This. Is NASA, TV. Good. Afternoon and welcome to. The Johnson Space Center my name is Bettina Inclan with NASA communications, thank, you for joining us for this post docking, news briefing, of the nasa spacex, demo2, mission just, moments ago astronauts. Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley arrived at the International, Space Station aboard, the crew dragon today, we'll hear more from NASA leadership to tell us more about the mission in the last 24, hours with. Us today is NASA Administrator, Jim bridenstine. Mark. Geyer JSC. Director, the director of the Johnson Space Center, Steve. Stich the program. Director of the Commercial Crew program. Kenya. Todd from, ISS, the. International Space Center is an International. Space Station, program director and deputy, program, director and she'll Lindgren NASA astronaut. Thank. You so much all of you for joining us today we're, going to start with opening remarks and then we'll go to questions from. Reporters, so. First up is our NASA Administrator, James, bridenstine. Thank, You Bettina I just, want to say congratulations, to. The NASA team and to, the SpaceX, team and really, congratulations. To the United States of America, this, has been an. Amazing two days we're. Still at, the beginning we have a mission, in front of us and of course we need, to make sure that we bring Bob and Doug home safely but when. We think about launching, American, astronauts, for the first time on a brand-new rocket, this has been done four, times in the history of the United States, Mercury. Gemini Apollo. Space. Shuttle and now, crew dragon so it's actually five times now and. This has gone as well as we could have expected, it to go so. I just want to say a big, big, congratulations to. NASA big. Congratulations to, SpaceX. And. We're going to continue to work day. In and day out until, Bob and Doug are home safely so with that Bettina turn it back to you thank you next we'll hear, from Mark Guyer the, director, of the Johnson Space Center thanks. Bettina so it's great to, be here today thank you for joining us was. A tremendous, day in Mission Control as we watched the dragon approach and. Can hatch, hatch open and have Bob and Doug come. Forward into the space station you know we've been launching. With our Russian partners for, so many years so, it was nice to see astronauts, actually enter from the, US side of the space station great. To see Bob and Doug on orbit for. The Johnson Space Center it's, a big moment of course we do we have the astronauts we have Mission Control and we, also think of ourselves as the spacecraft experts. For human spaceflight so it was great to see this particular mission, executed. So well and. We look forward for the great, continuation. Of the mission Thank You Deena thank you next, we'll hear from Steve stich the, deputy director of the Commercial Crew program. Good. Afternoon it's certainly in a very exciting day to be here for Commercial Crew, the. Launch yesterday was just phenomenal, and today to. Dock to the space station many. Of us in the program working on this for, many many many years I. Can't, tell you how many people across, NASA. SpaceX. And across, the whole country, putting. In tireless hours. Missing. Time with their families, hard. Work and dedication to, make today happen, but, we're, just thrilled. Docking, happened just a little bit before 9:30 Central. Time this morning we, got the hatches opened at 12:02, really. What's been happening since launch over the last 24, hours has been a series.
