After rocket mishap, astronaut ready to fly again
It’s unclear when NASA’s Hague gets next chance
As the Russian spacecraft skidded to a halt Thursday just outside a dusty city in Kazakhstan, NASA astronaut Nick Hague thought not about how he was robbed of a sixmonth stint on the International Space Station but about how lucky he was to survive.
“I’m just super thankful to be alive and kicking today,” Hague said Tuesday during his first interview with reporters since surviving a dramatic emergency landing of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft last week.
Then he quickly corrected himself: Fortunate was a more accurate description, he said.
“There are thousands of people working tirelessly to put these systems in place, these systems that saved us,” Hague said. “I’m just thankful that they do their job and take it so seriously and that the system was ready to go. That thought helped temper my disappointment at not being on the station right now.”
Hague, 43, and his crewmate, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, were aboard the Soyuz rocketing to the space station Thursday when a rocket booster failed, forcing the launch to abort. It was the first aborted launch of a Soyuz spacecraft in 35 years.
Since NASA’s space shuttle program was shuttered in 2011, Americans have had to rely on Russia to fer-
ry astronauts to the station. The United States has spent billions of dollars on the space station in its 20-year lifetime, but NASA currently has no other way to reach the space station and is therefore grounded until Russia sorts out what happened.
Hague said he is confident Russia will fix the problem, as well as one that occurred in August when a hole that caused a loss of air pressure was discovered in a different Soyuz attached to the station. Russian officials are investigating both issues.
“I’m not concerned with the Soyuz,” Hague said. “I have complete faith in (the Russians) and ... they are committed to making sure the crew is staying healthy and that we’re safe. I have no reason to doubt that.”
‘Absolutely ready’
Standing outside the Soyuz in the Kazakhstan desert Thursday, Hague finally was able to take a breath and call his wife, Catie.
She and their two sons, ages 11 and 7, were in Kazakhstan for the launch and witnessed the spacecraft’s terrifying tumble through the sky as a ballistic landing was executed, which means the spacecraft comes back to Earth at a sharper angle than what’s considered normal.
Hague described the landing as “a bumpy roller coaster ride” in which he was shaken violently and subjected to heavy gravitational force. But he was no worse for wear, he said, and he wanted his wife to know that.
But Catie didn’t answer. So he left a message that likely will live on for years.
“I’m fine,” he told her. “It was one wild ride.”
The photos of the couple fiercely hugging after being reunited later that day have been seen across the world. In that embrace, he said, he finally felt safe after the harrowing abort.
“Being able to hold my wife in my arms and give her a hug was enormous,” he added.
His kids, on the other hand, were concerned about something much more important.
“My youngest, God bless him, looks at me and asks, ‘When are you going back to space?’ ” Hague said with a laugh. “Everyone realizes what I’m doing is difficult and that there’s risk involved, and it’s important to understand it’s worth the risk.”
It helps that both he and his wife are in the Air Force, with each one used to the other being in dangerous situations.
“My wife is amazing, and it’s not her first time,” he said, adding that she worked in public relations at Edwards Air Force Base in California where he was a test pilot.
“She’s had practice hearing that my flight is not going well and managing emotions,” he said.
The failed mission Thursday would have been Hague’s first spaceflight since being tapped as an astronaut in 2013. NASA officials aren’t sure when he will get to fly again, but Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Roscosmos, tweeted a photo of himself Friday with Hague and Ovchinin, saying the duo would get to fly again in spring 2019.
How that would work still is unclear. The Soyuz’s April 2019 launch already has an assigned crew, and NASA has yet to offer insight into the development.
But Hague said Tuesday he is “absolutely ready” to fly again.
Awaiting assignment
Immediately after the aborted launch Thursday, the Russians jump-started an investigation into the cause of the rocket booster failure.
Russian officials have attributed it so far to a collision of the rocket’s first and second stages as they separated, but a final report on the failed launch is expected to be complete this weekend. The investigation into the hole found in August is supposed to conclude in November.
It’s still not clear how last week’s incident will impact the launch of the Russian cargo ship headed to the space station later this month, or how a Dec. 20 flight with a crew will be affected.
Even as the Russians continue their space program, Hague said he’s excited about commercial crew vehicles under development by Boeing and SpaceX. When they are finally up and running, astronauts will have multiple ways to get into space.
The commercial crew program offers “robust means to get to the space station,” he said. “So if we have a problem with one vehicle, we can still deliver on time and not have to do the types of things you have to do if there are delays with other vehicles. I’m excited to see that progress continue.”
Boeing and SpaceX’s commercial crew vehicles are expected to have their first test flights in summer 2019. The vehicles, which would eliminate U.S. dependence on Russia for trips to the station, were supposed to be ready this year. And the launch dates could easily slip again.
The aborted launch from Kazakhstan was the fourth major setback for NASA last week. On Oct. 8, the space agency announced that the Hubble Space Telescope was temporarily shut down because of a mechanical failure that crippled the groundbreaking observatory. Two days later, on Oct. 10, NASA’s inspector general reported that cost and scheduling problems will likely delay the launch of Orion — the spacecraft being built to take humans back to the moon — past its scheduled mid-2020 liftoff.
That same day, NASA’s 19-yearold Chandra X-ray Observatory went dark for an unknown reason. By Monday, however, space agency personnel had traced the problem back to a glitch with one of its gyroscopes, which keeps it pointed accurately for extended periods of time. It will return to normal science operations by next week, NASA said.
The United States funnels a significant amount of money into the space station each year — $1.45 billion in fiscal year 2017 alone, plus the $82 million it pays Russia for each seat on the Soyuz.
It’s not clear if the U.S. already has paid Russia for Hague’s seat, and NASA has repeatedly failed to answer the question.
Hague, who returned to Houston on Saturday, said he is awaiting his next assignment from the astronaut office. NASA astronauts live and work in Houston because the city is home to Johnson Space Center, where human space flight research and training take place.
“I’ve been told to take some time off and spend it with my family,” Hague said. “It’s good to be back in Houston.”