Harris talks with space station astronauts, introduces new initiatives

Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to astronauts serving on the International Space Station on Friday as she convened the meeting of the National Space Council at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

In the call, Harris talked about the importance of protecting Earth and joining forces to meet other space initiatives. She is the chair of the council.

"Tell us what you are learning on the space station that is helping us be smarter around how we take care of Earth," Harris said to Expedition 67 astronauts Jessica Watkins, Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hinds, according to Space.com.

Before the meeting, Harris toured the space center, including the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, at which spaceflight crews and their support personnel receive training on high-fidelity hardware for real-time mission support.

The facility contains mockups of the space station, Orion capslue and commercial vehicle mockups, as well as part-task trainers and rack interfaces, a precision air bearing floor and a partial gravity simulator.

Watkins discussed experiments that help scientists grow plants without soil, something that can be helpful on Earth, along with research on cell aging.

Harris announced a new coalition of space companies that will focus on increasing the space industry's capacity to meet the rising demand for the skilled technical workforce. The new coalition's work will start next month.

Blue Origin, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman are participating in the new partnership.

Other industry partners will include Amazon, Jacobs, L3Harris, Planet Labs PBC, Rocket Lab, Sierra Space, Space X and Virgin Orbit, and will be joined by the Florida Space Coast Consortium apprenticeship program.

"In order to address the challenges of today and prepare for the discoveries of tomorrow, the country needs a skilled and diverse space workforce," the White House said in a statement Friday.

Related Links
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

US should end ISS collaboration with Russia
Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 09, 2022
Recently, the Russian space agency Roscosmos declared that Russia would depart the International Space Station program "after 2024", while the US Congress authorized NASA to extend the program to 2030. In that same week, Russians circulated a horrific video of a Ukrainian soldier being castrated before his murder by Putin's invading troops, while dozens of other Ukrainian POWs were slaughtered while being held in Russian captivity. ... read more