homehome Home chatchat Notifications


NASA continues with normal schedule despite coronavirus

Missions are still going forward despite the outbreak.

Fermin Koop
March 17, 2020 @ 4:37 pm

share Share

Coronavirus continues to spread across the United States despite tighter restrictions in a large number of states. Still, NASA hopes to continue as normal with most of its upcoming missions, establishing procedures to avoid astronauts taking the illness into space.

Credit NASA

Workers at two space centers of NASA have already tested positive for coronavirus. The first case was detected in Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and the second on the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama, leading to the agency urging its workers to work from home if possible.

Despite those two cases, NASA hasn’t announced cancelations or delays in its upcoming projects. The most important ones include the launch of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, the April Demo-2, mission and the construction of the James Webb space telescope.

“Currently, the coronavirus has not significantly affected NASA’s operations and work continues on track,” NASA spokesperson Bettina Inclan told CNBC. “This includes preparations for the upcoming launches of the Mars Perseverance rover mission and NASA’s Commercial Crew flight test to the International Space Station.”

NASA has its own framework to deal with the coronavirus, including four different stages – each one detailing the number of people that have to work from home and the amount of travel allowed. The two NASA centers where positive cases of coronavirus were found are now on Stage 3, making home office mandatory.

The rest of the NASA facilities are on Stage 2, meaning employees are encouraged to work from home, reduce non-essential travel, and practice social distancing. No other cases of coronavirus have so far been reported beyond the first two, Inclan said, claiming they are monitoring the situation closely.

If the coronavirus expands further, implementing a Stage 4 would mean for NASA to close down facilities entirely and to limit access only to mission-essential workers, responsible for the protection of life and critical infrastructure. Reaching that status could mean disruptions to the agency’s plans.

For now, NASA is looking ahead to its next launch to the International Space Station, scheduled for April 9th. Three crew members will travel in a Russian rocket to the station, joining the other three people already there. NASA hasn’t made any changes to the plans of the mission so far.

The space agency usually quarantines its astronauts for 14 days prior to a mission, but this quarantine period could start earlier than usual, given the circumstances, Kirk Shireman, ISS program manager at NASA, told Gizmodo. “We expect to take additional measures to make sure that quarantine is a little tighter,” he said.

share Share

This Rare Viking Burial of a Woman and Her Dog Shows That Grief and Love Haven’t Changed in a Thousand Years

The power of loyalty, in this life and the next.

This EV Battery Charges in 18 Seconds and It’s Already Street Legal

RML’s VarEVolt battery is blazing a trail for ultra-fast EV charging and hypercar performance.

DARPA Just Beamed Power Over 5 Miles Using Lasers and Used It To Make Popcorn

A record-breaking laser beam could redefine how we send power to the world's hardest places.

Why Do Some Birds Sing More at Dawn? It's More About Social Behavior Than The Environment

Study suggests birdsong patterns are driven more by social needs than acoustics.

Nonproducing Oil Wells May Be Emitting 7 Times More Methane Than We Thought

A study measured methane flow from more than 450 nonproducing wells across Canada, but thousands more remain unevaluated.

CAR T Breakthrough Therapy Doubles Survival Time for Deadly Stomach Cancer

Scientists finally figured out a way to take CAR-T cell therapy beyond blood.

The Sun Will Annihilate Earth in 5 Billion Years But Life Could Move to Jupiter's Icy Moon Europa

When the Sun turns into a Red Giant, Europa could be life's final hope in the solar system.

Ancient Roman ‘Fast Food’ Joint Served Fried Wild Songbirds to the Masses

Archaeologists uncover thrush bones in a Roman taberna, challenging elite-only food myths

A Man Lost His Voice to ALS. A Brain Implant Helped Him Sing Again

It's a stunning breakthrough for neuroprosthetics

This Plastic Dissolves in Seawater and Leaves Behind Zero Microplastics

Japanese scientists unveil a material that dissolves in hours in contact with salt, leaving no trace behind.