Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

NASA astronaut rates 10 space movies based on how realistic they are

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-satellite-images-show-tonga-volcano-eruption-reached-mesosphere-2022-2">NASA</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-female-astronaut-jessica-meir-oversized-spacesuit-space-gravity-1970s-2021-11">astronaut</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/astronaut-scott-kelly-how-to-survive-isolation-future-space-travel-2020-5">Scott Kelly</a> got into a <keyword id="11892744" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="twitter" source="Orion">Twitter</keyword> spat with <keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword>'s top <keyword id="11895441" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="space" source="Orion">space</keyword> official, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-international-space-station-crash-us-europe-sanctions-2022-2">Dmitry Rogozin</a>.</li><li>Kelly suggested Rogozin find a job at McDonald's, and Rogozin invited Kelly to get a brain exam.</li></ul>Former <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="nasa" source="Orion">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="12153790" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronaut" source="Orion">astronaut</keyword> <keyword id="13338775" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="scott-kelly" source="Orion">Scott Kelly</keyword> has gotten himself into a Twitter spat with Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's space agency <keyword id="11985276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="roscosmos" source="Orion">Roscosmos</keyword>.Kelly holds the record for longest US spaceflight after spending nearly a full year on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2015 and 2016. Now he's retired, and he's using his public platform to criticize Russia's invasion of <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword>, publishing tweets in Russian about the war daily since February 27. He's also changed his profile picture to an image of a yellow-and-blue fist, the colors of Ukraine's flag.On Sunday, he <a href="https://twitter.com/StationCDRKelly/status/1500535435168149504">tweeted</a> directly to Rogozin, who had shared a video of workers pasting over US and Japanese flags on a Russian rocket."If it weren't for these flags and foreign currency that they bring, your space program would not be worth one single egg," Kelly wrote in Russian. "Maybe you could find yourself a job working at McDonalds if McDonalds still exists in Russia."Another former NASA astronaut, Garrett Reisman, also <a href="https://twitter.com/astro_g_dogg/status/1500632262429196290">weighed in</a> in Russian to say that Rogozin "has always been a fool."The following day, Kelly shared a screenshot of a Rogozin tweet directed at him, which read "Get off, you moron! Otherwise, the death of the #ISS will be on your conscience." Insider was unable to confirm the validity of the screenshot, since the tweet has been deleted and does not appear in the Wayback Machine internet archive."Dimon, why did you delete this tweet? You don't want everyone to see how you are really just a child?" Kelly wrote in Russian, calling Rogozin by a nickname for Dmitry.Rogozin's response didn't address the screenshot."Mr Scott Kelly! You needlessly provoke me," he wrote in English. "I will not allow you to behave like that with me. You are being defiant and destructive."He pointed out that Kelly had used the casual Russian pronoun for "you," "ты," rather than the formal pronoun that usually indicates respect or unfamiliarity. The nickname "Dimon" also invokes a casual, and possibly demeaning, tone.In a follow-up tweet, Rogozin added: "Perhaps the dementia and aggression that you have developed is a consequence of the overload and stress of four flights into space. I invite you to undergo an examination at the Brain Institute of our Federal Medical and Biological Agency."The space-celebrity spat, and other likes it, are just one manifestation of deteriorating US-Russia space relations since Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized the Ukraine invasion.<h2>Rogozin is beefing with everyone from Elon Musk to a prominent astronomer</h2><div type="image" title="SpaceX founder Elon Musk addresses members of the media during a press conference announcing new developments of the Crew Dragon reusable spacecraft, at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California on October 10, 2019." height="2000" width="2666" msid="90089519" hostid="261"></div>Rogozin has gotten into several Twitter spats with prominent US space personalities, including SpaceX CEO <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-mocks-russia-space-chief-broomsticks-suggestion-spacex-launch-2022-3">Elon Musk</a> and astronomer <a href="https://twitter.com/Rogozin/status/1501291188850208768">Jonathan McDowell</a>.Both exchanges stemmed from Rogozin's <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1497370602075734021?s=21">claim</a> that the ISS would lose orbit and begin an uncontrolled fall to Earth if Russia withdrew its spaceships.Russian spaceships regularly fire their engines to push the ISS higher, a maneuver called a "reboost," after the station loses altitude. That's part of normal operations. However, NASA currently has a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft on the ISS that is set to perform a routine orbital reboost for the first time.It's not clear when the maneuver will happen, but if it succeeds NASA may have the capability to reboost the station without Russia's help.<h2>US-Russia space relations are crumbling</h2><div type="image" title="soyuz spaceship above earth" height="1280" width="1706" msid="90089520" hostid="261"></div>In a statement on February 24, US President Joe Biden said that sanctions would "degrade" Russia's space program. Then Russia announced it would <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-stopping-rocket-engine-sales-to-us-due-to-sanctions-2022-3">stop selling rocket parts to the US</a>.Both Roscosmos and NASA have stated that operations on the International Space Station (ISS) are continuing as normal. Four NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts, and one European astronaut are currently living on the station."Anything that caused the relationship to fall apart is mainly symbolic. We weren't going to work together in the future anyway," John Logsdon, the founder of George Washington University's Space Policy Institute and a former member of the NASA Advisory Council, told Insider the day after the invasion began.Russia has partnered with China for its plans to advance astronaut exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to the moon, including plans to build a lunar space station together. A congressional mandate prohibits NASA from collaborating with China.Russia's contract commitment on the ISS ends after 2024, and Russian officials have previously <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/russia-mulls-withdrawing-international-space-station-after-2024">suggested</a> that Roscosmos might back out to build its own space station."The hope was that cooperation, bringing Russia into the space station, would have a lasting positive impact on overall US-Russia relations," Logsdon said, adding, "It obviously did not have that impact."Translations by Nikita Ilyich Angarski.

Russian space chief and former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly attack each other on Twitter — calling each other 'moron' and 'child'

