The longest government shutdown in United States history has finally ended after 43 days, allowing government agencies to open back up. During the shutdown the majority of the NASA workforce was furloughed leaving the website (and public affairs office) to cease communication. The only updates the community got were from Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, which was mostly knowledge that had already been seen from various webcams in Florida, such as the move of Orion into the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC.
Now that the government is up and running I thought it would be wise to discuss some of the astronaut activities that we have missed during the shutdown.
The first casualty during the shutdown was the news conference on Wednesday, October 1st in which astronaut Chris Williams was to discuss his upcoming mission to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz MS-28. As we are only 12 days away from launch it’s unclear if this news conference will end up taking place. With Williams in quarantine and preparing for launch the first time the American media may hear from him may be once he’s aboard the ISS.
Another unfortunate loss during the shutdown was the daily communication from NASA about activities aboard the ISS. Before the shutdown science and maintenance was in full swing with heavy work towards a spacewalk later in the year. It can be assumed activities on the ISS have continued regularly (thanks to JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui who has been posting daily photos from the ISS). Unfortunately, the arrival of Japanese HTV-X1 was not as widely celebrated and promoted from NASA as it would have been had PAO been able to publish updates and photos of the hatch opening operations. I’m sure there is a backlog of photos that will be published once NASA is back to scheduled operations.
On the lunar side of things, we are less than 90 days away from the launch of Artemis II and haven’t heard a single word of astronaut training during the shutdowns 43 days. Commander Reid Wiseman had been posting weekly Artemis II training activities but had to stop during the government shutdown. Here’s to hoping with less than 90 days left NASA starts publishing not only Artemis II launch operations but the behind the scenes training coverage taken place the past year.
It’s also unclear the status of the newest astronaut class that was announced just a week before shutdown. It’s unclear if they have started their training yet or have been waiting until the end of the shutdown.
Regardless, the shutdown is over and with PAO back open and a “new” administrator candidate on the horizon in Jared Isaacman, we can soon expect some very exciting announcements. Crews of Artemis III, Crew-12, and Starliner-1 should be announced within the next few months, future ISS spacewalks, and Artemis II promotion should all be in full swing come the end of the year. We will continue to keep you covered on all astronaut activities as they happen.