NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will keep on the Worldwide Space Station until March, giving him a record-setting spaceflight.
The mission extension, which was predicted sooner than Vande Hei’s abrupt launch in April, will see the veteran astronaut spend about 353 days dwelling and dealing on the orbiting laboratory, in accordance with a tweet the astronaut posted on Tuesday (Sept. 14). That may break the current report for longest single spaceflight by an American astronaut: 340 days, for the time being held by Scott Kelly.
“Honestly, it’s thrilling,” Vande Hei talked about in a video clip filmed on the home station.
“I really feel all astronauts are explorers at coronary coronary heart,” he added. “I’m attempting forward to, as a human being, understanding the best way it feels to do one factor like this.”
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NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei as seen on the Worldwide Space Station in June 2021. (Image credit score rating: NASA)
Throughout the video, Vande Hei explains that he sees the extended maintain as an essential technique for scientists to begin to grasp how the human physique withstands the prolonged spaceflights that may be essential to go to deep-space places like Mars.
Typically, home station visits closing about six and a half months; a spherical journey to Mars would probably take further like two years, in accordance with NASA.
“Thanks, Mark, in your dedication to @NASA and evaluation that may put collectively humanity for Artemis missions to the moon and later to Mars!” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote in a tweet congratulating the astronaut on his mission extension.
The announcement comes three weeks after NASA delayed a spacewalk on account of a medical problem, which was later revealed to be a pinched nerve in Vande Hei’s neck. Vande Hei, who was initially scheduled to affix the sortie, was modified by Japan Aerospace Exploration Firm astronaut Akihiko Hoshide; Vande Hei supported the train from contained in the home station.
The mission extension is not shocking, nonetheless, as Vande Hei made clear all through his video remarks. “My family’s been braced for this, I’ve been braced for this, it’s one factor that we anticipated,” he talked about, noting that he is meditating day by day and speaking collectively along with his family practically day by day with a view to deal with the isolation that comes with long-duration spaceflight.
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The lengthened maintain is possible resulting from a quick flight that NASA’s Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, is launching subsequent month. On Oct. 5, a veteran cosmonaut, an actor and a director will climb aboard a Soyuz capsule with a view to spend about two weeks on the orbiting laboratory filming a movie dubbed “Drawback.” These two passengers will in affect fill Vande Hei’s seat, along with that of his Russian crewmate, Pyotr Dubrov, who may even keep in orbit until March.
The “Drawback” flight has been throughout the books since sooner than Vande Hei publicly obtained his seat job. NASA, concerned by delays in Boeing’s troubled Starliner crew capsule program, organized in order so as to add Vande Hei to the Soyuz automobile that launched in April, saying the flight solely a month sooner than launch.
Although the mission extension will see Vande Hei soar to the lead of NASA’s long-duration flight veterans, the astronaut talked about that the report is just not about him and he wouldn’t anticipate to rest on the laurels it could ship him.
“I don’t suppose it’s a report that I would even attribute to me, it’s a report that I would attribute to our home program,” Vande Hei talked about. “I anticipate this report back to be broken, and that may be an extra success for our home program.”
Email correspondence Meghan Bartels at mbartels@home.com or comply along with her on Twitter @meghanbartels. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