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="158876" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="comet">Comet</keyword> Neowise only appears every 6,800 years.</li><li>It has been visible in the Northern Hemisphere from July 15 to July 23.</li><li>John Nicotera and Erica Pendrak got <keyword id="40467" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="engaged">engaged</keyword> during the <keyword id="54934" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="cosmic">cosmic</keyword> event, and their friend Tim Leach captured the <keyword id="6374727" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="proposal">proposal</keyword> in a photograph.</li><li>"He froze the greatest moment of my life so far," Nicotera told Insider. </li></ul>A proposal is a memorable event for anyone. But for one couple, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.John Nicotera and Erica Pendrak got engaged under <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/comet-neowise-passing-close-to-earth-dazzling-photos-videos-2020-7">Comet Neowise</a>, an extremely rare cosmic event. <h2>Nicotera and Pendrak have been together for two years</h2>Both Pendrak, 33, and Nicotera, 26, are teachers, with Pendrak teaching first grade and Nicotera teaching physical education. The couple connected via Instagram, and they've been together ever since.Nicotera told Insider he started thinking about proposing around Christmas 2019, but the time the two spent together in quarantine during the pandemic made him think more seriously about popping the question.<div type="image" title="erica and john" height="922" width="1229" msid="77137351" hostid="261"></div>"We've lived together for over a year and a half," Nicotera said. "But just being stuck at home every hour can take a toll on a person, and we had not a single issue.""I feel like the honeymoon phase of the relationship might've faded away and that was a big test," he added. "We both figured out how to deal with each other's problems, you know?"Pendrak added that they just complement each other. "I <keyword id="7557" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Love">love</keyword> that I'm able to share genuine, serious, loving moments with John just as much as I can share silly moments," she said. Nicotera originally planned to propose at Crater Lake in Oregon, but traveling wasn't possible, leaving him unsure of how to proceed.<h2>Proposal inspiration struck when Nicotera heard about Comet Neowise</h2>Nicotera describes himself as a space junkie, and he follows what's happening with SpaceX and NASA very closely. He recently learned of the rare comet, called Neowise, which only appears every 6,800 years, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-see-comet-neowise">according to NASA</a>. The comet was visible in the Northern Hemisphere from July 15 through July 23.The comet seemed like the perfect occasion to propose. Nicotera made plans for himself and Pendrak to go to his family's camp in Old Forge, New York, so they could watch the celestial event and he could pop the question.Fate seemed to step in when Nicotera's good friend <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tleach18/">Tim Leach</a>, a photographer, reached out to see if the couple would want to take photos under the comet.Leach had been taking photos of the comet for days, so he knew how to capture striking images. It required a long exposure, forcing anyone posing to stand still for several seconds after each picture was taken to ensure the comet was visible in the sky. On July 18, Nicotera and Pendrak met up with Leach and his girlfriend to watch the comet, when the two men would work together to pull off the proposal. <h2>They posed for a few photos together before Nicotera popped the question, so Pendrak didn't suspect anything</h2>After he and Pendrak had posed for a couple of pictures, Nicotera told Leach he was going to propose. He said he was nervous ahead of the moment.But all of his nerves melted away as he looked at Pendrak before he got down on one knee.Because they had to stay still under the exposure to capture the photos, Nicotera and Pendrak had a lot of meaningful eye contact during the comet."I just remember the amount of happiness I had going through me," he said. "All the nerves were gone at that point. I was just like, 'I'm massively in love with this girl. I'm going to do it.'"<div type="image" title="comet proposal" height="1503" width="1369" msid="77137353" hostid="261"></div>Pendrak said she immediately started crying when Nicotera popped the question, as the proposal was a total surprise to her. She and Nicotera had discussed their future together, but she didn't realize he had concrete plans to propose.The couple told Insider they had to wait to hug for several seconds after he proposed because of the long exposure, which was difficult. But they celebrated together once they could move, and Leach took more photos to ensure they would have proof of the moment forever.<h2>The couple said they're grateful Leach was able to document the proposal</h2>"I'm just really happy Tim was able to be there and capture that moment for us," Nicotera said."He froze the greatest moment of my life so far," he added. "It's not just a memory. I can relive it as long as that photo lasts, and we are always going to have that."<div type="image" title="comet proposal" height="1027" width="1369" msid="77137355" hostid="261"></div>The proposal also ended up going viral online, as Nicotera <a href="https://twitter.com/YohnnyNic/status/1284977562372931585">tweeted about the experience</a> and tagged astronaut Garrett Reisman, who later retweeted the image and told the couple congratulations. Nicotera is a big fan of Reisman, and he often listens to him on podcasts. The recognition was like the cherry on top of their proposal experience."Our story is being spread around the country and the world," Pendrak said. "That's kind of awesome to see and to have some good news."The couple hasn't set a wedding date yet, but they're hoping to get married sometime next summer.You can follow Leach on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tleach18/">Instagram</a> and Nicotera on <a href="https://twitter.com/YohnnyNic">Twitter</a>.<ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/couple-got-engaged-during-a-black-lives-matter-protest-2020-6">A man surprised his girlfriend by proposing at a Black Lives Matter protest: 'Black lives matter, and Black love matters'</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/cornfield-proposal-in-germany-captured-on-google-maps-2020-2">A German farmer's elaborate marriage proposal was captured on Google Maps</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/man-proposed-by-editing-himself-into-sleeping-beauty-video-2020-1">A man proposed to his girlfriend during a screening of 'Sleeping Beauty' by editing himself into her favorite Disney movie</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/couple-engaged-on-southwest-plane-after-they-met-on-airline-2019-11">A man proposed to his girlfriend on a plane a year after they met in the air</a></li></ul>