Of Rendezvous, burns to raise the orbit and then get into this approach face today. Today. Went really well, we're, learning a lot about the vehicle, you know how to manage it thermally watching. The life-support systems for the first time over these 24 hours, certainly. Different than demo one where was an uncrewed flight those. Life-support systems are going well the. Crew got in the suits again today for the rendezvous timeline, that, went well so. Really dragon's performing extremely well. Just, kind of the next few. Hours and, into that tomorrow. You, know the crew now, is joined, as part of the space station crew there's a safety brief going on today they'll. Go to sleep here around 4:30, this afternoon and. Then they join the station. Complement, of crew so, you know execute what we need on station so, it's kind of this hybrid mission, still we'll have some other objectives. Were docked to, demonstrate other capabilities of Dragon it serves as a lifeboat we'll practice some of that in the next couple days and we'll. Do some other tests, just to verify all the dragon systems but again. We're really excited we're gonna continue to look at all the data you. Know great. Mission so far but, we've got to continue to be vigilant and look at all the data while we're docked I'll. Turn it back over to you Athena thank you next, we'll hear from Kenny Todd the, ISS, deputy, program manager. Thank. You Bettina and it's great to be here, what an incredible, 24. Hours for. Human. Spaceflight. You. Don't have to be just, American, if you're just a fan of human, spaceflight and, exploring, and going going, beyond the levels of what we understand, to discover, you. Can't help but be excited about what's happened the last 24, hours it was it was very very cool to, be a part of from an International, Space Station program standpoint, we, don't think it could have gone any better this, morning station. Certainly. Was a good, stable platform and, the. Commercial Crew program and. And the SpaceX, team delivered, us a an absolutely, a beautiful spacecraft. And we're happy to have it on board onboard, the space station and, equally as as, glad. To have Bob and Doug on board right, now Chris. Cassidy was a little, lonely up there being the only person on the USO s so having to two, friends up there we. Will do, our best to, keep, the three of them busy and, in. Concert, with working, with Steve and a Commercial Crew program and, a SpaceX team too to, learn as much as we can about about, about, the Dragon and and, as as, others, have stated this is a test flight what's. Really important, for the International, Space Station program is, really, the next mission of the Dragon which is the crew one mission which is set, up to be a long-duration flight, so what, we want to do is learn as much as we can as, quick as we can about this vehicle keep, Bob. And Doug busy, doing. Work on that dragon and and on the space station and, and when, the time's right, get. Them back home safely and then and then start looking towards getting. Getting the crew. One mission mission, onboard so anyway, we're, looking forward to the next few weeks a couple of months whatever it turns out to be but certainly it's off to a great start, Thank. You Bettina Thank. You Kenny, and next, we'll hear from shel Lindgren NASA astronaut. Thank. You Bettina you, know what an incredible privilege, to be a part of this this, phenomenal, team this nasa SpaceX partnership, and. To. Be a part, of this. Historic past 24 hours to see that launch to. See the vehicle dock with the International Space, Station, incredibly. Happy for Bob and Doug for. NASA for SpaceX and for America you. Know for the past year and a half I've had the opportunity to train as the backup for this mission to work with Bob and Doug with SpaceX and with NASA and. It was just so cool to get to see all those, all that training, those procedures, the. Simulations, all kind. Of culminate, in it, happening, real-time and so. Incredibly excited. To. See Bob. And Doug get to work now as, we as they do the the Space Station's of mission. And. Then and then return safely home you, know the the I know that my colleagues and friends in the astronaut office are, incredibly, excited to this. Mission represents the. Opportunity. To launch from, US soil in the future and we're, excited about that mission and excited, to have the opportunity to fly in the future on this, and our. Other partner. Spacecraft. Thank. You shel. Well if you would like to ask a question you would please press star-1 and you'll be part of the queue we'll try to get to as many questions as, possible as. Usual, we're going to ask for a one, question, per reporter to give all. The media as many opportunities as possible to ask their questions and please. Direct your question to the person that you wanted to get answered so we'll start with our first question from marina, Curran Curran.
