>>> Hello and welcome.
I'm Monica Witt of NASA's Office
of communi cations.
This is the pre-launch briefing.
The Antares is due to launch and
send the COMPANY's Cygnus
spacecraft and 8,000 pounds
research, crew supplies and
hardware to the space station to
support EXpidition 64 ask 65.
Northrop Grumman is targeting
launch for Saturday, February 20
during a five minute launch
window that opens at 12:36 p.m.
eastern.
We are DOING things different
per this briefing to ensure we
adhere to Cdc guidelines.
Each expert is joining remotely
to give us an update.
Joining us from Houston we have
the issprogram manager the
ASSOCIATE program SCIENTIST with
the international space station
program.
And here at wallops the vice
president and general manager
for tactical space systems at
Northrop Grumman.
The director for launch vehicles
at Northrop Grumman and Chief of
the wallops flight facility
range and mission management
office.
We will begin with opening
comments from our presenters and
we will take questions.
Questions can be submitted from
ON-LINE user WITH THE # ask NASA
and my colleague is taking
questions submitted from
reporters by e-mail.
Let's get started.
>> Welcome again to today's
pre-launch press brief.
A thank you to the Northrop
Grumman team and wallops NASA
facility and Virginia space to
get us to where we are today.
It takes a hugest to prepare
a vehicle for launch and to
bring a vehicle to the
international space station to
assist us in our low earth orbit
commercialization and LOOK
forward to our EXPHRORation
programs.
We have had a number of reviews
in preparing for the vehicle and
the conclusion of yesterday's
launch readiness review the
space station team is ready for
the Cygnus to berth to the
international space station.
Saturday launch time is
approximately 12:36 p.m. eastern
time.
And that sets us up for berthing
Monday morning at 4:40 a.m.
eastern time.
And with that after the
vehicle's berth, we'll do some
standard post berthing
activities including a check and
we will get the hatch opened up
seven and a half-hours after
berthing.
It is carrying over 8,000 pounds
of cargo to the international
space station.
I'm tracking 8,400 pounds with
just over 8,200 pounds of that
pressurized cargo.
This vehicle will stay berthed
for about three months to the
international space station.
We answer been talking to the
crew -- answer been talking to
the crew on board and keeping
them up-to-date.
They are eagerly AWAITING the
Cygnus ARRIVAL and LOOKING
forward to getting inside and
continuing the science and
research program we have on
board.
On closing, I want to, again,
a Hugh thank you to the -- huge
thank you to the teams for
preparing the vehicle and thank
the jet propulsion team on
a successful mars landing.
An incredible job and we look
forward to many more missions.
I want to thank my TEXAS
colleagues who have been working
this week without power, without
water, with low CONNECTivity to
cell towers and have kept us
moving forward.
And a huge shout out to the
johnson space centerops director
for making sure our mission
control center to make sure the
crew stays safe, the vehicle's
safe and preparations are ready
to go for thea, rival of the
Cygnus spacecraft with that let
me hand it over.
>> Thank you.
Thank you to EVERYONE for
joining us today.
I just want to echo what joel
said.
I am wearing my redshirt for
a couple of reasons.
Our hearts go out to those
impacted by the winter weather.
We hope you get your power, heat
and water backs as soon as
possible.
And to pay tribute to our jpl
colleagues for tackling the red
planet again.
Good job.
For the briefing we will start
by rolling our two minute ng-15
research over view video first
and I want to take time to
illustrate how this CRs fitS
INTO the Aspechts of the bigger
picture for iss research and
technology development.
Please roll the video.
♪
our thanks to our researchers
and iss research COMMUNICATIONs
team for producing that video.
The iss is in its third decade
of use.
FIST first decade is
characterizedda the decade of
construction.
Its second the decade of science
and technology of realization.
We CONNECTed thousands of
experiments and even identified
some iss CAPABILITies that
WEREN'T obvious at out set.
