[ad_1]
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS AND USED WITH PERMISSION
On a mission marking the end of an era, NASA astronaut and former virus hunter Kate Rubins, using NASA’s last currently contracted seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, launched into orbit Wednesday with two companions. cosmonaut crew on a record flight to the International Space Station. .
To celebrate its 42nd birthday, the Rubins launch occurred just two weeks before the 20th anniversary of the station’s first team arrival on November 2, 2000. Since then, the lab complex has been continuously serviced by rotating equipment, or expeditions, of American, Russian, Japanese, European and Canadian flyers along with a handful of space tourists.
“It’s just amazing that we’ve had a space station with a continuous human presence for 20 years,” Rubins said. “It is one of the most incredible engineering achievements, I think, that humanity has achieved. And the fact that we’ve done it as an international association and a collaboration, I think that’s absolutely the intangible benefit of all this. “
And on a more personal note, “this will be a birthday that I can never get over,” he said before the launch. “It is fun. It’s amazing to jump into space on your birthday. “
Rubins, Soyuz MS-17 / 63S commander Sergey Ryzhikov, a station veteran, and rookie co-pilot Sergey Kud-Sverchkov took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:45 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (10:45 a.m. local).
For the first time in the Soyuz program, the crew conducted a rapid rendezvous in two orbits, docking at the station’s Earth-facing Rassvet module at 4:48 a.m., just three hours and three minutes after launch, a new record for the fastest trip. to the space station.
“Talk about taking the express train! Welcome to @Space_Station, ”tweeted NASA Flight Director Ed Van Cise.
The hatches between the two spacecraft were opened at 7:07 am. To receive Ryzhikov and the company on board were Expedition 63 commander Chris Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner. They were launched to the space station aboard the Soyuz MS-16 / 62S spacecraft on April 9.
“Happy birthday, Kate. You had a big sail, ”Cassidy said as Rubins floated into the station. Congratulated again by the Russian flight controllers a few minutes later, she said “it’s the best birthday I’ve ever had.”
NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov and flight engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov have joined the crew of the International Space Station after docking a few hours ago. https://t.co/U1GRGC3gSg pic.twitter.com/sPEI1J3Swy
– Space flight now (@SpaceflightNow) October 14, 2020
Since the last space shuttle flight in 2011, NASA has relied solely on Russia’s reliable three-seat Soyuz and the willingness of the Russian space agency to sell seats, albeit at higher prices, to the US space agency and its international partners. .
Now, six years and roughly $ 5 billion after NASA began funding commercial development of the astronaut shuttles SpaceX and Boeing, NASA’s reliance on Russia for basic space transportation is coming to an end.
NASA paid Roscosmos $ 90.3 million for Rubins’ ticket to travel, but it is the latest payment of its kind that the agency hopes to make as it transitions to regularly scheduled launches using SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule and, starting next year, Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner.
The next planned launch of American astronauts to the space station after Rubins will be aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon making the program’s first operational flight. The six-month “Crew-1” mission is scheduled to launch in early to mid-November.
NASA still plans to launch astronauts aboard the Soyuz spacecraft during the life of the station’s program as protection against emergencies such as a serious illness, for example, that could result in the early departure of an American or Russian crew ship.
The mixed crews would ensure at least one astronaut or cosmonaut aboard the station at all times to operate their nation’s systems.
But those mixed flights, including the eventual launch of Russian cosmonauts aboard the new American spacecraft, will be covered by barter deals, not direct cash payments. NASA will continue to pay for seats aboard the American spacecraft, the cost is not yet known, but that money will be spent in the United States.
To put that in perspective, NASA has purchased 71 Soyuz seats for roughly $ 4 billion since 2006, a total that includes 5 seats purchased through Boeing for $ 373.5 million as part of a deal between the company and a Russian counterpart. The total also includes $ 1 billion for 13 seats that were required due to delays in the launch of the Commercial Crew Program.
Overall, NASA paid an average cost per seat of $ 56.3 million for the 71 missions completed and planned since 2006 via Kate Rubins’ Soyuz MS-17 flight with prices ranging from a low of about $ 21.3 million to the $ 90.3 million paid for Wednesday’s flight.
Grateful for Russia’s long-term support, NASA is eager to turn the page.
The successful test flight of a Crew Dragon carrying two astronauts to the space station earlier this summer marked “another milestone, a critical milestone in the development of our ability to launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil, now of sustainably, “said the NASA administrator. Jim Bridenstine. “These are very exciting times.”
Crew-1 astronauts will increase the station’s staffing from three to seven, and the US segment’s crew from one to five.
“When we increase the number of astronauts on board, we will be able to do three times more science and three times more technological development,” Bridenstine said. “And all of that is vitally important to our Artemis (moon) program and ultimately our Mars program.
“As we develop from the moon to Mars, we will use low Earth orbit to test all of these capabilities and technologies, ultimately to create a sustainable return to the moon and then bring all that knowledge to Mars. So this particular mission is another critical milestone. We are very excited about that. “
Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins plan to spend six months aboard the space station, greeting two SpaceX Crew Dragon crews before returning to Earth around May 1.
Kud-Sverchkov is the only rookie on the Soyuz team. Ryzhikov spent 173 days aboard the station in 2016-17 and Rubins, who has a Ph.D. in cancer biology from Stanford University, he spent 115 days aboard the lab in 2016 during a mission that coincided with Ryzhikov’s stay.
It completed two spacewalks, including one to finish installing a docking port that will be used to visit the SpaceX and Boeing spacecraft, logging 12 hours and 46 minutes away from the station.
While he will not be investigating COVID-19 during his second expedition to the station, Rubins will bring his experience to a wide variety of investigations and experiments.
“We are not investigating the coronavirus specifically at the station, that must be handled in high-level biosafety laboratories on Earth,” he said. “But we are looking at things like microbes in our environment, how we interact with those microbes, whether they are pathogenic or beneficial.
“And the space station is an incredible place to study that because it is isolated. ISS is a kind of permanent quarantine. We are very interested in what happens to humans and their microbiome environment when we live off-planet. And we have been for almost 20 years. I think it will be an incredibly interesting area of research. “
Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will have a week to catch up on station operations before Cassidy, Ivanishin, and Vagner undock and return to Earth aboard their Soyuz MS-62 / 16S spacecraft to close out a 196 day mission. Landing in the Kazakh steppe near the city of Dzhezkazgan is scheduled for October 21 (US time).
Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL, will have logged 378 days in space over three missions, while Ivanishin’s total will be 196 days over three flights. Vagner is completing his first flight.
The landing will set the stage for the launch of the Crew-1 mission from the historic platform 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in early November. On board will be mission commander Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi.
Hopkins, Walker and Noguchi, who flew in the space shuttle and a Soyuz, are veterans of space flight, while Glover makes his first flight into space. Like Rubins, they plan to spend about six months aboard the station, surrendering to another SpaceX Crew Dragon crew next April.
“I’m very excited to be able to greet Crew-1 as they come through the hatch,” said Rubins. “They will arrive pretty quickly after I arrive, and it will be amazing if our station team grows to a total of seven people.
“There is a certain amount of time each week that we have to spend just keeping the space station, keeping the equipment running, keeping our life support running,” he said. “When we have more crew members on board, we can do a lot more science.”
[ad_2]
