Randy Bresnik will get a closer look at the August eclipse than anyone back on Earth from 250 miles above the Lowcountry.
Bresnik, a graduate of The Citadel, is scheduled to launch July 28 for the International Space Station, where he'll take over on Sept. 1 as commander of an American-Russian crew. The spacecraft will be positioned just north of Charleston when a relatively rare total solar eclipse occurs Aug. 21.
The crew's job is to continue a few hundred experiments already underway, such as research studying the effects of the craft's micro-gravity on heart stem cells.
But on that August afternoon, Bresnik will be doing the same thing as a lot of people in the world beneath him: shooting photos and video.
"We'll get a different perspective than what you will see, and a different perspective than what the satellites see (from farther out in space)," he said Friday during a brief phone interview from the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia.
The closely monitored and timed interview, conducted with NASA officials breaking in to announce the remaining minutes and then to end it, is a glimpse into Bresnik's daily mission-training life. The interview was one in a series scheduled back-to-back before Bresnik travels Sunday to the takeoff launch site, the Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
Star City is a secure location, like a military fort, in the forest near the Chkalovsky Airport on the outskirts of Moscow. Built as its own city, most there have no need to come or go. It looks like a lot of woodsy Southern U.S. military base towns, where the tree-lined homes are modest and the roads turn from asphalt to dirt.
The family of Gagarin, the Russian cosmonaut who was the first human in space, still live there, according to the Daily Mail of London.
Baikonur, about 400 miles to the south, is a village in arid, flat scrubland along the Podstepka River with touristy downtown spots amid rows of Soviet-era low-rise structures. The terrain looks like West Texas. The Cosmodrome sits just to its north, another secure facility in the barren flats.
Bresnik, a 1989 graduate of the Citadel, was a Marine Corps aviator when he became one of 11 members of NASA's Astronaut Class 9 in 2004, a class selected from about 4,000 applicants. He space-walked in 2009 aboard the shuttle Atlantis.
For more than a year, he and other crew members have been in rigorous training for the space station mission in both the United States and Russia, as well as locations in Europe. The training has included Russian language tutoring.
Other training has been done in mock-ups of the station and its array of modules, some underwater to simulate the free float of work outside the spacecraft. A lot of the rest is studying reams of manuals and making responses routine for the crew to the necessary communication needs and other duties.
The current political tension between the U.S. and Russia hasn't spilled into the mission or the camaraderie, Bresnik said. The space station has been a joint mission between the two countries since it was launched in 1998. The technicians and astronauts remain dedicated to the mission.
"Nobody lets any of that (political) stuff get in the way of what we're doing," Bresnik said.
Besnik flew to Russia shortly after a break spending Christmas in Texas with his wife, Rebecca, and two children.
After his 2009 space-walking journey aboard the shuttle Atlantis, he talked about the awe and hard-to-grasp scale of circling the Earth with the sun rising every 90 minutes. The astronauts think of the two-week shuttle missions as a sprint, with so much to be accomplished very quickly.
A space station mission, on the other hand, is a marathon: 180 days aloft, along with "getting uphill and getting back down" in the Soyuz spacecraft.
Besnik said he is looking forward to one perk of life in the station a windowed cupola that juts from the craft and offers views of the universe and the world below. He anticipates spending some quality down time there, watching as he circles the planet.
Reach Bo Petersen Reporter at Facebook, @bopete on Twitter or 1-843-937-5744.