Some have characterized the
current decade as
fulluteilization when the
platform will continue to grow
into its full POTENTIAL.
Today I want to highlight two
Aspechts of that growth well
represented in a handful of
payloads flying on the ng-15
mission.
One is the diversity with
respect to reresearch categories
and applications.
For example, we have three
different major technology
development payloads promoting
maturity IN three research
areas.
The first is the EXPLORATION
processor system.
This is designed to demonstrate
technology to recover additional
water from the iss urine
processor assembly a huge part
of the water recovery system.
EXPLORATION missions will
require a 98% water recovery and
there is no processor to achieve
this goal.
This system plans to do so.
Another of our experiment is
AhAs.
The I TKREUD electronic
radiation assessor was the
primary radiation detech for the
oriion spacecraft and has been
modified for the iss.
It will validate the system for
crude Artemis mission operations
starting with Artemis 2.
And finally the third pay load
is the space board computer or
sbc 2.
It can ADVANCE EXPLORATION by
processing data significantly
fastener space that will speed
SCIENTIST time to in flight from
months to minutes.
The principal investigator said
it well during last week's media
teleCON, he said the purpose of
research is not data collection
but inSIGHT.
By using this computer we hope
to reduce the data load so
scientists can focus on the
insight side.
Another reason this is important
it works for low orthorbit or to
the moon.
The solution will not work for
exploring the SOLAR system.
When everyone watched the
perseverance landing yesterday
we agree it landed at 3:55 p.m.
eastern time, correct?
Actually it landed at 3:44 p.m.
eastern time but we had to wait
over 11 minutes for that signal
to reach earth.
Deep EXPLORATION systems require
EFFECTive on board computational
cape ABLTSability.
The other -- CAPABILITY.
The continued evolution of iss
research and technology
development.
Investigations on ng-15 that
have advanced beyond the first
generation objective, the first
to include Artemis hAs.
It flew in 2019 in preparation
for the Orion's uncrewed
em-1 mission.
Space board commuter two is on
the second generation.
The first flew in 2017 and
performed more than 1 trillion
calculations or one terra flop
per second for 207 days without
requiring a reset.
Try to get that on your home
computer or cell phone.
The third is protein based
artificial retina manufacturing
experiment.
Millions of people on earth
suffer from RETinal degenerative
diseases.
They have no cure and treatments
only slow progression.
Artificial retinas or RETinal
implants may provide a way to
restore meaningful vision for
those affected.
We are studying how micro
gravity my restore production of
the RETINAs.
A first experiment was sent to
determine if the process used to
create artificial RETINA
implants by forming a thin film
one LAYER at a time may work
better in micro gravity.
The follow-up study flying on
ng-15 evaluates a manufacturing
system using a light activated
protein that replaces the
function of damaged cells in the
eye in an artificial retina.
Real time protein crystal growth
2 a lot of you know micro
gravity ALLOWS US TO grow
larger, clearer protein
crystals.
And that could help us better
understand diseases and identify
new treatments.
RTpCg 2 will test new ways for
growing crystals for up to eight
proteins and allow SCIENTISTs to
make real time adjustments to
the growth during the
EXperiment.
The first generation experiment
which was known as bpc 1 flew on
Spacex 14 in 2018 RTpCg-1 used
different crystallization plates
than what is planned for
RTpCg-2.
The setting up of CONditions and
optimizing crystal growth could
be performed by the ASTRONAUTs
on board the space stations in
that environment.
These two aspects of growth in
iss UTILIZATION is remarkable
when you consider the first
decade of iss was spent on
assembly and the second required
us to learn many thingS ABOUT
how to use the platform most
effectively.
Thank you again for joining us
here today and for your
continued interest in iss
research.
Go ng-15, go science!
Over to you, frank.
>> Thank you, David.
Really appreciate it.
Let me add my CONGRATULATIONS to
the perseverance team at jpl for
a tremendous accomplishment
yesterday and an inspirational
program.