A couple got engaged under a rare comet that is only visible every 6,800 years

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/space">Space</a> is a dangerous and unfriendly place not suited for human life, yet <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/astronaut">astronauts</a> are sent up to the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/international-space-station">International Space Station</a> every year.</li><li>From exposure to high levels of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/radiation">radiation</a> to surviving in micro-gravity conditions, space can be a tough place to live. </li><li>Without gravity working on your body, your bones and muscles start to break down. Bone density drops by over 1% per month.</li><li>On Earth, gravity compresses our spinal cords. But in space, the microgravity environment stretches the spine and astronauts can get a couple inches taller.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a> </li></ul>Following is a transcript of the video.Narrator: In 2016, astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after nearly a year on the International Space Station. But when he came back, he was 2 inches taller. So, what exactly happened up there, and what does that mean for the future of space travel?Narrator: If you're planning a trip to the International Space Station, be prepared to feel weightless. The station orbits the planet every 90 minutes, moving at more than 17,000 miles per hour. That's 30 times faster than a commercial jet aircraft. As a result, astronauts on board live in a constant state of free fall, or weightlessness.Garrett Reisman: Being up there in microgravity is awesome. It's, like, the coolest thing, because it's like you have the power to fly.Narrator: That's Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut who's logged 107 days in space. There are a few immediate side effects, he says, when you first experience microgravity.Reisman: So the first thing you really feel is you feel kinda sick. You don't feel very good those first couple days. It's kinda like being airsick or seasick. We call it space-adaptation sickness. Your vestibular system, your organs that provide information to the brain about your rotation and your acceleration, they're not working that great without being in gravity.Narrator: Without gravity working on your body, your bones and muscles start to break down, too. In fact, bone density drops by over 1% per month. By comparison, the rate of bone loss for elderly men and women is around 1% to 1.5% per year. And, because it doesn't take much effort to float through space, your muscles lose strength and endurance pretty quickly.Reisman: You have to work out every day. So, they scheduled two hours a day pretty much every day while I was on the space station for working out. What we found was, if you do enough resistive exercise, you can halt the effects of the bone loss and the muscle atrophy. Narrator: Without gravity pulling them down, fluids pool in the body, tricking it into thinking it's carrying too much water. As a result, astronauts have to pee... a lot. This makes it easy for them to get dehydrated and develop kidney stones.Reisman: So, you have a shift in your fluid. A lot of the blood volume that normally is down in your legs ends up up here, and your chest kinda puffs up and your face puffs up, and you can see it. If you look at pictures of us on the space station, it looks like we put on some weight or something and we're all puffed up. Narrator: Swelling in the upper body puts pressure on the eyes as well, which can cause vision problems.Reisman: A lot of us, including myself, had a shift in our vision while we're up in space. You start out, everything was fine, and all of a sudden things get blurry. We could see the effects of it. We could see swelling in the optic nerve, we could see folds in the cornea, but we're still not 100% sure exactly what's causing it and how to stop it. Narrator: With all the challenges of space travel, one benefit is you actually get taller.Reisman: So, yes, you do get taller when you go to space. It's the whole reason I signed up for this job. Your spine is being compressed by gravity. So, when you go into the microgravity environment and you no longer have any kind of compressive loads on the spine at all, it stretches. I grew about an inch.Astronaut: Woo-hoo!Narrator: Without gravity working against it, the heart doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood throughout the body. Over time, this could lead to the heart actually decreasing in size.Reisman: There is an effect on the cardiovascular system about being up in space. So you do get a reduced aerobic capability. You can be in great shape, and after being up in space for a couple days, you might get on the treadmill, and you might be like, "Man, I must not have been hitting the gym." Narrator: The immune system also takes a hit. Researchers discovered that a lack of gravity weakens the functions of T cells, which play a crucial role in fighting off diseases.Narrator: Another concern is cosmic radiation. Astronauts on the station are exposed to over 10 times the amount of radiation that we get on Earth.Reisman: At a couple hundred miles, we're well above the atmosphere, but we're still well below the magnetic field of the Earth. But we still get a large bit of protection from that magnetic field. In fact, you could tell, because when you close your eyes, you see little lightning bolts, and that's actually a result of some of the radiation hitting your eyeballs and releasing photons.Narrator: Artificial shielding on the ISS only partially protects astronauts from harsh radiation, leaving them more susceptible to cancer and other diseases later in life.Narrator: Finally, astronauts must also be able to handle the psychological challenges of confinement and isolation.Reisman: So, there is a psychological aspect to being in space, both because of the fact that you're isolated from the rest of humanity, it was really strange to be looking out the window at billions of people down there that had no way to get to me. When I was there, I only had two crewmates at a time on the space station, so if you don't get along with somebody, that could be bad, because you don't have too many choices there in making new friends.Narrator: And, without a 24-hour sleep cycle, astronaut circadian rhythm is thrown off, which can cause more stress and lead to sleep disorders.Reisman: You're taking jet lag to a whole nother extreme. Well, the weird thing is that you go around the planet once every hour and a half. So every 45 minutes, the sun is either rising or setting. So you can't, like, tell what time it is by looking out the window.Narrator: So, what does all this mean for the future of space travel? Well, a trip to Mars would expose astronauts to even more dangers than those on the International Space Station. They would face higher levels of radiation, shifting gravity fields, and longer travel times, which would compound all of the negative effects of space on the human body and mind.Reisman: I think the biggest issue we gotta deal with is the radiation. We don't know precisely what that exact radiation does to human beings. But what does gamma rays or what does heavy ions, what do they do human tissue? We don't really know.Narrator: Right now, NASA and other research organizations are working to develop better technology that protects astronauts against these hazards, so maybe one day humans might make it to Mars.

