo 14 — i of the six that landed humans on the moon — and claimed to be the human being backside the televised "feather and hammer" experiment, where moon walkers tested the 3-centuries-sometime Galileo Galilei theory that all objects autumn with equal speed in a vacuum. They did.
Mr Chapman himself was slated to rocket into space in 1975 as role of the SkyLab B mission simply in 1972 it was aborted, with then-president Richard Nixon deciding not to put more money into such projects.
"The Skylab in which I had hoped to alive is at present a tourist attraction … I sometimes visit it when I am in Washington simply information technology is very sad to come across information technology wasted," he would tell author Colin Burgess for his 2019 book Shattered Dreams: The Lost and Canceled Space Missions.
Mr Chapman resigned from NASA afterward that year but never gave upwardly on his passion.
An early on space settlement pioneer, he continued to work in the field, developing the individual sector commercial space industry — meaning especially as it is that industry at present enabling his life'due south appetite to be realised with this posthumous space flight.
"His legacy every bit a scientist, astronaut and business leader is reflected in his family's pick to honour him with a concluding journey amid the stars."
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AAP
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-17/australian-born-astronaut-ashes-to-be-taken-to-space/101245422
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