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SpaceX / AP
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken, left, and Doug Hurley are slated for a launch on May 27 aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station.
NASA and SpaceX on Friday urged viewers to stay home for the first astronaut launch in the United States in nearly a decade due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Senior officials warned the public against traveling to Florida for the May 27 launch of two NASA astronauts aboard a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station.
It will be the first launch of astronauts from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in nine years, since the last space shuttle flight in 2011. It will also be the first attempt by a private company to bring astronauts into orbit.
For the launch of the space shuttle, hundreds of thousands of spectators would descend on the Kennedy Space Center and nearby beaches, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said.
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“The challenge we are facing right now is that we want to keep everyone safe,” he said.
“And so we ask people not to travel to the Kennedy Space Center, and I will tell them that I am sad to say. Boy, I wish we could make this really spectacular.”
NASA / AP
NASA and SpaceX have limited the number of employees approaching astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken.
Bridenstine urged the public to watch the launch online or on television from their home.
“We don’t want an outbreak” of Covid-19, he told reporters during a remote news conference.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell agreed that it is a shame that more people cannot enjoy the launch from Florida. But she encouraged people to “be there for the journey with us.”
“We will be together in spirit more than in physical space,” he said.
Local officials are still considering whether to allow people on beaches, parks and highways on launch day.
NASA and SpaceX are already limiting the number of employees near astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken. Anyone approaching should wear masks and gloves, and their temperature is checked. Astronauts also stay away from all training events except the most important ones.
Hurley said the two are disappointed that their families and friends will have to miss the launch in person, but “obviously, it’s the right thing to do in today’s environment.” Both astronauts said they had already been in quarantine for weeks along with their wives and young children, so those few family members can join them at Kennedy for the launch.
The couple will go into full quarantine two weeks before liftoff, first at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and then at Kennedy.
In both NASA’s flight control room and SpaceX, personnel will be separated by at least 2 meters on launch day and throughout the mission, and plenty of hand sanitizer, masks and gloves will be available.
NASA turned to private companies in the wake of the space shuttle program to carry cargo to the space station. The following are the deliveries of the crew. Russian Soyuz capsules, meanwhile, have been the only means of transporting the crew to the laboratory in orbit.
Boeing is also working to launch astronauts under NASA’s commercial crew program; Their first crew flight is still months, if not a year, away.