On behalf of Northrop Grumman I
would like to add my thanks for
joining us to talk about ng-15.
With six humans Aboard the iss
is KRAEL a critical mission with
our partners at NASA and
Virginia space remain focused on
completing the MISSION while
keeping the safety of everyone
involved pair mounts.
This -- paramount.
It is critical in ways we will
operate to keep the team safe
during unprecedented times.
Before I go into more detail of
the mission I would like to
share a video about the
processing of Cygnus and
antares.
♪
Okay.
We are proud of our teams for
the work they do in supporting
the critical missions and each
brings its own challenges and
opportunities FOR US TO excel
and hopefully exceed our NASA
CUSTOMERs.
It will carry over 8,000 pounds
of cargo and supply to the iss
and we'll stay there for three
months.
After when we'll leave the iss
and begin our post DEPARTURE
mission where we will deploy
several cube sates from the
slingshot system and external
cube sat deployer.
If the second cube set developed
by students in the UNITed Arab
emirates.
It is part of the space systems
and technology program
established in 2015 as parts of
a collaboration with uAe
SATELLITE operator and Northrop
Grumman.
We are proud to have taken part
of the development and we look
forward to that collaboration
continuing into the future.
With the ng-15 mission we'll
continue to demonstrate Cygnus
as not just a delivery and
removal spacecraft but
a LABORATORY.
IT has unique attributes and has
additional capality not only to
NASA but commercial CUSTOMERs.
These with our space flight
approximations us perfectLY --
positions us perfectly in going
to the moon and returning in
a sustainable way.
We are LOOKING forward to the
HALO module at the lunar gateway
and prepare a place for crews to
go before descending to the
lunar surface and working on the
next human landing system.
Both systems will benefit from
the experience we have gained on
Cygnus in and around the
international space station.
While we continue our critical
work we remain focused on
supporting the AOEURBS ss low
earth orbit RESEARCH programs
and we are ready to continue
performing that critical role
necessary to keep the iss
running at full CAPACITY.
Finally we are incredibly
honored to name this mission in
honor of CATHERINE johnson,
a NASA mathmetician.
IT is our tradition to name each
after an individual who played
a PIVOTAL role and miss johnson
was selected for his hand
written calculations that helped
put people into space and
breaking glass ceiling after
glass ceiling as a black WOMAN.
She excelled in school
GRADUATING from high school at
age 14 and completing two
college DEGREEs one in
mathematics and one in French by
the age of 18.
She was the only black WOMAN
selectED TO integrate west
Virginia university's graduate
program.
And during her career at NASA
she became the first WOMAN to
receive AUTHOR credit for
a research paper at the agency.
He retired after more than 30
years at NASA and in 2015 he
received the -- she received the
presidential medal of freedom
and her life was KROLined in the
film "hidden FIGUREs."
A HOME WORK assignment is to
watch the movie after the Cygnus
launch.
She passed away just about
a year ago February 24, 2020 at
the age of 101.
He is an inspiration to so many
people, especially women of
COLOR and prove time and again
racial barriers and glass
ceiling, breakable and shouldn't
have been there in the first
place.
As always, we are exciteED TO
execute another successful
Cygnus mission to evolve NASA
and our commercial partners.
I will turn it over to curt who
will talk more about antares.
>> We are super excited to be
here for another launch OF
ANtares with our Cygnus brethren
and our teammates from Virginia
space who run our launchpad.
And of course, the NASA range
and NASA CUSTOMER.
It's cold and rainy down here at
wallops but nothing like what
our colleagues are going through
in TEXAS including my brother
who is shivering in Austin.
Hopefully things will clear up
IN Texas and we appreciate
everyone who has done their work
down there to get it ready and
up to wall ons during this
difficult time for Texas.
Ng-15 is the fourth launch of
the 230-configuration.
And also mass flexibility where
NASA can vary the Amount of
cargo up to the final day.
