Retired Astronaut: Space Program Should Be Domestic, Not International

Retired astronaut Walter Cunningham mourned the loss of former colleague John Young during an interview with Newsmax TV.

Cunningham spoke with host Bill Tucker on "Newsmax Now" and said Young, who died at age 87 last Friday following complications from pneumonia, was a fine astronaut.

"John Young was outstanding, he was on the backup crew for our mission, Apollo 7, and was just a very capable kind of fellow," Cunningham said. "He was pretty much dead serious all the time, and yet you got along really well with him. It's a sad thing to have a guy that's had the career that he's had to finally be gone. I really miss him."

Cunningham also spoke about where the space program could head in the future.

"I haven't seen a real focus and also addressing the problem of what it's going to cost to get to the next frontier, if you will," he said. "Personally, I would like to see [the U.S.] have a domestic program that we are leading up.

"Even if you look at today, it's mostly Russians and Americans that are on board the International Space Station, but there are a number of other countries that have somebody up there from time to time. It costs a lot of money, we're totally dependent on the Russians to do it. It costs $80 million a launch."

Trump signed a directive last month that called on NASA to develop a program that will send humans into space to explore the final frontier.

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