Go here to see the original:
- Fermi Telescope Caps First Year With Glimpse of Space-Time - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Antarctic Airborne Science Mission Nears Mid-Point - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Awards Education Research Grants to Minority Universities - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New Celestial Map Gives Directions for GPS - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Invites Reporters to Tranquility Node Ceremony at Kennedy - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Happy Halloween - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA's Fermi Telescope Detects Gamma-Ray From "Star Factories" in Other Galaxies - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Announces Advisory Council Chairs and Committee Structure - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA and X Prize Announce Winners of Lunar Lander Challenge - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- MESSENGER Spacecraft Reveals More Hidden Territory on Mercury - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Successful Flight Through Enceladus Plume - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Education Secretary Hosts DC Students for Talk with Space Station - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Operation Ice Bridge Studies Antarctic Sea Ice - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA West Point Welcomes Home One of Their Heroes - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Spitzer Observes a Chaotic Planetary System - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- X-38 Crew Return Vehicle Finds New Home - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Frost-Covered Phoenix Lander Seen in Winter Images - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Have some faith He is doing his best - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The Cross - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Spring Bloom in New Zealand Waters - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Hubble image showcases star birth in M83, the Southern Pinwheel - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Take Me Out to the Ballpark - On Mars! - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Poisk Poised for Live NASA TV Space Station Docking - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ceremony Reset for ESA Handover of Tranquility to NASA - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NASA Reproduces a Building Block of Life in Laboratory - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Now Online: Aeronautics Goes E-Book - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Water on the Moon, Drought on Earth: NASA Experts Available for Radio And Podcast Interviews During Major Science Meeting - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Launch of NASA's Wise Spacecraft Delayed Until Dec. 14 - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Connecticut Students Set for Cosmic Conversation with Space Station Commander - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Magnetic Dance of Titan and Saturn To Be Main Attraction during Flyby - December 12th, 2009 [December 12th, 2009]
- Hubble's Deepest View of Universe Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Earth's Moon - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- How do you Make a Helicopter Safer to Fly? You Crash One. - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Physicist Earns Title as Kennedy's Best - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Hubble Unveils Never-Before-Seen Galaxies - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Fermi Sees Brightest-Ever Blazar Flare - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Magnetic Power Revealed in Gamma-Ray Burst Jet - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Just 5 Questions: Aerosols - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Hometown Heroes 2009: Astronaut & Terrible Towel Return to Pittsburgh - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Garver Honors Four for Saving the Life of a Fifth at NASA Langley - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Administrator Bolden Speaks at AAIA-WIA Luncheon - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Best (Meteor) Shower of 2009 - No Towel Required - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- NASA Making Government More Accessible With Cutting-Edge Use Of New Media - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Scarce Water, Our Quiet Sun and Space Rocks Among NASA News Highlights at American Geophysical Union Meeting - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Press Credentials Deadlines Set for Next Space Shuttle Flight - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Reddish Dust and Ice Migration Darken Saturn's Moon Iapetus - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Galaxy Collision Switches on Black Hole - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- I’m watching the launch of NASA’s WISE spacecraft - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- SOFIA Aloft - December 13th, 2009 [December 13th, 2009]
- Guide to the International Space Station Laboratory Racks Interactive - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Freezing WISE's Hydrogen - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- Local High School Wins Invention Challenge - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- WISE Ready to Soar Into Space - December 14th, 2009 [December 14th, 2009]
- NASA Data Reveal Major Groundwater Loss in California's Heartland - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Looks for Safer Icing Forecast For Pilots - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- Challenges of Living and Working Aboard the Space Station: NASA Astronaut Nicole Stott Available for TV Interviews - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Astronaut, Food Scientist Available for Interviews about Holiday Feasts in Space - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Launches Web Site for Teenagers That Want More Class - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- A Unique Geography -- and Soot and Dust -- Conspire Against Himalayan Glaciers - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- New Study Turns Up the Heat on Soot's Role in Himalayan Warming - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA's WISE Eye on the Universe Begins All-Sky Survey Mission - December 15th, 2009 [December 15th, 2009]
- NASA Offers Sound Clips for Radio, Online Newscasters - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Gets Up-Close Look at Far Corner of the Globe - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Orion Launch Abort System Attitude Control Motor Test-fired - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- The Dark Side of Carbon - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- R97UYEA6HD8W - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA's AIM Satellite and Models are Unlocking the Secrets of Mysterious "Night-Shining" Clouds - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Classroom Learning Takes Off with NASA-Funded Education Projects - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Buys Additional Space Shuttle Reusable Solid Rocket Motors - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Searching for New Vaccines and Studying Butterflies in Space; NASA Offers TV Interviews about Latest Space Station Science Research - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Partners with Saudi Arabia on Moon and Asteroid Research - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- New Results from a Terra-ific Decade in Orbit - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Deposits in Martian Trough Point to Complex Hydrological Past - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- NASA Outlines Recent Greenhouse Gas Research - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Unexpected Wheel-Test Results - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Solar Storms and Radiation Exposure on Commercial Flights - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Global Digital Elevation Model - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]
- Hubble's Festive View of a Grand Star-Forming Region - December 17th, 2009 [December 17th, 2009]