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Tag: astronauts

  • NASA’s stuck astronauts hit 6 months in space. Just 2 more to go

    NASA’s stuck astronauts hit 6 months in space. Just 2 more to go

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Known across the globe as the stuck astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams hit the six-month mark in space Thursday with two more to go.

    The pair rocketed into orbit on June 5, the first to ride Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on what was supposed to be a weeklong test flight. They arrived at the International Space Station the next day, only after overcoming a cascade of thruster failures and helium leaks. NASA deemed the capsule too risky for a return flight, so it will be February before their long and trying mission comes to a close.

    While NASA managers bristle at calling them stuck or stranded, the two retired Navy captains shrug off the description of their plight. They insist they’re fine and accepting of their fate. Wilmore views it as a detour of sorts: “We’re just on a different path.”

    “I like everything about being up here,” Williams told students Wednesday from an elementary school named for her in Needham, Massachusetts, her hometown. “Just living in space is super fun.”

    Both astronauts have lived up there before so they quickly became full-fledged members of the crew, helping with science experiments and chores like fixing a broken toilet, vacuuming the air vents and watering the plants. Williams took over as station commander in September.

    “Mindset does go a long way,” Wilmore said in response to a question from Nashville first-graders in October. He’s from Mount Juliet, Tennessee. “I don’t look at these situations in life as being downers.”

    Boeing flew its Starliner capsule home empty in September, and NASA moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight not due back until late February. Two other astronauts were bumped to make room and to keep to a six-month schedule for crew rotations.

    Like other station crews, Wilmore and Williams trained for spacewalks and any unexpected situations that might arise.

    “When the crews go up, they know they could be there for up to a year,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free.

    NASA astronaut Frank Rubio found that out the hard way when the Russian Space Agency had to rush up a replacement capsule for him and two cosmonauts in 2023, pushing their six-month mission to just past a year.

    Boeing said this week that input from Wilmore and Williams has been “invaluable” in the ongoing inquiry of what went wrong. The company said in a statement that it is preparing for Starliner’s next flight but declined comment on when it might launch again.

    NASA also has high praise for the pair.

    “Whether it was luck or whether it was selection, they were great folks to have for this mission,” NASA’s chief health and medical officer, Dr. JD Polk, said during an interview with The Associated Press.

    On top of everything else, Williams, 59, has had to deal with “rumors,” as she calls them, of serious weight loss. She insists her weight is the same as it was on launch day, which Polk confirms.

    During Wednesday’s student chat, Williams said she didn’t have much of an appetite when she first arrived in space. But now she’s “super hungry” and eating three meals a day plus snacks, while logging the required two hours of daily exercise.

    Williams, a distance runner, uses the space station treadmill to support races in her home state. She competed in Cape Cod’s 7-mile Falmouth Road Race in August. She ran the 2007 Boston Marathon up there as well.

    She has a New England Patriots shirt with her for game days, as well as a Red Sox spring training shirt.

    “Hopefully I’ll be home before that happens — but you never know,” she said in November. Husband Michael Williams, a retired federal marshal and former Navy aviator, is caring for their dogs back home in Houston.

    As for Wilmore, 61, he’s missing his younger daughter’s senior year in high school and his older daughter’s theater productions in college.

    “We can’t deny that being unexpectedly separated, especially during the holidays when the entire family gets together, brings increased yearnings to share the time and events together,” his wife, Deanna Wilmore, told the AP in a text this week. Her husband “has it worse than us” since he’s confined to the space station and can only connect via video for short periods.

    “We are certainly looking forward to February!!” she wrote.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year

    Stuck NASA astronauts welcome SpaceX capsule that’ll bring them home next year

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The two astronauts stuck at the International Space Station since June welcomed their new ride home with Sunday’s arrival of a SpaceX capsule.

    SpaceX launched the rescue mission on Saturday with a downsized crew of two astronauts and two empty seats reserved for Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who will return next year. The Dragon capsule docked in darkness as the two craft soared 265 miles (426 kilometers) above Botswana.

