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Transcript/ScriptThe Week in Space (TV)
HEADLINE: This Week: SpaceX Station Swap and Midair Rescue You Have to See
TEASER: Ax-1 passengers say goodbye to the ISS as Crew-4 settles in
PUBLISHED AT: Thursday, 04/28/2022 at 3:20pm
BYLINE: Arash Arabasadi
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Washington
VIDEOGRAPHER: AP/ REUTERS/ NASA TV/ NASA/ SPACEX/AXIOM SPACE/ ROCKET LAB
SCRIPT EDITORS: MAS, BR
VIDEO SOURCE (S): AP/ REUTERS/ NASA TV/ NASA/ SPACEX/AXIOM SPACE/ ROCKET LAB
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 2:50
VID APPROVED BY: MAS
TYPE: TVPKG
UPDATE: ))
[[INTRO: Mission accomplished for the latest SpaceX and NASA trip to the International Space Station. Plus, the first-ever all-private charter to the ISS ends and... see what it looks like to catch a four-story rocket out of the sky. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.]]
((mandatory cg NASA TV))
((NARRATOR))
We begin this week on a very high-traffic International Space Station that recently welcomed four astronauts launched by SpaceX on behalf of NASA. The Crew-4 astronauts, as they’re known, are the first-ever team comprised equally of men and women. And it includes, Jessica Watkins, the first Black woman making a long-term spaceflight.
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It started with an early-morning departure from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The astronauts of Crew-4 hopped aboard a fleet of Teslas that carried them to the Falcon-9 rocket. They climbed into the Dragon capsule, named “Freedom” for this mission, and then made history with this launch that also carried the European Space Agency’s lone female astronaut, Italy’s Samantha Cristoforetti.
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((VOX POP, WOMAN IN MISSION CONTROL))
“Ignition and liftoff. Go Falcon. Let Freedom ring. Godspeed, Crew-4.”
((NARRATOR))
Spectators cheered from directly across the launch pad,
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at Space View Park in Titusville. It took the crew 16 hours to reach the ISS.
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((NARRATOR))
Their arrival comes just days after the departure of the first-ever all-commercial visit to the station...
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...by the crew of the Axiom Space Ax-1 mission.
Ax-1 marked the first time NASA opened the ISS to tourists. The 17-day adventure cost each of the businessmen on board a cool 55-million-dollars and was chaperoned by former NASA astronaut-turned Axiom vice president, Michael López-Alegría. The trip was originally scheduled to last just over a week, but questionable weather delayed the return.
Speaking between trips, NASA Administrator, Bill Nelson, called this a new dawn in space travel as the agency looks to the moon and beyond.
[RADIO TRACK: Nelson spoke at a NASA news conference.]
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((Bill Nelson, NASA Administrator))
“We’re going to prepare, and we’re going to get ready. We’re going to learn. We’re going to develop new things, new techniques, new systems, new technology so that we can send humans to Mars and return safely. And so, this is indeed a golden era of space exploration.”
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((NARRATOR))
Nelson touted NASA’s Artemis program aimed at a return to the moon after a half-century with no human visitors. That program continues to suffer setbacks, the most recent of which was a fuel leak. Still, Nelson says the first of the Artemis missions will launch by year’s end.
((mandatory cg ROCKET LAB))
Finally, Long Beach, California rocket builder, Rocket Lab, is planning a midair rescue mission in the coming days. The company is keeping with modern trends of reusable rockets for cheaper spaceflights, but instead of engines firing to safely land, they plan to use rescue helicopters and a combination of ropes, parachutes, heatshields, and computer algorithms.
Weather permitting, Rocket Lab’s nearly 12-meters-long ((11.89)) Electron rocket will launch 34 satellites from New Zealand before pilots attempt to pluck it from the sky.
((Arash Arabasadi, VOA News))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)WASHINGTON D. C.
Embargo DateApril 28, 2022 16:15 EDT
Byline((Arash Arabasadi, VOA News))
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
