BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan, March 25, 2020 (Roscosmos PR) — The final pre-flight training session of the prime and backup crews of Soyuz MS-16 transport manned spacecraft under the program of the ISS 62/63 Expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS) began at the Baikonur Launch Site.
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WASHINGTON, March 20, 2020 (NASA PR) — To protect the health and safety of the NASA workforce as the nation responds to coronavirus (COVID-19), agency leadership recently completed the first assessment of work underway across all missions, projects, and programs. The goal was to identify tasks that can be done remotely by employees at home, mission-essential work that must be performed on-site, and on-site work that will be paused.
“We are going to take care of our people. That’s our first priority,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Technology allows us to do a lot of what we need to do remotely, but, where hands-on work is required, it is difficult or impossible to comply with CDC guidelines while processing spaceflight hardware, and where we can’t safely do that we’re going to have to suspend work and focus on the mission critical activities.”
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HOUSTON (NASA PR) — NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy will return to the International Space Station next April. Cassidy will join his crewmates – Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Tikhonov and Andrei Babkin – to discuss their upcoming mission during a news conference at 2 p.m. EST Thursday, Nov. 7, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website. The crew will be available for in person and remote media interviews following the news conference.
Media following the briefing on social media may ask questions using #AskNASA.
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HOUSTON, July 9, 2015 (NASA PR) — NASA’s Director of Flight Operations Brian Kelly has appointed U.S. Navy Capt. Christopher Cassidy as the chief of the Astronaut Office. Cassidy replaces Air Force Col. Robert Behnken, who has held the position since August 2012.
“Bob has provided outstanding leadership of our astronaut corps during the last three years,” Kelly said. “His selfless dedication and sound guidance has been top-notch as NASA ramped up research aboard the International Space Station and began laying the groundwork for human exploration missions beyond Earth orbit.”
In his new role, Cassidy will be responsible for managing Astronaut Office resources, operations and safety programs. He also will help develop astronaut flight crew operation concepts and crew assignments for future spaceflight missions.