That final load will start here
in just about AN HOUR.
That will be 24 hours before
launch.
We have our mobile clean room
out over the front OF ANtares
and the nose cap of the ferring
removed.
There access to put the final
load cargo THAT is time
sensitive FOR GETting up to the
space station.
It's been a smooth integration
flow despite the CONditions and
we appreciate the Virginia space
port guys and the antares team
being out in the cold and rain
and getting the operations done
on schedule despite the
inclement CONditions.
So really good.
I appreciate all their hard
work.
I will recap what we have been
DOING.
We had Ia mission dress
rehearsal where they tortured
the team to make sure we could
handle anything that would come
up tomorrow with anomalies or
off-nominal situations and that
was good.
On Tuesday we rolled the vaccine
out early in the morning and got
up to the launchpad and went
vertical and did a combined
systems test on Wednesday and
after that went horizontal and
moved the clean room over the
configuration for loading the
cargo.
After it is done midday today we
button everything back up and
the hatch will be closed and
we'll put theinose cap of the --
nose cap of the ferry and move
the clean room out of the way
we'll go vertical and have one
CONNECTION to make on the liquid
OXYGEN line and we'll be ready
for the five hour countdown to
start at 7:36:00 a.m. Saturday
morning.
Shannon will tell us about the
weather coming up but thing,
LOOKING good.
We have a 20 f and for wind 29
knot constraint.
>> Good morning, everyone.
Thank you for your interest in
this ng-15.
We here at NASA wallops are
proud to be part of another
resupply mission to the
international space station.
We are proud of the entire
launch team including our NASA
team and partner teams as well
for all the hard work and
dedication it has TAKEN TO get
to launch readiness.
I am happy to say we are
tracking for green status all of
our systems are up and operating
nominally.
We have completed pre-launch
testing and our range
configuration has been locked in
and our range clearances are in
place.
This MISSION has moved Along for
our team as well.
The team has worked impressively
together to remain safe as well
during, having to work
differently than we would have
previously.
One interesting note in keeping
with the honor of Cygnus being
named after CATHERINE johnson,
we are proud at NASA wallops to
say we have the first lead
project manager or pm miss
BRITNEY McKinley at the helm of
this mission.
We are happy and proud of
BRITNEY and her team and all the
efforts she has put in leading
the team to get to this point.
We have had inclement weather
and are LOOKing at where we are
at today and going INTO THE
weekend.
Let's takes a look at the long
range forecast to see what we
are predicting and what we can
expect FOR launch day.
Saturday our prime LAUNCH day we
have 25% probability and 25% of
the time we would not be able to
launch because it would violate
our launch criteria for weather.
In this case it would be
TKPWRAOUPBD winds and clouds --
ground winds and clouds.
We currently have a 75%
favorable CONditions for launch
tomorrow.
Sunday our weather improves and
we only have a 5% probability of
violation.
LOOKING FURTHer out the weather
deterioreates into the Monday
time frame where we are expectED
TO have disturbed weather 75ing
75% probability of violation.
All in all it's LOOKING good for
tomorrow for our prime launch
day.
In closing the NASA wallops
range is green, we are ready to
support and we look forward to
a beautiful midlaunch for NASA
wallops.
Back to you.
>> Thank you to all presenters.
We'll now go into questions.
As a reminder reporter cans
e-mail questions and we'll take
questions submitted on social
media.
Let's go to the first question.
Why does anTAarees use --
[INAUDIBLE]
>> I'm sorry, I had trouble
hearing you.
Can you repeat that?
The sound is not coming THROUGH.
I don't know if that's the same
for the rest of the team.
>> No problem.
The question is about the launch
vehicle
[INAUDIBLE]
>> I think I understood the
question.
The first stage, second stage
solid.
A lot of vaccines go the other
way around -- vehicles go the
other way around.
When we start the the
development OF ANtares we were
able to adapt the technology
that our supplier had from the
C-launch vehicle.