What happens to the human body in space

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword> has successfully launched into orbit its first human passengers: <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="73998" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronauts">astronauts</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-best-thing-about-spacex-rocket-launch-crew-dragon-2020-5">Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley</a>.</li><li>The astronauts lifted off at 3:22 p.m. ET on Saturday while riding inside <keyword id="3150656" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="crew-dragon">Crew Dragon</keyword>, a new privately developed spaceship that <keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword>'s rocket company made in part for NASA.</li><li>However, the Demo-2 mission is a test flight that's far from over. Behnken and Hurley could <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-crew-dragon-nasa-astronauts-demo2-mission-timeline-2020-5">spend up to 110 days in space</a> after they reach and dock with the International Space Station.</li><li>Garrett Reisman, a former astronaut who worked on SpaceX's Dragon vehicles, said success for Demo-2 could spark a golden age of commercial spaceflight.</li></ul>CAPE CANAVERAL — Amid the threat of rain and lightning on Saturday, one of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets heaved itself off the ground at 3:22 p.m. ET with a thunderous roar of flames, smoke, and dust.Then, about 12 minutes later, a relatively small payload popped off the top of the 23-story launcher while moving close to 17,500 mph, slipping the spacecraft into low-Earth orbit.However, this payload is unlike anything the world has seen: a privately developed commercial spaceship called Crew Dragon, which is carrying SpaceX's first human passengers — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-doug-hurley-bob-behnken-biography-spacex-demo2-2020-5">NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley</a>.Shortly before their historic crewed space launch, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-boeing-nasa-commercial-crew-program-launch-astronauts-2020-1">first from American soil since July 2011</a>, the men shared ceremonious words from SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship over the radio."It is absolutely an honor to be part of this huge effort to get the United States back in the launch business," Hurley said, minutes before liftoff.<div type="image" title="spacex demo 2 nasa astronauts bob behnken doug hurley" height="1800" width="2400" msid="76114264" hostid="261"></div>The flight not only <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-spacex-astronaut-launch-nasa-is-important-2020-5">resurrects American crewed spaceflight for NASA</a>, but also opens a door for SpaceX to help commercialize space.The NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, became emotional while delivering remarks after the crew reached orbit."I'm breathing a sigh of relief, but I will also tell you I'm not going to celebrate until Bob and Doug are home safely," Bridenstine said, adding: "I've heard that rumble before, but it's a whole different feeling when it's your team on top of that rocket."Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX in 2002, expressed his enthusiasm during the first launch attempt on Wednesday: "This is a dream come true for me and everyone else at SpaceX.""I didn't even dream that this would come true."Poor weather threatened to delay the mission a second time, as clouds crowded the Florida skies and teased rocket-threatening lightning. A rain shower briefly soaked the rocket.Similar conditions forced NASA and SpaceX to scrub their first launch attempt <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-astronaut-launch-weather-delayed-to-saturday-2020-5">just 17 before liftoff</a> on Wednesday, since the Falcon 9 rocket could trigger lightning strikes from electrically charged clouds.Though the historic mission is on its way, the hard part is not over for the two men, SpaceX, or NASA — a partner that has invested more than $3.14 billion to foster the system's development.Launching rockets is something SpaceX excels at, with now 86 successful liftoffs under its belt. Flying crewed space capsules and keeping the passengers alive is another matter.To prove to NASA and the rest of the world it can be done, the astronauts will spend the next day catching up to the International Space Station, where they will dock the new spaceship for about 110 days before returning home.The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-rocket-launch-nasa-astronauts-demo2-commercial-crew-mission-history-2020-5">stakes are enormous</a>, with the success of the mission — marked by a safe landing in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida — bound to shape the future of SpaceX, NASA, and human spaceflight in general.<h2>A 3-month spaceflight to tame the Dragon </h2><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship sunrise kennedy space center cape canaveral florida launchpad launch complex 39a elon musk twitter" height="449" width="800" msid="76114458" hostid="261"></div>Ahead of the crew is a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-crew-dragon-nasa-astronauts-demo2-mission-timeline-2020-5">highly choreographed sequence of events</a> for their experimental mission, called Demo-2.Now in orbit, Behnken and Hurley will climb out of their spacesuits, get a bite to eat, and begin to test out as many systems on Crew Dragon as they can — including overriding the spaceship's automated controls to pilot the vehicle. They also plan to try out the toilet (which is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-crew-dragon-spaceship-ceiling-toilet-mystery-proprietary-design-2020-5">shrouded in proprietary mystery</a>) and eventually get some sleep inside the vehicle."We're just excited to kind of put it through its paces," Hurley said during a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-astronauts-demo2-mission-press-briefings-video-youtube-2011-2020-5">press briefing</a> on May 1.Within a day of launch, the ship will pull up to the International Space Station (ISS): SpaceX and NASA's ultimate, football field-size destination in orbit. Behnken and Hurley will try their hand at the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-spaceship-docking-video-game-simulator-international-space-station-2020-5">manual docking controls</a> before turning the automated system back on.If the procedure goes well, NASA <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/schedule.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> the ship should berth on Sunday at 10:27 a.m. ET and the hatches between the ship and the space station should open around 12:45 p.m. ET. The three-person crew of the station's Expedition 63, commanded by fellow NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, will be waiting to greet Behnken and Hurley.Although the Crew Dragon's final version is designed to stay in space for nearly seven months, NASA and SpaceX said this particular ship could stay up to 110 days. That shelf life, they said, is determined by the ship's solar panels; over time, a corrosive form of oxygen high above Earth will degrade the panels."That schedule is a little bit in flux," Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of mission assurance, said during a May 25 briefing. "NASA will tell us when we're ready to go."