{"id":12580,"date":"2020-03-20T20:16:02","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T12:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/astronauts-family-wont-attend-launch-next-month-due-to-coronavirus-threat\/"},"modified":"2020-03-20T20:16:02","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T12:16:02","slug":"astronauts-family-wont-attend-launch-next-month-due-to-coronavirus-threat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/astronauts-family-wont-attend-launch-next-month-due-to-coronavirus-threat\/","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut\u2019s family won\u2019t attend launch next month due to coronavirus threat"},"content":{"rendered":"
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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left), Russian Soyuz commander Anatoly Ivanishin (center), and flight engineer Ivan Vagner (right) during training March 11 in Star City, Russia. Credit: Andrey Shelepin\/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy\u2019s family will be watching remotely from halfway around the world when he blasts off April 9 from Kazakhstan to begin a six-month expedition on the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because travel restrictions and stringent social distancing guidelines instituted to slow the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic will limit the ability for family members to travel to the Baikonur Cosmodrome for the launch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe specifics have been changing rapidly, but when the borders closed \u2014 the Russian borders \u2014 to non-Russian passport holders, that put a challenge for us because now the launch guests who go into and out of Moscow to get the Baikonur couldn\u2019t get back through Moscow,\u201d Cassidy said Thursday. \u201cSo that closed the gates for us and that was the final straw that we pulled the plug on launch support for for my guests.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs us crew members on a Soyuz rocket, we get 15 guests to come (to the launch), including our spouse and children and that sort of thing. And so none of those folks will come,\u201d Cassidy said.<\/p>\n

Launch day at Baikonur is usually a festive affair, with long-held traditions for space crews dating back to the launch of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in orbit, in April 1961.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s super cool normally is you come walking out of the hotel where we stay for the whole two weeks that we\u2019re down there (at Baikonur), and there\u2019s music playing and there\u2019s crowds of people lining the walkway as we proceed from the hotel to the buses,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very, very motivating. It\u2019s super exciting.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019ll be completely quiet,\u201d Cassidy said in a satellite interview from Star City, Russia. \u201cThere won\u2019t be anybody there. We\u2019ll just kind of walk out. Maybe we\u2019ll still play music and fire the three of us up ourselves, but who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Cassidy said his family may view the launch from mission control in at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, the home base for NASA\u2019s astronaut corps.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an ability to have some guests in the Mission Control Center in Houston, but even that\u2019s a little bit in question in terms of having 100 people in one conference room,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it\u2019ll probably be most people just watching on the Internet from wherever their homes are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anatoly Ivanishin, a veteran Russian cosmonaut, will command the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft. First-time Russian space flier Ivan Vagner will serve as the primary flight engineer in the left seat, with Cassidy in the right seat.<\/p>\n

Cassidy and his crewmates are scheduled for liftoff on a Soyuz-2.1a booster at 4:05 a.m. EDT (0805 GMT; 1:05 p.m. Baikonur time) on April 9.<\/p>\n

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has also announced media representatives will be unable to attend the launch in person at Baikonur.<\/p>\n

Launch campaigns at the Russian-operated spaceport are continuing despite travel restrictions in Kazakhstan, where authorities have closed its borders to all travelers except Kazakh citizens, diplomats and people invited by the Kazakh government.<\/p>\n

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The Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft \u2014 the next crew ship to launch to the International Space Station \u2014 is pictured during pre-flight processing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Credit: Roscosmos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner will travel from Star City to the Baikonur Cosmodrome later this month for the final two weeks of training, spacesuit and spacecraft fit checks, and other flight preparations.<\/p>\n

