The third fully commercial crew of astronauts is moving aboard NASA’s International Space Station for a fourteen day stay. APR News was invited to take part in the “live” coverage of the launch of the Axiom-3 mission on CBS-TV News in New York City.
APR News Director Pat Duggins joined CBS news anchor Robert Costa, space consultant Bill Harwood, and CBS correspondent Manuel Bajorques to report on Thursday afternoon’s blastoff at the Kennedy Space Center. The four member international crew represents the United States, Spain, Turkey, Italy, and Sweden. NASA Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria is the commander of the mission. CBS anchor Costa asked Duggins to talk about the crew.
“Well, the commander is Michael Lopez-Alegria. And the fact that the mission lifted off after only one launch delay, I'm sure that he's really happy about that because Michael's very first launch on the Space Shuttle in 1995 was delayed six times because of the weather,” Duggins said. “So the fact that he's on his way to the space station, I'm sure he's a happy camper there. It's a private mission, including about thirty experiments, mostly from Italy. They’re going to deal with medicines and how the human body reacts to space. It’s part of a NASA effort to try to commercialize space. If you ever got dragged to see “2001: A Space Odyssey,” you might remember the space station was operated by Hilton and the Space Shuttle was operated by Pan Am. Even back in 1968, there were futurists who had an idea that this is probably the way we're going to go in the future of space.”
Duggins covered the Space Program for twenty two years, including fourteen years for NPR. During CBS’ “live” launch coverage Thursday afternoon, Costa asked Duggins what the astronauts were experiencing aboard the commercially built SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft during the trip to orbit.
“Well, for the for the experienced astronauts like Lopez-Alegria, it is a bit of a change of pace. Inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, there's no control stick,” Duggins observed. “I mean, a lot of these astronauts are test pilots who were used to flying high performance aircraft. There's no stick, which for some of them that I've spoken to, they say that took a little bit of getting used to. And, there’s not a great view. Unfortunately, back again when Lopez-Alegria was flying on the space shuttle, you had big windshields on the front of the flight deck. In the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, you have a little porthole on either side. So you can sort of see what's going on.”
In a release, NASA said…
“NASA maintains mission responsibility during integrated operations, which continues during the crew’s stay aboard the orbiting laboratory conducting science, education, and commercial activities, and concludes once Dragon exits the area of the space station. The welcome ceremony is expected to start shortly after the Dragon’s hatch opens at approximately 7:20 a.m. Live mission coverage will end with the conclusion of the ceremony.”
CBS-TV News in New York also invited APR to join its previous “live” launch coverage of NASA’s Artemis-1 rocket in 2022. The booster sent an unmanned version of the Space Agency’s Orion capsule on a trip around the moon before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.