Hi. Everyone Congrats, on a successful, docking Jim. This question is for you as Bob and Doug slept last night the situation, on the ground in, the United States, escalated. And you've said before that this mission is meant to bring people together and unite America. Unfortunately. It's clear the space mission, even one as historic, as this one is can't do that not in 1969. And not in 2020. So, I'm wondering do you think that the message here should change, in any way how can we celebrate. American. Space exploration while, also recognizing what, Americans, are going through at home. Yeah. So I, think. I'll uh I'll. Just. Speak from the heart, I think you. Know our country is going through some real challenges right now, and. That's true. When you look at the unrest and when you look at the corona virus pandemic times. Are really tough, but. We've been through tough times before and, even in those tough times the. United States of America, has an amazing ability to accomplish. Astonishingly. Impressive. Achievements. And that's. What this was and. I will say that I think, you. Know there was a moment, of time yesterday when these two astronauts, launched, when everybody. Paused in and, we thought about what. The future could be and how much brighter it could be than it is right now at this moment, and. And, and NASA. Has, a history, of doing these astonishing things, in tough times it. Requires leadership, and. We've, been able to achieve it even. In the corona virus pandemic we, we made sure that we protected. This, mission, this, was the highest priority. For the United States of America, Lauder, for at least for NASA. We. Were launching, American astronauts, on American, Rockets from. American, soil and our objective, was to get that done and so we want we move very quickly when. The corona virus pandemic first, broke out we move very quickly to, move to stage three and then to stage four make, sure everybody was working from home though, we protected, this mission, we protected, the, Mars perserverance, mission we named it perseverance. Intentionally, because, we need to persevere, right now. The Mars perseverance, mission is going to launch in July. But. Yes these are very unifying, things. When. We talk about human space exploration it. Has strong bipartisan, support when. We talk about space exploration in. General, and the science, and the sky that comes from it which, is what we're gonna get from the Mars perseverance.
Mission These, are these are unifying, kind, of things Republicans, and Democrats, and even. Internationally. We. Get support for these kind of activities so I. Do think, that this was a moment in time for people to reflect on what, is great about. Exploration. What is great about the United States of America, and what we can achieve when, we work together. Thank. You Jim, our next question comes from Stephen, Clark I. My. Question my. Question is probably for. Stitch. Looking. Forward, looking ahead over the next few weeks I know you'll, be looking at some data on the solar arrays. So. Determine how long this mission can, remain in orbit you have any idea how long that will take one that assessment might. Occur you. Have some sort of idea whether it's days or weeks as, you monitor the, solar array performance, and, if I could also quickly. One. Of the differences between this spacecraft on demo2 and the crew dragon flight through, one I know there are some some, some differences so I sort. Of described a few of those thank you yeah. Sure Stephen to. Trust your first question how long is the mission going to be. We've. Certified, the systems on this dragon, vehicle to. To be able to last about 120, days so that's the capability. And that is driven by the solar arrays they, slowly degrade over time we'll. Start watching those will power up the spacecraft about, once a week and we'll, get some data on those solar array so it'll probably take a few weeks to get trending, on that to see hey, is that 120, days about right. Today. The dragon is extremely, healthy there's really no major problems, so it, should be able to stay for a longer period of time but, not only are we looking at this particular vehicle we're, also looking ahead to crew one as Kenny said that's, an important mission for us it has four crew it really, is what's commercial, cruise about, having. A vehicle ready to do these increment, missions so, that we'll look at that readiness of that vehicle right now it's targeting toward being, a launch ready at the end of August timeframe and so, we'll just kind of continue, look at this vehicle is it, performing, well we'll, look at the readiness of that vehicle and then, you know in a month or so we'll be able to make a decision as to as. To how long to. Just, keep this vehicle in orbit, the, second question was what's, different between this. Version of Dragon and the. Crew one vehicle which, is the next dragon they're. Very similar in terms of their systems, the, life-support the GNC. The, crew one vehicle can land at a little bit higher wind state the, spacex has changed, some.
