WELCOME TO SPACE TO GROUND.
I’M SHANEEQUA VEREEN, AND THIS WEEK
WE TAKE A LOOK AHEAD AT THE NEXT MISSION FLYING TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.
ON WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, A PAIR OF NEWS CONFERENCES AT NASA’S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER IN HOUSTON
HIGHLIGHTED THE AGENCY’S SPACEX CREW-6 MISSION TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION IN FEBRUARY.
THE MISSION IS NASA’S SIXTH CREW ROTATION FLIGHT INVOLVING A U.S. COMMERCIAL SPACECRAFT
CARRYING CREW FOR A SCIENCE EXPEDITION ABOARD THE MICROGRAVITY LABORATORY.
"THE PURPOSE OF THE SPACE STATION IT'S A NATIONAL LAB AND IT'S FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH.
SO WE HAVE THIS INCREDIBLE, UNIQUE, WEIGHTLESS ENVIROMENT WHERE WE CAN CONDUCT
AN AMAZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND THAT'S WHY WE GO TO THE ISS."
'WE WILL BE SUBJECT TO A LOT OF SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION THAT IS DONE BEFORE THE FLIGHT,
DURING THE FLIGHT, AND POST FLIGHT TO SEE THE IMPACT OF
WEIGHTLESSNESS ON OUR BODIES AND BODY MASS.
SO IT'S ALL FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENCE, AND IT'S ALL FOR THE SAKE
OF THE PUSH TOWARD THE BOUNDARIES OF EXPRORATION TOWARD SPACE."
THE CREW-6 MISSION WILL CARRY NASA ASTRONAUTS STEPHEN BOWEN AND WARREN HOBURG
AS WELL AS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES ASTRONAUT SULTAN ALNEYADI AND ROSCOSMOS COSMONAUT ANDREY FEDYAEV.
THE FALCON 9 ROCKET AND THE DRAGON ENDEAVOUR SPACECRAFT IS SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH
NO EARLIER THAN FEBRUARY 26 FROM LAUNCH COMPLEX 39A AT NASA’S KENNEDY SPACE CENTER IN FLORIDA.
DURING THEIR MISSION ABOARD THE ORBITING LABORATORY,
THE CREW-6 ASTRONAUTS WILL CONDUCT CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH.
STUDIES OF MATERIAL FLAMMABILITY, TESTS OF TREATMENTS FOR CARDIAC DISEASE,
AND DEMONSTRATION OF A NEW TOOL THAT COULD MONITOR CHANGES TO THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
DURING DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION MISSIONS ARE JUST SOME OF
THE MORE THAN 200 EXPERIMENTS THAT WILL OCCUR DURING THE MISSION.
WHAT WE LEARN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WILL HELP US TO EXPLORE MARS.
ESPECIALLY FOR A “TRANSIT HABITAT” NEEDED TO GET TO AND FROM THE RED PLANET.
THIS WEEK ON “HOUSTON WE HAVE A PODCAST,” PAUL KESSLER,
AEROSPACE ENGINEER FROM NASA’S LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER, DISCUSSES WHAT A SPACECRAFT
THAT WOULD TAKE FUTURE MARS EXPLORERS TO AND FROM THE RED PLANET WOULD LOOK LIKE.
AS ALWAYS, YOU CAN CATCH THE INTERVIEW ON APPLE PODCASTS, GOOGLE PODCASTS, AND SOUNDCLOUD.
THAT’S SPACE TO GROUND FOR THIS WEEK.
THANK YOU FOR WATCHING.
(Music)