<div type="image" title="american flag final last nasa shuttle mission crew sts 135 international space station iss 570956main_s135e008059_hires" height="1992" width="3000" msid="76114459" hostid="261"></div>Before Behnken and Hurley leave the ISS, though, they'll grab a historic memento: an American flag flown on the first space shuttle mission and left by the crew of NASA's 135th and final space shuttle flight, of which Hurley was a member.President Barack Obama in July 2011 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXzkdYVzlcc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called it a game of "capture-the-flag"</a> for the first commercial spaceship crew to reach the station.That competition is now down to SpaceX and Boeing, which is slated for a crewed test flight of its CST-100 Starliner spaceship in early 2021."We definitely feel like we're in the lead to make it to the International Space Station and retrieve the flag that STS-135 left behind. But we aren't really focused on who's going to win and who's going to lose," Behnken told reporters on May 1.He added: "We're really focused on making sure that we technically get into space and get this vehicle checked out and accomplish the ultimate mission, which isn't winning against Boeing: It's providing this capability to the International Space Station so that we can start rotating crews from American soil."<h2>Elon Musk is most worried about the landing of Crew Dragon</h2><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship atmospheric reentry hot plasma heat shield earth return youtube sm" height="568" width="1024" msid="76114460" hostid="261"></div>When the astronauts are ready to return, they'll climb back into Crew Dragon, put on their spacesuits, and undock from the space station. Then they'll get into position to blast off the spaceship's thrusters, allowing Earth's gravity to pull them back to the planet.This reentry of the space capsule through Earth's atmosphere — aside from the threat posed by space debris — is the "biggest concern" for Musk, he <a href="https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/space/podcast-interview-spacexs-elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told Irene Klotz of Aviation Week</a>.His worry concerning the new spaceship was the capsule's asymmetric design, which is driven by its emergency escape system. While screaming back to Earth at 25 times the speed of sound, the capsule's heat shield will deflect and absorb the energy of superheated plasma — but the forces of atmospheric reentry have a slim chance of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/classified-apollo-11-anomaly-threatened-to-crash-first-moon-astronauts-2019-6">causing catastrophic issues</a>, Musk said."If you rotate too much, then you could potentially catch the plasma in the super Draco escape thruster pods," Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/Free_Space/status/1264649494454513669" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>, adding this could overheat parts of the ship or cause it to lose control (by wobbling). "We've looked at this six ways to Sunday, so it's not that I think this will fail. It's just that I worry a bit that it is asymmetric on the backshell."After slowing down due to drag, Crew Dragon is supposed to open its parachutes and splash down in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida, where recovery boats will pick up the astronauts. Koenigsmann told Business Insider that is a concern, since the parachute packing can't really be tested before launch, but that the risk of failure is very low due to scores of tests performed by SpaceX.In all likelihood, according to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-crew-dragon-loss-crew-mission-failure-chances-probability-2020-5">NASA and SpaceX's risk estimates</a>, the mission has more than a 98% chance of success and even higher odds of keeping Behnken and Hurley safe. NASA estimated the chance SpaceX might lose the spaceship during the landing phase to be less than 1 in 500.<h2>The 'beginning of a golden age of commercial spaceflight'</h2><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship sunset kennedy space center cape canaveral florida launchpad launch complex 39a elon musk twitter" height="1364" width="2048" msid="76114461" hostid="261"></div>Assuming all goes well from start to finish with the Demo-2 mission, experts believe the mission could represent a bold new era for human spaceflight.Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who worked for many years on SpaceX's cargo and crewed spaceship programs, said Crew Dragon and Demo-2 could signal major progress within the spaceflight industry.For one, he said, it'd be "the ultimate validation" of NASA's decision to split roughly $8 billion between SpaceX and Boeing and have the companies develop their own spacecraft and, in the end, privately own and operate them. That model contrasts with the agency's Orion spaceship and Space Launch System rocket programs, which NASA will own and operate but have amounted to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-boeing-space-launch-system-audit-reveals-delays-cost-2018-10">tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer costs</a> without a single test launch."I think that the combination of those two things — the performance plus the cost savings — would be an incredible validation and endorsement of this whole approach," Reisman said.He added that the next stage will be the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/axiom-space-private-astronaut-mission-agreement-2020-3">flights of private astronauts</a> (or "spaceflight participants" in NASA parlance) to the space station. To that effect, NASA recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-international-space-station-commercialization-tourists-2019-6">streamlined the ability of companies to fly citizens to the laboratory</a> and foster commercial activities — even including the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tom-cruise-travel-elon-musks-spacex-rocket-film-space-movie-2020-5">filming of action movies</a>.Put together, he said success for Demo-2 would represent "the beginning of a golden age of commercial spaceflight.""We would be within a year of flying ordinary citizens in space, and that will be hugely transformative," he added.<div type="image" title="international space station iss nasa" height="1530" width="2400" msid="76114462" hostid="261"></div>Reisman says that at first only the wealthy and well-connected will have access to space. But he added that the early days of commercial aviation looked very similar, with passengers spending inordinate sums to fly in biplanes while wearing tuxedos because it was such a rare event."That's where we're at with space travel today, we're in the very beginning stages," he said. "We have to look forward to the day when we have Southwest and JetBlue.""The day will come when when everybody that wants to go to space will, for the most part, be able to afford to go," Reisman said.SpaceX is hard at work on a follow-up crewed launch called Starship, which Musk hopes can reduce the cost of access to space by 1,000-fold or more.He hopes to launch a prototype on a short "hop" at the company's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-elon-musk-texas-starship-mars-launch-site-pictures-2019-5">burgeoning development site</a> in South Texas in the coming weeks. SpaceX is working with NASA to possibly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-blue-origin-design-lunar-landers-2020-5">land the vehicle on the moon in 2024</a>. Musk also wants to begin <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/yusaku-maezawa-zozo-ceo-resigns-sells-yahoo-spacex-starship-flight-2019-9">crewed launches in the mid-2020s</a> and, perhaps in the 2030s, start <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-jeff-bezos-space-mars-colonies-spacex-blue-origin-2019-6">building permanent cities on Mars</a>. SpaceX also hopes its Starship project will dramatically speed up international travel from days to minutes with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-one-million-starship-rocket-launches-commercial-international-launches-2020-1">regular point-to-point flights at hypersonic speeds</a>.Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launches-historic-rocket-mission-nasa-astronauts-demo-2-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

