Houston Chronicle by Andrea Leinfelder Jan. 29, 2020
NASA will soon have just one astronaut on the International Space Station, hurting its ability to conduct maintenance and research, if Boeing and SpaceX don’t start flying U.S. astronauts soon. And both companies have “significant work†to complete before they can launch people, according to a report released Wednesday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
NASA has spent years prepping commercial companies to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station, part of its efforts to develop a robust economy in the near reaches of space so government resources could be put toward the moon, Mars and beyond. But Boeing and SpaceX are years behind schedule and the delays have forced the U.S. to continue paying Russia for transporting its astronauts on the Soyuz spacecraft.
As a result, just one U.S. astronaut, Chris Cassidy, will be on the space station starting in April. He’ll likely be more focused on space station maintenance than research, though even some maintenance tasks won’t be possible. Spacewalks, for instance, need two U.S. astronauts, though NASA is training Russian cosmonauts to perform critical spacewalk activities in case an emergency were to occur.
More:
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/GAO-warns-SpaceX-Boeing-launch-schedule-will-15015042.php
