NASA's Artemis Mission Hits Another Snag: The Coronavirus
NASA announced March 19 that it would shutter Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.
The shut down will impact the production and testing of both the Space Launch System and the Orion capsule.
Summer internships are also being reassessed in light of the
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced Thursday that the agency would be shuttering its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans and its Stennis Space Center in Mississippi due to concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“NASA will temporarily suspend production and testing of Space Launch System and Orion hardware," Bridenstine said in a NASA statement. "The NASA and contractors teams will complete an orderly shutdown that puts all hardware in a safe condition until work can resume. Once this is complete, personnel allowed onsite will be limited to those needed to protect life and critical infrastructure."
It's a difficult blow to the Space Launch System, which has experienced a number of delays over the years. Bridenstine told the Senate late last year that the rocket, which is intended to carry astronauts to the moon and eventually Mars, would not be ready in time to meet the Artemis mission's expedited timeline. The core stage of the rocket—the most powerful ever built by NASA—arrived at Stennis for assembly in January.
Just last week, the Orion capsule, which will ferry astronauts to the lunar surface in the next few years, was transported from NASA's Plum Brook Station in Ohio to NASA's Kennedy Space Flight Center for additional testing.
Bridenstine cited the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the nearby community around Stennis Space Center, the increased number of NASA employees in self-isolation and a single confirmed case of COVID-19 at the center for the shut down.
The administrator shared similar concerns about Michoud Assembly Facility. "While there are no confirmed cases at Michoud, the facility is moving to Stage 4 due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the local area, in accordance with local and federal guidelines," Bridenstine said in a statement.
Both locations have been moved to Stage-4 of the NASA Response Framework, which means the facility is shut down, employees must telework and work-related travel has been suspended.
Last week, two NASA employees, at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley and at the agency's Marshall Flight Center in Alabama, were confirmed to have contracted COVID-19. Several airborne research flights based out of Ames Research Center were postponed until late summer.
As of Monday, March 16, the agency's other missions including the Perseverance rover, which is set to launch for Mars in July, and SpaceX's Demo-2 flight test, scheduled to lift astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the ISS in May, are still on track, NASA public affairs officer Joshua Handal told Popular Mechanics via email.
For Perseverance, which will seek out life's building blocks on Mars, a delay would be devastating. Because of Earth and Mars' orbital alignment, there is a very short launch window in July or August. Were the mission delayed, it would have to be rescheduled for 2022. Last week, ESA announced that its ExoMars mission, which will search for signs of life on the Red Planet, would be delayed due, in part, to the spread of the coronavirus.
Students who were awarded summer internships at NASA are also receiving word that their internships may be cancelled. "With the recent action, NASA is reassessing Summer 2020 internships," read an email received by a student who is scheduled to work at NASA's Langley Research Center this summer. The agency said in that email it would make a final decision about summer internships by April 15.
"We are working in unprecedented times as our nation attempts to meet the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic," the email, which was posted to Twitter, read. "Thank you for your patience."
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