MUSK MAKES HISTORY: SpaceX just launched 2 people into orbit for the first time, kicking off the rocket company's most important mission since its founding 18 years ago

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In May, <keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-nasa-astronaut-mission-launch-100000-workers-demo2-2020-6">launched its first astronauts to orbit</a> in its new Crew Dragon spaceship: <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="8930502" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bob-Behnken">Bob Behnken</keyword> and <keyword id="5206379" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Doug-Hurley">Doug Hurley</keyword>.</li><li>On Sunday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-safely-splashes-down-nasa-astronauts-crew-dragon-demo2-mission-2020-8">the astronauts landed safely</a> after spending two months at the International Space Station. </li><li>Both men are military test pilots, engineers, and members of the same NASA astronaut class. Each flew on two space shuttle missions, married a fellow astronaut, and has a son.</li><li>SpaceX has described Behnken and Hurley as "badass space dads," while fellow <keyword id="73998" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronauts">astronauts</keyword> say the two men are deceptively intelligent.</li></ul>The way NASA's astronaut office picks a crew from its esteemed corps is something of a mystery.But the space agency's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-announcement-astronaut-crew-spacex-boeing-selection-2018-8">2018 selection</a> of Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to fly SpaceX's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-suni-williams-on-spacex-boeing-spaceships-2018-6">Crew Dragon spaceship</a> seems almost obvious.Each man graduated from the same crop of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-become-nasa-astronaut-application-requirements-advice-tips-2020-3">astronaut candidates</a> in 2000. Each is an engineer and flew military aircraft. Each has flown to space three times aboard a space shuttle. Each married a fellow astronaut who has journeyed to space and fathered a son with her. Each spent years working with SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, to perfect the commercial spaceship they successfully rode to orbit. And both shared the aspiration of every test pilot turned astronaut: the freak opportunity to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-to-fly-spacex-crew-dragon-how-they-prepare-2020-1">fly a brand-new bird</a>. They named SpaceX's first Crew Dragon capsule Endeavour."If you gave us one thing that we could have put on our list of dream jobs that we would have gotten to have someday, it would have been to be aboard a new spacecraft and conduct a test mission," Behnken told reporters <a href="https://images.nasa.gov/details-KSC-20200520-MH-FMX01_0001-Demo-2_Crew_Arrival_News_Conference-3248646" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on May 20</a>, before SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launched him and Hurley into orbit.After that launch, Behnken and Hurley docked to the International Space Station (ISS), where they spent 63 days living and working. Then on Sunday, the men made a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-nasa-astronaut-mission-biggest-concern-reentry-danger-2020-5">fiery, risky</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-astronaut-mission-crew-dragon-landing-timeline-steps-2020-7">descent to Earth</a>, culminating in a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico."Thanks for doing the most difficult part and the most important part of human spaceflight: sending us into orbit and bringing us home safely," Behnken said shortly before climbing out of the spaceship. "Thank you again for the good ship Endeavour."<h2>A high-stakes resurrection, 9 years in the making</h2><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship sunrise kennedy space center cape canaveral florida launchpad launch complex 39a elon musk twitter" height="449" width="800" msid="76042078" hostid="261"></div>Prior to launching and landing Behnken and Hurley, SpaceX had flown 85 orbital-class Falcon 9 rockets, but no people.NASA, meanwhile, flew its last space shuttle in July 2011. Since then, the agency had been forced to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-buying-russian-soyuz-seats-2019-2017-1">rely on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft</a> to get its astronauts into space — a monopolistic arrangement that cost NASA and put its access to the ISS <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soyuz-rocket-launch-failure-video-2018-11">at risk</a>. Behnken and Hurley's SpaceX mission, called Demo-2, was the result of a roughly $8 billion, 10-year public-private effort called the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/commercial-crew-program">Commercial Crew Program</a>. Boeing is one competitor in the program (though it saw <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-investigating-potentially-catastrophic-boeing-spaceship-error-2020-2">major issues</a> with its <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-boeing-cst-100-starliner-spaceship-mission-failed-docking-iss-2019-12">first uncrewed test flight</a>), and SpaceX the other. NASA awarded SpaceX about $2.7 billion of that sum to develop, build, and test Crew Dragon, as well as fly it on seven missions.<div type="image" title="space shuttle atlantis sts 135 sts135 last final mission rendezvous pitch maneuver station nasa iss028e015554_orig" height="1950" width="2600" msid="76042082" hostid="261"></div>The joining of forces enabled NASA to groom SpaceX into a reliable commercial spaceflight provider that can sell the agency tickets to orbit for its astronauts. SpaceX, for its part, now has a human-rated spacecraft that will permit it to break open a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-international-space-station-commercialization-tourists-2019-6">new era of commercial spaceflight</a>."This is a unique moment where all of America can take a moment and look at our country do something stunning again, and that is launch American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, said in May ahead of the launch. "We're transforming how we do spaceflight in general."Essential to that transformation are the two people proving the gambit actually works.<h2>SpaceX: They're 'badass' pilots, astronauts, and 'space dads'</h2><div type="image" title="nasa astronauts doug hurley bob robert behnken kennedy space center florida arrival spacex demo2 demo 2 crew dragon test flight may 20 2020 GettyImages 1226088875" height="1987" width="2650" msid="76042087" hostid="261"></div><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/douglas-g-hurley/biography" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hurley</a>, 53, grew up in New York near the Pennsylvania border, graduated at the top of his class in high school, and chased a civil engineering degree from Tulane University. By joining the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps, he eventually would up as a test pilot in the Marine Corps with the call sign "Chunky" — then later became a member of NASA's <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20010612051440/https://www.nasa.gov/newsinfo/astro2000.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">year 2000 astronaut class</a>.<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/robert-l-behnken/biography" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Behnken</a>, a 49-year-old Missouri native, followed a similar path. He pursued a mechanical-engineering degree from Washington University in St. Louis, later picking up a master's and a doctorate in the topic from Caltech. Amid that academic work, he joined the US Air Force's ROTC program, which led him to become a test pilot and also a member of the same class of NASA astronaut candidates.The men befriended each other in NASA's program and each flew two space-shuttle missions. Hurley's last mission, aboard space shuttle Atlantis in July 2011, was the final flight of that program.Garrett Reisman, a former NASA astronaut who has worked at SpaceX and now teaches astronautics at the University of Southern California, says he knows both men well. He even shared the same doctoral adviser with Behnken and went trekking in nature with him."Doug likes to play a dumb pilot, but he's actually a really smart guy," Reisman told Business Insider. "And Bob's nickname is 'Dr. Bob.'"<div type="image" title="nasa astronaut doug hurley jet pilot training" height="1366" width="1821" msid="76042092" hostid="261"></div>Reisman described Behnken as very even-keeled and quiet, someone who "tries not to let his mouth get out in front of him."Reisman shared a story about being in a SpaceX meeting with Behnken in which some employees began to talk to him "like a dumb pilot" about vehicle-control theory — which the astronaut studied for his Ph.D."I'm sitting there laughing my my ass off because I know that he knows more about this stuff than they do," Reisman said.In 2015, NASA picked Behnken and Hurley, along with two other astronauts, as part of a "Commercial Crew Cadre" to work with SpaceX and Boeing on new commercial spaceships. That fast-tracked them for spots on Crew Dragon.<a href="https://youtu.be/MUd2x8Yr6jo">During a press briefing on May 1</a>, Gwynne Shotwell, the president and COO of SpaceX, described both men as "badass" pilots, astronauts, and "space dads." When each astronaut was later asked what makes the other a badass, Behnken said Hurley "is ready for anything all the time" and "always prepared.""When you're going to fly into space on a test mission, you couldn't ask for a better person or a better type of individual to be there with you," Behnken said. "I'm just thankful that, doing something like this, I'm doing it with with Doug Hurley."<div type="image" title="astronaut robert behnken cupola internationa space station nasa s130e010477" height="1986" width="2648" msid="76042097" hostid="261"></div>Hurley, for his part, praised Behnken's wit."There is no stone unturned, there's no way that he doesn't have every potential eventuality already thought about five times ahead of almost anybody else," Hurley said. "There's no question I can ask him that he doesn't already have probably the best answer for."<a href="https://www.oneorbitcdr.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leroy Chiao</a>, a former NASA astronaut who flew to space four times, said the reputations of Behnken and Hurley precede them."I would certainly fly with them, either one of them or both of them, in a moment," Chiao told Business Insider.<h2>'When you're watching, you're just a spectator'</h2><div type="image" title="nasa astronaut doug hurley son jack wife karen nyberg spacex crew dragon launchpad tour may 2020 demo2 demo 2" height="1152" width="1536" msid="76042102" hostid="261"></div>Behnken and Hurley found more as part of NASA's 2000 astronaut class than space-shuttle flights: They also met their wives.Astronaut <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/karen-l-nyberg/biography" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Karen Nyberg</a> married Hurley, and their son Jack is now 11. <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/k-megan-mcarthur/biography" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Megan McArthur</a>, who helped repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009, married Behnken. Their son Theo is 6 years old. Last month, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-picks-astronauts-for-spacex-crew-dragon-2020-7">NASA selected McArthur</a> to pilot Crew Dragon's second official mission to the ISS — the most recent mission was considered a demo — called Crew-2, next spring. She previously flew in the space shuttle Atlantis.In an interview with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/05/25/who-spacex-launch-astronauts/?arc404=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Post</a>, McArthur expounded on the difficulty of seeing Behnken lift off.<div type="image" title="megan mcarthur bob behnken nasa astronauts 2012 rnasa spaceflight achievement awards ceremony nasa" height="1693" width="2257" msid="76042104" hostid="261"></div>"One of the hardest things to do is watch the person that you love launch into space," she said. "It's much harder than actually doing it yourself when you're in the rocket. You have the training. You're prepared for the mission. When you're watching, you're just a spectator. And no matter what happens, there's nothing you can do to contribute to the situation."Still, having a spouse who understands <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-crew-dragon-loss-crew-mission-failure-chances-probability-2020-5">what it takes to go to space</a> helps when parenting young kids through the experienceBehnken said delays in the Commercial Crew Program — the first launch was slated for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-commercial-crew-spacex-boeing-delays-russia-space-station-2018-1">2017</a> — worked to their advantage in the parenting department."We've had a lot of the conversations over the years rather than having to have them all in the last couple of weeks," he told Business Insider. "It's kind of become more routine, if you will, in terms of expectation that I would eventually be flying on a SpaceX vehicle."Before the astronauts left the ISS, Behnken's son reminded him in a wakeup call ahead of the return trip that Theo had been promised a puppy.<h2>'That's how we like it to be'</h2><div type="image" title="elon musk spacex crew dragon demo 1 nasa astronaut bob behnken commercial spaceship mission march 2 2019 dave mosher business insider DCM_1092" height="1939" width="2585" msid="76042110" hostid="261"></div>Musk said ahead of the Demo-2 mission that reentry and landing were the most concerning phases for him. The Crew Dragon's heat shield had to protect the astronauts from temperatures up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit while traveling at speeds up to 25 times the speed of sound.<div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon spaceship capsule splash down gulf mexico pensacola nasa astronauts bob behnken doug hurley thumbs up seats demo2 august 2 2020" height="2024" width="2698" msid="77339084" hostid="261"></div>After the vehicle splashed into the Gulf of Mexico, Musk flew out to meet the astronauts near NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas."I think my entire adrenaline just dumped," Musk told a small crowd over a microphone. "I'm not very religious, but I prayed for this one."This story has been updated with new information. It was originally published on May 27, 2020.Do you have a story or inside information to share about the spaceflight industry? Send Dave Mosher an email at <a href="mailto:dmosher+tips@businessinsider.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dmosher+tips@businessinsider.com</a> or a Twitter direct message at <a href="https://twitter.com/davemosher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@davemosher</a>. More secure communication options are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/dave-mosher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">listed here</a>.