The Soyuz crew is already in quarantine. That\u2019s part of standard protocol before a spaceflight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually didn\u2019t enter quarantine early,\u201d Cassidy told Spaceflight Now in an interview Thursday. \u201cJust because by weird, weird timing, our period of time where we entered quarantine as planned sort of lined up with when all of the severe restrictions started falling in place for world citizens. So we were probably a little cautious in the days immediately prior to official quarantine starting, but we didn\u2019t start any earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soyuz crews typically visit Red Square in Moscow and lay flowers to honor Russian space icons interred in the Kremlin Wall. That tradition was cancelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been out in town, but I hear the streets in Moscow are quiet and empty, similar to what you see on the news around the rest of the world,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cHere in Star City, it\u2019s kind of like this little oasis in the woods. Life is fairly, I don\u2019t want to say normal, but people are going around, you can go to the local local grocery store, get your hair cut, the training is still happening for the cosmonauts. But that\u2019s in our little enclave of Star City. Outside the gates. I think it\u2019s much more restrictive in the larger metropolitan area.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy said he hasn\u2019t been around anyone in recent weeks other than his wife in Star City, his crewmates and other workers who receive regular health screening.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019d be really really strange if if I did contract something,\u201d he said. \u201cOf course, anything can happen between now and April 9, but we\u2019re being really super vigilant so that I can remain healthy to get to the station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL, said he\u2019s excited for his third trip to the space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited, bring it on, let\u2019s get on with the work \u2026 But my stress level, to be quite honest with you, is a little high for all the people that I care about, like my wife and I have been trying to figure out what\u2019s her plan to go home,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a plan and things change out of your control, that\u2019s when it can be a little stressful,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re only human, and we\u2019ll work through and it\u2019ll be fine. But those are the things that are on my mind these days, is what\u2019s what are the travel plans for my friends and family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have one child that\u2019s in New Zealand, and he\u2019s trying to get home and his plans are all screwed up, too,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cSo it\u2019s just the stress. The things that are stressing the rest of the world and the rest of America are the same things that are stressing me right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Soyuz MS-16 crew, from left to right: Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. Credit: Andrey Shelepin\/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to the extra stress from the coronavirus pandemic, Cassidy\u2019s original crewmates were replaced with back-up crew members last month. Cosmonaut Nikolai Tikhonov, the original Soyuz commander, suffered an eye injury and Russian officials opted to swap both Russian crew members with the back-up crew.<\/p>\n

Cassidy says he knows Ivanishin and Vagner well. Ivanishin is trained to perform a spacewalk in a U.S. spacesuit if required, and Vagner is familiar with operating the space station\u2019s Canadian-built robotic arm.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we\u2019re getting to know each other more and more as the training intensity ratchets up,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cWhen I arrived (in Star City on March 1), we had never been in the simulator together. So we\u2019ve been training intensely for the last two weeks, but we\u2019re ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner will join a three-person crew already aboard the space station for a week-long crew handover beginning April 9.<\/p>\n

Russian commander Oleg Skripochka, joined by NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Drew Morgan, will return to Earth on April 17. Cassidy will take the helm as commander of the space station\u2019s Expedition 63 crew, and his crew will remain on the space station until October.<\/p>\n

During that time, Cassidy, Ivanishin and Vagner will have the space station to themselves, at least until the arrival of SpaceX\u2019s Crew Dragon spaceship with NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.<\/p>\n

Hurley and Behnken are assigned to the first piloted test flight of SpaceX\u2019s commercial crew ferry ship. The two-man team is training for an extended mission that could last months, but NASA has not confirmed the scheduled length of Hurley and Behnken\u2019s stay on the space station.<\/p>\n

The Crew Dragon launch is currently scheduled for mid-to-late May, according to NASA.<\/p>\n

Until Hurley and Behnken arrive, Cassidy will be the only NASA astronaut aboard the research complex, responsible for leading all the scientific experiments and repairs needed on the U.S. segment of the space station. Russia has slowed production and launches of Soyuz crew ferry ships as NASA transitions to launching astronauts on U.S. vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had the really good fortune (recently) where we\u2019ve had a really robust crew, staffed well, and lots of science available \u2014 active and external \u2014 so we could just crank out some science over the recent years and months,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be different. There\u2019s a certain level of number of hours per week that you have to pay to the space station to keep it healthy and running, and keep the systems problem-free, and then if there are problems, to fix them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The space station typically has six people on-board at one time. Once new crew ships from SpaceX and Boeing are regularly flying, the station could host long-duration crews of up to seven people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat amount of overhead doesn\u2019t care if there\u2019s one Chris Cassidy or six crew members up there, so we\u2019ll have to deal with that, and the balance of which we\u2019ll get some science done,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m going to do my best to have busy, busy days and try to work fast, but also not make mistakes. That\u2019s the worst thing I could do, is hustle myself into screw-ups. So I\u2019ll just proceed with caution and work as quickly as I can, but also know that science is the name of the game, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cassidy said he\u2019ll be happy to welcome Hurley and Behnken on the space station later this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re my good friends, and I\u2019ll be there with open arms and excited to greet them, both on a personal level and a professional level, too, where we can really go ahead and get after the science with a few more people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left), Russian Soyuz commander Anatoly Ivanishin (center), and flight engineer Ivan Vagner (right) during training March 11 in Star City, Russia. Credit: Andrey Shelepin\/Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy\u2019s family will be watching remotely from halfway around the world when he blasts off April 9 from Kazakhstan to begin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1601,2010,2034,1545,717,1771,25,190],"class_list":["post-12580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-coronavirus","tag-expedition-63","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-kazakhstan","tag-launch","tag-nasa"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}