    NASA switched Wilmore and Williams to SpaceX following concerns over the safety of their Boeing Starliner capsule. It was the first Starliner test flight with a crew, and NASA decided the thruster failures and helium leaks that cropped up after liftoff were too serious and poorly understood to risk the test pilots’ return. So Starliner returned to Earth empty earlier this month.

    The Dragon carrying NASA’s Nick Hague and the Russian Space Agency’s Alexander Gorbunov will remain at the space station until February, turning what should have been a weeklong trip for Wilmore and Williams into a mission lasting more than eight months.

    Two NASA astronauts were pulled from the mission to make room for Wilmore and Williams on the return leg.

    NASA likes to replace its station crews every six months or so. SpaceX has provided the taxi service since the company’s first astronaut flight in 2020. NASA also hired Boeing for ferry flights after the space shuttles were retired, but flawed software and other Starliner issues led to years of delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

    Starliner inspections are underway at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, with post-flight reviews of data set to begin this week.

    “We’re a long way from saying, ‘Hey, we’re writing off Boeing,’” NASA’s associate administrator Jim Free said at a pre-launch briefing.

    The arrival of two fresh astronauts means the four who have been up there since March can now return to Earth in their own SpaceX capsule in just over a week. Their stay was extended a month because of the Starliner turmoil.

    Although Saturday’s liftoff went well, SpaceX said the rocket’s spent upper stage ended up outside its targeted impact zone in the Pacific because of a bad engine firing. The company has halted all Falcon launches until it figures out what went wrong.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • SpaceX launches rescue mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck in space until next year

    SpaceX launches rescue mission for 2 NASA astronauts who are stuck in space until next year

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX launched a rescue mission for the two stuck astronauts at the International Space Station on Saturday, sending up a downsized crew to bring them home but not until next year.

    The capsule rocketed into orbit to fetch the test pilots whose Boeing spacecraft returned to Earth empty earlier this month because of safety concerns. The switch in rides left it to NASA’s Nick Hague and Russia’s Alexander Gorbunov to retrieve Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.

    Since NASA rotates space station crews approximately every six months, this newly launched flight with two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams won’t return until late February. Officials said there wasn’t a way to bring them back earlier on SpaceX without interrupting other scheduled missions.

    By the time they return, the pair will have logged more than eight months in space. They expected to be gone just a week when they signed up for Boeing’s first astronaut flight that launched in June.

    NASA ultimately decided that Boeing’s Starliner was too risky after a cascade of thruster troubles and helium leaks marred its trip to the orbiting complex. The space agency cut two astronauts from this SpaceX launch to make room on the return leg for Wilmore and Williams.

    Williams has since been promoted to commander of the space station, which will soon be back to its normal population of seven. Once Hague and Gorbunov arrive this weekend, four astronauts living there since March can leave in their own SpaceX capsule. Their homecoming was delayed a month by Starliner’s turmoil.

    Hague noted before the flight that change is the one constant in human spaceflight.

    “There’s always something that is changing. Maybe this time it’s been a little more visible to the public,” he said.

    Hague was thrust into the commander’s job for the rescue mission based on his experience and handling of a launch emergency six years ago. The Russian rocket failed shortly after liftoff, and the capsule carrying him and a cosmonaut catapulted off the top to safety.

    Rookie NASA astronaut Zena Cardman and veteran space flier Stephanie Wilson were pulled from this flight after NASA opted to go with SpaceX to bring the stuck astronauts home. The space agency said both would be eligible to fly on future missions. Gorbunov remained under an exchange agreement between NASA and the Russian Space Agency.

    “I don’t know exactly when my launch to space will be, but I know that I will get there,” Cardman said from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where she took part in the launch livestream. Wilson joined her there for the early afternoon liftoff.

    Moments before liftoff, Hague paid tribute to his two colleagues left behind: “Unbreakable. We did it together.” Once in orbit, he called it a ”sweet ride” and thanked everyone who made it possible.

    Earlier, Hague acknowledged the challenges of launching with half a crew and returning with two astronauts trained on another spacecraft.

    “We’ve got a dynamic challenge ahead of us,” Hague said after arriving from Houston last weekend. “We know each other and we’re professionals and we step up and do what’s asked of us.”