Meet Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, 2 'badass' astronauts, engineers, and 'space dads' who flew SpaceX's Crew Dragon to orbit and back

<div type="image" title="nasa crew dragon launch astronauts may 27" height="1414" width="1886" msid="76046502" hostid="261"></div><ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword> <keyword id="73998" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="astronauts">astronauts</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-doug-hurley-bob-behnken-biography-spacex-demo2-2020-5">Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley</a> are scheduled to become the first people to rocket into space from US soil since the shuttle program ended in 2011.</li><li>Behnken and Hurley will climb aboard <keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword>'s <keyword id="3150656" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="crew-dragon">Crew Dragon</keyword> on Saturday, May 30 and — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-nasa-astronaut-launch-weather-delayed-to-saturday-2020-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weather</a> permitting —<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-watch-spacex-rocket-launch-people-nasa-astronauts-youtube-2020-5">lift off at 3:22 pm ET</a> from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.</li><li>If all goes well, the pair will spend a day inside the spacecraft before <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-spaceship-docking-video-game-simulator-international-space-station-2020-5">docking at the International Space Station</a> is complete. </li><li>There is a toilet aboard their spacecraft, but no one seems to want to talk about it — though a former NASA astronaut who helped develop Crew Dragon told Business Insider it's located above the astronauts' heads.</li><li>The commode is likely a basic hose setup and not too different from what's on the Russian Soyuz. "We'll let you know how it works out," Hurley said. </li></ul>Ever since the first US astronaut visited space, 59 years ago, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-astronauts-pee-and-poop-in-space-2018-8">NASA has struggled to find clean</a>, comfortable ways to get people restroom facilities in space.The first options were rather crude, makeshift solutions that resulted in some big messes.Alan Shepherd, the first person in space, peed in his pants on the launchpad in 1961, but luckily was "totally dry by the time we launched," he <a href="https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/ShepardAB/ABS_2-20-98.pdf">later said</a>. The Apollo astronauts had to use roll-on cuffs to pee, and plastic bags for everything else. Sometimes <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-astronauts-pee-and-poop-in-space-2018-8">waste escaped, and floated around</a>. After the Apollo missions ended in 1975, engineers <a href="https://history.nasa.gov/SP-368/s6ch2.htm">described</a> defecation and urination as the "bothersome aspects of space travel."Even now, as two NASA astronauts — Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken — prepare to lift off from American soil for the first time since the US Space Shuttle program ended in 2011, it appears that space toilets have become no less bothersome.No officials with SpaceX or NASA would tell to Business Insider exactly where the toilet on Crew Dragon is located in the commercial spaceship or how it works. There are also no indications about where a toilet might be located in any of the publicly <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SpaceXLounge/comments/6mw918/dragon_v2_technical_drawings/dk4ux4s/">available technical drawings</a> of the spacecraft. "That toilet? Ah, we'll let you know how it works out," Hurley told reporters earlier this month. "They have one. We're going to — we'll try it out, and we'll let you know when we get back."<h2>The mystery of SpaceX's proprietary toilet</h2><div type="image" title="spacex crew dragon falcon 9 rocket launchpad lc39a kennedy space center demo2 demo 2 mission may 22 2020 49934682271_fd6a31becc_o" height="2000" width="2667" msid="76046504" hostid="261"></div>The commode is a rather important part of the launch plan, since Hurley and Behnken will spend <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/dm2/">nearly a whole day together</a> locked in the Dragon capsule, before they reach the International Space Station.NASA declined to provide Business Insider with any details on the new <keyword id="7058965" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Space-toilet">space toilet</keyword>."Since that's a SpaceX system, the SpaceX PAOs [public affairs officers] would be the ones to ask on this," Brandi Dean, a spokesperson at NASA's Johnson Space Center said when asked where the toilet was.SpaceX did not acknowledge Business Insider's query about the toilet.<div type="image" title="SpaceX crew dragon interior" height="749" width="998" msid="76046508" hostid="261"></div>Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceX's vice president of mission assurance — the person in charge of safety and reliability for the flight — declined to provide basic information about the Crew Dragon's new commode during a May 25 press briefing. "I'm not going to ... I don't know the potty answer to the potty question, so I'm going to skip ahead," he told Business Insider, when asked about the toilet's basic location and functionality.Although Crew Dragon was built with the help of about $3.14 billion in taxpayer money, the spaceship was privately developed and many of its systems are considered proprietary secrets.But the truth is probably that SpaceX didn't want to waste precious capsule space on a big space toilet, and the setup is likely a rudimentary hose and bag system, much like what is on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.<h2>What we've pieced together so far is that the commode is located somewhere above the astronauts' heads</h2><div type="image" title="nasa space x crew dragon toilet situation" height="1412" width="2790" msid="76046511" hostid="261"></div>Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman, who worked for many years on the development of SpaceX's Dragon <keyword id="1313914" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="spaceships">spaceships</keyword>, told Business Insider that the toilet is near the top of the capsule."I don't know if the toilet is really cool, necessarily, but it is there," he said. "I can tell you it's located — in one-G [Earth gravity] — would be towards the ceiling. But of course in zero-G [microgravity] that doesn't matter."<div type="image" title="space x toilet " height="1350" width="2286" msid="76046515" hostid="261"></div>The Crew Dragon, which can seat seven people, is a larger vessel than the Russian Soyuz capsule, which has three very snug seats. Since terminating the space shuttle program nearly nine years ago, NASA astronauts have been paying Russia to get to space.The Soyuz is equipped with a rudimentary hose system that astronaut Chris Hadfield called "basic," adding that astronauts <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=649288495088891&amp;set=a.157475407603538.32702.151680104849735&amp;type=1&amp;theater&amp;theater">get two enemas before they launch</a> with the hope they don't have to use it at all. But there is still not a ton of space on this <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/">13-foot-wide SpaceX capsule</a> to hide a toilet. <div type="image" title="AnneMcclain crewdragon egress" height="683" width="1024" msid="76046517" hostid="261"></div>It's unclear how exactly the system works, but it must be a much smaller setup than the relatively enormous throne astronauts used previously on the Space Shuttle:<div type="image" title="space shuttle toilet copyright dave mosher" height="748" width="997" msid="76046520" hostid="261"></div><h2>Going to the bathroom in space is no easy task</h2>Retired NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-you-go-to-bathroom-space-nasa-astronaut-2018-5">previously told Business Insider</a> that going to the bathroom was easily the worst part about life in space (being able to float is the best part, she said.)Engineering toilets to function in microgravity is no easy task, and some of the very first hose hookups were only designed for men.The US most recently spent $19 million on a Russian toilet for the ISS, rather than bothering to make its own system, and that throne is still pretty tricky to use. Astronauts have to practice <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1wwzwvfsC0">their aim</a> over a tiny cup-sized hole before they leave Earth, using a camera for alignment, and learning how to hook up the necessary hose and baggie systems. If SpaceX could figure out how to engineer a better outer space bathroom system, astronauts would be a little more comfortable in space, and, eventually, on their journeys out to Mars.But for now, the company seems intent on keeping whatever improvements or upgrades it may have — or not — provided to space bathrooms in a vacuum removed from public knowledge.Read more in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nasa-astronauts-pee-and-poop-in-space-2018-8">A brief history of how astronauts have gone to the bathroom in space, from peeing in a 'roll-on cuff' to pooping into a bag.</a>Read the original article on <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-crew-dragon-spaceship-ceiling-toilet-mystery-proprietary-design-2020-5">Business Insider</a>

