NASA officials said during a conference online conference on Thursday (Aug. 27) that a golden age could come for human spaceflight research as more astronauts could arrive than those flown by the International Space Station (ISS) and private companies aboard commercial crew vehicles.
“We will keep more people on this International Space Station We did a lot longer than that, and [research and development] The throughput is really going to grow, ‘said Jim Brydenstein, NASA’s administrator, before launching a pre-scheduled commentary for the ISS Research and Development Conference.
Bridenstein was referring to the new era of human spaceflight that opened on May 30, when SpaceX launched its first crew mission, Demo-2 test flight. Demo-2 sent NASA astronauts Bob Behanken and Doug Hurley to the ISS for two months, ending on August 2 when SpaceX’s crew, the Dragon Capsule, entered orbit in the U.S. Ocean after 1975.
Related: SpaceX’s historic historic Demo-2 test flight in the photo
Demo-2 was made possible by more than a decade of worthwhile operations during many presidential administrations. The goal is to stimulate the development of private American spaceships to fill NASA’s shoes. Space shuttle fleetIs, who retired in 2011 after 30 years of service.
The space shuttle usually carries a crew of seven astronauts to and from the space station. Russian Soyuz spacecraft, the only orbital crew vehicle available for the last nine years Crew Dragon came online, can only take three people at a time.
Crew Dragon and Boeing delayed (but next) CST-100 Starliner Capsule Will take four astronauts on their operational ISS mission to NASA. (Both companies won millionaire contracts in 2014 from NASA’s commercial crew program.)
New ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbeno said in the second set of pre-scheduled comments broadcast at the conference that the increase in the size of the Soyuz crew would extend crew research time to 70 hours a week during the long mission. (Montalbano did not say how many hours an ISS crew of three to six people typically do).
“For commercial crew vehicles, we continue to work with teams,” Montalbano added, adding that the agency aims to “stabilize” between SpaceX and Boeing to send astronauts to do science and research between SpaceX and Boeing.
The first operational SpaceX crew mission is set up Flight in late October, And NASA is stepping up crew announcements for future flights – such as the one this week named after the astronaut Genet Apps Towards the first operational Boeing Starliner mission for the space station, which is expected to begin next year.
The crew will reach the impressive space station through a few years of training per astronaut. They will also benefit from the knowledge they have accumulated over the last 20 years, during which time the ISS has been constantly roaming the astronaut crew.
Kathy Luders, the newly appointed head of NASA’s Human Spaceflight, said she remembers the initial space station assembly flight.Flight 2A in 1998) While discussing how to address a broken treadmill piece in crew and ground control, the treadmill is crucial to keeping astronauts healthy through exercise. “Today will be a very short conversation,” Lloyd said in a lively commentary at the conference on Thursday. “The crew will fix it and move on.”
Related: Inside and outside the International Space Station (infographic)
Luders noted that even during NASA test missions the challenging space station is more comfortable with continuing work. During Demo-2, for example, ISS Crumbers Participated in ongoing set of battery replacement To upgrade the power at the station. “In the past, we would have avoided that,” he said.
The increasing autonomy of the crew and the increase in the size of the crew are two things that push the possibility of further ISS research. There are also private modules and crew on the horizon.
In January 2020, NASA selected Houston-based company Axiom Space Create a private ISS module, With a target date of 2024. In june, Axium chose Thales Alenia To create that new module, which will be designed to fly independently when the station program comes to an end.
Proposals for a space act for a private astronaut mission are ongoing, said Angela Hart, business manager of NASA’s low-Earth orbit, in a lively commentary at the conference. These private astronauts will be different from astronauts; A handful of people have paid millions of dollars each for a short stay on the ISS or the Soviet / Russian space station, Mir, Which was deorbited in 2001. The new private astronauts, however, will likely be hired by a company to conduct private research, which, like the position of a payload expert, would be open to outsiders initially in the space shuttle program.
Hart said NASA has received proposals from multiple companies, and two proposals are being reviewed, without disclosing details of what the evaluation metrics are and which companies are being considered for the opportunity. (That said, Axium and SpaceX jointly announced earlier this year that They aim to fly four private astronauts to the ISS For a 10-day mission as well as 2021.)
Hart added that the selected companies will have the opportunity to fly twice a year, for short-term missions of 10 to 30 days. A typical space station stay for NASA astronauts and international crews is six months.
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