ISS astronauts to return to Earth for 1st time since coronavirus – as quarantined crew prepare to take their place
NASA astronauts aboard the International Space Station will return to Earth next month despite the dangers posed by coronavirus.
Spacefarers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan will begin their journey home on April 17 hoping to set foot on our planet for the first time since the deadly pandemic began.
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The pair are due to be replaced by Nasa astronaut Chris Cassidy and two Russian cosmonauts, who will make their trip to the orbiting space lab on April 9.
All three are about to enter a strict two-week quarantine period before flying to avoid bringing the deadly virus - among other diseases - up to the spacecraft.
Nasa confirmed in a last week that it was ploughing on with operations on the International Space Station (ISS) for the foreseeable future despite the viral outbreak sweeping Earth.
Most of its staff on the ground are now working from home to help stop the spread of coronavirus in the United States.
The country's death toll jumped by more than 100 in a day for the first time on Monday with almost 200million now under lockdown.
A skeleton crew remains on hand at Nasa's Mission Control Center at Johnson Space Center in Houston where they will continue to assist ISS crews with their work.
"All work associated with supporting International Space Station operations continues," the space agency said.
"Flight controllers are working in the Mission Control Center, where a number of additional measures went into effect in early March to reduce the risk of exposure to the team."
Nasa astronauts Jessica and Andrew, part of Expedition 62, have been on board the ISS since September and July 2019 respectively.
They've not visited Earth since the outbreak began.
Speaking from the ISS recently, Andrew explained what it was like to live 250 miles above the chaos below.
“I’m in touch with my family every day and I know all the measures that have been taken to help prevent the spread of it," he said in a posted Friday.
“I don’t have concerns, I know my family is safe."
According to Andrew, work on the ISS continues as normal and he has faith the team are in capable hands despite the agency's dwindling numbers on the ground.
"Nasa and our partner space agencies are no strangers to working during times of adversity," he said in the video.
"As recently as a couple years ago, when Houston was basically shut down by Hurricane Harvey, Mission Control Houston endured right through it.
What is the ISS?
Here's what you need to know about the International Space Station...
- The International Space Station, often abbreviated to ISS, is a large space craft that orbits Earth and houses astronauts who go up there to complete scientific missions
- Many countries worked together to build it and they work together to use it
- It is made up of many pieces, which astronauts had to send up individually on rockets and put together from 1998 to 2000
- Ever since the year 2000, people have lived on the ISS
- Nasa uses the ISS to learn about living and working in space
- It is approximately 250 miles above Earth and orbits around the planet just like a satellite
- Living inside the ISS is said to be like living inside a big house with five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym, lots of science labs and a big bay window for viewing Earth
He continued: "Operations up here are gonna continue regardless of what’s happening on the ground."
A Nasa astronaut and Russian cosmonauts cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner, all currently on Earth, will begin a life under quarantine this week ahead of an upcoming trip to the station.
As part of Expedition 63, Chris Cassidy and crew will fly on April 9 and Nasa are keen not to send them up there with any dangerous diseases.
The quarantine process is standard procedure for ISS visitors, but it's a lot stricter this time around.
Crew are banned from attending traditional ceremonies and farewell meals in Moscow before flying out from the Cosmodrome at the Baikonur launch site in southern Kazakhstan.
"The quarantine is much more strict now," Frank De Winne, the head of the European Space Agency’s astronaut corps, told the .
"As few people as possible will have access to the crew, which means that scientists who need to get baseline data from them have to go into quarantine as well before they can access the crew and do their final checks.
"It has a big impact on the operations."
Nasa said it always takes steps to prevent crews from bringing illnesses like the cold or flu to the ISS.
This process ensures that they aren’t sick or incubating an illness when they get to the space station and is called “health stabilisation”, the agency said.
As for the returning astronauts, Nasa has assured space fans that Jessica and Andrew will undergo all the right checks to ensure they're shielded from coronavirus.
"Immediately after landing and being extracted from the Soyuz spacecraft, Nasa flight doctors will conduct a postlanding medical check of Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir as they return to Earth," a spokesperson said.
"Nasa teams work closely with astronauts in the weeks and months after their return to Earth to ensure they are healthy and help them readjust to gravity.
"Nasa will closely adhere to the CDC’s recommendations on infection control for the coronavirus as Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir return to Earth and begin their post-flight medical testing and re-adaptation period," they added.
"This includes cleaning of surfaces, social distancing, emphasising hand hygiene, encouraging Nasa team members who are sick to stay home and limiting contact with the crew members."
Astronauts currently om board the ISS are carrying out tests on the effects of space on DNA, hart cells and fluids within the body.
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Last year, Nasa engineer Christina Koch took a stunning snap of the transition from day to night from the ISS.
A Nasa timelapse also revealed an astronaut's view as the ISS soars over Earth.
And Nasa plans to send "living human organs" on micro-chips to the ISS as part of a series of medical tests.
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