    SpaceX has long been the leader in NASA’s commercial crew program, established as the space shuttles were retiring more than a decade ago. SpaceX beat Boeing in delivering astronauts to the space station in 2020 and it’s now up to 10 crew flights for NASA.

    Boeing has struggled with a variety of issues over the years, repeating a Starliner test flight with no one on board after the first one veered off course. The Starliner that left Wilmore and Williams in space landed without any issues in the New Mexico desert on Sept. 6, and has since returned to Kennedy Space Center. A week ago, Boeing’s defense and space chief was replaced.

    Delayed by Hurricane Helene pounding Florida, the latest SpaceX liftoff marked the first for astronauts from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. SpaceX took over the old Titan rocket pad nearly two decades ago and used it for satellite launches, while flying crews from Kennedy’s former Apollo and shuttle pad next door. The company wanted more flexibility as more Falcon rockets soared.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Is an ankle sprain also a brain injury? How neuroscience is helping athletes, astronauts and ‘average Joes’

    Is an ankle sprain also a brain injury? How neuroscience is helping athletes, astronauts and ‘average Joes’

    Have you ever thought of an ankle sprain as a brain injury? Most people probably wouldn’t.

    However, we are starting to understand how the brain is constantly adapting, known as plasticity.

    Even though the damage of an ankle sprain happens at the ankle, there may also be some changes going on in the brain to how it well it senses pain or movement.

    One of our doctoral students, Ashley Marchant, has shown something similar happens when we change how much weight (or load) we put on the muscles of the lower limb. The closer the load is to normal earth gravity, the more accurate our movement sense is; the lower the muscle load, the less accurate we get.

    This work means we need to rethink how the brain controls and responds to movement.

    Solving an important puzzle

    Historically, movement science has attempted to improve muscle function through resistance training, cardiovascular exercise and flexibility.

    One of the big issues in the treatment and prevention of sport injuries is that even when the sports medicine team feels an athlete is ready to return, the risk of a future injury remains twice to eight times higher than if they’d never had an injury.

    This means sports medicos have been missing something.

    Our work at the University of Canberra and the Australian Institute of Sport has targeted sensory input in an attempt to solve this puzzle. The goal has been to assess the ability of the sensory reception, or perception, aspect of movement control.

    Input (sensory) nerves outnumber output (motor) nerves by roughly ten to one.

    Over 20 years, scientists have developed tools to allow us to determine the quality of the sensory input to the brain, which forms the basis of how well we can perceive movement. Gauging this input could be useful for everyone from astronauts to athletes and older people at risk of falls.

    We can now measure how well a person gets information from three critical input systems:

    • the vestibular system (inner ear balance organs)
    • the visual system (pupil responses to changes in light intensity)
    • the position sense system in the lower limbs (predominantly from sensors in the muscles and skin of the ankle and foot).

    This information allows us to build a picture of how well a person’s brain is gathering movement information. It also indicates which of the three systems might benefit from additional rehabilitation or training.

    Lessons from space

    You may have seen videos of astronauts, such as on the International Space Station, moving around using only their arms, with their legs hanging behind them.

    The crew of the International Space Station have some fun with ‘synchronised space swimming’ in 2021.

    This shows how when people leave earth’s gravity, they get minimal information to the sensory system from the skin and muscles of their legs.

    The brain rapidly deactivates the connections it normally uses for controlling movement. This is OK while the astronaut is in space but as soon as they need to stand or walk on the earth or moon surface, they are at greater risk of falls and injury.

    Similar brain changes might be occurring for athletes due to changes in movement patterns after injury.

    For example, developing a limp after a leg injury means the brain is receiving very different movement information from that leg’s movement patterns. With plasticity, this may mean the movement control pattern doesn’t return to an optimum pre-injury status.

    As mentioned previously, a history of injury is the best predictor of future injury.

    This suggests something changes in the athlete’s movement control processes after injury – most likely in the brain – which extends beyond the time when the injured tissue has healed.

    Measures of how well an athlete perceives movement are associated with how well they go on to perform in a range of sports. So sensory awareness could also be a way to identify athletic talent early.

    In older people and in the context of preventing falls, poor scores on the same sensory input perception measures can predict later falls.

