HOUSTON – Before our astronauts fly in space, they train at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Their boss, new JSC Space Center director Mark Geyer is in charge of about 10,000 NASA and contractor employees.
"It's a real honor and a little bit daunting,” Geyer said.
He walked around the training floor where all of the U.S. astronauts, as well as the international astronauts who fly aboard the International Space Station, train before a flight. Geyer looks forward to what is next for NASA as commercial companies will soon fly our astronauts to the space station.
"When we start flying from Florida again, it's gonna get a lot of people waking up and saying 'Wow, we're back in the space business doing a lot of great work,'" he said.
Geyer spent 11 years working on the space station.
The Trump administration’s proposed 2019 budget calls for the end of funding for the orbiting lab in 2025.
Geyer said that, in the future, NASA could become one of many customers on the station.
"As soon as someone finds a way to make money in low earth orbit, then this whole commercial thing is going to explode. And it's going to be a bunch of people flying to space to do that," he said.
As NASA now looks at sending astronauts back to the moon and beyond, Geyer has a reminder from the home of Mission Control and the astronauts.
"The U.S. through NASA, is still leading the world in space exploration," he said.