Coronavirus and space: NASA tells employees to work from home; SpaceX launches rocket; Europe-Russia mission delayed
MELBOURNE, Fla. – Most NASA employees and contractors were mandated to telework as all of the agency's facilities moved to a higher alert level Tuesday in response to coronavirus concerns.
Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement that the agency's leaders moved to elevate all centers and facilities to "Stage 3 of NASA’s Response Framework," meaning workers were to telework.
Mission-essential personnel, such as teams required for critical operations and infrastructure, will be allowed to continue working at NASA centers, he said.
“Although a limited amount of employees have tested positive for COVID-19, it is imperative that we take this pre-emptive step to thwart further spreading of the virus among the workforce and our communities," Bridenstine said.
NASA Press Secretary Matthew Rydin confirmed to USA TODAY that at four sites, at least one employee has tested positive for COVID-19: the Ames Research Center in California, Marshall Spaceflight Center in Alabama, Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.
When announcing a positive COVID-19 case at Ames on March 9, Bridenstine also said that three NASA Earth Science airborne science campaigns that were to deploy this spring rescheduled field activity for later in the year because of the impacts of the virus' spread.
What does the coronavirus do to your body? Everything to know about the infection process
"The campaigns are DeltaX, Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTTS), and Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE), which would include flights from Ames. The scientific returns of these projects are not expected to be impacted by this change of plans," Bridenstine said.
"This is the first time that NASA’s operations have been affected by a pandemic," Rydin wrote in an email to USA TODAY.
Rydin said "work continues" for on-site mission essential activities, including preparation for launches of the Mars Perseverance rover mission and NASA’s Commercial Crew flight test (SpaceX’s Demo 2) to the International Space Station, and construction of James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch next year.
The space agency plans to return to the moon by 2024 or a possible human-landing on Mars thereafter. However, Rydin said NASA was taking steps to protect and ensure care for all NASA personnel.
"As the coronavirus situation progresses, we’ll make adjustments as appropriate," Rydin added.
Coronavirus latest updates::Navy hospital ship heading to NYC; stocks fall again; death toll climbs to 115
SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches
Kennedy Space Center in Florida confirmed Tuesday to Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network, that the center had no employees who have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Early Wednesday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket roared to life and vaulted 60 internet-beaming satellites to low-Earth orbit from the company's pad at Kennedy Space Center.
The 8:16 a.m. liftoff from pad 39A was the mission's second attempt following a last-second Merlin engine shutdown over the weekend. SpaceX partners with NASA but the mission Wednesday is not related to NASA. The pad is leased and operated by SpaceX for its own missions.
SpaceX said the booster successfully helped deliver the satellites to orbit some 275 miles above Earth, but it failed to land on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship as planned.
Coronavirus and pregnancy:Coronavirus' risk to pregnant women, newborns seems limited. There's not enough data yet.
The landing failure may have been related to a premature first stage engine shutdown, CEO Elon Musk said after liftoff, noting that the issue will have to be investigated before SpaceX launches again.
The 60 Starlink satellites, now part of a constellation of more than 350, will slowly raise their orbits over the coming weeks until they reach about 340 miles in altitude.
A few miles south of pad 39A at Launch Complex 41, meanwhile, United Launch Alliance is preparing an Atlas V liftoff for the Space Coast's next mission. Teams are targeting no earlier than 2:57 p.m. March 26 for liftoff of the last Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellite, know as AEHF-6.
Will COVID-19 affect NASA astronaut's launch from Kazakhstan?
NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy is slated to launch April 9 on a six-and-a-half month mission aboard the International Space Station.
Cassidy is to be joined by Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner from Russia's Roscosmos aboard the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Reuters reported that Kazakhstan effectively closed its borders on Sunday amid the pandemic.
Rydin said that Cassidy is in Russia preparing for the launch, still on target for April 9.
"NASA has a robust plan in place to ensure astronauts are not ill or incubating illnesses when they launch to the International Space Station," Rydin wrote in an email to USA TODAY.
Country-by-country:Coronavirus travel restrictions around the world
As is normal with spaceflight, astronauts undergo a two-week quarantine before liftoff to check whether they are sick and to ensure they will not bring any illnesses with them. The Houston Chronicle reported Cassidy and his Russian counterparts will begin their quarantine March 24.
Brandi Dean at NASA's Public Affairs Office told Space.com that the quarantining process is called "health stabilization."
According to Space.com, living in microgravity can affect the immune system, making the quarantine important, regardless of whether there is a global pandemic,
The space station has a pharmacy to treat any illnesses that could occur, and a spacecraft is docked at the station that can return to Earth if a medical emergency were to occur, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Europe, Russia delay Mars rover launch
The European Space Agency and Roscosmos said Thursday that a joint mission to launch a Mars rover had been delayed, in part due to travel restrictions amid the outbreak.
The ExoMars mission already faced technical concerns that threatened the launch slated for later this year. However, amid the pandemic, officials said they were pushing the launch to 2022.
When will coronavirus end? What wartime and human kindness can tell us about what happens next
The spread of the virus "left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries," Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said in a statement March 12.
"We want to make ourselves 100% sure of a successful mission. We cannot allow ourselves any margin of error," ESA Director General Jan Wörner added.
The ExoMars mission aims to determine if life ever existed on Mars as well as provide insights into the history of water on the "red planet."
Named after British chemist Rosalind Franklin, the rover is able to drill into Mars' sub-surface, and a "miniature life-search laboratory" is also outfitted on the robot.
A launch between August and October 2022 is now scheduled, the two agencies said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