    This might be due to reduced physical activity in some older people. This “use it or lose it” idea might show how brain connections for movement perception and control can degrade over time.

    Precise health care

    New technologies to track sensory ability are part of a new direction in health care described as precision health.

    Precision health uses technologies and artificial intelligence to consider the range of factors (such as their genetic make-up) that affect a person’s health and provide treatments designed specifically for them.

    Applying a precision health approach in the area of movement control could allow much more targeted rehabilitation for athletes, training for astronauts and earlier falls prevention for older people.

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  • Though it’s not the moon yet, it’s the next best thing for European astronauts

    Though it’s not the moon yet, it’s the next best thing for European astronauts

    COLOGNE, Germany — Donning heavy spacesuits and visors to protect them from sunlight, astronauts Astronauts Thomas Pesquet of France and Matthias Maurer of Germany, accompanied by their trusty canine robot, move slowly on what looks like the lunar surface.

    But it’s not the moon.

    It will be years before the European Space Agency can send one of its astronauts there. For now, they are practicing in a facility the agency opened in Germany on Wednesday where lunar conditions have been replicated.

    The LUNA facility at the European Astronaut Center near Cologne has 900 tons of ground-up volcanic rock like that on the moon spread over a surface a bit bigger than a basketball court. The moon’s low-gravity environment will be simulated using movable ceiling-mounted trolleys that follow a suspended astronaut or rover’s movements.

    In a pre-opening briefing, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst said the facility will offer “most aspects that we will encounter on the moon.”

    “It’s the surface, it’s the lunar dust, the rocks, the lighting,” he said. “We will work in spacesuits that limit our movement, limit our view.”

    ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said at the opening ceremony that the facility “marks a significant milestone in Europe’s space exploration efforts.”

    ESA has negotiated for three spots on future moon missions under the NASA-led Artemis program by 2030, depending on the progress of the program. It currently relies on NASA and others to get its astronauts to space. The agency is building the service module for the Orion crew capsule that will fly to the moon as part of Artemis.

    “We need to prepare for the moon because currently we are only flying to low-Earth orbit to the International Space Station,” said ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer. “But the next missions will bring us to the moon.”

    The facility’s lunar soil is made of volcanic rock mined in the Siebengebirge mountain range, not far from where the facility is located, and then ground and sifted until it’s as close to the moon’s surface as possible. The facility is opening several years later than planned, delayed by the pandemic and the discovery of protected lizards at the site just as construction was about to begin, forcing relocation.

    Plans are to use the facility, jointly operated by ESA and the German Aerospace Agency, to test lunar rovers and practice walking on the moon’s surface in cumbersome space suits, among other things.

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  • Stuck-in-space astronauts reflect on being left behind and adjusting to life in orbit

    Stuck-in-space astronauts reflect on being left behind and adjusting to life in orbit

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Stuck-in-space astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Friday it’s been tough dealing with their Boeing ride leaving without them and the prospect of spending several extra months in orbit.

    It was their first public comments since last week’s return of the Boeing Starliner capsule that took them to the International Space Station in June. They remained behind after NASA determined the problem-plagued capsule posed too much risk for them to ride back in. Their eight-day mission is now expected to last more than eight months.

    “It was trying at times. There were some tough times all the way through,” Wilmore said from 260 miles (420 kilometers) up. As spacecraft pilots, “you don’t want to see it go off without you, but that’s where we wound up.”

    While they never expected to be up there nearly a year, as Starliner’s first test pilots, they knew there could be problems that might delay their return. “That’s how things go in this business,” Williams said.

    Wilmore and Williams are now full-fledged station crew members, chipping in on routine maintenance and experiments. Williams will take over command of the space station in a few more weeks, Wilmore told reporters during a news conference — only their second since blasting off from Florida on June 5.

    The duo, along with seven others on board, welcomed a Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russians and an American earlier this week, temporarily raising the station population to 12, a near record. And two more astronauts will fly up on SpaceX later this month; two capsule seats will be left empty for Wilmore and Williams for the return leg.

    The transition to station life was “not that hard” since both had previous stints there, said Williams, who logged two long space station stays years ago.

    “This is my happy place. I love being up here in space,” she said.