Of The outer composite. Panels to make that a little stronger it can land in higher winds. It, also has, the capability to dock not. Only to the Ford port, of the space station but it can go to the zenith port as well so, it has that capability. And. It has a couple of other features but largely it's the same vehicle and. It's set up for four crew and then can dock it either port and then a little bit better capability, relative to to, landing and higher winds I would characterize as the big differences. Thank. You. Our next, question comes from Steven Cowen. Did. You be in Keith Cali oh sorry. The operator, put Stephen Cowen Keith happy, you can join us your question please. I've. Been watching a lot of TV lately with a lot of split screens NASA. On one side riots on the other and it reminds, me of, 1968. When I was a kid watching the Apollo missions, you. Say that the demo2 coverage, topped everything yet, these heat charts, that you were showing on TV yesterday seem, to suggest that the only interest that we're, seeing, is from the states where the dragon was built and flown California, Texas and Florida can. You provide some more detailed, stats to back up their claims but moreover. And I know this has been asked many times how, do you convince the Mane's of angry and upset people, who we're not watching TV they're out in the streets with their phones and wearing gas masks, that, two guys in a spaceship, is more, important, that the problems that in, quotes we have here back on earth which was the line that was used back in 1968. It, doesn't seem to be a connection between what NASA is doing and, this subset, of the population, who is looking, for answers. Yeah. Look. I, think. What NASA does is, is. Astonishing. It's impressive, and, it does bring people together. If. If, the expectation was, that, things. On the ground we're going to change because we launched a rocket I think. Maybe the expectation. Might have been a little high, but. But, I will tell you that. You. Know, what. I don't Bettina do you have the numbers I know how, many people watched on NASA TV so we're still collecting the data but some of our, metrics, are saying as peak viewership for. The May 30th joint NASA SpaceX. Launch broadcast, across all of our platforms was. At least ten point three million concurrent viewers the, most watched event we've ever tracked yeah, so, I think I think it is impressive. And, I think I think. A lot of people saw it I think the whole world saw it and and. We're, very proud of that and I just want to make sure that we. Can continue, to congratulate, the SpaceX, team and the NASA team for, doing amazing, work even. In the midst of tough times. And, I will say those numbers are only for the NASA SpaceX, that doesn't count broadcast. And other agencies. And news outlets that we're talking and promoting, are this. Incredible, achievement for, Humanity. So. We'll, go to our next question. Marsha done. Talking. And if so if you've heard from him and. How. He's. Dealing. With all the good news today Thank You Marsha, can you repeat your question we, think and we think we missed the first half of it and if anyone has other questions please press the star one, to be added to the queue but Marsha if you could please repeat, your question yes. For, mr. Brydon Stein I'm wondering if you've had a chance to touch, base with Elon, Musk, since the docking, and if, so. What. Are you saying about it thank you I have. Not, since, the docking occurred a few hours ago I have not had the opportunity to. Speak with Elon, Musk but that, will be coming. Up I would assume in a few hours. And. I can just say from the whole SpaceX, team I've. Talked to a lot of their leadership they're just a static their mission directors are, extremely, happy their engineers, the. Lead of the Dragon production, you know his vehicle did it outstanding. And these, first 24, hours of the mission so you know when you talk to the SpaceX employees they're very. Proud of what they've done they work very hard and, they're, excited, to have this phase behind them so. If, there's any other questions right now we've gone through most, of our questions I guess we've done so many great media events throughout the last few days I know we've tried to give as many access, to reporters, if anyone has a question you, could please press star, 1 to be added, to, the queue. In. The. Meantime. We'll. Say I know the administrator, we found a lot of, we've. Done a lot of questions like what's happening with the astronauts we heard them just, recently thankfully. Through through, the downlink that will respond, you spoke to them on Mission Control and he thoughts on that or, or guy or anyone that's joining us on the panel of what, the astronauts aren't doing now what's going on in the next few weeks and what's going to happen now that they're part of the ISS team.
