Astronauts arrive for NASA’s 1st home launch in decade
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The two astronauts who will end a nine-year launch drought for NASA arrived at Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday, exactly one week before their historic SpaceX flight.
It will be the first time a private company, rather than a national government, sends astronauts into orbit.
NASA test pilots Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken flew to Florida from their home base in Houston aboard one of the space agency’s jets.
“It’s an incredible time for NASA and the space program, once again launching U. S. crews from Florida and hopefully in just a week from about right now,” Hurley told reporters minutes after arriving.
Hurley was one of the four astronauts who arrived at Kennedy on July 4, 2011, for the final space shuttle flight, “so it’s incredibly humbling to be here to start out the next launch from the United States.”
“We feel it as an opportunity but also a responsibility for the American people, for the SpaceX team, for all of NASA,” Behnken added.
The two are scheduled to blast off next Wednesday afternoon atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bound for the International Space Station. They’ll soar from the same pad where Atlantis closed out the shuttle program in 2011, the last home launch for NASA astronauts.
Since then, the only way to the space station for astronauts has been on Russian rockets launched from Kazakhstan.
Hurley and Behnken still don’t know how long they’ll spend at the space station: anywhere between one and four months. Only one American is up there right now — astronaut Chris Cassidy — and could use a hand. Hurley said he got an email from Cassidy on Tuesday night in which he wrote that “he’s looking forward to seeing our ugly mugs on board.”
Greeting the astronauts at Kennedy’s former shuttle landing strip were the center’s director, former shuttle commander Robert Cabana, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.
“You really are a bright light for all of America right now,” Bridenstine told them.
The welcoming committee was reduced drastically in size because of the coronavirus pandemic. There were no handshakes for the astronauts, who did not wear masks but kept their distance at separate microphones. Cabana and Bridenstine wore masks except while addressing the crowd; so did the approximately 20 journalists standing more than 20 feet (6 meters) away.
During these tough times, Bridenstine said, “this is a moment when we can all look and be inspired as to what the future holds.”
NASA’s commercial crew program has been years in the making. Boeing, the competing company, isn’t expected to launch its first astronauts until next year.
As the trailblazers, Hurley and Behnken are establishing new prelaunch traditions. They shared two at Bridenstine’s request Wednesday.
Hurley, a former Marine and fighter pilot, followed military tradition and put a mission sticker on the SpaceX flight simulator in Houston on Tuesday, after completing training. Behnken, an Air Force colonel, followed Russian custom and planted a tree. He had help back home from his wife, who’s also an astronaut, and their 6-year-old son.
“My son will always have that lemon tree that he was a part of planting,” Behnken said. “Hopefully, it makes it through Houston’s hot summer this year and becomes a tradition for some other folks as well.”
PHOENIX ( AP) — A North Dakota construction company favored by President Donald Trump has received the largest contract to date to build a section of Trump’s signature wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Republican U. S. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota confirmed the $1.3 billion contract for building the 42-mile section of wall through “really tough terrain in the mountains” in Arizona. That’s about $30 million per mile.
Cramer said Fisher Sand and Gravel Co. offered the lowest price for the project. He did not know how many companies bid.
Trump has promised to build 450 miles of wall along the border with Mexico by the end of the year. So far, the government has awarded millions of dollars in contracts for construction of 30- foottall barriers, along with new lighting, technology and infrastructure. The Trump administration says it has already built 187 miles of wall. Some of it is new, but most is replacing old, much shorter barriers that officials say were not sufficient.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday that there was no set date to start or complete construction on the latest award. Construction will take place near Nogales, Arizona, and Sasabe, Arizona.
Cramer said the fence will be painted black because “that’s what the president wanted, plain and simple,” Cramer said.
The idea is that the black wall would absorb heat making it more difficult for someone to scale, he said.
“That’s the president’s theory,” Cramer said. “Plus, it won’t be an ugly, rusty thing that everyone is putting up now.”
The Army Corps of Engineers, which awards contracts, said Fisher was one of several companies chosen in May 2019 to partake in building $5 billion worth of border wall. This month’s contract to Fisher was part of that award.
Asked if there were any additional bidders for this latest contract, a spokesman said the agency couldn’t provide that information because of “procurement sensitivities.”
The Arizona Daily Star first reported news of the contract.
Cramer did not know if the Trump administration’s recent move to waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of the wall helped the project or sped it up. He said he didn’t know if the project fell under those rules.
In the 2018 election cycle, company owner Tommy Fisher and his wife donated $10,800 to Cramer, who championed the company’s ability to build the wall and made Fisher his guest at Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address.
Democratic members of Congress raised concerns in December after Fisher was awarded a $400 million contract for border wall construction. Within two weeks, the defense department’s inspector general had launched an investigation, which is ongoing, according to Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, a critic who questioned whether the contract had been properly awarded.
“If the administration cared about anything besides political optics and maximizing miles of fence in the run up to an election, they wouldn’t have awarded this contract,” Thompson said in a statement on Wednesday.
Environmentalists have also long criticized the border wall, saying it cuts off protected wildlife and destroys important ecosystems. They’ve filed lawsuits against the wall and the use of defense money to build it.
“Trump’s wanton destruction of the borderlands is made even worse by this sleazy contract with a big supporter,” said Laiken Jordahl, borderlands campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity.
Cramer said he has personally pitched Fisher’s company to the president and others in Washington.
“It will be a cold day in hell when I apologize for advocating for a North Dakota business,” Cramer said.