Like most historic achievements, this one will be hard-won.
SpaceX is scheduled to launch its first crewed flight on May 27, sending NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the company’s Crew Dragon capsule.
The mission, known as Demo-2, will mark the return of orbital human spaceflight to American soil for the first time since July 2011, when NASA retired its space shuttle fleet after 30 years of service. The plan was to have private vehicles such as Crew Dragon fill the shuttle’s shoes, but it was far from clear that everything would work out, said former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman.
“It was an uphill battle,” said Reisman, a professor of astronautics practice at the University of Southern California who spent three months aboard the ISS in 2008 and also flew on a shuttle mission in 2010.
“If I’d had to bet” back then, he told Space.com, “I probably would have bet against it.”
Reisman was in the trenches for this uphill battle. He joined SpaceX after leaving NASA, working for Elon Musk’s company from 2011 to 2018 and serving as director of crew operations during the latter part of that run. He remains a consultant for SpaceX (but stressed that his views are his own; he does not speak for the company).
The transition to the post-shuttle era began in 2010, when NASA’s Commercial Crew Program awarded its first contracts to private companies. (SpaceX didn’t get a contract in that first round but did snag money the next year, and in the major rounds that followed.) This type of public-private partnership represented a new approach to human spaceflight for the nation, and not everyone was on board with it.
“There were a lot of skeptics back in the day, and a lot of uncertainty about whether or not this model was a good idea even,” Reisman said. “You had government, industry and NASA administration all, at various different times, looking like they were going to shut this down.”
For example, Congress repeatedly granted far less money for commercial crew than had been allocated in federal budget requests. NASA officials have identified these budget shortfalls as a major cause of delays for the program, which originally envisioned its first crewed flight in 2015.
It was also difficult to get everybody on the same page, at least initially. A significant cultural gap existed between NASA and the private sector, which tended to approach problems in different ways, Reisman said.
“Frankly, there was a lot of mutual distrust and suspicion,” he said. “And difficulty bridging that gap, I think, was the most challenging thing.”
But the gap was bridged, in what appears to be a lasting fashion, Reisman said. Much of the credit for that success, and the overall progress that commercial crew has made to date, goes to NASA’s commercial cargo program, he added.
That program, which was announced in 2006, helped get two private robotic resupply craft up and running. SpaceX’s cargo Dragon and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus freighter first visited the ISS in 2010 and 2013, respectively, and both vehicles routinely resupply the orbiting lab today.
Commercial cargo “really paved the way,” Reisman said. “I think if that program was not successful, we wouldn’t be here getting ready to put Bob and Doug into space on a SpaceX rocket.”
And that success has snowballed. SpaceX isn’t the only company prepping to fly NASA astronauts; Boeing holds a similar commercial crew deal, which the aerospace giant will fulfill using its CST-100 Starliner capsule.
And there’s much more going on in the world of private human spaceflight. For example, both Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin have flown multiple test missions with their suborbital crew-carrying vehicles; both could begin flying paying customers soon.
Blue Origin also has plans to launch people to orbit or beyond, and Colorado-based company Sierra Nevada has crewed ambitions for its Dream Chaser space plane. And we could soon have commercial space stations operating in Earth orbit, run by companies such as Axiom Space.
“The time is right for private companies to take a more active role in human spaceflight,” Reisman said. “It’s really been a team effort.”
Mike Wall is the author of “Out There” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated byKarl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter@Spacedotcom orFacebook.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