Mark. You know maybe I could speak to that it was great to see them all together I know, Chris was looking forward to having help so. Yeah there's a there's a great video of them together. I think. The key part now is Steve. Said the vehicle is there the, crews on board that. Was the main thing let's make sure dragon. And the mission is going well, and, Ken. You can speak to this there is a there are some options, for Bob. And Doug some actions, for them to help Chris while they're there and. That will be part of the assessment as well as making sure though. That we have a landing, plan since is the first flight, that. We have a safe, and. Fairly. Straightforward. Landing, plan for Bob and Doug and that'll be that's what the team will be fleshing, out in the next few weeks. And. I can I can talk a little bit about a few of the major, objectives for us still remaining other than characterizing, the vehicle, we, do we, have a test I believe it's going to be planned for sometime next week where we're going to get, four. Crew members and Dragon just to see how that works from a have ability perspective, while. We're on orbit operating. In zero-g is a little different than on the ground so. We'll do that we've, got a test plan, there's. A there's a mode of Dragon, where you can, actually. Go into it if station, were to have a problem temporarily. You. Can transition into Dragon and stay, there for a period of time for, 24 hours as. What, we call a safe haven we're gonna test that out here in the next week we'll. Do some tests of some of the other emergency, systems on Dragon and other cruise systems. So. We have a few of those things planned over, the next week to, get some of our test objectives, done again for us it's still a test flight and then. I think I'll hand it over to Kenny and he can talk about some of the activities stations planning over the next, few weeks thanks. Steve. Yes. Where we are now, starting to integrate the plan between what, what we, need to do for. The for the dragon crew. Vehicle, what kind of things we need to learn the test of that are specific, to the, Commercial Crew program and, the SpaceX team that'll help them again. Get a little step closer to to being able to support the crew one, mission. Needs but. In addition to that we. Have a couple of space walkers on who have an. Incredible, amount of experience. Being.
Outside Station, and so. We. Are blessed, at this point with with, a whole, new set of lithium-ion, batteries, that just arrived on the HTV, vehicle and, so. That's, going to take somewhere on the order of four to five EPA's to install, those and so at. This point we. Are looking, at all options that, could allow us to do those EVs, while we have Bob and Doug on board and. And, get those those looking lie on batteries installed in their permanent home, certainly. They're, fine where they're at but I do worry, this. Is a fairly. Expensive hardware. The. The batteries that are currently installed on station, on s6, or the last set of batteries that we need to replace with these new lithium-ion batteries, those, batteries are in good shape at this point but, the, fact of the matter is we have the new batteries up there when, the HTV goes away we're basically and I have two temps though these new batteries and it would be in our, best interest, to go ahead and have those batteries, installed and and. And have that work behind us and not, have these. These. Assets. Basically. In this temporary holding, pattern if you will so that's something we're going to be looking at as we start to put, the requirements, together, for. What we need to do with, the Commercial Crew program as, well as what we need to do with. With. These with. These batteries and some of the other things on station, but, in addition to that anytime. We have more than a single, crew member on board we're in a much better position when it comes to to dealing with any kind of issues. Failures, that might. Come up so again that's part of the balance the risk balance that we have to strike in terms of trying to trying, to look at what we want to try to accomplish on, this mission versus, versus, trying to trying. To get. These guys safely, home sooner. Rather than later and, and. Again start working towards the crew one mission. And. I would just add for me a crew.
Perspective That, I know that Bob and Doug are just excited to be on lower. In low Earth orbit successfully. Docked to the space station and. And. I think at this point they can breathe a sigh of relief, you know launch of course is an incredibly dynamic phase, of flight. Meeting. All of the manual, flying objectives, having the opportunity, to fly spaceship, in in. Low-earth orbit both away from the station and then closer to the station to demonstrate that capability and then, to, have a successful, docking and to come through that hatch that. At this point they can they, can relax a little bit and enjoy. Being on the International Space Station having that opportunity to, look out the window to see the earth below. To. Float to have a maybe have a meal with the, crew that's on board that they just joined I know. They're doing a safety brief right now and I recall doing that getting, meeting. Up with Scott. Kelly and the rest of the. Crew. Members that were on board during my expedition, and going. Through all the emergency equipment. Kind. Of being, shown hey this is where the toilet is this is where you're staying, this, is where the food is kind, of crossing, off all those important, important. Items and then. And. Having. That opportunity to just get again get used to floating, in. Space being, in that weightless environment Bob, and Doug of course our veteran. Space fliers so that that, reallocation, process will will happen very quickly but. I know that they're enjoying being, in low-earth orbit. And. Looking. Forward to the work ahead but at, this point kind of reflecting, on the, incredible, experience, the incredible past, 24 hours and the, team NASA. At SpaceX, their, family and friends that really helped them get up there. Thank. You so much I know, mystery we were talking earlier about what's. Next with the program anything, to add on that. Obviously. You, know we've had a big, agenda to commercialize, low Earth orbit that's underway. Certainly. We are launching American, astronauts, commercially. We. We need SpaceX, to go get customers, that are not NASA, we've. Already seen evidence of that which. Is a very positive thing for the agency, because it's going to drive down our costs, in the long run we. Need to get another commercial partner on board boeing, is working, towards that it you know that objective, with NASA, and. I think that we're going to have success there within the next year, we, think about really. Why why are we doing these these, commercial. Public, private partnerships. While we're doing it because we're changing the business model. You. Know if the government is providing all of the demand for human spaceflight and then, the government is providing all, of the supply for human space flights we, will always be limited by. Budgets, and many times those budgets, are. Whimsical based, on you. Know the the desires of the politicians, that happen to be you. Know in in, those roles at the time so. If we want to have a sustainable. Long-term. Exploration. Campaign, that includes not just government, money but also private money we. Have to build these partnerships, and we're doing it it's proving, to be successful, costs. Are coming down access. Is going up and. We don't want to stay in low Earth orbit we want to go to the moon and on to Mars, that's. Going to require more investment, and. Of course as we as we, commercialize low Earth orbit more more, resources, will be available for the moon program we call it Artemis, and eventually. Mars and so that's really that's, really the future that we're looking towards, we, need to be focused, on how we use the International, Space Station for. A commercialization. Effort. So. That private, capital will, flow in again. With public-private, partnerships, to the point where not, just experiments. Are privately funded but, also space stations, themselves. Are privately, funded and of course the Johnson, Space Center here, where, we are right now is going to be a leader in that effort, and, of course when we go to the moon we, want to be able to stay and. In order to achieve that we need commercial. Partners on the surface of the Moon. And to that end the, president, recently signed an executive order, saying. That you know the resources that are extracted. From the moon are available. To the people who extract, those resources, and that follows, many. Many years of law and precedent as it relates to international waters, resources. Extracted, from international, waters belong to. The individuals, who extract, those resources. And. That should apply to.
The Moon and other celestial, bodies as well to. Be clear the United States of America will always, always, always, follow, the Outer Space Treaty and. The moon and other celestial, bodies cannot be appropriated. For national sovereignty, just, like the ocean cannot, be appropriated, for national sovereignty, although, some nations don't follow that that is the international law and, so, we. Want to apply American. Values as we go forward to, do that the Artemis, program, we, have established what we call the artemis accords, which, establishes. How we expect, nations. To behave in space for. The sustainability. Of exploration. Standards. Of behavior that, make sure that not, just this generation, but many generations, that come after us, will, be able to continue exploring, space and going further and be able to go further than ever before, so. Today it's about low Earth orbit, tomorrow. It's about the moon and of, course we, want to stay at the moon for long periods of time we want to learn how to live and work on the moon we, want to go with commercial, partners international. Partners, and. And, use the resources, of the moon to, live, and work for, long periods of time and then apply that, architecture. Apply that learning, at. Mars as well so the. Vision is big. NASA's. Budget today is as high as it's ever been in nominal dollars, maybe. Not in real dollars if we go back to Apollo but. Maybe we can get there soon too. The budget request for 2021. Is, is twenty-five point, two billion dollars, which. Is a three billion dollar increase in one year and. So our budgets are going up they're going up rapidly, my. Job is to make sure that we have the bipartisan. A political, support to achieve these objectives. And. So far we have been able we have been able to do that, but. Going to the moon and on to Mars is, going to be a tough a tough challenge and we. Don't want to go alone we want to go with international, partners and we want to go with commercial, partners and that's, really what the Artemis program is laying the foundation, for and, really, it's in fact what the commercial program, has already, begun. Laying the foundation, for so, the, agenda is big and. Our. Ambitions, are big but, certainly this nation, can. Lead and we, want to lead in space we want to build a coalition that, can. Work together to achieve these.
These. Stunning achievements. We've, started that with the International, Space Station but, there's a lot of room for more we've got 15 countries that operate the ISS, and there's. A lot more countries, that want to join us and certainly we want them to to, be a part of it as well so the. Future is very bright, great. We have a next question from Mike, Wallace and if you want to ask a question your first are one Mike Wallace. Hi. There Mike Wallace please like oh thank you guys now and yes, it's a very exciting day is when I say congratulations, to. Everybody um, I was just wondering Kenny this, is probably for, yes. First answer, by. Kenny um like. Have you heard anything from the international, partners Anna based on on this milestone and. What, are their thoughts about having another private survey ship coming up. To to, the space station how it could could, yeah, theoretically. Be, used by, the international, partners in the space station thank you. You. Bet Mike and that's a great question I've. Heard from all of our international, partner. Contacts. This morning as. You know most, of most. Of the partners are represented, here in, Houston, they. Have liaisons here. Which. Again helps to facilitate our communication, back and forth on a day to day basis, but they, part of this entire effort. That. Led to two. To. The mission that we've, all experienced, over the last 24, hours and to, a partner, they, have not been nothing but supportive, and and, after. The docking, today, again, I heard from every one of those partners, all of them basically cheering, us on and and talking, about the the historic, nature of. Not. Just yesterday but the entire time period that led up to the docking today so I think they all felt. Like they were part of something there was something something. Big and something grand, and something that really really, was a next. Step which. As. The administrator, said you know we're trying to do the next steps with with, with. Partners, and be. They commercial, or international. And and, the. Set of partners that we work with on the international space station applaud. These kind of efforts like what we're doing and and are are, very supportive and and we're. Certainly working with them as part of our our, coalition. Of partners to to, to. Identify opportunities, for, them to fly on these vehicles as well so. So, yes again, we're just going to move forward from here and the partnerships, going with us and they're going to be part of this effort to, to. Continue flying these commercial, vehicles to the, station. Thank. You I have a question, that came in from Joey roulette his, question, is is NASA. Celyn ago she ations to fly a Russian cosmonaut, on crew. Dragon. And when, do you expect to lock down a deal.
Well. The answer the, answer is yes we those. Are discussions, that we're continuing, to have with within the international, partnership, as. You know up to this this, this. Point we, have been purchasing, seats, from our Russian, colleagues flying. On on their Russian Soyuz vehicles, but. Certainly we are we are working in a direction, to to, come up with a. Different. Arrangement if you will that, will allow us to to, fly on each other's vehicles, and therefore. Ensure that at any given time that, we have a. Somebody. That's represented, on the Russian segment as well as somebody that's on the US OS segment, regardless. Of the vehicle the that's, carrying. People to station so those, are active, ongoing discussions, I, anticipate. You. Know those discussions, are going to continue, to to, to, progress forward, especially. As we continue to to see more, successes, with. These missions with, Steve, Kathy, and Commercial Crew program so, so, absolutely, those are active, discussions, and again. We'll. We'll continue to, head. In that direction right. Our. Next question is. From, marina Koren. Marina. Yes. Question, about Doug, after, he entered the space station we saw him dabbing at his forehead and then someone got him a tissue poor. Guy looked like he hit his head on the way out does, that what happened did he start, bleeding and is he okay. I. Can. Take that one I mean yeah Doug Doug did as, he was coming through he. Bumped his head. Jill. Could probably talk to this it happens, sometimes while, you're on station he's, fine he, looked great in the press conference. It. Just was one of those things I think Joel talked about adapting, right as you, get. Your space, legs underneath you he was in a relatively small vehicle, for the, first 19, hours or so then he went into a big big, vehicle, and and, he, bumped his head a little bit but but he's doing fine. And. I haven't had a chance to chat, with Doug yet of course but, I can tell you that for. Those of us especially first-time fliers it takes I think, a good four to six weeks to, really adapt to that weightless environment and. And. There's. The, veteran crew on board when you have new folks coming aboard. And. I know for myself that as I translated. Through the the. Those. Long modules. For the first time I would, leave cameras. And equipment be, knocking those off of the wall and so it definitely. Takes a little bit of time to get your space legs I know Bob and Doug will transition very quickly. But it was it was awesome to see them coming through that forward hatch we haven't seen that for. Many years and we're looking forward to many, more crews coming, through that forward and an overhead hatch as well. Thank. You we'll do our last question, from Marsha then. Yes. I eat, ur first B for Kenny. When. When do you anticipate deciding. Whether to proceed with the spacewalks, and, how quickly. Could you start kicking, them off would this be June do you think or would you wait till July thanks, a lot hi, Marsha. We. Are we're, still having. Those discussions if we if we head down this path it's it's. Most likely going to be towards the end of June we've, considered doing some upfront work ahead of this mission to. Start, laying the, groundwork for that but but decided, against. That just. To make sure that that, we got the crew on orbit and, and in, that way we weren't in this constant, sort of replaying in case we were having technical issues or weather issues and so forth so so we've made the decision that, we would wait, till the crew got on board and and then, start to start, to lay some of these these. Up front items in the plan so we've. Got about, another, week, and a half and then you'll start to see some build-up and again you won't see it but there, will be things that will start to happen in the direction of preparing. For some EVs that'll, kick, off around the end of June I would, tell you at this point, I would, call that very preliminary planning, just. Because again we need to work with Steve and and. The rest of the agency leadership, and make sure that that, we're we're, well calibrated, on how we want to how we don't want to approach approach. The next few, weeks with. This dragon on board and making sure that we're learning everything that we can and and. That, we we've, got all the right priorities, in place but in order, for us to do some EVs we've probably got about a week and a half and then we'll need to start start. That ramp up in order to get out to hatch by about about the end of June and if, we do. Head. In that direction we'll probably go on six days centers. With. The exception, of the, middle of July timeframe where, we've got a high beta period.
Where Were, the. Sun angle on the station really it's just because, of the power issues that we have in those time frames we. Probably, would steer clear trying, to do a an EDA in that time frame but but anyway that's that's the general thinking I would call it more at the 10,000, foot level at this point as opposed to the 200. Foot level but but hopefully that helps. Thank. You so much we're gonna close it out with closing remarks for administrator well. Thank you Bettina I just want to again, congratulate. The, NASA team and congratulate. The SpaceX, team, this. Has been a long time in the making and, I think it's been really astonishing. To see how it. Came together. NASA, set that, you know that nasa, set what the requirements, were and those requirements were based, on payload, and based on safety and then, our commercial, partners innovated, and we. Got very unique, solutions, one, from SpaceX and one from Boeing and. And, as of right now the. Spacex, solution, is attached, to the international, space station and, we. Will be working day in and day out to make sure that it comes it comes home safely, with our astronauts, and. We will continue working with boeing to make sure that they are successful as well because. They have had significant. Milestones. That are impressive, and. We need to get them across the finish line so I just. Want to say congratulations to, the Commercial, Crew program. Steve. Stitch you and your team and kathy leaders have. Done just, amazing. Work and we are so grateful to you and we're, grateful to the to the SpaceX, team as well and, and here we go we're back we're, launching America, so, thank you for everybody who paid attention to this really. I think monumental. Achievement, and and. We've, got more to come thank, you thank. You so much for joining us it concludes our press conference have, a great day.
2020-06-06