And that was, that created the
EXCELLENT first stage we use
today.
And heritage internal to
Northrop Grumman we were adept
at building solid rocket motors
and we had a well suited CAPTOR
30 at the time and have grown
that to the CAPTOR 30 xl and
have used a very well suited
solid rocket motor for the
second stage.
We have had designs to go to
a liquid second stage or at add
a liquid third stage on top.
For the CRs missions because we
have partnered with the Cygnus
folks and they have such
a CAPABILITY propulsion system
and the fact we dropped them in
a low insertion orbit and they
raised the altitude to the
phasing to the correct location
within the orbit it worked out
well to have the configuration
because it is going to the lower
altitude.
A liquid find stage is useful to
applying to higher altitudes and
have designs for such upper
stage propulsion.
Could you hear me okay.
>> This is from twitter.
Which experiment that is
launching will have the most
impact on earth?
>> I have already mentioned
a couple of them here and I will
mention a couple more.
We just don't have the time to
go THROUGH all of the
interesting RESEARCH we have
available to ng-15.
The two I mentioned before are
the artificial retina experiment
and the real time protein
crystal growth as well.
The artificial retina experiment
I answered why.
We'll learn more about the
proteins and apply those.
It's difficult to say what the
impact will be.
It's obvious there could be very
good things coming out of this
for medicine.
A couple other experiments that
are focused on benefits for
exploration and are bringing
knowledge to be used on earth.
One is the micro season
experiment the nema toad or warm
and in order to deflect small
rubber pillars that demonstrate
how much strength they have.
Y by watching that over a series
of weeks we can understand
changes to muscles in micro
gravity that has a benefit when
talking about sending ASTRONAUTs
on very long missions to mars
that would take months and
years.
Also there is a number of people
on the GROUND who suffer from
diseases or CONditions that
cause muscleatrophy.
We are hoping to learn from that
and apply that back to earth.
The other is the dreams
EXperiment a European space
agent where they test out new
technology for monitoring the
ASTRONAUTs with a dry eeg device
and from that we hope to
understand more about human
sleep and hopefully we can bring
that back to earth and help
people here on earth as well as
our ASTRONAUTs on long duration
missions.
>> Thank you so much.
How far from the pad can you be
and still hear the roar of the
rocket if.
>> Here in the wallops area you
can get close actually.
Our number one concern is public
safety.
We actually have measures in our
local law enforcement that we
partner with and will make sure
they have blockades up so you
can only get so close and still
be safe.
Trust me, you can hear it quite
far away and it's a spectacular
sight.
>> Thank you.
Another for David.
A facebook fan says they watched
the launch last year that was
delayed.
Does fresh food need to be
restocked before launch?
How do we use the resupply
missions for special deliveries
of fresh food.
>> You bet.
A lot of things we take very
granted and walk by in the
produce section are things our
crew members really enjoy
because we have refrigeration
facilities up there on station,
but obviously our CAPABILITies
are limited in order to keep
a good supply of fresh food.
Some of the things we are
sending up on ng-15 will include
perishable items like parmesan
and cheddar cheese, apples and
tomatoes and nuts and dried
meats and candy for our crew
members am we like to keep them
happy because a happy crew
member not only is it we are
sensitive to their needs it
helps them be more productive
and allows us to do more
science.
>> Thank you.
A question for joel.
Have there been any impactses to
iss operations or the mission
control center due to the winter
storm in Texas?
>> And so like I said earlier,
my opening statements we have
been able to keep the control
center rocking and rolling and
we have not had any impacts and
make sure the crew stays safe
and the vehicle is safe and the
preparations for the Cygnus
vehicle have been completed or
have a process to get completed
by the time they need.
It has been hard on folks.
A lot of people without power,
a lot of people without water
but the teams have been able to
rally together and like I said,
the johnson space center has
been stable on the resources and
we have been able to continue
operations.
>> Thank you.
We have another question from
a facebook user.
How many times a year do you
launch from wallops?
>> For antares in the spring and
fall.
I will recommend joel maybe we
pick march instead of February
next time.
Generally it is spring and fall
for antares and for Northrop
Grumman we have been lunching
min TAUR 4 launch for the
national reconnaissance office.
We did three launches.
We have another minoTAUR.
And another in the fall or late
summer.
Could be late summer and so
we'll be here ready for when
NASA needs us to launch.
It looks like two or three
a year from wallops across our
different vehicles.
>> Thank you.
This follows that topic.
For Shannon.
How many orbital launch,
scheduled from wallops and can
you break them down by vehicle
type?
>> Curt part of the -- ON we
have several orbital vehicles
including the additional ng-16
mission toward the end of the
summer and l-111 mission for
this June.
And that is a minoTAuR one
vehicle and ng-16.
And then next year into the next
calendar year for some of the
rest of the missions.
Right now we have two ADDITIONal
missions for this calendar year
beyond ng-15.
>> Thank you.
We have a question for joel.
Will the cell kin 9 landing
anomaly during Spacex's last
launch impact crew and dragon
missions?
>> Good question.
Thank you.
We have an agreement with
Spacex to talk about any
anomalies on any missions.
We share data with the teams
across, regardless of the
program.
We share the data with them.
We are working with them to
better understand what happened
and right now it's too early to
say if we'll have any impacts.
>> Thank you.
A lot of questions about the
worms.
David, CAN YOU please tell me
what type of worms are on this
experiment?
>> Yes.
This is the -- just to back UP
AND let you know the iss as far
as life science operates very
much like a terrestrial life
science LABORATORY.
We study that is appropriate to
whatever we need to learn.
Ifee can study proteins we will.
If we can study cell, we'll
study cells and on up the
complexity of life.
The nemATodes is a model
organism.
It is an organism we use to do
research to learn something
where we can apply it somewhere
else whether a plant we apply to
other plants or in this case we
are trying to apply the
muscleatrophy we see in the
nemATode to human beings.
It's very good and used in
LABORATORies on earth on
a regular basis as well.
Good question.
>> Thank you.
And we have a question for joel.
What increasing in
issuteilization like crew hours
per week devoteED TO research
have you seen since the ARRIVAL
of crew 1 ASTRONAUTs three
months ago?
>> Good question again.
When we -- before the crew
1 ARRIVED ON THE international
space station we were averaging
about 35 hours of crew tended
science and with the crew 1 on
board we are able to double
that.
In addition we have a fifth crew
member on board with Kate rubein
and we are above the doubling of
that.
This is just the crew tended
science.
We have a much bigger program
where all the remote science
that is done with external
payloads or other things on
board you can command from the
different control centers on
earth.
It's been a huge benefit for us.
One of the, I'll say
cornerstones was science and
increase our lowering orbit
commercializationests and this
crew 1 vehicle and crew 1 crew
has made that possible and the
additional crews will continue
those efforts.
Thank you.
>> We have a question from
a facebook user for curt.
Are there any post iss undocking
experiments that are planned for
this mission?
>> I will throw a lateral to
frank on that one.
>> Our plan after we depart
we'll be there three months and
after we depart, we will deploy
cube sates the we may -- those
are the two things planned in
the post DEPARTURE phase.
Thank you.
>> An important question for
Shannon.
If THEURPBGs don't work out
tomorrow, what is the
alternative launch window.
>> We have a launch window that
extends several days.
We can go into Sunday as our
back up day.
And beyond that we evaluate out
through several week on the
calendar.
We have plenty of calendar time
blocked off to be able to get
ng.
>> Time for a couple more
questions.
We have one for joel.
Do you have any UPDATEs on
NASA's interest in obtaining
a seat on the April soyuz
mission to the iss?
>> As you know, we have sin
oppositeis and it closes today
asking for anybody that could
provide this opportunity.