    Wilmore noted that if his adjustment wasn’t instantaneous, it was ”pretty close.”

    The astronauts said they appreciate all the prayers and well wishes from strangers back home, and that it’s helped them cope with everything they’ll miss out on back home.

    Williams couldn’t help but fret for a while over losing precious face-to-face time with her mother. Wilmore won’t be around for his youngest daughter’s final year of high school. He just requested an absentee ballot on Friday so he can vote in the November election from orbit. Both stressed the importance of carrying out their civic duties as their mission goes on.

    Their Starliner capsule marked the first Boeing spaceflight with astronauts. It endured a series of thruster failures and helium leaks before arriving at the space station on June 6. It landed safely in the New Mexico desert earlier this month, but Boeing’s path forward in NASA’s commercial crew program remains uncertain.

    The space agency hired SpaceX and Boeing as an orbital taxi service a decade ago after the shuttles retired. SpaceX has been flying astronauts since 2020.

    Williams said she’s excited to fly two different spacecraft on the same mission. “We’re testers, that’s what we do,” she said.

    “We wanted to take Starliner to the completion and land it back on land at home,” she added. “But you have to turn the page and look at the next opportunity.”

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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  • Boeing will fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon. Two NASA astronauts will stay behind

    Boeing will fly its empty capsule back to Earth soon. Two NASA astronauts will stay behind

    CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Boeing will attempt to return its problem-plagued capsule from the International Space Station later this week — with empty seats.

    NASA said Wednesday that everything is on track for the Starliner capsule to undock from the space station Friday evening. The fully automated capsule will aim for a touchdown in New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range six hours later.

    NASA’s two stuck astronauts who flew up on Starliner will remain behind at the orbiting lab. They’ll ride home with SpaceX in February, eight months after launching on what should have been a weeklong test flight. Thruster trouble and helium leaks kept delaying their return until NASA decided that it was too risky for them to accompany Starliner back as originally planned.

    “It’s been a journey to get here and we’re excited to have Starliner return,” said NASA’s commercial crew program manager Steve Stich.

    NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will close the hatches between Starliner and the space station on Thursday. They are now considered full-time station crew members along with the seven others on board, helping with experiments and maintenance, and ramping up their exercise to keep their bones and muscles strong during their prolonged exposure to weightlessness.

    To make room for them on SpaceX’s next taxi flight, the Dragon capsule will launch with two astronauts instead of the usual four. Two were cut late last week from the six-month expedition, which is due to blast off in late September. Boeing has to free up the parking place for SpaceX’s arrival.

    Boeing encountered serious flaws with Starliner long before its June 5 liftoff on the long-delayed astronaut demo.

    Starliner’s first test flight went so poorly in 2019 — the capsule never reached the space station because of software errors — that the mission was repeated three years later. More problems surfaced, resulting in even more delays and more than $1 billion in repairs.

    The capsule had suffered multiple thruster failures and propulsion-system helium leaks by the time it pulled up at the space station after launch. Boeing conducted extensive thruster tests in space and on the ground, and contended the capsule could safely bring the astronauts back. But NASA disagreed, setting the complex ride swap in motion.

    Starliner will make a faster, simpler getaway than planned, using springs to push away from the space station and then short thruster firings to gradually increase the distance. The original plan called for an hour of dallying near the station, mostly for picture-taking; that was cut to 20 or so minutes to reduce the stress on the capsule’s thrusters and keep the station safe.

    Additional test firings of Starliner’s 28 thrusters are planned before the all-important descent from orbit. Engineers want to learn as much as they can since the thrusters won’t return to Earth; the section containing them will be ditched before the capsule reenters.

    The stuck astronauts — retired Navy captains — have lived on the space station before and settled in just fine, according to NASA officials. Even though their mission focus has changed, “they’re just as dedicated for the success of human spaceflight going forward,” flight director Anthony Vareha said.

    Their blue Boeing spacesuits will return with the capsule, along with some old station equipment.

    NASA hired Boeing and SpaceX a decade ago to ferry its astronauts to and from the space station after its shuttles retired. SpaceX accomplished the feat in 2020 and has since launched nine crews for NASA and four for private customers.

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    The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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