Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Space station astronaut dons mask in prep for return to Earth

Trevor Mogg
By

After six months on the International Space Station (ISS), NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy has donned a face mask in readiness for his return to a planet that is still very much grappling with the coronavirus pandemic.

“Masked up on @Space_Station!” Cassidy wrote in a post on Twitter on Monday. “Training myself for my new reality when I get home on Wednesday.”

Masked up on @Space_Station! Training myself for my new reality when I get home on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/vOyFe9UBj1

— Chris Cassidy (@Astro_SEAL) October 19, 2020

While the COVID-19 outbreak was already sweeping across the world when Cassidy and his two fellow space travelers departed for the ISS in April 2020, the situation was nowhere near as bad as it is now, with John Hopkins University data suggesting a global death toll of around 150,000 and 2.1 million recorded infections at that time. As of this week, the pandemic has now claimed the lives of some 1.1 million people, with more than 40 million recorded infections.

Cassidy will return to Earth alongside Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner — the same two Russian cosmonauts with whom he traveled to the orbiting outpost six months ago.

Visitors to the ISS always have to go into quarantine for a period of time before a launch to ensure that they don’t take any conditions with them that could develop after arriving at the space station, putting themselves and other crew members in potential danger. With COVID-19 already spreading rapidly around the world last spring, these precautions were tightened, with Cassidy and his colleagues, for example, placed in quarantine for an entire month before lift-off, instead of a couple of weeks.

Cassidy has spent a busy time aboard the space station, carrying out various scientific experiments as well as performing essential maintenance during a total of four spacewalks. He also monitored some powerful storms from 250 miles up, started work to find an air leak on the station, and captured a cool shot of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft shortly after the capsule docked carrying its first-ever astronauts. And, importantly, Cassidy also installed a brand new toilet for future ISS visitors.

The return journey of the three Expedition 63 crew members will be livestreamed on NASA TV, from the undocking at around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, October 21, to the landing back in Kazakhstan shortly before 11 p.m. ET.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
NASA and Roscosmos still investigating cause of space station leak
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the space station.
Watch space station’s new solar array unfurl in space
A new solar array unfurling at the space station in December 2022.
China’s new space station, Tiangong, gets its third module
Shenzhou-14 astronauts Chen Dong (C), Liu Yang (L) and Cai Xuzhe waving inside the Mengtian lab module.
Space Station received special visitors 22 years ago today
The International Space Station.
SpaceX reaches agreement with astronomers to limit Starlink interference
Image showing the disruption of astronomical observations caused by a previous Starlink launch
Hubble snaps an image of a galaxy in our cosmic backyard
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy LEDA 48062 in the constellation Perseus. LEDA 48062 is the faint, sparse, amorphous galaxy on the right side of the image, and it is accompanied by a more sharply defined neighbor on the left – the large, disk-like lenticular galaxy UGC 8603. A smattering of more distant galaxies litter the background while a handful of foreground stars shine brightly throughout the image.
How to watch two astronauts perform their first spacewalk on Friday
A photo of Expedition 68 Flight Engineer and NASA spacewalker Josh Cassada on Dec. 22, 2022, preparing a roll-out solar array for its deployment on the International Space Station's Port-4 truss segment as the orbiting lab flew 264 miles above the Indian Ocean off the coast of South Africa.
Watch key moments of SpaceX triple-booster Falcon Heavy launch
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy heading to space.
Enjoy these amazing space images by NASA’s oldest active astronaut
Don Pettit aboard the space station.
Watch SpaceX footage of Falcon Heavy from launch to landing
SpaceX's Falcon Heavy heading to space.
This must be the most beautiful image ever of a rocket launch
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launching from Florida.
Still no joy for Lucy’s stuck solar array, NASA is giving up for now
see lucy spacecraft slingshot past earth fly by
Light pollution is cutting off views of the night sky for many
A startling analysis from Globe at Night — a citizen science program run by NSF’s NOIRLab — concludes that stars are disappearing from human sight at an astonishing rate. The study finds that, to human eyes, artificial lighting has dulled the night sky more rapidly than indicated by satellite measurements. The study showcases the unique contributions that citizen scientists can make in essential fields of research. This graphic illustrates how the greater the amount of light pollution, and therefore skyglow, the fewer the stars that are visible. The numeric scale is similar to the one used by Globe at Night participants.