Due to this being a procurement
sensitive and can't talk about
what has been submitED TO date.
After today we'll have the
information and we'll be ready
to takes the next steps.
>> Thank you.
Another question for David.
What fresh foods or snackses or
other surprises are flying to
the ASTRONAUTs?
>> Well, I tried to address that
before with generalities.
Let's see if I can give you more
information.
There are some carmel hard
candies and salami, coconut
strip, coconut cashews, some
genoa SAlamY AND Indian coconut
vegetables and maple smoked
sockeye for those who love fish.
If you need more, let us know
and we'll get you more
information.
That's what I have as of today.
>> Thank you.
A question from Henry age 4 for
court.
How fast will the rocket be?
>> This is a really good
question.
Let's see, think of it this way.
If you took yo-yo Henry and spun
it, it would keep falling down.
If you spin it fast enough it
would keep the string taught in
a circle.
When going around the earth it
is pulling us down to the
ground, right.
The gravity is pulling ons.
To get all the way around the
early we have to go really fast
so our out ward acceleration
equals and we can go around the
earth and that's what being in
orbit is.
We have to go 17, 500 MILES PER
HOUR.
I hope your parents are only
going 55-60 MILES PER HOUR on
the freeway.
That's tens of thousands of
times faster than that to get to
the speed you need to go to be
able to be in this orbit.
17,500 MILES PER HOUR.
7.4-kilometers per second to use
si units.
And that is why we have to have
the rocket full of fuel and
we'll have the two stages and we
burn for about 9 minutes.
At the end we'll go that fast
and separate Cygnus and it will
go that fast and stay in orbit.
Good question.
>> Thank you.
That was a great question from
Henry.
We know the worms and the snacks
have been hot topics.
But a follow-up.
Are there any other creatures or
plants flying on this mission?
>> No, not in the sense of
things like the worms or as you
know, space station is an
EXCELLENT place to do micro
gravity research on other model
organisms.
We have a robust rodent research
program.
I will mention there is one
experiment that is ASSOCIATed
with life science and that is
the missing seeds where we
expose a set of seeds to long
duration space radiation and
learn about seed germination to
apply to agriculture here on
earth.
>> Thank you.
A follow-up question for joel
about the soyuz.
Why is it important to have an
ASTRONAUT flying on each flight
to the space station.
>> Our long-term goal is to fly
Americans on the Russian soyuz
spacecraft and cosmonauts on the
U.S. spacecraft and it could
protect for launch delays if one
rocket doesn't get off and you
can fly in another vehicle to
keep a presence on orbit to
operate this great space station
we have.
It protects you for the option
there is an ISSUE with crew
member on board.
Today if wop crew member is --
has a reason to return to earth
early you have to bring that
whole crew home.
Everybody who came up on that
vehicle comes home.
And so in order to protect for
that you want to be able to fly
multiple vehicles to have the
CAPABILITY and always have
a U.S., a Russian presents on
the international space station
at all times.
>> Thank you.
It looks like we have one more
for you joel.
What is the target date for the
crew dragon relocation before
the launch of the starliner
osp-2 mission?
>> Right now we are targeting
the second half of march for the
relocation.
And as we get closer to that
we'll refine the dates.
We want to do that as close to
the end of march as we can.
We'll be working on the exact
dates and probably a couple week
away, maybe a week away or so
before we finalize it.
>> All right.
Thank you.
That's all the time we have
today.
Thank you to all of our
participants and viewers for
joining us.
A reminder the launch of the
Northrop Grummanantares rocket
with the Cygnus rocket is
scheduled at 12:36 p.m. eastern
on Saturday February 20th.
NASA TV coverage will begin at
12:00 p.m. eastern time.
Until then, you can keep
up-to-date about the status of
the mission ON-LINE at
NASA.gov/Northrop Grumman.
And follow life and science
Aboard the space stations AT
NASA.gov/station.
Go Antares, go --
Antares, go Cygnus and go
science!