'We'll let you know how it works out': SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship toilet is a secret that apparently no one can or wants to talk about

<div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"></div></div>When Dolly Singh first met Elon Musk, it was 2007, and SpaceX had already seen its share of rocket launch failures. Singh had spent the past six years as a recruiter in southern California, matching those who could build rockets with the companies who wanted to enter the next frontier. Then there was Musk, who to the aerospace community was the software guy from Silicon Valley, and he wanted Singh to come work for him and give up her own independent business and clients.She knew his résumé, but she also knew rockets were hard.Musk drew her two lines, Singh said, reenacting it for Business Insider on a Starbucks table in San Francisco seven years later.One line slanted up, showing the acceleration of Silicon Valley, "better, faster, cheaper." The famous Moore's law. The other line was flat. The U.S. rocket industry, Musk told Singh, pretty much hadn't moved over the last 50 years.Singh says Musk told her: "It's not a leap of faith to say that you can take these technologies and pull this laggard industry into the 21st industry."Singh took the leap of faith, and spent the next five and a half years touring candidates through the SpaceX campus and watching Musk try to pull the rocket industry forward.After years of walking around the hard factory floors, Singh realized there was a different industry that needed to be pulled forward, whose line had likewise remained stagnant.For Musk, it may have been rockets. For Singh, it was the high heel."To me, when you're surrounded by some of the smartest people on the planet, building some of the biggest and most badass machines on this world, the idea that my shoes are such crap became really obnoxiously unbearable," Singh said.<h2>Why you need an astronaut and a rocket scientist to design high heels</h2>Singh had been thinking about her high heel problem for about a year and a half before she approached some of her friends at SpaceX, former astronaut Garrett Reisman and rocket scientist Hans Koenigsmann.Instead of asking for help with high heels, she approached them with an engineering problem: how would they redesign a chassis to support a human's weight and range of motion?<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>They took a cue from Musk and broke the problem down to the fundamental laws of physics acting on high heels, or chassis depending on your approach. When it comes to high heels, there's three: how the shoe distributes weight, what happens when it hits the ground and the friction between your foot and the shoe. Those are the only design constraints, Singh said. The basic shape of the high heel and its materials - a metal plate, a metal shank and compressed cardboard - haven't changed in many years."A skinny metal rod and cardboard is basically all you're standing on when you're wearing stilettos, so it doesn't take a lot for scientists to see that it's not a particularly sophisticated structure from an engineering standpoint," Singh said.<h2>Maybe you need more than an astronaut, though</h2>If Singh had stopped there, however, she joked that her friends could've helped her design a great chassis, but not a great shoe. She adapted Musk's approach to building a team, one that had become her own when she helped expand SpaceX."Elon isolated to say, 'Find me the single best person on the freaking planet, then convince me why out of how many billion people on the planet that this is that guy,'" Singh said. "And he does that even if it's the cook. When we built a yogurt booth inside of SpaceX, he said, 'Go to Pinkberry and find me the employee of the month, and I want to hire the employee of the month.'"Realizing that there was potential in remaking the high heel, Singh left SpaceX in June 2013 to join the Founder's Institute, an incubator, to launch <a href="http://thesiscouture.com/">Thesis Couture</a>. As soon as she left, though, Nate Mitchell of Oculus reached out and brought on Singh as Director of Talent where she stayed until the company was acquired by Facebook.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>While working double duty at Oculus, Singh recruited Amanda Parkes, who has degrees from MIT and Stanford, to be the company's design director. Her role was to help transform the initial engineering work and vision into something that doesn't look like an orthopedic shoe, but something a woman would want to wear.Part of the process, Singh explained, has been finding a way to manufacture heels and prototype them cheaply. Most heels traditionally can't be manufactured without a mold, but it's hard to shell out the tens of thousands required to make one if you don't have a prototype to try to make sure it's correct.This is where those lines Musk first drew came back in."When something hasn't changed for more than 50 years, it doesn't take more than a leap of faith to say I can take the technology and everything that has matured and go back and apply them," Singh said. "High heels are a $40 billion a year plus industry."Singh brought on Matt Thomas, who had done work with Oakley's military team and had worked at Oculus, to help with the architectural elements and turn the company's designs into something that can be manufactured. Thomas also has a background in plastics, which is what the team decided to make the heel out of instead of the old metal and cardboard.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div></div></div>Thanks to 3D printing and computer programs, the Thesis team has been able to prototype faster and without the high cost initial investment. The company is also going to experiment with manufacturing in both Brazil and Italy.The mother of four kids has been making the rounds with investors, trying to raise $1 million in angel funding. So far, she's raised $700,00 from investors including Salesforce's Marc Benioff and Tom Mueller, co-founder of SpaceX. Musk has not invested in the company, although he did review the slide deck, Singh said.While they are still in the R&amp;D phase, the company's first 1,500 pairs will be available for pre-order in the fall. The first pairs will be sold for about $925. After that, the initial selection of Thesis Couture heels will range between $350-950 for different styles.When it comes to the pre-orders though, Singh has a Musk-like goal: "I want to have it sell out in 60 seconds." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/wal-mart-running-shoes-review-nike-adidas-starter-2015-6">Why you shouldn't feel so bad about spending over a hundred bucks on running shoes</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="1na3dmdTpcdmCFatLLH6WwEvkH66At_l" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "Garrett Reisman" and got 8 results

NASA astronaut rates 10 space movies based on how realistic they are

Brett Jordan,Meredith Geaghan…

Russian space chief and former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly attack each other on Twitter — calling each other 'moron' and 'child'

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

A couple got engaged under a rare comet that is only visible every 6,800 years

Samantha Grindell

What happens to the human body in space

Amber Bragdon,Amber Bragdon

MUSK MAKES HISTORY: SpaceX just launched 2 people into orbit for the first time, kicking off the rocket company's most important mission since its founding 18 years ago

Morgan McFall-Johnsen,Dave Mo…

Meet Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, 2 'badass' astronauts, engineers, and 'space dads' who flew SpaceX's Crew Dragon to orbit and back

Dave Mosher

'We'll let you know how it works out': SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship toilet is a secret that apparently no one can or wants to talk about

Hilary Brueck,Dave Mosher

A former SpaceX exec is reinventing the high heel with the help of an astronaut and a rocket scientist

Biz Carson

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides