‘Going Back to a Different Planet’: Astronauts will Return to Earth Soon Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic
Things down here have changed a lot since Jessica Meir, Drew Morgan and Oleg Skripochka launched in September.
By Mike WallNASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Drew Morgan and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka have been living aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since September of last year. They have therefore experienced the coronavirus outbreak, which began in China in December, only from afar.
But the trio returns to Earth on April 17, and Meir said she and her colleagues know that things down here aren’t like they used to be.
“It is very strange and a bit surreal for us to be seeing it all unfold when we’ve been up here for the entire duration of what’s been going on down on the ground,” Meir said during a March 30 video interview with Physiologist Magazine that aired on NASA TV. “And it seems that we will be completely going back to a different planet.”
Rather than receiving “stay at home” orders when they return, they should be instructed to remain for an additional month … but maybe that’s just me.
During this time of pandemic emergency, all Military personnel should be barred from any redeployment that might further spread the disease, even if that spread is to a team that has been in safe quarantine. The same for any transfers to and from isolated bases, such as Antarctica.