Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff.
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogue bomb here for the first time since NASA
Speaker 1: astronauts will once again return to space from US soil.
Speaker 1: Veteran astronauts Robert Bankin and Douglas Hurley will rendezvous with
Speaker 1: the International Space Station after they lift off on May
Speaker 1: from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. To
Speaker 1: get there, they'll ride a crew Dragon spacecraft propelled into
Speaker 1: orbit by a Falcon nine rocket, both designed and manufactured
Speaker 1: by SpaceX, the organization founded into thou two by entrepreneur
Speaker 1: Elon Musk. If all goes well, this mission will make
Speaker 1: SpaceX the first private company to put astronauts into space.
Speaker 1: News of the flight was broken in April by NASA
Speaker 1: Administrator Jim Bridenstein. During a series of virtual press conferences
Speaker 1: held on Friday May one, Bridenstein and other key figures
Speaker 1: representing both NASA and SpaceX spoke about the Crew Dragons
Speaker 1: unprecedented task. Brinstein told the media, this is a high
Speaker 1: priority mission for the United States of America. We as
Speaker 1: a nation have not had our own access to the
Speaker 1: International Space Station for nine years. At the same time,
Speaker 1: we've had American astronauts on the International Space Station for
Speaker 1: twenty years in a row. The International Space Station, stretching
Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty seven feet long about a hundred
Speaker 1: and nine meters, is the largest man made object in
Speaker 1: Earth's orbit. Cruise stationed at the vessel perform a wide
Speaker 1: range of experiments in low gravity. The I S S
Speaker 1: owes a great deal to NASA's defunct Space Shuttle program.
Speaker 1: Green lit by then President Richard M. Nixon in nineteen
Speaker 1: seventy two, this initiative gave the world its first reusable spacecraft.
Speaker 1: From one to two thousand eleven, NASA sent astronauts into
Speaker 1: orbit on American made shuttles. These were often used to
Speaker 1: transport portions of the I S S during its construction.
Speaker 1: On July, the Space Shuttle era came to an end
Speaker 1: as the Atlantis orbiter returned from its final mission, but
Speaker 1: the program dis continued. I S bound astronauts grew dependent
Speaker 1: on Russian Soyuz rockets. Then the law of supply and
Speaker 1: demand took over. For nearly a decade, no other rockets
Speaker 1: were capable of sending people to the I S S.
Speaker 1: All astronauts bound for that station had to be launched
Speaker 1: out of Kazakhstan's bike Nor Cosmodrome, which is a spaceport
Speaker 1: at least to the Russian government, and by April the
Speaker 1: Russians were charging eighty six million dollars to include foreign
Speaker 1: astronauts in their Soyuz missions. Another Soyuz rocket launch is
Speaker 1: scheduled for October, and Brandenstein says NASA is currently in
Speaker 1: negotiations to book a seat, and nevertheless, it's hoped that
Speaker 1: the SpaceX Crew Dragon will end this space flight monopoly.
Speaker 1: Brandenstein explained, we want the Russian American relationship in space
Speaker 1: exploration to remain strong. We see a day when Russian
Speaker 1: cosmonauts can launch on American rockets, an American astronauts can
Speaker 1: launch on Russian rockets. By now, space X at the
Speaker 1: International Space Station have a fair bit of history using
Speaker 1: unmanned crafts. The company has delivered supplies to the orbiting
Speaker 1: laboratory since the Crew Dragon aced address rehearsal in March
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, when it left Merritt Island on the
Speaker 1: nose of a SpaceX Falcon nine rocket and autonomously docked
Speaker 1: with the International Space Station. Five days after its departure.
Speaker 1: The Crew Dragon returned to Earth, splashing down in the
Speaker 1: Atlantic Ocean some one hundred and forty three miles or
Speaker 1: two kilometers off Florida's eastern coastline. But that trip's only
Speaker 1: passengers were an earth shaped plush toy and a dummy
Speaker 1: named Ripley, named after Sigourney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley from
Speaker 1: the Alien movie franchise. The flight later this month will
Speaker 1: be the first time that live astronauts will be on
Speaker 1: board SpaceX crew. Mission director Benjamin Reid said at the
Speaker 1: May first conference, Dragon will be fully autonomous. The x
Speaker 1: afectation is that it can carry the crew safely to
Speaker 1: the station and bring them home without direct intervention. Even so,
Speaker 1: Hurley and Bancon are set to take control for a
Speaker 1: short period before the crew Dragon docks. They'll be able
Speaker 1: to guide the vessel using touch screens or physical switches.
Speaker 1: Both options are available for certain portions of the journey.
Speaker 1: While aboard, the crews expected to test out such components
Speaker 1: as the maneuvering thrusters and environmental control system. And then
Speaker 1: there's the space suits, one piece outfits designed by SpaceX
Speaker 1: to supply the astronauts with oxygen, provide the appropriate temperature,
Speaker 1: and maintain pressure. The space suits plug into the crew
Speaker 1: dragon's chairs when their wearers sit down. Reid said. The
Speaker 1: suits also have an integrated communication system so that the
Speaker 1: crew can communicate through their helmets. Neither bank It nor
Speaker 1: Hurley are strangers to low Earth orbit. Bankons logged more
Speaker 1: than seven hundred and eight hours in space, and Hurley
Speaker 1: was a member of NASA's last Shuttle air crew back
Speaker 1: in But every mission presents its own unique challenges. Like
Speaker 1: the rest of the world, NASA, space X and these
Speaker 1: two astronauts have had to make adjustments during the coronavirus outbreak,
Speaker 1: taking extra precautions. So what does that mean? Both SpaceX
Speaker 1: and NASA have implemented social distancing protocols like keeping work
Speaker 1: desks six ft or two meters apart at their respective
Speaker 1: control rooms. Meanwhile, the crews getting a wide berth contact
Speaker 1: with them by any other team members has been minimized
Speaker 1: and many training sessions have been done virtually and for
Speaker 1: the safety of the ISS crew, the astronauts will observe
Speaker 1: a pre flight quarantine from May sixteenth until the launch
Speaker 1: on Right now, there are three space farers, two Americans
Speaker 1: and a Russian living and working aboard the International Space station.
Speaker 1: The length of Bankin's and Harley's stay at the facility
Speaker 1: will be determined at a later date. It could last
Speaker 1: anywhere from five to thirty days. When the time to
Speaker 1: head home arrives, the crew Dragon should undock autonomous Lee
Speaker 1: and deliver its human charges to Florida by way of
Speaker 1: the Atlantic. There's a long, proud tradition of civilians gathering
Speaker 1: near the Kennedy Space Center to witness rocket launches. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: NASA is discouraging people from following suit this time lest
Speaker 1: they spread or contract COVID nineteen. But you can tune
Speaker 1: in and watch the launch online. For just the fifth
Speaker 1: time in history, NASA astronauts will be test flying a
Speaker 1: new type of spacecraft. Should bank in and hurly complete
Speaker 1: their mission objectives, we may yet see a golden age
Speaker 1: of space tourism and innovation, with private industry taking on
Speaker 1: development roles long adopted by governments. Brandenstein said, this really
Speaker 1: is the next major step in commercializing low Earth orbit
Speaker 1: and having a really vital low Earth orbit economy in
Speaker 1: which NASA is one of many customers. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by bark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more on the and lots of other topics. Visit how
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